All right, so today we are answering the critics of the modern golf swing. A little bit ago over on the Golf Well Channel, we published a video on the modern golf swing with a coach here in Minnesota, Justin Craft. Fantastic guy, great coach, and there is a bunch of questions and critics and I wanted to come back and address them all. So Justin said, hey, sure, I'll get on. We pulled up a bunch of comments and answered those directly.
Let's get into it. Justin OK, so I pitched our video as the modern golf swing and kind of like did verse the old golf swing thing and I ran it by you, but it I kind of ran with it. What do you think of how I'd like frame the whole thing? First of all, little context. I feel that might have caused the controversy too, because I it's partly my fault. Well, it's my job to get people's attention. Right, it is. I was going to tell you it's great marketing on your.
Thank you. I thought you did a nice job with that. Thank you. Was I, but was I fair? Because there are, there are comments of like, well, Ben Hogan. Was pretty good. Yeah, I I get it. I think it was fair to coin it the modern swing, although like that doesn't mean every, you know, great young player is swinging exactly like we described. And of course, if you know anything about the game of golf, you specifically you've been to countless amazing instructors.
Dude, there are so many ways to hit a golf ball. Well, golf well, nice plug, very good. So I don't think I don't think it was like I really liked the thumbnail on YouTube where it was like, you know, it was like Michael Lasasso and like it was all colored and then the other side was like black and white. And I don't even know who you used over there, but you did a nice job of painting a picture of like it used to be this way, but now it's this way. So I think that that got a few people.
I think that ruffled some feathers. Yeah, we, we got attention because I, I think like that was that was the goal of you had some really interesting thoughts. And there are a lot of people who like want something to try to work on or like, hey, I have no ideas of what to do. So paint me a picture, Give me a
concept. I thought you did such a good job of like, here's why you should think about it and here's what you should do. And then here's some, you know, drills to go to go look at as well. Yeah. And I, and I, I mean, if we're not trying to get better and how we swing the club, how we teach golf, how we are as a person, like what are we even doing?
So good friend of the channel, Luke Benoit, I was talking to him the other day and he was, we were talking about the modern golf swing, like the, the, even the video we were talking about. And he was like, well, don't forget, like in the 1960s, I can't remember if he said pole vault or if he said high jump, but people used to high jump over the bar forwards. And then in the 1960 something Olympics, somebody jumped backwards. Everybody laughed at him.
He won gold. And then few years later, everybody's jumping backwards. So not saying that's what the modern swing is, but it's like in sports, we're always looking for better. And so if we're not doing that, you know, things can get a little stale. Yep, Yep. So today we're going to answer comments because there were a ton of comments. This video is done is done really well. So thank you for doing it. Tons of people have enjoyed it and I love looking at the comments and answering some
there. People loved it like we've got one up here. I don't think this should be free. I agree. It was like it was worth paying for is it was that good? And then we've got all kinds of stuff. Let's start. That's all you. That's the, that's the production team and cutting all the times I misspoke. And no, I'm just kidding. No, you. It was so good. OK, let's stick. Let's answer some criticisms, though. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And see if if we can get people some answers that they like.
OK. I thought this was a great one. Well, let's start at the top one here. I know I don't have the athletic ability to pull off this swing, plus I'm 75. What are your thoughts? What's? His name Golf Dock, that could absolutely be true. This this modern swing right that we talked about. There are a lot of dynamic movements, there is some flexibility that might be required and there is a lot of rotational kind of capabilities. And at age 75, I'm sure there are some 75 year olds that could
move really well. I also so I guess my answer to that is you're probably right. Golf Dock 1950 like you're probably right. It's probably not ideal for you to go to the extremes that we have presented in this video. However, let's say that you are, you take the club back really flat. It really steepens in transition and you stall out. And let's just grade you on a scale of zero to 100, a hundred being the worst and 0 being like the modern swing. Maybe you're at like a 90.
Well, maybe trying some of the stuff that we mentioned would move you to a 70 and then over time move you to a 50. So we're not saying like you have to have the same rotation rate and side bend rates as Michael Lisasso, but could you move the clubs center of mass a little better than you currently do? And then could you support it with a better pivot than you currently do? The answer is probably yes, maybe not, but yes I will. I will start by agreeing with this comment.
It does take some physical like capability. So does that make sense though? It's like moving in the right direction versus completely just jumping overboard and trying to copy every movement we saw of the pro example. Yeah, I think what I've learned over the years is that our swings are probably based on our what our body can and can't do.
And if you want to make a big change and if you want to do some of the stuff that that you were talking about, like even myself, like there are things I need to strengthen, stabilize and get better mobility in. And I think that's really fun. Honestly, yes, we're at different stages view of 75 verse 33. We're going to be different and that's totally fine, right? And we understand that.
But, like, I think it is interesting to think about, like, OK, if I want to make this change in my golf swing, it's probably because this is happening in my left hip. And so, OK, what could I do to, you know, help improve some mobility and stability there so I can do this a little bit better? And I think, like, when you view it as a holistic puzzle, then things really get more fun, in my opinion. I don't know.
