The golf swing is a fluid movement producing tremendous power. Of course the results vary depending on the player, but the intent is usually the same. Although the golf swing is intended to be one motion, it can be broken down into many subsets. These internal motions can be dissected further in order to understand what movement works best for our game. To start all of this, however, we need to expand our knowledge on the phases of our golf swing. It is important and will help improve our overall game.

Depending on who you talk too, the golf swing can be separated into segments. This is not a definitive list, but helps us start to understand where we can break down our swing.

I will talk more about the above video a bit later in the article. For now, I think it is important to understand that Ben Hogan appears to be the ‘golf swing guru’ in which most teachings are based. Considered to have a perfect swing, many golfers try to emulate his movements in order to improve their game. I can see why:

Back to the five stages of our golf swing. The names used by Ericka Larkin are not engraved in stone. You can call it what you want and if you watch different videos, different names are used. The critical piece of knowledge is how the swing is broken down. Each movement and their subsets offer an area to to focus at when working on our swing.

It is important to note that each phase of the swing has a domino effect to the other phases. Similar to the Domino Theory of the 1950s, the domino effect is a chain reaction that occurs when a small change causes a similar change nearby, which then causes another similar change, and so on in linear sequence.  Any changes to a golf swing will directly or indirectly cause changes to other areas you are happy with.  The above video shows that it is critical to keep the sight of the big picture and that minor adjustments to all areas of your swing might be required.

The crux of my diatribe today is that the swing is broken down into different phases. Understanding this is important to improving our golf swing. Hogan talks about how important the lower body is to producing the correct swing. Larkin offers that the finish will indicate if we are swinging in balance. There is so much data offered during each golf swing it might be difficult to keep track. However, knowing what phase the data originates is a great start to playing better golf.

I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!