I was recently considering the connection between String Theory and our golf swing. String Theory has to do with gravity, forces, as well as movement and collisions. Then, I got tired of reading, because we have been discussing the same dynamic in our golf swings. Need, mind, body, motion, swing, and collisions also make up a string of a different kind – a progression.

A progression describes a process rather than a (String Theory) particle. However, pursuing String Theory and perfect impact do involve the same mental processes – although in reverse order. Golfers take a Need, turn it into motion, and then prove it with science. String Theorists take science, assume motion, then try to prove their conclusions. Ha, ha, ha… silly scientists!

For fifty years, golfers have ascribed greater human good from pursuing art than science. Science proves action. Art is more abstract and subjective and, therefore, easier to sell. After all, profits increase when we create maximum combinations and permutations of one idea. Proofs and cures are bo-ring.

Homer Kelley was in position to separate golfers from one another using scientific dogmatism in order to create maximum, artistic commerce. Consequently, we were sold on the idea that we are all different in every way. And, therefore, any old way we wanted to set up and swing was fine, as long as we express our individualism. Once we believed our way was as good as any other, an industry emerged.

Advertising created Need and dissatisfaction by showing us what we didn’t have yet. Our misdirection created more niches, tastes, and subcultures – all with different modes, mores, and proclivities. The issue, in my lifetime, is that we started using science as a paper hammer to eliminate further discussion or consideration of truth.

Before you think this is getting too deep, consider what you do for a living. Ask yourself if basic human Need or the Need of consumerism supports your income. I freely admit that what I do for a living is based on consumerism.

Mr. Kelley started our tailspin. The Golfing Machine is the golfers’ ‘String Theory’. T.G.M. was so complicated that we stopped questioning Kelley’s precepts, or assumptions. Instead, we took his explanation as a given, and beyond our willingness to question. We were essentially intimidated into instruction.  We have witnessed innumerable swing explanations with different images, names, and catch-phrases. You could say, thanks to him, ‘Swing Theory’ was born.

Today, by emphasizing a simple set-up bias, I am teaching our way out of the abyss. My recommended bias develops efficient movement by engendering swing change using our individual, ‘artistic’ differences. Our mind-body relationship determines our adaptive art-form. Therefore, I confidently recommend employing the same, scientifically-explained vehicle to every able-bodied golfer.

My work assumes golfers want to reach the same, precise goal of pure and powerful impact. So….

Open your stance, and play golf.

John Wright –  Founder                                                                                                 The Open Stance Academy

Why An Open Stance Wins The Set-Up Debate

Why “Hitting Down On The Ball” Is So Important

Concentrating On Set-Up Is Difficult At First, But Pays Off Big Time

The Hippocratic Oath doesn’t just apply to medical doctors or, at least, shouldn’t. Any time healers or helpers act for the health of their patient, they operate under an implicit guideline to “Do No Harm”. However, we’ve all seen the ambitious or conflicted reap rewards from trusting “patients”.

I know this seems combative, but we have an actual problem in the golf instruction industry, too. The majority of instructors could never pass an golf swing MCAT. Anyone with the slightest inkling to make money “Teaching” golf can hang up a shingle, find a soapbox, and begin selling their snake oil to the eager and ill golfer, using empassioned and distracting language.

Their’s is a rocky path lit by self-interest and deception. That is why this site is free. I want to set myself apart by writing about the Open Stance philosophy in hopes of reaching the world with the truth. And the truth is, if your instructor or teacher does not set you up open, or at least on parallel “tracks”, then they are guaranteeing your continued frustration and subscription to the mainstream narratives.

Anyone can teach adaptation. Adaptation’s only requirement is consciousness. The reason adaptation is so easy to teach is because we don’t need the help in the first place. It’s avoidance theory… we choose to distance ourselves from responsibility because doing so has no negative consequences. Therefore, instruction becomes a business negotiation – using empassioned speech and fear to get people to do what they could, just as easily, do for themselves. It’s a WIN-WIN with “The blind leading the blind”.

Foundational knowledge is what teachers provide and, for which, students are responsible. I could easily put together a cirriculum or test and measure golf knowledge – from putting, to chipping and pitching, to full swing. In fact, I already have.

