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Tiffany Joh has yet to win on the LPGA but she's leading the Ladies Scottish Open by three strokes. I don't know if she'll win but there's one thing I think you should learn from her swing. This video shows her hitting a hybrid.
There aren't many videos on YouTube of T-Joh's swing. In part, that's because she hasn't won yet. But there's a more important reason, and it's very simple:
There is nothing special about T-Joh's swing.
Do you understand what I'm saying? Tiffany doesn't have some unusual move that makes her stand out from the crowd. She's got a very good swing, and she hits the ball very solidly. This week she's playing some of the best golf of her life, and the rest of the field is struggling to catch up.
Her swing isn't the reason T-Joh hasn't won. If you look at her stats, you'll see that she doesn't hit many fairways or greens, she's not ranked very high in putting, and her scoring average is only 71.81, good enough for 81st on the Tour. That's just over 2.25 strokes behind the Tour's best, Ariya Jutanugarn... yet she's 81st on Tour! Cristie Kerr, at exactly 71.00, is 38th.
In other words, she hasn't won because she just needs to practice more. She's good enough to keep her card, but she hasn't been good enough to win. Tiffany just needs to learn how to score better.
This week she seems to have caught lightning in a bottle, at least for two rounds. Perhaps she'll get it done in Scotland, and that would be great. But she's a good lesson to everyone -- you don't need a great swing, you just need to make sure it works well most the time.
The swing belongs to none other than Walter Hagen. Hagen won two US Opens, four Open Championships and five PGA Championships (it was match play back then). Hagen is third on the list of all-time major winners, topped only by Nicklaus and Woods.
Why am I posting this? Because this video shows Hagen in Europe in 1928, which means he was using hickory shafts. Although the USGA okayed steel shafts in 1924, the R&A refused to allow them until 1929. That means the swing you see in this video was made with hickory shafts.
You may have seen a lot of weird-looking hickory swings, but you won't see that with Hagen. There's a lot you can learn from this sweet move!
A few notable things you might find consider:
Hagen starts his backswing with a slight forward turn of his hips. That makes the start of his backswing a reaction; he isn't starting from a "frozen" position over the ball.
Note the full shoulder coil, almost Daly-esque in its length. There's no tension there!
The footwork is very simple -- the lead heel comes up off the ground and is then replanted, his hips move back freely and he turns freely toward the target. There's no sway during his backswing, no exaggerated slide forward, no leaning backward at impact. He just "steps" to turn away from the target, then "steps" to turn toward the target. Very simple and natural-looking.
Finally, just look at how relaxed he appears to be all the way through the swing. He's not straining for distance, although he was considered one of the longer hitters of his day. He just makes a long, rhythmic swing that moves pretty fast!
Again, Hagen is using a hickory shaft. Most players think you can't swing a soft shaft with any speed, but Hagen is a great example of how wrong they are. Watch and learn... then give it a try with your own clubs.
Shanshan Feng (aka Jenny Money) has moved up to #3 in the Rolex World Rankings this week, less than a quarter point behind long-hitting Sung Hyun Park.. I thought it might be instructive to take yet another look at one of the simplest yet most effective swings in women's golf.
This first video shows her swing from straight on, and it includes a slo-mo view of her hands at impact.
And this second video shows her swing from a variety of angles.
Let me point out a few simple things you can learn from Shanshan -- simple things that you can put into action immediately.
Simple setup. Note that her lead wrist is bent a bit more than most teachers would recommend, but that's because she has the butt end of the shaft pointing at her belly button. In other words, she has the end of the shaft pointing at the center of her body, so it's pointing at her spine.
She cocks the club a bit earlier than some players, but there's nothing contrived here. She just takes it back in a way that feels comfortable to her, so it's consistent.
Her backswing isn't extremely long, even with a driver -- it looks more like a three-quarter swing -- but she gets a good shoulder turn and she doesn't slide away from the ball.
Yes, she starts down by moving her hips forward... but no, she doesn't make some powerful forward thrust with her hips. Physics demand that your lower body has to move first in order to start your downswing, but Shanshan doesn't exaggerate the move. She just moves in a natural way, stepping from her trail foot to her lead foot as she turns toward the target.
