Speaker 1: Hi.
Speaker 2: This is Dick Fits for us from Lincoln, California, and
Speaker 2: I play at sun City Lincoln Hills golf Course.
Speaker 1: This is Golf Smarter number one thousand and seven.
Speaker 2: I can't thank you enough for mentioning this because the
Speaker 2: posture is probably the most overlook fundamental. I'm a big
Speaker 2: fan of the swing plane to make your golf swing
Speaker 2: much easier, and how far you stand away from the
Speaker 2: golf ball is going to have a huge effect again
Speaker 2: on the swing plane, and so that's why we're getting
Speaker 2: into a specific posture for the golf swing. We're not
Speaker 2: getting into a posture to get comfortable. We're not getting
Speaker 2: into a posture to have someone tackle us. So there's
Speaker 2: none of this sitting in a bar stool. We're basically
Speaker 2: taking a golf swing that close around our body and
Speaker 2: the balls on the ground. So what we need to
Speaker 2: do is to tilt forward from our hips and make
Speaker 2: the whole swing circle angle down at a forty five
Speaker 2: so now we can go ahead and hit that. So
Speaker 2: the best way to work on your posture is making
Speaker 2: sure that you don't sit like you're in a bar stool.
Speaker 2: What you want to do is you want to bend
Speaker 2: from the hips and you want to bend forward until
Speaker 2: the club touches the ground. And so now what I've
Speaker 2: done is I've taken my shoulder plane. I've taken my
Speaker 2: hip plane, and I've got a much better chance of
Speaker 2: getting the swing on plane.
Speaker 1: Presenting the five fundamentals on how to make a golf
Speaker 1: swing with instructor Joe Park. This is Golf Smarter, sharing stories,
Speaker 1: tips and insights from great golf minds to help you
Speaker 1: lower your score and raise your golf IQ. Here's your host,
Speaker 1: Fred Green. Welcome to the Golf Smurter Podcast.
Speaker 2: Joe. Well, thanks Fred for having me on your show today.
Speaker 2: I've been a longtime listener of all of your guests
Speaker 2: and have learned quite a bit from everybody. So it's
Speaker 2: a great place to get a lot of golf information
Speaker 2: for sure.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you. That's really kind of you. But when
Speaker 1: you say a long time listener, what does that mean?
Speaker 1: How long have you been listening?
Speaker 2: Well, I think you're probably well over nine hundred episodes.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I guess, yeah, So that's that's a long
Speaker 2: time I've been listening. Oh at least eight nine years.
Speaker 2: It's a lot.
Speaker 1: Did you find it? How did you find golf smart.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm a golf professional, and so one of the
Speaker 2: things that I like to do is to research what's
Speaker 2: going on in the golf world. And of course the
Speaker 2: podcast became very popular, and as they became more popular,
Speaker 2: we got an opportunity to listen to a lot of
Speaker 2: great minds through the interviews, like your show.
Speaker 1: Thank You, Thank You. Which golf instructors or instructor has
Speaker 1: resonated with you that's been on the show that's kind
Speaker 1: of jumped out and it is like this guy's good.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, there's no one. If there was one
Speaker 2: guy that kind of stands out and be Tony, I
Speaker 2: think Tony is yah. One of the reasons why is
Speaker 2: he and I kind of share the same beliefs about
Speaker 2: I don't really call it a single pivot or any
Speaker 2: of that. I like to keep golfers a little bit
Speaker 2: more on their left side because it's so difficult to
Speaker 2: try to get to the right side and then to
Speaker 2: go back to the left side. And we're trying to
Speaker 2: do this in all less than a quarter of a second.
Speaker 2: You know, if a golf swing is one second, the
Speaker 2: backswing is three quarters of that, and so the downswing
Speaker 2: is a quarter of a second. So even the best athletes,
Speaker 2: doesn't matter what sport you play, you're going to have
Speaker 2: a difficult time getting from the right side back to
Speaker 2: the left side. And so weightshift has become a big
Speaker 2: you know, depends on what kind of camp you're in.
Speaker 2: I you know, science wise, yes, you need that weight shift.
Speaker 2: If you're going to do long drive contests and you're
Speaker 2: going to be hitting four hundred and fifty yards and
Speaker 2: you want to win, you're going to be using some
Speaker 2: of that mass along with velocity in order to get
Speaker 2: as max distance as you can for one ball. Though
Speaker 2: you know, in golf you need more than one ball
Speaker 2: in play, and the distance you certainly don't need as
Speaker 2: much now on tour and professionals and those guys that
Speaker 2: are playing for living, without a doubt, there's a certain
Speaker 2: distance that they need to hit. And I think amateur
Speaker 2: golfers as a whole, up to like ten ten handicap golfers,
Speaker 2: they don't realize that they don't need to hit it
Speaker 2: as far in order to have a very good game.
Speaker 2: And you know, with things likes Arcos, who has that
Speaker 2: all that information, they got over a billion bits of
Speaker 2: golfers doing things so they know what golfers need to
Speaker 2: improve on and improve in order to lower their handicap.
