If you’ve read my golf’s greatest swingers article you see that I highlight changes to the golf swinging motion happening roughly between 1970-1990s. You could basically call this the death of the swinging motion. You can actually read about the golf swing evolution in eight era in this article too.

So, what happened? Was it a mistake to leave this motion? I believe the phrase not seeing the forrest for all the trees is in order here. Or to quote Brandon Chamblee’s article – Why does nobody teach Jack Nicklaus swing? There is so much goodness in the swinging motion so I’ll just spoil it straight away – Yes, let’s resurrect it and bring it back to modern life.

The Secret in the Dirt replaced by Generic Advice

Without direct video feedback or technological “help” you have no other choice but to let your striking decide what you need to do. If you are faced with the challenge of using a razor thin blade and an exceptionally spinning golf ball you better have your swing in order. Bad strikes are not only punished: They are demolishing. This forces your swing to be a certain way.

Another aspect is that, in my findings and conclusions, the secrets of great striking aren’t that hard to perform. Quite the opposite – they’re very easy. I believe that most golfers that could perform great swings kept the secrets to themselves. Or they stumbled upon it and just had it “in their systems”.

So, when secrets aren’t readily available other advice appears. Generic advice. The worst kind of advice.

Coaching Megastars – Prophets Demanding Obediance

Golf is the strangest thing. It’s the most rewarding and frustrating game that exists. Someone that has a decent interest will do basically anything to live the perfect strike every now and then. This is a huge money grabbing opportunity.

No wonder different teaching concepts started to appear. The packaging became smarter and after a time you started having small prophets defending their religion viciously. Their voices were very high and would drench the whispered secrets.

If a Tour Player A won using Religion A then this is how it works. If Tour Player B used Religion B this must be it? Honestly, most of the guys on tour can win with any swing because their inner workings are in order. 

Golf technique isn’t the only thing that affects your performance in bigger tournaments. Once a player operates on a functional technique level it’s much more about the mental game and pressure handling. Sure, the technique is important to the degree of making misses smaller, but other than that it’s all about the players own abilities to perform consistent motions. In other words, golf gospel is really overrated on the highest level. Most coaching collaborations that work are more on the mental level with the rare occuring swing change.

So, the point is this: Great golfers through the decades would have succeeded without the coaching mega stars. Why? They were in complete control of their inner workings of their swings. They knew how to create and control natural power.

For amateurs (anyone over scratch in hcp) it’s another story. You are likely not on top of your inner workings which means that you are likely subjected to all kinds of “teachings” to fix problems that actually don’t exist. Full disclosure, I definitely teach as well. It’s one of my biggest passions but I only teach inner workings of power creation and power control. The rest is up to you.

Observational Conclusions through Video

Jack Nicklaus looks like this in impact. You should too. Then you need to be in that position. Strive for that position.

That’s observational teaching. Does it work? For a brief moment.

The position in a golf swing is the outcome of your leading intentions. The intentions lag in time and space and are actually very hard to see on video. You don’t really see the forces in the shaft or the grip pressure in the handle. You don’t see the centrifugal force. 

The only thing you can see is a motion that looks nice but you can’t say why. Unless you have watched 50 000 swings plus with a mindset of understanding. Unless you look underneath the hood and deep beneath the surface.

Drawing lines on a video and asking the student to swing more inside out isn’t the way forward. The only way you can improve a golf swing is to create fundamental understanding and the skill set to change and improve the way that you create and control natural power. 

In other words – the best swings of all time were constructed without video as a feedback tool and with insanely tough equipment. Once the video appeared it just took away the essence of golf and teachings started focusing on symptoms rather than the underlying inner working “issues”.

Again, the golf motion isn’t hard, it’s just the outcome of the correct inner workings. It took me 10 years to dig out some of these “secrets” since they were hidden behind intentional lag, gravity, momentum and centrifugal force. It has basically nothing to do with what “you see” but has everything to do with how you naturally produce, accelerate and control power.

The Reverse C – the Observational Back Breaker

Keeping your head still at all times is the most important thing in golf right? Not at all. 

This was the absolute downfall of the golden age swinging motion. Back problems created by unnatural instruction.

I will actually go about and critique one of my favorite swings now. Jack Nicklaus kept his head still his entire motion in the through swing. Was this good or bad for him? Performance wise it was great because this was his motion. Sam Snead allowed his head to move in the follow through and never had an injury in his entire career. Ben Hogan? The same story as Snead.

Nicklaus, Snead & Hogan all use the same natural power creation and control process. Their inner workings are the same but Jack was instructed to always keep his head still.

So, can you perform the inner workings of the golfing gods without using the Reverse C position? Definitely (read more about it here). In other words I believe this position to be the biggest contributor to the swinging motion falling out of fashion and I believe this to be the biggest mistake in golf motion history since the old swinging motion utilized the purest power relationship in golf.

Equipment Changes – Cementing the move away from Natural power

What I’m about to write now is a bit harder to digest. From the 90s and forward the golf clubs have become much more upright and the introduction of cavity back “game improvement” equipment helps you in the short term but demolishes you in the long term.

A driver in the 60s was something about 50 degrees in lie angle. The off the stock driver today is 60 degrees. That’s 10 degrees of upright change. The scientist will say that this has no effect because the sole isn’t on the ground at impact and that the shaft needs to “droop” but I completely disagree. You are supposed to hit the ball at your static lie angle (meaning where your hands are at address) because this is the position that you come to if you apply the swing without grip pressure and it’s a great centripetal position. If you increase grip pressure and create “unnatural” power (in relation to the golden age swings) you will raise up your hands.

Another thing. So most of the old guys put lead in their grips in addition to having much heavier equipment. This actually worked as a counter to “too much” power and kept the blade in check.

I play 4 degree flat irons and a flat driver from 2009 (you can check out the specs here if interested, scroll down a bit). I really don’t care about how it looks, only how it feels. I only use equipment that induces the ability to use my natural power creating, accelerating and controlling intentions. Using newer clubs has very little affect on me from a distance perspective. My “new” 2018 dashes out maybe 1 mph more clubhead speed but my flat 2009 driver keeps me in the fairway.

(Down the line, I’ll make a huge equipment article to make my points clearer.)

Conclusion – The Death of Golf Swinging

• Moving away from the natural swings of the 1920-70s was a huge mistake (in my opinion).
• First layer observational conclusions from video can actually be counter productive for your development. Always ask why this behavior happens.
• It’s very easy to go back to the golden age behavior. Just allow your head to move (to avoid the reverse C), don’t mess/manipulate the natural orbit, learn low grip pressure and figure out the old school power journey.
• Equipment can be used to your advantage. Get your hands on a heavy blade iron and flatten it 3-5 degrees. Use it in training and you can start feeling natural power and how to use the complete swing arc.
• Sidenote: I’m genuinely happy to see Xander Schauffele swing changes the last years. He exhibits some of the inner behavior of the greats. Bright days ahead. Click here for more modern players here showcasing old school intentions.

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