Totally, totally. And and like, we'd be fools not to think that the, the length of your arm, your humerus, the mobility in your hip, your thoracic spine, like of course that's going to play a role. Are you kidding me? So we got to find safe ways to move around. But again, I think always just searching for what could I do, what I do a little better. Like it doesn't have to be a complete overhaul. It could just be can I get 10% better? Yep. OK, next we got another one right here.
Yeah, right on the screenshot. There are a couple ones I think that echo this, but the downswing part is the only thing that doesn't make sense to me. Why bow and force the elbow external versus using the lead leg to pivot you into the shallow spot? Oh, that's a great one. I, I love that this question is asked. So I'm going to start with the first like 3/4 of it because I am not sure the lead leg is all you need to pivot you into a
shallow spot. And the reason I say that is your left leg is a long ways from the handle and the handle is what imports inputs force into the club. And so I love ground forces and I think the lead leg is instrumentally important in doing any of this. But I'm not sure that I would ever say, hey, if you move your lead leg perfectly, the club will shower.
I don't know that that's necessarily true, but I do want to answer the first part where it says the downswing is the part that doesn't make sense to me. Why bow, bow the wrist, I think flexion and force the elbow external. Like why force that movement? Well, I think first of all, let me be very clear. I might actually you think if I get up here and talk, move around, you can see this. I think so, yeah. We should be just fine because they screen. Really small. OK, yeah.
So I'll, I'll say this first. The act of shallowing the club for most golfers should be a passive move. You should not, if you build the backswing the proper way, have to force the trail elbow external. Hopefully you don't have to force the lead wrist into flexion. But let's remind the viewers how we built the backswing to make those things sort of happen. So in the backswing, if you remember, we did this like
alignment stick drill. I got alignment stick drill right here where we were trying to get the shaft sort of in a more vertical orientation, the hand path for you. We were trying to get a little bit deeper, but we were trying to run this stick kind of down the leg and sort of get this shaft pitched a little bit steeper. OK, now what this does and I, I want to make sure people understand this. If anyone has a Golf Club and they're watching, they can put their finger right here and they
can balance the club right here. This is, I'm going to refer to that as like the center of mass or the balance point. The center of mass actually sits just below the shaft. But like, this is what you feel when you swing a Golf Club. Well, the center of mass is going to, and I heard a really smart guy use this term and I'm going to, I'm going to copy him. It's Jeff Smith. He's he's brilliant.
The center of mass is going to seek an in line condition with the direction of the force applied to the handle. So how about that for a science experiment or for like a science scientific statement there? But I want you to think about what he said there. If we're building a backswing that sort of gets this club in a steeper position where the grip or sorry, the club head is more above the grip.
Then as soon as the hand path starts to work towards the ball, like when we start down, the center of mass is going to seek an in line condition with the direction of that force.
And so as I push my hands towards the ball as I take this club and I move it towards the ball, if the shaft is stood up like this and we start towards the ball, that center of mass again is going to want to fall into an in line condition, meaning it's going to start to shallow pretty organically and pretty naturally if we can build the backswing properly. So I know that that sounds like, does that make any sense? Cordia, you're watching me A. 100% I think it totally does.
So the antithesis of that is we rotate that that stick off of our leg early and now the club head gets too far behind us too early. And there's this center of mass that has this momentum towards this direction. Well, if we got it really flat in the backswing. And let's just say like you, you tend to get the club a little bit too laid off. Well, now if I send my hands towards the ball from this laid off position, what is the shaft
going to want to do? It's going to, again, physics tells us it's going to seek an inline condition, which means it's going to start to steepen. And we know that good players, when they sense that club header, that center of mass pitching more out in front of them, they're going to turn off the rotational capability of their of their pivot. Because as the shaft steepens, if you keep turning, the shaft will continue getting steep in the path. We'll get too far outside and on the ball.
So that's where we see like compensations and stuff. So I'm going to start by answering the question hopefully by saying if we build the backswing correctly, I really hope you don't have to think about it at all. I hope that those movements sort of come organically. However, there is a golfer out there who has upped the wrist and internally rotated the trail arm their entire life.
And unfortunately, the way that our brains are wired, he may have to do a little bit of that G snap training aid or that G slot training aid that that we were using to get some of these movements that we want, especially in the early stages of learning. Now I'll also say this, the directional movement of those things happening is way more important than actually getting into a maximum like external rotated shoulder. So here, here's what I mean by
that. It's the directional movement of this elbow, you know, moving towards external rotation that is more important than actually achieving external rotation. It's the directional movement that matters the most. And the reason that's important is because that movement is what facilitates partially some of that center of mass falling behind the hand path like we like to see.
So I would also say the drills that we used were sort of like a little bit maybe on the on the far end of the spectrum in terms of exaggerating like as far as we would need. I'm I'm totally OK. Like even your trail arm Cordy likes to stay internal. But the act of moving it from, let's just use numbers, you know, 30° internal to 28°, that's awesome because that's two degrees of pushing the club head back behind the hand path. And that's more.
