BUILD ANATHLETICGOLFSWING

By Wally ArmstrongPhotos By Ryan Noll

If anyone has ever told you that the golf swing is anathletic move, they’re right. The golf swing is, in fact, avery athletic motion. Specifically, a circular one. As youtake the club back on the backswing and down andthrough on the forwardswing, the clubhead is swungaround the body in a circle. It’s a lot like other sports,actually. Baseball, hockey, soccer, even football all share

the same circular, rotary motions present in the golf swing.In the following pages, we’re going to look at how to

build a more powerful, circular golf swing with the helpof a few sporting goods and a few household items thathelp to effectively demonstrate what you want toachieve. With a little practice, and some ingenuity, you’llbe on your way to building an athletic golf swing.

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Talk about similar! Just as youwould with a football handoff, thetakeaway begins with the rotation ofthe body to the right and the club outin front of the chest. As you can see,my club is directly in front of my chest,and my weight has naturally shifted tomy right leg.

As you rotate back, the upperbody will rotate more than the lowerbody. To allow for this, let the leftknee bend inward and the left heelraise. This helps in making sure youget your weight over your right footon the backswing. Also, keep yourhands out from your torso. The moreroom your swing has, the more poweryou’ll generate.

These two photos show exactly whatyou don’t want to do, with both a foot-ball and a golf club. With the ball, if youdon’t rotate the body, the running backwill have a hard time grabbing the foot-ball from you. With the golf club, norotation usually leads to an improperweight shift, which in this case, usuallyleads to the dreaded reverse-pivot(which is when your weight shifts in theopposite direction from where it’s sup-posed to).

So follow the correct guidelines to aproper takeaway and rotation of the body.Just think of a good football handoff!

HAND OFF!

YES!

YES!

NO!

NO!

Imagine you were a quarterback aboutto hand the ball off to a running back.Your goal is to make sure the back hasenough room to grab the ball, and alsomake sure it’s waist high so he can gripit and hold it secure. As you see here,when doing this, I instinctively turn mybody to the right with the ball in frontof my chest.

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When transferring the feel-ing of the saw over to a golfclub, you’ll quickly see thecorrelation. The right elbow,as you take the club back,doesn’t juke out to the sideas you see in the infamous“chicken wing” pose at thetop of the backswing. Byallowing the right shoulder tomove back, the elbow staysin the proper position and myupper body is poised to makea better and bigger back-swing, all the while keepingthe clubhead on the properplane. This is what you want!

A great way to feel the rightsensation of how the upperbody rotates away on thebackswing is to rehearseyour backswing using asaw. Remember, to use asaw properly, you have torock the saw back andforth, right? The same prin-ciple applies to the rightarm on the backswing.

So grab a saw, and setup in a good golf stance. Asyou take the saw back withyour right arm, imagineyou’re cutting something ata 45-degree angle.

As you do this, noticethe direction my right shoul-der moves. It should gostraight back. Also, theupper body will want torotate to the right. This is apositive by-product of agood backswing.

SAW IT!

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A great way to feel the proper positionat the top of the swing in perfect planeis to imagine swinging a sledgehammer.Or, if you’re feeling adventurous, grabone and try what I’m doing here. (Justbe careful!) While you take the hammerback, as you would with a club, allowthe shoulders to twist back first, whichthen makes it easier to hinge the wristsand support the weight of the hammer.If you take the hammer back with thehands first, you’ll know because of theincreased strain on your hands and fore-arms at the top (see the photo to theright.) Ouch!

When you make a proper backswing,the head of the hammer ought to residejust above the hands. In the sequenceabove, I’m doing it correctly and I feelmy strongest and most secure with thehammer in the upright position. This wasmade possible because I first turnedwith my shoulders, which made it easierto keep my hands in front of my chestand hinge my wrists. Now, it’s a littlesteeper than you’d normally see with agolf club, but the point of the drill is toavoid laying the club too much off theline at the top. If you do that, you’ll hita lot of sliced and errant shots.

Here I’ve taken the club back toomuch to the inside. This means I’ll beacross the line at the top, and I’ll haveto really fire my body to get the clubback to square at impact. In most cases,the club will get stuck behind me and I’llhit a lot of shanks.

When you swing too far to the out-side, as you see here, you’re likely toswing down to the ball on the for-wardswing from the same position andend up smother-hooking it or hitting abig, vicious left-to-right slice. It’s also aweak position to be in.

Here we go. I’m in the perfect posi-tion, there’s little to no tension in myhands and wrists, and from this angle,the club bisects my shoulder. From here,I can simply start rotating my bodytoward the target as my hands dropdown and into the impact zone.

FEEL THE WEIGHT!

FLAT!

TOO INSIDE! TOO OUTSIDE! YES!

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The discus throw has always been oneof my favorite track-and-field events.There’s a lot to learn from how thethrowers are able to keep their upperand lower body in sync as they uncoiland hurl the discus down the field. Whenthey throw, not only are they using cir-cular power, but they also know that thekey to more distance is to open the hipsfirst and allow the upper body to follow.

