Understanding Swings in All Sports
Understanding Swings in All Sports
Greetings Golfers,
People are always telling me that their baseball swing or tennis swing screws-up their golf swing.
I always disagree and try to explain why I believe that all stick-and-ball sports are basically the same. Even ping-pong.
So let’s start with ping-pong. Golf is hard because you have a small paddle and a long handle. But you control the ball basically the same way.
If you’re hitting a topspin shot in ping-pong … it’s basically the same as hitting a draw/hook in golf. The paddle rolls over the ball to put the swing on it.
Ok … same with a drop-shot in ping-pong or a cut/slice in golf. The paddle slides under the ball to put backspin on it.
And … a straight shot in ping-pong is not either one. Just the paddle held through the shot with the wrist held back … not flipping the battle. That’s best way to hit a golf chip-shot … most people flip their wrists.
So … you can see how this easily translates to tennis. The tennis racket is just a bigger ping-pong paddle. People get too obsessed with body motion in tennis. They never learn to control the ball. That’s why people take tennis and then quit after 3 years. They never learn how to hit the ball. They worry about everything else.
Remember when tennis boomed and there were courts all over the Metro? Now you know why they closed. I’ve always worried about that with golf. Both games look easy - but are hard. Hard because you have to learn how the control the ball. But people never understand this and never work on it. The hands need to be trained. No way around it.
Same with baseball. The bat is a long, skinny paddle that has to hit a fast moving ball … that can curve and move around. That takes serious bat control.
My hero - Ted Williams - wrote a book in 1970 called the “Science of Hitting”. Ted believed in a slight upswing with the bat and then full extension. You need the hips to start the swing so that you can extend the bat. Try it right now. You want that same feeling in the golf swing.
In both swings … if you start the swing before your hips … that means your shoulders started it and you can’t extend … you can only come around and swing left. That can have power … but only to the left. I knew high school baseball players who could only hit-it hard foul - foul left of the field. I know golfers who can hit-it hard … but only hard left - usually left of the fairway. Sometimes they leave open the face and the ball slices back into the fairway. Same with baseball. Most people in both sports never learn how to draw the ball. They all slice it. Watch a Little League game or even high school baseball … you won’t see a draw.
Baseball got into some weird ideas about swinging the bat. The opposite of Ted Williams’ ideas - though Ted was the last .400 hitter.
I worked a little bit last week with a family friend who played a little for the Yankees. Obviously a very talented guy. But he hit down on every shot - even with his driver. And he had no rotation of his hands. I teed-up the ball high … and tried to get him to swing UP on the ball as he rotated his hands/wrists … to get the feeling of a topspin ping-pong shot … or a high draw golf shot.
I don’t know if this is true (I hope not) … but I heard that a few years ago the Twins were practicing to hit the ball high … by hitting DOWN on a batting tee. That would be like teeing up a ball and hitting down with your driver to hit it high. We’ve all hit those gross pop-ups with our driver … not fun … but would you practice that?
Many years ago when Wade Boggs and Don Mattingly looked like they had a chance to hit .400 … they were interviewed in Sports Illustrated by Ted Williams. Ted asked them questions like “If you’re hitting pop-ups to first-base … what’s happening?” They had no idea. The answer is - you’re too late with your swing. If you’re hitting grounders to third - you’re too early. If you’re hitting liners off the left-field wall - you’re perfect.
How does that translate to tennis? If you’re hitting topspins into the bottom of the net - you’re too early. How does that translate to golf? If you’re hitting big hooks - you’re too early. And a slice is too late - if even any rotation at all. If you’re hitting topspins into the back-middle of the court - you’re perfect. If you’re hitting draws into the left-middle of the fairway - you’re perfect.
In all these ball-stick games … you need to understand spin. And you need to train your hands to apply spin.
These games are all basically the same. Start small. Practice these shots on the chipping green. Full shots are just longer version of chip-shots.
Cheers!
Tom Abts
GM/Head PGA Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com