However, adoption, as such, is tricky. Moreover, how would we institute true learning to validate the cirriculum with graduates? After all, the PGA of America currently has the market cornered on teaching “certification”. More on that later.

My entire point is that we can use old wood to build a new house, but it doesn’t make the house old. Likewise, you can freshen-up old language, spin a narrative, and prey on fear. However, snake oil won’t turn into holy water, no matter how unwitting your patient. Hence, instructors may be doing harm, simply by enabling avoidance.

Let’s not be hypocrites as we carry out our charge to heal the golfing world. The Hippocratic method of teaching golf means more than just not making someone’s game worse. “Do no harm” means compelling the student to take responsibility for their own improvement, built on a solid foundation… of set-up.

I understand instructor concerns that there is a financial risk in revealing the cure. However, I can tell you that watching my students’ fast improvement more than compensates for monetary gain. Once the Open Stance becomes synonymous with healing our golf swing, revenue will leave the “salesmen” and find the “Hippocratic” sage. Flip-flopping by the ambitious will be impossible, and will not go unnoticed.

Open your stance, and play golf.

John Wright – Founder The Open Stance Academy

https://www.openstanceacademy.com/golf/why-open-stance-controls-trailing-elbow/ https://www.openstanceacademy.com/golf/putting-wins/ https://www.openstanceacademy.com/golf/weakness-gives-birth-to-ambition/

The open stance and the stock market have many similarities. Both also have pundits who compile, analyze, and present data as if their assumptions are the only assumptions. For instance, CNBC and the Golf Channel allow anyone who fits into their narrative to present their views for our consumption. And, by the looks of things, both outlets are becoming increasingly desperate for  viewers. It’s truly shocking.

For example, I was watching TGC the other day, and they showed a guy from GolfTec recommend a stronger leading grip to hit a draw. He turned his lead hand until his thumb was on the back of the shaft, and swung. I was in disbelief! Then, the Top Tracer video showed him hitting a pulled, duck hook. I thought it was a comedy spot. But, they were SERIOUS! 

On the other side of crazy, we have CNBC, who seats the most impossibly biased guests to pollute the waters of economic sanity. Liesman, Eisen, Frost, etc. justify any current, equities run-up with speculative, forward P/E ratios and soft/rearward-looking data like consumer sentiment. Meanwhile, they seem baffled when the markets descend on bad hard data like downward revisions to GAAP earnings, sales, revenue, and forward guidance. 

We know, however, that no matter how many phony numbers they roll out, it’s the hard data that matters, because hard data reflects relative Macroeconomic health. National debt, GDP, M3 money supply, U6 unemployment rate, and the price of gold to world fiat currencies are data points that truly zero in on what our symptoms foretell. Even THOSE numbers are dependent on political and fiscal change. But, at least, it’s a better starting point.

The point I’m fumbling with is that if you look at the incidental, you will miss the primary. If you want to trace any problem back to its root cause, you don’t work from the Micro to the Macro. We have to work the other way – from general to specific… from primary to incidental. In current terms, the Macro is our general disease. The Micro is our specific symptoms.

Our GolfTec goofball was fixing an incidental result with a fundamental change. It’s really outrageous, because our fundamentals should NEVER change. Not only is his advice RECKLESS, but it ignores our innate ability to adapt without altering golf fundamentals. But, there he is. TGC gave him a platform to punish people who don’t know enough to mute their TV. When will it stop?

Maybe my point is that watching talking heads on TV is our problem. We do seem to get a lot of bad advice from that group. However, naw… print media does the same thing. I just forgot for a moment. You know, actually, the only real measures we can take against the flood of muddied instructional water is to find higher ground built on a rock-solid foundation. Hence, just as your golf game is built on a foundation called set-up, your firmest footing is in an Open Stance – the Granite of foundations.

Open your stance, and play golf.

John Wright – Founder The Open Stance Academy

https://www.openstanceacademy.com/golf/first-five-years-open-stance-academy/

https://www.openstanceacademy.com/golf/testimonials/

https://www.openstanceacademy.com/golf/ricky-fowler-claims-another-title-open-stance/

A decent docent doesn’t deride divergent dynamics of different doers. Deciding to doggedly decry demanding dispositions describes a declination to dream of dissonant demands. Discussing dynamic, divergent demonstrations of dexterity definitely deals “drills” a disarming demise.