She really uses her hands, arms and shoulders, so her wrists uncock as she hits the ball. The shaft is pointing at her belly button at impact, just the way she set up to the ball. She isn't worried about getting her wrists in some special position; she just points the shaft straight at the ball.
Her footwork is very simple during her downswing. Again, all she does is just step from her trail foot to her lead foot as her shoulders turn completely into her finish. Since she doesn't stop her shoulders from turning, the club doesn't flip over as she hits the ball. As a result, the ball flies pretty straight.
Nothing fancy, nothing that requires a swing monitor to keep it in check. Shanshan plays golf, not golf swing. She just worries about where the clubface is pointing at impact, and she controls that with her hands -- exactly the same way any other athlete aims a bat or racket or hockey stick.
And bear in mind that Shanshan is notorious for NOT PRACTICING. If you want a dependable swing that doesn't need a lot of attention, you could do a lot worse than copying Jenny Money!
Unlike all the speculators, I see no reason to think Tiger will be back anytime soon. It should be clear to him and everyone else that his back is going to need some extended rehab before he considers playing tournaments again.
But it's easy to forget that Tiger's legal problems earlier this year were caused by mismanaged pain meds. If he's in good enough shape to do some pitching, the worst of the pain must be over.
I would also add that the whole sad sequence of events began earlier this year after Tiger started traveling. Consequently I don't expect him to do any traveling for quite a while. I'm just glad to see that he's finally on the mend. I think that's something to celebrate.
With his third win of the season at the DICK'S Sporting Goods Open Sunday, Scott McCarron pulled to roughly $800k behind Schwab Cup leader Bernhard Langer. I thought it might be interesting to look at Scott's driver swing and see what we can learn from it.
Let me start by saying that you don't have to swing like Scott does. That's not my point here. What I want you to see is how his swing works. There are many ways to drive a golf ball, and the best players have figured out how to make the different parts of their swings work together. We want to understand how those basics work in Scott's swing.
And the first thing you'll notice is how far back in his stance Scott positions his ball for a driver. The "scientists" among us say we need a launch angle of about 12°, which means we need to be swinging upward when hitting the ball off the tee. That means we need to have our swing center -- which I would place at the point where your spine meets your shoulder girdle -- that needs to be behind the ball at impact.
Because Scott places the ball so far back in his stance -- just ahead of center -- his address position has to take this into account. Therefore he sets up with his spine tilted noticeably backward, and when he swings it appears as if he moves even farther behind the ball. That's not actually true, though -- although his lead shoulder moves farther behind the ball, you can see that his trailing knee DOESN'T MOVE during his backswing. He's holding himself steady, but his shoulder turn (around his reasonably stationary spine position) makes it look like he's moving away. This is something you might notice on many players with a similar setup if you just look for it.
On the downswing Scott's lower body moves forward a bit more dramatically than I would like to see, but this is also a side effect of his ball position. He needs to shift his weight forward but he also has to keep his swing center behind the ball if he hopes to hit upward on the ball. That creates the dramatic hip shift as he starts down. HOWEVER, note that his lead leg and hip are pretty much vertical at impact, preventing him from ending up in a painful reverse-C position at impact.
So despite the body angles created by his nearly centered ball position, Scott manages to avoid bad extremes that could hurt his back. I still find it hard to believe he can hit up on the ball from that position, but he's averaging 292 yards off the tee this season, so it seems to be working for him.
The lesson here is that your ball position places its own demands on your swing. If you're having trouble with your accuracy, the first thing you should check is your ball position. No matter what changes you make to your swing, you won't get the results you want if you position the ball incorrectly for your swing's mechanics.
If you compare JT's wrist set at the :13 second mark (top of the backswing) and the :14 second mark (halfway down), you'll see that his wrists are not fully cocked at the top and are only at 90° halfway down.. and they lose that cock very quickly. This is part of the reason why he's so accurate -- at least, he's accurate for someone who swings as hard as he does!
When you eliminate the extremes of wrist cock at the change of direction, you eliminate a lot of your inaccuracy. (I'll come back to this in a moment.)
Then, if you check out JT's lead arm as he nears impact, you'll see that he keeps his upper arm close against his chest. This helps him to better square up the clubface.
