The

Swing
“ Simply
„Flow
Philosophy
“
Move
„The

„The Release“

„The Gap“

„The Position“

Jonathan Taylor
The Move Golf Academy

February 2021
Table of Contents
Introduction.........................................................................................................................................................3
The learning processes....................................................................................................................................3
Recalling a movement.....................................................................................................................................4
Swing Concept.....................................................................................................................................................7
System 1: Trunk and Shoulders.....................................................................................................................8
System 2: Legs and Hips..................................................................................................................................9
Take a Grip......................................................................................................................................................13
System 3: Arms, Hands and Wrists.............................................................................................................15
Pre-Shot Routine..............................................................................................................................................21
Time your “True Golf Swing”.......................................................................................................................22
The Address Position.....................................................................................................................................24
Think Box: Making the decisions................................................................................................................24
Play Box: Hit it................................................................................................................................................25
The Meditative State.....................................................................................................................................25
Take it on the course.....................................................................................................................................27
ADVANCED THEORIES....................................................................................................................................31
Club Lean.........................................................................................................................................................31
The Move.........................................................................................................................................................35
Parabolic flight................................................................................................................................................37
The Release.....................................................................................................................................................38
The Position.....................................................................................................................................................39
Find “the position” with an impact bag.....................................................................................................42
Ground Force..................................................................................................................................................44
Clubface control.............................................................................................................................................48
The Gap............................................................................................................................................................50
Timing...............................................................................................................................................................53
Flow..................................................................................................................................................................54
Fighting Habit..................................................................................................................................................56
Drills.....................................................................................................................................................................57
Legs and Hips..................................................................................................................................................57
Shoulders and Trunk......................................................................................................................................60
Arms, Hands and Wrists............................................................................................................................... 62
Synchronise your body and arms................................................................................................................65
Learn to feel the hand path.........................................................................................................................67
Use flexion and rotation to delay the release and control the face angle.........................................68

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Learn to create a feeling of weightless at the start of your downswing............................................70
Feel the ground forces through the ball....................................................................................................72
Insert “the Move “into your swing.............................................................................................................73
Strengthen and mobilize your Trunk Muscles..........................................................................................77
Arms, Hands and Wrists............................................................................................................................... 80

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 Introduction
“The definition of madness is to keep repeating the same procedure and
expect a different outcome”. Albert Einstein

The traditional way an adult learns golf is flawed. A basic version of learning by doing, where
you try to hit the ball whilst consciously thinking about individual body parts and their
movements. This will rarely produce the desired results, even if the intended changes are
correct. The reason is simple, when a ball is in the equation your overriding need will be to
hit the ball. Imagine learning to block a punch in Karate, whilst in a fight. Your overwhelming
need would be to avoid your opponents’ fists from hitting your face, not the way you bend
your elbow to perfect the blocking technique you learnt the day before. That is why Karate
is taught without an opponent until the movements are committed to memory and then
tested against an opponent. Only when the body’s reaction is intuitive will the block be
mastered in the heat of battle.
The Adult mind is slow to learn new tricks and will tend to forget most of them within a day.
Without you brain committing the new movements in your golf swing to memory, you can’t
learn a new swing. So, it is not only what you learn which will define your success, but how
you learn it.

The learning processes

Learning a movement is about giving your body and mind the chance to work together by:
1. The directional control (proprioception), which sends the information to the muscles to
move at a certain intensity at a certain time.
2. The Muscles and joints ability to carry out the commands.
When you train your body to make a movement, you are doing both jobs simultaneously.
To make your training more effective, you must understand the different requirements of
the mind and the body.

1. Your memory is bombarded with new information every day, most of which is
unimportant. So, it has a simple system to sort out the wheat from the chaff. It counts how
often your request for this new information is repeated on a daily, weekly and monthly basis
before deciding to commit it to your short, middle or long-term-memory. Memory does not
require you to repeat the movement thousands of times but to repeat it often. The moment
you stop practising the timer starts to tick. If the drill is not repeated within a short time, the
commands are erased from your short-term memory and your brain will have to start again.
This can be as short as a matter of minutes when you learn a totally new movement, and up
to a few hours for a more trusted movement.
The consequence is that a new movement must be regularly repeated during the lesson to
get into your short-term memory and then again within a few hours after the end of the
lesson to keep it fresh. This repetition is not a question of how many reps you make, but
how often you require the brain to recall the information required to make the movement
within a twenty-four-hour period. If your Brain recognises a need for a movement to be
recalled frequently over more than one day, it will commit the movement to your mid-
term memory. Repeat the movement more times a day, week and month and it will find its
way into your long-term memory.

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When you learn a new movement, your mind experiments with different commands until
you or your trainer are happy with the resulting movement, it then starts to build new
synapse to control the movement. Every repetition helps the mind to build a more effective
and efficient group of synapses to control the movement. Every change in the movement
and the intensity of the movements will affect the program you are building in your mind. It
requires a higher number of repetitions to build the synapse than it does to build a memory,
but the frequency of repetitions does not have to be as high. I recommend repeating the
new movements in your swing three times daily, but you would only need a high number of
repetitions 3 times a week to build the new synapses.

2. The body’s ligaments, tendons, muscles and joints may well be able to carry out a new
movement without any training, especially if they are used to playing sport. The Golf swing,
however, is a unique movement which will test even the best-trained athlete. If your body
finds itself incapable of making the required movement, it will do its best to compensate by
using similar muscles or joints. This will lead to swing mistakes. Avoiding mistakes will mean
accepting your body’s movement boundaries and your swings limitations in the short term
or consciously accepting the mistakes in return for higher potential performance in the
knowledge that your consistency and shot shape will be negatively affected.
To build your muscles strength and flexibility you will have to overload them through
repetition, resistance or weight training. When you train a muscle, you work it until it is
tired, at which point you will start to break the small fibres of the muscle. They will repair
themselves within a short time, often within a day but at up to double their original strength.
Repeating the training will break the fibres again causing them to double up again. By
increasing the intensity of the workout through repetition, weight or tension you can
increase your muscles strength and flexibility over time. Just remember that the moment
you stop training, your muscles will degenerate into their original state. This means that
whatever performance you achieve can only be kept by persistent training. It is also worth
noting, that just because you have done half a dozen repetitions that does not mean you
have immediately increased the performance of your muscle or your swing. It is a similar
story for your joint’s mobility, every joint is secured by muscles and ligaments. By pushing
the movement boundaries of a joint regularly, you can slowly achieve a higher level of
mobility in the joint. This mobility will also be lost the moment you stop training.

Recalling a movement

Once the movement has been committed to memory and your muscles have reached the
necessary strength and mobility, you will have to learn to call up the movements at will. This
is done by changing a conscious command into an intuitive command. When you think about
something consciously you are using a part of the brain called the frontal lobe, which is
situated in the frontal cortex, when you make a movement you are using a part of the brain
called the motor cortex. These two areas of the brain are physically separated from one
another and built for different jobs. To transfer the command from your frontal-lobe to your
motor-cortex you must be able to visualise the movement. This may sound a little esoteric
but simply means remembering what the movement looked like. If you can do this, you will
immediately access a part of your brain called the pre-motor-cortex. Your pre-motor-cortex
is located next to your motor-cortex and the only difference between the two is that whilst
information is in the pre-motor-cortex your body will not move, the moment it enters the
motor-cortex your body will move.

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 Cerebellum
The trick is to turn a command into a picture, visualise the swing or drill make and get your
conscious mind to approve the picture, then let it slide into your motor-cortex where the
movement will happen automatically. There should be no conscious thought during your
golf swing, just a clear mental picture and focus on the target and desired result. A scientist
in the United Kingdom found out that he could contact patients in a vegetative state (alive
but unable to communicate with the outside world) by getting them to imagine themselves
playing a sport. This triggered activity in their pre-motor-cortex which could be seen during
an MRI examination. He then used that feedback to communicate with the patient, asking
them to give an affirmative answer to the questions by imagining playing sport.

This explains why so many Professionals talk about visualising the shot and result before
playing it. You must replace your conscious thought about the movement of individual body
parts with a clear picture of your desired result.

When martial arts students learn to fight, they don’t start in a fight situation but use
exercises and drills to learn and automate new techniques before entering the fight. They
create fight drills where they learn to use the correct movements dependent on the
situation. It is similar for Professional footballers; they don’t play a full match in training but
exercise the abilities they will need in a match. Whether it be the ability to change direction
or speed using obstacles or ball games to train the required ability their ball control is

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mastered outside of the match situation. They would never try to learn these abilities in a
match.

There is evidence that the fluidity of your swing will also have a great influence on its
success. Scientists believe that once a movement is set to memory a part of the brain
called the cerebellum is responsible for the coordination and timing on the movement.

Your Cerebellum processes the continuous stream of information it receives from the body
through the bodies nervous system during movement. Over 200 million Mossy fibres enter
the Cerebellum bringing information gained over the spinal cord from every part of your
anatomy. From the pressure on your feet to the swing of your organs within your body the
Cerebellum can analyse and compute this information to learn the bodies exact position in
3D time and space at any given moment. This information is digested and condensed to less
than 50 deep nuclear cells which send further commands to the body simultaneously. For
the Cerebellum to do its job, the flow of information must not be interrupted as the
Cerebellum is incapable of filling in the blanks. Should it lose the information stream it would
be to all intense and purpose rendered blind and unable to control any further motor
function. One swing thought is capable of interrupting the Cerebellums work and destroying
your golf swing.
I hope the message is clear, you must change the way you learn and practice the game of
golf. Use drills to teach your body movement structures and abilities until they become
deeply embedded in your long-term memory. Then combine them into a fluid golf swing
that functions without conscious thought, before finally using that swing to play golf. No
swing thoughts, but a total belief and trust in your ability built on hours of practice,
repetition and objective confirmation of your ability.

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 Swing Concept
The Physiology of a golf swing determines the relative complexity of your swing. If you
imagine your body as a tower of connected joints, the complexity will increase with the
number of joints you use in the swing, as will the difficulty to coordinate the movement and
make solid contact with the ball. At the same time, increasing the number of moving joints
and the amplitude of their movement will increase the potential energy of your swing. So,
finding your perfect swing will require you to reach a balance between its mobility and its
stability, dependent on your physical ability and your talent to control and coordinate the
movements.
The laws of Physics give us a guide as to the necessary movement of a golf club to apply
speed and direction to the golf ball. To hit a perfectly straight golf ball, it is necessary to
deliver the clubface at a right angle to the target line, with the ball striking the middle of the
clubface (centre of mass) with the clubhead travelling towards the target at the moment of
impact. The speed that the club head is travelling, the orientation of the clubface and the
transition of energy to the ball will determine the ball’s distance. Variations to these impact
parameters would cause a change in the ball’s speed and/or direction.

Controlling the shafts’ angle to the ground (shaft plane) during your swing will make it easier
for you to deliver the clubface correctly back to the ball. A beginner will usually try to swing
the club using just their arms and hands. Although this can work for short shots, an Arm
swing is very unreliable. To swing the club without turning your chest, your elbows and
wrists will have to bend and hinge, this invariably changes the shaft’s plane in the backswing,
requiring a correction in the downswing to deliver the club correctly.
The most reliable way to move the club without changing the shafts’ plane too much during
your swing is to use your shoulders, arms and hands together. Turning your shoulders in the
same angle as the club's shaft had at address, whilst lifting your arms and hands will move the
club away from the ball, up and around your body, parallel to the shafts original plane. By
allowing your hips and legs to move with your shoulders the movement can be extended

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in both your backswing and downswing. Using your legs and hips together with
your shoulders, arms and hands, you can generate the power in your swing.

The best way to build a golf swing is to break it down into chunks or systems which will
allow you to practice them separately and to later analyse which system is or isn’t working
properly. This method will help your body to really get a feeling for a particular movement in
isolation, before connecting it to other movements which would block the feeling. This way
you will slowly build a perception for your golf swing as a group of separate moving parts,
synchronised and coordinated with one another to make the whole. Your body will start to
tell you its mistakes, because it can differentiate between the way the swing felt and way it
knows it should have felt. This takes the stress out of a round of golf, because you are aware
of your mistakes and can see them for what they are, simple breakdowns in your body’s
coordination or control of a movement. No reason to worry or experiment but rather gently
remind your body what you would like it to do. Training systems separately from one
another or together, with or without a club will help you commit them to memory, train
your mental control processes (proprioception) and build the muscles your golf swing
requires. After as little as 1800 repetitions over just a 6-week period and you will have built
the foundation of a good repetitive golf swing. By combining these three systems in
different combinations and intensities, you can hit the ball different distances with different
levels of difficulty.