Teachers’ tours of topics traditionally takes two trails to test the truth. That tosses tons of testy “Truth”-tellers into tailspins. Two of twenty teachers tell their tutored tailgaters the total truth as told to them. Two in ten thousand take time to test theories tied to tactical truth.

Preeminent people purposefully present pedantic, pompous, pontificating, pretentious, pre-facto positions promoting a predetermined path of professional and personal proclivities. Per promoted proofs, perhaps personal prejudices point to present, problematic partialities that preclude prolonging possible positive pronouncements on power and precision. However, past, posted, position-pieces probably provide plenty of powder to purge preexisting predilections of any poo-pooers.

Meanwhile, many make major moves to mirror most modern motion mouthpieces in man’s media machinery.  Moreover, many more mar the message of men made to mediate marginal “master’s of movement”. More and more, machinations of matching and marrying multiple men/wo-men to maniacal, mechanical motion makes me maudlin.

I imagine idealistic, idiosyncratic individuals insist on innovation involving ideas and instruction. Insofar as I intuit insightfully, indoctrination into impromptu, instructional idealism implies an infantile intellectual imprimateur indecently initiated. In addition, inverting ideas and instruction to infer ingenious, insightful inroads into identifying initial imbalances is, inherently, idiotic.

Open your stance, and play golf.

John Wright – Founder
The Open Stance Academy

Why The Open Stance Controls Your Trailing Elbow

If Putting Wins, Why Worry About Full-Swing Set-Up?

Lead With Your Hands Using Set-Up Alone

Initiating versus accommodating movement is the difference between activity and passivity. Any and all initiating and accommodating movement is valuable to a golf swing. However, we should not be confused about our role. We can both initiate and accommodate movement, but intention only pertains to initiating it, because action has equal and opposite reactions.

Passive movement accommodates active, initiative motion. Passive motion is our counterbalancing mechanism for imbalances initiated by intentional, primary movement. For instance, the hands, arms and shoulders begin moving the clubhead into our backswing. The hips do not begin the swing. They accommodate the initiating parts of our body.

I’m reminded, again, of a conversation with a prominent instructor who suggested our hips are hinges. Of course, our hips are not hinges, because they do not actively do work. Moreover, they are not necessary to strike a golf ball. They are passive, and therefore, accommodative. The arms, hands, and shoulders initiate and substantiate the swinging motion. If our hips move to accommodate the momentum created, so be it. I could just as easily say the further a body part is from the ball, the more passive it’s role in our golf swing.

“What about firing the hips to make (good, powerful, consistent) contact? Isn’t that initiative motion?” No, it isn’t. The fact that some golfers concentrate on moving their hips does not confer initiative movement. Think of what motion your hip movement counters, and you’ll realize pretty quickly that your hips only aid adaptation.

If you “Fire” your hips intentionally, you have made a change in the initiating part of your swing to make it work. You keep your backswing and alter your transition, or you change your backswing and keep your transition. When we make passive, accommodative body parts active, we disturb the initiative parts, and compromise timing to do it. Either way, our hips do not move fast enough or with enough range to add speed. I could even argue that the more our hips turn, the shorter we hit our ball.

Initiation begins the adaptive process. The Open Stance begins the initiative step. Only The Open Stance Academy will give you this information.

Open your stance, and play golf.

John Wright – Founder The Open Stance Academy

https://www.openstanceacademy.com/golf/ricky-fowler-famous-instructors/

https://www.openstanceacademy.com/golf/first-five-years-open-stance-academy/

https://www.openstanceacademy.com/golf/phil-thrill-drill-while-striking-pi

My mind tells me the following is true.

Weakness gives birth to ambition. Ambition feeds corruption. Corruption seeks power. Power seeks control. Therefore, only the weak seek to control.

Strength gives birth to knowledge. Knowledge feeds wisdom. Wisdom seeks truth. Truth seeks justice. Therefore, only the strong seek justice.

This is the kind of thinking I do when I’m not thinking about how to help people with their Open Stance evolutions. If you can relate, then we’re on the same wavelength. Nevertheless, I believe it’s important to break up the narrative, now and again, with a common connection to real life.

