Lost in the shuffle of the hectic finish at this year’s Masters was Angel Cabrera, who was right there in the thick of things until his putter gave out on the back nine. In this video we look at Cabrera’s golf swing in all its free flowing, old school glory as he rips into the ball with gleeful abandon. Certainly this is no manufactured swing borne of video analysis and hours of poring over positions and conforming to swing theories. This is just a prime example of a brutally strong, ultra –talented player who knows how to put the club on the ball and doesn’t really worry too much about exactly how he’s doing it.
Two things stand out in Cabrera’s golf swing that separate him from the typical modern player: one is the large amount of lateral movement both back and through, and the other is the use of the right arm, with the elbow bent well past 90 degrees and the forearm almost parallel to the ground. He manages both idiosyncrasies with wonderful rhythm and sequence, and his right arm reverse movement is reminiscent of Hogan, although the extreme amount of bend in the arm at the top leads to a high approach into impact. All in all he’s a powerful, exciting player who I would certainly follow if I were attending a tournament.
If you’ve watched more than one or two of the videos I’ve done on the golf swings of the great players of the past and present you may have noticed the huge variations in technique they use to hit the golf ball. That said, you may also have noticed that there are a few themes that run through most of them, themes that I make sure to highlight. Two of the most important are the use of the ground to power the pivot motion, a movement I have called “compression”, and also the ability to “sustain” the alignment of the shaft with the left arm past impact, a position produced in part as a result of the huge amount of lateral and rotational movement of the lower body in the forward swing, a move Lee Trevino himself described as a “slide-turn”. Watching Trevino hit the golf ball we see one of the most obvious and extreme examples of both of these highly desirable traits.
Lee Trevino controlled the ball as well as anyone ever, preferring a low fade with the longer clubs, and was a master with the wedge. What jumps out about his golf swing, other than his idiosyncratic alignment, is the massive bend he produces in his posture as he swings, which should have long ago put to rest the conventional notion that it is a good idea to “maintain posture” during the swing. The truth is, it is a far better idea to “add” posture, or to bend more from the waist by compressing into the ground, as Trevino does. Trevino’s swing was entirely homemade, sculpted by hitting thousands upon thousands of balls off the hardpan of a Texas driving range. He grew up poor and had to fight and scratch for anything and everything, then ended up beating Nicklaus in a playoff for the U.S. Open for one of his six major championships. He is truly one of the all-time greats, and a great story as well.
So Bubba Watson is being interviewed, and he’s asked if he has any advice for the average golf player who’s trying to add a few yards to his or her driver. “You know, I just swing smooth and try to hit the center of the clubface”. Gee, thanks Bubba. That oughta do it. I’ll just swing smooth and make sure I hit the sweet spot and pretty soon I’ll be out there with you.
Do you note a hint of sarcasm there? You should, because there’s nothing funnier than listening to hyper-talented players try to explain to the average hacker just how easy it really is. Bubba is all the evidence that Brandel Chamblee needs to back up his assertion that video-based / technique oriented instruction is a “cancer” on the game. Sure, Bubba, sure, Freddy, sure Hale, why is everyone making the game so hard? Why don’t people just go with their instincts? Why break it down into pieces when all you really have to do is look at the target and swing? Now, in his defense, Bubba has never claimed that what other people do with instruction is bad, just that he has never needed any of it. And if you look closely at his swing, as we do here in the video, you see evidence of his incredible natural ability to play the game. To control the ball from the positions he occupies during a swing is pretty incredible, and great fun to watch.
But here’s a note to Brandel Chamblee: I challenge you to spend a day teaching the people in my lesson book. You wouldn’t last. There’s only one Bubba, and I’ll show you a thousand guys who swing in a similar fashion and have no idea where the ball is going. So left with a game not good enough to get to the next level, how do you improve? Relax and swing smooth? Oh, yes, and don’t forget to hit the center of the clubface. The fact is that golf is a very hard game, and most people don’t have a natural instinct to play it, exceptions like Bubba notwithstanding.
