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Golf swing like a tennis swing

I saw a presentation about a golf swing by Mike Malaska a few years ago. He was trying to explain the simplicity of the golf swing. Or rather explain that a golf swing, while not simple is nothing new, and not different in principle from other sports. One of the sports he mentioned was tennis, and how we swing a tennis racquet in a similar fashion to the golf swing. Mike Malaska is a former player, and now quite a popular golf coach and YouTuber. I learned a lot from him.

I remember that time that I gave the guy the benefit of the doubt, but I was not convinced. I mean, I am a good tennis player, and golf is nothing like that. Golf swing needs to be dissected into 50 parts and remembered like a robot, in order to hit the ball. Tennis is simple…

A few days ago I watched another YouTuber and he mentioned tennis once again. Of course, now I am much more receptive to the wisdom of the non-typical golf coach, so I watched carefully. What I realised there is quite a revelation.

Many times I watched a slow-motion golf swing of the PGA tour players and noticed that they seem to start the “downswing” even before they finish the backswing. I remember the commentators marvel at this unusual phenomenon. Something that only the elites can do and something that even those players probably can’t explain.

The thing is…

There is no backswing and then downswing. It’s just 1 motion.

When I want to hit the tennis racquet, I don’t take it back, pause then hit it. It is just 1 fluid motion. It’s similar to cracking the whip. I know that tempo is very important and most coaches teach that too. I am now trying to hit the golf ball using just this 1 motion of the golf club. It is so different from what I learned from the golf coach that I need to constantly remind myself to do it, and not fall back to the 50 different steps taught by the coach. But I am getting much better.

The other day I heard congratulations and clapping from other golfers when I got my drive to go close to 300 yards. I liked it.. 🙂 I am slowly getting to the point of concentrating more on the short game, and less on the driving. I still fade the ball a bit too much, but I’m so much better than last year. I even started scoring my holes. Usually, I just hit and don’t worry about the scores. But, if I don’t mess up my putting and don’t chunk my chipping so much, I might be close to a single figure handicap.

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