Some watch world events and change their golf swings as if they have no say the process, while we actually have the only say. As sources attempt to wrangle our will with mind games, we need only change the channel to recover our wits. Furthermore, I believe we are on the cusp of reclaiming our personal responsibilities to our lives – to say nothing of our golf games. Hopefully, the next few years will bring us all closer together in fellowship and the freedoms to direct our own paths.

I suppose it was only a matter of time until my interest in other things leaked into my writing here. After all, growth as a person and as a professional is my primary concern. Therefore, why would I want to stay in one lane only when no one else is even on this road? In other words and metaphor, I could never willingly allow my knowledge or skills to atrophy just because I want to stay inside “the box”, because there is no truth inside the box.

Now, I’m going to go plug in my Stevie Ray Vaughan Stratocaster and play a while in true, SRV style. Then, I’ll eat lunch while analyzing world financial data and opinions. I may even place a trade or two. Finally, I’ll go work out before I continue tracking financial and golf news for the remainder of the day and evening.

You may think it’s a pretty cush gig. However, Winter is when I do the most work, gain the most knowledge, share the most wisdom, and seek the most truth. It’s also the time of year I do your golf game the most justice with the best information in the world.

Open your stance, and play golf.

John Wright – Founder. The Open Stance Academy

https://www.openstanceacademy.com/golf/questions-you-should-ask-before-judging-golf-swing/

https://www.openstanceacademy.com/golf/flat-golf-swing/

https://www.openstanceacademy.com/golf/top-100-clubfitters-gurbaaz-mann/

Lead With Your Hands Using Set-Up Alone

Lee Trevino is the best ball-striker of all time. He didn’t take much time, and he didn’t stop talking until seconds before he drew it back. But, we knew where his ball was going, just like he did. We knew the same of Hogan, Nelson, Kite… line ‘em up. What is it about Texas that produces great ball-strikers?

Certainly, hitting the ball low is a common thread with all Texas Twisters. Texan Rex Baxter, as a high schooler, was Hogan’s favorite exhibition partner. The Hawk was regarded as the best of his time, and yet he admired Rexy’s game because Baxter pierced his West Texas winds from wedge to wood.

Piercing golf shots are particularly effective in high winds, which Texas provides. In fact, most of the plains offer similar conditions. Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma have all turned out some ball-striking savants. But, is it genius, or did these fellas simply adapt to their environment with a goal in mind? They must have intended something specific with their ball, right?

Spin is the enemy when the wind is up. All great ball-strikers have to keep the ball at an optimal trajectory to get both distance, accuracy, and predictability. So, ask yourself, what impact position provides insurance that all three conditions are met?

We know lower-lofted club’s impart less spin, so these guys have to take loft off their clubs with motion. And yet, they all do so with completely unique moves. What, therefore, is the common link in all their impact positions? They all lead with their hands. Their hands were ahead of the ball at impact.

Whether ahead of the ball using a target-line or a toe-line definition I will reserve for another day. However, along one frame of reference or both, golfers who lead impact with their handle strike their ball better than anyone else. It’s why I don’t pontificate about needing to set up open to play good golf. People can set up closed and play well – provided they lead with their hands through impact.

It’s just that a closed set-up and optimal impact position rarely find one another, because it’s Physically more difficult to achieve our original three conditions. Although possible, golfers have to try to violate the Laws of Physics, biomechanical efficiency, and physiological integrity to effectively manage impact. Though, maybe you prefer to walk around the block to visit your next-door neighbor. I’m just more of a – ‘take a left at my mailbox, and another at my neighbor’s’ – kind of person.

Anyway, this post got away from me. I’ll just suggest you watch my original Open Stance explanation from 2013, and direct your attention to impact. The point of this post is to say, Lee Trevino is the best, Hogan is second, JW is third.

Open your stance, and play golf.

John Wright – Founder The Open Stance Academy

h

https://www.openstanceacademy.com/golf/why-we-dont-cut-steak-with-spoon/

https://www.openstanceacademy.com/golf/questions-you-should-ask-before-judging-golf-swing/

https://www.openstanceacademy.com/golf/worlds-best-club-fitter/

A “flat” golf swing is a relative term. I am recalling a recent conversation with a gentleman who asked me, what one thing would I recommend every golfer do to improve their golf swing? I said I’d make sure their swing is flat enough.