I used to spend a lot of time traveling and playing in the winter, but as I get older and my body suffers more from the constant abuse of playing and teaching from the middle of March to the middle of November I now take about a 4 month break where I will only play in a couple of events and teach a lighter schedule. This gives me time to continue to work on me swing and to ramp up my workouts so that I might be more physically capable of performing the movements I believe are necessary for high-level ball striking. If this video is any indication (and I won’t know until I play in my next tournament) I am on the right track, because this particular golf swing is pretty good.
As I mention in the video I have returned to an open stance, wherein I rotate my lower body to the left at address. My use of this setup is a personal preference, and I have used it before with good results: indeed, if you watch the video of me winning the National Club Pro in 2001 you might notice that I am playing from an open stance. My reasons are specific: because of my back fusion I lack mobility in my lower spine and consequently have a tendency to lift and over-rotate my lower body in the backswing. From a square stance my transition move is forward into the front of my left foot, which slows my lower body rotation and causes me to back out of the swing with the shaft falling under my arms (stuck) and releasing out to the right, all of which place a tremendous strain on my hands and wrists to flip the club over and save the shot from going right. My main focus this winter has been to force myself to lower in the backswing while staying somewhat centered over the ball, then driving my weight more directly toward my left heel while encouraging my head and neck to release with my chest and shoulders, something I tried to do this past year without success. I am looking for my hips to be more in the “box” during the forward swing and follow-through, and for my body to be more facing the target at impact. What I see here is encouraging.
Presented with the opportunity to watch Robert Garrigus’ golf swing in slow motion it occurred to me that it would be interesting to compare his powerful action to that of a baseball player, especially a power hitter. I wasn’t sure what I would come up with, as I hadn’t previously broken down any baseball swings, but after viewing Barry Bonds and putting him side-by-side with Garrigus I knew I had some pretty cool parallels.
Average or below –average golf players often have serious problems with athletic sequencing, that is, the ability to start the forward motion of the golf swing from the ground, with the upper body continuing to move backwards for a short period before being “caught”, or pulled into the forward swing by the lower body, setting up a condition of “lagging”, whereby the clubhead trails the motion and energy is stored in the hands and wrists to be used where it is needed most, at impact. Studies have shown that this ability is the single greatest divider of the “haves” and “have-nots” in the striking of the golf ball.
In order to appeal to a more natural motion I often have students hold the golf club like a baseball bat and wait for a pitch, at which point I will lob an imaginary ball toward them and have them swing. What usually (not always, unfortunately) happens at this point is that the student will lift the left foot and stride forward before swinging the club forward, producing a usable sequence of lower body first movement. The huge difference between the baseball swing and a golf swing is that the requirements for precision in the golf swing preclude the lifting and moving of the left foot and leg. Thus, the student has to be taught to push off the right foot and transfer weight to the left by sliding the hips forward and left (I like to call it a 45 degree push, meaning the slide is directed 45 degrees left of target) without the head moving forward.
In watching Garrigus and Bonds you can see how both use the ground effectively through lowering (compressing), and how the analogy might be helpful for those struggling to make sense of hip and leg movement in the swing.
There is a certain aesthetic pleasure in watching a tightly connected, “flat” looking golf swing. The movement appears centered and simple. The energy seems to come 100 % from rotation, and there is little or no rangy or loose movement. At the same time there is a whip-like action that creates effortless looking power that allows physically smaller players to create tremendous distance. The prototype of this type of swing is, of course, Ben Hogan, and I have done a few studies of his swing, some by himself and another comparing him with Tiger Woods. Here we look at the golf swing of the newest player being compared with Hogan, Jonathan Byrd, and we put him side-by-side to check out the similarities and differences.
