July 9th, 2009 | 
Author: 
Swing Methods and the Fifteen Second Flameout
Butch Harmon
Have you ever noticed how various swing fads seem to come and go? It seems like just the other day that Bennett and Plummer’s “Stack and Tilt” swing was the only way to hit a ball properly. How about David Leadbetter? When was the last time you heard from him or one of his players? Do you remember Jimmy Ballard and “connection”? What about Jim Hardy and his “One Plane Swing”? It boggles my mind how these methods pop up, become the hot item and then flare out almost as quickly as they arrived on the scene. They all have one thing in common that led to their ’success’; a tour golfer who wins an event or two with this ‘new and amazing swing’ they just learned. The golfer, feeling indebted to the teacher, proudly proclaims that they could not have achieved their success without this newly discovered way to swing. Please!
Understand that most of these ideas are thought up by very intelligent and well educated golf teachers. The problem I have with these methodologies, however, is that they set their own style of swinging the club. In other words, the club must be swung in a certain fashion for it to work or function correctly. I say an emphatic, “Nonsense!” I do not claim to know everything about the golf swing, but I do know that every great player has a different swing that produces fantastic results – or they would not be great! There cannot possibly be one ‘correct’ way to swing the club!
David Leadbetter
It’s a classic case of putting form before function! “If you swing this new and amazing way you will achieve desired results!” The best players of all time have always had a knack of getting the club on the ball correctly and the game today is no different. A feathery needed to be stuck the same way a ProV1X needs to be hit. Well almost! If every golfer out there could understand impact and physics that make the ball go in the right place AND the wrong place they would be far better off. What difference is perfecting the wrist angle at position seven in the moveaway going to make in your game and ability to compress a golf ball! Form will always follow function. Just ask Lee Trevino, Arnold Palmer, Raymond Floyd, Bobby Jones, Nancy Lopez, Walter Hagen, Bobby Locke…….
Function must be King when you work on your game. Get the ball to sound, feel and fly like you want it to and you are a happy, and very good, golfer!
Things to Ponder:
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Watching the AT&T on Sunday looked like the King (Tiger) was taking his young Prince (Kim) out for a little schooling.
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Anyone got an over under on the number of days before Carolyn Bivens is out as the LPGA commissioner?
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Why when a golfer sets up with their body aiming left it is an ‘open’ stance and when their clubface is aiming right it is an ‘open’ face? Blame the Scots and single malt whiskey for that one.
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I have a feeling Paddy Harrington will be back in contention at next weeks ‘Open’ Championship.
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A claim could be made that Phil has choked away both majors so far this year!?
Hey, thanks for reading and please tell your friends about this amazing new website that is the latest and greatest golf blog in the whole wide world!!
Posted in Commentary, Swing Philosophy | 
Tags: arnold palmer, bennett and plummer, bobby locke, butch harmon, carolyn bivens, david leadbetter, feathery, Harrington, jim hardy, jimmy ballard, kim, lee trevino, LPGA, phil, stack and tilt, swing method, tiger
I think without a doubt that Andrew is on to something great here. I have worked with many instructors who are some of the most well known in the world. The majority of you would know their names. I played at University of Florida and coached there also. I also competed on the professional level. I can honestly say that Andrew’s approach is the simplest and most functional I have ever been a part of. He has captured what really matters in swing instruction-”getting the ball where you want it to go, when you need to get it there.” Everything else is a immaterial. You will have a hard time finding a better all around coach than Andrew Rice. His playing ability, nack for the game, and technical knowledge make him an instructor that is absolutely world class. I would recommend his expertise to anyone who wants to get better.
Thanks Michael! Your check is in the mail
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Hi Andrew, I’ve been sitting here reading and watching your videos this afternoon and I’m very impressed. Having read the post above I felt compelled to add to the conversation.
I think anyone who blindly follows a new golf swing fad as the only way to swing the club is quite frankly an idiot. Anybody with even an average IQ should be able to grasp the fact that as human beings we’re all build differently with different heights, weights, shoulder widths, muscle tension/strength, back curvature, movement ranges etc and that no swing will ever be able to cater for even half of the golfing population, let alone all of it.
Even Hogan’s Five Lessons can’t be applied to everyone!
In my experience I’ve found that the best thing to do is to sponge as much information as possible from as many sources as possible and to try the most logical thing first. If that doesn’t work, move on to the next best thing until you find something that does work.
For example when I started playing I was taught by a “pro” who clearly had only one thought process and that was to teach me the way he had been taught to teach, rather then how I needed to be taught. He taught me:
- I needed to use the Vardon grip as that’s what pro’s use.
- Keep my back as straight as possible and to keep my chin up high.
- Have my arms hanging vertically in front of me and gripping the club.
I tried the above for about 6 months and despite regular practice and lessons I got nowhere except for backache and eye strain trying to look through the bottom of my eye sockets at the ball. I dumped him and decided I’d teach myself instead. I read Hogan’s Five Lessons, The Stack & Tilt Swing, The Golfing Machine, Zen Golf and 3 of Bob Rotella’s books while also watching YouTube videos (clemshaw, nclearwater, RdbGolfTips, sevam1, thegolfevolution and andrewricegolf
)
I read that the baseball or interlock would be better for me as I have short fingers. Done!
I realised that it’s physically impossible for me as I have an excessive lumbar curvature so standing as straight as possible puts strain on my back. I therefore started looking at other swing methodologies and adopted part of the Stack n Tilt swing where my back stays curved and my head looks at the ball as if I’m reading a book. Perfect!
I realised that it’s impossible with my back curve to hang my arms vertically downward (my shoulders don’t hang far enough forward) so I’ve had to adapt my arms into a more single-plane position.
I started being able to hit balls but inconsistently so I booked a new pro, explained the issues with old pro and am now happily taking a lesson a month with him and practicing 3 times per week and playing a round every couple. My handicap in the last 3 months has dropped from 28 to 22.
Golf should be eclectic whereby golfers can take things that work for them and chuck away things that don’t.
I guess what I’m getting at is that we shouldn’t be shooting the messenger; as far as I’m concerned, the messenger brings good news and it’s up to me whether I want to listen or not.