There are two things that have been drilled into us for years. The lower body leads and hold the lag.
The first one is actually true for a split second and is over done to a damaging degree. You all know what I think of the second one…PU.
These two things have something in common. They make the arms passive, slow down and trail the rotation of the body. This in turn causes the body to slow down to wait for the arms to catch up. If nothing, I am redundant to get my point across.
While understanding in a proper kinematic sequence that the lower body and hips do in fact start a split second sooner (the bump)…in a good backswing the shoulders will have turned twice as far as the hips (standard 90* and 45*) and the arms have rotated across the shoulders…additional intent to lead with the lower body and let the arms fall behind is a disaster.
I will leave you with a rhetorical question and will have more discussion about this in a few days.
What is going to produce more shaft lean and club head speed at impact?
1. The arms accelerating out in front of the body.
2. The arms lagging behind the body.
PS-I do have many more pictures of golfers with this issue. This particular one gets posted because he is brave and not embarrassed by what his swing used to look like…more importantly, he had the biggest immediate improvement. 5 minutes.
Streaming Video Series
This is so dead on – and I believe comes to many of us who grew up playing rotational sports like tennis but stopped before getting adult strength. This is one of my main issues and Monte is trying to show me the way. If you have naturally fast hips and lagging arms it will feel like the lower body isn’t moving at all, but will work so much better.
Keep it up Monte!!
Half way through a lesson, I was hitting the ball either OK or very well. The Pro commented that the backswing was always fine, the transition smooth but the sequencing was not consistent. Trust me, he said, swing your arms down sooner than you think you ought to.
Mentally I thought the result would be a push to the right of the target line – being right handed. What happened was I started to hit the ball consistently well, with a baby draw back to the target line.
It FEELS like the arms are swinging down along the 45 degree hip line to start with, then the right shoulder goes down and the hips are then pulled around, with the right knee and foot following last of all.
Speed gained is surprising and very much appreciated. Worked on this all weekend and the end result is much better. Feel free to use my pictures and video if you want to.
I used the no turn cast drill to speed up the arms to link the swing and I have to say it felt alien to me. Not “War of the Worlds” alien but more The Hot Alien Girls from “Dude Wheres my Car” kind of alien.
Seems like one of the most common faults you see with amateurs including myself. PU. Great post
Great post- 20 years ago, my instructor encouraged me to “turn your hips from the top of the backswing!” He would literally grab the belt loop on the right side and want me to feel as if it was going left from the top. SO- for the past 20 years I’ve struggled with my arms not being able to sync up with a “out from under me” lower action- JUST like the video above. Thanks to Monte and a better understanding, I can give myself a better chance without relying on perfect (and fleeting) timing! Thanks Monte
This is a great before and after….about time you put up a new swing video for your blog!
What did you tell him to get that move in 5 minutes?
Monte, how can I correspond with you directly to follow up with a problem I’m having downloading the new video. Sorry to butt in.
I’m definitely guy number 1 by the way.
On returning to golf 2 years ago and believing the swing was lower body driven I studied Hardys book The Plane Truth for Golfers where he promotes passive arms for the single plane swing. It took me a year to break free from that after discovering other coaches promoted an arm swing and then saw Montes comments on Golfwrx on this topic.
Mike Bender is one that promotes an arm swing – he promotes that the arms and hands fire straight towards the ball in the downswing. However when I did that I got the results Hardy warned of – coming over the top.
My hips were too quick, my swing weak and out of synch until I started firing the arms. Still experiencing some difficulties in arriving at the right impact position but will persist. I think the key for me in managing more active arms and a better impact will lie in the right elbow and secondary tilt.
I’ll be checking out your videos again Monte.
monte, meet you in atlanta airport two years ago getting a rental car. My son whom you meet also has the same problem thta you have demonstrated. His right foot is off of the ground before impact and his body is put of synch. Any drills to improve this. Thanks
Any of the ones I have posted so far…and many more. It’s about finding the one that works.
It’s also possible he is steep in transition. That will also cause the ballerina move.
I remember you guys. Had to rent a car because your flight was cancelled. Longest line ever to get a car.