What I want you to do, as you make your downswing, is try and get your upper arm close to your side when you hit the ball. Perhaps the best way to do this is to think about rolling your upper arm down, across your chest, so your lead elbow is almost against your side at impact. This not only helps you square the clubface, but it forces you to keep turning your shoulders through to your finish.
This drill -- making a full swing without a full wrist cock at the top and then hitting the ball with your lead arm and elbow close to your side -- will help you learn to square up the club at impact. As you get better at it, you can start letting your wrists cock more at the top. With a little practice you'll be able to create a lot of clubhead speed while still squaring the clubface.
In addition, this can form the basis of a go-to shot (if you don't have one). As I said earlier, this move eliminates a lot of inaccuracy. When you absolutely have to get the ball in the fairway, using this drill just might be the key.
Now THAT is a flat swing plane! The difference between Kuchar and Spieth is even more dramatic when you consider that Matt is 6'4" and Jordan 6'1", a difference of only three inches. I chose this angle because it makes the flatness of Matt's swing very clear. (The photos from his other side look just as flat, but seeing it from his back seems clearer to me.)
As with most swings, there are good and bad points to this type of swing. Here's a short summary.
A swing this flat requires you to drive your legs pretty hard to make sure you get your lead hip out of the way. Otherwise, you'd tend to "get stuck" and push your shots. Your clubface isn't on the target line very long, so it can be a bit tricky to hit the ball on line consistently. And if you miss the fairway, you'll have a much shallower approach into the ball. That could make it harder to get the ball up and out of the rough.
But there are also definite benefits to this swing, which Matt may take advantage of today. If the winds get up as expected, Matt's lower swing plane may help him stay more steady during his swing. His flatter plane will automatically launch the ball on a lower trajectory, which should minimize the wind's effect on his shots. And the lower launch angle should give him more run on the links fairways, which helps offset his need to keep the ball low.
Matt starts the day three shots behind Jordan and, unless they mess up, the rest of the field will have trouble chasing them down. If the wind gets up as expected and Matt can keep his ball in the short grass, he just might grab his first major win today.
Travis particularly likes the fact that Inbee starts her downswing by moving down rather than laterally toward the target. Travis has his reasons for liking this move, but here's my take on it.
This move keeps you from "getting stuck" and pushing the shot, helps you make more consistent contact with the ball, puts you in a position to "use the ground" to create clubhead speed, and also takes some of the stress off your back.
That's a whole lot of benefits from one simple move, a move that players have used at least since the days of Sam Snead. It's almost like falling from the top of your backswing and landing on both feet -- yes, it's that simple.
And it's definitely something you should consider trying, especially if you have trouble hitting the ball consistently and/or have the occasional sore back after you play.
This video does a couple of things. It not only explains why Jordan makes the move -- it's how he keeps the face square longer, to improve his accuracy -- but it explains the science behind why you should pay more attention to face angle. You'll learn a lot.
But I want you to understand something that this video glosses over. It's implied that Jordan's success with this move is because it's a better way to be accurate. That's just wrong. If that were true, someone would have discovered that fact long ago because "chicken wings" aren't new. This move definitely works for Jordan, and would likely work for a large number of players.
That doesn't mean it's right for everybody, any more than Sergio's swing is right for everybody or Jim Furyk's swing is right for everybody.
If you take a look at past history, you'll see this fascination with the hottest players' swings at work over and over. For example:
Instructors initially said Ben Hogan's swing was "too flat"... until he started beating everybody with it. Then they said it's the best swing ever.
They said Jack Nicklaus's "flying elbow" in his backswing was wrong... until he started beating everybody. Then they called it a power move.
It wasn't that long ago that you were supposed to keep both feet firmly on the ground during your swing... until guys like Bubba started knocking the cover off the ball. Now they call it "using the ground."
Let me also point out something that wasn't mentioned at all. Jordan prefers to play a fade. In the past, players were told not to "chicken wing" because it would cause a slice. But now we're told that the most desirable shot shape is a fade because "you want to eliminate the left (hook) side of the course."
If you want to play a fade, Jordan's "chicken wing" may be exactly what you need. But if you're after a draw, you might want to keep looking.
