One of the key differences between the Rotary Hitter and Rotary Swinger is the role of the trail arm in the golf swing.
The Rotary Swing (RS1) uses both arms more or less equally; we turn the body and come back through with both arms relaxed. It's the body that drives everything through. Understanding this distinction is essential for developing consistent ball-striking fundamentals.
There are several differences in the Rotary Hitter, and today we're going to look at two of them: the turn of the body and how the trail arm mechanics work on the way down.
Rotary Hitters "Throw" the Ball
The Rotary Swing is body-powered, with soft arms. As a Rotary Hitter, when you take the club back your goal is to get into a position where your trail arm can make a throwing motion. That's really important for clubhead speed as there is a great deal of leverage created by the bending back of the trail wrist and at the trail elbow. If you want to see exactly how your trail arm mechanics measure up, you can use an AI swing analyzer to get instant feedback on your positions and leverage points.
Imagine cocking your trail arm back like a baseball player getting ready to throw. This puts the trail arm in a powerful, leveraged position that sets up an aggressive move through impact.
If you then make a full body turn, the trail arm is carried all the way back behind you and is no longer in a good throwing position. It would be very difficult to square everything and throw hard with the trail arm from back there.
Getting the trail arm all the way back is not a good position for the Rotary Hitter.
Look at pros such as Stuart Appleby or Trevor Immelman, who embody the Rotary Hitter type swing, and you'll see that they work to keep the trail arm in front of the body throughout the backswing.
Avoid Over-Turning
The reason is, of course, that it's much easier to return the club to square if it's not buried behind the body. Over-rotation is one of the most common causes of inconsistent impact position among amateur golfers.
It's similar to the movement of a putt; it's much easier to get down into impact from a slight turn than a large body rotation. The compact backswing gives the hitter the control needed to aggressively fire through the ball.
The Rotary Hitter can get plenty of swing power from a cocked trail arm, without the need for a full shoulder turn.
We're going to work on reducing that amount of movement in the backswing to avoid the over-turn of the shoulders that would keep us from getting back to square at impact.
- A Rotary Swing is dominated by the turn. The Swinger rotates and sweeps through the ball, using the body. The arms remain quiet and relaxed through impact.
- The Rotary Hitter is an aggressive golfer who wants to hit. The Hitter needs to be in a much more compact backswing position in order to really fire the trail arm.
That's the tradeoff. If you want to be more of a Hitter there's nothing wrong with it, but you can't make a big, soft, relaxed turn and then try to throw your arms back around really hard. That will just throw everything out of sync and you'll probably end up with a massive hook. The GOAT Drill system is designed specifically to help you train this kind of efficient sequencing so your arms and body work together through the hitting zone.
The Hitter keeps more weight on the lead side, turns the lead shoulder down to the ball, and then turns back through. That's it.
The feeling of the turn is simply "Lead shoulder back, lead shoulder back to where it was at address." It's that simple and that repeatable.
A bigger turn than that will make it difficult to square up when the arms and hands are moving fast through the impact zone.
Lead shoulder to the ball, lead shoulder back to address. You've got to keep it down driving through to maintain consistent ball contact.
The 3/4 Feeling
While the lead shoulder makes that short turning motion, the trail arm simply has to work up to the cocked position we discussed earlier. It's going to look very different from the Swinger's trail arm, especially from down the line.
It's much shorter and much more compact. The Rotary Hitter should actually feel like the trail arm is only making a 3/4 backswing.
The more short and compact you can make it, the better. The lead shoulder goes down to the ball while the trail arm stays more in front of the body. The arm cocks upward and gets into a "throwing" position, then back to address for a consistently powerful strike.
Throw the Ball
The throwing motion of the trail arm is key. It will take some work if you haven't done it before.
Picture holding a ball in your trail hand at address. Imagine that and you're going to take your arm back and throw it at the golf ball or, technically, about four inches in front of it because your hands actually aim in front of the ball at impact position.
To make an accurate throw at the ball, you wouldn't make a big turn and shift and pull your trail arm all the way back. It would be very difficult to hit your target with consistency if you did.
For accuracy, you would make a very short turn, bringing the lead shoulder down to the ball and keeping the trail arm pretty close in and compact to your body. This is exactly the compact swing mechanics that elite ball-strikers rely on.
If you pull it way back and get that flying trail elbow it's going to be too hard to hit consistently. Just bring your lead shoulder down, trail arm cocked, aim a few inches in front of the ball, and throw. That's the motion the Hitter wants to achieve through impact.
When you get into the actual golf swing you're going to do exactly the same thing. It's that simple and surprisingly athletic once you feel it.
It's that same athletic motion: lead shoulder down, weight more on the lead side, trail arm in front, throw the ball out in front of you, down the target line. That's what the Rotary Hitter swing feels like.
It's very different from the Swinger, and the results at impact reflect that difference in approach and intent.
These types of positions are perfect for the golfer who wants to really use the arms and hands, really throw through impact and get a lot of dominant arm-side motion.
You have to quiet the body a little bit and allow the arms to work into a position where they can be much more consistent and generate a lot of clubhead speed through impact.
Work on these few things: lead shoulder down, trail arm in front, "throw" in front of the ball, and you'll achieve a much more solid ball strike and a much more penetrating ball flight.
Watch part 2 now to see how you're moving your body in the opposite direction of the pros!
Rotary Hitter is like throwing a ball
Too far back for a Hitter
A Hitter wants 3/4 turn (above), not full (below)
Turn left shoulder to ball & back
Cock the right arm
Throw the ball
