Three Killer Scientific Golf Swing Secrets

I’ll put my faith in science thanks Steve…

Hi Brian,

Yes, I’ve learned to incorporate BioSwing into my game. The swing is now very natural and instinctive for me. Learning to make it natural has allowed me to take giant leaps with my swing.

Regards,

Cameron

Hi Wade,

It’s important to remember that I’m not advocating an arm and hand swing only. A proper golf swing will be a combination of hand and body. Most golf instruction emphasises too much body – when you can learn to let the body be a support mechanism you will hit the ball further with less effort.

This is what scientific study has found and this seems to be more accurate than our opinion and perception.

Cameron, I also have done my share of research on all kinds of swings since I started back playing @ 2000. I first had a mostly arm swing and came from @ 100 to @ 75 to 80 in @ 2 yrs.. Then…. I started reading all the stuff about how much more powerful a body swing was. My game slowly went downhill. I not only lost power but accuracy as well. Since I am in my 60 s , I thought it was just my age catching up with me. Long story short, after 2 -3 years of frustration , I returned to arm swing after reading a blog about Leslie King method of swinging.Thank goodness!!! My distance improved, my accuracy came back and I am close to par on a good day. It is not unusual to hit a 250 to 300 yd drive. THE STRENGTH IS IN THE ARMS SUPPORTED WITH A GOOD BODY TURN! Thanks J. D.

Hi Mike,

The scientists used a fairly complicated testing protocol. There were many subjects – about 12 from memory. I didn’t come up with the conclusion. I worked with them and helped them understand the golf swing better. It was a joint venture really – I was led by their research and BioSwing was formed.

Sorry I can’t give you more detail – but the science remained the property of the Universities involved – BioSwing was all I was allowed to walk away with.

Strange but true.

Cameron

@Jess: I agree. Golf coaches didn’t perform this research – Qualified biomechanical researches did.

We also found some interesting facts about the hips. Most importantly was learning to control them on the way down.

Cheers,

Cameron

Dear Cameron,
I have done more than 25 years of research in the golf swing and just published a book titled-Golf Lessons Not For Monkeys.. The tilel is self explanatory. I have never come across any golf instructor or professionbal golf player who understands the reasons behind the different aspects of the swing like,–why the Vardon or Interlocking grikp is better than a 10 finger grip, why is the driver of certain length and now limited to 48 inches? The real reasons for the Straight Takeaway. These are just examples of what readers will find in my book.
I am just hungry for intelligent conversation with intelligent persons like you. I am close to 70 years old and I wish I could get together with somebody who is influential enoujgh to broadcast my knopwledge especikally to the younger generation. Bad side effect is that once people have my knowledge they might not want to read any golf magazine and that’s the risk I’m goling to take.
Thank you very much for hearing me out, as they say.

I know you are intelligent enough to be my partner. Close to 100% of my knowledge is in my book which is cop;yrighted. I am close to 70 years old and I want to teach what I know. I can prove my knowledge in about an hour in a golf range. However, I am not Tiger Woods , therefore I have no credentials yet. I also believed that all the top players are just it seems like autistic learners., learning through imitation. I would like to see a real champion who could transmit his knowledge to the next generation . Right now I am just trying to network with the cheapest way possible because my income comes onlyh from social security.

Dear cameron,

Your Secret #1 is absolutely correct. My web page has a link to my recent article in the International Journal of Sports Science & Engineering entitled “Was Vardon Right ?”. There is no doubt that the bent left arm is superior to the straight (not rigid !) arm in the golf swing. Not everyone will follow the physics but the conclusions are accessible to all and it’s good to have agreement between theory and practice.

Mr. Groid is right I had so many mistakes in spelling. I should be more careful in writing. That is my daughter’s criticism about my book. English was always my poorest subject. I don’t value language that much as long as much of my communication is understood in science perspective. Language is only arbitratry, not like math or physics . 1 plus 1 is always 2 no matter where you go. If Mr. Groid have a chance to read my book he would appreciate my contribution to the education of the golfing community, that is if he is really serious about learning golf..

start the swing with the arms?
bend the left arm?
don’t listen to professional golf instuctor about grip?
what a bunch of bull crap I hope there isn’t anyone that takes this serious.
It’s always about someone trying to make money no matter the cost!