Don't let the popular fad of the moment determine how you swing a club. The way Jordan swings might be right for you, or it might not. But no matter whose swing is being praised, always choose your approach based on knowledge, not fads.
This is a very short post but I think something this important warrants it. This is something you always need to be aware of when you're learning how players do things.
In the section of the article about hitting short irons, DJ says "I play the ball in roughly the same spot for each club, centered between my feet." But take a really good look at the photo (you can see it in other photos in the article as well).
The ball is NOT centered between his feet. I suppose it might look that way to him when he's looking straight down from above, but it's NOT centered between his feet. It's close to being centered between his TOES, but you measure the center of your stance from your HEELS.
DJ actually plays the ball slightly ahead of the center of his stance. This allows his downswing to shallow out ever so slightly, even though he's still hitting down. If the ball was actually in the center of his stance, the sharper downward angle of attack would affect his ability to control his ball's distance as well as he does.
My point here is that you need to make sure you study any instructional articles, photos and videos very carefully. Although there's a great deal of useful information to be had -- as there is in this article from DJ -- sometimes small things slip through the editing process. And sometimes those small things can keep you from getting the proper results.
The article is by instructor Jim McLean and has several side-by-side photos of the two Swedes, like the pair of finishes above, that are really quite remarkable in their similarities. Not just because of the large movements but because of the smaller, stylistic similarities -- like the way both players swivel their heads as they hit the ball, or the vertical club shaft finish shown above.
Something that you might find interesting -- that I learned from the article, in fact -- is that both players went through the Swedish Golf Federation at roughly the same time, and that the system the SGF taught was heavily influenced by the teachings of Jimmy Ballard. For many of you, Ballard's name will be familiar because he helped Rocco Mediate recreate his swing, which helped Rocco overcome some bad back problems, but Ballard has helped a number of big names over the years, like two-time US Open champ Curtis Strange.
It's interesting because Ballard's golf book, How to Perfect Your Golf Swing, was considered something of a radical approach when it first came out in the late 1970s. It really popularized the concepts of "releasing your right side" and "connection," although I suppose both of them had been around for some time. If you hang around long enough, you'll learn that there's rarely anything new in golf mechanics -- just fresh presentations of old or forgotten techniques.
Ballard's method is yet another example of an old truism -- that, eventually, every golf swing finds an audience when it's built on concepts that solve new problems that audience is struggling with. And in this case, it resulted in two eerily similar swings by two different golfers with different teachers... who just happen to be major champions who won in dominant fashion.
Since a lot of you may not be familiar with Danny Willett's swing or approach to the game, I thought I'd pass on a few things I've either heard or found that may help you understand what he does.
The photo above comes from a Golf Digest slideshow of Danny's swing. The slides show him from face-on, and from down-the-line from both the back and front. The most notable thing is his strong lead hand grip, which gives him a tendency to cock his wrists much earlier than coach Mike Walker would like. (Walker says in the slide sequence that they're working to make it a bit later in the backswing, in order to widen his swing.)
The slideshow also notes that Willett used to throw a javelin, and his trailing hand motion is similar to that.
Here's a YouTube video of Danny's swing, just so you can see it at both regular speed and in slow motion. The video shows both face-on and down-the-line views.
“If you set the club
correctly early in the swing, all you really have to do is turn,” says
the former Walker Cup player of the swing that stood up best to the
pressure of an endlessly exciting Masters Sunday. “It’s that simple. If I
get the club in position with my shoulders ‘loaded,’ I can just elevate
to the turn then come back down. At my best, that’s all I think about.
“I
don’t think my swing is ever going to change in how it looks. But the
feeling of it has changed. It feels wider. But when I see it on camera
it still looks narrow to me. But I don’t have to think about it really.
At first it was a conscious move, but not now.”
And among the variety of things I heard from assorted TV analysts:
I wrote in my book Ruthless Putting that you can learn most of the mental things you need at a good church, while in Think Like a Golfer I tried to explain how the language of sports psychology parallels theological terms and how "God talk" often sheds important light on the sports concepts. It turns out that Danny doesn't doesn't use a sports psychologist at all, depending instead on his father's advice... and his father is a retired pastor.
