The body swing and all that

I have revisited the Paul Wilson body swing (as it has evolved from earlier versions) and I think I now have a better idea of why I have had so much difficulty incorporating his ideas (for example around powerless arms) in my swing.

I've played a lot of sports including tennis, squash, cricket and even softball where arm strength, and in particular the involvement of my dominant right arm, has been paramount. In tennis, I could no more hit a two-handed backhand than fly to Mars. The reason is, of course, that a two-handed backhand not only involves the non dominant arm, but requires a lot of body turn.

Golf, for almost everyone, is a two handed (armed) game. So it's all very well for golf teachers to say 'feel like you are throwing or skipping a stone when you swing', but that is a one-handed movement. The non-dominant hand/arm is merely used for balance. It is very difficult for many less flexible golfers, like me, to place the left hand on the club (that is, use the left arm) without compromising this free movement or action.

The occasional top golfer has dealt with this issue in an interesting way by standing on the other side of the ball, that is, left-hand dominant players playing golf right handed. This might work for some, but there is still a flexibility problem (arms almost working against each other) nor does it deal with the fact that the backswing is on one axis and the downswing is on a different axis (an issue that I feel was not dealt with satisfactorily in the original swing machine golf concept).

Potential solutions to this problem have included the stack and tilt method, where the player basically attempts to turn around a single axis (without going into details). This has had a mixed reception - there are issues. And in the past some golf pros have similarly tried to convince their students to concentrate on their leading side and ignore their stronger, more dominant, trailing arm and hand. But the problems of dominance and lack of flexibility do not go away.

What to do? As I write this I really don't know. My hunch is that I will have to give in to the dominance of my right hand and arm (right-hander) and find a way to accommodate my left arm. It might be that I need to increase my hip turn, particularly on the downswing, so that I clear my hips, effectively playing the shot like a forehand in tennis. A body swing? I really don't know. My next game should be interesting.