Long Drive Regionals in St Louis, July 2012

| July 30, 2012

Most long-drivers do not take golf lessons. (Based on survey information collected at the recent long-drive regional qualifier in St Louis).

They miss 6 out of 6 shots to a grid 50 yards wide, and blame it on everything possible such as bad luck, bad weather, poor mental preparation, cracked driver etc. etc. They NEVER blame it on swing mechanics.

Are they gamblers at heart and not true golfers? They hit endless rounds of six-shots at $40 a pop and keep trying to make it from the Locals to the Regionals, and most of them put in hours and hours a week on fitness training and golf practice, but sometimes do not even hit one of six shots in the grid.

How to tell them that it’s mainly their mechanics that are faulty. They’re trying to make the longest possible levers by going up on the lead toe during the backswing, getting their arms and hands up to the sky, and then they hope to dump all that body mass down at the exact spot where it’s required in the fraction of a second when the club is attempting a passing acquaintance with the ball!

 

How will this Long Driver return his club to the ball? What ‘undo’ movements does he need to make? He must rotate his body forward, drop his right side/trunk down, allow his very elevated right upper-arm to drop closer to the body, do work against gravity to bring his clubshaft back to a ten o’clock or so position (which is its position of maximum potential energy), rotate and then straighten his lead knee and plant back his lead heel. (Not to mention a change of wrist position and fore-arm position!) If he does not time all these movements correctly, or if they overshoot (ie. rotation does not stop in time to allow the arms to drop down from the inside), he spins around his trail thigh and hits the ball crooked! Big deal that he has the capacity to hit it 360 or more yards on the fly! The question is whether he can do it to order.

Another one pasted below. How many separate joints does he move? And, how many muscles must act as prime movers, synergists, stabilizers and antagonists for such complex movements? Are all the moved joints able to return to impact in correct sequence?

MGSS – a new adjective to describe it!

| July 19, 2012

What a treat to explain The Minimalist Golf Swing System to people with a background in anatomy! They GET IT. However, because it’s so different (or in the words of people who’ve tried it, ‘weird’, ‘counter-intuitive’, ‘unnatural’ etc. etc.!) it’s best to ‘show’ rather than ‘tell’.

So last weekend, at a gathering of 50 chiropractic students who attended a Motion Palpation Institute’s ‘Golfer and the DC’ seminar, class-room time showed a bit about the evolution of all things golf, after which it was all driving-range hands-on teaching/learning.

 

1. The golf ball has had millions of dollars of research put into it to progress from a feathery to the ultra-sophisticated thing with precise numbers of, size of and depth of dimples, not to mention high-tech materials.

2. Golf clubs have evolved from mere shepheards’ crooks to blobs of metal to oh-my-gosh tools that claim to cure slices and hit the ball a country mile and who knows what else.

3. The golf swing has evolved too —- look carefully at the change

All the chiropractors could see – good golfers, many of them – was a change of apparel!

SO, the moral of the story is, the golf swing has evolved in as random a manner as golf apparel has!

What should happen is once one has a plan for what the ball must do (for instance, in a full-swing, travel maximum distance, be straight and have ideal trajectory for the club being used), one should decide how the club must arrive at the ball (maximum speed, from the inside, and at a shallow angle), and then place all the body’s main joints in positions from which they can make the downswing most efficiently, based on their design, and on where they require to deliver the club!

The easiest way to do that is to separate the role of the arms and the role of the body. Allow only ferris-wheel movements of the arms and only merry-go-round movements of the body (and ne’er the twain shall meet). MGS really does this!

So, many attendees said, “Man this is crazy – but it actually works”! One asked, “I really like this but how should I explain it to my friends when I look so different?”

The reply from the intrepid inventor of the MGSS, “Well, ask them if you should have a rotation/coil/twist of your body during the backswing, then tell them, why do you care if I finish my rotation/coil/twist before my swing has begun? That way all I have to do is get my arms in place and I HAVE to make ideal contact!”

 

Minimalist Golf Swing for junior golfers

| July 19, 2012

If you have junior golfers and wish to introduce them to golf, yes, it’s important for them to have fun, BUT it’s equally important for them to see early success!

