Greetings Coach:I am still amazed at how what you teach creeps into my game.As you know I have been with you over 4 years and you have helped me,in my game, more than I know how to say,but one thing has haunted me for a long time and that is looking up early.I don’t know why I keep doing it the shots were never any good when I did.After seeing this tip I realized what was happening, I was rotating shoulders too far,i could see grass between my knees on the backswing, this over rotation was pulling my focus off the ball.So,what I am saying is, if you watch these tips and some over and over they will finally regester at least for me. THANKS COACH !
Good to hear from you. If you are hitting you will look to see what you hit. That is human nature. Maybe as you over-rotated this brought your arms into play. Glad you figured that out. Just coil the amount you can coil. You will know how much you can coil because you will get the tight wound up sensation. Once you feel it … uncoil.
It’s funny, I get people emailing me saying I am long winded and I repeat myself yet everyone I talk says they hear new things everytime they watch my tips again. I will keep saying it over and over. As you say, it registers at some point. This is a good thing.
Paul ,Yes ,after several ten thousands of golf swings ,the golf swing has become simple to me ,but I keep repeating it in front of a window pane every single day ,a flaw is quick to creep in .
Looking at the 2017 PGA at QUAIL HOLLOW was very much instructive to me again :the lesson is that it’s not the player with the best swing and the best long game who wins (In my opinion the best long game players were HIDEKI MATSUYAMA and LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN )but the one with the most efficient short game(Together with plenty of luck!),that is the winner JUSTIN THOMAS .I don’t like at all his swing ,he has a “Wrenching “movement when he performs his rotation forwards and his throughwswing ,nothing to do with the fluidity of LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN or the machine looking repeat swing (with the slight pause at the top ) of HIDEKI MATSUYAMA:had MATSUYAMA putted less sloppily ,he would have won by a great margin ..You don’t win with a “golden” and a “repeat” swing only ! MATSUYAMA’s precision approach irons to the greens were true marvels ,but just after ,he messed the puts…
It was an interesting tournament. If only I could get to Louis. I love this swing. He is one the closest to what I teach but I did see some errant shots from him. He need to stay within himself. Everytime I see these guys I just keep saying to myself they don’t have the “eye of the tiger” in the sense they can block everything out and turn it on as Tiger, Jack and the other best players could. Until I see someone who has it, I don’t feel any of these guys will dominate. It looks like they are just going through the motions. Almost happy that they lost. I certainly wouldn’t have been.
Paul,in one of the rounds of the récent PGA ,a player chipped from of the Green ( hé was in a swale) with an hybrid .I don’t play this shot ,I’m not use d to it .Would you recommend it .The advantage quoted by the commentators is that with the hybrid the ball rolls more
Oosthuizen, Ernie Els, swartzel – there are some guys who look like precise gears effortlessly turning in an oil bath. Turn and strike – disarmingly simple. Sam Snead was the all time model of course.
How easy it becomes to drift into bad habits with excess movement, or to forget something ridiculously simple – a weight shift. If you’re not a natural athlete – I’m not – you have to keep checking and checking. Yesterday I forgot the weight shift – can you imagine? Someone reminded me. Infuriating.
Ben Hogan’s swing was fascinating, but man it’s complicated. Once he got into that downswing there were all sorts of parts moving. An extraordinary player, but man that golf swing might not be the best model . . .
This is why you need to know the positions and constantly work on them. People who quit saying they are going to take it back up when the season starts are not getting it. You cannot quit doing this stuff. Even if it is a few practice swings a few nights a week. You have to do something to remember the movement. If you take a break you will come back to it hitting with your arms. So just keep doing the swings and you will start memorizing them in no time.
I am a 150 lb. 70 year old man who has been trying improve his golf game for 30 years. I’ve had lessons with our excellent golf pro at my club, been to at least 4 golf camps, and worked on my game several days a week. I started watching your videos about a year ago, and have gradually, little by little improved. All your videos have been important to me other than the flexibility and mental tips. But this video is the one that brought it all together for me. Last year my Mass handicap was 21.9. In last Tuesday’s night league my score was 68 gross on our par 70 golf course. I cannot thank you enough for all the help, I think what was important to me was being able to check in on a daily basis, particularly if I was having a problem. Lifetime ambition achieved, thank you, thank you.
That’s great!!! I love hearing it. Just needed to see it differently. I had that light bulb moment many times and many years ago. It is a great feeling. Make sure you watch this tip below because it can be exciting when you have a breakthrough.