So I don't actually ever really expect you to be, you know, like this, like we saw Michael Lasasso. It's just the directional movement is more important than actually achieving the anatomical position. And we're, so we're not forcing, we're not forcing that elbow into that spot. You're hoping that it's a passive reaction to the backswing. To building an awesome backswing, but I know that that like doesn't apply to everybody because you can build the best
backswing sometimes. And the person unfortunately, who's had this pattern, you know, with the trail arm and extending the lead rest for an extended period of time in their golfing career, they might have to use these training aids to sort of help them build that, that motor pattern. So but I would say that I hope that for most people that it comes very organically. Yes. And I I don't think if I could redo the video I'd probably spend more time on the back swing.
Got it. OK, All right, we're moving along, we're cruising they're. Yeah, sorry. I I I I talked way too long on that one that. Was great. No that that was honestly such a clear explanation. That was really, really good. OK, thanks. Here we go. Here's the going. This is what my golf teacher warmed me about. Get off YouTube. How to overcomplicate hitting a ball. This this coach is forcing a dude in his positions that don't work for him and are comfortable now, let alone when he's 65.
We must have a lot of like older golfers watching this they're. Worried about? They are worried about your health, aren't they? Well, let's start with the first part of that. Absolutely. I agree that social media and Instagram and TikTok, whatever, they probably don't do golf instruction like a lot of good. Like there is a ton of information out there.
And what I try to tell my students is I don't even tell them to stay off of it anymore because I know that golf nerd people watching this video or listening to this podcast, like you guys love golf. So what I would recommend you do is I would say, look, why don't you find a couple coaches that you really trust? And then why don't you find a coach that maybe has seen your swing and told you, hey, you're you know, your issues are reverse pivot and your lead hip
doesn't wrote. I don't know, it could be anything. But then when you look for content, you're looking for content around those topics and trying to find things that might help you. And I always tell people, if you see something that is like maybe helpful for what we're trying to work on, just send it to me and I'll say, yeah, that's awesome. Or hey, there's probably a
better way to do it so I don't. Know I'll tackle the the second part of this here is you know, forcing me into positions that don't work I mean like so that it comes down to I think about like so do you just not want to change your golf swing unless it's comfortable Well, you're not because anything new you know, if you want to learn something new a new skill, it's it's going to be uncomfortable because learning new skills happen because you make mistakes and you're not in your comfort
zone anymore you're in a place that's challenging so like first of all this is a common misconception I think in general just about like learning golf and like trying to change a technique is that like you are learning by being difficult so. Yeah, it's like, it's like you can, you can keep doing what's comfortable, but you're probably never going to see a change. Now, I wouldn't want anything to be like physically like, ow,
that hurts. But like, wow, that elbow position is different or that backswing is different. Like good. It should probably feel different if you want it to look different. And then in the middle it says how to overcomplicate hitting a ball. Dude, I tried my hardest to like make people think this is a simple game, But the reality of it is this is one of the hardest and most complicated games.
Like this club face is square and that's six degrees open and enough to miss a green by like 10 yards. So from 150 yards. So like you're telling me that this is a simple game when like that makes all the difference in the world? It's just not simple. It's it's a hard game. The goal obviously of lessons would be or, or anything when you change your golf standard visa, why am I changing it? How am I going to change it? And what am I looking for when I when I start to change it?
And if you can answer those questions, then hopefully you can start to simplify it. But like when you were super laid off at the top, you know, we try to make that simple and say point the club more in that corner of the room. And but the reality of it is it's just not a simple thing. Yep, Yep. OK, moving right along. I really like both these guys, but I think to implement a swing like this it would take thousands of hours of practice and thousands of hours in the gym.
For regular folks playing one to two times a week, this seems like it would make them notice notably worse. This is an interesting comment. What do you think? I think that implementing any motor pattern change, any type of swing change would take a lot of hours of practice, maybe 1000 hours of practice, but I could, I could be wrong. 1000 hours in the gym. I don't, I don't think so.
Again, I think if we had to redo the video, I'd spend more time on the backswing because for, for this gentleman here, I'd say look for the regular folks playing one one to two times a week. I'm going to guarantee them for the most part, if we can build a pretty awesome backswing, you're going to see a lot of the benefits in the downswing without having to hopefully worry or work on them all all
that much. So and the backswing's a lot easier to make changes in the downswing in my opinion, because everything's moving a little bit slower. So that's my initial thought. What do you think? Yeah, I I mean, if you, it comes back to this thing of like, are you trying to get better? How are you trying to get better? Do you want to spend time on it or not? Like I think just think about
some of your personal goals. I think he is like the fact that if you're playing one to two times a week and you're just going to go out and try to work on this like at the course or maybe on the range like once, I think you are going to struggle a lot. Yeah, yeah. That's where I think like the simplicity of Nets, foam golf balls, you know, doing something inside and incorporating it with like your general life workout and fitness is really fun.
