Tiger Woods Swing

We’ve all admired it, even through the countless swing changes it has undergone. But in the end, Tiger Woods’ swing has always been as scrutinized as it has been admired.

When he came out on tour, golf instructors all over the world immediately started teaching the “Tiger Woods Swing.” Oddly enough, though Tiger’s spent more than 16 years on tour, no golfers seem to have ever built a swing that even closely resembles looking like Tiger’s swing – except one.

HOW I BUILT A SWING LIKE TIGER WOODS

Like most of you, I admired Tiger Woods’ swing and spent thousands of hours studying it. I’d go so far as to venture a guess that few on this planet have spent as much time as I have studying Tiger’s swing mechanics.

Through all of this obsessive study, I finally built a golf swing that looked like Tiger’s – nearly exactly. (Click here to see my swing next to Tiger Woods, frame by frame).

At the top of my golf swing, as you can see in the picture above, my positions were flawless, simple and powerful:

• My right arm was in front of my chest,
• clubface square to my forearm,
• left arm just above my shoulder plane,
• right leg remaining flexed,
• etc.

In the end, I was able to swing the golf club at nearly 130 mph (129 mph was my max, 122 my average clubhead speed), but one thing always plagued me – huge blocks.

TIGER’S BIG MISS – THE HUGE BLOCK

With all the good things that came from learning to swing like Tiger Woods, I inherited many of the bad traits that he had developed while working under Hank Haney.

Most notably, this reared its ugly head in the form of a massive block to the right. This was due to the swing plane being shifted to the right because of the excessive forearm rotation required for Hank Haney’s parallel planes theory.

Because of this, my path averaged 7 degrees in to out with the driver. That is severely in to out for a top level player; anything more than 2 degrees starts to become a big problem with consistency.

Like Woods, I could get away with it on the irons or any other club that I hit down on significantly, but not the driver.

This required that I work to time a big, high draw off the tee. When all went well, I hit it regularly over 320 yards and would pop one out over 340 at least a couple times per week.

But, when I missed, I missed BIG! I mean, off the planet, destroy the round, double bogey big!

Biomechanically, Tiger’s swing was very sound, but from a swing plane perspective, I found it difficult to control the driver. This led me to the belief that a “plane shift” was superior to parallel planes that Hank Haney advocated, and so I started working on making the switch.

While the RotarySwing Tour mechanics don’t dictate a specific swing plane, each instructor has his own preferences, I personally prefer a plane shift, and it has changed my driving accuracy considerably.

I regularly hit every fairway these days, even though I’m playing very little. I don’t hit the ball as far because, as I squared up my path, my angle of attack went from 5-6* positive to neutral or even slightly down. But, I don’t mind one bit!

I’ll gladly give up 320 yard drives for 290 yard drives that are dead straight.

To make this change, I had to focus on how I brought the golf club down more in front of me rather than so far from the inside. I published a few videos on this that show you exactly how to get the club back out in front of the body, so if you’re tired of getting stuck on the downswing and hitting huge blocks, check out the following videos and articles:

VIDEOS TO AVOID THE BIG MISS

How to Avoid Getting Stuck Like Tiger Woods

Level shoulders at Impact in the Golf Swing

Trace the Plane Line – On Plane Downswing

Tiger Woods Swing – How Tiger’s Body Works in the Transition