Danny is an old school putter who picks a target on his chosen line that's only a foot or so ahead of the ball. As he put it, "Every one-foot putt is a straight putt." It certainly simplifies his approach.
And Danny's go-to shot is a slight fade. Although he can move the ball either way, he tends to play his fade most of the time. Although it may have affected his ability to go low on the par-5s a bit during the rough weather (he was only even par for the week), on Sunday he went -2 on the par-5s. And overall, his 54-hole score was even par starting the final round, so his consistency served him well in the tough conditions.
Hopefully this cross-section of Willett trivia will get you better acquainted with Danny. He debuted in my RGWR at #3 this week with a major and two other ET wins over the last year, and he entered the OWGR Top10 at #9 Monday morning. Better get used to hearing his name!
If you saw the photo of Ha Na Jang I used in the Bent Elbow Drill series (and how could you miss it? I had it in almost every post!), this is the video I snagged it from. And given the torrid winning streak Ha Na is creating on the LPGA this season, especially after that dominating win this past week, I thought I'd post the actual video. It's from a practice round at the 2015 LPGA season finale.
I just want you to appreciate how simple this swing is. And after those eight posts I did, you should now know enough to understand exactly how she does it. The video gets progressively slower as it goes on, and thus it's easier to pick out details. Take a few moments to watch it and learn from it.
And on the off-chance you missed it (just what were you doing this weekend?), here's Ha Na's Beyoncé-inspired celebration dance from her win this past weekend.
I know it's easier to enjoy yourself when you're playing this well, but Ha Na always seems to have a smile on her face, no matter how her day is going. You can learn from that as well, since it's easier to have a good day when you're having fun.
European Tour rookie Matthew Fitzpatrick was the 2013 US Amateur champ, and he got his first win at the British Masters this past weekend. He jumped up to 59th in the OWGR -- making him the youngest player in the Top100 -- and 12th in the Race to Dubai with the win. Not bad for a 21-year-old!
He's not incredibly long; his 2015 average is just short of 288 yards. Still, he makes good use of that distance, as he manages to hit just over 71% of his fairways and nearly 76% of his GIR.
But Matt has one of the more unusual moves you'll see in a golf swing. This slow-mo video from teacher Rob Chruszcz shows the swing in more detail, but I've isolated a few key frames in the picture farther down in this post.
At address Matthew doesn't look very different from anybody else. In fact, he doesn't look that different when his hands are at waist level or at shoulder level either. But take a look at that top of the backswing position!
As you can see if you watch the video, Matthew uses his hands a lot more than most players. He loops the club at the top, not only "laying the club off" (which makes the club face point up to the sky like Dustin Johnson) but also dipping the club head way below parallel, then dropping his hands on the way down to get back on plane.
It's interesting to compare Zach Johnson with Matthew. Both turn very rapidly as they bring the club down to hit the ball, but Zach hits the ball with his right hand -- that is, Zach's right hand is moving a bit faster than his left at impact, causing him to "fling" the club head at the ball and uncock his wrists. If you look at a photo of Zach at impact, the club shaft and his left arm form a fairly straight line.
Matthew, by comparison, swings both hands at roughly the same speed, which causes him to retain some wrist cock. His hands are still ahead of the ball when the club head makes contact. However, the two players are almost the same height and drive it about the same distance -- Matthew is maybe 5 yards longer -- and their accuracy is about the same.
It will be interesting to see how Matthew does going forward, since he's on track to qualify for all the majors in 2016. (He only needs to make the Top50 in the OWGR to do that.) It's clear that loop is natural to his swing and he's very good at repeating it. Let's hope that nobody tries to change it and ruins his game.
With Danny Willett just a stroke off the lead at the Open when Friday's play ended, many of you may be wondering about his swing -- especially after Brandel Chamblee remarked that his "bullet cut" might give him an advantage in the right-to-left winds they expect this weekend.
Well, wonder no more. After looking at several videos of Danny, I settled on these two. The first shows Danny at the WGC-Match Play earlier this year. Note from the shot tracker "trails" that Danny hits a draw as easily as he hits a cut. These swings are all at full speed.
Then I found this video that's about a year old but shows his swing in slo-mo.
