Dr. Yessis Sports Training Blog

According to some professional golfers, is important to keep the arms in close to the body in the downswing. The reason for this given by the pros is that it is necessary in order to rotate the body faster and hit the ball farther.

That you can rotate faster with the arms in close to the body is a well-known fact. From physics we know that the more mass (as in limbs) and the closer to the body it is, the faster you can spin. The further away from your body that the limbs are, the slower you will spin.
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The wrist break must be forceful in order to speed up and/or maintain clubhead speed. If you do not do this, you will not have timely rotation of the arms to square the ball to the target. As a result, the clubface will remain open and your chances of hitting a slice are enhanced.

To strengthen the muscles involved you should do the ulna flexion exercise. This exercise is best done with the Strength bar so that you can go through the full range of motion in a very dynamic manner. In addition to gaining strength in the muscles involved you can also develop the ability to have a more explosive wrist break.

For more information on this topic, see Explosive Golf. For visual demonstrtion of this and other exercises specific to the golf swing see the Explosive Golf DVD

Shift the hips sideways (forward) for weight shift. Hip or trunk rotation does not shift weight!

This recommendation is not always easy to execute. If in fact many golfers have great difficulty in isolating weight shift to the hips. They also have difficulty in sequencing weight shift via hip abduction with hip rotation to set up the X-factor.

To assist in learning and mastering these actions read Explosive Golf. Also of great benefit will be viewing the DVD Explosive Golf.

There is one action in the golf swing that sets you up for a powerful and accurate hit. It can significantly improve the distance and accuracy with which you hit the ball and perhaps even more importantly, will minimize the possibility of back injury. What is it?

It is clearing your hips on the initiation of your down swing. First your body weight transfers onto your forward leg and you then rotate your hips around an axis in the forward leg hip joint. The more forcefully you drive the hips forward and rotate them, the greater the power you can generate in the hit. Read more… »

It is generally assumed that most pros have the best or ideal swings. Many do have great swings, but it does not mean that they are perfect or cannot be improved. This has been established by comparing their swings and by doing biomechanical analyses of many touring pros.

I have found that all of them can improve their swings – to varying degrees - to hit the ball further and in some cases, straighter and more consistently. Understand that most golfers swings are evaluated not on their swing mechanics, but on ball flight, distance and accuracy. But mechanics (technique) is the key to continual success. Read more… »

The golf swing is usually thought of as a very complex skill. Because of this to date there has been not been a complete analysis of what is involved in the swing and how each body action contributes to the total swing technique.

It is possible to find some analyses of specific actions in the scientific literature but nothing of this nature has appeared in the popular literature. This includes popular golf magazines and books written by professional golfers. Read more… »

According to Golf Magazine, to make a more level shoulder turn lead the backswing with the right shoulder. It is stated that, “when the right shoulder turns back it pulls the left shoulder along for the ride.” Is this what really happens?

Your shoulders are not a rigid unit; you can move the left shoulder quite a few degrees with the right shoulder in place, or vice versa. Thus, to concentrate on only pulling back with the right shoulder, will not ensure that the left shoulder will also turn through exactly the same range of motion or postioning , unless you concentrate on keeping the shoulders rigid.
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A classic tip that keeps getting repeated in golf literature is “swing the club and that will move the body for you.” This myth is perpetuated not only by the everyday golfer but by many pros. Most likely it got started because golfers could see movement in the backswing but not in the downswing.

For example, when you bring the club back in the takeaway, the club leads the way. You move the body in response to the movement of the club. This can be seen very clearly if you have a wide takeaway. As you move the club to the rear and upward, the body rotates and you raise the arms to bring it back up to the top of the backswing. Read more… »

Golf pros bring out some excellent points in regard to positioning of the hands if you have an effective turn of the clubface to make square contact with the ball. Turning of the clubface however, has little to do with the hands; this act is accomplished by arm rotation.

Some pros teach that the club rotation is due only to the left forearm. This however, is inaccurate mainly because one arm cannot function by itself when both hands grip the club. It can happen if one arm is completely passive, but this does not occur in the golf swing.
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In a Golf Magazine article it was brought out that a top professional golfer had great footwork. However, this statement leaves much to be desired. Since when do the feet move during the swing?

Does the author mean that the feet respond well to what the hips and upper body do during the swing? If yes, it is not the feet that do the action, but the body actions that determine foot actions and position throughout the swing. Keep in mind that you cannot move the feet (or even roll them) during a swing to create movement of the upper body. Read more… »

According to Phil Mickelson, the arms and body move together. He states that “my only thought on the downswing is to keep swinging my arms fast enough to stay in front of my chest”. He may think this but does he do it?

Sequence pictures of his swing show that when the arm swing occurs the shoulders and especially the hips have already turned. If the arms stayed in front of the chest all the time during the downswing, it would not give you more clubhead speed. In fact, you would have less power. Read more… »

Because some pros straighten the left leg on the downswing, it is now considered to be an effective movement for getting more power into the ball. But, upward — and some backward — movement of the body does not translate into more horizontal force of the clubhead.

