(This golf article is followed by a drill, and a link to that drill on video.)
Have you noticed recently that while the golf courses the tour pros play are getting longer and longer, their golf swings are getting shorter? Tiger’s done it. Sergio’s done it. Phil’s done it. Why is that? How can players whose livelihoods depend on dominating long golf courses give up distance by shortening their golf swings? Well, they’re not. Not giving up distance that is.
One of the most important facts to remember when playing or learning golf is that the number one variable in swinging a golf club - that directly relates to distance - is clubhead speed. In my teaching experience most players either do not realize this, or wrongly associate size of swing with clubhead speed.
It’s really this simple: given clubhead speed equals distance - with all else being equal - if my swing is big yet slow and yours is small but fast, you will get more distance than I will. The added bonus is that your shorter swing is likely to be more consistent than my big one.
In my writings I talk a lot about – and try to explain away – many golf myths. One such myth is the supposed need to get the club shaft to horizontal at the top of the golf swing. Why should the golf club get to horizontal? Why is this the ideal position? What is the scientific reasoning for this? Because it is parallel with mother earth? What if it is a little shy of horizontal? What if it goes beyond horizontal (see John Daly)? Getting the club to horizontal is an arbitrary instruction that unfortunately cripples many a player in their efforts to get it there, and distracts them from the primary ingredient of the golf swing: the downswing. What if someone came along and told you it did not matter if you got the club to horizontal or not? What if someone told you you do not need to be a contortionist while executing the backswing? Wouldn’t that lift some big burdens in playing golf?
There is an irony in the fact that most of us try to make a big backswing, while telling our buddies to slow down. What if you were told you could speed up? Should speed up? While many will say that even on the PGA Tour there’s nearly as many different golf swings as there is players, there is one undeniable common denominator among them, and that is acceleration.
Every good player accelerates the golf club to impact. Many a struggling player makes such a big swing that they either get themselves into a position from which acceleration is difficult, or they feel so out of control that they unwittingly decelerate in order to try to gain some control by the time they reach impact. Either way the result usually does not produce the distance desired, or the contact required. Deceleration is contrary to centripetal force while acceleration contributes to it. Suffice to say, two swings that were 90 mph at impact are not the same if one was accelerating from 80 to 90 at impact, while the other was decelerating from 100 to 90 at impact. Consider the racecar driver (or yourself depending on your driving habits) who slows before a curve in the road, and then accelerates into it. Then consider an occasion when you were going too fast for a curve and had to slow down. Remember feeling the difficulty of maintaining control of the vehicle as you encountered the turn? The golf swing is no different. A decelerating golf club cannot remain on its intended path and usually veers wider. This creates a wider arc, the bottom of which is now behind the golf ball. Hello fat shot. Even if your club was going 200 mph before it hit the ground, hitting the ground will have slowed it down immensely, not to mention all the other negative aspects of hitting the big ball (earth) before the small ball (Titleist). The answer is not slowing down.
The answer is acceleration, from an advantageous position. Interestingly, while a big backswing tends to promote deceleration, a short backswing does the opposite. A short backswing promotes acceleration. Your proverbial win-win. Mentally, it is almost like you don’t believe the short backswing will do the trick, so you accelerate to make up for it. Hello good shot. Being it was good, you are willing to try it again. And it works again. The next thing you know, rather than trying to attain difficult physical positions (such as getting the club to horizontal at the top of the backswing) you are practicing accelerating. Imagine practicing something good. Hmmm.
And here’s the bonus to the bonus. Practicing (consistently) leads to muscle memory. Muscle memory leads to speed. Think of anything you do that requires muscle memory and that which you do repeatedly. Whether it is tying your shoelaces, or your tie, or phoning home, you do it quicker now than when you first started. I highly doubt that since you mastered phoning home, you began trying to phone home harder. I highly doubt that since you mastered tying your tie, you began trying to tie your tie bigger. I highly doubt that since mastering tying your laces, you began trying to tie bigger laces. Okay, I am pushing the point. But I think you see the point.
Believe it or not PGA Tour players do not enjoy one luxury we do. They do not have the luxury to mess around with their swings. We can mess around and only our game suffers. They mess around and their day-to-day existence suffers. Tour players have learned that by shortening their swings and working on acceleration they can attain the same (or more) distance they used to, and gain accuracy and consistency – two staples to life on the Tour. That is why we have seen, and will continue to see a growing trend of shorter backswings on the long golf courses of the PGA Tour.
Clive Scarff is a teaching professional and author of Hit Down Dammit! More info can be found at www.hitdowndammit.com.
Drill: Right Hand Thrust Drill
The Right Hand Thrust Drill is one of several found on “Hit Down Drills!” which is one of four DVDs in the Hit Down Dammit! DVD series. The goal of this drill is to learn to accelerate from a shortened backswing position. It’s harder than it looks, but the results will be surprising.
Repeatedly swing your club back to waist-high, pause a split second, then use your right hand to "thrust" the clubhead toward the ball. In doing so, you may find you have created sufficient speed with the clubhead that it follows through to the target automatically, leaving you in a finish position whereby the clubhead is pointing at the target, the toe is up, and the shaft is roughly horizontal (waist-high) and parallel to the target line. This position should roughly mirror your top-of-backswing position.
As you get more proficient at this exercise, you will create more clubhead speed, the momentum from which will see a follow-through that "naturally" swings through a little higher than the height of your backswing. It is important this follow-through is natural - neither forced or abbreviated.
(To see this drill demonstrated on YouTube, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXj0vZxJQzg)
For more information or more articles on golf, contact Clive Scarff at clive@hitdowndammit.com and/or (250) 594-4653.
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