So like for me, I've turned my speed challenges into like the motivation to get me to work out. So let's say that you want to work on your golf swing because you like playing golf and it's fun and you want to challenge and experiment. Well, just incorporate with your workout and be like, all right, here's an hour, going to spend 40 minutes doing this. And then I've got like my net and mat here. And you don't need to necessarily like watch golf balls fly.
You can just yourself and work on technique. And small plug, like my online students that I mean, I, I get videos from them every week and it's like after workout in the basement phone golf ball and they're just sending me a video of their pattern, their, their movement. And I can, you know, give them feedback based on that.
But I like the idea that you said of incorporating it into your workout because I've seen people say, well, I would do it over my lunch, but I don't want to sweat, have to shower, then get back in my work clothes, all the stuff. But just doing it within the workout. That's brilliant. Yeah, yeah. No, but yeah, generally I think correct. I Yeah, OK. Totally, totally. OK, a lot of good information here.
I was always under the impression that shallowing lizard was oh boy, shallowing was a result of a good pivot slash pressure shift. I didn't think it was something players were doing consciously with the elbow and wrist. So back to that kind of similar thing. Yeah, I don't disagree. I think that hopefully for 90% of players that is 100% true. Good, great. That's that's kind of. That's kind of my thought.
If we're, if we're pivoting right and we build the backswing the way we kind of want, hopefully it is a very, a very like subconscious type of thing happening. Yep, moving along. I like this one. I was curious what's the best grip style to match up with these kind of swing mechanics. Saw this one a few times. Yeah, it's such a good question. And I think first of all, you always have to preface your answer with any of them can
work. Like you can shallow the club with the strongest grip ever, You can shallow the club with a weak grip. But I think what's important for most golfers listening is to make sure that their grip and their wrist angles match each other. And what I mean by that is flexion is a club face. Closer extension is a club face opener.
So if we have a very strong attachment, if we've got one of the strongest grips in the world and then we try to create a ton of flexion, that club face is going to be insanely closed and you're not going to be able to hit functional golf shots. However, we see on the PGA Tour, we see all kind of wrist positions, right? We see everything.
My preference, I would say to make this easier, the more you go into flexion with the lead wrist, typically the easier it is to get again, the center of mass to fall behind the hand path to shallow the Golf Club. Well, if we're going to create some flexion and we know that's a club face closer, a lot of times a neutral to slightly weaker left hand grip is very useful for that because then you can create the flexion that you want and you get the shallowing that you want.
But the face isn't too open or too close. It's actually very functional. I'm not saying that a strong grip doesn't work, but you are going to need to to maintain a little bit more extension in the wrist and extension tends to steep in the shaft a little bit more. So my preference, if I had to pick a preference, I would probably say a slightly weaker or neutral lead hand and then maybe a little bit more on the stronger end with the trail
hand. And the reason I say that is a stronger trail hand helps you create some of the flexion, give a very weak trail hand, it's going to be hard to bend your trail wrist back into extension enough to get the lead wrist flat. So if I had to build a swing and I knew whoever I was teaching, you know, it was their first time touching a club, I'd probably go fairly neutral lead hand, maybe a tick on the weaker side and then fairly neutral trailhand, maybe a tick on the stronger side.
But again, all of them can work. What, or I guess how often do you comment or change someone's grip in a lesson? I if if they're an accomplished player that are that's really let you know we were talking single digit handicap or better. I try not to because I really like to try and like work around what they have and I'm always trying. I'm always very cautious that like I totally understand that I could make a player worse. Like I've seen it a lot.
I haven't done it hopefully as much as as much as I'm going, I'm going to continue to screw up in the in the future. However, I'm always cognizant of like don't screw anyone up. And if we change their grip, there is that possibility that
they have a tough couple weeks. So I'm always trying to work around it. I would say if they're a a newer player and their grip is awful, I change it every time like we need to. We have no chance to move around the right way if the club face is out of position and if the grip is poor, club face is probably going to be out of position. So I try to take it case by case. But I would say if I gave 100 lessons, I change it depends on the skill level of the player.
But I probably changed 15 grips, 10 grips. OK, got it. I try not to, but sometimes it's a necessary evil. Yep. No, I get it. We're going to take a commercial break now and we're going to look at a golf swing of mine and this commercial break. Is brought to you by. You by showing you the progress that I have made or lack of. Or lack of. Yeah. This was abandoned. This was a couple weeks ago. Now you. Hit this tight. I was very proud of this golf swing and and I'll tell you why
it felt like I was standing. And how do I zoom in here? Here we go. I was going to say, can you make that? Yeah. Can you sell? It like I was standing straight up, you know, it, it felt like I was going to fall over on my toes and I'm I was this my that my like back of my hip, my butt was over my toes. Yes, and it actually looks a
little different there. It looks literally it feels, you know, like of all the things that you told me, like I have loved the setup queue on everything from like drivers to putter. Yeah. Oh, wow. OK. Because it feels like I've engaged my core for the first time in my life. And so it's like brilliant, right? Even even your quads and your like your legs look, yes, they're engaged a little bit. It so it's like that's totally new to me.
