“Reverse every natural instinct and do the opposite of what you are inclined to do, and you will probably come very close to having a perfect golf swing.” – Ben Hogan

I can still hear the thoughts of sacrilege from the immediately preceding article.

“Throwing the club head at the ball from the top of the backswing!?!? That’s too quick! That will make you release your angles early and make you cast and twist out from the top with shoulders before the hips open! And throwing the heel of the club head at the ball at the ball…that will only make you “hosel-shank” the ball or at least make you very late in squaring the club face to the ball!”

Wrong – not just wrong, but exactly the opposite is the truth. I’ll show you here [and in my exclusive videos on MyGolfingStore].

1. The fact is, when you push down on the handle from the so-called ***”top”*** in an effort to throw the club head’s heel at the ball you’ll see that the club head goes in the opposite direction as the handle.

Think about casting bait with a fishing rod; when you push down on the handle in order to throw the bait, the tip of the rod doesn’t move forward but backward [otherwise you’d throw the bait down right in front of the boat].

That opposing movement of the club head [or rod tip] causes the shaft to flex in a way that automatically pulls back on the wrist angles so as to maintain those angles for the lag and late-hit.

***”Top” of the backswing is another myth that ruins MANY golfers…there is no “top”.

The transition from backswing to downswing STARTS with the transition from take-back to back-sling per my video in our Driving Distance series.

Watch both Episode 3 “Transition” [AND Episode 4 “Structure Through Impact” where I add to the “Transition” topic by showing how the left side starts to open-clear automatically to prepare for the downswing with the proper transition from take-back to back-sling. ***

2. The fact is that twisting out from the “top” with the shoulders isn’t caused by an early release of the hands [first of all, per point 1 above, it is impossible to release the hands early from the “top”; you can TRY to do so but you won’t be able to given the opposing force from the shaft flex].

Yes, it may look like the early release of wrist angles causes the early shoulder twist out.

> It also looks a horse pulls a cart, but he isn’t pulling the cart, instead he is pushing on the harness. Things aren’t always what they look like.

> Similarly here, what’s happening is the opposite of what it looks like. The shoulders twisting out from the “top” throws the arms out toward and often past the target line and the direction of that momentum causes the wrist angles to release early.

You see, an all too common natural-logical inclination is what causes the shoulders to twist out early…a purely logical inclination that is exactly 100% wrong;

> folks following their natural-logical inclinations try, from the “top”, to get the club face out onto the target line [defined by the line between the ball and the fairway or green] so they can guide the club face straight into the back of the ball and keep the face on line to the fairway/green in order to guide the ball accordingly.

[Not to mention pointing the club face toward the sky because, as logic would have it, in order for the ball to go up to the sky the club face must also point toward the sky. Again, this isn’t only wrong, it is 100% wrong in that the opposite is true.]

> See Episode 1 “Cures to Common Faults with the Driver” where I demonstrate how, like Hogan tells us, “…do the opposite of what you are inclined to do…”. The above mental issues shows up especially ugly with the long clubs.

3. It is perfectly reasonable and logical to think that throwing the heel of the club head at the ball right from the “top” will make it practically or literally impossible to square the club face up to the ball.

This common logic is 100% wrong; the opposite is true. Here’s the “magic” behind how that works:

> The correct supination torque is placed on the right forearm [not a typo, yes, right forearm] by the proper take-back and back-sling as a result of the free momentum of the club head,

> that right forearm torque remains in place to keep the right elbow slightly bent all of the way into the collision between the club face and the ball.

> that right forearm torque is resolved by an instinctive-automatic bracing action of the right wrist as the right elbow straightens like a battering ram through impact.

> that right arm battering arm action automatically creates the right hand-wrist action that serves the dual simultaneous purposes of

a) accelerating the club head’s toe faster than the heel so that it snaps to catch up with [while not passing] the heel [to put a draw compression on the ball that counters the initial slice compressions on the ball at impact], and

b) accelerating the top of the club face faster than the bottom of the club face so as to compress the ball [while maintaining most of the club face’s loft so the ball deflects upward] to impart the backspin on the ball for additional lift and tight trajectory [much like the spiral spin that an NFL quarterback puts on his passes to keep the football’s path line stable and true].

> The above club face-to-ball interaction I described above related to classic “late hit” dynamics that come from the right arm battering arm action all occurs in less than 1/2000 of a second while the ball compresses into the club face over about 1/2 of an inch when the ball jumps off of the club face only to regain its shape and reach speeds up to 50% greater than the club head’s speed.

> Practically the stuff of magic – I think you’ll agree.

> On the other hand, if you stick with consensus logic in the face of Hogan’s wisdom, and you try from the “top” or at any point in the downswing to get the club head’s toe to catch up with the heel well before impact you will lose the torque supination of the right forearm.

> Once you lose the right forearm’s supination torque you will not be able to keep the right elbow slightly bent into impact [it will straighten early] and you will not have the battering ram right elbow action and related hand-wrist action at-through impact that creates the ball-striking “magic” of legends like Hogan and Vardon and so on.

> Watch Episode 1A “Right Arm Magic At and Through Impact” of the Driving Distance Series where I show you exactly how that right arm action works, and how you can drill in the exact feel for it.

> Legendary players aren’t club-swingers, they are ball-strikers who embrace their hit instinct versus trying to swing the club in a certain way!

> So, its about training in the same feelings they have when they embrace their hit instinct. When you feel what they feel, the result will be a swing that looks like their swing.

Okay, Ted Williams signing off until our minds meet again on my next article and/or exclusive video here on MyGolfingStore where I plan on bringing you more mind-boggling breakthrough opportunities.