Speaker 2: And one of the things in there is that for
Speaker 2: a ten handicap, did you know that you only need
Speaker 2: to hit the ball what two hundred yards in the
Speaker 2: fairway and two twenty five in the rough to lose
Speaker 2: zero strokes to all ten handicap golfers. So when you
Speaker 2: think about that and I look at the size of
Speaker 2: the golfers that are on the golf course, I'm like,
Speaker 2: I think he could hit it two hundred and twenty
Speaker 2: five yards with a driver in their hand, probably with
Speaker 2: a three wood in their hand. The problem is when
Speaker 2: you stand there and you put all these extra curricular
Speaker 2: movements mostly to try to get more distance, and then
Speaker 2: you're sacrificing solid contact and other things that is very
Speaker 2: beneficial to get the maximum distance and to keep it
Speaker 2: in play. So when Tony was a big promonent of
Speaker 2: the single pivot, he was really staying more on your
Speaker 2: left side as much as you could so that in
Speaker 2: the back in the downswing, the weight is kind of
Speaker 2: transferred over there and now you don't have to shift
Speaker 2: your weight. And when you think about the golf swing
Speaker 2: and think about it in a circular motion, and you
Speaker 2: have at the very bottom of the circle, we have
Speaker 2: a low point and that's the bottom of the swing art,
Speaker 2: and so we need to move that bottom of that
Speaker 2: swing art in front of the golf ball. And so
Speaker 2: when we start moving to the right and left, we're
Speaker 2: constantly moving that swing art and don't even realize what
Speaker 2: we're doing. We're moving our swing the whole time. So
Speaker 2: it's much easier to just stay stationary feeling wise where
Speaker 2: you've got. You know, when you said sixty forty to
Speaker 2: stay on that side, and then eventually at the top
Speaker 2: of the golf swing you even felt a little bit
Speaker 2: more on that side. Now some people would say, oh
Speaker 2: my gosh, that's crazy, because you know, it doesn't make
Speaker 2: a lot of sense, but scientifically it does make sense
Speaker 2: when you think of the circle right and you're making
Speaker 2: the golf swing, and let's go back to like the
Speaker 2: first position in the backswing where the shaft is kind
Speaker 2: of parallel to the ground, and that part is going
Speaker 2: to be the farthest, outermost part of the circle. And
Speaker 2: then from there the circle starts to come back towards
Speaker 2: the target. So when we stand at the tarp. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so we stand there after that position, the club is
Speaker 2: already starting to go towards the target. And so as
Speaker 2: the club is going towards the target, the best golfers
Speaker 2: we know now with technology there are already have started
Speaker 2: their downsliding before the backswing finishes. And now you can
Speaker 2: I can explain it to you just from the circle
Speaker 2: that after P two or you know, shaft parallel, it's
Speaker 2: starting to go back up and it's going in and
Speaker 2: it's going towards the target. So it's staying on plane,
Speaker 2: but it's also moving and so some of that is
Speaker 2: going to move you and shift you. And there's where
Speaker 2: you get the seventy where seventy more, you know, instead
Speaker 2: of sixty forty, Now you go seventy and you feel
Speaker 2: more of that on that left side. And now all
Speaker 2: you have to do is focus on hitting down and
Speaker 2: compressing that ball because you've already you know, in a sense,
Speaker 2: shifted your weight. Now you can delay that longer for
Speaker 2: of course, if you're trying to hit the ball farther,
Speaker 2: but as I mentioned, it's unnecessary for a lot of golfers.
Speaker 2: You can play a lot of very good golf just
Speaker 2: staying on your left side or feeling like. And that's
Speaker 2: the other thing, yeah, because you know when we're moving
Speaker 2: it off to the right, and you know, it's just
Speaker 2: for that split second and then everything comes back to
Speaker 2: the other side. And the reason why is our brain
Speaker 2: is getting ready for a lot of our intentions that
Speaker 2: we're trying to do. So for example, when you're like
Speaker 2: getting ready to really hit a long ball and you
Speaker 2: wind up and you get ready, your muscles are and
Speaker 2: your brain's getting ready to put the brakes on and
Speaker 2: stop your golf swing and get ready for that. And
Speaker 2: also usually shortens up the swing when people are trying
Speaker 2: to hit it farther unless they're really loose and they
Speaker 2: don't realize that. So our brains are reacting to what
Speaker 2: we want to do. All we want to do is
Speaker 2: really understand, you know, obviously the ball flight laws and
Speaker 2: some of the swing mechanics so that we can repeat
Speaker 2: the shot over and over again and staying on our
Speaker 2: left side feeling like, because you will shift a little bit.
Speaker 2: And if we talk about shifting, you know, we know
Speaker 2: now with gears and three you know, a lot of
Speaker 2: high tech equipment, the amount of shift off to the
Speaker 2: right is about the size of a golf ball. So
Speaker 2: but so even if we did right, let's say that
Speaker 2: we did, that's how much Rory is moving off the ball. Okay, So,
Speaker 2: and he's hitting it a long ways and he's winding
Speaker 2: up and the rest of us don't need that. We
Speaker 2: can play a lot of very good golf by first
Speaker 2: starting to hit the ball more solid, and by hitting
Speaker 2: the ball more solid and hitting down on the golf ball,
Speaker 2: you know, not hanging back and scooping up on it
Speaker 2: and getting under it and adding too much law. So
Speaker 2: there's just way more benefits to staying on your left
Speaker 2: side than there is to getting onto your right side.
Speaker 2: And if you think about, you know about weight shift
Speaker 2: and legs, you know, I'm not going to say that
Speaker 2: they're not a part of it. It's just they get
Speaker 2: too much of the of the you know, publicity. When
Speaker 2: we know that you can hit balls off your knees
Speaker 2: quite a way. You know, we've seen tiger woods to
Speaker 2: long drive people hit the ball a long waist. About
Speaker 2: seventy five percent of your clubhead speed is going to
Speaker 2: come from your hands, wrists and forearms. And so if
Speaker 2: you get too much of that body involved, and you know,
Speaker 2: and think that the arms come along for the ride,
Speaker 2: you got another thing coming. If you want to increase
Speaker 2: your clubhead speed, you know, the simplest way when somebody
Speaker 2: says I want to get faster clubhead speed, you know
Speaker 2: you got to think about you. You're holding the club
Speaker 2: with your hands, and so in order to get that
Speaker 2: to go faster, you got to move your hand faster,
Speaker 2: and to move the hands faster, your arms and then
Speaker 2: your upper body. So you really got to get those
Speaker 2: upper body parts moving and then the lower body helps
Speaker 2: adjust the rest of that and you know, transports the
Speaker 2: package into the delivery, so it allows your arms and
Speaker 2: hands to do some work too. Everybody plays a role,
Speaker 2: so we just have to understand who plays what role,
Speaker 2: and the body plays a role, but we've got to
Speaker 2: get the arms and hands to play a little more,
Speaker 2: and I think that helps when we stay more on
Speaker 2: our left side.
