Classic VS Modern Swing: Telling the Difference Part 2

In the day before today's put up I looked at why we are starting to see more traditional-style swings succeed on Tour. Today I want to cognizance on what simply differentiates a traditional-style swing from a contemporary-fashion swing, and day after today we'll observe a few swing films and notice how to tell which is which. I'll warn you prematurely that this is a protracted submit, however there may be a whole lot of important stuff in it that I haven't visible anywhere else.

As I wrote yesterday, "There's a whole spectrum of swings with the classic swing at one end, the modern swing at the other, and various permutations in-between." That's why I'm using the terms classic-style and modern-style more than just classic and modern. But it's helpful to know what the "pure" versions are... and what they aren't.

At their most effective, natural traditional swings are arm-powered and pure contemporary swings are leg-powered. That approach that the number one electricity source within the classic swing is your palms, and the number one strength supply within the present day swing is your legs... However that can be misleading.

Although I've said it numerous times on this blog, I need to repeat it here: ALL swings are started together with your lower frame. It is physically impossible to start a swing -- ANY swing -- with your arms. Without explaining the physics yet again, your feet have to grip the ground (create friction) and your legs have to brace themselves (so they can use that friction to push against the ground) in order to start your upper body and arms swinging the club in the downswing. In essence, your lower body pulls your upper body into your downswing.

And just for clarity, an over-the-top swing is also started by your legs. It's just that your legs -- especially your trailing leg --  create the friction by pushing UP rather than around. That shoves your trailing shoulder up and out as your upper body starts the downswing.

The difference among traditional leg drive and cutting-edge leg pressure is one in all diploma. In the modern swing, it's a forceful purposeful push of the legs; in the classic swing, the legs just respond naturally, without conscious thought, to the effort of trying to swing the arms. Some teachers will describe leg action in the classic swing as "your legs simply move beneath you." But again, this could be really misleading.

Because the natural contemporary swing tries to reduce hip turn on the backswing and the pure classic swing encourages a unfastened hip switch on the backswing, a conventional swing can also virtually have extra leg motion than a cutting-edge swing despite the fact that the legs are not using very hard at all. And permit's upload some greater confusion about what the fingers do as nicely -- most classic swing teachers really need you to reduce arm anxiety even as Ben Hogan, the person who truely invented the prototypical present day swing, stated he wished he had 3 proper arms whilst he hit the ball!

And when you begin thinking about all of the viable versions of these kinds of swings... How are you supposed to recognize what any given participant is trying to do? Each of these swings, conventional and contemporary, has a completely unique experience. Is there not anything in a participant's swing that tells us whether the swing is more traditional or more modern-day?

It took me a long time to sort it out, but yes, there IS a way to tell. That key movement is what we call separation.

SO WHAT IS SEPARATION?

Remember what I said earlier? ALL swings are started together with your lower frame. That means that your lower body gets a little ahead of your upper body at the start of your downswing. (And your upper body catches up by the time you hit the ball.)

Separation is what we call that little "head start" your lower body gets at the start of the downswing. All swings (except over-the-top swings) have some separation in them because ALL swings are started together with your lower frame. The difference is that classic swings only have a little separation while modern swings can have quite a lot.

Again, for readability, over-the-top swings do not use your legs properly. In a right swing, the lower body PULLS the top frame towards the ball. An over-the-pinnacle swing PUSHES the upper body upward so the upper frame truely receives in advance of the decrease body.

Maybe this could help you apprehend: Try taking your deal with function and make sure both knees are flexed. From that function flip your shoulders ninety levels, like they are on the top of your backswing. Now push up (straighten your knees) and strive to turn your shoulders as in case you were creating a downswing.

Here's what is going to probably happen: Your trailing knee will straighten out even as your lead knee stays bent and your lead foot ends up on its toes. Your hips will slightly turn at all however your trailing shoulder will get most of the way to the "ball." That's an over-the-top flow -- very awful for golf.

I can hear you saying, "Yes, yes, I understand. Modern swings create more separation than classic swings. I get it." NO YOU DON'T! That little distinction represents dramatically specific ways of creating club head velocity in a golfing swing! And that is the key to understanding how the two differ.

