(Login Snakedoc) Blake Moderator Posted Sep 13, 2009 4:17 PM
I wonder what percentage of PGA Tour pros employ a forward press--anyone know the answer to that? I think of the press as a compensating move, just before the backswing, which helps keep the head (relatively) still throughout the backswing. Blake thought it to be absolutely essential and wrote over two pages about it in GTTB:
"The essential part of the swing is the building up of the centrifugal force of the club and body by using your muscles to accelerate about a FIXED point. In the golf swing, the fixed point of rotation is the neck, which should stay still throughout the swing. This is not a matter of 'freezing' the neck. It is a question of starting the swing in such a way that the neck will remain in the same relationship to the ball. It is not possible to do this repeatedly if you start the swing by a conscious effort from a stationary position. Such a conscious effort tends to move the other parts of the body. It involves a contraction of muscles which exert a force on whatever part of the body they are pulling against. In the golf swing they are pulling against the neck and tending to move it. The swing must therefore always be started with a press of some kind. A press is the tensing of muscles in a stationary position so that the swing starts, without any tendency to contract the muscles, as soon as the muscles are relaxed."
Neck or head? In effect, surely either could have been cited in the above. Mindy also wrote that he did his press with a push of his trail (right) leg? What do you think--is his anatomical analysis correct? If so, shouldn't any golf swing start with a forward press? This is an element of Blake that I never truly tried to incorporate in my swing. Mindy said it makes the legs "feel alive," but to me it has always felt a bit awkward. Do you use a forward press in your swing? SD
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