In fact, the straightening of the forward leg can lead to a reversal of weight shift, hitting higher drives or topping the ball if teed up low. This may explain why some golfers tee the ball up so high; they raise the body (by straightening the left leg) to make effective contact. Read more… »

Rotating the hips to the rear along with your shoulders is being recommended with increasing frequency to get a full shoulder turn. Is this a good practice?

When your hips and shoulders turn together, or if you’re hips lead, you have less separation between the hips and shoulders. This in turn decreases the amount of force that you can generate on the downswing. Read more… »

According to Tiger Woods, you should “maintain a nice tempo and rhythm on the downswing, matching forearm with lower body rotation. A smooth tempo will help you avoid releasing the club head” . This sounds like sage advice but what does a nice tempo and rhythm mean?

Tempo is the speed of movement while rhythm relates to the alternation of speed over time. Thus rhythm is associated more with differentiation between the backswing and the downswing and if speaking only of the downswing, it means the alternation of speed between the different body parts and limb actions. Read more… »

Teaching pros often advocate a change in your basic stance in order to accommodate a greater body turn on either the backswing or downswing. For example, to get a greater back swing it is recommended that you step backward with the rear foot to allow for a greater hip and shoulder turn to the rear.

If you have difficulty getting the hips through on the downswing it is often recommended that you step backward somewhat with the forward foot (closest to the hole) to get the hips more open and to allow them to turn more in the downswing. Read more… »

The opinions of top-level golf coaches are highly respected when dealing with various aspects of the game. However, because of the lack of science that is applied to the golf swing, I use caution when I read articles by them dealing with what occurs in the swing.

For example, in an article by Butch Harmon, it was stated that the golfer, in a photo accompanying the article, had a takeaway that was too wide because the club and left arm formed a straight line when the club shaft almost reached the level position when the hands were almost waist high. The problem, according to Harmon, is that from this position the swing can only get narrower and the hands will tend to move too close to the head at the top – a weak position. Read more… »

It is often believed that the clubhead is accelerating through impact. However, this is a fallacy. The clubhead is actually slowing down somewhat although it is still traveling at a high speed. This is due to the long lever formed by the arms and club shaft.

From physics we know that the longer the lever, the slower the speed at the end of the lever. In the golf swing, the lever reaches its maximum length during the wrist break when a straight line can be drawn through the club shaft and arms, mainly the left arm for a right-handed player.
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According to Golf Magazine your arms start down before the shoulders. Since your arms have a longer distance to go to reach the contact point, they must start before the shoulders.

This is a fallacy. The shoulders must precede the arms in order to give the arms their initial momentum. The shoulders carry the arms in the initial part of the downswing since they work as a unit. Read more… »

I recently had a high-level golfer come to me who heard that I can guarantee 20 or more yards in a matter of weeks. He was very skeptical of this since he thought he already had a good swing, was fairly strong and averaged 240 yards on his drives. However, he did not know if his swing was producing maximum distance nor was he sure that the strength he had was golf specific.

He agreed to work with me, and after video taping and analyzing his swing, it became clear that he did not have the most powerful swing. He had a very smooth swing, but it lacked the weight shift and hip rotation needed to produce maximum force in his arm and wrist actions. Read more… »

Your spine angle, the angle formed by your spine and legs at address is reported to be the key to consistency in the swing. According to Jim Flick, one of Golf Magazines top ten greatest teachers, “. . . if this angle changes during your swing you have to compensate with your hands to square the clubface at impact. That’s a complex way to play.”

Not answered however, is how the spine angle determines whether your clubface is square. You can change the spine angle by lowering or raising the trunk, but in each of these different positions you can still maintain a square clubface whether it be at address or at impact.
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In a recent article by a top teaching pro, it was brought out that the hands should remain vertical or perpendicular to the ground when the hands are below the waist. This equates to a square club face. To show the action of the hands, the pro illustrated hand positioning with ping pong paddles.

One picture showed the hands waist high and the paddle face vertical in the backswing. Another picture showed a vertical paddle face (same position) in the follow-through.

It is simple to pull the paddles through in a sideward plane to keep the face vertical at all times, but this does not happen in the golf swing. In the swing, the club head moves in an arc of a circle downward so that the club face is not always facing the target. Read more… »

In a feature article on a top female golfer in Golf Magazine, it was brought out that she works out five days a week when not playing tournaments and three to four times a week during tournament weeks. She is quoted as saying that, “I’d like to dispel the myth that heavy weights are bad for golfers.”

Heavy weights in themselves are not bad for golfers and other athletes. They are needed for additional strength. However, how you work out and the results of the workouts when using heavy weights can make a major difference in your performance and looks. A picture of this female player left no doubt in your mind that she was pumping iron. Read more… »

According to Sergio Garcia, “I start down smoothly letting the forward momentum of my body and arms lead the club”. Sergio is not the only one who states that momentum is used to help bring the arms down in the forward swing. What is often overlooked however, is that momentum is created after a particular body part has been accelerated into motion, after which it continues in motion of its own accord. Read more… »

Teaching pros often advocate a change in your basic stance in order to accommodate a greater body turn on either the backswing or downswing. For example, to get a greater back swing it is recommended that you step backward with the rear foot to allow for a greater hip and shoulder turn to the rear.