In a pure traditional swing, the separation is small and the upper body catches up to the decrease frame quick. The reason of the separation is clearly to get the higher frame transferring. Club head pace (that is our purpose with any swing) is created by means of the swinging motion of the arms. Although the analogy isn't always precisely accurate, you can think about the club as a pendulum that profits greater speed from the palms.

In a natural modern swing, the separation is huge and it takes most of the downswing for the upper frame to catch up with the decrease body. The separation itself is how energy is generated; club head speed is created by way of remaining the separation. The membership is not a pendulum (a single huge lever) however the cease of a whip (efficaciously, a whole chain of tiny levers).

The classic swing and the modern swing represent two entirely different methods of creating club head speed, which is why instructors have traditionally said that you couldn't combine the two methods. But the truth is merely that you can't do both at once, and it takes a tremendous amount of strength to even attempt to use both of them in sequence -- something that was unimaginable not that long ago. Bear in mind that weight training was discouraged until Tiger began handing players their butts on a plate -- a plate being what weightlifters call those round metal donuts you put on a barbell to make them heavier!

Each approach has its disadvantage. While the natural conventional swing is perhaps the simplest manner to get appropriate consequences (as a minimum, now that we don't need to deal with the troubles hickory itself created), it calls for simply appropriate timing at the trade of direction to create significant strength. And even as the pure current swing doesn't require pretty a lot timing to create energy, it does require lots of electricity and coordination to supply that power as it should be to the ball. For instance, whilst Tiger says he "got stuck," what he approach is that his decrease frame moved too rapid and created more separation than his top frame should capture up with.

And I'll add every other hassle I see with excessive separation. Although I can not show it, I find it interesting that we have very few records of chronic lower back troubles amongst golfers at some point of "the age of hickory" while it seems that almost every present day player suffers from them. I'm no longer pronouncing that conventional swingers by no means have again problems. However, it does appear that the more separation we try to create, the extra pressure we put on our backs. Since our hips have to move ever farther ahead of our shoulders to create ever more separation inside the modern swing, we end up twisting our backs at unusual angles even as we placed even extra pressure on them.

Because the "pure" versions of both swings each have their own problems, it's no surprise that inventive instructors have been creating new combinations of the two in hopes of minimizing the problems. That's what good instructors do. For example, my books Stop Coming Over-the-Top and HIT IT HARD! both teach what are basically modern swings BUT with the separation reduced to minimize the amount of coordination and strength required for good results as well as minimizing stress on your back. Those are things I felt were vital for weekend players who don't have a lot of time to practice and who can't risk having a bad back put them out of work.

Many of your favourite players will sacrifice whatever to get 20 more yards or to hit 10% more vegetables in regulation. Others make sacrifices to decrease lower back ache in order that they could play. Some need swings that don't require a lot practice due to the fact they want to spend their time doing more charity work. For these and a dozen different reasons, instructors create new swings especially tailored to the ones gamers... And a number of those swings find recognition with some of other gamers as nicely. That ends in a big wide variety of hybrid swings for us to kind via.

But at the least we have some clues...

SO HOW WILL WE TELL THE DIFFERENCE?

Tomorrow we'll look at some swing video and I'll show you how I sort them out. For now I'll just give you some of the criteria we'll use:

• The amount of separation in the swing: Separation creates some telltale clues that I'll point out when we look at the video.
• The player's swing coach: As I mentioned yesterday, players generally go to coaches who specialize in the type of swing they already have.
• Nationality: This isn't a given, of course, but it's amazing how many of the classic swing coaches trained in Europe and how many of the modern swing coaches trained in America. Could it be an Old World mentality versus Ben Hogan's American-made swing? I don't know but it seems to be a real phenomenon.
• Common problems: For example, Tiger's frequent "getting stuck" problem is a pretty clear indicator that he's using a modern swing.

Plus there are some other less-common clues. I'll show you tomorrow.

The barbell photo came from bodybuilderfitness.Com.