The TRUE Fundamentals of the Golf Swing

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Do you REALLY know what the fundamentals of the golf swing are?


Hey guys, Chuck Quinton here, founder of RotarySwing.

com.

I want to talk about something that I think is one of the most important parts of understanding the golf swing and learning the golf swing, and that is fundamentals.

Now, everybody says that they teach fundamentals, but at Rotary Swing, we believe that we're the only true fundamentals-based approach to learning the golf swing.

It's kind of a big claim, but I want you to think about it for a second because we've got a lot of evidence to back this up.

But first, I want you to think about, first of all, the importance of fundamentals.

Think about everything else that you've ever learned in life.

Many of us learned how to drive on manual transmissions.

Back in the day, you learned in a parking lot, someplace quiet and isolated, and all of us learned the same fundamentals, and that was, in the United States, your right hand is on the gear shift, your left foot is on the clutch pedal, your right foot is on the gas pedal.

None of you learned to put your right foot on the clutch pedal and your left foot on the gas pedal.

How come?

Well, it's just the fundamentals of learning how to drive.

It's the most efficient way to put your feet on the pedals on a manual transmission.

That seems very commonsensical because it's agreed upon fundamental that everybody agrees on, everybody teaches the same thing.

Now, if you go to ten different golf instructors and ask for the fundamentals of the grip, or the setup, or the swing plane, or anything for that matter, you'll get ten different answers.

And so, that alone should be a huge red flag for golfers trying to understand and learn the golf swing, is that there really hasn't been much of a fundamentals -based approach to the swing, and that is, not everybody can even agree on what a fundamental of the golf swing even is.

In fact, many golf instructors believe that everybody has their own set of fundamentals.

Well, there's the, what, seven billion people on the planet?

That's a lot of different fundamentals that we're trying to manage and teach everybody something completely different and unique because they all have a different golf swing?

That's insane.

Think about that for a second.

Every Olympic sport on the planet has an agreed upon set of fundamentals that everybody learns to do the same thing the same way.

If you're an Olympic diver, if you're a power lifter, if you're a sprinter, you all learn the exact same fundamentals, but yet golf, the most complicated, fast-moving, precision -requiring sport in the world has no agreed upon fundamentals?

Come on.

That doesn't make any sense.

So, rotary swing, we take it a completely different approach to the swing.

We do know that there are fundamentals to the swing, and they're based on Webster's definition of what a fundamental is.

So, here I have Webster's definition of what a fundamental is, synonyms of fundamental to make it short and sweet, primary, origin, central, and absolute.

In order to be a fundamental of the golf swing, it must meet those four criteria.

That's not my criteria.

That's Webster's definition of what a fundamental is.

The antonyms, or the opposites of that, are secondary, consequential, peripheral, and dependent.

Now, I want you to think for a second.

Do some critical thinking on your own.

Don't take my word for it.

I want you to figure out what the fundamentals of the golf swing are, or what are some common things that you have been taught or told are fundamentals of the golf swing?

And see which category they fall into.

One of my favorite ones is swing plane.

Swing plane is the first thing that you see somebody get on the telestrator and they draw a line, and, oh, look at his shaft here and his club shaft here and the plane there and so on and so forth.

And so, since it seems like it's on TV every five seconds, every time there's a golf tournament on, swing plane must be a fundamental of the golf swing, right?

It must be the most important thing because that's what they always talk about.

Well, think about it critically for a second and judge for yourself.

Where would swing plane fall into?

Is it primary, origin, central, absolute, or is it secondary?

Is it consequential of how you move your body in what sequence?

Is it happening in the periphery of the golf swing?

And is it dependent on the sequence and order that you move your arms, hands, body, etc.

?

Well, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that by its very core, its definition, swing plane is not a fundamental to golf swing.

Now, that may sound like blasphemy to many of you planologists.

At Rotary Swing, we're not saying swing plane isn't important.

Of course, it's important.

It's extremely important.

But the problem is this.

When people have a poor swing plane, the way that golfers, instructors, typically go about fixing it is completely backwards.

They start focusing on fixing what's happening in the periphery and what's dependent and secondary to all these other things that are happening.

With Rotary Swing, we absolutely think swing plane is incredibly important, but we fix it by fixing the fundamentals.

The fundamentals of moving your body, your core, the sequence of those movements is how you fix swing planes.

So when we have a golfer who's got a terrible swing plane, we first look at their body.

How is their spine aligned?

If somebody's swinging over the top, they're going to tend to have a spine that's too upright.

What is their force of movement?

What is the sequence of movement?

Are they moving really hard from the right side?

That's the first way that you steepen the shaft plane and you start coming over the top.

Rotary Swing fixes the cause, not the symptom.

And so when you understand what a fundamental is, you'll understand the RST five-step systems that we're working on things from the center out.

That's how you fix problems.

You don't fix a broken bone by putting a band -aid on it.

It may keep it from getting infected for a day or so if it's a compound fracture, but at the end of the day, that band-aid is going to eventually fall off.

And that's what golf tips really are.

They're band-aids.

When you take somebody and you go take a golf lesson and you say, hey, I'm slicing it, and you strengthen their grip really hard and you have them aim really hard right and tell them, hey, swing from the inside.

Well, if they knew how to do that, they wouldn't be coming to you to pay for a golf lesson.

So when you fix the fundamentals, you fix the underlying cause.

You take out the cancer.

You fix the actual broken bone.

You don't put a band-aid on it.

And that is a fundamentals-based approach to the swing.

And that has rotary swing written all over it.