System 1: Trunk and Shoulders

This is the main system of your golf swing and will be used in every shot type and distance.
Getting your shoulders to move in the correct angle to the shaft will require your entire
upper body from your hips to your shoulders, but much of the work will be done by the
muscles of your lower stomach and back.
Getting your shoulders moving in the correct angle to the shaft will require you to create a
spine angle of approximately 100° in the address position in relation to the club's shaft at
address. Your shoulders must be turned and tilted into the shaft plane by contracting your
stomach muscles, starting with your lead oblique and chest muscles followed by your lead
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latissimus, the movement pulls your lead shoulder down and towards your trail hip, feeling
the contraction traveling down your lead side and across your stomach towards your trail
oblique muscles, as if bending a playing card from the top corner to the diagonally opposing
bottom corner. Without the help of your hips, this movement will not create more than a
45° rotation of your shoulders, which is plenty for a short shot but not enough for a full
swing. To swing your arms and hands forward and through the ball, your trail shoulder must
then be pulled down in the opposite direction. This is done by releasing the contraction in
your lead side and contracting your trail side oblique, chest and latissimus muscles. This will
pull your trail shoulder down in the direction of your lead hip (bending the playing card
forward, bowing its back before releasing the lead corner of the card). Were you holding a
club in your hands whilst making these movements, your shoulders would move your arms,
hands and club in a small arc around your body and through its starting position (the Ball)
without using your shoulder, elbow or wrist joints. I believe the ability to move your upper
body freely, without your hips and legs, is the most important movement in a golf swing. It is
also the biggest physiological difference between Professional golfers and hobby golfers. The
Professionals mobility in their upper body allows them to create large amounts of power
with little need for them to use their arms and hands excessively.

System 2: Legs and Hips

Your legs and hips provide your swings stability, but also a lot of its power. Think of your hips
as a table that is tilted slightly towards the ball in the address position, that you can rotate to
the right and left, but which is only supported by two legs, which makes it relatively
unstable. You will need to rotate your table, but without throwing its contents to the ground
(your upper body). By letting your shoulder rotation pull your hips with them, you can
extend your shoulder rotation to over 90° in both directions (given you have enough upper
and lower body mobility). As your lead shoulder is pulled down and rotates it will naturally
pull your lead hip with it. Although the amount of hip rotation you are able to create plays a
large role in the potential power of your swing you should not let your trail knee straighten
completely. Keeping some of the flex in your trail knee will stop you tilting too much and
resisting the rotation with your trail leg and knee will help you put more pressure into the
ground through your trail foot, making your foot twist in your shoe, pressing your small toe
hard against the inside wall of your shoe.

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Your trail hip will move backwards slightly but should not slide away from the target, think of
your hips as a revolving door rather than a sliding door or imagine yourself standing in a
barrel which is only slightly wider than your hips.

By building a stable pivot point in your trail shoe you will be able to create both stability and
power in your downswing. At the end of your backswing, you should be at the “end of
range” of rotation in your trail foot joint, knee joint, hip joint, lumber and thoracic spine
and feeling considerable tension in both of your legs and your lower back. You should feel
your weight on the balls of your trail foot as well as your heel at the top of your backswing,
with your shoe fighting to stop your trail foot rotating any further.

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Your backswing will give you the feeling of your weight moving from the centre of your
stance to your trail foot before it moves back to the middle of your stance and against your
lead foot during your downswing. In fact, what you are feeling is more of a transfer of
pressure than a transfer of mass (weight), your mass will only move slightly, what you are
feeling is your centre of pressure moving as your body applies forces to the ground to create
your golf swing while holding your stability and centeredness. This misinterpretation of
weight transfer can often lead to you swaying in your swing as you try to move your weight
(centre of mass) over your trail leg in your backswing before sliding it over your lead leg in
your downswing (the sliding door).
After your shoulders end their rotation away from the target, you should initiate your
downswing by releasing the tension in your lower body, letting your pelvis tilt back and both
of your legs flex or bend slightly creating a brief feeling of weightlessness (as if you were
about to make a jump) immediately turning your hips towards the target.

Use the pressure inside your trail shoe and push against the inner wall of your shoe to start
your rotation to the target. As you change direction flexing your legs your trail hips position
should not change much (not jump forward) as your lead hip is pulled back by the muscles in
your lead tush/bottom and pushed back by your lead leg. Press your lead foot into the
ground at an angle of approximately 45° to the target line, this will help you to get the
necessary purchase to push your lead hip back. Keeping your lead leg bent until your hips are
completely rotated will also help you to stop your tush or bottom popping forward towards
the ball at the start of your downswing (early extension) which would make it very difficult to
keep your upper body position/spine angle over the ball.
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Your trail leg will also have been applying force to the ground to keep your trail hip in its
place (stop early extension) and to stop your hips being pushed back away from the target
but a millisecond later it should also press forcefully into the ground, to move your trail hip
forward. This way both legs are actively supporting your hip rotation. Try and feel the ball of
your trail foots big toe pressing down hard into the ground, creating equal pressure to that
of the lead foot. The whole time you should feel centred, staying within the boundaries of
the barrel. You need to rotate in the barrel without touching the sides of the barrel until
well after the ball has been struck. Delay the straightening of your legs until your hips have
turned as far as they can towards the target, as if you were trying to point your belt buckle
to the target.

At the end of your hips rotation both of your legs should then push forcefully into the
ground, retarding your fall and creating pressure between yourself and the ground.
Professionals will generate up to twice their body weight/pressure on the ground just before

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hitting the ball. It should feel as if you have just landed on the floor after a jump and your
feet and legs are resisting any further change in height as your feet press down into the
ground before exploding back up. The more force you can create into the ground at this
point (a springboard feeling), loading and then releasing pressure, the more you can
accelerate your golf swing. Your hips rotation will turn your lumbar spine automatically, your
lumber spine is not designed to rotate but by rotating your hips and pelvis you will protect
your lumber spine and start a rotation which will travel up your thoracic spine, helping to
turn your shoulders. It is still your trail abdominal, chest and latissimus muscles which do the
majority of the work turning your shoulders and pulling your trail shoulder down into the
correct angle.

Take a Grip https://youtu.be/ckaluDVIcWY

For obvious reasons the way you grip the golf club will influence the way you move the golf
club around your body during your swing as well as the direction the club face will be
pointing at any point in your golf swing. There is however no one way of gripping the club
which will suit all golf swings because all golf swings, even those built on the same
fundamentals, deliver the golf club differently to the ball. In order to learn and practice the
third system I will show you a neutral way of gripping the golf club which allows your wrists
to work correctly but which you can be changed later by rotating your hands on the club to
make final corrections to the clubface angle at impact.

Start by standing upright with your arms hanging at your sides and relax your hands so that
they hang naturally. They should both be turned slightly inwards, the palms of your hands at
approximately a 45° angle to the target line.

Now take the golf club in your lead hand so that the ball of your lead hand is about 3mm
under the butt end of the grip and close your fingers around the grip. If you have done this
correctly, the ball of your lead hand will be on top of the grip and by picking the golf club up
and holding it out in front of yourself you should feel the weight of the club on the ball/heel
of your lead hand.

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You should also be able to open all the fingers of your lead hand with exception of your fore-
finger and the club will balance between your fore-finger and heel of your hand. Twist the
club in your hand without changing your hands position on the grip until the leading edge of
the clubface is pointing vertically before tilting the shaft of the club upwards to a 45° angle.

Now grip the handle with your trail hand, taking the grip in the fingers of your trail hand
below your lead hand on the handle. Slide the fingers of your trail hand up the shaft until the
little finger of your trail hand collides with the fore finger of your lead hand.

Lift the little finger of your trail hand off the grip and slide your fingers further up the handle
until now your ring finger of your trail hand collides with the fore finger of your lead hand.
You can now place the little finger of your trail hand on top and between the fore finger and
middle finger of your lead hand before closing your trail thumb over your lead thumb and
gripping the club with your trail hand.

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Looking at your hands on the handle in front of you, you should see that the “V” shape
formed at the base of each thumb and fore finger points towards your trail shoulder. The
leading edge of the clubface should still be pointing vertically if you hold the club up in front
of yourself.

System 3: Arms, Hands and Wrists

Even without using your shoulder, elbow and wrist joints, you will be able to move the ball a
good distance with just systems one and two, but by using these joints as well, you will be
able to hit the ball considerably further. The arms and wrist joints create a catapult effect
which uses your arms and the shaft of the club as levers, multiplying the forces applied to
the club exponentially.
To begin your golf swing, your arms and hands must have enough tension to carry the clubs’
weight away from the ball and up off the ground, without changing the shafts original plane
or angle to the ground. As your shoulders start to turn you should start to lift the club
immediately, the movements starting simultaneously but the feelings generated by these
movements will differ from one golfer to another, one feeling their arms are leading,
another their shoulders. Depending on your upper body mobility, your lead hip will start to
turn with your shoulders as your hands reach a position approximately opposite your trail
thigh. At this point, your trail wrist should start to actively bend backwards and the ball/heel
of your lead hand should press down causing your lead wrist to hinge upwards.

15
The golf club’s axis is directly between your hands at this point in the swing and
these opposing forces cause the club’s shaft to hinge upwards.

NOTE: The shafts axis is a point around which the shaft is trying to rotate at any given time in
your golf swing. This axis will move up and down the shaft dependent of the forces working
on each end of the shaft at any given moment in time, much like a baton thrower
manipulates the baton when they throw it.
.

As your wrists hinge your trail elbow will also start to bend automatically, but by keeping
your trail arm as long as possible for as long as possible, you can create more width and
potential energy in your swing as well as control over your clubs’ shaft angle to the ground.
As your trail elbow bends it will pull and lift your arms and the club back in the extension of
your shoulders, pulling your lead arm back and up across your chest. How far your trail
elbow is allowed to bend is controlled by the tension in your lead elbow, the straighter you
hold your lead arm during your backswing, the more it will limit the bending of your trail
elbow and the height of your arms swing. Hinging your wrists and elbow in your backswing
will also cause your lower arms to rotate (your trail wrist rotation will be limited by the
mobility of your lead wrist and thumb joints). Watching the shaft plane during this process
you will see the shaft rotate around your wrist joints but remain in its original angle to the
ground whilst being raised above its original plane line by your lead arm moving up and
across your chest.

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As the golf club rises and the inertia starts to increase in the club, the axis of the club slides
up to the middle of the shaft as the weight of the club head tries to pull the club behind your
back, the grip end moving in the opposite direction.

Although this does not mean that the shaft suddenly grows a new joint in the middle, it
means that the forces working on both ends of the shaft are equal. The clubs head pulling
the shaft up and back while your hands and arms are resisting those forces, holding the club
tightly and stopping it going any further. This is why the shaft will bend in the middle at the
top of your backswing.
The change of direction of your hips and shoulders should start when your shoulder turn
stops. The turn is blocked by the resistance of your trail leg and foot and before your upper
lead arm collides with your chin. This change of direction should cause the small dipping in
your knees described in “system 2” giving you the feeling of weightlessness and applying
even more inertia to the golf club, which will make it bend even more as well as flattening
the shaft plane slightly (relative to its original angle) as its weight resists the change in
direction, both of your wrists and your trail elbow will hinge further and your trail elbow will
move towards your lead elbow, creating more tension between your upper body and arms
as well as in your arm and wrist joints further flattening the shafts plane. This transfer of
energy to the club will cause the shaft to then bend (positive droop) towards the toe, which
in turn will apply an opposite force back to your hands with the grip pressing away from the
extension of your lead arm. As your body falls it will seek its centre, turning you back
towards the middle, moving your centre of pressure from inside your trail foot to the middle
your stance as your lead hip turns back and through its starting position.

17
Your arms and hands will be brought down by the contraction of your trail latissimus but
must also work independently. Your lead arm and hand pulling against the club which is still
trying to move back over your trail shoulder and your trail arm and hand pushing against the
grip and away from your body, resisting the club which is still flexing towards your body. By
the time your feet and legs stop the fall (after “the move”) by bracing against the ground
your hips rotation to the target should be complete, having turned as far as they can with
bent knees. Your arms will have brought the club down until it is almost parallel to the
ground. Your legs should then explode into the ground, your lead leg pushing your lead hip
further back as it straightens, your trail leg pushing your trail hip further forward as it
straightens, both legs providing vertical force, power and stability to your swing. This lower
body movement will naturally support and accelerate your trunk and shoulder rotation.

Your arms and hands should continue actively resisting the forces of the club, pulling and
pushing it down as your body turns and your legs start to straighten, without actively
releasing your wrist angle. When the shaft is close to parallel to the ground and your hands

18
are close to hip height, your hands will decelerate (not something you can avoid). This
deceleration will cause the clubhead to accelerate and the shaft to bend in the opposite
direction, towards the ground (lead bend). That will change the direction of force the grip is
applying to your hands pushing them towards your body and up. Both hands and arms
must immediately react and resist this change of direction or it will cause an early release
of your wrist angle.

NOTE: I am talking about a moment in time and not something that you can consciously control.
Your hands will automatically react to the changing forces applied to them by the club, but it is
important that you understand that your arms and hands are active during this part of your golf
swing and do not just hang there allowing your body to do all the work.