Thanks Paul! Another great lesson 🙂 And two questions: first, are you bent at the hips? It doesn’t look like you are leaning forward from the hips when you do the back-and-forth shoulder turn/motion. How much should we lean forward from the waist when addressing the ball? Second, I am soooo guilty of too much motion below the waist. I feel like I have to put my feet in hardening cement to restrict that lower body motion. But my left knee tends to bend and dip toward the right. And coming back through I find it difficult to get the knees to touch. I feel like I’m leaning forward and off balance. Any suggestions?
As for comments from others about you talking too much, you keep right on talking!. I am a teacher of high school students and know the value of emphasizing something until the bulb clicks. Many thanks. Jon
I was just doing the drill barely tilted. This was just showing the body coil and uncoil. I did not have a club so I wasn’t tilted like I would be with a club. So yes you need to bend to do the proper set up.
Hi Paul,
Amazing, I went to range today with only driver to practice A to B with only 2/3 speed of a full swing. I coiled as your tip today demonstrates, and kept my swing speed in line with doing the body swing correct.
So simple, ball online, online with nice distance. As I worked the hip turn to get right heel up into downswing, same swing speed it seemed, the ball exploded as I finished balanced feeling a 2/3 swing speed full swing.
Amazingly simple!! Work to get here, but simple movement…
Thank you Ed
That’s great. Glad you tried it. That is the hardest part for me. People don’t way to do anything different or they try it 3 times and don’t hit amazing shots so they go right back to the old swing that doesn’t work.
Stick to this pace. Get good at it. Confidence breeds distance so you will be able to get even more in the future. Just let it happen.
Dear Paul. Thank you for your simple and easy to understand tip on the body swing. I am 74 and still practice law full time. I have been an Ignition Golf member for a year and a half and I have been playing golf since I was 13 doing it wrong using hands and arms for over 60 years without a lesson. I have been practicing all your swing components but changing 60 years of doing it wrong is difficult and can’t be done overnight. Nevertheless, my swing from backswing to follow through is improving. This week I played my usual nine holes on Wednesday before going to the office. The result was a 41 for nine holes despite a triple bogie on a par five. I was hitting drives longer than I did when I was in my 20s and my irons were crisp and clean and accurate. My playing partners noticed the improvement with envy. Using your chipping technique I holed a 40 foot 7 iron chip from off the putting surface for a birdie. I am now playing better golf more consistently than I ever have in my lifetime thanks to you I especially like your new format for saving videos to organized categories for reviewing over and over again. I am so glad I joined Ignition Golf. Thank you for being such a great and enjoyable teacher to watch. Your videos are the best of any videos from other competitors. Keep up the good work.
Great tip. What might be in an interesting follow up tip would be to show the same motion, but with lower body separation. Might make a good drill to work on, especially if you show what that should look like. Sometimes the working on the motions without a club seems really helpful.
Around 1970, Timothy Gallwey wrote a book “The Inner Game of Golf,” which was first major treatise on the mental side of golf – long before Bob Rotella came along. Gallwey was a nationally-ranked junior tennis player that missed an easy volley costing him a national USTA junior title.
Later, he devoted himself to the science of how humans interfere with their own athletic performance and wrote the Inner Game of Tennis. His process was a player saying to themselves “bounce” as the ball landed in their court and “hit” as they hit the ball. This quieted what he called “Self 2” – the analytical, self-critical voice in our heads. He later adapted this method to golf using “Back/Hit” as the inner cadence.
In adapting your simplicity to my practice swing routine, I believe you have given us a breakthrough. I now say “Shoulders” (slowly) in my head during takeaway/backswing and “Legs” to trigger and start my downswing. This relaxes me, quiets my head, and can readily go from the backyard/range to the course with me. I am calling out the coil and touch the legs positions (my leg touch is much better doing this). As a bonus, the touch the head position happens nearly automatically.
You did Gallwey one better because his system focuses on hitting while “Shoulders/Legs” focuses on the important body positions. The ball is disregarded and takes care of itself. I really believe this will be my new secret sauce. I’ll keep you updated.
Lastly, as for people saying you say the same things over and over, please keep doing it. We all have made literally millions of bad swings over and over. We need to see, hear and do the right things over and over and over and over and over – until your swing becomes our new swing. I pick up something new every video I watch even if I have seen many others on the same subject.
