Weight Transfer

Sorry for the late post again. There are some reasons why I didn't post and I did share it in ~my life~ blog. Alright, today I'm going to talk about Weight Transfer. Probably, many of you all might know what is WEIGHT TRANSFER. But do you swing apply the weight transfer mechanism? Some may answer YES, some UNSURE and some, NO.

Let's put it this way. Just like any other sports, weight transfer is seemingly just as important not just in golf. I'll show you some of the pictures that represent body weight transfer before relate it to golf.

(A) take a look at how Zidane kick a penalty shot

(B) look at the sequence of one basketball player throwing a free throw...

(C) how a badminton player, sequence to SMASH a shuttlecock...

The reason why I show this three pictures is to prove that, not just golf, other sports also in need much of weight/body transfer to deliver a more powerful shot. At (A), when a footballer is kicking a ball. You don't expect them to kick a ball just by standing in front of the ball, and kick it just with their legs. That will definitely kick a ball, but it won't give a powerful blow at the ball to make the ball travel faster and fly further. Therefore, players will run a certain distance, and when they get near the ball, they will rotate their hips and turn their body to slightly inside and rotate back- to kick a powerful ball. Let's see (B), when a basketball player, is having a free throw in a location. In order to deliver the power, they couldn't just use their hand, yes and unless their hand are very powerful. But even NBA players who are strong, they still bend down knee and upon throwing the ball, pushing their knee straight - just like delivering their body weight to the ball and with their hand power to throw the ball. In (C), a badminton player who wanted to make a SMASH, a power SMASH I mean, they will rotate their shoulder and body, and rotating back with the power of the hand, and WHOOOOOOSH!

The reason why I ask you all to identify the weight transfer in your swing is because

1. To have a more powerful shot


2. More energy saving shot (where you don't have to use all your hand power in order to get one distance, you can use ur body weight to give you more power boost)


3. To have a more fully-fundamental right swing in golf

Let's take a look at Sergio Garcia swing sequence that I took from Golf Digest. Garcia weight transfer is pretty obvious that's why I take his swing, as an example.

At the beginning, as usual, a player will have a balance weight distributed at both our feet. During the take-away of Garcia swing(pic3), you can see that Garcia have transfer the weight from his left leg to his right a little even at the beginning when he stretches his arms.

In this pictures, we can see that Garcia have move probably 60% of his body weight to his right leg. Keep your eyes on Garcia's knee, our knees in golf are the weight-controller. Garcia have shifted his body weight using his left knee( that see that the left knee tend to bend more than the right), with his right knee still remain a little bend( right knee shouldn't be straight as the purpose of right knee, is to hold the body weight temporary - if you straighten your right knee, it is problematic for you to hold your weight and to deliver a powerful shot)

Look at Garcia's footwork. FANTASTIC!!! Though his knee is seem relatively too flexible, but that's where Garcia got his power. When you reaches the top, just like Garcia at pic 2, 71.5% of your weight should be at your right leg and the left over in your left leg. At picture 3, when Garcia is coming down, look how stable his knee and hit footwok are. This is the IDEAL foot and knee work for golfers. HE is able to move back all his weight back from right to left with a very powerful stable stance.

During this time, his knees were back to 50-50 %. Perfect work! Look at his downswing at pic 2, see how he transfer his power, from right transfering the weight probably 7.5-15% per SECOND to his left foot. Tiger did the same way! At picture 3, look at how Garcia transfer all his shoulder, hand, foot and most importantly, body weight at the shot. This is POWER DELIVERY.

So guys, probably some of you might think that moving your body is SWAYING YOUR GOLF SWING. It is true IF you over-move your body and purely used your body weight just to hit a shot. I once face the problem of swaying. To overcome it, I end up staignanting my whole swing, and was having a roller coaster ride until I got back my weight transfer mechanism correctly. But if you able to coordinate your HAND, SHOULDER, WAIST, FOOTWORK, AND WEIGHT TRANSFER correctly, you can definitely play a much stressful(because you don't have to focus all your power just on your hand) game and gain further distance for your golf balls.

