I have said that releasing the club properly might be the most important thing in a golf swing. Well, I stand corrected. Releasing the club properly keeps the club in front of you on the downswing, allowing you to accelerate freely and square the club. This situation creates the ability for each golfer to generate his/her greatest possible club head speed.
The video below shows some of the ways to keep the club in front of you and many of the ways that it gets stuck.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrNbqVviRzc]
Streaming Video Series
“Hip turn” is an interesting term. I think it comes from video analysis–but I’m not sure that it’s accurate. The hips might look turned, but not from turning them.
On the backswing, the front hip was involved with the swing, and it followed back, and somewhat in front of the golfer…but the back hip mostly rotated around the ball joint without changing its position very much. It was the lead hip that changed its position.
On the downswing, the conscious move might be more of a “slide” than a turn.
I had a Bob Toski book, and he said that the swing was TURN-SLIDE-TWIST. I never quite got what the SLIDE was. Maybe it’s sliding the lead hip back where it came from, a bit forward and to the left (right-handed golfer), so that the hips will begin to look open–but not from turning the hips.
The problem for me was that the “slide” is a lot smaller than I thought it was. When Hogan demonstrated his famous “lower body” move, it looked like it had rotation because the momentum of the upper body had kicked-in, beginning to bring his right hip forward. You can’t make that kind of slide without initiating upper body movement, because it induces a torso twist. Maybe that’s what Toski meant.
I thought I had to slide my lower body all the way to the finish position–but the swing produces most of lower body movement, bringing the back hip forward, after the relatively small “slide.”
One thing Hogan did demonstrate. His conscious lower body move (slide?) was finished before his hands ever dropped to waist-high.
The primary thing this video demonstrates to me is what “not” to do. I would prefer to see more emphasis and demonstration of what “to” do – especially as it relates to hand/arm positions after waist high on the backswing where your hands obviously cannot remain in front of you.
Thanks.
There are three important parts to this. One, the arms hands and shoulders work together. Two, the end of the backswing is when the shoulders stop turning. Three, the release works in sync with the turning of the shoulders and lower body.
Being in front is a relative term…kind of like straight spine.
I agree. You’ve shown what “NOT” to do but there is little if anything you’ve said about how to do this properly. It’s good to explain what can ruin a golfers swing but only if you also explain how to do something properly. I’ll be standing by for your next video that shows us that.
Monte, I think there’s a lot about this concept which is true. In fact I teach several students to keep their hands out in front of them…. however arguably the greatest ball striker of all time did not have his hands out in front of him. Ben Hogan was quite clearly much more around his shoulders than in front of them. But there is a reason he did it that way. He handled the clubface much more with forearm rotation.
You hit the salient point. People like to bring out Hogan as a standard of swing excellence.
He was a great PLAYER. It took him a decade of hitting balls 8 hours a day to perfect that swing. It is not a swing that should be a standard of any kind. Just like Dustin Johnson’s bowed wrist and Ricky Fowler’s extremely flat backswing…Hogan’s secrets will not work for the masses.
Exposing my ignorance: I have no idea what “hands in front of chest” means.
It’s obvious to me that in any swing the hands move past the trail shoulder.
So what exactly is “hands in front of chest”.
Like I said above, it’s a relative term. You wants the hands working in sync with the rest of your body and releasing the club.
Interesting comments on Hogan.
This month’s “Golf” magazine has a piece on how to “fix” Tiger’s swing, and blame trying to become more Hogan-esque with Haney as part of his recent demise. Swinging too much around his body, and getting too flat , “laid off”.
They also have Monte’s Plane and Release by Feel tip in the Magazine as well.
Monte, you may want to call your lawyers, someone has been reading your site and putting it in the magazine. 😉
To Ron…try the post on June 30th.
Hi Monte,
I notice that, not only in this video, but in most of them, you spend most of the time speaking about and describing what’s wrong, which is great, but you don’t put the same effort in showing what’s right.
So know, I understand what I am doing wrong, but have no clue how to fix it and what pattern follow now. Maybe this is your way to get new students to get lessons with you.
Pretty weak comment by you at the end there considering I probably give away more free info than any other instructor. I have over 100 videos and most of them say what to do.
@Rob
Your comment, especially at the end, is total nonsense. Monte gave me so many times free advice that I almost feel bad about it. And he has plenty of videos on youtube where he explains things and how to do them the right way. And he offers his teaching videos, which are really not expensive. Monte helped me to improve my game fundamentally. In my opinion he is one of the best teaching pros out there, with a very high knowledge of the golf swing.