If you have difficulty getting the hips through on the downswing it is often recommended that you step backward somewhat with the forward foot. This allows you to get the hips more open and to then turn more in the downswing. Read more… »

According to many teaching golf professionals, the most common fault in the game is swinging over the top so the club approaches impact from outside the target line. This comes from starting the downswing with an aggressive upper body move.

However this “common” fault of swinging over the top has never been shown with actual pictures taken from live digital video film. If this were done, they would see that it is impossible for this to happen when swinging the club in an effective manner. For example, if the club approaches impact from outside the target line, you will invariably lose your balance and fall to the rear after impact. Read more… »

In an effort to glamorize the crunch exercise for the abdominals and make it appear important, many trainers are giving it more credit than it deserves. For example, in a recent golf magazine, the professional advisor stated that the crunch strengthens the hips, abs and back. But yet, the crunch came into existence to eliminate all non-abdominal areas except the upper abdominals.

However, as time goes on, it appears that the value of the crunch is expanding from the abdominals to adjacent and even opposite joints. Simple logic should tell us that strengthening the abdominals will not strengthen the lower back. This would be analogous to saying that if you did a biceps curl you would get stronger triceps or if you did the bench press, you would get stronger traps and so on. Read more… »

Most golfers believe that you swing the arms through a great range of motion in the downswing. In reality, however, the arms go through a very short range of motion with independent action. Most of the range of motion seen is created by hip and shoulder rotation.

Because the arms and shoulder girdle are connected, in order to move the arms through a full range of motion, you must move the shoulders and vice versa. In other words, when the hands are held together you create a “single” arm which greatly limits its ability to move through a great range of motion.
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One of the most common recommendations given to golfers is to rotate the arms on the backswing. There are even many devices now available that teach you to rotate the arms as you take the back swing. What is almost always omitted in these recommendations and device explanations is that you cannot take a full backswing without rotating the arms. Read more… »

To have a powerful and effective swing golfers need strength explosive power and flexibility. These factors are related to: 1) Your ability to maintain a stable body address position; 2) The development of active flexibility; 3) Increased clubhead speed; 4) Development of a muscular feel for the swing; 5) Preventing injury while ensuring maximum distance and accuracy; 6) Developing confidence in your capabilities.

To attain these outcomes you must do specialized strength explosive power and flexibility exercises that duplicate the key actions of the swing. In this way the special exercises can enhance and improve your swing in a shorter period of time than if you doubled your playing time!

Before going into some of exercises that are specific to golf, it is important to differentiate between general and specialized strength exercises. General physical exercises are those exercises that are not directly related to the specific actions of the golf swing. They are used for overall body conditioning, i.e., strengthening the muscles and increasing your functional potential. Read more… »

In the backswing, most golfers with effective swings coil around the right side, not around the spine. If you keep the rear leg slightly bent and the pressure on the inside of your rear foot, the coiling will be especially tight when you turn around the right side of the trunk and hips, and the hips remain basically in the same position.

When you do this you have the greatest potential for power in the downswing. If you have been watching the Open most likely you have seen this in most of the golfers. Read more… »

“If you want to increase your clubhead speed, instead of thinking power, think relaxation. Hold the club lightly and relax your arms and shoulders. . . you’ll actually gain control because a freer club will come into the ball on a better angle, will tend to square up at impact on its own and will automatically make more solid contact.” These are comments that are often heard from many golf pros. But do they hold water?

The concept of relaxation plays an important role in the golf swing. I do not believe there is anyone who would question the validity of this statement. However, how much relaxation and how much tension you have — and when you exhibit them — are critical to how effectively you swing the golf club. Read more… »

With the start of the U.S. Open today many golfers and golf fans will be watching their favorite pros. Most of them will be watching to see how far the ball goes, where it lands in the fairway, rough or on the green. Few however, will be looking closely, with an analytical mind, to how they execute the swing. For those of you who do I recommend that you look closely at how well they clear the hips. This is an action (really two actions) that they all execute — some much better than others well. The key elements to watch for are explained in the following article that I wrote for Senior Golfer.

To have an effective swing it is necessary to clear the hips. This is a recommendation that has little dispute among teaching pros. However, what constitutes clearing the hips, the roles that the hips play and the need for hip action in the total sequence of joint actions that occur in the swing are often misunderstood. Read more… »

Most golf instructors will tell you to bend over from the hips when assuming your stance. It is usually taken for granted that you know how to do this.

However, in my work with recreational, semi- and professional golfers, I am continually amazed at how many do not have the ability to bend over from the hips. Most bend over from the waist and create a rounded back position in the stance. Some bend over from the hips and the waist simultaneously. Read more… »

Many golfers mistakenly believe that a long backswing, in which there is much turning of the shoulders and hips, is an indication of good coiling, but it is not. In true coiling of the upper body, the midsection muscles are placed on stretch and you should feel tension as you achieve the full turn of the shoulders. In other words, when you have true coiling, there will be great tension in the muscles ready to be released in the downswing. Merely having a full turn of the body, does not insure the tension that is needed in the muscles to produce a powerful downswing. Read more… »