At this point your shoulders should still be actively rotating despite your hips having reached the
end of their rotation, your lead shoulder pulling your lead arm around your body and your trail
shoulder pushing your trail arm down and helping to keep your trail elbow bent.

NOTE: Your trail Latissimus muscle which helps to pull your trail shoulder down is attached to
your upper trail arm and will pull your trail arm down at the same time.

Your hands should have reached their lowest point in their swing arc by the time they reach
your trail thigh, at which point they start to move up and around your body, your lead arm
pulling to the left (right-handed golfer) and your trail arm straightening and pushing the club
down through the ball. From the moment the club changes its direction of flex and starts to
move down towards the ball and the target your hands are resisting three separate forces
applied to the grip end of the club (droop, centrifugal force, positive flex) as well as a small
amount of torsion (rotational force). Gravity is pulling the clubhead towards the ground
pressing the grip end up almost vertically by the time of impact with the ball. Centrifugal
forces are pulling the club away from you and the centre of your rotation at a right angle to
the target by the moment of impact. The positive shaft flex caused by the clubhead trying to
overtake the grip, which presses the grip back and away from the target from hip height
until the end of your swing. It is difficult to separate the actions of your arms and hands as
both will be resisting and opposing these forces, but my belief is that your lead arm and
hand should be resisting the centrifugal forces by pulling actively and at a right-angle to the
club heads direction. You should also be pressing the grip end down vertically using the
ball/heel of your lead hand to counter the club's droop which is pressing the grip end up.
Your trail arm and hand should be resisting the lead flex which will be pressing the grip end
away from the target and trying to cause the clubhead to release. Here you should have the
feeling that your fore-finger middle-finger and ring-finger of your trail hand are pushing the
grip down, around and up the shaft plane. As your hips stop and your shoulder rotation
slows down these forces grow, reaching a peak just before impact. The further you can turn
your shoulders and the longer you can keep your lead arm straight after impact, the longer
you can resist the golf clubs attempt to overtake your hands and the longer you have control
of the clubface. "The Position" (see photo below) you reach just after impact is a sign of a
successful golf swing and seen in all Tour Professional golf swings. Irrespective of what has
happened before, getting into or as close as possible to this position should be one of your
main goals. When your shoulder rotation finally stops the golf club's rotational axis moves
back up the shaft to your hands, the golf club will overtake your hands, your lead arm will
bend, and the golf club will pull you up into the finish position.

19
 .

You should feel the pressure building up on the club in the transition before turning
powerfully through the ball, pulling and pushing the club up and around your body to the left
of the target (right-handed golfer). The club will overtake your hands when your shoulder
rotation slows down sufficiently, causing your lower arms to rotate and pulling your body up
out of its spine angle. Allow this to happen by letting your trail heel to come up off the
ground completely and your body to stand up into the finish position.

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 Pre-Shot Routine
https://youtu.be/VUO6wLSRAjA

The daily repetition of your swings integral parts will build the synapse in your brain which
control your muscles movements. Building up the intensity of training enhances your
muscles strength and speed increasing your swings potential performance, but neither of
these exercises will make it any easier to activate your swing when you need it on the golf
course. Many golfers’ frustration is solely born from their inability to make the golf swing
that they see on the range, their talent apparently locked in the recesses of their minds
despite their best efforts to help it to escape.
This is why your pre-shot routine is probably the most important key to your success on the
golf course. It is your pre-shot routine that will release your golf swing. If you are struggling
to perform on the golf course but you are able to get satisfactory results on the driving range
and short game area, then you need to practice your pre-shot routine more than any other
part of your golf game.
The way that you, as an adult, practice your golf technique creates a number of mental
issues which have to be addressed and corrected in your pre-shot routine. Your mind will
often see the game you play on the golf course as something totally different than the game
you are playing on the driving range. This makes it difficult for your mind to associate the
golf swing you make on the driving range with the golf swing you want to make on the golf
course. Take a look at the following list and see how many of the examples apply to you on
the driving range.

1. Your conscious mind thinks about technique before every swing.

2. Your conscious mind thinks about technique during every swing.
3. You will often make more than three practice swings before hitting a ball.
4. You will often hit an entire bucket of balls with one club, aiming at one target,
without any routine at all.
5. Your thought processes change with every ball, in search for the perfect recipe for
success.
6. You make technical changes after every poor shot.
7. You analyse every shot, good or bad and search for reasons for their success or
failure.
8. You chastise yourself for every bad shot.
9. You never reward or compliment yourself for your good shots.
10. You practice from perfect lies to simple targets from uniform ground and weather
conditions.
11. You never practice under pressure.
12. You do not keep statistics or notes about your practice sessions.
13. You never recreate real situations from the golf course on the range.
14. You do not address issues from your last rounds on the golf course.
15. You do not measure the distance and dispersion of your shots.
16. You practice primarily with the same club.

If you are guilty of one or more of these errors, then you are making golf a very difficult
game. By creating habits which you cannot and do not want to use on the golf course and
making much of your practice irrelevant to the game of golf you think you are practicing.
Your pre-shot routine should have its foundations on the driving range, a common

21
denominator between the driving range and the golf course. It should also limit certain
aspects of your practice to game related limitations you will experience on the golf course.

1. Swing thoughts should be limited and in combination with your pre-shot routine
abandoned.
2. The number of practice swings you make before a shot should be limited to two or
less as well as the swing thoughts and analysis of the practice swings success.
3. You should always imagine a golf hole or situation when practicing, setting up the
practice conditions to best replicate the golf course.
4. You should practice your thought process before every shot only changing it after 2
or 3 practice sessions (give it a chance).
5. You should practice the same piece or pieces of your technique regularly, only
changing them after consistently poor results (give them a chance).
6. Analysis should be based on a practice session rather than an individual shot.
7. You should reward and compliment yourself on all of your good shots which will build
your confidence.
8. You should be not rebuke yourself for bad shots, that is why you are on the driving
range, so that you can test new technique or quantify the effectiveness of your current
technique with different clubs and situations.
9. Make your practice more difficult than your play will be on the golf course by
changing the lie of the ball, practicing in bad weather, using clubs that you do not like,
playing to difficult targets, but remember your success will be relative to the degree of
difficulty you choose.
10. Create pressure when you practice by comparing your statistical analysis of your
ability to make each shot type and distance. If possible, practice with friends and challenge
each other on the range.
11. Practice golf course relevant parts of your game. Things that didn’t work as well as
you would have liked in your last game or weaknesses you have identified.
12. Regularly measure your distance and dispersion for each club in your bag in different
situations and weather conditions.
13. Change your shot type, club and target regularly.

Time your “True Golf Swing”

Time is the main determining factor in the success of your pre-shot routine and golf shot,
you can constrain your conscious mind and release your “true golf swing”, if you restrict the
amount of time you take to hit a golf shot.
But lets’ take a moment to discuss the elephant in the room. The reason you are reading this
is that you do not want to make your “true golf swing”, because you do not believe it
capable of the shots you wish to hit. Unfortunately, you have to accept that your golf swing
will probably never be able to hit the golf shots you “wish” to hit, because you keep moving
the bar, increasing your expectations proportionately to your improvements. But your “true
golf swing” is more than capable of playing golf. Even in the middle of a swing change you
are in possession on your own “true golf swing” and it is this golf swing, that lives in the here
and now, which you must release with your pre-shot routine. It may be a better golf swing
tomorrow, after another 500 repetitions of your favourite exercise, but at this moment in
time it is all that you have, and any attempt to create some version of your future golf swing
in the here and now with the help of swing thoughts, is a recipe for disaster. You must

22
accept your “true golf swing” and learn to live with its strengths and limitations, if you want
to play the best you can play today.
Releasing your swing requires you to approach the ball with a clear picture, feeling or
conscious understanding of what you want to achieve (hitting the ball onto the fairway,
hitting the ball onto the green or holing the putt), an uncompromised vision of the shot and
the movement, combined with a total conviction of the shots success as a result of your golf
swing. This conviction must be untainted by any type of negativity. The purity of the
thoughts that guide you to the moment you start your backswing, will be decisive in the
success of your swing.
Because you have spent a lot of time learning and perfecting your swing, you will always
have the feeling that you need to take your time when approaching the ball, to make sure
that you don’t forget anything. This is a common and destructive mistake. Once you have
made your shot decision, you need to hit the ball as quickly as possible. Take just enough
time to take your address position, but not a second longer. Time opens the door to
destructive thoughts, just ask any footballer. The vast majority of Professional footballers
have a problem when the ball is not in motion. A stationary football gives them time to
think. Players of great technical ability can be rendered useless when faced with a stationary
ball. Think of the number of penalties your favourite football team has missed (England fans
know what I am talking about). It is the same with corners and free kicks, the players try too
hard, and suddenly a ball that is just 11 meters from the goal with only the goalkeeper to
beat, becomes an extremely difficult task to accomplish. Every shot we hit on the golf course
is like a penalty shot in football, just you, the ball, and a whole lot of time to think about the
consequences if you screw it up.
From the moment you start towards the golf ball to take your address position, you have as
little as 6 seconds to hit the ball. This will vary from one player to another, depending on the
distance they are from the ball when they start the routine and the number of steps you
take to complete it, but if you watch the Professional golfers it will usually be no longer than
15 seconds. This means separating the decision-making part of the routine from the
execution of the shot. A book called “Vision 54” (a book I can recommend) was the first to
recommend this strategy, calling the decision-making part of your pre shot routine the “think
box” and the execution part of your pre shot routine the “play box”. You should incorporate
all conscious decisions about the shot including your practice swings or drills to the think
box, with only the address position and the shot in the “play box”. In “Vision 54” they get the
player to mark two boxes on the ground, one around the ball “the play box” and one next to
the players bag or opposite the ball “the think box”. You should first enter the “think box”
and make your decisions about your club selection, collecting any necessary information to
make the decision (distance, lie, weather, shot/swing type). Even making your practice
swings to test the lie or resistance of the grass around the ball as a part of your “think box”.
You then need one final thought to take you to from your “think box” to the ball. I will
usually have a picture of the green, fairway or hole in my minds’ eye as I approach the ball.
Entering the play box, you should take your address position and hit the ball without delay.
Practice this transition from your “think box” to your “play box” and time how long it takes.
Your goal is to take the same amount of time, every time.

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The Address Position

A good pre-shot routine will banish your conscious mind to the side-lines, whilst giving it
enough influence to satisfy its craving for control. This requires you to remove any
unnecessary reasons for your conscious mind to get involved in your routine. Automating
your address position plays a large part in this job, you do not want to consciously control
any part of this process.
Standing the correct distance from the ball with the correct grip, alignment, ball position
and posture must be automated for every club in the bag. The routines should be as close to
identical as possible, irrespective of club and shot type.
Lay two alignment sticks parallel to one another on the ground pointing to your target and
place a ball directly in between the two sticks. Practice addressing the ball without making a
swing until your routine becomes comfortable and committed to memory. Once you feel
confident, remove the sticks but check regularly that you are still correctly aligned.

There is no prerequisite order for the routine allowing everyone to decide whether to take
their grip before aligning the club and feet or visa-versa. My routine is as follows:

1. Take my grip
2. Align the clubface
3. Align my feet
4. Choose the width of my stance
5. Take my posture
6. Choose the ball position
7. Change the distance to the ball if necessary

Once the address position is committed to your memory it can become a part of your “play
box”. Although you will have had to consciously control the steps of the address position
whilst learning it, it is imperative that as a part of your “play box” you carry it out without
conscious thought.

Divide your routine into sections so that you can practice them separately or as whole.

Think Box: Making the decisions

Your conscious mind should only be in control whilst you are in the “think box”. This starts
when you arrive at your ball or tee. Collect any information relevant to your club or swing
choice. The hole layout, the ball’s lie, the weather conditions and any personal club
preferences. Often the information gathered in the “think box” leaves open questions that
24
must be answered before carrying out the shot. Maybe a hanging lie requires a practice
swing to see if you can keep your balance, or a poor lie requires a practice swing to test the
resistance of that the grass will have on the club. It may be necessary to make a few swings
to loosen up your muscles or repeat a technical aspect of your swing to use as a trigger. For
whatever reason you decide to make a practice swing, this should be kept separate from
your “play box”.

Play Box: Hit it

Once finished with your “think box”, take a deep breath, breathing in through your mouth
and then let the breath slowly out through your nose. Allow all your thoughts to leave your
body with your breath with the exception of your chosen thought (hold the target in your
minds’ eye). The clearer the picture you can produce, the better.
Walk to the ball and let your subconscious mind take over the shot. Do not think about
whether your address position is correct or not or if the routine was in the correct order, just
let it happen.
Finally, look at the target and keep the picture of the target in your mind as you swing and
hit the ball.