You are right on the money! What you describe is how I swing. I know that the left hand and arm create the swing, not the rotation of the body. This is what I found to be true for myself. The body follows and does not lead the golf swing. The flat spot principle is also right on the money! Coiling for power is another bad idea, which masks the importance of feel in the golf swing, the feeling of the clubhead in the left hand. Not having a completely straight left arm is also on the money. It reduces my tension and allows my body to follow the left hand and arm with ease. One thing you did not mention but imply, is that you don’t need as much active energy to swing in a bio-mechanical way. You are not relying on the big muscles, but on the little, more sensitive ones in the left hand and arm. An absence of tension, is key to allowing the freedom of motion needed to hit all the correct mechanic positions, without having to think about them. My key here is simply to maintain a steady spine angle, with my center of gravity remaining for the most part between by two feet. I agree with everything you say, and I know people will greatly benefit from your research.

Absolutely agree with shortening the backswing… I also believe that more power is generated by the shoulder muscles. I hadda learn my swing after many difficult years. Nice article.

It is an absolute shame that you a spewing this garbage…Everything and I mean everything you are suggesting is completely with out merit and in no way will make anyone a better player. There is not one modern tour player who swings without rotation. Power and accuracy is created through speed and square clubface angle at impact. This cannot be achieved repeatedly unless you use your big muscles to control the swing. The hands and arms are along for the ride and POWER AND SPEED are the result of the hips and shoulders unwinding in a proper sequence. The only things you have said that has even a shred of merit is that if you are relaxed coupled without over swinging (3/4 back swing) you will have a better chance of hitting solidly struck shots. That’s it, the rest is pure and utter nonsense and following your advice on the golf swing will do most players more harm than good. I challenge you to show me one tour player now or in the past who swings like you profess all good players do without rotating their body you must rotate to create power SLIDING CREATES NO LEVERAGE OR LAG!

YOU ARE DEAD WRONG AND ANYONE WHO FOLLOWS THIS ADVICE WILL HAVE LITTLE TO NO SUSTAINABLE GAINS IN PLAYING GOLF…PLEASE STOP CREATING MORE BAD GOLFERS…HAVE YOU NO SHAME?

There is a golfer in my club, a male about 50. He is a big strong man and
on a low handicap, he only plays occasionally. He hits the ball huge
distances although he is not very flexible. His swing is barely above waist
high. He says he gets his clubhead speed from his right inner head of the
triceps muscle, the inner right forearm, and both wrists. It occurred to
me that if you look at a skilled axeman, these are the areas they get their
power, while the body plays a stabilising role.

I agree about the importance of the hands in golf swing .
Great Henry Cotton wrote a whole book about strengthening the hands almost 80 years ago
He could hit a 4 iron with left hand only with a draw and same result he could have with his right hand only
Cheers

I find that feeling comfortable at address, and having an easy hold on the club, is a good starting point in finding your swing. Play with soft hands, and without tension in your address.

Not thinking about too many details is also helpful, to learn by feel, and not by connecting the dots approach. Keeping things simple is the best advice anyone can give. Make sure you are aiming correctly, and set up comfortably.

Next, learn to waggle the club-head. Feel the weight at the end of the stick. This weight needs to break inertia by using the hands. I believe that if the clubs you use have too light a feel to them, that you will never unlock the secret of experiencing an actual golf swing.

I believe that the weight at the end of the stick is what is being swung, not the club. This is a subtle difference. If the weight is more heavy than light, then the wrists will cock and uncock naturally, releasing effortless power, with a relatively effortless swing.

Faster arm speed does not help your swing, only feeling a real swing will. Objects fall to the ground at a certain, constant, rate of speed. Don’t fight physics. Learn to go with the flow, and not try to force things.

As far as the flat spot is concerned, Johnny Miller speaks of this in one of his videos. He said that the reverse “C” finish used during his era, was the key to why the pros of his generation hit the ball so straight! This key has been buried in current golf thinking.

