Golf’s fundamentals list seems to be growing. How can we have more absolute necessities for swinging our golf clubs without any change in the goal, human mind, or body arrangement? I thought of a couple possible explanations.
First, one thought is that as we become aware of our influence over our own mind, we naturally or unnaturally become convinced that what applies to us, must apply to everyone. Therefore, we feel fine about creating our own, proprietary set of rules we know we will never have to explain to anyone else. This is my safety argument.
My second thought is that as we evolve toward an impact-centered explanation, we forget that golf can be played imperfectly for as long as we like. We also forget where impact originates. Regardless of biomechanical expertise, once we stop liking imperfect golf, we have to slough off the proprietary ideas in favor of universal truth. Unfortunately, golf instruction and magazines perpetuate subjective fundamentals. You know my opinions, there.
So, what do we do? First, let’s agree not to include swing tips in fundamentals discussions. For example, I know how tempting it is to say that placing our trailing elbow inside our trailing hip, prior to impact, is a fundamental. Golfers also believe that posture is a fundamental, but neither are. With every individual golfer comes another posture example, mitigated by another swing example, to strike a ball – no matter how imperfectly.
You may be thinking, “How can a guy who teaches set-up say that posture is not a fundamental?” My explanation is easy. Posture is an instructional prescription without a definition. Furthermore, if one prescribed posture does not apply to every golfer, it applies to none. Therefore,, why teach something obviously irrelevant? Would you have me tell Bubba Watson to bend more at the waist? I think he’s done pretty well with his posture. Don’t you?
So, what are golf swing fundamentals? Fundamentals occur every time a golf ball is struck with maximum possible energy. Therefore, here is our list of golf swing fundamentals ….
- Intend to strike our ball.
- Hold onto our golf club.
- Move our club away from our target line on an inclined plane – inside the target line, back to the target line at impact, and inside the target line on the follow through. And, finally….
- Maintain necessary balance and remain on our feet.
Specific motion, positions, and results are incidentals not rising to the level of absolute necessity. However, please feel free to disagree.
Open your stance, and play golf.
John Wright – Founder
The Open Stance Academy
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