by Chuck Quinton
How Tiger Woods Avoids Getting Stuck on the Downswing |
Rotary Swing Golf |
by Chuck Quinton
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"How Tiger Woods Avoids Getting Stuck on the Downswing" Video
Tiger Woods used to always complain about getting "stuck" in the downswing; a position that had the club approaching the ball too far from the inside and lead to a block or a flip hook. Over the years, he's made several changes to combat this and I'm going to talk about the primary move that helps all golfers avoid this dreaded feeling. I'm using tour professional Skip Kendall as the example of what "not" to do.
Skip unwinds his shoulders immediately from the top of his backswing. This rotary motion creates centripetal force that, in turn, creates centrifugal force. This is the part that is important. The centrifugal force effectively "throws" the club out away from him; or in simpler golf terms, he loses lag early in the downswing as so many amateurs do. The key is to use the correct muscles in the downswing to pull the club back in front of the body rather than creating this "throw out" motion as Kendall does. Observe:
At the top, both have made full shoulder turns, the camera angle skews both a little, Tiger's being more in front and Skip's being more behind. Either way, they have made "ample" shoulder turn to make a good downswing.
As their left arms pass 9 o'clock, we can see a radical difference in lag and shoulder rotation. Skip has "pushed" from the right (watch the push vs. pull video here) and this early unwinding of his shoulders creates the throw out force that is impossible for him to overcome. Hence, his lag is gone simply because of the laws of physics at work while Tiger is pulling with his right pectoral muscle and left lat and rear delt amongst other back muscles to actively pull his arms back in front of his body. This simple motion is a key difference between getting stuck and struggling on the Nationwide Tour vs. winning millions on the PGA Tour.
In this last picture, you can see that Skip's right arm is still folded and stuck well behind his torso while Tiger has worked get his arm back in front of his body which is allowing it to straighten. Skip's left arm is still buried into his chest and he's in a dreadful position here.
To learn more and see the conclusion of what happens, watch the video!
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