The Straight Trailing Knee of the Legendary Hitters (Video)

This is a long one today due to the fact I'm simply reposting THREE exceptional posts approximately the identical subject matter -- the first from 2014, the second from 2016 and the 1/3 from 2019. Over the years I actually have step by step end up keen on straightening your trailing knee at some point of your swing and those posts summarize that shift. When you forestall mastering, you forestall developing!

But I've covered all three honestly because they awareness on distinctive advantages that come from this simple leg motion which we see at some stage in the swings of such a lot of legends. Video photos of Arnie's swing is covered in the first two posts, and you can see how much shoulder and hip flip he receives without his body moving ahead or backward very an awful lot -- that is, his frame stays very targeted among his feet (no swaying) whilst he 'uses the ground' the manner many gamers now do. He creates a whole lot of hip and shoulder flip this way.

In the first post from 2014, I compared Arnie's swing to Bubba's -- two strength hitters getting their distance in very specific methods but with a few apparent similarities...

Did any of you notice the three-component collection GC did on Arnold Palmer? It became quite exciting, wasn't it? Many of you can no longer have found out just how a good deal of a power hitter Arnie became in his heyday until you saw a number of the antique photos.

I'm sure lots of you have also been thinking how to hit it "Bubba lengthy." The truth is, Bubba has a large start on maximum of us considering that he's 6'three" tall. But Arnie turned into only 5'10" -- fairly common among men. Perhaps we might research more with the aid of looking on the King's swing.

Here's a video from the Somax Performance Institute that analyzes Arnie's downswing whilst he turned into at the height of his powers. I'll admit upfront that at the same time as I discover the evaluation thrilling and I suspect lots of you may research useful matters from it... I'm no longer certainly using any of it. But this video supplied a image of the King at the pinnacle of his backswing, and that is what I wanted for this put up. So enjoy the video, then study on!

As I stated, I'm specializing in the moment Arnie reaches the top of his backswing because I need you to peer where many, maybe maximum of you are losing an entire lot of power. I want you to look a essential that ought to be part of every golf swing. In the next picture I've drawn a shiny yellow line via Arnie's trailing knee on the top of his backswing:

Do you see where Arnie's trailing knee is? That line shows that his knee is still inside his trailing foot, not over it. And do you see where his trailing hip is? It's even more inside his trailing foot! Let me repeat that: Arnie's trailing hip is not OVER his trailing foot, nor is it OUTSIDE his trailing foot. It is well INSIDE his trailing foot!

Why is this? It's because he has braced his trailing knee so it doesn't move away from the target as he makes his backswing. And if you watch his swing in the video, you'll see that his knee never moves more toward his trailing foot than it is in this photo. This stability not only keeps him driving toward the target during his downswing, thus creating more power, but it stabilizes his swing plane so more of that power is applied accurately to the ball.

Now, in case you're curious, here's a photo of Bubba at the top of his backswing from a 2012 Golf Digest swing sequence. (This is photo #4, in case you want to know.) I've also drawn a bright yellow line through his trailing knee:

Why is Bubba's trailing knee OVER his trailing foot? There are motives:

• Bubba's trailing knee is bent while Arnie's is straight. Although most instructors (and me too!) generally like for you to keep a little flex in your knees throughout your swing, that almost-straight trailing knee is pretty common in classic swings. (You can see it in Tommy Armour's How to Play Your Best Golf All of the Time, for example, and that was considered THE instructional guide before Hogan wrote Five Lessons.)
• Bubba has turned his upper body -- and therefore his hips -- considerably more than Arnie has. Arnie looks like he has maybe 95-100 degrees of shoulder turn while Bubba easily has 110 degrees or more.

But notice that even with his body twisted so much that his trailing knee has moved over his foot, Bubba's trailing hip is STILL interior his trailing foot. Most of us mere humans won't get that much turn; if we get as much as Arnie, we'll be doing good!

This trailing knee function is a essential you ought to have on your golfing swing. At worst, your trailing hip has to stay "between your feet" and not slide out over or beyond your trailing foot. If you need power, you have got to get on this powerful role.

If it helped Arnold Palmer drive the green on the 346-yard par-4 first hole in the final round of the 1960 US Open at Cherry Hills with a balata ball and a persimmon driver, it's got to help you get more distance.

In the next post from 2016, proper after Arnie's demise, I centered on how he had little or no lateral motion (no swaying) whilst still growing a lot of up-and-down motion (the usage of the ground)...