The Meditative State

When you hit the ball, you should only be thinking about the target, your unconscious
mind is well aware of what it has to do to make this happen. There is no reason to think
about or guide your swing or any part of it!
This is, unfortunately, easier said than done, as your conscious mind will fight for control.
Fortunately, there are three tried and tested methods to help you banish it to the side-lines.

Method one:
Take away the reasons for the conscious mind to interrupt your routine.
It is your needs, beliefs, hopes and fears which call your conscious mind to take action. Kjell
Enghager a prominent sports Phycologist from Sweden who worked with the Swedish
Women’s team and was instrumental in the creation of “Vision 54”, identified one major
trait we all have in common, the need to be happy and content. He argues that almost all of
our motivation is drawn from this one goal. We believe that if we hit the green, hole the putt
or win the tournament it will make us happy. He further suggests that this need puts us
under pressure to perform as we can only be happy if we succeed and that calls on your
conscious mind to do all in its power to make that happen.
What would happen to your conscious mind if you were happy before you hit the shot?
Imagine being content even if you hit the shank, water hazard or out-of-bounds? There
would be no pressure and as a consequence no reason for your conscious mind to get
involved. Imagine that they built golf courses in some of the most beautiful places on this
earth and you had the privilege to play them, shouldn’t you be happy? Imagine that the golf
swing was fun and hitting a golf ball was a great feeling, wouldn’t you be content just to do
that? Imagine looking down the fairway and not caring if the ball went out-of-bounds or in
the water, wouldn’t your mind be free of fear?
If you can convince yourself that you are happy before you hit the ball, there is far more
chance of your being happy afterwards.

25
Method two:
Keep your conscious mind busy with a mantra.
An open mind is like an open door for stupid thoughts. There is always a chance that your
conscious mind will remind you of a swing thought or hazard, which could be a disaster for
your swing. Preventing negative thought requires you to give your conscious mind another
task to perform. Om meditation can help, flipping a final switch in your brain onto autopilot.
Concentrating on the Om mantra will keep your conscious mind busy while the unconscious
makes the swing.
Practice making a swing with a ball, whilst actively speaking the word Om out loud. Speak
the word out as AUUUM, letting it roll from the back to the front of your mouth as you say it.
You should hit the ball before you have finished speaking the word. For the sake of your
playing partners and golf etiquette, then practice making the sound in your head without
speaking it out loud. A good Om will send a feeling of vibrations through your entire body
whilst shifting your consciousness slightly. Some golfers describe this as if their conscious
mind steps into another room during the shot. Others describe a feeling of peace during the
swing. The Om mantra should last for at least 1,2 seconds, which is the average duration of
swing from the moment you start your backswing until the moment of impact. If the mantra
is too short you will unconsciously try to swing faster.

Method three:
There is no conscious mind.
Two phycologists from the UK, David Oakley and Peter Halogen wrote a paper called
‘Chasing the rainbow’ which called our interpretation of the conscious mind into question.
Their premise is that the conscious mind, rather than being a focal point of our being and
executive over our daily lives, is little more than a Cinema screen on which we constantly
project our thoughts and feelings (personal narrative). They argue that this should serve no
other function than to make us aware of who we are and what we stand for at that
moment and allow us to make comparisons with our neighbour’s screens in case we may
deviate from a common narrative. Because all human beings project just such a narrative in
their actions and words, we are constantly evolving and modifying our narratives.
It is the subconscious mind which beams the narrative onto the screen, the conscious mind
does nothing more than to make you aware of it. Mankind’s need to understand everything
and label it accordingly has led to us giving the conscious mind power it has not earnt. We
believe that we consciously decide what we are doing when in fact our subconscious mind
has already decided and acted. Imagine driving a car when a child steps into the road, your
subconscious mind will hit the break before you are consciously aware of the danger. On the
contrary, by the time that your conscious mind has seen, questioned and interpreted that
the box at the side of the road is a speed camera, the flash has already gone off.
If you think that it is your conscious mind that is controlling your golf swing, you are very
much mistaken. Far better is to realise that there is no conscious mind (just a screen) and
you can choose to ignore it in the knowledge that your swing will happen anyway.

Your pre-shot routine must become habit, which requires you to decide on its content and
then to repeat the routine unit it is in flesh and blood (1800 reps over a 6-week period). You
can experiment with it, changing aspects to suit your play and individual taste, but don’t
forget that it should be repetitive, human beings are creatures of habit. Repeat your routine
time and time again and your mind will start taking more and more of the steps
automatically.

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Take it on the course https://youtu.be/1unnUlqXOII

Many of you will expect to immediately play better golf after a swing change. Hitting the ball
further and straighter must logically reduce your scores, but without quantifying your
improvements you may not see any improvement in your score at all. Hitting the ball further
will make club choice an issue and not all of your clubs will perform the same way, so you
should take some time to measure your distance and dispersion with each club on the
driving range before going on the golf course. You should also see if you can change your
strategy thanks to your swing changes, maybe being more aggressive on some holes or
reducing the risks you were taking on others.
Once on the course I would definitely advice you to keep some kind of statistical data on
your game, analysing your game after you have played can help you with strategy changes as
well as identifying weaknesses in specific areas. The most commonly used method on the
PGA tours is strokes gained, a system developed by Mark Broadie and described in his best-
selling book “Every shot counts”. To put it in a nutshell, Mr Broadie quantifies the efficiency
and effectiveness of every shot you hit by comparing it to the same shot hit by a competitor.
By finding out how many shots an average tour Professional would take from any given
distance and lie he is able to make comparisons.

The table below shows you the probability that a Tour Professional would hole a putt from a
given distance as well as the average number of putts a Tour Professional would take from
the same distance.

The table shows that if the Professional were to hole a 30-foot putt in a PGA tournament he
would be almost 1 shot better than the field, and from 10 feet he would be 0.61 shots better
than the field. Were this the case he would know that he does not have to improve his
putting to compete. Were he to miss the 30-footer then he better make the return putt, or

27
he would lose ground on his competitors. The same is true for amateur golfers, the table
below shows the average number of putts a Tour golfer, a scratch amateur and an 18-
handicap golfer would take from a given distance.

An 18-handicapper would only have to hole a 20-foot putt to gain shot advantage over a
competitor with the same handicap.

Mr Broadie then went on to analyse the number of strokes different handicap players
would take from further away from the green. As an example, the table below shows you
the how many shots on average a Tour Professional, an 8-Handicapper, an 18 Handicapper,
a 28-Handicapper and a 38-Handicapper would take from 30 and 80 yards from the hole in
the fairway or rough.

With this information it is quite easy to make comparisons with your own game. Isolating
each individual shot you play and comparing it to your handicap class. As a consequence you
can identify which distance requires the most work for you to improve your score.

28
The problem with statistics is collecting the data. You need statistics for every shot you hit
during a round of golf without holding up play. There are of course a great number of paid
systems which will help you do, the best offer GPS devices you can mount on your golf clubs
which are tracked by an App on your mobile device while you play, but they can be very
expensive. For this reason, I have developed a simple, if basic method of collecting your shot
data without having to be too exact in your measurements. Should this help you, you can
always upgrade to a paid system later.

Below are two simple diagrams of a hole and a green split into segments and distances
for an 18-handicap golfer. With each segment/distance given an average number of
strokes it should take to hole the ball from that distance.

Average
shots

3.4

4.1

4.6

29
 Average
shots

1.3 0-5ft

1.75 5-25ft

2.3 25+
5ft

By noting the approximate segment or zone of the hole you find yourself in after every shot,
you have a far quicker way of collecting the data during a round that you can analyse later.

Analysis:
If you hit a 150m tee shot and find yourself approximately 250m from the hole after your
first shot you still have 4.6 shots until you hole the ball and have taken 1 shot, so you have
lost 0.6 shots against the field (5 shots for the hole -1 shot you have taken=4, 4 shots left -
4.6 average shots needed=-0.6 lost against an 18 handicapper).

If you hit your second ball onto the green 25 feet from the hole, you would of only take an
average of 2.3 shots from there and have made up 1.3 shots against the field (4.6 average
shots needed-1 shot you made =3.6, 3.6 shots left-2.3 average shots needed=1.3 better than
an 18 handicapper)

It may seem complicated at first but with practice you will be able to analyse your round and
identify which part of your game you should be practicing when you are on the driving range
to improve your score.

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 ADVANCED THEORIES
Golf is a counter-intuitive sport, meaning that often the opposite of what you would
intuitively believe to be true is in fact correct. This leads to many obstacles being put in your
way, many of your own making. That is why I believe it necessary to go into more depth to
explain certain parts of a golf swing, so that you that you clearly understand how to make
the change that you desire.

Club Lean https://youtu.be/g1SgGeLzaTQ

For a perfect connection with the ball and control over the direction of the face at impact,
the golf club should always have a certain amount of shaft lean, even with a driver. Lean,
describes the position of the handle or grip of the golf club relative to the clubhead. When
the grip is closer to the target (seen from a camera angle opposite the player) than the
clubhead of the golf club, you have shaft lean. Dependent on the ball position in your stance
the golf club will start with a certain amount of lean, increasing the further back towards
your trail foot you place the ball in your stance. The reason that lean is so important, is that
to create and hold lean during your golf swing you have to apply a consistent force to the
handle/grip of your golf club, which gives you control over the clubhead and clubface. The
quality of your golf swing will decide how much force you can apply to the handle of the
club.

At this point it is important to understand that despite the meticulous way that you took
your address position, neither the golf club, your arms, hands, body or legs return to their
original positions at impact. Impact is a dynamic position which the club reaches because
of a complicated chain of events which we call a golf swing.

Picturing the lean of your golf club and how it should move around your body during your
golf swing will help you to better understand the roles that your hands, arms, shoulders,
body and legs play in your swing.
Imagine the golf club moving in a circle around your body and a central axis like the spoke in
wheel. Unlike the spoke in a wheel however your golf club will change its angle relative to its axis
and it will also rotate around the shafts’ axis. During your backswing, you lift your arms and
hinge your trail elbow and both wrists which causes your lower arms to rotate. This moves the
club up and around your trail side, lifting and rotating it onto a parallel plane to the one it had at
address, rotating the shaft through 180° relative to its starting position (grip now below
clubhead). The completion of this movement can and will vary depending on

31
your mobility, but I like to see this finished by the time your lead arm is parallel to
the ground.

How far your club moves past this position is also dependent on your mobility, but usually
your arms will continue to rise even after both your hips and shoulders have stopped
rotating until your trail arm collides with your chin. This will allow the club to continue its arc
around your body and over your trail shoulder as the club continues to move in its own
extension around you. Any bowing of your lead wrist in your backswing will twist the shaft,
closing the clubface relative to its starting position.
At the start of “the move” both of your arms should feel as if they were passive, but they
must still resist the golf club moving any further up and back behind your body. This is the
top of the swing for the golf club and the shaft will bend towards the toe of the clubhead as
your arms resist its momentum and it changes direction. As your “move” becomes more
active, your hips turn, and your trail shoulder starts to fall, your trail elbow will bend further
at the same time moving closer to your lead elbow. Your lower arms will rotate in the same
direction as they did in your backswing and as a consequence and the clubs shaft will flatten
relative to its original plane and move in towards your body. If your lead wrist bows, the
shaft will twist the clubface closing it relative to its starting position. Your arms should then
become active, supporting your hips and shoulder turn, your lead arm pulling the handle
down and around your body while your trail arm starts to straighten. Your golf club will
move back away from your body and slowly down towards its original plane as your elbow
and wrists start to straighten. Because your body and arms and hands are leading the club in
your downswing you can apply as much pressure as necessary to the handle to delay the
release and your golf clubs’ shaft will still be bending back towards its toe until it reaches the
height of your hips. Although your trail arm should not become completely straight until
after impact with the ball, you can still use considerable force on the club as long as you
keep your spine angle and allow your spine bow in the downswing. The bowing of your
spine

32
and resulting side tilt gets your trail shoulder into the deep position necessary to keep pressure
on the handle without your trail arm straightening too early. This is one of the most difficult
parts of the golf swing to master, requiring a subtle balance of forces. You cannot control this
consciously and you need to let your sub-conscious (right side of the brain) and small brain
(Cerebellum) control this part of the swing. It will take a lot of trial and error to master (lots of
balls) but the payoff is immense. There will be a slight unhinging of your wrists during the first
part of the downswing, but this is not in your control and can only be reduced by using your
body and arms correctly, do not try and actively hold your wrist angle at any point of your
downswing. The clubs’ weight and resulting inertia created by your body and arms will hold your
wrists angle automatically. When your hands reach the lowest point in their path and change
direction is when there is finally an active straightening of your trail wrist, but again this is not
conscious. This action starts at a position approximately opposite your trail legs thigh when your
hands reach this position the club shaft should be just below hip height and parallel to the
ground with the clubface pointing slightly towards the ground.