The similarities in the two swings are more cosmetic than substantial. Byrd’s arm position at the top, specifically the angle of his left arm to the ground is very close to Hogan’s position. But as we look closer there are many significant differences. Ben Hogan reaches the top by adding posture to a fairly erect starting position. Byrd, on the other hand, starts more bent over and with lower hands, then raises slightly in the takeaway and never lowers again until the forward swing is under way. Hogan continues to compress into the ground by deepening his waist, then lowers again starting the forward swing while keeping his head out over the ball. Byrd stays tall and backs away from the ball slightly in transition, which lessens his spine angle and causes his right arm to fall more behind his right side than does Hogan’s. Byrd is saved by his incredible strength: lesser physical specimens would have trouble rotating the hands in front of the ball from this approach.
My purpose here is not to criticize, but to compare. It is my feeling that as good as Byrd is now, he could be better by incorporating some of the key elements of Hogan’s golf swing. At the very least I believe that he could hit the ball significantly farther by improving his use of his pivot and the ground forces that help build additional torque between the upper and lower bodies, possibly leading to increased clubhead speed and more distance with the driver. That said, Byrd’s shot-making and overall control, combined with his powerful physical presence, make him a player to watch in every tournament, including the majors.
I saw Moe Norman hit balls twice, both times speaking to groups of golfers about what he was doing and how he was doing it, and I thought it would be interesting, given the myth concocted around him and his alleged ball striking prowess, if I told the story of my encounter.
When I got out of college I quit golf for a time (I had lost my game miserably my senior year at LSU after being a First Team All-American my junior year), but ended up playing again as a amateur, qualifying for the 1981 US Open and turning pro that Fall. I moved to Florida and embarked on an attempt to play golf for a living, starting out on the Space Coast mini-tour run by JC Goosie. It was at a tournament at the Royal Oaks club in Titusville that I had my first glimpse of Moe Norman. He was on the range hitting balls, and was surrounded by players watching and listening to his sing-song voice describing each shot and relating tidbits about his prowess and the similarities between his methods and those of Ben Hogan and Lee Trevino.
“Me and Hogan, me and Hogan, down the line longer than anyone. 22 inches…22inches down the line. Nobody longer…except maybe Trevino. Me, Hogan and Trevino, nobody down the line like us. Look at my right ankle. See my sock? I put holes in it ‘cause I drag it on the ground. Straight as an arrow, straight as an arrow. No curve…see? No curve at all. Just straight at the target.
I looked at Moe’s hands. They were scaled with callous so thick they looked like fish. He had on red pants that were way too short and tight, and a red shirt to match, with white socks and red and white shoes. There was a large bulge in one of his pockets which a friend informed me was a wad of cash in the neighborhood of $10,000 which he carried because he didn’t believe in banks. Needless to say, this was a seriously strange dude.
I had heard most of the Moe stories simply because I was a pro golfer, and everybody talked about Ben Hogan and Moe Norman. How Moe was leading the Masters and walked off the course for some strange reason or another, or how someone told Moe the hole they were about to play was a “driver and a wedge”, so Moe proceeded to tee off with his wedge, then hit his driver off the deck to 10 feet and make birdie. It wasn’t hard to imagine him reciting “driver, wedge: wedge, driver…driver wedge: wedge, driver…me and Hogan, me and Hogan. Supposedly Moe never missed a shot. Some pretty serious players had commented on how impressed they were with Moe’s ability to hit the ball. So as I began to watch I waited to be enthralled.
Well, it didn’t happen. I was into golf ball compression and the stories I liked the most were about Hogan and the sound his ball made when he hit it. I had seen video of Hogan hitting balls and Hogan playing Snead in the Wonderful World of Golf, and I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wanted the ball to shoot off the club with a crack, and I wanted to mash it against the ground and compress it so that no wind would affect it. I wanted to hit bullets with my driver that curved any way I wanted. Moe Norman didn’t have that. He hit the ball nice and straight, but there was no outstanding quality in his strike. In fact, he seemed to “pick” the ball off the turf, barely disturbing the ground. The whole mechanism looked odd, as he set up way further from the ball than anyone I had ever seen, and with his hands arched up the shaft of the club lined directly up with his left arm. He placed the club well behind and to the inside of the ball at address, and when he finished his arms shot straight up in the air as though he were still guiding the club to the target.