Speaker 1: As an instructor, you probably hear the same thing that
Speaker 1: probably every instructor hears, at least the ones that I've
Speaker 1: spoken to, that the first thing that people ask for
Speaker 1: is consistency. Second thing is more distance or is it
Speaker 1: the other way around? Do they want more distance and
Speaker 1: then they want more distancy.
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, So when you.
Speaker 1: Talk about faster club head speed, that equates to greater distance.
Speaker 1: But people get lost in the fact that the a
Speaker 1: new piece of gear, a new ball, is what is
Speaker 1: going to equate to greater distance maybe three yards, you know,
Speaker 1: if you're going to be literal about it, and what
Speaker 1: they should be asking for is less dispersion, right and
Speaker 1: consistently getting the ball in the fairway. And if you
Speaker 1: want a lower score is just get the ball in
Speaker 1: the fairway. But to get greater distance, you really do
Speaker 1: need to work on your body to get that faster
Speaker 1: club head speed, don't you. You need to increase your
Speaker 1: muscle mass somewhat, your body mobility or flexibility.
Speaker 2: I you know, there's no question that, like I said earlier,
Speaker 2: the body plays a very big role, but the arms
Speaker 2: and hands play a very big role as well. And
Speaker 2: if the body gets out in front, that's going to
Speaker 2: affect our swing plane and lock the arms and hands
Speaker 2: from doing their job. And they've got to be moving.
Speaker 2: So the best way that I could explain it to you,
Speaker 2: if we think about just thinking circles. You know, the
Speaker 2: golf swing is a circle. Let's think of the club
Speaker 2: head as being a big circle. And then let's think
Speaker 2: of your hips as a circle. Now that's smaller, and
Speaker 2: then your shoulders, you know, that's the next size. And
Speaker 2: so when we come back down on our downswing, all
Speaker 2: the circles, which circle has the most to travel and
Speaker 2: that would be the club head and so they need
Speaker 2: to get going. But you'll never see this on video.
Speaker 2: So on video, what you're going to see is sequencing.
Speaker 2: So you're going to see the lower body starting as
Speaker 2: I mentioned before, if we look at it from behind
Speaker 2: the golfer, the golf swing's already going towards the target,
Speaker 2: towards the top. So a lot of times when we
Speaker 2: see a video face on, we'll see the golfer, you know,
Speaker 2: start the down swing from the lower body and then
Speaker 2: working their way all the way up. What we're not
Speaker 2: seeing in that from a science or engineering standpoint is
Speaker 2: the acceleration rates. So how much faster does the clubhead
Speaker 2: have to move in order to catch up with you know,
Speaker 2: the hips and the body as they turn. You know,
Speaker 2: the body the hips are turning what forty five, you know,
Speaker 2: forty five degrees, the shoulders ninety a little bit more
Speaker 2: if you can, and then you know, the club head
Speaker 2: is going to how much farther. So it's an unfair
Speaker 2: race when we start the downswing that we start with
Speaker 2: the lower body. We start with the you know, turning
Speaker 2: and spinning that's going to get our hands to come
Speaker 2: out to end. For the high handicap golfers and for
Speaker 2: the better golfers, what they do is get stuck. And
Speaker 2: so what happens is they get trapped as they start
Speaker 2: too early with the lower body. So what you want
Speaker 2: to do is get those arms and hands to move
Speaker 2: as quickly as possible and the rest of the body
Speaker 2: will catch you up. It's like running. When you want
Speaker 2: to run faster, you move your arms faster, and then
Speaker 2: also your legs are moving faster too, and you don't
Speaker 2: even realize it. So by moving your arms and hands faster,
Speaker 2: it picks up the speed of the rest of your
Speaker 2: body to turn. So we got to look at it,
Speaker 2: you know, take a step back, look at it from
Speaker 2: an engineering and science of how it all happens, and
Speaker 2: then come back and then you can tell me what
Speaker 2: you like and what you don't like. But you know,
Speaker 2: we have to stay with the golf swing with physics
Speaker 2: and geometry, you know, physics is what's powering the swing,
Speaker 2: and geometry is the shape of the swing, and so
Speaker 2: how we stand to the ball and how we make
Speaker 2: our swing plane is going to have a huge effect
Speaker 2: on the clubhead speed. Way more over, I got to
Speaker 2: spin my hips, or I got to turn my body,
Speaker 2: or that I got to be in the gym. Okay.
Speaker 2: You know, even Tony was mentioning how old he was
Speaker 2: and he was hitting the ball long ways, and he
Speaker 2: didn't feel like he needed to work on doing much.
Speaker 2: He could always do it in a presentation, and he's
Speaker 2: absolutely right. So a lot of this, I understand, is
Speaker 2: my talk. But my children who I'm training, they are
Speaker 2: professional golfers today. So if you go on if you
Speaker 2: go on my Instagram, and you'll see the pictures and
Speaker 2: the videos of them demonstrating some of my fundamentals that
Speaker 2: you know that I've taught them over the years. You know,
Speaker 2: they're going to be going to Q school this fall,
Speaker 2: and so both of them, yes, and so we're grad
Speaker 2: thank you, but you know, we still have to get
Speaker 2: through that.
Speaker 1: So that's all the fact that they're even scheduled to
Speaker 1: go is pretty impressive.
Speaker 2: So a lot of the stuff that I'm talking to
Speaker 2: you about are the stuff that I instilled to my
Speaker 2: boys as well as other professionals that I've worked with
Speaker 2: over the years. I also worked with one gentleman, I
Speaker 2: worked with one other junior kid who I ended up
Speaker 2: with a scholarship in Florida. So I've worked at the
Speaker 2: highest level of swings at a very fast speed. So
Speaker 2: the things that I'm telling you, it's not just for
Speaker 2: some senior golfer or some high handicap golfer. This is
Speaker 2: for at the highest level. You know. This is for
Speaker 2: when I'm with with my sons at a golf tournament.