At this point your hands are pulled up back and around your body by your shoulder turn,
while your wrist angle releases and the clubhead swings down. The shaft will now be
bending towards the target and trying to twist the clubface closed, as the weight of the
clubhead forces it to overtake the handle of the golf club. A combination of your shoulder
rotation, the straightening of your trail arm and the releasing of your trail wrist will help you
keep enough pressure on the handle of your club to stop this happening and keep the shaft
lean and the bow in your lead wrist until after impact with the ball. By keeping the shaft lean
you keep control of the clubs’ path and face angle and indirectly control of the golf ball.

33
To get the clubhead to move down and through the ball without overtaking the grip, the
handle must move up and away from the ball.

To get the clubhead to move down out and through the ball, the handle must move up, back
and towards your lead hip pocket.

To get the clubhead to move down and out to the ball, the handle or grip must move up and
around your body.

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The Move https://youtu.be/huSFazfYBNU or https://youtu.be/lMR5-J4J4mE

Without wanting to diminish the role that your backswing plays in your golf swing, your
ability to make and time “the move” in your transition is critical to your golf swings success.
There are any number of backswing positions on the tour, but very few variations in the
downswing and a successful “move” into your downswing can iron out a myriad of faults and
flaws. By using the centrifugal force and inertia you create in the golf club in your backswing
"the move "will help you to get the club on plane and accelerate it through the golf ball.
Even before your hands reach the top of your backswing you should start “the move”. A
moment of free-fall/weightlessness which initiates the bodies downswing action and moves
your centre of pressure back to the middle of your stance and into your lead side. “The
move” also retards your arms upward movement before moving them into the release
position, opens your hips to the target, turns your shoulders and is the trigger to starting
your release.

You start “the move” by releasing the tension built up in your legs and torso in your
backswing. A short collapsing/giving- way of your knee and hip joints, along with a tilting
back of your pelvis as if sticking your bum out (anterior tilt), much like a Basketball
player would do before making a free throw.

35
The amount your knees and hips should give-way will depend on your individual sporting
ability. As you are falling you should also be turning, a movement that you should initiate
with the torque that you created in your backswing in your trail shoe. Your trail foot twisting
and turning your hips back towards the target, your lead leg actively pushing your lead hip
back out of the way, your glutes firing and supporting the rotation and the whole time
staying centred. By keeping your knees bent until your hips have completed their turn it will
be easier to remain stable and grounded for “the release”. As you turn your hips your pelvic
will turn you lumber spine with it, but this is not enough to turn your shoulders in plane, so
your trail side must also fire during the move, pulling your trail shoulder down and retarding
the arms backswing before actively pulling your trail arm down towards your trail hip. Use
your abdominal and chest muscles in your trail side together with your trail latissimus to pull
your trail shoulder down towards your trail hip. This will bow and tilt your upper body but
also force your hips to turn further and faster. This movement is very apparent in Rory
Milroy’s swing but is not one that everybody will be able to complete so effectively because
of their physical limitations. In the images below I have highlighted the muscles in red which
will contract and the muscles in green which must stretch and extend. The classic sculpture
shows you how your Torso must tilt and bow. Were you to add rotation to the sculpture it
would show a perfect representation of how your upper body should move during this part
of your golf swing.

Your arms which will be caught off guard by “the move” should experience a brief
momentary feeling of a pause at the top of your swing before resisting the new forces that
“the move” is creating on your golf club. Pull/push your arms down to the height of your
trail thigh, allowing the clubs’ inertia to flatten the shaft plane and hold most of your wrist
angle. You should not attempt to hold your wrist angle, instead, letting the clubs’ inertia do
that for you but allow your trail elbow to move naturally closer to your lead elbow which will
support the flattening of the shafts plane. The more consistently you can accelerate your
body turn and arm swing through the ball the more effective it will be at holding your wrist
angle until just before impact when you make “the release”. Because your lead shoulder was
also lifted and pulled back across your chest (protraction) in your backswing, your shoulders
will be closed relative to your chests position at the top of your swing and despite your chest
rotating with your hips and opening to the target, your shoulders will still be closed to the
target line when your hands reach the height of your trail legs thigh. As you land “the move”

36
and your hip rotation ends, your legs should brace before driving into the ground,
straightening and thus starting the next phase of your golf swing, “the release”.
Parabolic flight https://youtu.be/hawCRuwEqWg

Often an analogy will help you understand a concept better than a description of what to do.
One such analogy you can use to describe “The Move” is the Parabolic flight Astronauts use
when training for weightlessness. They will fly an aeroplane through a parabola to create
approximately 30seconds of weightlessness in the cabin.

The plane climbs almost vertically until it reaches a target height when the pilots cut the
thrust and push the nose down. At this moment the plane will carry on moving upwards but
those in the cabin will no longer experience the pressure from the ground produced by the
engines and will experience a progressive feeling of weightlessness. The plane will then
reach the highest point in its parabola and start to descend, the pilots will allow this to take
place for a short time before engaging the engines again and pulling the nose up, using the
engines thrust to brake the planes fall and climb back up to the next parabola. This braking
effect not only restores gravity to the cabin but almost doubles it making the people in the
cabin come down with a bump.

To move your body, you need resistance and you only have resistance with the ground, so
when you are making your backswing, turning your shoulders, hinging your wrists and lifting
your arms, you are also using your feet the whole time, pressing them against the ground. Let’s
call this thrust. Just before you get to the highest point in your swing you must turn off the
thrust you are applying through your feet to the ground by letting your knees and hip joints give
way. Your arms will continue moving up but there will be no thrust driving them, just the inertia
of the golf club. Your body will begin to fall and from this moment on you start “the Move”, like
the people in the cabin, your arms will become weightless. When you catch your fall by
applying thrust/pressure to the ground again through your feet, the bump
37
from the rapid increase in gravity/weight will help to pull your arms down, loading the shaft
of the club. As your hands reach their lowest point opposite your trail thigh you then drive
them back up and around the lead side of your body by using the thrust from your legs,
that drives your hips and shoulders rotation. Your hands use the rotational forces to apply
opposing pressure to the grip and that combined with the forces of nature releases the
clubhead through the ball.

The Release https://youtu.be/XB0x0Qy1_AM or https://youtu.be/Q9goYU3a-SU

After landing “the move” your legs must straighten, your arms extend, and your wrists
release their hinge/bend. Your centre of pressure will move into your lead side, especially as
your lead leg stems the lateral movement of your body, as your trail leg presses your trail hip
forward towards the target and your arms and hands swing your golf club through the ball.
There should be no further movement of your centre of pressure towards the target until
the ball has been struck and you move up into your finish position, at which point your
weight will finally move over your lead heel.

With your hands at their lowest point in the downswing, your shoulders should continue to
drive your rotation, despite your now stationary hips. The more powerful and fluid you can
make your shoulder rotation, the more effective it will be in guiding your arm swing and
delaying your release. For this reason, you should always work on your thoracic spines’
mobility, as that will define your swings boundaries, especially the fluidity of your arms and
hands swing through the hitting area, as well as the continuation of the shoulders active
rotation after impact. The further you can rotate your shoulders, the longer you will be able
to hold your lead arm straight, which will delay the rotation of your lower arms and the
clubface and help you to keep pressure on the golf club. As your arms pass your trail thigh
the forces, they are applying to the handle diverge, with your lead hand pulling the
handle/grip around your lead hip and to the left (for a right-handed golfer) away from the
ball whilst your trail arm continues to straighten, and your trail wrist releases towards the
target. It is the combined forces of both of your arms and hands pulling and pushing the
clubs handle/grip around your body as I described in an earlier chapter of this PDF, which

38
catapults the clubhead down and through the ball. You should have the feeling as if you
were pulling the Handle/grip end towards your lead legs trouser pocket. At the same time
releasing your wrist angle by pressing down and forward with your trail hand. During “the
release”, your lead hand is pulling back towards your body and away from the target while
your trail hand is pressing forward towards the target helping the clubhead release and
helping you to put more pressure on the club and indirectly on the golf ball. Imagine the golf
club like a seesaw, with the pivot point between the forefinger of your trail hand and the ball
of your lead hand. The force that you apply to the butt end of the golf club pressing down
with the ball of your lead hand and pulling away from the ball resisting the centrifugal forces
will create an opposing force on the clubhead and help your trail hand to push the clubhead
down and through the ball. In this phase of your golf swing, you are using the golf club more
like a hockey stick. Imagine hitting through the ball with a hockey stick into a position just
outside your lead leg. I call this “the position”.

The Position https://youtu.be/sxX8E8eqp_4 or https://youtu.be/P428UYl1zck

„The position “is a common position that all golf Professionals have reached in their golf
swings over the ages. Whether it be Jack Nicklaus or Dustin Johnson you will always find “the
position “when analyzing their golf swings. The question is, can an average golfer get into
this position and should they even try? I have been surprised by my student’s ability to reach
a version of “the position” even if they were very stiff to begin with or getting on in years.
What has also been surprising is the lack of injuries that they have experienced when trying.
On the contrary, many including myself have experienced an improvement in their general
physical wellbeing, including less back pain, after spending some time working on getting
into “the position”. So, I believe it is definitely worth a try!

The main prerequisite of “the position “is the bowing of your spine in your downswing, a
move that is best seen in Rory Mcilroy’s swing. It can first be seen as his head tilts to the side
towards his trail shoulder at the beginning of his downswing.

39
This is caused by the muscles in his back contracting together with his chest and stomach
muscles to pull his trail shoulder down, the muscles in his neck also contract pulling his head
to the side. By keeping his spine relaxed while contracting his trail obliques, chest and
latissimus his spine bows allowing his trail shoulder to sink and his shoulder plane to
steepen. This steepening of his shoulder plane helps him to pull his arms down and back
onto their original plane and the club with them. It means that at impact although the
vertebrae in the middle of his shoulders are still approximately the same distance from the
ball as they were at address, his head is noticeably lower and closer to the ball than it was in
his address position. This will give you the feeling and belief that you will hit the ball fat and
compound any fear you have of hitting the ground before the ball, but the consistent
distance between the vertebrae in your chest and the ball, the late straightening of your
trail elbow and your lead shoulder moving further away from the ball than it was in your
address position will combine to stop this occurring.

40
This upper body movement combined with the hip rotation I described in “the move” puts
your body in the perfect position to allow you to reach” the position” in your follow-through.
The depth of your trail shoulder will keep your trail elbow from straightening earlier and
means you can use the straightening of your trail elbow to keep pressure on your golf club as
you begin your “release”. As your hands reach the height of the ball, just before impact, you
should be pressing down with the heel of your lead hand and actively pulling it towards your
lead trouser pocket to resist the centrifugal forces working on the club, pulling it away from
you and pushing the handle/grip up. Your trail wrist will now be straightening but not
rotating, the combination of these actions will accelerate your golf club through the ball and
through “the position”.

A golf Professionals physical ability to get into “the position” separates them from the hobby
golfer, whose physical boundaries often prevent them from achieving this” position”.
Getting as close as possible to “the position” during your golf swing will improve your game
immeasurably. Just don’t forget it is a position that you move through and not the sole
intention of your golf swing. Think of it as a train station on the way to the main station,
through which you MUST pass to reach your destination.

Get a feeling for this with a simple drill:

1. Take a golf club and press the clubface flush against the edge of a wall or a chair leg.
2. Turn your hips and shoulders into the impact position.
3. Splay your fingers on both hands, feeling the pressure between your trail forefinger and
the grip and the opposing pressure between the heel of your lead hand and the grip.
4. You should be able to feel how your right hip and shoulder support the pressure that your
trail hand applies to the club, and your left hip and shoulder support the pressure that your
lead hand applies to the club.
5. Keeping the pressure applied to the club by both hands equal, allows you to control the
shaft lean and lag tension during the shot.
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Find “the position” with an impact bag https://youtu.be/VtEHTqtkTUI

Standing with your feet shoulder-width apart take a wedge in your hands and tilt your body
forward until you have a 100° angle with your upper body to the club shaft. Your arms
should hang from your shoulders so that your hands hang under your throat, which will help
you to find the correct distance you should stand from the ball. Place an impact bag on the
ground opposite a point just outside your lead foot.
Start the swing by contracting your lead oblique, chest and latissimus muscles pulling your lead
shoulder down towards your trail hip as far as possible without any movement of your hips,
legs or feet whilst lifting your arms, hands and the club to a position just outside your trail
thigh. Then make a “mini move” turning your hips as far as you can towards the target
contract your trail oblique, chest and latissimus muscles pulling your trail shoulder down
towards your lead hip as far as it will go. Allow your arms to be carried by your shoulder
rotation back towards the target, the clubhead brushing the grass or floor opposite the middle
of your stance and continuing the swing until the club reaches a point just outside your lead
foot where it collides with the impact bag. The club should still be behind an extension of your
lead arm and the shaft should hang almost vertically from your hands. Practising with an
impact bag will help you to get a better feeling for “the position”.

