The body’s function in the golf swing has received a lot of attention in golf instruction over the years. The use of the hands and arms has largely been reduced to a supporting role.
The idea is that if the right grip, stance, and posture are used, along with the right body rotation, the hands will naturally perform as they should without any additional effort on the part of the player. “The hands will only be used to hold onto the club… “
This certainly rings true in the minds of the select few coaches and players who have been fortunate enough to develop the proper hand and arm motion from the moment they first picked up a club. They take for granted how they move their hands and arms. They may perceive the movement of their hands and arms as automatic or even unconscious. They might not be particularly conscious of the hand action or its absolute necessity for the swing. Therefore, that is what they instruct in.
But for those who have a faulty hand and arm action that is sabotaging their swings, which is the vast majority of the golfing population, merely rotating the body with the “hands and arms doing nothing” will severely compound their issues. They will be severely limited in their capacity to participate in the game.
Take the average player with the excessive swing motion, for instance. At the peak of his backswing, this golfer raises the club… And because he has read that the swing is “body driven” or “pivot driven” or that “the most important part of the swing is the lower body” or that “the hands and arms just go along for the ride”… he then just rotates, doing “nothing” with the hands and arms because he thinks that is correct based upon what he has learnt from body rotation focused golf instruction… Later, after pivoting, he throws his arms across his target line. He cuts across the ball violently from right to left when he finally brings the club down.
This player then attempts to improve his swing, knowing that it is fundamentally flawed. In light of the golf instruction he has received, he diagnoses himself with a body rotation fault because he feels that the body is the primary driving force behind the swing.
And because he has heard from great authority that the “most important part of the swing is the lower body,” he really starts to exaggerate his hip rotation. But rather than getting better, he just keeps going above and beyond. He becomes impatient but keeps going in good faith. He pivots more and more violently out of frustration. The problem is only made worse by this, which pushes the club even further over the line. As a result, the undesirable ball flights are made more obvious.
The swing is currently in a terrible state and is obviously not very efficient. And despite the fact that the player may be quite athletic and coordinated, he blames his performance on a lack of talent. Some guys stay stuck in this golf hell for years, if not decades. Though they are aware that they are not playing to their full potential, they manage to get by with the swing they have.
All of this has a significant negative impact on players’ morale, and many give up. Some players keep playing because they still enjoy themselves despite their poor play. Some people develop improper swing adjustments that can even cause injury. Numerous players experience this. The game of golf as a whole can suffer because players are not having fun playing at such a subpar level, and there are no signs of a significant improvement in sight.
However, the player is not really to blame for any of this. Not really; he has made an effort to expose himself to appropriate instruction and has played and practiced in accordance with what he has been taught. The problem is that the instructions he was exposed to didn’t address his actual issue, which was a poor hand and arm motion rather than a rotation of the body. Our player’s problem was more complex than just rotating his hips to the left or doing a barrel spin. What he needed was the right hand and arm motion to give him leverage so he could strike down with control, feel, and power into the ball… coupled with body rotation.
Many pieces of advice suggest that as long as the player turns properly, the hands and arms will just work properly on their own. But we rarely observe this to be the case for the vast majority of players. What we actually discover is the exact opposite. The body is easily able to turn correctly throughout the golf swing once the proper hand and arm action is implemented.
Undoubtedly, a successful golf swing depends on proper body rotation. A golf swing’s effectiveness is also influenced by the movements of the hands, wrists, and arms. The golf swing should have all of its parts working in harmony. similar to how we practice swinging. As was demonstrated above, the hands and arms play an important part in the golf swing, and it is important to remember this because a poor action on either of these parts can and will completely ruin the golf swing.
Any golfer, regardless of their level of skill, can learn the proper hand and arm motion.