Perfect Golf Swing

By Barry H. Nolan

The perfect swing has two whole-body sensations that most amateurs never will feel.  They are: “Around” and “Whip”.

The common face-on view of the golf swing usually is confronted on a tv screen or a magazine page.  That view gives the swing a back-then-forth appearance.  Not surprisingly, “back” and “forth” have become the most frequently used directional indicators in golf instruction (“Take the club back.”, “Backswing”, “Get your weight going forward.”)

However, the back and forth movements in the golf swing are primarily incidental to an overall rotational motion.  When you place a camera above a good golfer, overhead, almost everything you see is whirling in circles, first clockwise, then counter-clockwise.  Whether your focus is on the clubhead, hands, shoulders, or hips, the first word that comes to mind to describe the action you’re viewing is “Around”.

This coiling and uncoiling of the torso is harder work than it looks like.  Sliding the hips back and forth is lots easier.  But coiling stretches the most important muscles in the golf swing, and the whole purpose of the “back”swing is to stretch muscles.

Concerning “Whip”, only a very sharp eye can catch that, in a good golfer’s swing, the motion is not divided into two distinct parts: e.g. back then forth, up then down, one then two.  The truth is that for ALL good players some lower-body uncoiling overlaps with some upper-body coiling.

By initiating the “down”swing with the thighs and hips about eight hundredths of a second before the shoulders have finished coiling, rotational stretch in large mid-torso muscles between the hips and shoulders is maximized.

So feel these two whole-body sensations, Around and Whip, and enjoy the best shotmaking of your life!