How To Swing A Golf Club

Swing A Golf Club

I had decided long ago that I would never buy one of those newfangled "Swing-O-Matics." That we're beginning to populate the country.

I never wanted to see the day when some self-appointed expert. Would stroll into my backyard and swing away in one of my favorite clubs. Leaving me with nothing but a twisted hunk of metal in my hands.

I spoke too soon. At first glance, the contraption wasn't too bad. The shafts were made of wood, at least, and appeared to be attached to the clubheads by means of some sort of glue. But walking up close it wasn't hard to make out some disturbing details.

The clubheads themselves were cast iron, painted black. With some sort of white lettering stenciled onto them. And they were two different sizes!

The biggest head was supposed to represent a driver. Which is a fifteen handicap club in normal circumstances.

The smallest was a putter, which is a nine handicap club in normal circumstances. These would have been nine and six handicap clubs if you had been hitting them correctly.

Which is something you could do yourself if you bought one of these Swing-O-Matics!

You swung down on the ball with your

Swing a golf club using a full backswing and a full downswing. When the clubhead gets to the ball, stop moving your hands and arms.

The club will stop going back and start going down, with no force from you. It will feel as though there was a sudden change of direction, even though there was no force from you to cause it.

Golf Swing In Slow Motion

This was an interesting video of a golf swing in slow motion that I recently watched.

I believe it is never too late to learn something new. I found out that there is a website called Golf Science. This is a place where you can see golf swings in slow motion. If you study one carefully enough. You will likely discover that the golfer's swing is more efficient than yours.

Here is my favorite golf swing of all time. It belongs to Gary Player who was born in 1932. And is still active on the professional golf tour as of (2016).

Here he is hitting a 200-yard drive:

And here he is hitting a 30-yard pitch shot:

Gary Player has won nine majors and 69 PGA Tour titles during his career. He was known for his "scissor kick" on the greens.

Golf swings in slow motion are interesting to watch. You can see that the key to distance. For example, is not to swing harder, but to take advantage of two kinds of physics. The physics of momentum and the physics of elasticity.

The next time you are on a golf course, try to watch the swing of a golf pro in slow motion. It's hard to see the clubhead. After all, it is a blur when you play.

The reason that the golf club head is so hard to see is that it has virtually no mass. Or rather, it has a very high mass, but all of that mass is moving at high speed. The clubhead has no "momentum" - which is just mass times velocity.

Momentum causes objects to keep moving after they hit something. More momentum makes them move faster. The more momentum an object has. The more energy it carries with it, the more damage it does when it hits something else.

Golf Swing Iron Slow Motion

You can see the whole golf swing in slow motion. When you slow down the video to one-eighth normal speed. Then play it back at normal speed, and you get eight times as much information.

You can watch the clubhead moving to the ball, but you also see the hands and even the face of the golfer. You can see what looks like a perfect follow-through.

But when you slow it down again, to one-quarter speed. you notice that at the moment of impact there is a very slight twisting motion. The body is rotating slightly counterclockwise before impact.

It's not just golfers who have this problem. If you're trying to do anything well in life—play music, hit a baseball, hit on women. Whatever—there will be a moment when your performance looks smooth.

But if you look closely enough you'll see that it's not quite what it should be. You'll notice some extra motion or some lack of motion; something won't be quite right.

The same thing happens in writing: when you read text out loud. (or listen to yourself read it). You notice all kinds of things that are wrong with your sentences.

It's tempting then to try to correct all those little problems.

Every time you make a golf swing, there is a moment when you can change your mind and do something different.

In the slow-motion video, you can see that at the top of the swing after the club has stopped accelerating. The shaft is dead straight — parallel with the ground — and pointing to where you want the ball to go.

At that moment you could alter everything: the angle of your wrists, elbows, and shoulders. The position of your hips and knees; even which way your head is pointing.

You can shift your weight to your left foot or right foot; you can turn your body so it is open or closed to the target. If you wanted to stop in midswing and throw down your club, no one would blame you.