Chapter 7 - The Downswing

Driving down with hands and left arm The triple combination Slow and smooth Active hands ALL the time

The backswing has prepared us for the next phase the action of bringing the club head back to the ball with the full uninhibited release of controlled power.

I do not propose, at this stage, to deal further with the crucial transition which takes place at the top of the swing. You have learned from a preceding chapter that the feeling of a slight pause helps in affecting the change of direction, but you must beware in making this pause not to turn the back-swing and the downswing into two entirely separate actions. I am no believer in prefabricated golf swings. The ideal is a smooth blend of the fundamentals, free from stops and re-starts.

In fact the experienced and accomplished player is sensing the start of the downswing as he reaches the top of the back-swing, much as a bowman, smoothly and unhurriedly drawing back, senses the release. These two points will be covered in detail when I come to the chapter on timing and coordination.

For the present let us consider solely the downswing, and let me stress at once that it starts slowly and smoothly. That is the way you let in the clutch of your car after slipping it into gear. An agitated jerky foot on the clutch pedal and the engine is stalled. It is even easier to stall the golf swing and turn it into a heave. For your own sake make it slow and smooth at the start.

Give yourself time and room in which to hit the ball. Only in this way will maximum acceleration be reached at the right time that is, at and through the ball.

You commence the downswing by DRIVING DOWNWARDS with the hands and left arm simultaneously with the return of the left heel still with left knee flexed to the ground. At the top of the swing the extreme operative points are the hands and the left foot. By synchronizing the movement of these two extreme points you are set to move into a lateral shift of the lower part of the body. Most important this, but I will come to it in due course.
I have used the term "driving downwards". But in the same way as the engine of your car takes up the drive slowly as you move away, so the left arm and hands come unhurriedly into the first movement of returning the club head to the ball. Make it smooth all the time. Don't rush it.

With this combined initial movement the hands and left arm (still extended but not rigid) driving down and the whole of the left foot returning firmly to the ground you now have the whole of the left foot and the inside of the sole of the right foot on the ground with both knees flexed (Fig. 18). This is keeping you DOWN to the ball and this is how we want it. Only the heel of the right foot has begun to rise.

Do not fall into the common error of stiffening the left knee as the heel returns to the ground and of rising up with the body. This only locks the movement.

The hands and the shoulders are lagging behind and, remember, so is the club head if the shaft is still behind the hands as I have pointed out. As the hands slowly descend in this downward drive the angle formed by the left arm and the shaft of the club (as viewed by an observer standing by the tee-box) must not be widened. It will not be if the hands and wrists are retaining proper control and coming down smoothly. The angle thus formed must be no more than it was when you reached the final point of the backs wing. In fact, this angle of club-shaft and left arm is likely even to be narrowed under the influence of the left-side movement which has already taken place.

Figure 18

An obvious build-up of controlled power waiting to be released into the ball. The lateral shift has taken place in the lower part of the body while the head has been kept back. The triple combination of downward drive with left arm, lateral shift and shaft behind the hands has kept the shoulders back.

Figure 19

The hands are entering the hitting area. Left arm still in control with right elbow and forearm (still passive) well "inside" the left. This is the "eight o'clock" position explained in the chapter on Making A Delivery. The position of the club head here is nearer nine o'clock but eight o'clock will do for a start. The more delayed club head will develop with practice and a clear idea of the mental picture.

Now this is the stage where the wrists should have become fully cocked about one-third of the way down. The narrowing of the angle of the left arm and club-shaft has done this to the wrists WITHOUT ANY EFFORT ON YOUR PART TO ACHIEVE IT.

Whatever you do, do not try consciously to achieve this effect. If you make a conscious effort to do so you will break up the rhythm. Other things being as they should be it will happen.

I mention this wrist effect simply to give you a mental picture of the swing shape we are creating and to emphasize once again that the action of the wrists is supplementary to other movements. It is the product of those other movements which, when carried out properly, ensure that the wrists will be fully cocked just where they should be as the downswing gets under way.

Hence the value of strong, well-trained hands and the development of upper-arm-leverage.

The lower part of the body, from the left foot up to the hips, is now undergoing a full lateral movement controlled by the left foot (Fig. 19). While there should be no lateral movement in the backswing you can use all you can get into the downswing. Indeed it is of paramount importance to get this lateral shift. But see that it is made only from the hips downwards. The head must not join in this shift or more harm than good will be done.

The triple combination consists of:

(a) the lateral shift,
(b) the driving down wards with the hands and left arm at the start of the
downswing, and
(c) the club being brought down BEHIND the hands and not being allowed to climb over them (Fig. 20).

This sets you up for the really professional movement into the ball with the club-head accelerating through the hitting area.

It is a combination which, more than anything else, MAKES the movement into the ball. It is a priceless asset which you must work to acquire and mastery of the three movements I have outlined will give it to you.

When you do achieve it the "feel" of the combined action will be unmistakable and you should have no difficulty in retaining it.

In this way the build-up of power in the hands and wrists is completed and sustained as you reach the hitting area.

Throughout all this the right elbow remains passive. It will not disrupt the action if you have set the elbow properly in the address and kept the left arm the master arm in tracing out the path of the club head. The factors which make the left arm the master arm are upper-arm-leverage in the backswing and the triple combination I have explained in the downswing.

This combination will take care of the shoulder turn in the downswing. Ah! Those shoulders. How many players fail to keep them back long enough in the return movement to the ball. The shoulder turn must be delayed if they are to be in line, instead of across-line, at impact. You know now how to keep them back.

Figure 20

Club-shaft behind the hands as it descends from a laid-off position at the top of the swing with a five iron. This ensures a movement into the ball from the inside with the left arm IN control and the right arm UNDER control.

The hips are shifting with the general movement, the left hip moving out of the way to make room for the arms and hands to do their work.

You will not need to pay undue attention to the hips unless you are short and stocky or one of the over-forties in which case, as I made clear in the previous chapter, you may need to dwell on the right hip-action and understand how it works.

It moved well back with the body turn in the backswing and now it comes into the lateral movement in the return movement to the ball. What you have to beware of is any tendency for the right hip to move out towards the ball. Picture its path in the downswing as being inside the path it took on the way back in the backswing.

With the shoulders, hands and club head coming last into this movement back to the ball, you will be sufficiently poised by the time the hands are level with the right hip to let them go through without attempting to force them. Our triple combination has given the hands the momentum to release the accumulated power in the required direction and that is into the back of the ball and on along the line of flight.

Figure 21a

At impact. The right arm "inside" the left and the shoulders now parallel with the line of flight.

And so to impact with the ball (Figs. 21a and b, and 22).

This is how the key parts of the body, and not forgetting the club head, have responded in the correctly shaped swing, smoothly and unhurriedly applied:

THE HEAD has remained in its original position throughout.

It has not "gone" and must not be allowed to "go" with the lateral shift of the lower part of the body.

THE SHOULDERS have squared up parallel to the intended line of flight, the left shoulder, remember, still up.

Figure 21b

A view of the impact position from a different angle shows the firm but not rigid left side and the right knee coming into the stroke. Left arm-control is apparent.

Figure 22

Immediately after impact. Note the solid alignment of the left arm through the wrist to the club head. The head has remained back. Left hip has moved out of the way to allow unimpeded passage of the arms and hands.

THE RIGHT ELBOW has quietly slipped into its groove close to the body, "inside" the left elbow (as we had it at address). The right arm has still not entirely straightened at the elbow and no strain should be felt in this limb.

THE STOMACH  as it should have been throughout the backswing and downswing  is still retracted, and [this control of the stomach has been the more easily retained if you have stayed down to the ball on flexed knees.

THE LEFT ARM still extended is in line with the shaft which means that

THE HANDS are slightly ahead of the ball with the back of the left hand and the palm of the right square to the line of flight.

THE LEFT KNEE has commenced to straighten, not stiffen. (Nothing is stiff in golf.) I prefer to describe it as a "firming up" of the left leg. The outside of the left knee, consequent on the lateral weight-shift, will ideally have gone a fraction beyond a vertical line drawn up from the outside of the left foot.

THE RIGHT HEEL has left the ground and such weight as remains on the foot is along the inside of the sole.

THE LEFT FOOT has now taken the major part of the weight which is concentrated on the outside of this foot, again as a result of the lateral shift which has taken place.

Finally:

THE CLUB HEAD has, without any manipulation this way or that, been returned SQUARE to the back of the ball from the inside and is about to be driven through along the line of flight under the build-up of power.

All this has taken place without the body being thrown off balance. In fact you should be solidly balanced with a sense of firmness running right up the left side from the foot to the shoulder.

Now to clear up one controversial point: the popular conception that the downswing starts with the return movement of the left hip while the hands remain passive.

I cannot accept this. I INSIST THAT THE HANDS MUST REMAIN ACTIVE AT ALL TIMES. Many outstanding players probably feel that the left hip dominates the start of the downswing, and I fancy that this is because they have been playing from early boyhood and hand-action to them has become second nature.

My point is that this passive hands theory can destroy the smoothness of the whole movement because the moment they become active again is likely to result in a sudden quickening of the tempo. You must sense the club head through the hands ALL the time.

What I urge you to concentrate on above all else in the downswing is:

(a) the driving down from a slow measured start with the hands and left arm across the body,
(b) the club under full control BEHIND the hands and
(c) the lateral shift of the lower part of the body.

In case you have still not appreciated the full significance of this triple combination, let me add emphasis through repetition by reminding you that each of these actions helps in the effective production of the others, contriving to keep the shoulders back as the downswing develops. Whipping the shoulders round too early in the downswing is a common error which bars real progress to many of the keenest players.

Look at it this way. The body turn in the backswing takes more of a circular motion. A similar body-action in the return movement to the ball must inevitably send the shoulders round and throw the club head out of line.

In order to bring the club head into the ball from the inside, the return movement, as distinct from the back-swing, is performed strictly on a lateral basis with the initial drive built up in the left arm.

If you understand this marked difference in the movement away from the ball and the movement back to it you will the more quickly and easily build into the swing, the triple combination, and the shoulders will come into line at impact. Then a good club-line through the ball will be virtually assured.

The "Swing and Stop" exercise, which I shall describe later in the book, in Chapter IX, will be most helpful in training yourself to master this impact position.

I resist the temptation to outline it at this stage because to perform the exercise satisfactorily it is desirable that you should first understand the art of timing the arrival into the hitting area. One thing at a time in proper sequence is the soundest way to learn golf.

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