Anatomical Analysis of the swings of Jim McLean, Lexi Thompson, Lucy Li
Jim McLean is one of the most famous golf teachers of all time. He has studied the best players of the world in great detail and can recall exactly what type of movements any great player makes. What he teaches is based on his experience of years, and he is one of a very few golf instructors to have access to the research of world authority Robert Neal, of GolfBioDynamics.
So, McLean studies top players, Neal studies the biomechanics (positions, velocities, acceleration-deceleration, forces and torques) of those same players and a ‘formula’ such as the 8 steps is created.
Two highly athletic current students of McLean are Lexi Thompson and Lucy Li, presumably being coached along the lines of the 8-step formula which gives broad guidelines in order for a golfer to be within the ‘corridors of success’ and the ‘safety zones’.
The only problem with this is that all golf study – sadly – is based on how the best players in the world do it, instead of being based on ‘first principles’. What are ‘first principles’? Once one has studied how direction and trajectory can be controlled based on club positions such as club path and angle of approach and how club speed can be increased based on the forces which produce it, one should go back to the ‘drawing board’ and find a way to place the body at set-up and at the top so that every joint is positioned ready for its role in the downswing – and nothing more. Such ‘minimalist’ positions ensure that the body makes the least number of moves in the limited time of the downswing, and that any moves made are comfortable and easy for the joints concerned.
See how the 8-steps works for Jim McLean and his 2 famous students:
