The golf swing has been compared to a signature. Watching the pros on TV, it is easy to see why. Their swings are different from one another, and they repeat the same move every time.
It has become accepted that all their swings are different, but as I found myself pondering this subject the other day I asked myself ‘do they really all swing it that differently?’
It is not as if you turn on the television and see one pro stepping up gripping the club left below right, take a happy Gilmore style run up, hit the ball with both feet off the ground and then finish sitting on the ground, and then the next pro steps up and hits the ball from his knees with one hand on the grip and another on the shaft as you would grip a hockey stick, is it?
The professionals do not have truly different swings like Happy Gilmore and even he exhibits some golf swing fundamentals!
The reality is, all of the Tour professionals in fact swing the club very similarly. They all align their bodies more or less in the same way. They all grip the club with right hand below left. They all make a backswing in more or less the same way keeping their left arm straighter and bending the right arm. They all shift their weight from the right leg in the backswing to the left leg in the follow-through. They all finish the golf swing in somewhat of a similar way, facing the target with their right heel off of the ground.
My point is, is that it’s more useful to look for these similarities for the amateur golfer than it is the differences. Most club level amateur golfers have a major peculiarity or flaw in their swings which none of the professionals have, for example a huge over the top move or keeping their weight on the back foot during the downswing. Novice golfers would be especially well served in essentially mimicking the major commonalities from the professionals.
The pros do all have different swings but the differences are usually found in relatively minor body alignments at address or wrist angles during the swing and not in the over-arching movements during the full swing itself, especially not during the downswing. Obviously, they all have different bodies and ranges of motion available to them too which produce unique swings.
So, let’s look for the broader commonalities between the Tour pros’ swings, and work towards incorporating those ourselves, under the knowledge it is acceptable to have some minor quirks or variations as well.
Are these swings really so different after all? I certainly see more similarties than differences here!
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