However, what wasn’t asked and what I didn’t offer, is that there are unspoken metrics in my statement tied to my educated assumptions. Now, I know what my assumptions were when I said it. However, within the format of a phone conversation, we often omit our assumptions in favor of making a “bullet point”. In this case, I respect the gentleman’s intelligence enough to make a quick point. But, if I had included my metrics, I wouldn’t have anything to write about today.

So, what defines a flat swing? Also, what assumptions should we make in defining it? What assumptions need their own definitions? And, what is the relative measurement hierarchy in order of importance? There is an order to our assumptions, after all. And they all begin with one condition. And, guess what it is? I’ll break it down in reverse order to keep you in suspense.

I could have a flat swing by my definition and still not look flat if different assumptions are at work. For instance, say my arm swing is nicely under my shoulder plane, but your eyes are in line with where my club points at the top. You may see a more upright plane with a laid-off position. Conversely, if I’m over the top with the same arm swing, I’ll look REALLY flat. Therefore, before we worry about the ultimate definition of a flat swing, we have to know a couple important things.

We need to know not only where our club is in relation to the target plane, but whether our set-up orientation is contributive or not. Maybe our position at the top is compensating for alignment or a limitation of some kind. In any event, you may notice we are migrating back to set-up as the precursor to movement.

But, before we go there, let me talk about address posture and physical make-up using the great J.W. Nicklaus. Jack has a C-Spine at address, whereby the curl of his cervical spine sets his shoulders on a steeper plane. Our physical make-up is also important in defining our dynamic motion. For example, a person with long legs and a short torso, like Nick Price, looks upright until you observe his shoulder plane.

Therefore, to define a flat swing, we have to use our target line to measure our set-up. Our feet, body, and eye orientation provide context before we move. Flat swings involve our arms and torso – regardless of target. However, without a target, we have no workable swing definitions. Therefore, let’s say the target measures, within reasonable limits, our set-up’s cooperation with physics.

Assuming we achieve a cooperative relationship, in all set-up orientations, to our target line, we must define whether our swing is on, over, or under the target plane. Theorhetically, I could have a flat swing with any definition. However, my definition of a flat swing has to do with the cooperation of our shoulder plane and arm swing with our target plane.

Where does that leave us? I’d say agreeing on the importance of broad strokes in instruction requires we agree on our assumptions, first. “Has our player set up open, square, or closed?” “Is their set-up intentional and consistent?” “Do we measure our definition along the toe line or target line? and, “Where do they swing their leading arm in relation to their shoulder plane?” “Where does the shaft point at the top?” If we can align on our answers to these questions, we can define a flat swing without equivocation.

If we intend to be intellectually honest, any consensus regarding underlying assumptions requires an expanded conversation. Hence, before you get into flat versus upright, you should ask some questions. The relative assumption hierarchy begins with set-up, just like the swing itself, and works toward movement.

Open your stance, and play golf.

John Wright – Founder
The Open Stance Academy

Phil ‘the Thrill’ continues to drill while striking his pill on seaside hills. I noticed that, in the midst of his Clambake victory march, Philly Mick was shelling it all over the map. However, on the positive side, at least he missed into the golf course instead of the ocean. He has abandoned control in favor of speed, for now. But I think, in time, he can have both.

So, we saw that he knows how to release his club without closing his clubface. But, did you notice how he did it? Remember the drill Jack Grout gave Jack Nicklaus to help him release his club? Let me remind you. Grout told Nicklaus to keep his trailing heel on the ground through impact. Did you notice what Phil’s trailing foot was doing?

Foreshadowing aside, you may have noticed his finish was shorter, truncated, or cut off. My attention went directly to his feet, because I observed an unmistakable link. One action necessarily accompanies the other. However, Phil’s driving results did highlight an inefficiency easily remedied.

