The Golfen Rule

Thou shalt keep the head motionless.  Remember the upswing is moved solely by the upper body while the downswing is pulled by the lower body.

While the above rule may be the culmination of a long search and seems simple enough, it does need some amplification.

When we say the head should be motionless, it is particular important on the upswing since even a slight movement of the head will divert the ball to the right of target.  This actually results in all the body and parts of the swing to be unsynchronized resulting into different contortions of the body with unpredictable differing results.

When we say the upper body is responsible for the upswing, we are really being generally generous to the different body types of the golfing population.  In my case, it is mostly the hands and the shoulders that takes the club up.  At the top of the swing, all conscious thoughts should be diverted to the lower body to initiate the downswing.

As far as I execute it now... At address, while the club is set on the ground, I lift up the club using my right middle finger.  Somewhere along the route to the top, while the shoulders are turning, my left hand will take over and cocks the club firmly at the top - the force felt at the top. Then my attention goes to the lower body.

Even the club is still moving up, I usually turn my attention to my hips.  I feel the entire weight of the club with my waist but I consciously think the right hips into making the turn and bringing down the club towards the ball.  My intent is to finish solidly and firmly on the ground with my picture perfect finish although it is still a work in progress.

The main point to remember here is the upswing is the upper body and the downswing is the lower body.  This is very important because this rule applies to all shots, even the putter.  If you can do this with the putter then the rest should be easy, e.g., chips and full shots.

Why is this better?  I guess it simplifies the swing to the barest of essentials where once the club is pulled up, there needs to be no more other things to do but just bounce the club back to the same starting position.  The works best when putting!

6May2015:  Important clarification.  One essential clarification for this topic is the centrifugal force.  The main objective of the upswing is to create a tautness at the top and the objective of the downswing is to pull that force or tautness towards the ball and around.  Without that feeling of the weight of the club at the top, the swing cannot be properly executed.  By the way, the pull is not exactly just done by the right hip or the lower body.  It seems that the whole body is involved in pulling that club down towards the ball and around to the picture perfect finish.  The right hip just seems to just tag along for the ride.