A Revolutionary Way to Make a Golf Swing: The Set and Swing

A Revolutionary Way to Make a Golf Swing: The Set and Swing

By Dr. T. J. Tomasi, Keiser University College of Golf Senior Faculty and Director of Research

This modification of the golf swing that I initially used as a student drill can also be used as a swing augmentation as follows:  Address the golf ball with your lead arm across the middle of your chest like a baseball hitter. This is your new address position for the Set and Swing (S/S) model. To start the swing, simply trigger your downswing with a slight “pump” upward of the arms. This upward pumping motion preserves the dynamic movement necessary to make a good golf swing. The analog of the pump for the normal address position is the waggle, a move that transitions from the static address position to the “swing in motion.”

How the New Address Position Works

Place yourself in the correct position and pose (see photos below), then pump the club up a few inches to start your downswing. Per the above, it’s the same principle as hitting a baseball with a bat: 1) start high, 2) pump up, and 3) swing down.

From this new address position, simply pump the club gently into position, as shown in photo 2, and start your downswing.

This is the position from which the downswing takes place.

Takeaway

The S/S proceeds as follows:

Step 1: Address a ball as you normally would so that a perfect aim and swing sends the ball to the target.

Step 2: Swing back until your lead arm is parallel to the ground and stop. Adjust your body, arms, and hands to approximate the positions described below. It only takes a few reps to get these positions down pat. They are:

1. a) Club shaft points at the target line.
2. b) Lead arm and shaft form a 90-degree angle.
3. c) Shoulders turned to 75 degrees.
4. d) 50 percent of your weight is pulled onto your right hip.
5. e) Lead arm parallel to and directly above your toe line.

Step 3: Once you’re set, coil your torso, and pump your arms up a few inches based on your flexibility. This simple move stretches the key downswing muscles just as much as a traditional backswing, giving you the same potential energy to unleash into the ball. Think of a frog as it squats before leaping, ratcheting up its elastic energy to explode into the air.

Step 4: Immediately following your pump, swing back to the ball by firing your core while transferring your weight onto your front foot. This works only if you keep your spine centered over the ball as it was at the address.

The Set and Swing eliminates ~70 percent of the backswing mistakes that typically ruin your impact.

The major advantage of learning this swing is that since much of the backswing is converted into a posed position, the student can go through a checklist of the pose to make sure things are correct. This is a powerful learning tool.

Please remember this fundamental fact – it’s very difficult to separate feels at the top of the normal swing because so much is happening in such a short time. That is, the amount of “kinesthetic clutter” makes learning difficult. This is not so with the S/S.

Here is another view of the new sequence.

Here is the top of your swing after the pump-up.

Small move – small error!