subject: Lee Westwood the Ultimate Driving Machine [print this page] Lee Westwood the Ultimate Driving Machine
Looking at the sequences below, my eye will be automatically drawn to the way in which Lee's shoulders control the entire motion. From the set-up, he maintains his arm and club position to the leading with the wonderful movement of his upper body. At the top of the swing both the left arm and the shoulders are at 45 degrees (or thereabouts), and as we have highlighted here he creates a distinct good angle between his left arm and the clubshaft - huge leverage and electric power there.
Looking down the line, again it all matches up: the left arm and the shoulders are at that 45-degree angle while the clubface matches the wrists with callaway ft-iz driver. From here, there's no compensation necessary on the way back to the ball - Lee sets it all up on the way back for the delivery on the way down to be ideal.
Let me give you an analogy that underpins my teaching philosophy: think of the body as the engine, the arms and the golf club as the steering wheel. Ideally, the thing you want your engine to do is normally purr - by no means miss a beat. (That's Lee Westwood every time. He has worked difficult on his fitness and now he's reaping the benefits having a powerful body action.) Nevertheless no matter how good the engine or the steering could be, unless the 'linkage' between the two components is up to scratch, you are going nowhere. Within the golf game swing, that linkage is certainly the shoulder motion - supposing that the shoulders are sound and stable, the transfer of energy down into the the game of golf golf club will be sound and stable. That is a trademark of the Pete Cowen technique.
The problem each and every golf player has to contend with is the reality that the shoulder unit is hyper mobile - it would be able to go all over the place. There are only therefore numerous moving parts to control in making a golf swing from golf clubs store. The wrists move in four ways (up and down, back and forwards). Your elbows do one thing (up and down). But your shoulders would go anywhere they want. So what you as a player need to do is learn how you can stabilise their motion - to hold them in position and transfer energy with shoulder stability.
The shoulders themselves are 'linked', left and top, and you might see within the following sequences that Lee achieves this beautifully.What's more, the shoulders stabilise the motion all of the way through to the end. There's no 'looseness'. Which is certainly why the energy is certainly passed so efficiently to the clubhead.
To summarise, the role of the body is therefore:
In the backswing the body assists to 'load' the power and position the club (as you see above)
Starting the downswing, the shoulder stability assists to reposition the club for delivery into the golf ball
Through impact, the body turns to square the clubface and stabilise impact
Finally, the body assists to slow the golf club down. Watch a great player, and you'll see that as the body slows to a quit, the arms and also the golf club stop with it - all totally under control.
