GOLF SWING OVERHAUL: Logic Says Simple is Better

Every golfer graves the skills to repeat a good solid swing.  Pros. . .who’ve dedicated their lives to the game. . .can’t pull it off.  Those that can swing consistently with more consistency. . .and along the way make a lot of short putts. . .win the tournaments.

Note weight on right leg. . .now must shift back

The conventional swing. . .the one we’re all taught. . .all over the world. . .has too many parts to replicate a swing consistently.  The two major issues are the infamous takeaway. . .where a thousand things can and do go wrong. . .and the notion of rhythm to compensate for it.  

Sway to one side. . .sway back. . .swat the ball.  Logic screams at us that something is wrong. . .right?  My swing technique gets rid of two major problems. . .immediately: the takeaway and the need for rhythm.  For those reason alone. . .unless you feel it’s over and you’re going to the grave with the swing you have. . .you should give it a try.

TOP DOWN SMACKS OF GOOD LOGIC

Stand over the ball. . .lift the club into position. . .strike down at the ball. . .THWACK!  That’s it. . .including the sound effects.  In every sport. . .we see sports physiologists contributing new ideas about how to throw a baseball. . .a football. . .a shot put. . .you name it.  Runners go to these clinics and practice new techniques. . .and in every case. . .people are getting better results by bringing their motions into harmony with the way the body is designed.

We bend at the waist.  We rotate. . .but not too much.  We can twist our arms. . .but not too far.  We can rotate around our knees. . .but we have to be careful not to compress the knee too much while rotating. . .or it can snap.  This happens in pro basketball far too often.  The sneakers grabs the floor and won’t yield while the player is trying to pivot and something has to give.  Ankles. . .knees. . .hip flexors. . .shoulders. . .all take a beating and too often cause a player to miss games.

I began developing the MONGOOSE GOLF SWING years ago. . .about 15 to be exact.  I shot most of my tutorial in Palm Springs.  I spent too much producing it.  Way too much.  I’ve never gotten my money back selling first VHS copies. . .now DVDs.  But at the time. . .and I still hold strongly to this belief. . .I thought I’d made the most remarkable breakthrough in the history of the golf swing.

Again. . .weight is on right leg. . .must now get back

It consists of THREE basic principles. . .the counterbalancing technique. . .which eliminates the takeaway and the need for a rhythmic swing. . .the levering action inherent in the upper body. . .we bend naturally at the waist. . .and the unique separating of the hands grip. . .which lets even those with weaker hands to wield the club. . .much like a Samurai swordsman. . .which helps produce significant club head speed. . .with less effort.  

PUTTING TECHNIQUE OVERHAUL: The Advantages of the Long Putter Continue

In a recent PUTTING TECHNIQUE OVERHAUL. . .I show a little girl holding a broom.  The idea is to hold the long putter as if it were a broom.  Now in the video abive. . .this man advocates touching the top of the putter against the shoulder.  All of these ideas are to produce a more stable setup. . .which of course effects the results.  You can see he's using the strength of his arms to accelerate the putter.  This is more obvious if you observe his practice tip of simply pushing the ball to the hole.

YOUR BODY REMEMBERS BETTER THAN YOU DO

I advocate using the body to apply the force.  This man is perfectly correct in using a very short takeaway for most putts. . .and then accelerating through the putt.  I have proven that this is much easier using our body than our arms and shoulders.  And it's far more consistent as a round progresses.

In the previous post I mentioned that you take the putter back with your arms and shoulders. . .but that you contract the muscles of your body. . .on the right side (for right-handers. . .reversed for lefties). . .and then use your body to apply the required force to the ball.  It's a short move. . .even for 50 footers.  

What I neglected to include was this tip:. . .you can begin contracting your body muscles as you begin taking the putter away from the ball.  Again. . .you're not preparing to throw the shot put. . .or some heavy weight.  So don't over due the muscle contracting.  You're merely preparing to apply whatever force your body deems necessary (and it will learn faster than you) to the ball to get it at least a couple of feet past the hole (see other posts about putting management).

ORDER the MONGOOSE GOLF SWING video tutorial today!  To ORDER just click on the BUY NOW button in the right column.  You do not need a PayPal account to ORDER using their online banking services.  Please read the buying instructions in the right hand column.  Summer is here. . .time to reinvent your golf game.  Let me help.  At 77. . .I'm still able to put some hurt on a golf ball.  And I don't hurt myself in the process.

