“What we are seeking in an effortless golf swing, is a state of a state of rotary equilibrium rather than static balance.” – David Lee
The secret to feeling an effortless golf swing that maximizes power and control, lies in your ability to properly offset the forces pulling you toward your toes in the downswing. To accomplish this, once the arms have been thrown up to as soft a spot as possible, we want to allow the weight to transfer back to your left heel while still opening up the shoulders and hips in the backswing. you must “counter-fall” sufficiently at the start of the delivery.
The arms comprise of more of the human body’s weight than we are usually aware of. If you are solidly balanced on your feet when the downswing begins, the weight of your arms and club swinging in front of you, will instantly pull you toward your toes (over the top) and out of plane, not unlike a washing machine with all the clothes on one side of it. Most golfers are under the false impression that to they want to be balanced during a golf swing with their feet firmly planted on the ground. What we are really searching for in an effortless golf swing, is dynamic “rotary equilibrium,” where the pull against the body from the weight of the arms and club swinging around us, is negated by the counter-fall, thus giving the appearance of being “balanced” during the swing. Take a look at YouTube sequences of a hammer thrower. Because of the significant weight of the arms and hammer, the body pivots at close to forty degrees “off vertical” to keep the thrower from being pulled onto his/her face during the rotation. A golf swing is a microcosm of the same move, just in a slightly different plane and with a lighter “club.” All sports where rotation is employed require a Counter Fall in order to maintain equilibrium.
In a proper golf swing made by a right-handed player, the weight shifts to the right leg and back to the left leg as the shoulders and hips turn back. As the weight shifts from the right, it lands slightly against the left leg, enough to deflect the body into the counter-fall, on a line or vector that’s approximately seventy degrees left of the target line, ninety degrees being straight behind you. The feeling is like that of tipping a barrel onto its edge before you roll it. The deeper one moves into the counter-fall before the shoulders start forward in the delivery, the less internal effort it takes to turn the core through impact (if the arms are in a state of dead-fall), and the faster it will move. Using mass rotation to sling the arms and club, instead of using shoulder and arm strength, is the proper way to apply power to give you an effortless golf swing.
Study the “Gravity” golf cross-footed drills and they will teach you to make a perfect counter-fall.
Master your golf game and take the Gravity Golf Challenge!
