WEBVTT

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In this golf smart insight, we're going to discuss the YouTube video discussing

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different

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swing techniques.

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So, one of the members of the site asked a question about the specific video

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linked

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below where Mike Malaska discusses four different ways to swing a golf club.

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And I want to start by saying this video is not to discredit one method versus

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another.

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It's really just a goal of hopefully educating and possibly all of us

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understanding why one

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system might work better for me versus you versus whoever and understanding the

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true differences

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between them.

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So, Mike Malaska describes four different swing characteristic or swing

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theories.

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He's got kind of the body driven swing, he's got an arm driven swing, he's got

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an X factor

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swing, which is probably close to the body driven swing if we were to actually

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break

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into the pieces of it and then he's got what he's called the momentum swing

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where it's

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basically the arms and the body kind of working together.

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So, I don't want to go through each individual one and say, you know, what I

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agree with, what

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I disagree with, but I want to give you a little bit of hopefully background

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information

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or maybe insight so that when you re-watch this video, you'll kind of

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understand why

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certain swings worked for him, certain swings may have caused tension and

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problems in his

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lower back and what it means for you as a golfer.

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So, the first thing to understand is that everybody has their own personal

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biases and

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it doesn't mean like, I don't mean bias as far as this is how I think, but bias

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is in

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the way that their body moves.

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So, I relate those three biases to the way that you square the club, the way

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that you

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organize the path and the way that you create speed.

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Now, it looks like when he's demonstrating these different swing categories, he

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's able

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to change the way his body's moving, but what you'll see is he uses roughly the

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same arm

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movements in transition regardless of the swing system that he's using.

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He may or may not be aware of it, but he has more of a steep arm movement and

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any time

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you have a steep arm movement, you're going to struggle with any of the body

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driven swings.

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So, one of his conclusions is that he's tried them all and he didn't like

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trying the body

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driven swing or the X factor swing.

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He said that the X factor swing is great for creating speed but has a hard time

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controlling

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the club face.

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Well, I will agree that it is great for creating speed and it requires shaft

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rotation to square

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the club face, not the method that he tends to teach.

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So, some of the guys that he describes as more of this momentum or blending

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swing would

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really, in my mind, be more of a body driven swing if you factor in their arm

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movements

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and what they're doing.

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So, you can review my video on the different ways to square the club, but real

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quick, he's

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basically one method would be using more of this, get the hands out in front of

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you and

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supinate and the other method would be more of a shaft rotation kind of like

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this.

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So, one is using the whole path, two is using just the face or rotating the

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face to the

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path.

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If you want to use a body driven swing, you have to rotate the face to the path

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and if

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you rotate the face to the path, then it tends to eliminate some of the jarring

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feeling that

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a lot of golfers get at impact if they tend to have more of this steep arm

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pattern.

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So, that explains to me why when he demonstrates them, his transition arm moves

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kind of all

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look the same regardless of the way that he's demonstrating or the method that

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he's demonstrating

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even by his own classifications.

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So, I personally am more of a lower body dominant swinger.

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As a result, I dominate most of my movements with my hips and with my core.

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As a result, I was a really good driver of the golf ball and I tend to struggle

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with wedges.

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There's no one best way, the best way is to learn how to manage your swing for

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the swing

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where it doesn't totally fit.

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So, I would say that this video is more of a cautionary tale of understanding

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the pieces,

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but if we go with the classifications, I would say that more tour pros tend to

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be in

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the body driven swing than in the arm balance swing, as he calls it, because

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basically what

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he's doing with the arm balance swing is he's using his vertical arm motion and

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he's

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still using his body, but he's kind of supporting the movement with his body.

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So, as a result, you're going to see longer, more of a straight arm and impact.

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That golfer is going to tend to have trouble swinging hard in controlling club

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face where

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the body driven swings, you can tend to swing a little bit harder and still

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control clubface,

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and they tend to have more difficulty with driver in three wood.

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So, just understanding how these kind of classifications fit will hopefully

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help you understand your

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game.

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Now, he does say at one point that certain swings are better for your body and

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certain

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swings are worse for your body.

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So, I wanted to just give real quick kind of injury prevention, injury, you

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know, awareness

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as far as how movements relate to that.

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So, there are a number of different things that can cause injury, but some of

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the common

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ones would be high speed or high change of direction.

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So, if you're going from fast to slow or slow to fast really quickly, that can

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tend to produce

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micro tears, eccentric load.

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So, if I'm resisting a weight moving away from me that's moving away with a lot

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of force,

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that can tend to cause injury more so than if I was doing concentric or

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basically pulling

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a weight towards me.

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So, you've got your eccentric, you've got your rapid change of direction, and

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then you've

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got end range of motion.

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So, the kind of some of the worst things I could do is if I put myself in a

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maximum stretch

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end range of motion and then I were to quickly activate and change direction

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going into the

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end of my range of motion eccentrically, right?

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That's a pretty good recipe for producing injury.

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So, here's what happens and how that relates to his discussion of some of these

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swing characteristics.

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If I tend to get steep with my body, what I'll have to do is I'll have to stall

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and decelerate,

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which does tend to put more stress in my lower back, especially if I'm limited

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in my ribcage

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or hip mobility to be able to initiate the deceleration from there.

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So, if I get steep with my arms and I swing hard, it's that jarring feeling at

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impact

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that will tend to contribute towards lower back pain.

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If I use the body centered or the body driven kind of swing approach, I can do

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so in an

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even fashion and I can do so keeping most of my joints in neutral range of

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motion or avoiding

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the end range of motion when I have a lot of speed and velocity, and that can

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be very

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safe.

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So, there are some things that he say produce injury that are really just

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opinion and that's

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fine if that's his experience and that's what he's seen either with his players

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or with

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himself, but when it comes to injury producing mechanisms, what he describes as

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causing too

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much strain on the lower back by itself if you had good technique would not put

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extra

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strain on your lower back.

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In fact, one could make an argument because of the way that the body has to

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work with

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an arm dominant swing that it's going to tend to produce more strain.

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Now, I do agree with him that as you get older, so let's say once you get past

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about the age

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of 65, you tend to lose some of your ability to side bend and that tends to

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produce some

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path issues so then you will do better having a little bit more arm powering or

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arm squaring

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with supination, but that's kind of individual specific and it really is what I

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've seen working

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with some of the older population is that as you, if you can still maintain the

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body drive

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of the swing, you'll tend to produce better shots it's just what is your body

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drive is

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going to look very different than what is a 30 year old's body drive.

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So, hopefully this discussion helps you understand a little bit of how injuries

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might relate

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to your swing, what might be some good ways to classify the swing and

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ultimately why certain

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instructors might be biased towards one swing or another, take a look at them

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when they're

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demonstrating their movements and you'll learn a lot about why they think the

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way that they

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do.

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