Why NIKE have TIGER?

What I can say from this video is that, Nike doesn't give Tiger so much endoresements a year for NOTHING..this is how Nike Advertise..(notice carefully,before the ball roll in, the Nike Sign stay at the lip of the hole for awhile)..anyway, he IS THE WOLRD NUMBER ONE GOLFER..

Idol? (continued)

Analyse your idol's swing, whether is swing sequence or video, will definitely improve your game..

Idol?

For this entry, I'll probably focus mainly on juniors, and maybe applicable for seniors. What I realised, back in my hometown here, that juniors nowadays were lack of knowing or at least, getting to know their idol. As in my opinion, knowing your idol is one of the most important part in playing a better game especially for juniors. Back in '99, when I just started playing golf, I already knew who Tiger is and his father, Earl. hmmm..more than that. I know he won the Masters of '97, that's before I even touches the golf club. Of course, juniors nowadays, probably learn golf due to parents influence, I am too. But what I can say is - DARE TO BE DIFFERENT! You definitely will take your parents as your idol - at first and now, I DO! There are the idols that bring you to the game and inspire you about the game of golf. But in order to improve ourselves, we need to take our game into another level.


Juniors around me that I have known, do not know the history of golf. I'm not talking about those history about when and how the first golf club or golf balls were made, or how golfers wear back in the 1500's. NO! It's not about that. What I meant is somebody who create a legend on their own. Examples, Gene Sarazen's "SHOT HEARD AROUND THE WOLRD" (about Sarazen winning 1935 Masters, after he made a DOUBLE-EAGLE 2 on Augusta's Par 5 15th). Or who created the overlapping grip that you all are using now-> Harry Vardon. Maybe this is still too history, but how bout how many majors Jack Niklaus won? Jack Niklaus is a true legend that even legends salute him. Golf is something we enjoy to fill our time, but if you know a little bit more in golf, you make golf more enjoyable.


Back in my peak time of golf, me and my gang, we shared about nearly everything(technology of golf, history, latest events, analysing swing, and legends). Each and every one of us, have our own idol. Whether is Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia, Ernie Els, David Duval, Annika Sorenstam, you name it. We know it all, even, they are not our idols. why? Why? WHY? Why do we need to know this people.


Simply, by knowing this people, makes you a better player. Makes you want to strive to be as good as them. Or probably getting near to what they achieved. Though they are PROs, but we can try achieving like them before they turn pro which is, in their AMATEUR years. Tiger, have three-year consecutive US Amateur Champion in his amateur belt. I know, he is real good. But can you be another prodigy just like him? That's the question you need to answer yourself.

Tiger Woods

Arnold Palmer

Jack Niklaus

They are all legend, legend of their own. I tried to be, though it's hard, as least to console myself I edit this picture, to show that I'm still trying to be a legend (probably a legendary golf blogger, WHY NOT?)

Grip for Golf...

In golf, gripping a golf club is very important. I mean "very very important". Of course, one might think that we grip the golf club, the main idea is not to let the golf club slip. That is partially wrong, cause with that intention, you might tend to grip it tighter or harder than you should. With that, some might even think that, with loosen grip I can flick the ball even further. Also partially wrong because you can't get in control of your golf club (besides you might slip the golf club). {As for your info, the topic I'm discussing is different from the concept of power and light grip}

Therefore, it is best and recommended that a golfer should use the ideal grip. You should be comfortable with A (just one and only) grip that you think is most comfortable and flexible for you. There is Interlocking grip, Baseball grip and Overlapping/Vardon Grip. Each and every grip are meant for power boosting, ability to get in control of your club head and ideal for a good swing. As I say, choosing a comfortable grip is very important because you don't want to get yourself in trouble just for GRIPPING. You haven't even start swinging there is a problem buggering you. That's one thing that golfers should always get rid of.

