Not all exercises are suitable for everyone, and this or any other exercise program may
result in injury. To reduce the risk of injury in your case, consult your doctor before beginning
this exercise program. The instructions and advice presented are in no way intended as
substitute for medical counseling. The creators, producers, participants, and distributors
of this program disclaim any liability or loss in the connection with the exercise and
advice herein.
My name is Bob Mann. I turned professional in 1967, but after turning professional, I
then got really involved in a lot of sports. I had concentrated up until that time in golf
and played some tennis, but I really, after I turned professional, got very interested
in a lot of sports. And in the middle 70s through the end of 1978, as an adult, I did
that which I had not done out of high school. I returned to college or went back to college
as an adult, University of Florida Physical Education Department. And I was there for
about four and a half years, enjoyed it very thoroughly. And there were two things that
I observed while I was there and participating in all these sports, kayaking, archery, karate,
plus keeping my golf game up. First thing I noticed is that the power source in nearly
every sport, almost without exception, is the same. Whether it's hitting a golf ball,
throwing a punch, throwing a baseball, it's the legs. It's the feet and legs that's the
power source in golf and certainly in karate, throwing a baseball. And if you notice the
knockout punches, they're really here in the feet and the legs. It's exactly the same
with golf. And tonight, one of the things we're going to do is teach you how to tap
in to this power source in such a way that has an automatic response, truly automatic.
Just by tapping into this motor or power source, you're going to hit the ball not only a lot
firmer and more solidly, but truer and more online. Now that's a claim that of course
I'll support with the evidence in a few minutes. The second experience I had while being there
at the University of Florida was getting involved in archery. Now for those of you who've never
seen target archery, it's quite a beautiful sport, particularly for the participant, I
guess a little bit for the spectators. But in target archery, it's very equipment intensive.
Now you have this bow out here with all of these appendages and weights on it and it's
quite an expensive piece of gear and you push this bow. You don't really hold it. You push
this bow. And archers are very, very meticulous and detail conscious, both in the preparation
of the equipment and the shot. And boy, you push this bow out here and you put your fingers
on that string. And then with these back muscles, you begin to pull that bow and you pull it,
you pull it, you pull it, you pull it. And you get just right, you get the string right
on the nose. And as soon as that arrow comes through what's known as the clicker on the
bow, you just let go. And if you just simply pull that bow back, pull that string back
and let go, the flight of the arrow is beautiful. It's true and it's natural. But you know what
happens if you try to aim that arrow? Oh, you release it or you try to, you try to get
it into the target folks. The arrow flies bad. It flies short and it doesn't feel good.
So in archery, all of the preparation is before the shot and the shot itself is an automatic
natural release. And I got very deeply involved in archery and I saw some very fine world
class archers and I said, boy, if I could just make golf like that for myself and my
students that we did all the preparation in front and that the shot itself was just a
joyous natural releasing action. And that's how automatic golf had its genesis or start.
Back there at the University of Florida several years ago, when I was understanding and learning
more about the biomechanics of all sports and therefore improving the mechanics of my
golf game and at the same time seeking after or grasping this feeling, boy, if we can just
do all the preparation in advance and then have the shot come off. And the name automatic
golf is not one that I came up with. My students came up with it. They said, Bob, if you just
do just exactly what you said, it's automatic. And I think that that's what you'll experience
here tonight. A method where we do all the preparation before the swing and the swing
just simply occurs. And boy, it's a beautiful experience. The swing becomes an expansive,
pleasureful action. It's truly automatic. I want to show you something. I placed my hands
on the club and I'm going to put my hands out in front of me. My hands are on the club
and all I'm going to do is lower the club. And then I'm going to lower with my knees.
And if you notice, I'm in a pretty doggone good starting position and watch this. I bring
the club back up. I haven't really changed anything. And if I simply move the club over
here without changing it, aren't I in a pretty good position to hit that ball? I watch this.