Even a 5-year-old knows when she/he hits a worm-burner, completely along the ground! No matter how encouraging parents might be, or how much teachers say ‘good swing’ or ‘good attempt’ or whatever – kids these days are very smart, and know when they’ve hit a bad shot, and a collection of bad shots might just make them lose interest!

So, the main things junior golfers should be taught (in random order)

  • Shoulder-width stance (not adult shoulders, theirs)
  • Keep both feet firmly on the ground, at all times
  • Swing with fairly straight arms (a slight bend in the trail elbow is required though)
  • Keep the trail side slightly below the lead side all through the swing (and the chest facing away from target until well after impact)

One cute 5 year old junior in our summer camps at Oakbrook Golf Course, Edwardsville, Illinois demonstrated two swings – the one his daddy taught him and the one ‘key-run’ taught him, and he replicated both so exactly!

A request to all those visiting this blog

| July 4, 2012

Hello all visitors to this blog. If you’ve used the MGS successfully and would like to comment, please do so on the ‘testimonials’ section of this blog. The reason is that I have made reference of this blog in my LPGA Teacher of the Year application form, and maybe the people that are supposed to vote on that will look at this blog to see what users genuinely think about MGS. Also, any time you’ve a question about MGS, just post some pictures here for the MGS community to give you suggestions on. Kiran.

The ‘push shot’ is NOT MGS!

| June 7, 2012

Many ‘MGS’ users complain of a making a ‘push’ shot (straight out to the right, for a right-handed golfer, with no curve on the ball). Firstly it should not be a complaint, because at least they now have just one stock shot, and the earlier low pulls or sliced shots are gone. They’re therefore ‘almost’ but not fully MGS.

Basically, a ‘push’ is NOT MGS, it means the golfer has deviated from the movements required in some small way (hence the improvement of ball-striking to just a push). Their right trunks are therefore still slightly higher than left, which is the exact opposite of what the MGS ‘magic move’ requires.

This golfer has got the MGS set up perfectly, BUT the left arm is so stretched out and stiff, it pushes the rest of the body, so that the left trunk drops slightly, and therefore the left knee drops and the hips get moved (rotated) too.

The MGS backswing needs a very, very soft left arm, climbing steeply up the chest wall, and no other body movement during the backswing.

In the picture above, someone standing behind the golfer should be able to see much less of this golfer’s left arm (green line amount, NOT red line amount), simply because that left arm is climbing loosely and steeply up, and is not stiff or stretched.

The Minimalist Golf swing for golfers with injury

| June 2, 2012

A golfer who plays every day since the past 40 years, has limited hip mobility and also recently had pain in his thigh. He was very flexible in his upper-body, however, made a really good MGS set-up ‘twist’, and was so much less over-the-top in just 15-20 shots which he hit, MGS style. See his video on youtube.

Another recent student had been told via an internet lesson to swing just right-handed to sort out some swing problem. He ended up having tendonitis/bursitis in his right shoulder, because no one told him HOW his right arm should/should not rise while taking it back single-handedly. His right upper-arm rose higher than 90 degrees with no right elbow bend – an easy way to get impingement of the tendons and bursa under the acromion process of the shoulder-blade (scapula). All the PGAs should have mandatory anatomy courses before they certify instructors!

Useful Bits and Pieces of Information

| May 26, 2012

Useful bits and pieces

1. Remember the ‘chip’ question of last week? See the answers in the short game section.

2. One student who’d already being trying MGS through internet resources alone wanted the total MGS ‘package’ – full swing, pitch/bunker, chip and putt, all personalized for him, and he was one of the fastest learners I ever met in my 23 years of teaching. He showed instant success in all 4 departments. The reasons – his body type is very flexible; he has had lessons from so many teachers he is a good lesson-taker and used to making changes quickly; he was already open to the idea of making a non-traditional yet scientific swing, and had been using it with some success.

3. Watch out for his ‘before’ and ‘after’ videos to be posted on youtube over the next few days. Useful for those already following MGS, on how exactly to ‘get it’. Basically, ‘before’, at the time of starting his backswing, John had no twist at all. So, whatever MGS-like moves he was trying to make during the backswing did not succeed as well as they could have. Even after being shown the salient features of MGS for him, he got his best shots when he had enough twist. For him (some golfers have the opposite problem), keeping his right side down and lifting his left arm steeply up were easy, he just did not always make enough MGS ‘twist’. So, even when he kept his right side down and the meaty upper part of his left arm rising steeply and softly up his chest wall, he would revert to a laid off position. However, he still had fantastic ball-flight because of MGS’s ‘magic move’ for the full swing – keeping the right side down and the body quiet during the backswing.