Speaker 2: You know, we got you know, five ten thousand dollars
Speaker 2: invested in the tournament. We can't miss this cut. And
Speaker 2: so there's no you can't be doing a lot of
Speaker 2: swing thoughts and a lot of ideas. You're going to
Speaker 2: pack your bags and go. And we've been at this
Speaker 2: for over twenty years. Trust me when I tell you
Speaker 2: a lot of the stuff that we're talking about is
Speaker 2: real world scenarios of what you really can do on
Speaker 2: the golf course, even at the highest level. And so
Speaker 2: my kids are the perfect example. It's like a lot
Speaker 2: of teachers can talk concepts and ideas and maybe have
Speaker 2: somebody that they work with and that they've taught. But here,
Speaker 2: I've worked with my boys from you know, they started
Speaker 2: golfing at four and all the way up to now.
Speaker 2: So I've seen the swinging progress. I've watched it at
Speaker 2: the highest level, and so I know what's going to
Speaker 2: be the simplest way. And what I just have explained
Speaker 2: is what I just basically taught to boys. And if
Speaker 2: they can do it, being what they only weigh like
Speaker 2: one hundred and thirty hundred and forty pounds and they
Speaker 2: can hit the ball three hundred yards. So if they
Speaker 2: can do that, I know anybody listening can do what
Speaker 2: the fundamentals that we're about to talk about.
Speaker 1: Yeah, were you a golf instructor before you became a father.
Speaker 2: Yes, So I've been a golf teaching profra thirty years.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: I started my career thirty years ago, you know, playing
Speaker 2: the Mini Tours down in Florida, and I had an
Speaker 2: opportunity to work with, you know, great coaches like Mike Bender.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you're familiar with who he is.
Speaker 2: He's one of the top five coaches. You know, he's
Speaker 2: been for a long time and a big student, yeah,
Speaker 2: a big student of the you know, the Maclgrady and
Speaker 2: the Morod system, the golfing machine stack until so all
Speaker 2: of that, Yeah, all of that was a very big
Speaker 2: part of all of our teaching. So it doesn't matter
Speaker 2: if you're a teacher today, all of that had an
Speaker 2: effect on your teaching. You know, one nugget here or there.
Speaker 2: We're all sharing that example in order to find the
Speaker 2: big picture, which is to make the golf swing simpler
Speaker 2: and not have more ideas and more confusing concepts. So
Speaker 2: what I did is I just narrowed down basically the
Speaker 2: five on them that I have worked on with my sons.
Speaker 2: And these are the same fundamentals that I do in
Speaker 2: every one of my golf lessons. So it doesn't matter
Speaker 2: who comes in. These five fundamentals that we're talking about
Speaker 2: is grip, posture, backswing, down swing, and impact. And it
Speaker 2: doesn't matter what concept or belief you have, You're going
Speaker 2: to have to have all of these five fundamentals in
Speaker 2: every golf swing. And so I've just what I've done
Speaker 2: is I've created a little ebook to show you how
Speaker 2: to just hold the club, how to take the back
Speaker 2: swing just a simpler way, and hopefully I can explain
Speaker 2: that to you today in a simple way so that
Speaker 2: your listeners can have something to work on.
Speaker 1: When you talked about that downswing a few minutes ago,
Speaker 1: and you were talking about getting a faster downswing, right,
Speaker 1: the issue that I seem to have and I see
Speaker 1: it all the time and you probably do as well,
Speaker 1: is that people think that if they want to get
Speaker 1: faster on the downswing, they got to swing harder. Now
Speaker 1: is there a difference there between faster and harder, because
Speaker 1: with harder, again my observation, with swinging it harder, you're
Speaker 1: increasing the tension in your arms and your shoulders, in
Speaker 1: your body, and the I guess the ultimate goal is
Speaker 1: to be tension free throughout your swing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, the tension stuff is kind of it's
Speaker 2: there's no question it's important, but the amount of tension
Speaker 2: is more reactionary. So like when somebody is going to
Speaker 2: go down intentionally to go faster, the the you know,
Speaker 2: the muscles are going to adapt to what you're trying
Speaker 2: to do. So the key is is your intention to
Speaker 2: swing it faster with your arms or is it to
Speaker 2: keep your arms up and spin your hips faster, so
Speaker 2: that you know, so it's not really how hard am
Speaker 2: I holding it? It's dow I the lee that swinging
Speaker 2: my arms faster will get me more clubhead speed and
Speaker 2: the amount of tension will naturally, you know, happen.
Speaker 1: So your book is called Your Ebook is by Joe
Speaker 1: Park and joeparkgolf dot Com is Joe Park's five Fundamentals
Speaker 1: on how to make a golf swing. And it's it's
Speaker 1: pretty basic. It's it's not only great for beginners, it's
Speaker 1: also a great reminder for all of us coming out
Speaker 1: of you know, a wet, wintry, cold winter when we're
Speaker 1: not playing as much, our bodies are kind of falling
Speaker 1: out of golf shape. This is great reminders for everyone
Speaker 1: to have. And it's not long. It's it's actually I
Speaker 1: did it in three nights. I mean it's pretty that's
Speaker 1: pretty fast for me. And you go chapter one the
Speaker 1: grip to stance and postures, so you know what you
Speaker 1: talked about, your five fundamentals grip, posture, backswing, down, swinging
Speaker 1: the follow through. How does your book, your Ebook differ
Speaker 1: from Ben Hogan's Five Fundamentals.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, first of all, Ben Hogan's book is a
Speaker 2: wonderful book. I'm a big fan, as everybody is. I
Speaker 2: think there what can happen with that book is it
Speaker 2: can get misinterpreted, just like a lot of things in life.