PUTTING TECHNIQUE OVERHAUL: Getting Our Body Much Much More Into the Act

I’ve been asked in several emails if I would explain in more details my technique of getting our body more involved in putting. 

In the Mongoose Golf Swing. . .You merely lift the club into position. . .thus eliminating the many horrors that originate in the infamous “takeaway.”  Well  . . .something similar. . .although in reverse. . .happens when people come back to the ball while putting.

We take our grip on the putter. . . always a mystery to the majority of golfers . . .address the ball (after deciding the so-called “line”). . .rotate our shoulders to take the club away. . .then rotate them back. . .making contact with the ball and finish.

Back to the Mongoose Golf Swing. . .once we’ve got the club in position. . .by merely lifting it up. . .we now contract the muscles of our right shoulder. . .arm  . . .and hip (if we’re left-handed it’s the left side). . .which prepares us to strike down at the ball and up into a finish as we rotate around.

Contracting the muscles helps us change directions. . .and prepares the whole upper body for action.  This is the most powerful method of striking a golf ball possible, period!  So I pitch the “More Power, Less Effort” phrase as pure fact.

The same goes for putting.  We take the club away from the ball with our hands and shoulders. . .but then we have to change directions to come back to the ball and apply the exact amount of force we need to get the ball to the hole (I recommend the thought of hitting it past the hole. . .which I’ve already written about: see Archives).

To achieve this is a much more controlled way. . .I recommend contracting the muscles of the entire right side of your body (left side for lefties like me). . .and using the body to make contact with the ball.  Why?  Having demonstrated this a thousand times and then some. . .over the years. . .people are astonished at how much more FEEL they have in their bodies over their shoulders and hands.  

GOLF SWING OVERHAUL: The Structure of the Spine and the Mongoose Golf Swing

Pulled muscles eliminated

If you take even a brief look at the spine. . .made up of individual vertebrae. . .running north and south. . .that should tell us something.  If, as with the conventional golf swing. . .the one we've all been taught, we're required to move east and west, while at the same time yanking it around. . .there just might be a conflict along the way. . .along with some serious consequences.

Here's the problem: with the conventional swing technique, we both compress the spine. . .forcing the vertebrae together

. . .while at the same time twisting the spine around it's axis. . .this can and does produce an over-torquing of the spine and leads to a raft of very sore backs.  Actually, the swing as described above has ended golf for numberless millions of people around the world.  Most notably from what is termed "bulging discs."

KNEES, HIPS, LOWER BACK PROBLEMS

To add to the problems of over-torquing. . .when you overswing in order to apply as much force to the golf ball as possible, you also twist and compress your knees. . . jam down the hips. . .and cause all sorts of woes for the lower back by pulling and compressing on the wrapped muscle groups that hold the lower body together.

Right leg RELEASES fully at impact

Now, let's take a slow look at the MONGOOSE GOLF SWING technique.  What's radically different. . .and beneficial to the body. . .is the fact that you tend to keep the spine action north and south throughout the swing.  Being a TOP-DOWN swing. . .it's more like the way a tree-faller applies force with an axe.  He separates his hands so as to wield the axe. . .then levers his body forward and into the tree simultaneously.  The trailing leg (whether left or right-handed) simply goes along for the ride.  

Just as the tree fallers' "swing" - if I can call it that for my own purposes - uses the power of the upper body to apply the force. . .and not the legs. . .the legs don't take anywhere near the beating.  Nor the hips.  Nor the lower back.  I have a friend who fell timber well into his 70s.  He's now 89 and still going strong.

BULLETPROOF UNTIL THE WOUND BLEEDS

You young golfers are saying. . .well, that might work for old guys. . .but I've been doing this pretty well for a number of years. . .and I don't intend to switch now.  I understand.  You're now bulletproof.  But one day. . .sooner than you might think. . .the wounds you're now inflicting on yourself. . .will begin to bleed. . .in the sense that you'll begin to have pains in places you never dreamed of.

To ORDER the 'GOOSE' DVD. . .33 minutes of ARHHH!!. . .Simply click on the BUY NOW button in the right column.  Read the instructions in the column article about how to pay via PayPal.  You do NOT need to have an account with them to use their online banking services.  If you don't want to use a credit card. . .or for whatever reasons would prefer to pay by check.  Send a check to L. Mark Marchus, 1916 E. 5th Street, Vancouver, WA 98661. . .for $23.95 (which includes shipping and handling via my fulfillment service).  Upon receipt of your check, they'll mail out your DVD.  Thanks.