Again, this one is special Paul. Thanks for re-publishing it for us new guys and gals.
Glad you like that way of thinking. It is about taking your mind off of hitting. To do that you need to replace that thought with something else. I have another tip on this somewhere. Coil from the top … uncoil from the bottom. The more you think about your body … the less you think about the arms and hitting.
Paul,
The old adage “turn in a barrel” comes to mind. Too bad we didn’t have a big foam sleeve or foam barrel we could put over us and practice turning in it without falling over. I guess two shafts or alignment sticks stuck in the ground to our left and right would work. It’s like learning a new dance move until you can do it instinctively and then adding a dance partner (like a golf club) and getting used to handling your partner while doing the dance.
Jim
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27 Responses to “Simplicity of the Body”
August 13, 2017
johnhoyleGreetings Coach:I am still amazed at how what you teach creeps into my game.As you know I have been with you over 4 years and you have helped me,in my game, more than I know how to say,but one thing has haunted me for a long time and that is looking up early.I don’t know why I keep doing it the shots were never any good when I did.After seeing this tip I realized what was happening, I was rotating shoulders too far,i could see grass between my knees on the backswing, this over rotation was pulling my focus off the ball.So,what I am saying is, if you watch these tips and some over and over they will finally regester at least for me. THANKS COACH !
August 14, 2017
Paul WilsonJohn,
Good to hear from you. If you are hitting you will look to see what you hit. That is human nature. Maybe as you over-rotated this brought your arms into play. Glad you figured that out. Just coil the amount you can coil. You will know how much you can coil because you will get the tight wound up sensation. Once you feel it … uncoil.
It’s funny, I get people emailing me saying I am long winded and I repeat myself yet everyone I talk says they hear new things everytime they watch my tips again. I will keep saying it over and over. As you say, it registers at some point. This is a good thing.
August 14, 2017
raymond.chastelPaul ,Yes ,after several ten thousands of golf swings ,the golf swing has become simple to me ,but I keep repeating it in front of a window pane every single day ,a flaw is quick to creep in .
Looking at the 2017 PGA at QUAIL HOLLOW was very much instructive to me again :the lesson is that it’s not the player with the best swing and the best long game who wins (In my opinion the best long game players were HIDEKI MATSUYAMA and LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN )but the one with the most efficient short game(Together with plenty of luck!),that is the winner JUSTIN THOMAS .I don’t like at all his swing ,he has a “Wrenching “movement when he performs his rotation forwards and his throughwswing ,nothing to do with the fluidity of LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN or the machine looking repeat swing (with the slight pause at the top ) of HIDEKI MATSUYAMA:had MATSUYAMA putted less sloppily ,he would have won by a great margin ..You don’t win with a “golden” and a “repeat” swing only ! MATSUYAMA’s precision approach irons to the greens were true marvels ,but just after ,he messed the puts…
August 14, 2017
Paul WilsonRaymond,
It was an interesting tournament. If only I could get to Louis. I love this swing. He is one the closest to what I teach but I did see some errant shots from him. He need to stay within himself. Everytime I see these guys I just keep saying to myself they don’t have the “eye of the tiger” in the sense they can block everything out and turn it on as Tiger, Jack and the other best players could. Until I see someone who has it, I don’t feel any of these guys will dominate. It looks like they are just going through the motions. Almost happy that they lost. I certainly wouldn’t have been.
August 15, 2017
RaymondCHASTELPaul,in one of the rounds of the récent PGA ,a player chipped from of the Green ( hé was in a swale) with an hybrid .I don’t play this shot ,I’m not use d to it .Would you recommend it .The advantage quoted by the commentators is that with the hybrid the ball rolls more
August 15, 2017
Paul WilsonRaymond,
I never play this shot either. If you are good at chipping and pitching you don’t need it.
August 16, 2017
AnthonyGuidiceOosthuizen, Ernie Els, swartzel – there are some guys who look like precise gears effortlessly turning in an oil bath. Turn and strike – disarmingly simple. Sam Snead was the all time model of course.
How easy it becomes to drift into bad habits with excess movement, or to forget something ridiculously simple – a weight shift. If you’re not a natural athlete – I’m not – you have to keep checking and checking. Yesterday I forgot the weight shift – can you imagine? Someone reminded me. Infuriating.
Ben Hogan’s swing was fascinating, but man it’s complicated. Once he got into that downswing there were all sorts of parts moving. An extraordinary player, but man that golf swing might not be the best model . . .
