The best analogy for the golf swing, is to imagine delivering a heavy, sideways axe-blow to the base of a sturdy tree trunk.  Unless one is a southpaw, the right hand should become extremely aggressive in the hitting zone—but remain passive or quiet before that time.  A complete metaphor would include lopping off the upper portion of the tree completely, leaving only a clean-cut stump at ground level, as if someone had instead employed a chain saw.  The momentum of the heavy axe would then literally carry the woodsman cum golfer forward and upward into a poised, balanced finish onto the left heel, with the axe handle slung around the back of the neck.

Although I can personally guarantee the veracity of this simple model by employing it to drive a ball 300 yards down the fairway sprinkler line, with a slight draw no less, the limitations of language in describing physical motion become immediately apparent to the novice golfer, and hence the green italicized words in the preceding paragraph warrant considerable elaboration.

heavy:  The axe must be heavy, or better yet imagined as having significant weight in the head—if not the handle, because this will prevent the golfer from overpowering the axe with preemptive or extraneous hand action, and from contaminating the gradual build-up of axe-head momentum.  After all, the downswing or forward portion of the golf swing begins virtually from rest, with the club raised high overhead, and the large muscles of the torso and shoulders must initially accelerate the club smoothly to a crashing impact with the ball.  One cannot avoid using the powerful torso and shoulders to swing a sufficiently heavy axe, and the arms and hands must wait for a buildup of speed before becoming active.  If the axe or club is too light in weight, such as a 3-foot length of bamboo for instance, the hands and arms will dominate it easily, and a multitude of problems can occur, resulting in a loss of synchronization, power and control.  As all of the greatest golf teachers in history have pointed out, premature use of the hands is the number one killer of golf swings.

sideways:  An axe is typically used in the same manner as a sledgehammer to inflict a blow from high overhead, vertically downward onto a target, as in a log-splitting action.  A lumberjack felling a tall pine is a superior, sideways-oriented image, with the goal being to embed the axe head deeply into the side of the trunk.  It may be useful to imagine standing adjacent to the tree, with the golf ball sitting directly against its base, and the object is to cut the ball in twain just before the axe penetrates the fleshy wood horizontally.  Although many teaching professionals emphasize a correct position at the top of the backswing as being important to good golf, none of them would argue that it is the position at impact which separates the men from the boys—and our analogy is consistent with this fact.  None of your neighbors (or your wife) would chastise you – the weekend lumberjack – for improperly positioning your arms and body before delivering the first blow to the oak tree in your front yard, because ultimately it is the depth-of-cut that will determine whether firewood is available in the evening.  There are a multitude of different backswing moves on the PGA Tour alone, yet every one of the pro's clubheads ends up in nearly identical, square positions at impact.

aggressive in the hitting zone:  Melvin Lentz, considered by lumberjack competition fans to be the “Michael Jordan” of the sport, is not a particularly big or muscular man.  What Lentz has is exquisite timing in applying his right hand (and forearm) to the axe handle, at precisely the correct instant.  In truth, most people have the natural ability to deliver a powerful, near-perfectly timed blow to a tree trunk with a weighty axe, yet put a 200-gram titanium driver in their hands and they will flail it as if swatting flies out of the air.  The right hand must be aggressive just prior to impact, and definitely not before.  Jack Nicklaus refers to it as “the late hit,” and Ben Hogan dreamed of having “three right hands” to maximize his power off the tee.  It may seem like an obvious point, or even a trivial one to a lumberjack wielding an axe, but since golf clubs are actually quite light in mass compared to the axe heads used in chopping wood, it requires months and years of practice before the novice golfer can visualize and execute a proper right hand action in the hitting zone.

quiet:  I had a lot of trouble figuring out what this term meant, because it is ubiquitous in golf instruction.  What I finally realized it meant, was that the hands must simply allow the club to swing freely and uninhibitedly during the swing, until it enters the hitting or delivery zone.  The meaning becomes clearer by thinking once again about the heavy axe, because there is no point in attempting to “steer” or “manhandle” the axe, until one is just about to strike the tree trunk.  The hands thus stay passive throughout most of the swing, and then become quite active to accelerate the clubhead viciously, yet smoothly into impact.

carry:  There is no easy comparison between finishing an axe blow to the side of a tree, and finishing a golf swing, unless one can visualize lopping off the top portion of the tree entirely.  Imagine Paul Bunyan cutting clean through a tree trunk with one swipe… how would he look at the end of his swing?  Certainly, the momentum of his heavy axe would pull on his arms quite significantly, which would then pull his shoulders and upper body forward and upward, and thus he would end up with the majority of his weight on his left leg, if he was right-handed.  This is trickier than it sounds, because most novice golfers “quit” their swings way too early.  The word release is often used to describe the free-wheeling action of the club in the hitting zone, because just as in striking a tree with an axe, the right hand must essentially “throw” the head of the club into impact, while still “hanging on” with enough force to prevent it from flying out of one’s hands.  Watch a young child swinging a regular men’s golf club:  the momentum of the club literally pulls the youth’s limber body forward as it swings past his feet, and the child may even take a step toward the target to avoid falling.  The resistance in the left leg (torqued knee joint) is what eventually slows the club (and body) to a complete stop, and this is why it is important to finish on the left (or front) heel.

balanced:  read this article.

Now you’re a lumberjack, and your golf swing will be Okay.

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About the author: Steve Dayton writes articles like he hits range balls: high, far-out, and sometimes even straight.

Email: stixus_steve@yahoo.com

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