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Exercise 2
Take the same address position and contract your lead oblique, chest and latissimus
muscles pulling your lead shoulder down towards your trail hip as far as possible letting your
hips rotate with your shoulder turn as you would in a full swing. At the same time lift the
club to approximately hip height. Then make a “mini move” turning your hips as far as you
can towards the target contract your trail oblique, chest and latissimus muscles pulling your
trail shoulder down towards your lead hip as far as it will go. Allow your arms to be carried
by your shoulder rotation back towards the target, the clubhead brushing the grass or floor
opposite the middle of your stance and continuing the swing until the club reaches a point
just outside your lead foot where it collides with the impact bag. The club should still be
behind an extension of your lead arm and the shaft should hang almost vertically from your
hands.

43
Exercise 3
Now make a normal full swing, hitting against the impact bag but not with your full strength.
It is all about your body getting used to hitting through a place where the ball would usually
lie and into “the position”.

Ground Force https://youtu.be/LUWTVs_kOz8 or https://youtu.be/m_6XTTdHmdc

If you were to jump into the air and turn your upper body away from the target, your lower
body would automatically turn towards the target, because an equal and opposite force would
be created. Your body could not stop this happening without an external force being applied
(like the ground). The ground provides this external force in the form of resistance, against
which your muscles can push. By pushing against the ground with your feet you can get your
body to move in the opposite direction to the direction in which you are applying the force. By
combining different forces, you can get your body to slide, twist and jump. These forces are
called linear/horizontal force, vertical force and torque/rotational force.

Linear/Horizontal force
This is the force applied to the ground to make you slide or move horizontally to the ground
and is also called shear force. You can best understand this force by placing your hand on a
tabletop and sliding it across the tables surface, you are creating a shear force between the
tabletop and your hand. If you were to also apply enough vertical downward force to your
hand, so that it could no longer slip across the tables surface, you would be able to move the
table using the shear forces between them. This would not work however if you were
standing on ice, because your hand is indirectly getting the force it needs from your feet.
Your feet must apply an equal and opposite force to the ground to get the table to move
which they could not do if you were standing on ice.

44
Vertical force
This force is easier to understand. When standing still your body mass/weight is being
constantly pulled towards the ground by gravity, to jump you just have to apply more force
to the ground than your mass and gravity are applying to hold you there.
By bending your knees and then pressing down vertically through your feet into the
ground you can jump, the more downward force you use the higher you will jump.

Torque/Rotational force
By applying a horizontal force, you can also create rotation. This is best seen on a Children’s
roundabout where a fixed axis resists the horizonal sliding force but allows the roundabout
to rotate. The parent applies a horizontal force at a right angle to the roundabout’s axis and
the roundabout turns.

Getting your golf club to swing up and around your body and down through the ball is going
to require you to use all of these forces in combination. Depending on what you are trying
to do with the golf club at any given time in your swing, you will have to adjust the intensity
of the forces to produce the required affects.

When you start your backswing and turn your upper body away from the target, you
automatically create a force between your upper body and your lower body that would
ordinarily turn your legs and hips towards the target (like the analogy I used when you
jump). Because your feet are anchored to the ground by gravity pulling your mass/weight
down, for a short time you can resist this force and turn your upper body without your legs
and hips moving. You do this by pressing down and towards the target with the balls of your
lead foot, whilst the balls of your trail foot apply pressure away from the target. You should
be able to feel your heels wanting to turn towards one another as your feet stabilize your
legs. The reason that you feel this is that your feet are using your foot joints as their axis of
rotation.

Example: If you were to place your right hand flat on a tabletop and twist it in a clockwise
direction while holding your wrist joint over one position on the table, your fingers will slide
in a circular motion over the table. Press down on the tabletop so that your fingers cannot
slide and press again with your fingers in a clockwise direction and your wrist joint will do
the same thing as your foot joints do at the start of your backswing.

As you allow your hips to move with your shoulders to create a larger turn, your trail foot
reduces the force it is applying to the ground with the consequence that your trail knee
rotates slightly, your trail hip moves back slightly, while your lead hip is able to move out and
turn with your upper body. At this point you will notice a shift in your mass/weight and the
pressure on your trail foot will increase significantly. As you lift the club with your arms and
hands your trail leg will support them by using vertical force, pressing down into the ground
through your trail foot, much like it would do if you were lifting any heavy object. As you
near the top of your swing your trail knee will also straighten slightly, and your lead heel may
come off the ground slightly while still twisting inwards towards your trail heel. You stop
your backswing rotation by stopping your trail leg from straightening completely and once
again increasing the force your trail foot is applying to the ground. By the end of your
backswing, you should feel as if you have made approximately 75% shift of pressure into
your trail side.

45
Starting your downswing “the move” uses gravity to apply vertical force down into the
ground as you let your foot, knee and hip joints collapse briefly. Your feet should again use
the same shear forces they used in your backswing but reversing their roles with your trail
foot more dominant at the start of your downswing. This is intensified by the extra
downward forces you applied to your trail foot in your backswing making the rotational
force from your trail foot more efficient than that of your lead foot. Allow the pressure to
move over the balls of both feet as you start “the move” and press into the back wall of
your trail shoe to start the rotation of your hips back towards the target. The balls of your
lead foot should again press towards the target but with less vigor which will press your lead
heel back down, but the pressure should remain on the balls of your lead foot during “the
move” and not move back over your lead heel yet. As your lead hip returns to its starting
position the pressure from your lead foot pushes it back and away from the target which
allows your trail foot to drive your trail hip forwards as your lead hip makes room for it. Your
trail foot also has to resists your lead leg which at the end of “the move” will try and push
your mass/weight back over your trail foot. While your knees will turn towards the target,
the combination of bending them and turning will cause them to separate during” the
move”, giving you the false impression that your trail knee is somehow resisting the
rotation. You will also experience your weight shifting forward into your lead side as your
hips center themselves and then turn towards the target, and your shoulders change
direction actively turning towards the target. By the end of “the move” your center of
pressure should be approximately 70% into your lead side.

In the final phase of your swing “the release”, “the move” is completed and your hips have
stopped rotating, both of your knees should still be bent and at this stage and the pressure
should still be on the balls of your lead foot but is predominantly on the ball of your big toe
of your trail foot. Your lead foot is till applying shear force to the ground towards the target
and your trail foot is still pressing against the ground and away from the target, these equal
and opposite forces holding your body centred and resisting any horizontal body movement.
The more pressure you have applied to the ground in “the move”, the more potential power
you will have when you straighten your legs. By really sitting into the ground in “the move”
and letting your hips, knees and foot joints bend the further you can potentially hit the ball,
with top Professionals measuring over 200% of their body weight as they land “the move”
and start to push off the ground. Unfortunately, the more you do this the more difficult it
will be for you to time your downswing, with a real danger of getting stuck if your legs don’t
straighten in time, but the benefits are just as great. Using the ground like a springboard will
increase lag and transfer more pressure to the golf club before helping you to catapult the
golf club through the ball. By loading the ground, you can now use more vertical reaction
force to explode out of the ground. The further you were able to turn your hips and
shoulders during “the move” the easier it will be for you to transfer the vertical forces
produced by your legs through the golf club to the ball. Your shoulders should continue to
rotate during” the release “driving your lead shoulder up and back away from the ball pulling
your lead arm and hand up and around your body. Pulling the handle/grip up and away from
the ball along the shaft plane will release an equal and opposite force down the shaft,
accelerating the clubhead down and through the ball. This happens in the last few
milliseconds before impact, it is this active pulling on the handle/grip which maximises your
clubhead speed (parametric acceleration). The clubhead speed is relative to the vertical
force you have gained from your legs and obviously has a direct effect on the distance you
hit the ball.

46
The clubs mass accelerating through the ball pulling towards the target will try to pull you
with it, but your lead leg should continue to use shear force towards the target to resist that
force, holding you in your swings’ axis. Your trail leg will still be counterbalancing your lead
leg and keeping you centred. Dependent on the intensity of the vertical force you used in
your release you could now have both heels off the ground and as good as no measurable
ground force (weight) or you may well have only your trail heel in the air if you were more
conservative. The club will now overtake the extension of your lead arm, turning around
your wrists, rotating the club face closed and lifting you further into the air. At this point
your hips will start to turn again no longer restricted by your trail leg and your trial foot
which should stop applying force to the ground, instead allowing your trail heel to lift
completely, rotating into an almost vertical position. As your club moves back over your lead
shoulder gravity overcomes the forces of your swing and pulls you back to earth landing you
lightly on the outside of your lead heel where you will finally experience a full weight
transfer to your lead side.

47
Clubface control https://youtu.be/qEXtD61TIgY or https://youtu.be/Y2Bq2OXVFgI

The combination of flexion/bowing(the bending back) of the lead wrist and lower arm
rotation (towards the target) will control the clubheads loft and face angle (direction of the
face) during the downswing. Lower arm rotation will close the club-face relative to the
target line, while flexion/bowing will open the face relative to the target line and deloft the
clubface while at the same time increasing the angle of attack (the angle at which the
clubhead strikes the ball relative to the ground). So many things happening at the same time
and all influencing the clubs’ loft, path and face angle compounds the complexity of your
downswing. This is also the reason that even the best golfers spend so much time hitting golf
balls, drilling these movements until they are automated. Creating flexion/bowing in your
lead wrist will help you to keep the shaft in-plane and inertia on your golf club through
impact (lag tension). If you allow your golf clubs head to overtake your lead forearm before
impact, the shaft plane, loft, face angle and angle of attack will all change, and the golf club
will be no longer under your control as a consequence. Although some players are starting
to create flexion/bowing in their lead wrist in the backswing, I recommend that the
flexion/bowing of your lead wrist should start at the beginning of your downswing during
“the move” together with a little lower arm rotation. This will happen as a result of the
forces acting on the golf club and the forces of the golf club acting on your arms and hands
created by “the move”, combined with your pulling the club down with your lead arm and
starting to straighten your trial arm. When the shaft reaches a point where it is parallel to
the ground in your downswing, your lower arm rotation will be finished which will have
turned the clubface back square to your spine angle and shaft plane. Reach this point of your
swing in the correct position and you are ready to explode through the golf ball with no
worries about where the ball will go.

Exercise :

1. Holding a coat hanger as if it were a golf club make a backswing. At the end of the
backswing the arm of the coat hanger should press against the inside of your lead forearm.

48
2. As you make “the move”, let your arms fall whilst twisting the coat hanger so that your
lead wrist bows, and your trail hand rotates the hanger in a clockwise direction (closing the
clubface). This should apply more pressure between the arm of the coat hanger and the
inside of your lead forearm.

This rotation of the handle/grip and bowing of your lead wrist will create more wrist
angle/lag and help you to delay the clubs release until the hands have reached their lowest
point in the downswing. A correct amount of wrist flexion and lower arm rotation will cause
the club face to point slightly towards the ground (parallel to your spine) by the time your
hands reach their lowest point at thigh height of your trail leg.

49
The Gap https://youtu.be/WFu3bwkMgeI

Practicing your golf swing with the help of a video camera or mobile phone on a regular
basis, will help to stop you falling into any bad habits. Remember that feedback is king when
it comes to learning. But knowing what to look for in the video of your swing is often the
main problem. You can start by looking how well your upper body and lower body are
synchronised with one another by using “the gap” and watching the position of your chest
bone and belt buckle relative to one another during your golf swing.
The theory is simple, when you stand in your address position and look at the position of
your belt buckle and chest bone and draw two lines down the screen, they will be on top
of one another or your chest bone line will be slightly behind your buckle line.

As you start your backswing your chest will move but your hips will not, and the gap
will widen.

Even as the hips start to rotate the gap will widen and move away from the ball until
you reach the top of your backswing.

50
As you start your downswing the gap will widen again as your hips’ rotation detaches
briefly from your shoulder rotation.

The gap will move back towards the ball as “the move” turns your hips to the target and
brings your shoulders into “the release” position.

51
Where the “the gap” will then be squeezed closed because your hips have stopped turning
and your shoulders and with them your chest bone are still moving.

