Hi Paul. My sons and I were paired in a round last summer, with an older fellow of 82 or so, who had an 8 handicap. I was having a horrible day and he was trying to help me and asked if I could swing my driver at half effort. “Stop trying to kill the ball” as he put it. I almost whiffed trying to hit the ball so softly. Your tip reminded me of that embarrassing incident but I now realize why he had the 8 handicap, and mine is about 18!
Ron, That is great advice he gave you. Obviously, you saw that this is difficult when you first try it. Hopefully, you are still trying to do it. I know you will never forget what he said. I will keep saying it so you never forget me saying it.
Hey Paul…just curious…what in your opinion is the primary swing flaws using a Sean Foley type of method that stays a bit more centered and left throughout the entire swing vs the traditional loading and firing of the right side in your method. I was asked this the other day and didn’t quite know how to reply. Thanks!!
Bryan, This type of swing keeps your head overtop of the ball. This means you will not create the first axis in the golf swing and the weight will not lead to the right foot. This is what occurs in every sport. Why would you do anything different? In keeping the head over the ball you cannot turn in the downswing either because if you did you would pull hook everything. So to get the club into impact you need to slide laterally in the downswing. Now you are basing your swing on lateral movement not circular. The Iron Bryon turn in a circle. It is not moving sideways. This is why people using this type of swing have trouble hitting the driver. It’s okay with irons because there is more loft on them. Once you get a club with little loft people will run into problems.
This method also has your hands swinging left after impact. This locks the wrists and again is not what the Iron Byron is doing. The mass of the club should be swinging on a plane around an axis. By swinging the club left you are pulling the mass off of this plane. I base the swing on forces and torque. This goes against forces and how they act on the mass.
As I said, I base the swing on torque and forces. These are 2 things in life that repeat 100% of the time. You coil and uncoil to get the torque and you let the mass swing wherever it wants to swing. This allows forces to act on the mass which maximizes the arc and squares the face consistently. I also base the swing on Iron Byron which was modeled after one of the best golfers of all time and it hits the ball perfectly.
One more thought … the best players of all time did not and do not use this type of swing.
Hi Paul. As an electrical engineer who took quite a few Physics courses, I can verify your analysis. Relaxing the arms and the wrists creates maximum angular momentum, which is mass times velocity times radius, MVR. The radius is the length of the arms plus the length of the club. Since kinetic energy is 1/2 MV2(the velocity squared), the swing speed is much more important than the mass, or weight of the club head, in transferring energy to the golf ball. If follows that the only way to create maximum angular momentum and kinetic energy is to rapidly rotate the lower body in a circular motion, ( no sliding), keeping the wrists and arm levers loose, similar to swinging a weight at the end of a rope. Angular momentum is maximized if the rope is taught.
Although I know these things to be true, it’s obviously difficult to over come human nature which wants to corrupt the laws of Newtonian Physics!
Ron, I’m glad you agree with the physics. I am not a physics guy. I just thought about it and through watching Iron Byron it made complete sense. Hopefully others see it too and continue to try and get this feeling of no arms. At least if people are trying to do this they are on their way to getting it. Hitting with the arms is the opposite of what I am doing and the what the machine is doing. Keep at it and keep fighting human nature.
Hi Paul. I have followed your system for a while now and have some questions. When I try to turn my hips faster it seems that it stops when it is opposite to the ball because my arms are hanging after and stop the turning. It is not so easy to explainin but, this is the way it feels. What am I doing wrong ?
Another questions, I got much shorter distance with the shorter irons than I did before. It is not like that with the driver and woods. Is this normal in a early step of not using the arms ?
But, I am hitting more fairways now with all the clubs.
John, I don’t understand what you are saying. It is touch for everyone to turn the hips faster. What you should be doing is doing it slowly. You do it slowly and get good at it. Then you speed up only the lower body just a little bit. Get used to this speed. Then do it again.
You may be hitting it shorter just because you changed your grip and set up. This would put the club in a neutral position which would add loft. You are also turning the arms off. In doing so you are no longer hitting. Once you get better at using the lower body you will hit it farther. As I said above this is gradual. Keep working on using the body and don’t look for too much too fast. You should be doing the drills below nightly:
Hi Paul Have one question about this drill, when swinging at 1/2 speed are we concentrating on taking our arms out of the swing,does this naturallyspeed up the lower body without us doing anything, or are also concentrating on starting the down swing with lower body also with this drill
Barry, you are trying to swing easy. In doing so this will help to take the arms out of the swing. If you turn your arms off you only have one other way to hit the ball which is with your legs. So keep turning the arms off and working on hitting the follow through positions.
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11 Responses to “More In the Tank”
October 31, 2012
RonCalabreseHi Paul. My sons and I were paired in a round last summer, with an older fellow of 82 or so, who had an 8 handicap. I was having a horrible day and he was trying to help me and asked if I could swing my driver at half effort. “Stop trying to kill the ball” as he put it. I almost whiffed trying to hit the ball so softly. Your tip reminded me of that embarrassing incident but I now realize why he had the 8 handicap, and mine is about 18!