Speaker 2: And so we have to remember Ben said right away
Speaker 2: that this is the way that he played golf and
Speaker 2: it and he did try to help, you know, he
Speaker 2: was an instructor. He did help on his off times.
Speaker 2: It said that he did give golf instructions. So he
Speaker 2: suffered with having all of these high handicaps coming to him,
Speaker 2: so he knows what they're suffering as well. Now, the
Speaker 2: book itself in general is a great book with all
Speaker 2: the fundamentals. The difference is that he had a problem
Speaker 2: hooking the ball. And so if you go to ball
Speaker 2: flight laws, we understand that you know, the face and
Speaker 2: the club path have a huge influence as well as
Speaker 2: the clubhead speed obviously, but have a huge influence on
Speaker 2: the direction of your ball flights. And Hogan was a
Speaker 2: hooker of the golf ball, and so what that meant
Speaker 2: is that he hooked it to the left alive, and
Speaker 2: so he needed a way to make sure that, according
Speaker 2: to ball flight laws, that the face wasn't close to
Speaker 2: his swing or to his swing path. And so he
Speaker 2: says it in I think in page thirty two, I
Speaker 2: weakened my grip to the left because I have a
Speaker 2: hooking problem. And unless you have that problem, you know,
Speaker 2: that's he forgot to say, unless you have that problem,
Speaker 2: don't do this. But he said I had a problem hooking,
Speaker 2: so I turned it to the left. I made two changes,
Speaker 2: and he says that in there. So it's not for
Speaker 2: somebody to find that and see that red alarm. But
Speaker 2: that's what he did in order to fix his hook.
Speaker 2: Aside from that, uh, and then his downswing, he worked
Speaker 2: on really starting his lower body to start the downswing.
Speaker 2: And so if you think about somebody, somebody that hooks
Speaker 2: the ball for a better golfer, I talked about the downswing.
Speaker 2: When they start with the lower body, they can get stuck. Okay,
Speaker 2: so they can get underneath. Now he didn't get stuck,
Speaker 2: but what that does for him is it opened the
Speaker 2: face up a little bit more and it delayed it.
Speaker 2: So between that move and that it kind of helped
Speaker 2: him hit a straighter ball.
Speaker 1: Can you define stuck.
Speaker 2: Stuck meaning so stuck.
Speaker 1: He didn't stop the swing right?
Speaker 2: No? No, no, So what we're talking about is that
Speaker 2: when we're talking the downswing, you know, we set up
Speaker 2: at a dress and we're hopefully in a good position
Speaker 2: at a dress and at the top of the golf sling,
Speaker 2: we're in a good position up there where the left
Speaker 2: arm is just covering the right shoulder. When the downslign begins,
Speaker 2: a lot of high handicapped golfers, what will happen is
Speaker 2: they'll come out to end like that and come across
Speaker 2: the ball, okay. And what happens from that is because
Speaker 2: maybe they start with the lower body starting to spin
Speaker 2: the hips or their upper body and keeping the arms up,
Speaker 2: and that forces it to come come down out to end,
Speaker 2: and they don't realize that they're actually making that happen.
Speaker 2: For a better golfer that doesn't do that, they have,
Speaker 2: they're not gonna do that. What they're gonna do is
Speaker 2: they're gonna spin, and their hits are gonna clear, and
Speaker 2: the right elbow is gonna get stuck right here between
Speaker 2: the right elbow, and so you can see how much
Speaker 2: flatter the swing plane gets. Okay, and so from this
Speaker 2: position you either have you're gonna end up having to
Speaker 2: roll it and hit a big hook shot or hold
Speaker 2: the shot and what they call a block out to
Speaker 2: the right. Okay, So it's not advisable for the high
Speaker 2: handicap or the better golfer. Okay, thet either way. From here,
Speaker 2: you want to try to get your arms and hands
Speaker 2: to come right back down, back down the plane that
Speaker 2: you went back up on when you set up at
Speaker 2: a dress here and hopefully when you set up at
Speaker 2: a dress that the shaft is sitting in the in
Speaker 2: the right angle, which should be about forty five degrees
Speaker 2: to the ground. So if your posture is up like this,
Speaker 2: or if you stand too far away from the ball,
Speaker 2: that's going to affect your swing plane. That's going to
Speaker 2: affect then the way that you come back down. So
Speaker 2: the simplest way to work on your down swing is,
Speaker 2: first of all, get a better grip. Okay. So in
Speaker 2: what I do is I just have people hang their
Speaker 2: left arm just by their left side. And when young
Speaker 2: the left arm just by the left side, you'll see
Speaker 2: that the thumb wants to curl in more to the right.
Speaker 2: The thumb does not want to go down the middle.
Speaker 2: If you relax it, and if you then take your
Speaker 2: grip from that position, it'll allow your wrist to hinge
Speaker 2: and it'll allow your face to be in the proper
Speaker 2: position up at the top. And so the most common
Speaker 2: grip that comes in in my lessons is the thumb
Speaker 2: right down the middle, which you know Hogan did, because
Speaker 2: that allows a face to be open. But it's not
Speaker 2: very good for the high handicap. They're coming out to
Speaker 2: the end with an open club face. And a lot
Speaker 2: of times that can be fixed just by getting the
Speaker 2: grip in what I call a closed face grip instead
Speaker 2: of an open face grip. Just to have it let
Speaker 2: your left arm hang and it'll go just to the
Speaker 2: right side, and then you'll see a couple of knuckles
Speaker 2: on your left side and the upside down b will
Speaker 2: point to your right shoulder. Now some people will call
Speaker 2: this a strong grip. I call this a natural grip
Speaker 2: because this is how your joints want to line if
Speaker 2: you put it down the if you just put it
Speaker 2: in the middle, it'll want to go right like that
Speaker 2: and that'll open the face. And so now you've got
Speaker 2: all this extra work. So the simplest thing is to
Speaker 2: just start with a grip that'll get the club pace
Speaker 2: to come back more square and all of us can
Speaker 2: do this by just hanging the left arm by your
Speaker 2: left side. Anybody I've done this, you know for a
Speaker 2: long time as a teacher. There's nobody that's come to
Speaker 2: me down the middle. If anybody's down the middle because
Speaker 2: they're hooking the ball, they're a plus handicap and their
Speaker 2: problem isn't coming over the top and slicing. Okay, that's
Speaker 2: a different whole issue, which which we can address too.
