The Top of The Swing

Posted under The Top of The Swing

All this brings up the subject of just where the club does go as it travels from the ball to the top of the swing and down again into the ball and the follow through. Many golfers feel that the club should go back and forth on exactly the same path. Whether it goes back and forth on the same line has been the subject of many debates.

I remember many, many years ago, a British golf magazine relating the story of such a discussion. To prove how the club actually traveled a flaming material was attached to the clubhead and pictures of this flamed path were taken in the darkness of night. I vividly recall the utterly black background with a picture of the club's lighted path.

The club did not go back and forth on the same line. About the time that Bobby Jones was at the peak of his game, high speed motion picture cameras were being improved and perfected. One company, anxious to demonstrate the efficiency of its product, took pictures of everything that traveled at high speed and eventually they came around to Bobby Jones' golf swing.

With this high speed camera they had pictures of the club at every point of the swing, so they charted the path of the club. Much to their surprise they discovered that Bobby Jones' golf club did not go back and forth on the same line—as a matter of fact, it did a decided loop. The club traveled inwardly at the start of the backswing, then straight up, and as it reached the top of the swing it went to the outside slightly.

As the downswing started, the club dropped to the inside again and it remained on that path until the ball was met. At this point it went straight up and over— the club actually traveled through a figure eight pattern. The evidence was undeniable. In presenting the pictures to the public a great hurrah was raised to the effect that Bobby Jones, the peerless champion, had a flaw in his swing.

No one wanted to study a defect, so there was no interest in the films. It is regrettable that the pictures were not regarded for their true worth. Subsequent study of the golf swing has proven that the club cannot and does not travel back and forth on the same line.

As emphasized in this book, there are two swings to a golf stroke—there is an upswing during which the player is balanced on his right foot, and the axis upon which the body is being utilized causes the club to travel on a certain path. Then as the downswing and follow through is made, the player has shifted his weight to his left foot— his body now is functioning on a different axis and the club is coming down and through on an entirely different path. The club, in other words, does a loop during the course of the swing, and this loop action naturally instills in the golf swing a natural whip or snap action.

By comparison a club going back and forth on the same line would tend to create a "stiff-arm dead stick" effect. Recently a certain group conducted extensive studies of the various aspects of a golf swing with a series of motion pictures taken against a square-lined background. Towards the end of the research it was discovered that the path of the club could be traced against this lined background, and the club did not go back and forth on the same path.

In Chapter Six, when explaining the new concept of body action in a golf swing, I stated that a turning action with the body produced a low flat around the belt line type of swing. By comparison, the correct action of the body, the diagonal stretch action, produced a more upright type of swing that traveled higher and more around the head and neck of the player. I'd like to present a further comparison of these two swings.

In the low flat type of swing, caused by the faulty turning action, the club actually travels on a convex arc as it goes back, and on a similar convex arc as it goes through the ball. Traveling thus, all the force of the swing is thrown out and beyond the ball.