I I worked really hard on trying to make a quieter because you you want didn't want me to RIP my hip back right away. Right away. That hip just goes so fast. So I I was. So can we explain? Can we explain why? Go for it. Just so people know that because I'm a huge fan of hip turn and I don't want it to be like, oh, you know, he doesn't like anyone turning his hips. He told Courtney not to. Well, that's not true. That's not true.
Courtney had an issue where he likes to try to get the club a little bit too laid off at the top. And that made it really hard for him to create any of the, you know, shallowing that we keep talking about. Well, when the hand path works up, it's easy to get the club laid off. When the hand path works deeper, it's easier to keep the club like the forearms closed. And like we said, like that steeper kind of backswing.
What what tended to happen for you is you turned your hips too early and your hand path got too deep too early. Now there's no, there's no more room to continue moving them in. So you moved them straight up and that's why the club got laid off. So I was simply trying to get
you to delay the hip turn. Kind of feel like the hips don't move a ton until here because now the trail hip has room to turn, the chest has room to turn and you're going to continually gain some hand depth as you go from like P2 to P4 from here to the top. That helped you keep it more down the line or or steeper, I guess on the back swing. So sorry. Side note, it's great and I feel. Like it helped my sequencing too
just by like changing that. I don't have any data to back that up, but just a just a personal right. So K top. Of Axel and good I definitely think I'm a little bit steeper still not pointing at the target or anything crazy but no but this is also looks like. A wedge or 9/9? It was a gap ledge, yeah. So the other way to kind of like.
Tell that is like if if we had a line and the camera angle is a little bit off but like if we had a line drawing like tool and you just drew like a line from the golf ball through the grip of the club, your club would be on the top of that line yeah and it used to be underneath it yes. And so I would say that it is absolutely in a better position at the top. Yep. And. Then oh, that's shallowing just. Just a just a, just a tick. Yeah. Do you see how I could just?
Shallow it a little bit, there a little bit and then look at this. Posture that, that's pretty good. That's not bad for on the golf course. On the golf course and we spent all of 14 minutes on your golf swing like that. That's pretty good, dude. I was very happy about. That and the practice swing that I used was the choke up. So I, I, I ended up using that as kind of like a practice swing
to feel like I had to to kind of Rd. stay in posture and rotate was just to be around you have me grip down all the way past the grip kind of yeah, yeah, yeah. And we were. We were really, yeah, we were really lowering the chest, it felt like so I think. That is a like pre shot drill is like that's a pretty good one. I like it. Yeah, that's awesome. Look at that impact. Do you? Is that your background on your fault? That's really good. I'm going to sell.
This as a as a wallpaper background. You know those pictures are like. Hogan hitting the one Iron and then Tiger 2000 like you're going to be one of those iconic photos. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. So anyways, thought we'd thought we'd do a little, little break there. That's a good commercial back to. Our comments. We'll, we'll. Rapid fire. We're rapid firing now. This is the first born of golf video I've ever seen in my entire life. Great job. Thank you, Daniel.
Thank you. Daniel, this is so. Unnecessary and it's going to mess people up. Keep it simple, stupid. So thank you, Brian. I appreciate. That too. I wish it was. I wish it was simpler pal. I really do. Sorry if you don't feel that way, but remember that this is in the hole and this is in the bunker to the right, so keep thinking it's simple. I liked the screenshot. I was very That was a really good one. Did I reply?
I tried to reply to some of these when I saw them come through and then I eventually just stopped. You did a great job. Oh, here's one. This is on the setup just like I had. Setup is an eye opener. Standing up against the wall feels next to impossible. Feels like I'm going to tip over. Maybe it's like a lower body strength and stability mobility issue just as a ha ha feels like I'm going to tip over. AMG highlighted this exact same setup and I just couldn't wrap my head around it.
Great vid. So yeah, I think I saw that video that. They talked about where where like the they're measuring the PGA Tour players and where their hip bone was relative to their ankle bone. I think if I'm, if I'm remembering correctly and all the amateurs like had their hip bone way behind their ankle bone and all the tour players had them like right in line or even maybe I can't remember if the hip was a little bit more forward. But yes, how hard is that setup?
It's like even for me, if you go back, don't, don't, don't do it. But like there's videos of my swing from like 10 years ago and I'm like, dude, that's disgusting. My hips are way back and then they move way in. And maybe that's why I'm such a stickler on the setup now is because I, I was a victim of, of terrible set up.
But no, I love the idea of just the wall is so eye opening for a lot of people because it's like, and I think most people like for you, I couldn't get you because you were, you were setting up with your hips way back and then you were close to the ball. Then you moved your hips in and you're like, dude, I'm too close to the ball. It's like, yeah, you are back up and keep your hips where they were.
So I don't know small, small note on that, but just trying to feel like those hips are over those ankles might even push your kneecaps forward just a touch. Usually a good that's kind of a common problem we would see if you tend to have a lot of pelvic thrust towards the ball, that could be something to look at. Yep, you have to earn your. Right to wait, what was that one? Earn your right to Yeah, yeah, you had to earn your. Right to stay imposture. Imposture. Yep. Beautiful.
