Originally Posted by golfguru
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Ask Loren. Its one of his favourite topics.
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Thanks, Brownman and Guru.
Yes, I'm a fan of Mike Austin and particularly his protoge, Mike Dunaway.
Mike Dunaway, Long Drive Champion, 1990 World Super Long, founder of the 350 club for the world's longest drivers
Accuracy, driving 375 yard par-4 green.
Before Zenolink and K-vest and TPI there was Mike Austin, PhD of Kinesiology which some have dubbed Austinology.
Before discovering TGM at this site through Iseekgolf and the Guru (a best mate, BFF, talk almost daily) I used first Ballard and then Austin and won far more than my fair share of handicap flight trophys and gift certificates and qualifiers for advanced competition with a good partner.
Whoof, reading the stuff on that link made my head woozy. JeffMann, right? He got some things wrong. A little full of himself.
Let's cut to the chase.
I do not believe the illustration of Mike earlier with weight lines on it is characteristic. No one ever said "head over right foot". Quite the contrary, Mike Austin said his secret compound pivot, a slide/turn and a slide/turn, was the only way to keep the head still. His key was the navel, the center of mass, right foot to left foot, and hit the wall to let the shoulders take off.
The image is one of a pendulum of the pelvic girdle under the 7th vertebrae. They use a lot of knee and foot action in a marking time manner, toward the ball. Jaacob Bowden, long drive competitor, "It's so much easier on my body than the classically taught swing. It's as easy as walking."
Mike was a swinger and turned the entire left arm 1/4 turn to lay the shaft and clubface on plane very early on. "A 5-yr old child could do that." MA Used a muscle at the top of his left shoulder to do it.
That preserves the left wrist shape rather than arching it.
Then he raised the arm to shoulder level and spun the flywheel with the shoulders. He said "Throw it around the circle."
I didn't understand what that meant and Dunaway didn't help much talking about the acceleration of gravity on the club. It just recently dawned on me. Mike was laying off the shaft in startdown which feels an awful lot like throwing it around the circle. You can see it in every swing on this video:
Young Mike Austin
Poetry in motion. Imagine a wrist throw from the Top. Still he's spinning the flywheel as a spoke off the spine axis with the shoulders. I don't know if he added any with the right arm on the way down or not. No evidence, but maybe. George Hibbard thought so as a student of Mike's.
515 yards in a senior event in Las Vegas at the age of 64 with a wooden headed club. Member of Mike Dunaway's 350 club for long drivers well into his 70s until he had a stroke that paralyzed his right side. He continued to instruct as seen on YouTube clips until he died.
Mike was big on measuring to the ball shaking all the wrist cock out first, like Jimmy Ballard. Uncock the wrists with the shaft until you feel a detente, a resistance, bend at the hips until it gets close to the ball but you can't reach it, then bend the knees to finally measure to the ball. Evershed did this also.
Now knowing TGM and Mike Austin's pivot and Zenolink, Scott's a good friend, great guy and I believe everything he says, we could advise an improvement over Mike but along the same lines.
Dunaway said right hip to 4 o'clock, right hip to 10 o'clock standing in the middle of a clock with 12 o'clock on the ball. i.e. on the 9 to 3 line. And "Throw it around the circle".
If Austin is really stacked on that right leg/hip joint then he's lost his ground forces, particularly with a "turn" at the end of the slide. We want internal turning, not external rotation. One would expect that if he was on it very long he'd fall off inwardly toward the target.
So let's change it. I'd focus on the navel, just above the center of mass. The navel should move along the stance line. So keep the head stationary ("7th vertebrae" MA) and move the navel to just inside the right instep. Feel the shear forces building up in the right foot, where Hogan had an extra cleat installed, inside ball and inside heel.
Now move the navel across the stance line to the inside of the left foot where you should feel the ground shear forces build up under the left foot which should be angled out about 30 degrees to receive that force direction. That'll put your hips open about 20 degrees and ideally at impact the shoulders'll be the same. Keep the knees bent both ways.
And that's what I do. I take the grip and all alignments in that impact position with the built-in forward lean of the shaft pointing to the left shoulder to precisely locate the ball for that club.
The right forearm must be thrown or driven right back to this location for impact.
The laid-off shaft does a few good things.
First, it negates any effects of OTT.
Secondly, it promotes the idea that we're swinging on an arc not trying to hit the ball with a square clubface for any distance along the target line on a flat spot in the circle.
Thirdly, it helps prevent throwaway because you can't throw it away until you roll the hands into impact, for instance running out of right arm and quitting.
According to "Smiley" Jones as soon as Ben Hogan got out of the hospital he went to see Mike Austin and they played together at the Bel Air Country Club for a week. Wonder what they talked about. We know Hogan was there for counsel.
Hogan laid off the shaft in startdown, as do many big hitters, like Sergio, Singapore Slinger Justin Tang, ace TGM instructor, and many long drive competitors. Hmmm.
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