Diary of 2013 PGA Seniors’ Championship by Kitchenaid – The K.I.S.S Principle
The K.I.S.S Principle = Keep It Simple, Seniors
This post will be a simple explanation of one Seniors’ swing, every day – what works, what could be better (in SIMPLE, but completely scientifically valid terms).
Tommy Armour III has a very simple uncomplicated backswing. No wild flailing about, no excessive movement.
As can be seen in the picture below, he is trying to keep most of his weight on his left side and swing his nicely straight left arm, close to his chest, ‘inwards’.
His clubshaft is perfectly held at it’s position of maximum potential energy (going past about 10 o’clock with the clubshaft is ineffectual, with ANY club, as extra work against gravity must be done to bring the club back to its most effective position with respect to energy storage).
The downswing from this position, however, requires many compensations:
1. The lower body must SLIDE to the left to drop the right trunk, which in turn must drop the right arm (the RIGHT ARM can be the death or salvation of any swing, because how it straightens at the elbow is the ultimate key to failure/success).
This SLIDE of the lower body is a COMPENSATION because it’s only purpose is to drop down the right trunk down (THEREFORE avoid raising the right trunk in the first place!).
It is inefficient for two reasons – it requires perfect co-ordination of many, many muscles, joints and ligaments to execute, not easy under pressure when timing is easily messed up. It also cannot produce power for impact, because power is produced from a PURELY ROTARY move of the lower body (scroll down to the bottom of ‘MGSS – what it is’ section of this blog for a research paper that will explain).
2. When the right side of the body rises during the backswing, it instantly places the right shoulder into internal rotation. So, this golfer must be able to, during the downswing, rotate the body backwards, a little more, to allow the upper arm to fall back, so that, in turn, the right elbow can straighten in the manner it is designed to straighten in. Once again, an issue of requiring perfect timing (ie synchronization of all body parts) during the downswing. [TA III does not make the COMPENSATORY rotation of his body, so his right shoulder remains internally rotated all the way down, so the right elbow is awkwardly bent all the time too.]
BOTTOM LINE, this swing simply delivers all body parts so the club can drop down to the ground, somehow. It does not have sufficient speed of co-ordinating all moves to lift the left side up again, quickly, to make room for the straightening wrists, which in turn will allow the clubhead to bow out and compress the ball for greater zip and ooomph at impact. [And hey, what’s with that elegant ‘hold’ of the finish position? With maximum momentum, no golfer should be able to ‘hold’ the right arm extended so far away from the body].
Simultaneously, everytime the golfer feels nervous/stressed/discombobulated, when heartbeat is high, the blood pumping fiercely through the body, the entire body primed for action, any small miscalculation in synchronizing of the many compensations will result in an out-of-sync downswing, which will put a lot of stress on many helpless body-parts, which will then start to wear out over time.
See if YOU can pick up all of the above from the slow-mo video below:
Just as too many cooks spoil the broth, too many compensations spoil the swing!
Golfers need to understand that all humans have the same ability to move certain body parts as all other humans – we all have the SAME shoulders, elbows, forearms, wrists, hips, knees and ankles and they all move in certain fixed directions only.
The MINIMALIST GOLF SWING SYSTEM positions the HUMAN BODY IDEALLY FOR THE GOLF SWING.