OK, well, here we go. What is the evidence that the modern swing is better than the classic swing? So let's just just for the comments sake, but the the modern swing is steep backswing, shallow down swing. Let's just call that the for this. And what's a classic swing? What would we call that? Just I mean, I don't know. Boy, I don't even want to say like a name, but like, is a Johnny Miller swing a classic
swing? Like, or is a I mean, you could, you could think of, you could think of any of them. Yeah. Is Jack Nicklaus's swing a classic swing? I mean, it's super upright, slightly across a little early extension. Maybe is, is, we'll we'll call it like steeper. And let's say like Phil Mickelson. Jack Nicklaus are like the classic. Yeah. Phil Mickelson. Yeah, there you go. Like first of. All how about the longevity of that swing?
Maybe not the prettiest when you slow it down and you look at 240 frames a second, but dude, amazing career. So there is absolutely no evidence that the modern swing is better than any other swing. But like I said earlier, we used to high jump forwards and now we high jump backwards. And so, you know, NFL play, NFL teams used to only run the ball and now we see like NFL teams passing 60% of the time.
So like just sports change. But I would say if I had to like get in front of a crowd and and argue that the modern swing was better, I would say that their whole reason we we want this is we know that club face control is the most important thing. And maybe having a club face that rotates less through the ball makes it easier to control the club face where it where it points at impact. Maybe it doesn't, but maybe it does. And that would be my my first
point. My second point would be when you have you ever gone skiing behind a boat like on water, OK, when you're when you're getting pulled and you're skiing or tubing or whatever and you're going straight in line with the back of the boat, Let's say you're right between the wake and you're going straight, you're going, you know, the same speed as the boat, correct? As long as the string is tight OK, What happens when you start going side to side speed up?
Yeah, you sling side to side because of the rotation, right? Yes, exactly. So what? The point I'm trying to make is when this center of mass can start to pitch behind the hand path, you get some of that skier behind the boat as the boat takes a turn. You get some speed benefits from that. And we're learning that speed is very important to golf as we fly golf balls 320 yards. You would you would know this.
So there are potential speed benefits and then there are potential club face control benefits, which mean directional benefits. As far last time I checked, more distance and better control is usually a good thing. I'm just kidding. I I don't know that the modern swing is for sure better. We have no evidence, but that would be my argument if I had to make it. I like it. That's a good. That's a good argument there. I'm not doing good at rapid. Fire am I? You're doing great.
I'm just. Happy you had to get the other some good comments here. We'll, yeah, we'll look at this one here. So, so trying to control the club face is not the correct analogy. You want to be free swinging but maintain a square club face to the swing arc from 97 to 2000. David Duvall is the best at keeping the club face square to the swing arc. Crafty is correct in the arms and upper body analogy.
However, controlling the club face makes the swing a conscious act of mind and that is detrimental to a powerful swing. The best way to swing is the subconscious mind and being an athlete. And I read my comment, I did. Answer this one you did. Your comment was I think that gets into your mindset when you train versus play. Totally agree that elite players perform best and they're focused solely on the task and not swing mechanics. Wouldn't want any of them thinking about the technique
while they play. Which I would disagree with because anecdotally we know they do have swing thoughts which are agreed technique. However, during technique practice, certainly OK to think and work on these, just don't do too much of it. Yes, I I have definitely changed over the years of my thinking. Like used to be look at some of the research and look at some of the stuff and very much say like you can't think about the golf swing.
You can only be target focused. You have to do all these things. But I think once you've more look at it holistically from like an anecdotal perspective of listen to interviews, like listen to players, it's not the way they actually do it. Like players work on their technique all the time. The best players in the world Rory will spend, he will, you know, like he'll go away and work on his golf swing. He also thinks about things in his golf swing while he's
playing. And like kind of the, the hunch is that yes, he's very target focused, shot shape focused, but something about having that cue almost as kind of like centering or brings him back to what they should be doing. So I think we do need to think about technique because it helps us get better If you because we're not sufficiently, I'm not sufficiently skilled enough to hit iron shots how I want to perform. So I need to improve the technique which I'm doing that which I'm working on.
And so it's going to take time. Anyways, that's my that's a fantastic. Answer. And I think there's this great book by Bob Rotella and he always talks about like inside 120 yards, the golfers should only think about the target. And I think I've maybe adopted that a little bit, but, but I agree with you. I'm, I'm trying to think back to like, and everyone should do this. Think about like your best round
of golf. Like I had one queue and then the rest I was focused on, you know, 166, you know, three steps left of the flag, wind off the right. Here I go. Like that's, that's kind of like the process. So I think you're, you're 100% right in that you probably do have a queue. I think the simplicity of the queue is probably pretty important. So like, or, or if, if you're going to have a complicated one, doing it in your in like your practice swing or your your routine is super important.
Like you said, where you choke down to the club and you were doing that, that choke down drill. That's just like telling the brain, Hey, you know, it's 133 and I'm going to hit this flighted pitching wedge here. But just so you know, brain, like this is the move we're going to use to do it. And you do that little practice swing. And I think that that ties the result to the mechanics you're about to use and it helps you implement it when you hit the ball.