I really didn’t care that his technique was idiosyncratic. There are plenty of funky looking golf swings amongst the greatest players. But I was hugely disappointed in the lack of a compressed strike of the ball. At that point in my mini-tour career I had been playing a bit with Jeff Sluman and Donnie Hammond, and I could only think that those guys could really hit the ball, especially Sluman, who absolutely flushed it with a beautiful, high, straight shot that fell a yard to the right. I recall thinking that I had never hit a shot in my entire life as good as Jeff hit a standard 3-iron.
Anyway, fast forward almost two decades and we arrive at my second meeting with Moe. This time I had been invited to the Pro-Member-Guest at the Adios Golf Club in Fort Lauderdale, Florida by a student of mine, and as a bonus we were going to be able to attend a clinic given by Moe before the start of the event. Alan, my student, had been inflicted with the disastrous conventional instruction to “swing down the line” and had been trying to keep his clubface square to the target to boot. We had worked hard on getting him to swing left around his body, and I spent ample time with the video showing him that the proper exit plane for the club was not straight at the target. Now enter Moe, and as he starts hitting he segues directly into the “down the line” rant, repeating it over and over. “Me and Hogan, down the line: me and Hogan, down the line 22 inches”.
Alan gave me a puzzled look and said “Hey, Wayne. He’s talking about swinging down the line. You’ve been telling me to swing to the left. What’s the deal?” My response was as such: “All right, I’ll tell you what. I’ll make two bets with you right now. The first is that Moe (who was slated to play in the event) will not turn in a score. The second is that I will film Moe’s swing and show you that his club will not swing down the line at all. In fact, it will head more left than almost any swing I have ever shown you” Alan looked at me with great skepticism and said “you’re telling me that Moe Norman, supposedly one of the greatest ball-strikers in the history of golf, doesn’t know what he is doing? Or even worse, that he thinks he is doing exactly the opposite of what he is really doing?” I had no choice but to agree. “That’s exactly what I am saying”. Alan was almost perturbed at this point. “That’s crazy. You’re on. $50 on each bet. By the way, why the “no card” bet?” “He’s a legend”, I explained, and legends don’t shoot 80. This is a tough course and he’s getting older. There’s no way he posts a number.” I took the video of Moe hitting (it still didn’t impress me, although he still hit it straight just about every time) and told Alan we would watch it on a TV after the round.
When we finished and walked upstairs to where the score board was the first thing we saw was the NC beside Moe’s name. 50 for me. After food and drinks we found a TV and I hooked up the video camera. Here it was, a perfect down-the-line shot of Moe with the camera tight in on the bottom of the swing. I cued it up and let it go back in slow motion, and as it got to impact I stopped the tape. “Are you ready for this?” I asked Alan. “Yeah, come on, get to it”, he said excitedly, “I want to win my money back”. Of course, I knew he would do no such thing, because it is PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE to swing a club straight down the target line with any speed, especially as far as Moe stood from the ball. I clicked the camera one, twice, and as the swing moved past impact the club turned sharply inward on the arc of the shaft plane, finally exiting past his body somewhere between hip high and shoulder high. At the end of the swing, however, Moe brought his arms upward with a flourish, as if to imply that he had actually not swung around his body at all.
Alan was flabbergasted. “That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. Moe Norman has no idea what he is actually doing with the club. “How can that be?” “Look”, I said, “the lesson to be learned is ‘beware what the good player says he does, because quite often it won’t actually be the case’. It may feel like one thing, and it may produce great results, but it won’t necessarily be what is actually happening. For that you need a video camera. It is never a bad thing to see what is really going on, especially when you are trying to make a change. You have to see what the ideas are producing. You can’t depend on a couple of good shots to tell you that a thought is doing what you want it to do. Great players know what they feel, and when you ask them they’ll tell you. Take that for what it’s worth and be careful with how you apply it. Now, you owe me $100.”
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