The old-school golf swingers used to roll their left forearm going back, and then roll their right forearm back to their address position on the way down. This used to be called the “hitch-hiker” drill. It is a natural motion, which makes the back-swing easy to complete. The modern approach depends on body rotation to square the club face.

I believe that there is a definite technique to swinging the club. First, you must energize the club-head by learning to waggle, and then tossing the club away from the target to give it momentum. It should feel like the club-head is pulling the arms, and the arms are leading the body.

Next, do not add any additional energy to the swing going back and up. Feel the initial momentum slowing down, until the club has come to a pause. Allow gravity to slow the swing going back, wait, and then use gravity to reverse the direction of the swing.

Let your hands and arms lead the downswing, bringing your hands down and inside, close to your body. Your shoulders do not turn, but tilt, away from your body, as your hands move down and close in to attack the ball. This helps create the so-called flat-spot and reverse “C” finish. You set-up initially using the Reverse-K address position, hands ahead, head behind the ball. Then later, returning to this position at impact.

One last thing. Always play the ball opposite the left side of your face, for all shots. Never leave a divot, it is not necessary. Keep your center of gravity centered as you swing and make impact. Do not throw your weight around. Swing in front of the ball, and not around your body. The swing is back and up, down and through to the target. Think of throwing the club to the target using your hands and arms. This makes the swing much easier to digest and perform.

I totally agree with the notion that a full shoulder turn, and keeping the left arm straight is not necessary, and makes the swing much more difficult than it has to be. I play using a shorter back-swing, and let my left arm bend. The ball still flies long and straight for me!

Do not get in your own way is great advice. Just setup to the ball in a relaxed fashion, taking careful aim. Waggle. Then pull the trigger by injecting life into the club-head, leading the parade. Ride the club back and up. The back-swing slows as it reaches it’s apex. Pause, waiting for gravity to help you move the club down with your hands and arms. Stay centered during the swing. No conscious weight shift. Just let the body follow the momentum of the swing, finish facing the target, standing tall and in balance.

A real golf swing will seem slow, graceful, and effortless. It will produce automatic timing, with good distance and accuracy. Consistency comes from practice and playing often. I believe that once your get it, you get it. I believe that golf has been played this way for a very long time over the centuries, before the golf industry was created. Stop trying so hard. Relax, and discover the swing within.

I am 73 9 h/c have been following ben hogan swing for a number of years and have experimented with a number

Of different swings however I now am finding more distance and less strain on the body using arms supported by

The body with shorter backswing

Alan

Cameron, Reading this article as written makes me think you are advocating early extension. Proper swing speed starts slow and accelerates through impact. In order to accomplish acceleration in the golf swing there must be storage and late release of energy. The later the release of energy, the faster the club head speed through impact. This storage and late release of energy is demonstrated in the concept of lag in the golf swing.

I think you are generating controversy with this article, in particular, because you may not be describing more exactly what is meant by an arm swing as opposed to a body swing. If you were to hold your legs and core still and only swing your arms, there is no way to generate any club head speed. Your left arm will crash against your chest going back and your right arm will crash against your chest going to the target. The result a very disjointed golf swing with no acceleration and extremely slow club head speed.

In reality club head speed is built from the ground up through your feet into your ankles then lower legs into your knees, followed by the femurs into the hips, then your torso into your shoulders and finally into your arms, right elbow and wrists. Try suspending yourself above the ground and see how fast you can swing a golf club, that’s about as well as you can play golf by only swinging with your arms.

The truth is, the body leads the arms in the proper golf swing. The arms take over only in about the last 2/100’s of a second when releasing the stored energy through impact. That’s the greatest acceleration, with the most accuracy you can generate in golf. Physics works in theory, Anatomy works in reality.

For me… The baseball swing and the golf swing is nothing more than two swings with some minor variable changes meaning knowing how to derive the swing makes the variables nothing but obvious and predictable differences… In saying that I’m missing the broader debate hear… But to give up a few of my observations….. The fascia is important and the 3 well known nerves in the hands are important.. I’ll also look into 3 key points in the hands and feet and how they are coordinated.. So 3 points of forces… So to start these points in the hands and feet are key… The lead hand with leveraging power is extremely important… Meaning if you can’t leverage the rod with the lead hand you would have miss it and forever we will be discussing two different things…even though talking about the lead hand….