Watching the gap open and close in the correct way will confirm that your upper and
lower body are working correctly.
1. Should your hips lead your shoulders in your backswing the gap will reverse itself.
2. Should your hips over-rotate you will not create a wide enough gap.
3. Should the gap get too wide at the beginning of your downswing your hips have probably
slid rather than turned.
4. Should the gap close at the start of your downswing you have probably started your
downswing with your upper body.
5. Should your gap not squeeze shut at impact you have also probably slid rather than
turned or your shoulder rotation has stopped with your hip turn.
These swing mistakes are easy to spot and correct before they become bad habits and
watching your gap open and close at the correct rate and at the correct time will give you
the confidence to know that your swing is working correctly.
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Timing https://youtu.be/7rox7vrbOtk

Whichever swing combination you are using, much of your success will depend on timing the
movements in your swing. The simplest way to understand timing is the time it takes for
each of your body parts to make their required movements.
For example, in a drill involving just your trunk and shoulders such as you may use when
chipping, your shoulders will need a certain amount of time to turn from their starting
position as far as they can in your backswing and then back to the end of their movement
boundaries in your downswing. When you know how long it takes for your shoulders to
make the rotation in both directions, you know the maximum physical speed of your swing.
Your swing cannot get quicker just because you take a golf club in your hands, on the
contrary, the club has mass, and this will slow your body turn down. Unfortunately, this is
not what you want to happen as a player and consciously or unconsciously you will try to
turn faster when are holding a golf club than you did when you were just doing the drill.
Whatever the reason is for this, your need to accelerate your body will force it to use extra
joints and muscles outside of your trunk and shoulders, making your swing less stable and
reliable. The effect on the swing is even more dramatic when combining the systems. Your
arms and hands will always be able to move faster than your trunk and shoulders, so any
demand on your body to increase the speed of your swing beyond that which it is capable
of will result in an unconscious acceleration of your arms.
It is imperative that once you have learnt to make the swing movements and combine them
in the correct order, you must then optimise your swing based on an objective timing of the
movement of each system. Then learn to keep the swing speed within your body’s time
boundaries, and that means that you cannot move faster than the slowest system in your
swing.

Watching Professional golfers shows us that their golf swings are not only bound by their
physical ability and speed but also a set rhythm. The rhythm of their golf swing is relative to
the time that it takes for them to move the golf club but there seems to be a common
denominator in Professional golf swings. You will almost always see a 2:1 rhythm when they
putt and a 3:1 rhythm when they make a full swing. These numbers equate to the relative
time it takes them to take the club away from the ball to the highest point in their swing and
from there to the moment of impact. Their downswing when putting taking half the time it
took them to complete their backswing and their downswing in a full shot taking just a third
of the time. These factors remain constant even when the Professionals increase of decrease
the tempo of their swing.

To learn the correct timing for your swing you should first find out how quickly you can
move from the highest point in your backswing to impact using the high-speed camera in
your mobile device and then practice making your backswing at a third of that speed. In my
research I have found Professionals to average out at about 600ms backswing and 200ms
downswing times where an average 15 Handicap amateur was taking 300ms for their
downswing and therefore needs 900ms to complete their backswing. There is an obvious
relationship between time and clubhead speed which will always encourage you to swing as
fast as you can, but the key to consistency is the rhythm of your swing.

Practicing this rhythm is obviously quite difficult without some kind of feedback but I have
had some success using timing files, an acoustic aid which gives you a specific amount of

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time for each movement in your swing. I created these simple sound files on my computer
getting them to count you in to starting your backswing (ready, set) before making a further
short tone to start your swing, another when your backswing should finish your backswing
and a final impact sound when that comes when your club should be making impact with the
ball. You can download timing files in three different speeds here: https://swing-
simply.com/de/timing-files-2/. Simply copy and paste the link into your browser and
download the file of choice, then copy it to your mobile device and take it onto the range.
You should be able to play it through any mobile device using the music App of your choice.

I have also had success by getting my students to practice using the OM Mantra while
making their golf swing (see Mediative State). This time they time the mantras length making
sure to take the same time for every swing. Here you would need some kind of recording
device to measure the time of your mantra or a patient friend with a stopwatch.

One of the oldest timing exercises that I have tried and tested is the Coca-Cola mantra. Say
Coca-Cola whilst swinging the club. “Co” as your shoulders start to turn in your backswing,
“Ca” when you reach the top of your backswing, “Co” as your hands start down and reach
the height of your trail thigh in your downswing, and “La” during the release and follow-
through to your finish position. The rhythm of the swing is slightly different than you would
normally say Coca-Cola though with the second Co being shorter than usual. Coooh-caaah-
Co-Laaaaaah.

However you decide to practice your timing it is worth remembering that it is the
Cerebellum that is responsible for the timing of fluid movement. If any of your practice
increases conscious thought it will fail. Seek fluidity in motion and build a natural flow within
your described boundaries and you will not be far away from reaching a natural timing of
your golf swing. Don’t forget you are capable of coordinating and timing many other
complex movements without thinking about them, why not your golf swing?

Flow https://youtu.be/QSWYZgTQJho

Flow is a physical version of, and closely related to “the zone”, a mental state where the
athlete enters a plane of consciousness which allows them to perform above their normal
levels, detached from the outside world. Finding flow in a movement allows the Athlete
to carry out highly complex movements with fluidity and without conscious thought.

Once you incorporate “the Move” into your golf swing you should start to feel a wave of
force that moves through your body. The wave will start as your knees and hips give-way
and your bottom falls, just before your hands and arms have reached the top of your swing,
much like the feeling you would experience as a slow-moving rollercoaster goes over the
crest of a hill. This is replaced after your hands change direction by your feet and legs
stopping your fall by applying force to the ground, creating a shock wave that starts in your
feet and flows up through your body and down your arms to the golf club, like the feeling
you get on a seesaw when you press off from the ground. As I described earlier, allowing
your body to fall and rise in this manner allows your cerebellum (central movement system)
to guide and time your golf swing. Imagine the feeling of a seesaw, the effects of a child’s
swing or even the experience of dancing, your cerebellum relies on the forces moving

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through the body and uses them in combination with feedback from its muscles, tendons,
ligaments, internal organs and nervous system to control your golf swing.

Golf is not unlike any other movement, from walking, jumping and swinging, playing tennis
basketball or football. It is governed and controlled by the forces of nature and your body
is completely at home using these forces to time and coordinate movement.

Trying to consciously control individual body parts while making a golf swing will interrupt
this natural flow of energy through your body. As I said earlier, this wave of energy tells the
body where it is at any given time in your swing and interrupting the wave
by consciously tensing or blocking muscles and joints to control positions in your
swing will essentially render your cerebellum blind. Instead, you must learn to
welcome these feelings into your swing, encouraging and trusting them.

Finding flow in your swing will first demand that you allow your body to make its own
version of the golf swing “your true swing”. Helped and guided by what you have learnt in
the past and what you are learning now, but none the less, a free movement built on a
foundation of your present understanding, free of judgement and expectation. Practicing
flow can only be successful when you are in the correct frame of mind, which leads us back
to the pre-shot routine. A good pre-shot routine, is the key to the door to your potential and
before you can truly feel a flow in your swing you must first clear your mind, fill it with
confidence and conviction and learn to let your “true swing” free.

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Fighting Habit https://youtu.be/_hbjIVg1Hxw

Human beings are creatures of habit and your first visit to the driving range or golf course
with your newly acquired abilities will only be a success if you can dodge the bullet of
habitual association. Everything on the golf course will remind your mind of your old golf
swing. Just looking down at a bucket of balls will call up old memories and old associations.
Imagine Microsoft would load a new version of Word onto the hard drive of your computer.
To start the new version of Word the next time you need a word processor you will need to
use the new thumbnail that came with the program. Habit will try and make you use the old
thumbnail which sits in the same place on the desktop as it did yesterday. The old version of
Word is still on your hard drive and unfortunately for us, can never be deleted. Your brain
works similarly, associating situations and environments(thumbnails) with given tasks and
movements (programs), this way it can automate your life. If it is reminded constantly of old
situations you are very likely to respond as you did in the past. If you have ever attended a
school reunion you know what I am talking about. Seeing old friends in an old environment
will make you slip into an old state of mind and behaviour, adhering to old pecking orders
and associated patterns. Only when your mind is reminded by the obvious changes in your
friends’ appearance, will you revert to your normal behaviour. This is nothing more than the
power of habitual behaviour. If you stand on the first tee with the same group of players you
played with last week, on the same hole you have played last week, with the same golf clubs
you used last week, don’t be surprised when you make the same golf swing as you made last
week.
To break a habit, you must change your routines and behaviour patterns by associating new
thoughts and feelings with your golf swing (new thumbnails). These new thoughts and
feelings can trigger new responses to old situations. Even if you have been on the driving
range for months drilling a new swing, it does not guarantee that your mind will use it
when confronted with old and known situations. If every drill you make and every ball you
hit on the driving range is accompanied with the same swing thought, picture or feeling,
you can incorporate that thought, picture or feeling into your pre-shot routine which will
remind your brain to use your new swing, even when confronted with old situations.

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 Drills
Building a golf swing is about drilling the component parts until they become a repetitive
whole. Practice , practice, practice, there is no substitute for it, your brains neuroplasticity
needs it to learn and develop, so stop procrastinating and get on with it.
I have explained in detail what the different systems do and why they have to work the way
they do in the previous chapters of this PDF. It is not necessary for you to understand your
golf swing, many of the best golfers in the world don’t, having learnt as children, it doesn’t
hurt their scores. So just plough on through and in no time, you will be enjoying a game of
golf on your local links. Learning by doing.

Legs and Hips https://youtu.be/tdS69LlGvco

Stand with your feet approximately shoulder width apart, your trail foot pointing straight
forwards and your lead foot splayed out slightly towards the target. Bend both of your knees
slightly and place your hands on your hips. Turn your hips towards your trail foot allowing
your upper body to turn with them. You should feel as if you are standing in a barrel which is
little wider than your hips and you are not allowed to touch the sides of the barrel as you
turn.

Turning your hips this way will encourage your trail leg to straighten and your trail hip to
move backwards which is fine as long as your trail leg does not become completely
straightened and you do not touch the barrel. At the same time, you will feel a weight
transfer to your trail foot.

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This is more of a transfer of pressure than weight, as your trail leg resists your need to sway
towards your trail side and touch the side of the barrel. If you pay attention to what you are
feeling inside your trail shoe, you will find that your foot has actually twisted away from the
target, pressing your little toe against the inside wall of your shoe, creating pressure and
tension between your foot and your shoe and your shoe and the ground, the shoe pressing
and twisting into the ground.

You will use this pressure to help you start your downswing, so the more pressure you can
build the better. Try however not let your upper body move over your trail leg, staying
centred in your backswing will help you apply more shear forces to the ground and remain
more stable during your swing. When you find it impossible to turn any further without
totally straightening your trail leg or touching the side of the barrel it is time to turn back
in the opposite direction.

NOTE: By keeping the flex in both of your knees and keeping both of your feet on the ground
during your backswing you will limit your turn and build more tension in your body and
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pressure with the ground. However, by allowing your lead heel to leave the ground and your
lead knee to bend slightly you will be able to turn further. As in life this has its advantages
and disadvantages, you will create more swing and eventually more club head speed, but you
will make it more difficult for your body to coordinate your golf swing. The more talent you
have, the more joints you may move.

Start the change in direction by both pushing and twisting away from the inside wall of your
trail shoe and tilting your pelvis back (anterior tilt) sitting down slightly.

Actively, push your hips around whilst keeping both of your knees bent and pushing into
the ground with both feet. Your trial foot twisting and your lead foot resisting any
movement towards the target and pushing your trail hip back and away from the target.
This will eventually allow your trail hip to move forwards in the barrel as your lead hip
makes room. Your hip and back muscles should also actively support and accelerate your
hip rotation, with your lead bum muscles (Glutes) pulling your hip back and your trail bum
muscles pushing your trail hip around the barrel.

NOTE: You hip rotation will be helped in both direction by the first system in your golf swing
(shoulders and trunk) when you put them together.

When your hips stop rotating try to straighten both of your legs, this will increase your hip
rotation even further whilst releasing ground forces which will flow through your swing
increasing its speed and power. Depending on your mobility this may or may not be possible,

59
with especially the trail leg refusing to straighten completely. Don’t worry about this but try
and keep the same amount of flex in both knees so that you to not tilt back away for the
target too much when your lead leg straightens without your trail leg straightening as much.

Shoulders and Trunk https://youtu.be/CHmq48wL8Vw

Take your stance as you did when training the second system and cross your arms over your
chest. Tilt your upper body forward to achieve a spine angle of 100° relative to a 7 iron and
make sure that your weight remains in the middle of your feet, from back to front and side
to side.

Start the movement by contracting the muscles in your lead side, starting with your obliques
and chest muscles followed by your latissimus, turning your lead shoulder down towards
your trail hip as if bending a playing card from the top corner to the diagonally opposing
bottom corner. You will feel that your hip rotation will automatically start after your
shoulders have turned approximately 45°, allow this to happen and control that your lower

60
body remains stable and your upper body centred. As you make your backswing keep your
core back muscles and spine relaxed so that your spine can bow slightly from top to bottom,
without this you will not be able to keep your shoulders in plane with the golf clubs’ angle
at the address position.

