These are some student examples. Send me your open stance swing clip, and I’ll post it alongside these uniquely individual interpretations of the Open Stance.

John Wright – Founder
The Open Stance Academy

I had a year of the driver once… once. I was unaware that I was in the midst of a process that would allow me to hit the ball further and straighter than anyone else. I was just frustrated that I was not hitting it well, and was determined to fix it within my current movement pattern and set-up. I hit a lot of golf balls… a LOT of golf balls.

It was the Winter of 2006-2007. I was freshly immersed in the South Florida climes again, and was on course to play professionally. I’m wired to perfect things. After one painful day on the range, my hands, wrists, and forearms were exhausted, inflamed, and swollen. I made the commitment to concentrate on perfect contact before I worried about anything else. I needed to take this one step at a time. I throttled back on the speed and started paying attention to my set up and movement with perfect contact. Consciousness with each swing gave me feedback I used for the next impact.

Patterns formed. Associations emerged between the results and the intention. I repeated what felt powerful within a purely contact-driven experiment. I noticed the way my intention translated into swing-sequence, which translated into movement and then the ball. In order to repeat a pain-free impact, I had to pay close attention to everything. I didn’t pay attention consciously, but subconsciously. “Total consciousness” came later. It was incidental to the need I had to avoid pain within the process.

Pretty soon, the patterns of movement I had developed were yielding noticeably better impacts. And the application of speed was easier once my intention for perfect impact was realized. The structures I created in my swing to hit it perfectly, once formed into fluid motion, also allowed me to move as fast as I wanted to hit it as far as I could. It was pretty simple. A specific intent led me to my goal and well beyond. By the time I reached my goal I was already working toward another more specific one.

In the meantime, I had become an absolute machine from the tee. My set-up was exactly the same every time. My swing thought was the same every time. My structures were the same every time. And my speed was producing tremendous length. And I NEVER, EVER missed my target by more than a few yards… Not EVER. Imagine being able to swing as hard as you can knowing you’ll hit it perfectly. Have you given it a thought? I hadn’t.

As a result of my performance, I was recruited by playing fellow competitors to play with them in numerous partner events. I was told I was hitting the Driver as far as anyone in South Florida. I won’t talk about my putting. Somehow, I had arrived at my driving destination without even thinking about it.

I guess it’s true… If you enjoy what you are doing, it’s not work. The point is, have a goal, hurtle yourself into a process of reaching it, then create a specific intention out of the pain you experience along the way. Let the pain guide your brain.

John Wright – Founder
The Open Stance Academy

Is there a different definition of ‘competitive’ for each person, or is it an objective moniker on a subjective study? Well crap, I guess I just gave away the answer. Rhetoric is a familiar medium to a teacher. My bad. I have something to say about competition because it has been a familiar component of my life. I have competed plenty. But, as I have recalled my history in successful competition, I realize now that it was never about the competition.

It was about making my Dad proud. Can you relate? I competed because I was good at it. I was good at it because I had something very important to win – dad’s pride. My motivation, however, was never to measure myself against other golfers. I cannot claim the Ty Webb answer, “By height”. My motivation was personal, like everyone else’s. But it was unique to a segment of competitive golfers beyond, but like, myself.

It follows that without motivation, the desire to compete is diminished. Desire, or more specifically intention, is at the center of every achievement. By feeding one’s motivation, competition can be seen not as the fuel, but the vehicle. My point is that competition is incidental to EVERY tournament golfer. Competition and competitiveness has always been about reaching a larger goal. Byron Nelson wanted to buy a farm. He competed because there were more important things in his life than the field of battle. Competition was a means to an end then, and now.

Let’s face it, no one is giving back trophies and cashiers checks in the world of golf. No one competes to measure themselves and their games in a vacuum. No one passes up an interview when they have won a tournament or played a good round of golf. My view is – don’t belittle the motivation. It’s all good. It’s all natural. It’s just different for different people at different levels at different times in their lives. But, it doesn’t matter what the motivation is as long as it produces a focus and persistence sufficient to reach the ultimate goal. Such is everything in life.

Is there a difference in appearance between being intellectual and competitive, determined and competitive, aggressive and competitive, secure and competitive? I think the word competitive can be subdivided into these four categories. People need a life condition that allows what is most forceful in them to bubble to the surface. There is a trigger inside every golfer that produces a motivation for competing. That trigger may be confused with its expression inside golf, but it is always a passenger looking for a vehicle. Golf is just a vehicle for achievement – like anything else worth doing.