Speaker 2: But I'm talking the ninety percent of golfers who come
Speaker 2: over the top hit fat and thin shots. If you
Speaker 2: could get a better grip, and Tony's idea of staying
Speaker 2: more as well as mine, I say stay more on
Speaker 2: your left side. Those two simple things is going to
Speaker 2: get the face more where your weight transferred. And it's
Speaker 2: already simplified the golf swing. So getting the grip in
Speaker 2: the right position with the left hand just letting it hang,
Speaker 2: and then your right hand, you want to make sure
Speaker 2: that it gets just behind the shaft to slightly under it,
Speaker 2: and you want it more in the fingers. Okay. So
Speaker 2: often I see the grip where it's in the palm
Speaker 2: of the hand, and the reason they have in the
Speaker 2: palm is it feels more comfortable, it feels like you
Speaker 2: got really like, you know, you could really club somebody
Speaker 2: with that. But I always say, listen, if you held
Speaker 2: a baseball in the palm of your hand, how far
Speaker 2: could you throw that versus if you had it in
Speaker 2: the fingers. So if you want to get a lot
Speaker 2: of clubheadspeed, just start with the right hand, making sure
Speaker 2: that it's more in the fingers, a little bit more
Speaker 2: behind the shaft. It will feel like you can't hold
Speaker 2: the club, and that's because those little muscles need to
Speaker 2: be trained as well as they need to be strengthened.
Speaker 2: But the minute that you hit the ball, you don't
Speaker 2: believe how much more clubhead speed that you're going to
Speaker 2: get because you can't throw it as fast in the
Speaker 2: palm as in the fingers. So then the right hand,
Speaker 2: you want to make sure that it's in the fingers
Speaker 2: and don't put that thumb down the middle again, that
Speaker 2: thumb goes to the left side, and that's going to
Speaker 2: help you with impact and triggerers and all kinds of
Speaker 2: other good things. But that also helps you up at
Speaker 2: the top of the golf swing, support the club in
Speaker 2: the right position. That thumb being down the middle I
Speaker 2: find has just hurt so many golf swing and forces
Speaker 2: the golf swing to come over the top as well.
Speaker 2: So just a simple lesson of the left hand in
Speaker 2: the right hand will allow the club to do the
Speaker 2: things that it needs to do and the hands to
Speaker 2: do what it needs to do. And then of course,
Speaker 2: after we have a good grip, we have to get
Speaker 2: into the right posture.
Speaker 1: Well, this is not something I usually do with this podcast,
Speaker 1: but I need to this last section that we've just
Speaker 1: done with Joe. He's been standing up with a club
Speaker 1: in his hand, describing all this in full detail. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go ahead and take this segment and put this
Speaker 1: on YouTube so YouTube can see it as well, and
Speaker 1: we'll be back right after this. Now, getting back to
Speaker 1: the grip, Joe for just a second, you had this
Speaker 1: great drill in here that I've never heard of before
Speaker 1: called hot dog in a bun. And you also provided
Speaker 1: a secret tip with the right hand. If you didn't
Speaker 1: cover those already, please share that with us.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so when your thumb is on the right side
Speaker 2: and you've got your grip, just think of that as
Speaker 2: like the hot dog, and when you put your right
Speaker 2: hand it just covered your right palm. After you have
Speaker 2: it in the fingers, you just cover that up with
Speaker 2: the palm of the right hand, and so then that
Speaker 2: would be the bun. And so this is what I
Speaker 2: get for the junior kids when we do our programs,
Speaker 2: we say hot dog and a bun, and they never
Speaker 2: forget to cover that thumb up with that right hand,
Speaker 2: which is going to be very big in the golf
Speaker 2: swing as we make our transition and so forth.
Speaker 1: What's the downside? People I've seen just have a regular
Speaker 1: like baseball bat grip where their hands are you know,
Speaker 1: there's no overlapping at all. What are they uh, what's
Speaker 1: the detriment to doing it that way? What are they
Speaker 1: losing out on?
Speaker 2: I'm a big I'm a big fan of the baseball grip.
Speaker 2: It's just you have to you have to hold it properly.
Speaker 2: In baseball. The baseball grip basically is all ten fingers
Speaker 2: on the on the club. It's just not interlocking or overlapping.
Speaker 2: But you can have all ten fingers on the club.
Speaker 2: You just got to make sure that it's in the
Speaker 2: fingers and you can see I can still cover up
Speaker 2: my left thumb. And so as far as the baseball
Speaker 2: grip is concerned. I do this. I do this with
Speaker 2: a lot of my juniors and a lot of ladies.
Speaker 2: And the reason why is in the golf swing, when
Speaker 2: we take the back swing, we want to get this
Speaker 2: club to stay on plane. And in order to stay
Speaker 2: on plane, it's a very heavy club. And so the
Speaker 2: more that you can get your right hand on the club,
Speaker 2: the better control you have to take this club up
Speaker 2: and in get it on a better swing plane. And
Speaker 2: so I don't mind that. As matter of fact, I
Speaker 2: did you know that I mentioned earlier about one of
Speaker 2: my students. He's off playing college with a ten finger grip.
