Two ways to swing?

[upanddown]

Okay, this may not be profound but I now believe there are two ways to swing the club:

 

1) Left arm pinned to the chest (think glove under the armpit) and rotate the chest through impact. Relatively short backswing... arms just hang on and go with the body. This produces for me more of a fade, lower traj shot.

 

2) Arm swing with body following arms and arms rotating through impact. This produces for me a straighter, higher shot, feels more effortless, but "looser".

 

Not sure which is best for me but I think I get in trouble when I combine both actions. Make sense? thanks..

[juststeve]

You are right in thinking that you need to pick one and go with it. No mixing of the two methods. If you decide to go with method number two pick up a copy of Understanding The Golf Swing by Manuel de la Torre, and or the DVD by the same name. There is nothing as good with respect to that method.

Steve

[upanddown]

Steve, I'll check it Manuel's book. who would some pro models for each method?

[geoffaw]

[quote name='upanddown' timestamp='1371133627' post='7230066']
Okay, this may not be profound but I now believe there are two ways to swing the club:

1) Left arm pinned to the chest (think glove under the armpit) and rotate the chest through impact. Relatively short backswing... arms just hang on and go with the body. This produces for me more of a fade, lower traj shot.

2) Arm swing with body following arms and arms rotating through impact. This produces for me a straighter, higher shot, feels more effortless, but "looser".

Not sure which is best for me but I think I get in trouble when I combine both actions. Make sense? thanks..
[/quote]
For the second option another good book is "How to feel a real golf swing" by Toski and Love.

[dlam]

I'm not a big fan of "body" swing
I prefer arms /shoulders swing with either a torso pre turn or body rotating with arms
The other method has merits but I'm not one that can do it effectively
My body turn either leads to sway , slide , reverse pivot or some nasty excessive motion

[goobers80]

[color=#800080]My instructor says for most parts body will moves to stay balanced. If the arms do nots drop in fronts of body , there is no chance for good stuffs to follow. We concentrated mostly on feelings arms working on downswings. A conscious body moves for me throws all out the doors.[/color]

[color=#800080]The body needs to moves but i thinks it is way overrated on heres. If you start movings something that is already movings , it moves too much. If arms do nots start down before hips turn , they will be way behinds. Hips shoulds release when arms are in front of body i thinks.[/color]

[dlam]

[quote name='upanddown' timestamp='1371133627' post='7230066']
Okay, this may not be profound but I now believe there are two ways to swing the club:

1) Left arm pinned to the chest (think glove under the armpit) and rotate the chest through impact. Relatively short backswing... arms just hang on and go with the body. This produces for me more of a fade, lower traj shot.

2) Arm swing with body following arms and arms rotating through impact. This produces for me a straighter, higher shot, feels more effortless, but "looser".

Not sure which is best for me but I think I get in trouble when I combine both actions. Make sense? thanks..
[/quote]

yea, that sounds a lot like what some posters here describe CP vs CP method. There's a ton of threads on that topic.
#! sounds more like a CP. Limited release of the club. Tight constant grip pressure throughtout the swing.Feeling more control of the clubface
#2 sounds like CF. Free moving swing. Allowing the arms to go with centrifugal force. Grip hold is loose initially and gets progressively firmer at impact. More trusting of your swing and allowing the release.

I know what you mean, cant combine the two actions, either you hang on and actively swing or you let go of the club and release the momentum. the choice is up to you.

[reflection]

[quote name='upanddown' timestamp='1371133627' post='7230066']
Okay, this may not be profound but I now believe there are two ways to swing the club:

[/quote]

It is profound - at least it was to me as of last week. I had problems because I was mixing the two swing methods. As others said, stick to one. Each has its own nuances with setup, takeway, backswing, transition, etc.. I'm going with method 2 which sounds like the two plane swing to me.

Before: I was doing swing #1, but my spine angle was too upright. This caused me to compensate which threw everything out of whack. Most of my shots were weak and over the top. If I were to stick with #1, I would bend forward more.

I chose to go with #2 because I feel a lot more comfortable and feels much easier on my body. The key on this one for me is tempo and timing and the axe chop downward to start my downswing.

I would read or watch the Plane Truth. It doesn't have all the details about grip and impact position, but gave me the insight to understand the differences between the two swings.

[virtuoso]

[quote name='dlam' timestamp='1373893741' post='7456728']
[quote name='upanddown' timestamp='1371133627' post='7230066']
Okay, this may not be profound but I now believe there are two ways to swing the club:

1) Left arm pinned to the chest (think glove under the armpit) and rotate the chest through impact. Relatively short backswing... arms just hang on and go with the body. This produces for me more of a fade, lower traj shot.

2) Arm swing with body following arms and arms rotating through impact. This produces for me a straighter, higher shot, feels more effortless, but "looser".

Not sure which is best for me but I think I get in trouble when I combine both actions. Make sense? thanks..
[/quote]

yea, that sounds a lot like what some posters here describe CP vs CP method. There's a ton of threads on that topic.
#! sounds more like a CP. Limited release of the club. Tight constant grip pressure throughtout the swing.Feeling more control of the clubface
#2 sounds like CF. Free moving swing. Allowing the arms to go with centrifugal force. Grip hold is loose initially and gets progressively firmer at impact. More trusting of your swing and allowing the release.

I know what you mean, cant combine the two actions, either you hang on and actively swing or you let go of the club and release the momentum. the choice is up to you.
[/quote]

And sometimes, a golfer will try to hang on and use "cp" but it still looks like "cf" on video, and sometimes a golfer has a very pivot driven swing and trys to naturally "let it go", and it still looks "cp".

[kellygreen]

[quote name='upanddown' timestamp='1371133627' post='7230066']
Okay, this may not be profound but I now believe there are two ways to swing the club:

1) Left arm pinned to the chest (think glove under the armpit) and rotate the chest through impact. Relatively short backswing... arms just hang on and go with the body. This produces for me more of a fade, lower traj shot.

2) Arm swing with body following arms and arms rotating through impact. This produces for me a straighter, higher shot, feels more effortless, but "looser".

Not sure which is best for me but I think I get in trouble when I combine both actions. Make sense? thanks..
[/quote]

Yes, it makes sense.

The first swing is usually called a "body" swing or a "one-plane" type swing. It is typically an "anti-hook" swing where the release of the club is controlled by the rotation of the body. I'm I'm not suprised that it produced a low fade for you. I play this type of swing and it produces a medium-trajectory draw for me....but the other kind of swing you note tends to produce a high, hook/push for me.

The second swing is called an "arms-and-hands" or "two-plane" swing. This is the most common type of golf swing that is taught. Done properly it tends to produce a high, drawing shot. But it can produce a pretty wicked pull-slice in players who surrender to the arms-drop-down-and lead the body motion that is essential to this swing. Instead they try to move the club with the upper body...and its over-the-top.

You CAN combine the two ways of swinging the club, but it needs to be done in a VERY specific fashion. Otherwise you either get a recipie for bad golf....or inconsistent golf. So I would suggest that you DON"T try to combine them, unless you are learning a SPECIFIC swing model that does so, and takes the guesswork out of how to do it properly.