
The Golf Swing Arc: The Leader Behind Your Motion
The highest level of swing technique is to be able to simplify the motion. Over the years I’ve been able to understand what matters and maybe even more importantly, what doesn’t matter, in a consistent repeatable golf swing. Inspiring the golf swing arc, and making it the leader, is one of the biggest coin drops I’ve ever had in swing development.
If you can establish this hierarchy in your mind, you will be amazed at what happens to your golf swing and your development.
The golf swing arc is the engine behind my motion, and I highly recommend you make it yours as well.
By the way, this article is written with a bias toward the Big Arc Swinger release rather than the delayed modern release style.
The Golf Swing Arc – On Top of the Hierarchy
I started this journey with a mechanical mindset and underwent swing changes demanding 40–60,000 repetitions. I powered through it, but it always felt like my “body didn’t want to perform it.” I’m sure you’ve felt the same thing.
In my opinion, a motion in golf isn’t supposed to be derived from deep mechanical thoughts, but rather be the outcome of tangible—and for the mind, achievable—intentions.
Find the intentional concepts in your mind that make your golf swing arc spin. Focus on these and let the rest happen. That’s no easy feat, though. It demands understanding the complexity first. This is also why I have 1.5 hours of videos in my educational module: to get rid of all questions in your mind and make you focus on what actually matters.
I use the club, hands, and arms as the driver for the entire body—including my body’s movement. In other words, I let a lot of components just react. I put my golf swing arc on top of the hierarchy, and the rest follows.
Ground force usage? It becomes reactionary.
Body rotation? It becomes reactionary.
My body moves inside the arc as a direct reflection of the intentions I’m using. And the really cool thing? It’s completely teachable and learnable.
Golf Swing Arc Starting Speed = Centrifugal Force Stimulation
So what the heck can you do? To put it simply → you do everything in your power to create downswing dynamics so that you can unleash it as early as possible.
What does this mean? You need to use your lag angle from the top of the backswing, harness it, and then get rid of all of these angles early enough so that the club can start to interact with the body. Does that mean that you’re supposed to cast? No, you are supposed to put speed into everything.
Sounds difficult? It really isn’t. It’s about the intention of putting speed into your arc while also releasing grip pressure. Too high grip pressure is the killer of golf swings—from an old-school perspective.
The old saying—power first, accuracy second—applies. Just unleash the club until you present hooked golf shots. Now you have stimulated the golf swing arc’s starting power.
Golf Swing Arc Follow Through Speed
So once you’ve got centrifugal force going, you are in a tango with your club. Your body will start to react to the forces in your club, and if you actually provide an end destination for your hands, it will work even better.
You still have some blade control issues, but once you understand that you’re not supposed to be done at the ball, the world of golf just opens up.
From a light-grip-pressure mid-downswing position (ish), you just grab ahold of your hands in your mind and put them in a suitable centripetal position in the follow-through. In other words, you give yourself intentional follow-through usage of the swing arc.
You provide yourself with an end destination in the golf swing arc, and this is no small thing. It gives you mechanical advantages and, even more importantly, mental feelings of seeing it through.
Actually, here’s where the differentiator between a +4 handicap and a 4 handicap player lives.
Golf Swing Arc Control = Deciding the Destiny of the Shot
Once the coin drops and you feel that adequate amounts of speed are created and accelerated in your swing arc feels, you will step into the biggest advantage of a functional golf swing: blade control.
Depending on how you train and intend your golf swing arc follow-through, you will inspire the blade to act less chaotically in the impact area.
In another article, I write about Functional Swing Technique, and this is really it. If you are on top of your swing arc intention, you can start eliminating certain shots from your repertoire.
For me, the big left miss has always been the killer, and using the follow-through as a focused intention ensures that my hands will continue their journey through the impact zone. Continued movement of the hands = eradication of the awful snap hook.
Of course, you will miss loads because it’s golf, but you will take away the biggest score killers. And that’s gold for your feeling of trust in your motion.
Summary – The Golf Swing Arc as the Leader
Using old-school dynamics of centrifugal and centripetal force puts you in the driver’s seat in the following way: you can use the club, hands, and arms as the intentional drivers inside your golf swing arc and, as a byproduct, make the difficult parts of your golf swing reactionary.
This is the inner layer of how many of the old greats did it, and it’s just as valid today as it was 50 years ago. I’d argue it’s even more important now because of where coaching is going in general. I educate regarding still VERY valid old school movement fundamentals in the FMM Swing Academy here..
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