Why Amateurs Don't Get Better

Since everybody else seems willing to pontificate about what's wrong with the amateur golf swing, I might as well give it a go. Here's the inside scoop; It's all about knowledge of what really happens in the golf swing. Up until the last few years, golf teaching has been based on what a star player felt or what a star teacher thought he saw a star player do. Unfortunately golf is too fast to really see what's going on with the naked eye. And what a star player thinks he's doing is often quite different than what a video shows.

It's only been in the last few years that technology has provided the tools for scientifically analyzing good golf swings. Tools like high speed cameras, muscle electrodes and video x-rays have all given tremendous insight into what is really happening. We are just now finding out that much of what we thought we knew about hitting a golf ball is just plain wrong.

Did you know that 76% of your power comes from cocking and releasing the wrists. Another 11% comes from the elbow hinge. Now there's 87% accounted for and we haven't mentioned the torso at all. Shocked? I was when I heard that statistic. Now I know why Bob Toski was able to hit a driver 240 yards from his knees. I know it's true, because I saw it. Because of these recent discoveries, we now see many of the pros changing their swings. Have you noticed that they're getting simpler all the time? We can now eliminate many swing doodads that we used to think were critical.

The most common fault for the amateur golfer is coming over the top, right? Did you know that this isn't caused by the shoulders. It's anatomically impossible for your shoulder rotation by itself to get the club out in front. It's the hips where the problem is. Rotating the hips early on the downswing moves the shoulder arc out over the ball causing the outside in swing. (By the way, I charge for my instruction so be sure to put the check in the mail.)

So we're finally learning what really goes on in the golf swing, tomorrow we'll talk about why the average golfer isn't yet benefiting from this.