The ideal grip should be;

1. Comfortable - where you don't feel staignant, or pain (physically) or doubt (mentally) that this grip is right or wrong
2. Flexibility - where you can move the club as how you want it to be (get in control of the club)

After choosing your IDEAL grip, we should take the golfing grip into another level. The right strength to use the grip. Through my experiences, which include of loose to very tight grip to the ideal one, WE must analyse thoroughly the right power to hold the golf club (*A MUST*). The IDEAL grip for you should be just FIRM enough to have you get in control of the club and comfortable of holding the club.

One should not overpower the golf club because this will cause you TOPPING a golf shot, or slicing or even hooking it (truly overpower). This is because when you grip it too tightly(which also cause one to lose your power, where some of your power are used just by GRIPPING), you make it hard for your hand to roll through the sequence of your contact. Overpowering a golf club causes inability for a golf club to square upon contact consistently. Overpowering are usually faced by beginners because they do not know how to grip it right and consistent, so instead they just grip it tight.

On the other hand, loose grip will cause golf club to overpower your hand. This consequently will cause your ball tend to DOUGH or hitting it at the back of your golf balls. Light grip can sometimes help you hit a further shot as they are more flexible (ability to flick) and hit a golf shots more powerfully. This is because we can transfer more power to a golf ball as there is no loss of power in our grip. But this is seriously inconsistent(where you don't know how light is light) and when problem occurs, you wouldn't know whether is light grip a factor of the problem.

So why not, while fixing your other mechanism problem in your swing, let grip NOT BE ONE OF THE FACTOR. You don't grip it lightly or too hard..you grip it FIRMLY. Though some do not know how to find your FIRM grip, you need to get yourself to the range and try it out. Try hitting a couple of shots with the grip so hard you want to squeeze each and every of your vain out. And later try with the lightest grip, so light like a feather. And only grip normally and hit a couple of shots to determine the right grip for yourself. You have to answer yourself the question in gripping. I only can help by letting you know how do strength of a grip affect your game.

ROLL THROUGH means on the upper swing, left hand shut and right hand have the palm open facing front. On the downswing upon contacting the golf balls, right hand is shut while the left hand has the palm facing front.

the Swing..

All golfers or non-golfers, will definitely know what is a SWING in golf. A player will know that a golf swing is very important to play a good game, while non-golfer will know the swing in golf, is all about swinging a golf club. This is just the definition. But what can I talk about in a swing??

Each and everyone of us (golfer) owns a special, unique and AUTHENTIC swing. Every golfer has their own type of swing whether they blend it with mixture of Tiger's backswing, or Ernie Els's wide follow through or Nick O'Hern ever precise solid contact point. It is still one swing and is ours. In Accounts, it will be classify as our precious assets (long-term). So, to all folks who are trying to imitate your swing to be like any of the PROs, what I can say is and is seriously demanding it --> DON'T..

One can try to alter their swing with some elements of the PROs, that's good..but never imitate a golf swing because you wouldn't know whether your body can take it, your height, your weight, and so many factors that defer you from being like somebody. Let's think about it, how about being THAT somebody? A good example, even weird swinger like Jim Furyk makes a difference, but don't you all know that he got the best fundamentals in his pack. And there are questions might pop-up saying, why Adam Scott's swing is so much similar to Tiger's? But have you all consider how Adam really hits his shot compare to Tiger - they have find their own swing that truly belong to them. There's no doubt about it.

So, as for us, we also must stick to our own swing instead of trying to imitate others. Besides, swinging your own swing is much more comfortable than swinging other's. As long as the fundamentals are right, you should definitely go for it.

my swing - still got the fundamentals right though so long din play..is abit over swing at the top..

Get the right swing for yourself is important-create your own one, feel comfortable with it and WORK ON IT.. you can make a difference to yourself.. swing right NOT swing like