His misses were all banana-balls. Obviously, he is playing with a swing thought that is movement-based. Great players can do that. They know how to score, so it’s of no consequence to drill as they play. Often, they play better. Even I would occasionally hit-and-hold every full shot during a round. However, Phil does have one thing to modify as he drills his way around a golf course – his ball position.

His clubface is square judging by his starting line. Therefore, after he gets comfortable with his new release on life (My apologies), he will need to control his curvature, which means path. He flattened his downswing as he played from an Open Stance last year a bit. He was on the right track. However, I think Phil did not modify his path to gain efficiency.

Now, the release he is working on pairs with a ball position that is slightly further back in his stance. However, if he does not re-path his club more from the inside, i.e. a flatter downswing, he will heel it. Let’s get the word out. Maybe we can get Phil a U.S. Open before he’s done.

Open your stance, and play golf.

John Wright – Founder
The Open Stance Academy

Here are some questions you should ask before judging a golf swing. Keep in mind, your golf swing doesn’t begin your expression of intention. It ends it. My research led me to understand the incidental nature of movement. Now, I am sharing some questions I asked of our results.

My first question was, who is swinging the club? Each swing and individual golfer is unique. Therefore, what makes them unique? Physiology is certainly a factor. But, what about individual psychology? How do we each link thoughts together and form unique solutions to the same problem?

We are in the mind now.

What makes the timing of synapses firing in one mind different than another? We have to get the answer by making the right assumption. My assumption is – we are all made of the same stuff. Therefore, I’ll trace the answer back one step based on similarities rather than anomalies. What, therefore, makes us take action?

Our brains tell us to act when safety and risk are balanced. Safety means forethought, at a minimum. So, what makes change risky for one golfer and not another? The answer is, the ABILITY to change. What determines ability? If we have no outward signs on which to base our answer, we have to look inside the mind. But, if each mind is different, what answer applies to all minds?

Ok. Then, what is our mental similarity? We each have an unconscious, subconscious, and conscious connection to life. Hence, under an assumption of psychological competence, where does change begin? Right away, we know it doesn’t begin in the conscious mind. That’s where our actions happen. What about our subconscious mind?

Certainly, we consider action passively in our subconscious. However, the subconscious is more likely responsible for the risk-reward mechanism. Why? Because we form intention here. Change is either worth our time or it isn’t. The subconscious, therefore, is our filter. Why do we have a subconscious mind? My answer was because we have needs to express in action.

Need emerges from our Unconscious mind, and is the engine of change. Conscious Action is when rubber-meets-road. Our Subconscious Intention is the transmission between our engine and our road. Whether a four-cylinder or a twelve-cylinder Need is powering our change, we express the strength of our Need with actions.

A four-cylinder Need never makes it through our subconscious. It is not strong enough to power our change machine, so we throw it out with the risks that down-sized it. Twelve-cylinder Needs torque up our intention quickly, and launch us into tenacious, persistent change with no regard for risks.

Change is about leaving our four-cylinder Needs behind and sticking to our passions of the twelve-cylinder variety. Unfortunately, some golfers never experience a twelve-cylinder Need,  so they don’t realize what they are missing. Their subconscious piles on the risks, causes fear, and shrinks the size of their Need.

However, to some, slower is better. Slower is familiar or predictable, which may be comfortable. Comfort is happiness… to some. Adventure is happiness to others. What makes the difference?

We have no scientific explanation why one mind is arranged differently within the same parameters of sanity, intelligence, and wonder, while experiencing completely different realities within the same dynamic. We have empirical data, but even that is subjectively-derived. So, where do we turn for answers? Everything we now understand leads back to unconscious Need.

Whether we want the answer to a problem, a reaction, a desire, a fear, a goal, or any other question, our pre-existing condition, preceding all discovery, is Need. Furthermore, the only discipline that I believe takes all others into account is Astrology. Believe me or not, knowing our astrology explains our mental differences, capacities, and self-imposed limitations.

My advice to you is, go find your chart. Learn why you are the way you are. Learn why you relate to others the way you do. Who are your avatars? Who else had your basic zodiac and animal signs in their chart? Once you start digging, you’ll discover why your engine for change is strong or weak, and why your mind is unique. Then, you can judge a golf swing based on better self-knowledge.

Open your stance, and play golf.

John Wright – Founder
The Open Stance Academy