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64x64
Asle
How one defines what it takes to be a fundamental is fine. But it's not clear to me what the spesific fundmentals are - and how many ? Probably weight shift and rotating clockwise? And..?
October 20, 2023
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Asle. There can be multiple fundamentals. That's why we don't have a specific list. It's all about the origin of movement or primary function. A true fundamental is a journey to find in the swing.
October 23, 2023
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Heath
Byron said there are 5 fundamentals of golf. 1. Grip 2. Stance 3. Posture 4. Alignment 5. Ball Position Chuck you make great sense in the video. Thank you for the imput.
August 9, 2020
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Heath. More than welcome. Glad you liked the video.
August 10, 2020
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Simon
Plane-ologist hahaha
July 27, 2017
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Chris (Certified RST Instructor)
Swing plane is a result of your body movements. Train your body how to move correctly first and allow the club to respond second, creating a CONSISTENT swing plane.
July 29, 2017
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Shannon
If the golf swing is all about pulling, including putting, why wouldn't all right-handed people become "left-handed" players so that the dominate side is now doing the pulling? Would it take that much more time to switch your swing from right to left than to teach your left side how to dominate the swing properly?
June 24, 2017
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John
An interesting aside, and proof point to RST's point that golf is a lead-side motion.... is the fact that whereas worldwide, about 7% of golfers play from the left-hand (Phil Mickelson) side.... in Canada, that percentage is about 30%. Why that is... is because in Canada, so many golfers grew up playing hockey... and the hockey slap shot is a lead-side motion just like golf... and most right-handed young Canadian hockey-players-later-golfers.... learned to hit their slap shot from the "left-handed" (i.e. Phil Mickelson) side (because.... that'd be the side you would produce the most power in the slap shot). Google "why does Canada have so many left-handed golfers" and you'll see info about this interesting fact. Which, in fact, does IMHO support the point that golf is a lead-side motion. An interesting and supportive side-bar fact, I hope.
July 5, 2019
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Shannon. We have seen a few players accomplish the switch. However, it is a very daunting task. If you have always been a trail side dominant player and for that even trail side dominant person in everyday life. Some basic coordination you need when applying power and what nots are really hard to re-learn.
June 24, 2017
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Lance
Sometimes the drills and specific videos don't give clear verbal directives back to the fundamental movements. Can I suggest that you help us make the connection back to the fundamental movements by highlighting them in light of specific peripheral concerns? For example - how keeping the right arm straight in the back swing as long as possible harmonizes with the shoulder blade glide and shoulder elevation movements. I can keep my right arm straight but if I rotate fundamentally with the hips first and not the shoulder blade things get screwy. Also I would like instruction on how the fundamental movements create proper sequence of tension so that the the tension can be released in the proper sequence. I have been learning this concept gradually through rst but It would be helpful if it could be articulated on the site. In working on this I found myself realizing that the effortless sense of power from the proper movements can get tensed up if the fundamental sequence of the movements gets confused. Your lecture on the fundamentals here is good but it can be even better if the specific fundamentals are highlighted in the various lessons. Is there a checklist of the fundamentals somewhere on the site? Thanks and keep up the good work.
May 25, 2016
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Chris (Certified RST Instructor)
Thanks for the suggestions and feedback Lance. We are constantly trying to make the site more user friendly. Make sure you are using the swing review system on the site so we can help you with the fundamentals or help you understand how to work through the changes and give you a clear path of focus as you move forward. Sometimes, videos are produced to help correct some faults that arise when working on the fundamentals.
June 3, 2016
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Ray
After beating myself and working on a dozen "keys", I'm back. This video is 100% correct.
May 10, 2016
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Ray. Don't beat yourself. Thanks for the compliments of the video though .
May 11, 2016
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Roderick
Imho you made your point but I think you used the wrong example. I think the swing plane can be (and should be) used as a roadmap to smooth out and is the absolute geometric balance of a swing. As you know, if you place one laser pointing down the shaft where the ball would be at address and another at the butt of the club in line with the shaft then keep one laser or the other pointing at the target line through about a 3/4 swing the swing will be balanced and on plane, and body positions will need to be corrected and adjusted to accommodate that proper swing plane: you will have an RST swing at that point. I know you can hit a good ball with just about any deviation from fundamental. My point is there is a proper swing plane created by RST fundamentals but it is just as true that an RST swing plane can be observed (i.e. lasers) and used as a fundamental to teach rotation and flexion of the trail arm as an example. There is a brief moment when the shaft is parallel to the ground and stance line that the lasers are not in contact with the target line but when you continue from there the butt of the club will direct you to stay on plane with your wrist break. Very useful tool to teach several RST fundamentals, including swing plane jk p.s. please don't cancel my membership! just an opinion from an old guy!
April 29, 2016
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Chris (Certified RST Instructor)
Hey Roderick, opinions are always welcome here at RST and we understand what you are saying. Swing plane IS important BUT it's what creates the swing plane that is far more important. It's always best to focus on the body first, make it move perfectly, and then see how good your swing plane will be.
April 29, 2016
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Lance
Hi Chuck Very clear message! Thanks. So I am getting the fundamentals of the core movements better engrained with each practice session. I am starting to wonder about changes in path in order to shape shots when the circumstance warrant. How do you approach this need as a fundamental in rst? Alignment combined with stance??? Release??? grip??? Thanks.
April 25, 2016
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Chuck
With RST, the changes to shape the ball are minimal, primarily just altering the release and then aiming differently as necessary.
April 25, 2016

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