To demonstrate, grab a discus, or afrisbee if you don’t have one. As youattempt to throw it, notice how difficultit is to throw the discus in the intendeddirection if you don’t open your hips. It’salmost impossible, right? Yet, it seemsso many golfers actually try to hit theball with their hips and shoulders squareto the target at impact. As you mayguess, this rarely leads to good shots,and in most cases, the arms outrace thebody, the left elbow raises, and voila—achicken wing!

Instead of stopping your body atimpact, make sure you rotate all the waythrough the shot, just like a discusthrower. You’ll see longer, straighter andmore consistent shots right away.

A great lesson from anothersport is to look at how a base-ball player fields a groundball. As he reaches down to

pick up the ball, notice howthe left leg braces against theground and the body rotatesaround it.

The same principle appliesto the golf swing! True powercomes from having a rock-solidleft leg on the downswing.

So keep that left leg firm asyou swing into the ball. You’llincrease your swing speed andhit more powerful shots.

THROW THE DISCUS!

FIELD THE GROUNDER!

BRACE!

BRACE!

SWING FORTHE FENCES!The baseball swing is so commonlyassociated with the golf swing, thatsome instructors actually teach both! Asyou can see in the photos above, whatI’m trying to show is simple. The golfswing and the baseball swing are bestexecuted when the arms extendthrough impact with the ball. And inkeeping with the theme of this article,the best way to ensure your arms stayextended through the hit is to keeprotating your body.

By continuing the circular rotation ofthe body, and again, by keeping your

arms in front of your chest, making a fullextension of the arms becomes a mucheasier task. In fact, you really don’t evenneed to think about it, since it happensnaturally when you maintain a good rota-tion through the hit.

Also, the more you can extendthrough the shot, the greater centrifugalforce and speed you’ll generate. Meaning,the better your arm extension, the morepower you’ll have and the longer yourshots will go. It’s a simple swing thought,but a relevant one: Extend your arms likea baseball player swinging for the fences!

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KICK A FIELD GOAL!

In these photos, I’m swinging out a little bit to the right of the target to produce a correct golf-swing motion through theball. So practice this technique and trust that the ball will still fly straight, even though you’re swinging a little to the rightof the target.

In football, the key is to control the centrifugal force of the weight of the foot swinging around the body and through the ball.Discus throwers throw out to the right, football kickers kick out to the right, and great golfers also swing out to the right. In fact,if you ask any great football kickers, they’ll tell you it’s best to aim at the right goalpost and draw the ball back in. This is themost powerful concept to learn in any sport. Because the lower body begins to unwind first, the kicker must swing his leg outto the right goalpost to enable the centrifugal force of his foot to be released. There is such tremendous torque because of thisinner core unwinding, that if you swing your leg around toward the middle of the goalpost, the knee will begin to straighten outtoo early and the foot will swing across the football missing left or right. The same happens with the golf swing. However, manyamateurs instinctively try to push the ball straight at the target, and the wrists open up prematurely, thus forcing the clubheadto be pulled across the target line producing an ugly slice or pull hook.

CIRCLE TO THE RIGHT

Wally Armstrong is a 1966 graduate of the University ofFlorida with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in educationwhere he also earned All-American Honors in golf. A lifetimePGA Tour member, Wally has competed in more than 300PGA Tour events in his career, and in his first Masters, Wallyfinished fifth, setting a rookie scoring record of eight underpar at the time. His day job these days? Teaching golf usinginnovative, do-it-yourself techniques.

GGoollff TTiippss:: What would you say is the most misunderstoodaspect/component of the golf swing? WWaallllyy AArrmmssttrroonngg:: That the golf swing is not up and downor backward and forward as the clubhead swings in a centrifugal circle. The “circleness” of the swing makes theball go straight.

GGoollff TTiippss:: What was the greatest lesson/tip you’ve ever received? AArrmmssttrroonngg:: Reading Percy Boomer’s book On Learning Golf where he makes the statement “In golf (as in many other affairs in life) the obvious way is not always the right way.” I based my wholeteaching philosophy with this truth in mind.

GGoollff TTiippss:: Having played on the PGA Tour, was there a player who truly impressed you?AArrmmssttrroonngg:: I would have to say, in discipline, tenacity, focus and shot playing, Gary Player standsout, pound for pound, not only as a complete player but as a man of goodwill for all.

GGoollff TTiippss:: You’ve become well-known for creating innovative teaching and training aids out of common, household objects. Where do you find such inspiration? AArrmmssttrroonngg:: Research done during my graduate degree in education at the University of Florida andunderstanding that 80% of learning is visual. Therefore, if you can show someone something withoutusing words, and they understand and can relate to it, you’ve made incredible progress in the development of their swing for lasting improvement. Using teaching and training aids out of common household objects helps you to feel your way to better golf by taking all the mechanicalmanipulation out of the swing.

GGoollff TTiippss:: What’s coming down the pipe from Wally Armstrong? AArrmmssttrroonngg:: The development of a new DVD & training aid that summarizes my 50 years in golf called Swing the Circle and the formation of my new ultimate “learning golf by feel” website atWallyArmstrongGolf.com where you can find my other DVDs, as well.

ONE ON ONEWITH WALLY ARMSTRONG