GOLF BULL VOLUME I. -- LASER NONSENSE

Lasers in Golf

High-tech or can you say the word gimmick? The laser stuff is just more to add to the huge list of gadgets and gimmicks that teach you how to swing from the top down. The swing should be taught from the bottom up. Think of bottom up as having a flagpole, digging a hole in the ground and cementing it in. From the top down is setting your flagpole on the ground and attaching braces to hold it up. Each brace represents a job that needs to be done. Take a job away and your pole comes crashing down. Learning from the bottom up is first learning weight transfer with balance from a stable lower body, then learning the parts of the swing where the hands are at or below the waist. If you have learned your swing from the top, my description of the golf swing (What is the golf swing?) will seem like an over simplified bunch of BS. As easy as it is to dig the hole, if someone is not willing to do it, they will never experience what I'm talking about. The turning drill is one of the tools I use to dig the hole. This is learning the swing from the bottom. The hands remain below the waist during this entire motion.

Some say a good teacher stays up on the latest technologies. If they're referring to gadgets, I'll stay in the old world. Even the high-tech video equipment is a distraction from what most people should be doing. I own two cameras and a program that allows me to show someone their swing from two angles simultaneously. I can show people endless video comparisons of what they do as opposed to what they should be doing. This is useless and frustrating to anyone that cannot accurately feel the positions they are in and know exactly what they look like. You learn this with a mirror. Once you have learned this, you no longer need the camera.
If you use a mirror for slow motion swing rehearsals, the lasers and cameras quickly become useless novelties. Video is here to stay and will undoubtedly forever be overused. I can live without it. Gadgets, gimmicks and endless hours of BS disguised in the name technology have done much to confuse and frustrate people. The people selling this stuff know better and no matter how they try to rationalize it, they are doing more harm than good. The swing is hard enough as it is, don't be led astray.

What makes the golf swing I teach so powerful and reliable?

My technique creates power from a combination of factors. I keep my hands far from the ball as the hands pass below the waist and I create the space I need to turn freely and as hard as I want. To produce extra power I give the shoulders more work. As my club comes down I'm reaching away from the ball. The shoulders become so burdened that they ask for help from my right leg. The right leg digs in and helps the shoulders turn. I have no worries about squaring the club face. It's square simply by the inherent nature of my technique. You probably wouldn't notice that I'm doing anything different from many of the swings you see. You would notice that at any point during the swing, I always look powerful and it has little to do with my size and build. I explain the mechanics of this motion in Another 9 Pages. Some adjustments in your technique and concepts could be required to be successful at this. You do not need the stretch or reach to hit solid, crisp golf shots. The stretch is for those of us that are fascinated with power and superior techniques.

-- STEVE

Read some more Golf Bull about technology and other training aids.