“It works for me.”

I hear this all the time and it’s never from a tour pro, mini tour player, even scratch golfer. It’s from high handicappers.

The rebuttal to a respectful disagreement that it is not working, is always that tour player X does it and, “He’s pretty good.”

I will reiterate, if a small number of golfers who have played at the highest levels have done some mystery move, it does not make it OK for you to do it…or worse, it’s not something you aspire to because it is not the reason for their success. They succeed in spite of that.

In the last 6 months, I’ve had half a dozen hip swayers tell me that Monty does it and was the best player in Europe for 10 years.

I’ve had a dozen people want me to teach them to bow their left wrist at the top because Dustin Johnson kills the ball.

I have seen hundreds of golfers between the ages of 40 and 100 actively lift their left heel with no hip turn causing it. The left heel literally left the ground as soon as the takeaway started and 20* of hip turn resulted. “Well that’s how Nicklaus created power.”

Ah, no it wasn’t.

People trying to manufacture and zero out Hogan’s impact position wit no effort toward understanding how his swing and body type produced it.

The point…swing your swing. Figure out why you personally mishit the ball. Tour players have spent large parts of the day for decades learning that swing. You can not excuse or manufacture one part of a golf swing because someone else succeeded with it.

When long driving, I lock out my right knee at impact to create some space. I don’t do it on purpose. People have showed up on my lesson tee with that move they have manufactured on purpose from watching videos of my swing thing it’s a power producer. It’s not. It’s a miss the ball dead right producer, that’s why I try not to do it when I play golf.

Around the world people are literally trying to implement Rory’s hip stall.

It’s all so ridiculous.

Previous

Next

13 Comments

  1. David Carter

    Are you say that because Hogan and Rory are short players 5 ft 7 that their able to keep the club on plane longer throughout the swing even in transition and I’m 6ft 2 it would be difficult for me to copy.I notice the my club travels more on Vijay swing path because I’m the same height as he his 6 ft 2. ?

    Reply
    • Monte Scheinblum

      Anatomy plays a huge role. Hogan’s right arm was very bent at impact. Very long wingspan to height. I was taught to do that and got stuck….short wingspan to height.

      Reply
      • David Carter

        Oh I understand your saying I may be the same height as V.j but his arms my be slightly shorter or longer est.for me to copy his swing.that why u everybody swing is different and you have to swing your own swing with a proper setup

        Reply
  2. Michael C.

    Do you find that teaching kids to play varies from teaching adults?

    It seems to me that the adult brain becomes more analytical. As a kid it’s more “see the ball, hit the ball”. They are also ingenious at copying their idol’s swings and do it just to be like them. As a adults we tend to over analyze positions, become susceptible to the cliches, and rationalize why we are copying our idols.

    I may have answered my own question but have never taught. I ask to get first-hand knowledge.

    On a side note, have you noticed Rory’s hips will not only stall but recoil?

    Reply
  3. pcb_duffer

    I’d simply reply “You’re a 21 handicap. It’s not working for you.”

    Reply
  4. Calvin

    Hip stall?? If I can get ’em moving I’m not gonna stop ’em.
    What the heck is a hip stall?

    Reply
  5. Chris

    There was an article in GM not too long ago, something akin to “Copy his power moves and Crush it like Bubba”. If I see a Pink driver on the course, the General Lee better be in the parking lot.

    Reply
  6. Peter R.

    The golf industry sells hope and snake oil. The golf industry gets rich on quick fixes and I’d bet amateur golfers invest much more annually in new equipment, well reviewed and advertised in golf magazines than on regular lessons from a pro.

    It takes a few rounds as a beginner with well-meaning friends helping to ingrain terrible habits that take some serious effort and commitment to unlearn. I started later in life and spent 3 years going nowhere with properly fit equipment but only a few lessons. The following 2 years have been 30+ half hour lessons per year with a PGA Pro close to my office (no excuses), close to an hour of indoor practice 4-5 days per week, and slow steady progress to a really good swing that my body can actually execute. Scoring will come later, now that I can actually hot the ball consistently.

    Only now am I finally “getting it” and no longer thinking as I swing. After a good or bad shot, I now have a good idea of what I did wrong. The process of becoming expert at something is to move it from the slower and distracted conscious mind to the faster sub-conscious mind. My pace of progress is accelerating and there’s some more magic in every round. My instructor had a vision for what I could do, he took me there step by step and I backed him up with hard work and focus.

    If you’re looking for a quick fix, you’ll never find it and likely don’t have enough money to try them all. only confusion will result. Don’t buy a new driver, buy some lessons.

    Reply
  7. Swaff

    We would all be better served if we focused on Earl’s first lesson to Tiger:

    “Where do you want the ball to go Tiger?”

    “Over there, daddy.”

    “Ok, how are you going to get it there?”

    I like Shawn Clement for that reason. I don’t necessarily fully subscribe to his methods, but his idea of “everything to the target” really has helped me.

    Most adult males can throw a baseball or football with pretty good accuracy, why can we not just send a stationary ball towards that flag over there?

    Reply
    • Joe Duffer

      You obviously haven’t seen Tiger throw a baseball. It’s not pretty…

      Reply
    • golfercraig

      “Most adult males can throw a baseball or football with pretty good accuracy, why can we not just send a stationary ball towards that flag over there?”

      That is inherently false. Ridiculously false. MOST adult males throw a baseball like 25 handicappers hit a golf ball.

      Reply
  8. Paul

    That’s timely. That’s what Tom Watson said after helping contribute to another U.S. Ryder Cup loss.

    Reply
  9. James

    I totally agree with you Monte. I’m an old baseball guy and I have no idea what I do since I have refuse to watch video of my swing (would make me crazy)and I hit the ball best when I feel like I am set up in a position to make a home run swing if you will (not AJ Bonar’s home run either). What happens next is I just swing my swing like you said.

    Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Share This
X