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In the spirit of these new 'lets discuss' threads I thought i'd start one
I was thinking about this last night after my knee flex post in the OTT thread (its so hot at night in the UK right now that sleeping is an issue for me
)
We hear a lot about good players saying 'you dont think about anything on the downswing - it just happens' and the same players also saying 'keep the spine angle'. Well I think thats very much related but its my contention a lot of people key in on the wrong areas in trying to keep the spine angle and they dont understand why doing so leads to a very simplified backswing
Here's my theories through hours and hours and practice and feelings. Would like peoples thoughts
Clearly keeping spine angle is vital. We've all heard it. But when I started trying to do this I focused on the wrong areas. Just saying dont let the flex in the right knee go is simple enough but most players dont have nearly enough flex in their right knees when they start the BS nor when they finish it
If you dont set up with real flex in the right knee it is IMHO almost impossible to keep that very small amount of flex as you turn back. Theres simply not enough flex there to keep. All great players actually increase their knee flex on the BS, Woods and Hogan being two prime examples
There are two ways to mimic this. Either setup with really exaggerated knee flex or as you swing back actually try and push that right knee forward towards your feet. Knee flex = Spine angle. Keep the knee flex, you keep the spine angle
What this also does is it gives you real coil. The more the right knee is flexed, the more coil you will get as you turn back into it. If (like I used to) your knees arent flexed nearly enough you'll never feel real coil at the top. The real stretch in your right buttocks and top of the right leg.
However its this stretch that makes the downswing so simple. Because even if you make a free swing of your arms from the top, the hips will move faster. They have to because they are so taught, like the spring analogy. They will sping back quickly the moment you change direction, this will shallow the swing plane. Even if you swing with your arms you will come less OTT with this since your body has to respond to that action. This is why players say the downswing just happens, because you can feel like all you need to do is bump the hips a touch to unleash that coil and then swing your arms hard
I would contend that most higher handicap players never get that coil at the top because they lose their spine angles because they never flexed their right knee enough either at setup or during the BS
As an example look at this pic of Woods
http://picsrv.tigerwoods.com/?fif=/t...0,0,0&cvt=jpeg
Just look at how much flex he has in his right knee.By this point most high handicappers have no flex at all and can only come OTT because their is no power to get their hips moving
Appreciate your thoughts ...
I was thinking about this last night after my knee flex post in the OTT thread (its so hot at night in the UK right now that sleeping is an issue for me )We hear a lot about good players saying 'you dont think about anything on the downswing - it just happens' and the same players also saying 'keep the spine angle'. Well I think thats very much related but its my contention a lot of people key in on the wrong areas in trying to keep the spine angle and they dont understand why doing so leads to a very simplified backswing
Here's my theories through hours and hours and practice and feelings. Would like peoples thoughts
Clearly keeping spine angle is vital. We've all heard it. But when I started trying to do this I focused on the wrong areas. Just saying dont let the flex in the right knee go is simple enough but most players dont have nearly enough flex in their right knees when they start the BS nor when they finish it
If you dont set up with real flex in the right knee it is IMHO almost impossible to keep that very small amount of flex as you turn back. Theres simply not enough flex there to keep. All great players actually increase their knee flex on the BS, Woods and Hogan being two prime examples
There are two ways to mimic this. Either setup with really exaggerated knee flex or as you swing back actually try and push that right knee forward towards your feet. Knee flex = Spine angle. Keep the knee flex, you keep the spine angle
What this also does is it gives you real coil. The more the right knee is flexed, the more coil you will get as you turn back into it. If (like I used to) your knees arent flexed nearly enough you'll never feel real coil at the top. The real stretch in your right buttocks and top of the right leg.
However its this stretch that makes the downswing so simple. Because even if you make a free swing of your arms from the top, the hips will move faster. They have to because they are so taught, like the spring analogy. They will sping back quickly the moment you change direction, this will shallow the swing plane. Even if you swing with your arms you will come less OTT with this since your body has to respond to that action. This is why players say the downswing just happens, because you can feel like all you need to do is bump the hips a touch to unleash that coil and then swing your arms hard
I would contend that most higher handicap players never get that coil at the top because they lose their spine angles because they never flexed their right knee enough either at setup or during the BS
As an example look at this pic of Woods
http://picsrv.tigerwoods.com/?fif=/t...0,0,0&cvt=jpeg
Just look at how much flex he has in his right knee.By this point most high handicappers have no flex at all and can only come OTT because their is no power to get their hips moving
Appreciate your thoughts ...
and also make it hard for hip turn because like you say they will slide, instead of turn
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