Posture is important especially for the set up between the shoulders….good posture gives you good reflexes and instincts…. So two differing people with substantially different postures can perhaps feel and react differently to the same movements….

Good posture allows for the eyes to direct the body thus letting a pubic push get lined up correctly without thinking big muscles or rotation or linear nonsense…. So get lined up from one place to another…. Meaning there are two planes and two different postures and the user should feel a moment of weakness in the transition…. And the push….so in summary… The hands, feet, tailbone and upper spinal cord using your eyes….The lead hand pinches in order to get the user in the 2nd plane so we know when to transition and coordinate it all….

At the end, the hands, if your posture is correct ( I. E., what is called “being connect”)… The hands are basically used once connected to make the system work… Coiling is a no teach…. Nobody coil… What really happens is you finsh your swing… Than once you finsh your swing you need to know what pressures to use in the hands and indirectly in the feet and hold, pull, push it all back to the stance and even further to the back swing ( loading in baseball)… So the swing is finished and winded up… So in the winding you have the lateral tilt, the hip movements, the folding , rotating, weight shifts, lag…etc… If should wind up it all… Because than all you need to do is tap the buttons like a mouse trap… So any issues would be you didn’t wind ( set up) correctly, you didn’t hold/pull/push correctly or you didn’t tap the right buttons ….Basically…you hit the ball while your unwinding it and you just need to know how to (LET) it unwind itself while your directly it…. There are 3 points in the feet and hands ( pinkie, lower thumb, forefinger) ( 4 fascia lines, 3 major nerves) that either wind up, hold, push, pull… Blah blah… You get it… The puzzle is knowing where to apply the pressures because winding up should be understood… At the end it’s about LETTING it happen… Meaning hindsight is a bitch when doing it but easy figuring it out if you already did it and specially if you were not indoctrinated in the cue or culture nonsense… I’m out and I hope you find this interesting.. If you think… What stick ball… He’s not even a pro in swinging that stick and that’s not golf… All I have to say… Yea…. Good answer… Your right so don’t bother with this …. Hope all is well…

~Djura Malevic

I love all these angry, narrow minded people (half of you can’t spell) who keep comparing the average golfer to PGA tour players. PGA tour players spend their ENTIRE life developing an insanely inhuman swing. They work on flexibility and strength in areas that we will never be able to achieve as average golfers. I got two herniated disks in my lower back from Afghanistan and I had to completely rebuild my golf swing after a 4 year abscense. Once I shortened my backswing to less than a 3/4 swing and started letting my arms whip the club through instead of my body, I started hitting powerful draws instead of the wicked slices I was hitting, stopped fatting and thinning the ball and finally started shooting consistently under 80. I play with a buddy who has been playing for over 20 years and swings out of his ass and drives the ball over 300 yards. I swing easy as can be, drive the ball about 250-260 and I beat him by at least 10 strokes every single time we play. STOP FOCUSING ON THE TOUR PLAYERS and find an easily repeatable swing that makes golf more fun for YOU. Leading with your body leaves the club face open and causes slices and pushes. I played like that for years and couldn’t break 90 to save my life. Random dudes that I get paired up with tell me I have a goofy swing and they try to change it but as we round the 10th hole and I’m 6 strokes ahead they usually end up asking me for advice. The old golf mentality has got to be undone. This game can be so much easier than everyone is making it to be.