But I agree with you. It's probably not fair to say like Rory's on 18 at Augusta and he's not thinking like, oh, you know, I need to make sure the handle moves a little more left or the face stays a little more open or whatever to make sure that this doesn't, you know, that this fades. So you're probably like, and and we look at interviews and stuff and you're right. Like people are always talking about, yeah, my feels were good today. It's like, well, what were you feeling like?
Tell us. So I don't think it's, I don't think it's fair, you know, to say you just want to be free swinging like because I see 30 handicaps that are free swinging all day and they can't hit water if they fell out of a boat. So it's super frustrating for them and they need stuff that helps them improve their technique. I do like that that is a. Good. That's a good, good comment there. Here we go. Here's another one. People really are. Yeah, set up and back.
Some tips are good, but I'm not a fan of actually using the arm stands. Rest to shallow no time of the downswing to do this needs to happen as a byproduct. And yeah, we've said that and I I've been the same way, right? Like people always say, like you got to do this with the wrist at the top and go try to do that. Like go, try, go up on like you can't hit it very far or. Well, right.
But there are people out there though that have a motor pattern built in. And this is, we're talking about the eight 710% like motor pattern built in where their lead wrist extends, the trail wrist goes like this. And no matter how good you build the backswing, unfortunately, they're going to have to improve that. I'm never saying they're going to click both those things we used in whatever, but it needs to move in that direction.
As I keep saying. And some people, I'm hopeful that anyone listening to this never has to think about that stuff. But the reality of it is for a few people there probably are. But I think we have spent time on this comment and we've hopefully like just learned that maybe we should have spent more time, I guess, on the backswing in our video. I like it.
Well, we we know that people want to shallow and struggle with it. I think that's what the comments are saying 100% yeah, here's no one. Can I just say this is the single most impactful video I've ever I've seen on Iron Swing And can you do the same big breakdown on the driver could deal with that first. Would you treat them? Would you do something
different? The, the way we build the back swing and basically no, I think for the simplicity of the matter, no, I think with driver we'll see a little different pressure shift and we'll probably see the head move back a little bit more through the strike and we'll probably see a little bit more side bend, which again we've got to kind of be careful with. And obviously we have some small setup adjustments that help with that, but I think of the swing
we analyzed was a driver. So yeah, they're. A Fairway award or something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you know with. With the driver, I would probably put and this gets a little bit into swing direction versus club path and how angle of attack sort of influences these things. But with the driver, I would probably be less focused on your rotation rate through the ball because rotation through the ball moves the swing direction in the path more to the left.
And with a driver with the ball way forward and the fact that we're hitting up on it, we probably don't want more variables pulling the path to the left. So sometimes it's OK to trade a little bit of that extra rotation we're trying to get for a little more that side bend we just talked about. So the swing direction can move a little bit more out to the right and the resultant club path can be a little bit straighter.
So mostly the same with Driver, but I would say for the most part I'd probably be a little less rotation through the ball focused then comic. Continues loved everything you said, the logic about how to create space and having to earn that space especially. I'm a 20 handicap and this is probably the most Eureka tip I've seen. The biggest thing that resonated me with that I tried at the range was the T in the grip, aiming it down my lead leg.
That finally let me feel what having the club head forward of my hands really felt like. I'm so excited to go again today and dial this in. Let's go. Love it. Let's go with Colby. That's what I'm talking about. Next. I think a stop at TPI should happen next. We'd love to see if body restrictions play a part in actually being able to swing like this. The answer is I also would like to go to TPI next. And the answer is also, yeah, body restrictions do.
Could not agree. More, this was a great comment and I will be going with you the TPI. That sounds awesome. That'd be that'd be fine. Have you gone? Through have you had any certifications? So yes. I've done the basic or the first one and then power level 2, which was super interesting. And I want to go through the GG levels as well. But yeah, no, I have done that. And I think that 100% they they play a role.
I actually before you got here for filming, I almost like they have little stations and tapes they do to run assessments. I was thinking about creating like ATPI assessment area in here. So maybe I should, You should. Put AII think you should put a gym in in there and so you can properly warm up and like get ready. I mean, that's I'm I'm all. About it now. Man, I, I like if I can't spend like 20-30 minutes like this is the problem living in Minnesota as we get addicted to hitting
inside and all this stuff. But like, yeah, anyways, here we go. Good comment. Yes. Great. Video Mr. Kraft is very talented, I agree. I've been working this working on this for a few weeks and a couple things. It feels like you're so close to the ball at first. Could they you were too close to they or you are too close to the ball with the like you just showed We talked about with the setup, right? You said that I was too close and you had to back up.
Just you're everything is different once you because you moved your you moved. Your pelvis forward and that of course makes you just feel like, oh gosh, Cordy is closer to the ball. Like yes, you, you are, you need to you need to back up and then change the weight distribution and the location of the pelvis. Yes, that could be very true.
