Coincidences are funny, aren’t they? During my daily foray through Instagram and YouTube looking at current players’ golf swings, I ran across Jake Knapp, a 30 year old PGA Tour pro who stands around 180 cm (a shade less than 6’0″), who is a pretty long driver.
I was looking at his action and thought to myself, “A lot of power there, but I doubt very consistent, with what I see,” and immediately went to his profile on PGATour.com, which confirmed what I thought.
I have always looked at John Daly’s hugely flying elbow at the top of his back swing and wondered how he was able to get away with it, as it seems to violate all of the rules of swinging.
Not just the flying elbow but the jaw-dropping length of that back swing – yes, he could get a little wild at times but the man also won two majors in addition to being the longest ball-striker alive on Tour.
You’ll all by now be familiar with the concept upon which I’ve been working with regards to swing modeling – that is, swinging in a manner that emulates the Iron Byron or any other swinging machine or robot.
What this would entail is in reaching the optimal in three processes (the setup, back pivot and down swing) with maximum stability in the leading foot and head positions throughout.
I don’t think I’ve ever showcased Al Geiberger, the original “Mr. 59” and someone who had a golf swing model that was near bang-on, as you will observe.
There are only a couple of critiques I would have of the setup and pivot action but, other than that, there’s not really anything at which to pick.
I’ve taken Jack Nicklaus’ driver swing from the Masters in 1963 to illustrate the power of hip & leg action regarding the leveraging of the golf swing, something that has been lost with both the Modern Golf Swing models & the Flying Foot Syndrome.
It would likely surprise modern golf students to learn that what makes it so difficult to get a 90 degree shoulder turn at the top with a planted leading heel is also what makes the Classic Golf Swing so effortless in power production via leverage.
I found a swing from a session back in July of 2021 and am looking forward to comparing how my mechanical action looks down the line in comparison to now.
I’ve made the complete transition to a right-dominant throwing action and, although the swing below is a very passable action, driving the ball past 300 yards, it was still very “pulling” with the left arm.
I have talked about how rotation is the enemy of gravity, and for some this may seem strange, as the popular opinion is that one must rotate in the golf swing.
That opinion is wrong, mechanically-speaking, and I’ll show you an example in the extreme to illustrate the difference between a proper rotation around the supporting leg over rotating in place during a swing.
I spent year upon head-clanging year “pulling” my golf swing with the leading arm, and am just now getting comfortable with a purely trailing arm swing action.
I mentioned in my last post that I have set my swing aid to a difficulty setting that simply will not snap unless I’m swinging with a pure trailing arm motion.
I have continued to work on the swing model and am currently just doing speed work with the swing aid to prepare for my next swing session.
One thing I’ve noticed is that, since I came up with the stance and mechanical action for my re-made swing, I would likely swing exactly the same way whether I was making a smooth swing on the course or trying to pound the cover off the ball.
Grumpy Post Warning: I had no idea when I clicked on the following YouTube video that it would so depress me.
I mean, 10 “Amazing” golf swings, there’s got to be at least a few swings that would be mechanically-sound, right?
WRONG.
