What drives the golf swing? This question is rarely ever answered since different swing systems provide different answers (if answered at all). If the question is asked generally like this, there is no clear answer. However, if you narrow the scope, reasoning begins to emerge.

I’ll make it a bit more specific. What was in the driver seat of the great’s (Snead, Nicklaus, Hogan, Watson etc) golf swings? In my opinion: handling and harmonizing the perception of power in the motion. This drove and the rest followed along. Can I get more vague?

I have another post here with video if that’s more your style.

For reader context: this article is a part of the FMM Swing Page (my system for teaching the great’s core movements). I recommend that you start here instead.

Intentions and your Inner Image

Overall it will always be your muscle memory, your physical abilities, your inner image of your motion and your intentions that rules them all when it comes to your swing. This is very important since your intentions should be matched against the driving forces.

I wrote about swing thoughts here and more about intentions here. Please read if you’re intrigued.

Intentional Focus on the Club, Hands, Arms or the Body?

The point of a system is that you kind of know the different pieces of the construction. Most advice is non contextual advice that doesn’t really focus what is driving the other parts. For the old-timer motion and what I teach the answer is: Neither of the above.. 

The golf swing is ultimately an effort to produce speed and power in a clubhead that we then align with a suitable blade angle to create a solid strike. The way that you perceive and feel power is what leads everything in the golf swing. It’s the most inner of the inner layers. And it’s damn tricky.

Driving Intention – The Never Spoken About Component

I call your own perception of power in your golf swing the Center of Mass. It’s the underlying layer to developing your skill set in creating and accelerating natural power the way the old greats did.

The problem with saying that you should lead with the body is that you never utilize the potential of the club. Leading with the hands diminishes the potential to use your body. Swinging the clubhead makes you imagine a clubhead on a string which takes away your ability to perform a proper downswing (the way that the greats did).

Your center of mass skill set boils down to two components that are all about early power creation and a long power acceleration through harnessing the dynamic force in the shaft in the optimal way. This is what leads the hands, the arms and indirectly your body (and yes, there are other systems that does something else but I teach the old school golden age swinging style).

Driving Intentions creates an Automatic Body? 

Strangely yes. If you utilize the center of mass in the proper way your hands, arms, shoulder, core and legs will start moving in accordance with the intentions that you give this engine of the golf swing. The hands and swing positions different dominances inspires body rotation and movement if used to their advantage (read more about that here).

Sure, you need some supporters (like a proper setup and a decent backswing), but apart from that the body becomes reactionary. Quite remarkably, the club’s intended movement will stimulate backswing and through swing rotation through the skill set of mastering one handed golf shots.

So you can’t move your body intentionally? You can force it in any way you see fit but a good solid basic golf swing needs no body forcing. The way that you handle weight distribution, pressure and sway will set it up for optimal function without you having to force it. I’m no particular fan of the expression – you swing from the ground up – since it is not very instructional but in one way this is completely correct. You just don’t have to think about it. Some players that utilize the power potential from the old greats and also put it on body “boosting” level would be Justin Thomas or Scottie Scheffler whose hyper rotation generates speed for them. Examples of “less body boosters” that use old-timer elements mainly would be Ludvid Åberg, Adam Scott and Xander Schauffele.

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