Great tip.
August 16, 2017
Paul WilsonAnthony,
This is why you need to know the positions and constantly work on them. People who quit saying they are going to take it back up when the season starts are not getting it. You cannot quit doing this stuff. Even if it is a few practice swings a few nights a week. You have to do something to remember the movement. If you take a break you will come back to it hitting with your arms. So just keep doing the swings and you will start memorizing them in no time.
August 19, 2017
SimonKirkbyI am a 150 lb. 70 year old man who has been trying improve his golf game for 30 years. I’ve had lessons with our excellent golf pro at my club, been to at least 4 golf camps, and worked on my game several days a week. I started watching your videos about a year ago, and have gradually, little by little improved. All your videos have been important to me other than the flexibility and mental tips. But this video is the one that brought it all together for me. Last year my Mass handicap was 21.9. In last Tuesday’s night league my score was 68 gross on our par 70 golf course. I cannot thank you enough for all the help, I think what was important to me was being able to check in on a daily basis, particularly if I was having a problem. Lifetime ambition achieved, thank you, thank you.
Simon Kirkby from Wyantenuck CC.
August 20, 2017
Paul WilsonSimon,
That’s great!!! I love hearing it. Just needed to see it differently. I had that light bulb moment many times and many years ago. It is a great feeling. Make sure you watch this tip below because it can be exciting when you have a breakthrough.
You Will Top It: https://ignitiongolf.com/you-will-top-it/
Keep up the good work.
August 21, 2017
SimonKirkbyClerical error, meant to say 78 gross not 68. That would be ridiculous.
Simon
August 21, 2017
Paul WilsonSimon,
Think big! You can do it.
January 11, 2019
JonathanComptonThanks Paul! Another great lesson 🙂 And two questions: first, are you bent at the hips? It doesn’t look like you are leaning forward from the hips when you do the back-and-forth shoulder turn/motion. How much should we lean forward from the waist when addressing the ball? Second, I am soooo guilty of too much motion below the waist. I feel like I have to put my feet in hardening cement to restrict that lower body motion. But my left knee tends to bend and dip toward the right. And coming back through I find it difficult to get the knees to touch. I feel like I’m leaning forward and off balance. Any suggestions?
As for comments from others about you talking too much, you keep right on talking!. I am a teacher of high school students and know the value of emphasizing something until the bulb clicks. Many thanks. Jon
January 13, 2019
Paul WilsonJohnathan,
Glad you liked it. Thanks.
I was just doing the drill barely tilted. This was just showing the body coil and uncoil. I did not have a club so I wasn’t tilted like I would be with a club. So yes you need to bend to do the proper set up.
Here is the set up:
A New Way To Get The Taller Setup: https://ignitiongolf.com/new-way-taller-setup/
Taller Setup: https://ignitiongolf.com/bartender-setup/
Stand Tall with Short Clubs: https://ignitiongolf.com/stand-tall-short-clubs/
Left knee:
Left Knee Behind Ball: https://ignitiongolf.com/backswing-forward-knee/
Forward Knee Behind Ball: https://ignitiongolf.com/forward-knee-behind-ball/
January 11, 2019
EdwardBillingsHi Paul,
Amazing, I went to range today with only driver to practice A to B with only 2/3 speed of a full swing. I coiled as your tip today demonstrates, and kept my swing speed in line with doing the body swing correct.
So simple, ball online, online with nice distance. As I worked the hip turn to get right heel up into downswing, same swing speed it seemed, the ball exploded as I finished balanced feeling a 2/3 swing speed full swing.
Amazingly simple!! Work to get here, but simple movement…
Thank you Ed
January 13, 2019
Paul WilsonEd,
That’s great. Glad you tried it. That is the hardest part for me. People don’t way to do anything different or they try it 3 times and don’t hit amazing shots so they go right back to the old swing that doesn’t work.
Stick to this pace. Get good at it. Confidence breeds distance so you will be able to get even more in the future. Just let it happen.