A few things I noticed right off:
Danny's swing is actually pretty short -- his hands are just a bit above shoulder height even with a driver -- and he doesn't get a lot of "width," which is a fancy way to say that he doesn't get his hands as far away from his body during the backswing as he could. This shows up in his stats -- although he's 6' tall, his ET regular season driving average is only 290 yards and he hits only 56% of his fairways. He does hit 71% of his GIR, which means his iron play is pretty accurate.
He sets up with his weight more on his lead side and moves aggressively toward the target when he hits the ball. Perhaps because of this aggressive attack, he cocks his wrists early in his backswing -- a late wrist cock would require a slower backswing in order to keep control of the club.
Danny also "re-routes" the club when he changes direction at the top of his backswing -- in other words, he drops the club a bit behind him (which some folks call "laying it off"). This move flattens his swing a little, which helps him unwind a bit faster but sacrifices a little accuracy. Rickie Fowler did this until Butch helped him reduce it.
His finish is a lot higher than his backswing, which causes him to swing a bit in-to-out. That's not something most teachers would teach but it's not necessarily a bad thing. It lets him really extend his arms as he hits the ball, which helps him control the club face better than he would otherwise with all that body rotation.
Danny normally hits the ball about as far as Jordan Spieth does, but Danny's lower ball flight seems to be helping him much more in the windy conditions at St. Andrews. (According to the Open website stats, which measures drives on holes 5 and 14, Danny's averaging 318 VS Jordan's 260.) And Danny's -3 on the back nine -- the nine playing into the wind -- after two rounds.
Which just goes to show that the "right" way to hit the ball isn't necessarily the best way for any individual golfer. Danny Willett was the #1 amateur in the world in 2008... and if he keeps playing like this, he could end up being the Champion Golfer of 2015.
I found this little gem in Nancy Lopez's book The Education of a Woman Golfer, which was written back in 1979. Remember, when she came out on Tour in 1978 she won 9 tournaments... and 5 of them were consecutive wins. Everybody wanted to know how she developed that unusual swing of hers.
Here is her advice on how to develop a winning golf swing. It still rings as true 36 years later. And even though it's kinda long I'm going to quote the whole thing, especially since I'm pretty sure the book is out of print and you won't get to read it any other way. (Yeah, I know the page numbers look weird but that's because there was a two-page photo spread in the middle of this quote.)
...I never want to think too much about how I hit a golf ball when I'm actually out there hitting one because, if I do, I'm afraid I won't hit it as well as I seem to do instinctively. But I can tell you what I concentrate upon when playing, and maybe you'll find it interesting and even helpful. It's not going to be much of the stuff you read in golf instruction books about grips, and stances, and pronation, and unleashing of the cock of the wrists, and all that. That makes me dizzy. I think golf instruction is likely to give you more complicated words and actions to think about than you can possibly swallow, and certainly more than you can digest all at the same time while you're trying to hit a golf ball. My prescription is simple, and it's the same one Dad gave me when I was eight years old. Hit the ball and keep hitting it until you find your natural swing. Then practice, practice, practice, until it's so grooved that you can do it in your sleep. Saying "find your natural swing" goes against the idea that there's an absolutely right way and a lot of wrong ways to play golf. It seems to me that there is no sure and fixed "right way." Perhaps there is a best way for most people, but there are enough glaring examples of unorthodox players who are fine, and even great ones, for me to question whether any aspect of usual golf teaching is sacred. As an example, take Arnold Palmer. Take Judy Rankin. Take me. None of us would be a model for a film of a classic golf swing. There have been great golf players who used a baseball grip, players who prefer to fade an approach onto a green and those who prefer to draw one into it, players who always pitch right to the hole and try to hold the ball there and others who, under certain conditions, much prefer to pitch and run the shot. There may well be a best way for most people but there's no best way for everybody. (p41, 44, my emphasis)
I don't think that needs any more explanation. There are plenty of pros who aren't competitive anymore but they would be if they had simply followed Nancy Lopez's advice.
There is NO ONE RIGHT WAY to hit a golf ball. Find the one that works best for you, and become the best at doing it that you can. That's what Nancy says, and she's as good a role model as anybody.
Na Yeon Choi is 5'5" tall and averages just over 252 yards off the tee. That's 56th on the LPGA, which is considerably better than average.
