| Yesterday's article about weight shift, sit or sink over and onto your back leg, brought out a lot of good comments and questions. One extremely good one was from Bill Kerney. Bill asked, “I see now why the hips should have a limited turn. Is there some way to integrate the idea of the bump at the right time during the backswing with the right arm at 90 degrees?” Well Bill, absolutely, there is a perfect time to do that. For starters, we have to reiterate the fact that the forward upswing starts with the lower body doing the lateral left shift or bump, as I call it, slightly before you reach the top of the backswing with the arms, hands and club. That's the same concept as a pitcher throwing a pitch or a baseball player throwing a ball, or skipping a rock on a lake. The lower body is already striding forward while the back arm is lifting the ball up to the air to throw it. The key is, you can find a point at the top of the backswing that would be considered “the top of the backswing” where we need to start the forward swing. | |
| The best way to do this is what I call the Find Top of Backswing Test. You get into your normal posture and have your arms outstretched. Leaving your forward arm in a position of holding a golf club, take your back hand and place it exactly on the elbow. From there, I want you to take your back hand and lift your forward arm up to where would be the top of your backswing. That means you're going to pull it up and lift, and you're going to let your shoulders and hips turn, but making sure that, #1, your head does not move and #2, your spine angle does not change. | |
| Now this is considered a somewhat static position, which means it's the top of your backswing without a golf club. We know that, in reality, when you have a golf club and are in a more dynamic motion, your swing will actually be stretched out a little longer than that. So this is like our “pre-top” position. Now the key is, once you establish that position, this is where, when your top hand on your golf club reaches it, that's when you make the 'bump.' I've always had this image that there's a bell at the position . Whether it is a church bell, an upside down desk bell , I hit the plunger, that's the one I use. If you want to use the liberty bell, that's fine, any bell whatsoever. I use the upside down desk bell because when my thumb comes up and hits that bell, which is ringing in my mind, that's the split second when my whole body starts the lateral left shift, or bump, to start my forward upswing. We know the hands and the arms and the club will go a little bit higher, but the key then is that's where you have to really hold on to make sure the wrists don't break down. But ringing the bell from the position you find using the Find Top of Backswing Test, will give you the point that you'll be able to start that forward upswing, that one split second before you actually reach that dynamically swinging top of backswing. Find that point, ring you bell, get your bump started, maintaining firm left wrist and forearms at the top so you don't have the club down cocking. Ring that bell the correct way and you will see how much smoother, faster, freer and more explosively your hips will slide and then start to pull your body so you can swing your arms and club up to the T-Finish. I think you'll find you're hitting a lot more shots much more solidly, straighter and, very likely, with better distance. The Surge! | |
Find Top of Backswing and Ring the Bell!
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