Speaker 2: So it does work. It just it's not very popular
Speaker 2: with a lot of people, but I love it for
Speaker 2: golfers to start high handicap golfers. It gets you better
Speaker 2: control of the right arm. And that is so important
Speaker 2: in the golf swing is the right arm, and the
Speaker 2: right arm controls the whole swing plane as you take
Speaker 2: it back and fold. The swing plane needs to be
Speaker 2: going back, it needs to be going up, and it
Speaker 2: needs to be going in, and your right arm is
Speaker 2: the magic of the right arm is taking it back
Speaker 2: up and in just by folding your right arm, and
Speaker 2: when you're folding your right arm, you can get on
Speaker 2: the perfect swingplane. And then on the downswing you just
Speaker 2: go ahead and unfold your arm, and that's what provides
Speaker 2: that downswing. Now, what happens is if you start an
Speaker 2: unwined too quickly, you can unfold. And if you're not unfolding,
Speaker 2: that's like I can't unwine my throat. And that's why
Speaker 2: you want to go ahead and just think about folding
Speaker 2: it up there and unfolding and getting those arms and
Speaker 2: hands to come back down and out towards the ball,
Speaker 2: and that's how you'll get your increased club headspe But
Speaker 2: the ten finger grip works and it's great for a
Speaker 2: lot of beginners. So I'm a big fan of it.
Speaker 1: Awesome, awesome. So in chapter two, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: go through all five chapters, no problem. No, we want
Speaker 1: everyone to go ahead and get it for themselves, the
Speaker 1: ebook for themselves. But posture and stand and posture I
Speaker 1: find there. You know, I've seen a lot of people
Speaker 1: who may have the correct posture, and a lot of
Speaker 1: people don't. They kind of hunch over more, but they're
Speaker 1: also really far from the ball. They're really stretching their
Speaker 1: hands out and they're probably losing a lot when doing that.
Speaker 1: Can you explain what happens if you are too far
Speaker 1: from the ball or even too close, what's the impact.
Speaker 2: On those I can't thank you enough for mentioning this,
Speaker 2: because the posture is probably the most after the grip,
Speaker 2: probably the most overlooked fundamental. It is going to make
Speaker 2: or break your golf sling, and how far you stand
Speaker 2: away from the golf ball or how close you are
Speaker 2: is going to have a huge effect. Again on the
Speaker 2: swing plane. I'm a big fan of the swing plane
Speaker 2: to make your golf sling much easier. And so that's
Speaker 2: why we're getting into a specific posture for the golf sling.
Speaker 2: We're not getting into a posture to get comfortable. We're
Speaker 2: not getting into a posture to have some and tackle us.
Speaker 2: So there's none of this sitting in a bar stool.
Speaker 2: We're basically taking a golf swing that close around our
Speaker 2: body and the balls on the ground. So what we
Speaker 2: need to do is to tilt forward from our hips
Speaker 2: and make the whole swing circle angle down at a
Speaker 2: forty five so now we can go ahead and hit that.
Speaker 2: So the best way to work on your posture is
Speaker 2: making sure that you don't sit like you're in a
Speaker 2: bar stool. What you want to do is you want
Speaker 2: to bend from the hips, and you want to bend
Speaker 2: forward until the club touches the ground. And so now
Speaker 2: what I've done is I've taken my shoulder plane, I've
Speaker 2: taken my hip plane, and I've put I've got a
Speaker 2: much better chance of getting the swing on plane. A
Speaker 2: lot of golfers are working on early extension and trying
Speaker 2: to fix that. Next from the hips, not tilting into
Speaker 2: the correct posture. When the hips don't tilt and they
Speaker 2: stay level, they're just going to slide around, and there's
Speaker 2: where you're going to end up hitting behind the golf ball.
Speaker 2: So the best way to get in the perfect posture
Speaker 2: is again, I'm getting your grip, hanging it out there.
Speaker 2: Then get the shaft to be just parallel to the
Speaker 2: ground and standing straight up, and then just bow down,
Speaker 2: bending from the hips until the club touches the ground.
Speaker 2: And you'll see how much more over the golf ball
Speaker 2: you're going to feel instead of sitting. And if you
Speaker 2: want to know how to do that, just find a wall,
Speaker 2: get to a wall, and then just go ahead and
Speaker 2: bend forward. I'm trying to get away from the wall.
Speaker 2: So often what happens to golfers is they just sit
Speaker 2: down and they put their rear too far back, and
Speaker 2: what ends up pushing all of the mass and the
Speaker 2: swing into a wrong position, which is going to force
Speaker 2: you to stand up, early, extension, all kinds of other things.
Speaker 2: So it's not going to feel great getting into a
Speaker 2: golf posture. It shouldn't feel natural. There's nothing natural about that.
Speaker 2: We're going to work on that until you get that,
Speaker 2: and just going forward, you'll feel how much more bent
Speaker 2: Now we can hit down and compress the ball instead
Speaker 2: of just sitting down. But we just sit Now our
Speaker 2: backswing gets too flat heard and now we've got to
Speaker 2: come over the top, and some people are going to
Speaker 2: skip that and they're just going to pick the club
Speaker 2: up and then come back down. All of that came
Speaker 2: from the inability to pivot, and that pivot comes from posture.
Speaker 2: And so what we want to do is bend forward
Speaker 2: and then walk into the golf ball. And how far
Speaker 2: our arms should be is they should be just hanging
Speaker 2: under the shoulder someone. Now they're not going to be
Speaker 2: you know, they're going to be a little bit here
Speaker 2: or there, just depending on if you've got a driver
Speaker 2: or if you're standing closer to the ball with a wedge.
Speaker 2: But for the most part, they're going to be hanging
Speaker 2: underneath your shoulders. If you have to reach out for
Speaker 2: the golf ball, more than likely you're going to yank
Speaker 2: the club underneath the plane and come back over the
Speaker 2: top as well. So work on your posture and that's
Speaker 2: the first step to getting a good swing plane to
Speaker 2: get up on top.