She also hits over 73% of her fairways, which puts her 75th. That would be incredible on the PGA Tour but it's just average on the LPGA.
Since she won in Arkansas on Sunday, I thought I'd do a quick post about her swing -- in particular, something that I think is a real strength of hers. This is a short video, only 35 seconds long, but it shows her swing several times and gradually slows it down. It's just a face-on view but it's recent and it shows what I want you to see.
NYC's swing, like that of most of the Korean players, is very simple and mechanically sound. But I want you to notice how balanced, how rhythmic, how smooth it is. Although she's hitting it pretty hard -- and developing quite a bit of swing speed in order to hit the ball as far as she does -- she doesn't appear to be going at it that hard at all.
The reason is that she avoids exaggeration. By that I mean that she doesn't make big dramatic moves when she doesn't need them. She's not moving off the ball on her backswing, she's not lurching forward at impact, and she doesn't squat down dramatically and then jump up off the ground in an effort to create more swing speed.
What she's doing is using her club as a tool. She swings it and lets it do the work of launching the ball. It's entirely proper to say that she NAILS the shot because she uses her club like a hammer. She can do this because, although she's swinging as fast as she can, she's trying to keep her muscles relaxed throughout the swing. Relaxed muscles can move faster than tight muscles, and she doesn't have to lurch back and forth because almost all of the energy is going into the club.
If you've ever swung a tennis racket or thrown a Frisbee™, you know this feeling. There's a sense of... let me call it "gathering yourself" as the top of your backswing. It's not really a pause because you don't stop moving. It's just a moment in your swing when you change direction.
If you exaggerate your lower body movement when you start down, you'll destroy this feeling. I often recommend that you try to feel as if you were falling from the top of your backswing, literally just relaxing your legs so both feet are planted solidly on the ground and your hips automatically move forward a bit. If you don't interfere with the start of your downswing, your lower body WILL start your move into the ball; it's physically impossible to change direction any other way.
Watch Na Yeon Choi's swing a few times, try to imagine what it feels like, and then try to duplicate it. Imitation is one of the easiest ways to learn tempo and speed.
The link at the beginning of this post takes you to the Spieth analysis but I'm embedding the one for Patrick Reed here, simply because I think Patrick's swing is more unusual.
Now these analyses aren't perfect. For example, David doesn't mention that Patrick has that weird slide with his lead foot in large part because his left ankle is stiffer than that of many players. Still, the information is extremely useful and covers a wide variety of players whose swings represent many different approaches -- for example, Justin Thomas gets a tremendous amount of distance despite being a relatively small person while Tony Finau is tall yet hits the ball farther than many other players his size. There are rookies like Ortiz and veterans like Cink. And Jordan is very young while K.J. is... well, beginning to think more about the Champions Tour.
Whether you're a Leadbetter fan or not -- and I know most of you have faves and non-faves among the better-known teachers -- he's a very knowledgeable instructor and you just might pick up something useful that you can easily incorporate into your own swing. You may even enjoy it just because you're curious about the variety among successful Tour swings, so take a few moments to check them out.
And speaking of Leadbetter... no, I haven't forgotten about his new book The A Swing. I'm nearly finished with it and will put up a book review shortly.
Today's post is short but it's incredibly important.
When Jordan Spieth came roaring back into contention with an 8-under 62 -- tying his own personal best score since coming on Tour -- to get himself on the RBC Heritage leaderboard, he attributed it to one simple thing. As he told the media (and PGATOUR.com recorded in this article):
“(I) found something in my ball position on the range this morning, and
it made a significant difference in my ball-striking and in my putting,”
Spieth said in a classic example of understatement.
When he spoke to the media he noted that he went out for Thursday's round without checking his fundamentals -- alignment, ball position, posture, etc. -- and that he found the ball position problem when he did so. It was affecting his putting as well as his full game, and that's why you saw such a dramatic change in just one day.
There are many things that distinguish Jordan Spieth from the rest of the Tour, but clearly one of the most important is his attention to the details of his game -- the fundamentals of his setup in particular. Make sure you check your fundamentals before every round. You may not shoot as low as Jordan, but you'll certainly see more consistency in your game.