Way to much confusion.
All good swings are biomechanically correct., that is why most pro swings look balance and smooth etc. amateurs swings look aweful compared to pro’s. hmm why I wonder? well its mosty due to the proper sequencing of specific body movements primarily on the downswing. optimally the timing ratio for most pros are a ratio of 3:1 for a reason. the pelvis movement is very important and usually done incorrectly in am’s.
you need the proper sequence from the top… hips, shoulders then arms and hands and proper wrist supination etc.. most am’s start using their arms and hands instincively from the top which is incorrect. we must sequence the transistion properly to create a swing arc that shallows automatically and also comes from the inside! only proper sequencing from the top will allow proper strike. not leading with the arms. bent arm is bad… we want to measured to the ball consistantly. bent arm is a fake backswing. stiff arm is also bad, so just keep arm fairly straight but also relaxed

Cameron,

+1 here! I’ve been through the PGA system and I can confirm that recent teaching principles are still that of using the larger muscles to control the club. I too was caught in this system and had very inconsistent results. I’m 5’9 and weigh 75kg, and I can carry a driver on average 265m According to trackman, my average swing speed with a driver is 113mph.

It really is simple physics, the club is connected to the hands, which are in turn connected to the arms, which are in turn connected to the shoulders. I liken it to a hammer thrower. There is no way these athletes are spinning the hammer with the body, the body simply acts as a balance point for the arms and hands to swing around.

After giving a considerable amount of lessons, I can say with 100% certainty that the idea, or concept, of telling people to use their body is to prevent them from overly using the arms, which results on an over-the-top action. It could be for many it’s nothing more than terminology.

I play of 3 at almost 50 and I’ve worked with the same coach for 35 years, and he still to this day promotes the arms play a major role in the golf swing.

Ignore the knockers!

Cameron, if you are still around, keep it up. Like John H above, I have a lot of golf instruction books and still like the oldies – John Jacobs is one of my favourites. If my swing starts to abandon me during a round, I can still save it by thinking about the Jacobs “swing the arms”. One thing that I believe is that thinking the swing is driven by the body and the hip rotation confounds the brain — it seems so inherently obvious that I move the club back with my arms and hands, shouldn’t I move it down with my arms? Further, if the swing is actually driven by the body and core rotation, the brain thinks “how doesn’t my club just flop around behind me, and how does it accurately hit the ball?” This contradiction leads to a stiff and tense swing, timing problems and poor release of the clubhead because you simply can’t make sense of it. Thinking about swinging the clubhead back to the ball with the arms and hands is a much more natural movement, so the body relaxes and moves naturally, and so in fact does support the arm movement and club swing. (I believe kinetic studies show that even if we feel like we are just swinging with our arms, the swing is actually starting by firing of muscles in our our legs, hips, and core.) Just like chopping a tree or hitting a nail, hitting an object with a tool is a natural albeit learned movement. As you repeat the swing over and over, you will naturally develop the movements in arm, hands, and body that support the ball flight you want, especially if you know a bit about the ball flight laws. I have found that I have added distance and a solid feel to my hits if I can keep my wrists soft, let the club finish at the top of the backswing, and try to swing the club and let it release properly (sort of a “crack the whip” movement, perhaps caused by bottoming out of the swing and lifting of the front shoulder, which causes the clubhead to snap through) rather than try to hit at the ball. But I think in part that building a successful swing comes from a sensible progression, and starting by thinking about swinging the arms down to accurately swing through the ball is the easiest way, as the rest of the required body movements will naturally be added in.

Hi everyone. I to firmly believe in this. I’ve actually recently gotten into the teachings of Mike Malaska and Tony Luczak, both on YouTube. Dominant hand leading the swing and body turning in response. Luczak has a PhD in biomechanical engineering I think it is and actually set out to discover if what Michael Bender had told him about the swing. Lots of research. Anyway, along the same lines as what you’re stating. I used to be really good but took several years off due to life obligations. Came back to the game and started reading golf instruction and was way off. I realized, I used to play on instinct and got good fast. Started searching as to why and then came across those guys I mentioned and than you and it clicked… BAM! game came right back. Man, is it fun when you pay like this! Game is so much easier playing this way. I think the naysayers just don’t quite get it. Some people I find will defend something just because they don’t know better. People, the body is most certainly involved, it’s just not leading the way. I can say in my own experience, this is the way to play for me without a shred of doubt. Look how many people take conventional lessons and still struggle even with years of lessons. Not for me. I’m gonna have some fun tearing it up with an easier way for sure. Best to everyone and enjoy this great game.
Thank Cameron