Speaker 1: All right. To wrap this up, I'm curious, can you
Speaker 1: explain the JPX drill? It's in your.
Speaker 2: Ebook, So that one I'm not going to explain because
Speaker 2: that's the big ticket. Okay, that's that is the big ticket.
Speaker 2: So now, Fred, what I've done is I asked myself
Speaker 2: for the next one hundred golf lessons, what are you
Speaker 2: going to do with the golfers that come in the door.
Speaker 2: They're going to have a grip, a posture, a backswing,
Speaker 2: a down swing, and an impact and so I want
Speaker 2: to get those things buttoned up now. To put it
Speaker 2: all together, I have a special drill in there that
Speaker 2: I put and allows the golfers to put all of
Speaker 2: the things that I just talked about together, and within
Speaker 2: three swings, I promise you they fix their over the
Speaker 2: top and they learn how to swing from into out.
Speaker 2: It's too simple, it's too easy. The book is like
Speaker 2: you'll probably if you read it, you'll probably put it down.
Speaker 2: But if you take the time and you try it,
Speaker 2: these are the same principles that my kids are hitting with.
Speaker 2: So they're not ideas. And unless you can hit better
Speaker 2: than them, we want to try it. And they are
Speaker 2: only one thirty to one and wait, you know, under
Speaker 2: six feet and hit the ball three hundred yards. So
Speaker 2: the point and they're very well, the young and supple,
Speaker 2: of course, but I'm not that's not the real reason.
Speaker 2: The real reason is physics and science. You know they're
Speaker 2: utilizing taking advantage of all of that. But the extra
Speaker 2: in there will be a great way to fix you.
Speaker 2: So if you get the book, you're going to I
Speaker 2: guarantee to fix your slice.
Speaker 1: A nice way to avoid the question. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: I think people may want to check you out. Here again,
Speaker 1: it's Joe Park Golf, and he Joe specializes in taking
Speaker 1: fifteen to twenty handicaps and turning him into scratch golfers.
Speaker 1: So that alone is enough to make your interest level
Speaker 1: rise just to touch and he's a fan of Tony Manzoni.
Speaker 1: How bad can that be?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Yeah, before you go? So, I got an email from
Speaker 1: a listener this morning. He says, can you ask people
Speaker 1: where what their three favorite courses are? And then I'll
Speaker 1: ask the second part of that question, where's your three
Speaker 1: favorite courses?
Speaker 2: Oh? You know, Scottsdale is loaded with so many golfs,
Speaker 2: so that is a very it's a trick question. You know,
Speaker 2: some of the courses that I love, you can't really
Speaker 2: normally go and play right because they're private, but public courses,
Speaker 2: let's talk about that. If you come down here, you
Speaker 2: got to play True North. That's probably I'm always on
Speaker 2: the bucket list. Yep. And then of course farther down
Speaker 2: from their wikopa is another one one. Have you ever
Speaker 2: tried that?
Speaker 1: I played it in a pro am before Open. I've
Speaker 1: played we a couple of times. Love that course, yeah
Speaker 1: every time?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, So, I mean we're just so blessed with
Speaker 2: so many courses. My favorite private courses obviously are silver
Speaker 2: Leaf Is Stancia and Marabell, which are the neighboring courses,
Speaker 2: and they're very very you know they maintain them to
Speaker 2: such a level. But yeah, every course in Scottsdale is
Speaker 2: like being at a private course. They make sure to
Speaker 2: maintain it as if you were a member for the day.
Speaker 2: So it doesn't matter what course you play in Scottsdale,
Speaker 2: you're going to be treated right.
Speaker 1: That's true. That's true. Okay, And the second part of
Speaker 1: the question is, and I'm gonna make a caveat on this,
Speaker 1: you're you're not allowed to answer with your children involved
Speaker 1: in this question. Two of your career highlights.
Speaker 2: Oh, my goodness. My career high lights, Well, I would say,
Speaker 2: you know, my career highlights was we moved here from Minnesota,
Speaker 2: as I mentioned earlier, and we had a golf facility there.
Speaker 2: So what I got on opportunity to do was to
Speaker 2: build an eighteen hole championship pitch and putt golf course. Wow.
Speaker 2: And so it was built with bent greens, bunkers, water hazards,
Speaker 2: all the holes were under a ninety yards. All you
Speaker 2: needed was a wedge and putter. So I designed that
Speaker 2: along with my father in law, and obviously it was
Speaker 2: a family project. But that and then we had the
Speaker 2: driving range and the driving range we were open year round.
Speaker 1: In Minnesota.
Speaker 2: In Minnesota. So now here's how I did it. I
Speaker 2: took a plow, raised the front end, and I plowed
Speaker 2: the driving range. And it took me forty hours to
Speaker 2: plow our range. It was, you know, like three hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty yards long by three hundred yards wide. That's
Speaker 2: like eleven some NFL football fields. So I plowed that
Speaker 2: took me forty hours, so that I could pick the
Speaker 2: balls and we were open in the Winner. So my
Speaker 2: biggest accomplishment is a year round. And then I put
Speaker 2: in a building with infrared heat so that you could
Speaker 2: just be in a light sweatshirt and see the full
Speaker 2: length of your shot dead winner awesome. And then of
Speaker 2: course we built I built the golf course, and so
Speaker 2: that to me is probably my biggest highlight. And of
Speaker 2: course my boys watching them.
Speaker 1: They weren't allowed to be in the answer, that was too.
Speaker 2: So my biggest accomplishment is probably building that facility. We
Speaker 2: had over three hundred juniors a year in our junior program,
Speaker 2: so we did a really good job of growing the game,
Speaker 2: and our golf facility allowed us to really meet great people.
Speaker 2: Great people again.
Speaker 1: Joe Park's five fundamentals how to make a golf swing
Speaker 1: by Joe Park. Thanks so much for your time today
Speaker 1: and the lessons UH and the video. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Friends, m HM