Freeze lightning, yes, so. Take a video and check it would be the the thing and then it's the easiest way to get lower in the down soon that I found and not overextend I'll just early extend. Yep I agree. Once you stand, you earn the right to imposter. Imposter. Jeez, why? Is that hard to remember? And then third thing shouting the club is the hardest part from the setup. I like my progress getting to the left heel in the downswing and lowering and and sitting the hips.
Shallowing will be the challenge. So my answer to. Breeze is Let's look at the most common reasons the club would not shallow. OK, we we likely need to a make sure the club face is in a position that supports the club shallowing. Very often if someone struggles to shallow the club, the face is way too open and shallowing the club would make them so bad at golf they'd pick up ping pong. So making sure the club faces is squared slightly shut enough to support shallowing #2 look at
your backswing. I guarantee the the backswing is probably getting too shallow somewhere. And again, creating that environment where the club stays a little bit more vertical in the backswing loads kind of down the line. And then that center of mass can line up with that, that force that's being applied, the direction of the force. That would be the number one thing. So I'd say check the club face and then check your backswing before you spend too much time
trying to manually do anything. Yep. And and I. Would say just just to like set some context here. If you're not videoing yourself while you're trying to make a technique change, you're like, you're not really massive. Disservice like yeah, because you just. Don't know, like you might not be making any changes. No, it's very. Likely, Actually, yeah. How many more do we have here, man? We're we're cruising. OK, this might be the last one. Thanks for being so generous,
sharing your knowledge. Lots of great stuff. The pleasant irony in this is generous You from golf teachers. There's so many ways for learner to have small but serious kinks in their swing even as they think they're doing everything right, that live personal instruction will never become obsolete. OK, so here's a hot take. Personal You are a golf coach. You make a living coaching golf.
Do you think there will be in person golf coaches just the same five years from now as there is today five years from now? I think we are probably going to see less in person lessons. I think AI is going to keep getting, AI is going to keep doing what AI does. And what I think is going to be just important is the, A, the human connection, I think is important. B coaches will continue to use AI just to get better.
I, I hope, I think. And then the reality of it is Internet and AI, everything has made the world really small. I think online instruction is going to be because like you just said, you could be sending your swing to Mark Blackburn down in Alabama every single night from after your workout. You can be like, hey, Mark, how's my ground force like look, does it look any better? And you can say, oh, send me your sky track data or buy these force plates and send me your
force plate data. And I'll tell you, it's like the world is just so small. You can get coaching from anywhere now. So I don't think in person coaching will be obsolete in five years. It might in 50 years. I don't ever think it'll actually be completely obsolete because you're still going to have, you know, your your players that maybe don't want to look at as much video, don't want to see as much data and they're just kind of your field field players, right?
But that's what I would say. I think you'll see less. I think we're probably at the peak of golf coaches right now. It's probably it's been turning up and now it's going to start turning back down. Maybe. I don't know. What do you think?
I think the coaches are going. To change from being technique focused to be more score and like holistic focus because the technique, I think AI isn't probably great right now, But like I said, in five years, I think when you throw a swing into something, it'll be able to probably tell you and then also communicate some different ways you could change that to test. So I think it'll like it's going to keep getting better. I, I do think that a lot of golfers are still not going to
get any better. And so they're going to want to be a part of like help me score better, help me, practice with me, help me you get on the golf course, let me like be with me to coach me like I would, you know, like a coach, coaches any other team sport kind of thing. So I, I think that that's going
to be more in demand. It's kind of like an accountability partner because AI still can't really keep you accountable or like a lot of that stuff where a coach can like see you and understand you and emotionally get you to get better and and AI. Probably can't. Maybe AI can probably tell you right now that your hand path isn't deep enough at P3. We know it can, but you're
right. How does how does AI know how to structure different mindsets when you train and you know your mindset on your tee shot on 16, even though you've hit the last three in the woods, like different stuff like that that that human touch, like you said, and being able to coach scoring it sounds like is yeah, that's probably a good. That's a good hot take out of you hot take. That and that was our that was our last.
That was our last comment there. I was good I. Was like we, we ran through some some good ones there, some good, some bad, some positive, some negative. It was. It was. Fun. I I enjoyed learning that quite a bit. I think the drills that you had were like really useful to explain it and I think you explained it really well and if people want to try it. Give it a shot. Give it a shot. Why not? What do you have to lose? Nothing. Nothing at all. Oh cool. All right, Crafty.
Thank. You for your help, they should go follow you on Instagram or go get what they do from you. What's you know what's better than filming yourself and seeing if you're doing it right? Hey, send it over to you. I would. Love to look at. It a lot of people are seeing a lot of success that way and it's cool because, you know, especially here in Minnesota, like you, you got the net, you got the foam balls and it's like
there's no damage to your house. There's no damage to your ceilings as long as you got like 10 foot 8 foot ceilings. It's like just let's learn how to build this backswing, get that club like we can make these things happen between January and April and by the time you go outside, you're going to feel awesome. So it's a fun way to do it. But yeah, if you're looking for it, hit me up on Instagram, Sneed skill list, any of them. Perfect. Thanks man. Yeah. Thanks, Courtney.