Let your lower body initiate your downswing as described in system two but resist your
shoulders need to follow your hips rotational plane by pulling your trail should both back
and down, making a small reverse rotational rowing movement with your trail shoulder joint
whilst contracting your trail side oblique, chest and latissimus muscles to pull your trail
shoulder down and under the position your lead shoulder reached in the backswing. Your
trail shoulder will be pulled deeper in the downswing than your lead shoulder managed in
your backswing, because of the increased hip rotation you make in your downswing and the
extra side bend that allows you to create. Your shoulders should feel as if they were turning
in a tube, keeping you centred and stopping you tilting either too or away from the target,
but to do this your spine will have to bow even more than it did in your backswing. From this
position you should be easily able to reach down with your trail hand and touch your trail
knee, even if your trail leg is straight at this point.

NOTE: Working on your flexibility will help you to get into these positions more easily.

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Arms, Hands and Wrists https://youtu.be/tvAsyslJYgU

Take your address position as if holding a golf club. Grip your lead thumb in your trail
hand and start your backswing as if swinging a golf club.

Contract your lead oblique and chest muscles pulling the lead shoulder down towards your
trail hip. Allow your lead hip to turn with your shoulders and your trail hip to move
backwards slightly without totally straightening your trail leg. This will move your arms’,
hands’ and wrists’ away from the ball.

As they reach a position opposite your trail thigh, bend your trail wrist backwards, which will
hinge your lead wrist automatically by pulling back on your lead thumb. As your trail wrist
bends your trail elbow will also start to bend automatically, allow this to happen but try to
keep as much width in your backswing as you can. As your trail elbow bends it will lift your
lead arm but both arms should be actively lifting from the very start of your backswing as
your lead side contracts and until they reach approximately chest height.

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How far your trail elbow is allowed to bend is controlled by the tension in your lead elbow,
the straighter you hold your lead arm the more you will limit the bending of your trail elbow
and the height of your arm swing. Allow your arms to continue up with their own
momentum whilst your body changes direction, which will actually be easier to do with a
club in your hands. Just before your lead arm collides with your chin and after the shoulders
end their rotation, start “the move” and allow your knees to bend and your hips to fall as
described in the second system. As the complex movements of the first two systems take
place your arms and hands will be busy resisting and supporting the forces working on your
golf club but for this exercise, I want you to feel as if your arms, hands and wrists are passive
allowing just your trail latissimus to pull them down to hip height.

Then press down and out straightening your trail arm and following your hip rotation
around your body so that both arms and wrists are not extended until well after impact
would have occurred and your trail arms extension points well left of the target (for a right-
handed golfer).

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Before letting the momentum of your arms swing pull you up into your finish position.

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Synchronise your body and arms https://youtu.be/hW5McEu98BU

a) Taking the club in your hands with your normal grip, slide your trail hand down the shaft
until it is just under the bottom of the grip (hands are apart on the club).

b) Take your normal posture and starting with the club approximately a hands width from
your thighs, turn your lead shoulder down and swing the arms up until the upper lead arm
touches with your chin.

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c) Whilst letting your knees and hips bend and tilt, turn your hips as far as they will go while
swinging the arms back to hip height.

d) Keep turning your shoulders toward the target while letting your lead shoulder rotate up
and back pulling your lead hand forwards and upwards, letting your trail shoulder get as
deep as possible before releasing your right elbow so that the club comes to a stop almost
vertical to the ground, at a point just past your lead leg “the Position”.

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Learn to feel the hand path https://youtu.be/JlJ-KTku_Vc

a) Starting in your normal address position, turn your lead shoulder down and lift the club
until the club is opposite your trail leg. Then make a very short dipping movement with your
knees and hips to load the ground (mini move), using your feet and hips to turn your lead
hip back and your lead shoulder up and back, letting your hands move towards the target
and up an inclined path until they are opposite the outside of your lead leg and the club is
almost vertical “the Position”. Allow your lead wrist to bow a little as your hands move
forwards.

b) Starting in your normal address position, turn your lead shoulder down and lift the club
until the club is opposite your trail leg. Hinge your wrists so that the shaft is parallel to the
ground. Make the mini move and let your hips, shoulders and hands move as before
allowing the wrist to release at the same time and coming to a stop in the same position
opposite the outside of your lead leg “The Position”.

c) Starting in your normal address position, turn your lead shoulder down and lift the club
until the club is opposite your trail leg. Hinge your wrists so that the shaft is parallel to the
ground and continue to turn your shoulders lifting the club towards your chin. Practice
making “the move” and letting the club come down from different heights to your trial thigh
turning through the ball as before. You should not stop outside your lead leg but this time let
your arms and hands swing further, following their natural path around your body before
stopping at about hips height (make sure you have not allowed your lower arms to over-
rotate).

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Use flexion and rotation to delay the release and control the face angle

a) Holding a coat hanger as if it were a golf club make a backswing. At the end of the
backswing the arm of the coat hanger should press against the inside of your lead forearm.

b) As you make “the move”, let your arms fall whilst twisting the coat hanger so that your
lead wrist bows, and your trail hand rotates the hanger in a clockwise direction (closing the
clubface). This should apply more pressure between the arm of the coat hanger and the
inside of your lead forearm

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c) Keep turning your shoulders toward the target, while at the same time letting your lead
shoulder rotate up and back pulling your lead hand forwards and upwards, At the same time
get your trail shoulder as deep as possible delaying the release of your trail elbow slightly.
The coat hanger should come to a stop almost vertical to the ground” the position”, at a
point just past your lead leg, keeping the pressure between the coat hanger and your lead
forearm. When your shoulders stop turning, let the upper lead arm move away from your
chest keeping the pressure between the coat hanger and your lead forearm.

d) Now repeat steps a) though c) holding both the coat hanger and a golf club.

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Learn to create a feeling of weightless at the start of your downswing

a) Swing the club to the top of your backswing.

b) Initiate your downswing by flexing/bending of both knees, allowing your hips to tilt back
and your chest to turn back in the direction of the target and pressing away from the inside
wall of your trail shoe “the Move”. You should experience a short feeling of weightlessness
in your body with very little vertical pressure between your feet and the ground and the
feeling of weight in your buttocks pulling them back and down. Get your trail foot to twist
your hips around and your lead foot to push your lead hip back, getting as much rotation as
possible before you land and springboard off the ground. Do not think about how much flex
your knees have bent or when they stop bending.

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c) Stop the flexing of your knees abruptly, building as much pressure as possible between
the ground and your feet, pressing your feet hard into the ground. This will help your arms
and hands to release.

d) Press your feet into hard into the ground straightening both legs whilst at the same time
turning your lead shoulder up and back pulling your lead hand forwards, upwards and
around your body, turning your trail shoulder down and actively releasing your wrist angle in
your trail wrist so that the clubhead swings down and out through the ball.

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Feel the ground forces through the ball

a) After taking your address position, hinge your wrists and hold them opposite your trail
thigh. Bend your knees and hip joints so that you dip 2-3 inches and turn your hips as far as
you can towards the target, then press your feet into the ground (the lead foot presses
down and at a 45° angle to the target, the trail foot twists and presses down and away from
the target) to make your lead hip turn back while your trail hip first resists the movement,
before moving towards the target as the lead hip makes room.

b) At the same time turn your lead shoulder back and up pulling your arms and hands up and
around your body while releasing your wrist angle so that the club comes to rest as an
extension of your lead arm, opposite your lead legs trouser pocket.

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Insert “the Move “into your swing https://youtu.be/3a5hr-DpHHg

a) Take your address position.

b) Start your backswing by contracting your stomach, chest and back muscles, moving the
club back to your trail thigh.

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c) Hinge your wrists and trail elbow.

d) When Your shoulder rotation stops, start the Move.

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e) Squat into your downswing twisting your hips back towards the target as described and
swing your arms down to your trail thigh.

f) Use and straighten your legs while allowing your wrists to release.

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g) Your arms reach full extension well after impact.

h) Let the clubs’ inertia pull you up into the finish position.

Note: You should try to create the feeling in your body of a small up and down movement,
like a child’s swing. Using the ground forces to help your arms and club to swing up, before
letting yourself fall, then catching the fall and again using the ground forces to swing the club
up and around yourself.

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Strengthen and mobilize your Trunk Muscles

Take your address position as if holding a golf club whilst placing your bottom on a wall or
the back of a chair. Holding a club in both hands clamp your upper arms against both sides
of your ribcage and bend your elbows bringing your lower arms up until they form a right-
angle. Contract your lead oblique, chest and Latissimus muscles pulling your lead shoulder
down towards your trail hip as far as possible without any movement in your hips, legs or
feet. Then contract your trail Oblique, chest and latissimus muscles pulling your trail
shoulder down towards your lead hip as far as it will go. Repeat the exercise sides until it
becomes a fluid movement.

Exercise 2
Repeat the exercise whilst holding a medicine ball.

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Exercise 3
Take your address position as if holding a golf club whilst placing only your trail bum cheek
on the corner of a wall or door whilst holding a golf club in both hands (see below).
Contract your lead oblique, chest and latissimus muscles pulling your lead shoulder down
towards your trail hip as far as possible letting your lead hip move forward and pressing
your right bum cheek against the wall/door. Then twisting away from your trail foot, hold
your right bum cheek on the wall/door pushing your lead hip back and around the corner of
the wall/door with your lead leg. At the same time contracting your trail oblique, chest and
latissimus muscles pulling your trail shoulder down towards your lead hip as far as it will go.

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Exercise 4
Take your address position with the end of a RIP Trainer or just the butt end of a golf club
pressed into your tummy button, holding the RIP Trainer as far down the shaft as you can so
as both arms are straight. Contract your lead oblique, chest and latissimus muscles pulling
your lead shoulder down towards your trail hip as far as possible without any movement in
your hips, legs or feet. Then contract your trail oblique, chest and latissimus muscles pulling
your trail shoulder down towards your left hip as far as it will go. Repeat the exercise on
both sides, turning around sporadically so that you stand at the opposite angle to the RIP
trainers Anker point to train both sides of your body.

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Arms, Hands and Wrists

Take your address position as if holding a golf club in your hands. Place your lead wrist on
top of your trail wrist and start your backswing as if swinging a golf club. Contract your lead
oblique, chest and latissimus muscles pulling your lead shoulder down towards your trail hip.

As your hands reach a position opposite your trail thigh let your lead hip turn with your
shoulders and your trail hip to move back slightly without your trail leg straightening
completely. At the same time start to bend/hinge your trail wrist backwards, which will
hinge your lead wrist automatically. As your trail wrist bends your trail elbow will also start
to bend automatically, try and keep as much width as possible. As your trail elbow bends it
will lift your lead arm, pulling it up over your chest until your upper arm collides with your
chin. How far your trail elbow bends is controlled by the tension in your lead elbow, the
straighter you hold your lead arm the more you will limit the bending of your trail elbow and
the height of your arm swing.
Just before your lead arm collides with your chin and after the shoulders end their rotation,
start “the move” and allow your knees to bend and your hips to tilt back and fall. Whilst
letting your knees bend slightly, let your hips turn as far as they can go and contract you trail
oblique, chest and latissimus muscles so that your arms are stopped from moving any
further up before being pulled down to hip height by your trail latissimus. Press your feet
into the ground straightening your legs, whilst at the same time turning your lead shoulder
up and back pulling your lead hand forwards, upwards and around your body, whilst
straightening your trail arm and releasing your wrist angle.

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Exercise 2
Repeat the last exercise with a golf club in just your lead hand. This should help you get a
better feeling for how your lead arm and hand have to work during your golf swing.

Exercise 3
Repeat the last exercise with a golf club in just your trail hand. This should help you get
a better feeling for how your trail arm and hand have to work during your golf swing.

Exercise 4
Take your address position holding a release trainer in your hands. Start your backswing as if
swinging a golf club. Contract your lead oblique, chest and latissimus muscles pulling your
lead shoulder down towards your trail hip. As your hands reach a position opposite your trail
thigh let your lead hip turn with your shoulders and your trail hip to move back slightly

81
without your trail leg straightening completely. At the same time start to bend/hinge your
trail wrist backwards, which will hinge your lead wrist automatically. As your trail wrist
bends your trail elbow will also start to bend automatically, try and keep as much width as
possible. As your trail elbow bends it will lift your lead arm, pulling it up over your chest until
your upper arm collides with your chin. How far your trail elbow bends is controlled by the
tension in your lead elbow, the straighter you hold your lead arm the more you will limit the
bending of your trail elbow and the height of your arm swing.
Just before your lead arm collides with your chin and after the shoulders end their rotation,
start “the move” and allow your knees to bend and your hips to tilt back and fall. Whilst
letting your knees bend slightly, let your hips turn as far as they can go and contract you trail
oblique, chest and latissimus muscles so that your arms are stopped from moving any
further up before being pulled down to hip height by your trail latissimus. Press your feet
into the ground straightening your legs, whilst at the same time turning your lead shoulder
up and back pulling your lead hand forwards, upwards and around your body, whilst
straightening your trail arm and releasing your wrist angle.

Note: The release trainer should not click until after the point where your trail arm
straightens, which is well after impact.

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