We're all nevertheless a bit shocked at Arnie's passing so I notion I'd just put up a few pictures of his early golfing swing these days. You'll see Arnie at some point of a GC golf broadcast, in conjunction with Rich Lerner and Nick Faldo. Unfortunately this video cuts off some of what Arnie said close to the end. (You do pay attention him mention "maintaining his head nonetheless." I'll have greater on that during a second.)

In preserving with what I've been posting approximately the usage of your fingers extra on your swing, please note that Arnold Palmer -- who turned into one of the longest drivers of his day -- used his palms and arms quite a chunk at impact. (I need to word that, while "maintaining your head still" is commonly awful advice with a cutting-edge swing, I've mentioned in my conventional swing look at that my head does feel more consistent when I use my fingers and fingers greater -- the important thing phrase here being "feel". You can see that Arnie's head swivels quite a piece throughout his swing.)

If you start watching at around the :fifty five second mark, you'll see his swing in slo-mo towards the grid beneath. And if you watch the line that is going down just in the back of his lead hip, you may see that he would not have the dramatic ahead hip pressure that so many teachers train. Yet he nevertheless receives fully onto his lead facet.

That's because he doesn't drive toward the target, but rather keeps his lead knee bent when he starts his downswing and PUSHES UP to create the power at impact. This is how Sam Snead did it as well, and it's much easier on your back than a forward shift. That move also encourages more arm and hand action.

Arnie's swing can also have been homegrown but it became much simpler than most swings taught these days. We'll be gaining knowledge of from the King for years to come.

Finally, this publish from earlier this 12 months focused at the variety of legends who used this 'straightening' technique and the way scientific science has sincerely determined that it minimizes again troubles...

There's a reasonably lengthy article over at golftipsmag.Com approximately whether you need to straighten your trail knee at some stage in your backswing or no longer. As you may see from the snap shots underneath, both Palmer and Nicklaus did it.

In reality, the item suggests pictures of 14 one-of-a-kind players who gained forty four majors making this very flow -- such as no longer most effective Palmer and Nicklaus but additionally Snead, Player, Hogan, Trevino and Watson among their number. So why have we been taught to keep flex in both knees at some point of our backswing while so the various greats have no longer?

Instructor Bob Grissett says it's because we erroneously believed a principle that said hip flip must be constrained throughout the backswing. He says it's miles the single most adverse concept in golf preparation ever.

One reason I'm pointing this out is due to the fact he says that is a chief motive for lower back problems in the golfing swing. He writes:

An article posted in February 2019 by way of Michelle Roberts, fitness editor for BBC News online, warns of the way this restrained type of golf swing may want to play havoc together with your lower back and placed extra strain on your backbone, in step with U.S. Medical doctors at the Barrow Neurological Institute.

Dr Walker [from Barrow] said: “We believe Tiger Woods’s experience with spinal disease highlights a real and under-recognized issue among modern era golfers. Tiger was using the mechanics of the modern day swing and that places a tremendous amount of strain on the back. It’s still a theory but we are starting to see the late stages of this in some of our patients. We are seeing younger and younger elite level golfers with degeneration in their lower back.”

He stated any golfer, elite or now not, who experienced pain need to are trying to find expert help.

The proper knee extending and the left leg flexing ahead at the backswing gives the hips freedom to turn by way of developing ?Hip slants.? Another benefit of the lower back-leg extending is that it facilitates you maintain your inclination toward the ball mounted at address.

For those of you interested in reading the entire article, here's the link to it at bbc.com. It has many illustrations to make the explanations clearer.

But the factor of this publish is that in case you want to keep away from again ache, you must begin by means of allowing your hips to show freely on your backswing. I discovered lengthy in the past that simply turning your path foot outward as opposed to preserving it perpendicular to your toe line lets in you to turn your hips greater and it takes a variety of pressure off your back. That's something that many instructors have encouraged to older players for a long time.

Ironically, it additionally has a tendency to encourage a straightening of your trail knee as your hips turn. Who knew?

Well, now you do. Live and study!

So I've grow to be a convert to the 'straighten your path knee' approach of swinging as it has so many advantages and so few liabilities. When you keep in mind how easy, how natural and the way bodily EASY it's far to do, and how it could make you greater flexible on your swing so that you have much less returned hassle, it has emerge as considered one of my advocated swing basics.