Separation of Church and State

Like the law of separation of Church and State, there should also be a law of separation in the golf swing. First, let us identify the entities involved in golf - the big muscles and small muscles. Big muscles can be the shoulders while small muscles can be the hands. We can also refer to it as the upswing and the downswing. And the rule should be the "the muscles employed in the upswing should not be the same employed in the downswing."

The Tiger swing - a modern Hogan version?

Have you noticed Tiger's swing? It is different from most of the professional golfers. He has a delayed shoulder jerk. His swing is not a normal pendulum swing. He seem to turn slowly and at the end gives his shoulders a jeck-like movement.

I tried simulating it in the driving range but the closest I can get to it is making a pronounced weight transfer to the right - by pushing the left shoulders in until the weight is on the right and the hands fully cocked - , then making a weight transfer to the left followed by the shoulders' hit. It is hard to incorporate naturally in the swing. I think the weight shift must be transferred to the upper body and at the downswing, the upper body fires first naturally. This is hard but it does look like this is the natural progression from what I have been learning in the previous posts.

I have not had the time but I think this is like the Hogan's knee swing or Nicklaus' rolling feet tip.

Well now that we have Tiger performing his swing at any time we want to, we can practically copy his swing. Watching him at perform the slo-mo way tells me that he has simplified his swing very much. This must be why he is so accurate. Notice his body twists like a book page flipping from the spine? He is not even minding his arms or the club - he just flips his shoulders to the top and let the club find its own way to the slot.

And how about the downswing. It is just the total left side simultaneously throwing its weight to the left side . Then, of course, the delayed socket-popping hit follows.

A very simple move indeed.

At the driving range, I tried to see if I can do Tiger's opening a page upswing and a delayed weight transfer first downswing. What became apparent is this might be really the Hogan swing except Hogan just got too technical in explaining his swing. I find that at address, I can visualize the plane, start the club with a little right hand flip of the club and bring the whole left side around the spine up to the top with the shoulders and arms following the plane. Downwards is the pronounced weight shift to the left with the delayed big hit immediately following. This is the Hogan swing masquerading as Tiger's!

During another session at the driving range, I noticed by concentrating on my left knee, I was able to put the club head right into the "slot" at the top - without much effort on my brain. Hitting the ball with the same left knee seems to have delayed the hit a little bit. What is important to remember in this paragraph is by "throwing" the club head with the left knee towards the 2:00 o'clock position, it made the upswing fall easily on a "groove" and it hit the slot smoothly - thereby, promoting a complete turn at the top.