NO TWIST/BARELY ANY TWIST (‘BEFORE’, even though trying to get MGS):

 

 

 

 

GREAT TWIST (‘AFTER’)

 

 

The right leg and knee in the minimalist swing

| May 25, 2012

There were two inquiries within a couple of days regarding the right leg! One student who was hitting the most brilliant shots suddenly noticed that her right knee straightens out while making the MGS ‘twist’. That happens with a lot of students and it’s quite alright, it makes no difference to the quality of the downswing. If you prefer to foucs on keeping the flex in the knee, and add one more thing to the thoughts required during the set-up, that’s OK too, but it does not matter.

Another student asked: “in orthodox instruction much is made of the right leg and inside of the right foot as a pillar and starting block, to be swung around and pushed off with respectively. Is this concentration on the right leg extraneous to the MGS?” The answer is: yes, absolutely. Everything that requires thinking during the downswing is extraneous, if you make a good MGS set-up and backswing, you do not have to think or do anything intentional at all. The good moves simply happen in the correct sequence, and the bad ones – any that you ever made – are prevented.

This is how I phrase it for my students in financial careers. Thins of the MGS set-up as planning the perfect portfolio. Then think of the MGS backswing as buying your shares at the right price. Your downswing is the time to sit back and watch the dividends roll in!

The Minimalist Golf Swing’s pre-shot routine

| May 22, 2012

All recent lessons have indicated that applying the MGS pre-shot routine in very deliberate steps ensures that all positions are correct. Three lessons over the past 5 days come to mind – a female Tour player, an 80-year-old, and an 11 year old.

The first was a bit embarrassed to twist and unconsciously got out of the ‘twist’ just prior to the start of the backswing, or over-did it, and allowed the head to droop to far to the right. The second kept forgetting the steps so needed them reinforced, one at a time. The third always made the set-up and swing in a hurry and did not get into MGS positions all the time, and was rather upset.

So, make a note of each one of the individual steps you use in your set-up routine, and then practice making each one deliberately, almost pausing between steps. The deliberateness of it all not only ensures nothing is forgotten, but also helps to slow the mind down.

It is also important to only have meaningful steps during the routine. A step such as looking at the target (especially after an MGS twist!) is not particularly useful for the full-swing, as no hand-eye co-ordination for distance-judgment is required.

That dreaded SHANK – is NOT MGS!

| May 20, 2012

The Shank and MGS? They’re not related or even good friends!

Someone who has been very happy with MGS so far, sent an SOS email to say he was suddenly shanking the ball.

It is IMPOSSIBLE to be swinging MGS and making a fade, even, let alone a vicious slice or that dreaded shank.

So, what is a SHANK? It is a shot that results when the shank (just above the hosel) of the club connects with the ball, and this happens – always – because the right upper-body starts the downswing, out of sequence.

If a golfer has made the set-up twist of MGS, and then simply lifted the lead arm upwards (not ‘out’ and not ‘in’), then the arms drop and the hips rotate all at the appropriate time, so the right upper-body never comes into the picture.

If a golfer is trying to be MGS-like and has it almost down pat, the only thing which might make him/her shank the ball is if his lead arm goes ‘in’ instead of ‘up’ and takes, along with it, the entire body along in a rotatory movement.

Remember, MGS wants ‘no wrist, NO TWIST’ – the twist is over before the backswing begins.

Many are insecure lifting the lead arm straight up, because they fear that it will either be an all-arms move, or will move their lead arm outside the target line at the start of the backswing.

Well, as long as the right side remains lower than the left, the body IS harnessed at the appropriate time during the downswing, so MGS is prevented from being an all-arms move. As long as the trail shoulder remains twisted behind, the lead arm lifting vertically ‘up’ is always inside the target line, needing no further ‘inside’ movement. In other words, the MGS ‘up’ is always ‘in’ so avoid any more ‘in-ness’!