Thanks, Ron
November 1, 2012
Paul WilsonRon, That is great advice he gave you. Obviously, you saw that this is difficult when you first try it. Hopefully, you are still trying to do it. I know you will never forget what he said. I will keep saying it so you never forget me saying it.
October 31, 2012
BryanRhoadesHey Paul…just curious…what in your opinion is the primary swing flaws using a Sean Foley type of method that stays a bit more centered and left throughout the entire swing vs the traditional loading and firing of the right side in your method. I was asked this the other day and didn’t quite know how to reply. Thanks!!
November 1, 2012
Paul WilsonBryan, This type of swing keeps your head overtop of the ball. This means you will not create the first axis in the golf swing and the weight will not lead to the right foot. This is what occurs in every sport. Why would you do anything different? In keeping the head over the ball you cannot turn in the downswing either because if you did you would pull hook everything. So to get the club into impact you need to slide laterally in the downswing. Now you are basing your swing on lateral movement not circular. The Iron Bryon turn in a circle. It is not moving sideways. This is why people using this type of swing have trouble hitting the driver. It’s okay with irons because there is more loft on them. Once you get a club with little loft people will run into problems.
This method also has your hands swinging left after impact. This locks the wrists and again is not what the Iron Byron is doing. The mass of the club should be swinging on a plane around an axis. By swinging the club left you are pulling the mass off of this plane. I base the swing on forces and torque. This goes against forces and how they act on the mass.
As I said, I base the swing on torque and forces. These are 2 things in life that repeat 100% of the time. You coil and uncoil to get the torque and you let the mass swing wherever it wants to swing. This allows forces to act on the mass which maximizes the arc and squares the face consistently. I also base the swing on Iron Byron which was modeled after one of the best golfers of all time and it hits the ball perfectly.
One more thought … the best players of all time did not and do not use this type of swing.
November 1, 2012
BryanRhoadesWow…what a fantastically clear explanation. Thanks Paul!!
November 1, 2012
RonCalabreseHi Paul. As an electrical engineer who took quite a few Physics courses, I can verify your analysis. Relaxing the arms and the wrists creates maximum angular momentum, which is mass times velocity times radius, MVR. The radius is the length of the arms plus the length of the club. Since kinetic energy is 1/2 MV2(the velocity squared), the swing speed is much more important than the mass, or weight of the club head, in transferring energy to the golf ball. If follows that the only way to create maximum angular momentum and kinetic energy is to rapidly rotate the lower body in a circular motion, ( no sliding), keeping the wrists and arm levers loose, similar to swinging a weight at the end of a rope. Angular momentum is maximized if the rope is taught.
Although I know these things to be true, it’s obviously difficult to over come human nature which wants to corrupt the laws of Newtonian Physics!
Thanks, Ron
November 1, 2012
Paul WilsonRon, I’m glad you agree with the physics. I am not a physics guy. I just thought about it and through watching Iron Byron it made complete sense. Hopefully others see it too and continue to try and get this feeling of no arms. At least if people are trying to do this they are on their way to getting it. Hitting with the arms is the opposite of what I am doing and the what the machine is doing. Keep at it and keep fighting human nature.
November 1, 2012
JohnSteenHi Paul. I have followed your system for a while now and have some questions. When I try to turn my hips faster it seems that it stops when it is opposite to the ball because my arms are hanging after and stop the turning. It is not so easy to explainin but, this is the way it feels. What am I doing wrong ?
Another questions, I got much shorter distance with the shorter irons than I did before. It is not like that with the driver and woods. Is this normal in a early step of not using the arms ?
But, I am hitting more fairways now with all the clubs.
November 1, 2012
Paul WilsonJohn, I don’t understand what you are saying. It is touch for everyone to turn the hips faster. What you should be doing is doing it slowly. You do it slowly and get good at it. Then you speed up only the lower body just a little bit. Get used to this speed. Then do it again.
You may be hitting it shorter just because you changed your grip and set up. This would put the club in a neutral position which would add loft. You are also turning the arms off. In doing so you are no longer hitting. Once you get better at using the lower body you will hit it farther. As I said above this is gradual. Keep working on using the body and don’t look for too much too fast. You should be doing the drills below nightly:
DRILL: Swing Off Ground: https://ignitiongolf.com/drill-swing-off-ground
DRILL: Listen to Club Swinging: https://ignitiongolf.com/drill-listen-to-club
DRILL: Start High Then Gradually Lower: https://ignitiongolf.com/start-high-gradually-lower/
November 3, 2012
barrybowerHi Paul Have one question about this drill, when swinging at 1/2 speed are we concentrating on taking our arms out of the swing,does this naturallyspeed up the lower body without us doing anything, or are also concentrating on starting the down swing with lower body also with this drill
November 5, 2012
Paul WilsonBarry, you are trying to swing easy. In doing so this will help to take the arms out of the swing. If you turn your arms off you only have one other way to hit the ball which is with your legs. So keep turning the arms off and working on hitting the follow through positions.