John Wright – Founder
The Open Stance Academy

The new new edition of the paradigm-shifting, set up philosophy.

John Wright – Founder
The Open Stance Academy

John Wright – Founder
The Open Stance Academy

This young lady is taking a lesson and preparing to go play golf. She is naturally creative and a perfectionist. It’s an enviable mixture of qualities. She is equally happy doing either. And though she seems to have some discomfort assimilating the new set up change on the range, the video at the end of this lesson video shows her athleticism and problem-solving creativity on – course.

Analytical minds have the most trouble taking their swing from the range where they are comfortable – to the course where creativity and adaptive responses are required. These folks need more course time to get comfortable in their swing changes.

Taking it to the course

John Wright – Founder
The Open Stance Academy

Short game technique is everything. A precise short game limits the damage of an imprecise long game.  So – While you are adapting to an open stance, this will help you contain the damage in the short term… and make you fearless in the longer term.

John Wright – Founder
The Open Stance Academy

On Jul 23, 2016, at 4:30 PM, John Negley <jpnegley@icloud.com> wrote:

John: Thanks for the nice note! I have become a devoted follower of your teachings, and have made significant progress during the past two years. I do have a question that keeps coming up regarding wrist position in the backswing. I noted from one of your followers that you had emphasized the need to “open his right hand more during the backswing.” I have, at times, gotten too wristy, which I believe comes from my tendency to roll my wrists at takeaway. Please describe your thought process regarding wrist position in the takeaway/backswing. J

I wrote to John saying

Hi, John

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p style=”text-align: justify;”>I’m not sure about the quoted passage, but I can say the wrist activity is controlled by the trailing arm flexion. The more the trailing arm bends, the more the wrists hinge. The control we exert over the position and or direction of the wrist flexion determines whether or not we can use our swing components in balance with one another.
Supination comes from a need to get clubhead travel in a swing without lower body engagement (Jones, Hogan). Pronation comes from a full turn and lower body – driven swing (Trevino, Nicklaus, Watson, D. Johnson). A full turn provides room between the arms and the torso as the lever complex remains on the plane.
This swing room cannot function properly (Under Control) if the club face rotates too far below the plane due to its disconnected nature. The pronation slows the transition to allow a reconnection to occur before impact out of necessity. The anterior muscles in the forearm are stronger than the posterior muscles, so isolating them with pronation keeps us from launching our golf club from the top and engages the lower body as a power source. It has been known as reconnecting the “V”.

I hope this helped. Best Wishes,

John Wright – Founder
The Open Stance Academy

Attitude, like all expressions of intellect and emotion, is a conditioned response.  There is the cause and its effect.  There is the primary and its secondary.  Attitude does not/cannot exist without that which manifests it.   The stimulus-response dynamic is alive in all things, including the golf swing.

Now, the discussion of the golf swing does not abridge or negate the realization of a basic human truth.  Because truth comes first.  However our attitude, based on our life experience, sometimes colors that truth to fit our own narrative.  If our narrative cooperates with the bigger story, our reward is being labeled as having a ‘good attitude’.  Our opposite getsbthe label of ‘bad attitude’.

The qualifier is not the individual, unfortunately, but rather the story to which we respond as unique individuals.  If the story is idealistic, the idealist has the good attitude and the confused has the bad.  If the story is confused, the opposite is the case.  It has to do, I think, with setting aside our ego so the truth exists as it is and not as we want it to be.

The truth affects us. We color it with an attitude conditioned by experience.  Then we express it.  Attitude is essentially a descendant of the conditioning of luck.  Life experience, as an attitude adjuster, has many tumblers.  However, Luck is the only one of those tumblers outside of the soul and beyond the control of the human being.  We know it exists, but have been conditioned by a confused story to ignore its impact in our lives and in our world.

I’ve written a book about Luck, which is a humble and, I fear, too brief look into what makes miracles, heroes, villains, and stars. Opportunities seem to lay down like lovers for otherwise ordinary people who do nothing more than what comes naturally – based on their experience.  Sorry… their attitude.  This is, to say the least, an off-topic post.  Take it for what it’s worth.

John Wright – Founder
The Open Stance Academy