January 12, 2019
JamesBowdishDear Paul. Thank you for your simple and easy to understand tip on the body swing. I am 74 and still practice law full time. I have been an Ignition Golf member for a year and a half and I have been playing golf since I was 13 doing it wrong using hands and arms for over 60 years without a lesson. I have been practicing all your swing components but changing 60 years of doing it wrong is difficult and can’t be done overnight. Nevertheless, my swing from backswing to follow through is improving. This week I played my usual nine holes on Wednesday before going to the office. The result was a 41 for nine holes despite a triple bogie on a par five. I was hitting drives longer than I did when I was in my 20s and my irons were crisp and clean and accurate. My playing partners noticed the improvement with envy. Using your chipping technique I holed a 40 foot 7 iron chip from off the putting surface for a birdie. I am now playing better golf more consistently than I ever have in my lifetime thanks to you I especially like your new format for saving videos to organized categories for reviewing over and over again. I am so glad I joined Ignition Golf. Thank you for being such a great and enjoyable teacher to watch. Your videos are the best of any videos from other competitors. Keep up the good work.
January 12, 2019
MichaelJansenGreat tip! I plan to use this image in every practice swing.
January 12, 2019
Steve WeberHi Paul,
Great tip. What might be in an interesting follow up tip would be to show the same motion, but with lower body separation. Might make a good drill to work on, especially if you show what that should look like. Sometimes the working on the motions without a club seems really helpful.
Steve
January 14, 2019
Paul WilsonSteven,
Interesting. I will put it on the list.
January 12, 2019
GeraldRooneyPaul.
Could you address the front leg on the through swing is it completely locked or slightly bent.
Thank you.
Gerry
January 14, 2019
Paul WilsonGerald,
I have tips on this here:
One Leg Longer at Impact: https://ignitiongolf.com/one-leg-longer-at-impact/
Left Leg Impact: https://ignitiongolf.com/leg-position-impact/
January 12, 2019
MichaelBarrettPaul,
Around 1970, Timothy Gallwey wrote a book “The Inner Game of Golf,” which was first major treatise on the mental side of golf – long before Bob Rotella came along. Gallwey was a nationally-ranked junior tennis player that missed an easy volley costing him a national USTA junior title.
Later, he devoted himself to the science of how humans interfere with their own athletic performance and wrote the Inner Game of Tennis. His process was a player saying to themselves “bounce” as the ball landed in their court and “hit” as they hit the ball. This quieted what he called “Self 2” – the analytical, self-critical voice in our heads. He later adapted this method to golf using “Back/Hit” as the inner cadence.
In adapting your simplicity to my practice swing routine, I believe you have given us a breakthrough. I now say “Shoulders” (slowly) in my head during takeaway/backswing and “Legs” to trigger and start my downswing. This relaxes me, quiets my head, and can readily go from the backyard/range to the course with me. I am calling out the coil and touch the legs positions (my leg touch is much better doing this). As a bonus, the touch the head position happens nearly automatically.
You did Gallwey one better because his system focuses on hitting while “Shoulders/Legs” focuses on the important body positions. The ball is disregarded and takes care of itself. I really believe this will be my new secret sauce. I’ll keep you updated.
Lastly, as for people saying you say the same things over and over, please keep doing it. We all have made literally millions of bad swings over and over. We need to see, hear and do the right things over and over and over and over and over – until your swing becomes our new swing. I pick up something new every video I watch even if I have seen many others on the same subject.
Again, this one is special Paul. Thanks for re-publishing it for us new guys and gals.
Mike
January 14, 2019
Paul WilsonMike,
Glad you like that way of thinking. It is about taking your mind off of hitting. To do that you need to replace that thought with something else. I have another tip on this somewhere. Coil from the top … uncoil from the bottom. The more you think about your body … the less you think about the arms and hitting.
January 12, 2019
JimBenjaminPaul,
The old adage “turn in a barrel” comes to mind. Too bad we didn’t have a big foam sleeve or foam barrel we could put over us and practice turning in it without falling over. I guess two shafts or alignment sticks stuck in the ground to our left and right would work. It’s like learning a new dance move until you can do it instinctively and then adding a dance partner (like a golf club) and getting used to handling your partner while doing the dance.
Jim
January 14, 2019
Paul WilsonJim,
Be careful. The edges on a barrel are curved outward. Turn in a cylinder is a better image. I will do a tip on it in the near future.
How To Check Your Lateral Hip Motion: https://ignitiongolf.com/check-lateral-hip-motion/
There Is Lateral Motion In The Downswing: https://ignitiongolf.com/lateral-motion-downswing/
Bump or No Bump?: https://ignitiongolf.com/bump-or-no-bump/
It is definitely like a dance. I have had people say that before.
January 14, 2019
PaulDInceccoGreat tip Paul. BTW. Thanks for changing those white laces! They were so distracting. 😀