I'm in the same position and I can come over here and in that same position. And I guess
a lot of us would like to finish every shot about like that. So if you put your hands
on that club precisely in a certain manner, and there's only one grip that'll do it,
the grip actually does not change throughout the whole swing. Now look what we've done.
And all of you know enough about mechanics to know that if we create a machine and eliminate
all of these moving parts, all of this, this, this, this, and this, not only have we got
a more reliable machine that's going to repeat its action time after time, or in this case
a more reliable swing that will repeat, but also we've increased, not decreased the power.
Now why does getting all of this floppy movement out of the hands increase the power in a golf
swing? Well, folks, you know that if you want to go up and hit somebody, you certainly couldn't
do much damage like that. The damage comes from the body weight. If we hit somebody like
this, we're going to hurt them. But if we go up and hit them like this, it means nothing.
It's the same. Even though you know logically that you can't add anything, this is the tendency
in golf, and we're going to remove that by placing your hands absolutely meticulously
in an exact fashion on that golf club. What I want you to do with that little piece of
dialing or your stick for the night is grip it in your right hand up at the top, right
hand up in the top, just the reverse of where you're going to grip a golf club, and extend
it right out in front of you at a 45 degree angle. Not here, not here, but right out in
front of you at about a 45 degree angle. Now not in here, just push it right out there.
Right out there. Okay, you've learned the first move. You can relax now. You can put
that down. And now we're going to look at the left hand. And here's what I want you
to do with the left hand. I want you to take this forefinger and simply touch the pad under
the thumb. Make certain that the thumb is curved in. Not out, not bent, but curved in
right like this. Touch the pad, forefinger against pad, and close up your hand just like
this. This thumb against this pad, this forefinger right here. Just like that. That's fine folks.
Now look at the inside of your hand. And what I want you to do now is close your hand. But
I want you to bring these fingers way down here and touch the pad of this hand, just
like this. Not like this, but bring them way down here and touch the pad of this hand.
So what we've got is the forefinger touching the pad of the thumb, the thumb laying against
this part of the hand, and the fingers right there. Now open your hand ever so slightly
and just pretend that you had a small tiny little lemon in there in the last three fingers
and you wanted to get all the juice out of it and squeeze it. Just with the last three
fingers, just with the last three fingers. Okay, now keep your hand open just a little
bit. Take that piece of dowling or your golf club tonight, push it right out in front of
you with your right hand, and come in folks and put this left hand down on top of the
club right there. Just come in right there over on top, not around here, right over,
right down on the club right there. Just like that, just exactly like that. Now extend the
left hand out in front of you, remove the right hand. Now take your right forefinger,
take your right forefinger, reach up here and touch your left hand and you'll find two
ligaments. Now if you went by the numbers, 45 degree angle, came in and put your left
hand over and down on the club, you'll find those two ligaments and a little space in between
them. If you did this number, you won't find them. So it's there at 45 degree angles. Find
these two ligaments and the little space in between it, put your thumb in that space,
the forefinger up here and make certain that this space is directly over the shaft of the
club. If you're over here to the right, come back, re-grip it, start all over again and
get it centered. If you're over here to the left, this way come back and center it. This
space between these two ligaments, directly over the shaft of the club. Okay, now for
this to happen, painting by numbers again, you must extend the club with your right hand,
a 45 degree angle, fully extended in front of you. Come up and touch this forefinger
to the thumb. Bring these fingers into the pad of the hand, open just enough to come
in and put your hand over and down on the club, close it like you were squeezing a small
lemon right here, let the finger and the thumb go, let the finger and the thumb go. Now do
you really have it? Yank on it with your other hand. Do you really have it in those three
fingers? If you've got it in those three fingers, you've got an angle here, you've got this
space right over the shaft and you can feel this space, you've got your left hand on there
properly. Okay, now what we're going to do now is put your right hand on and this will
work fine if the left hand's on there just right. So before we do the right hand, let's
see you all without instruction, just put your left hand on the club, I'll walk a little
bit around the audience and make certain that we've got the left hand on there properly.
Okay, folks, let me show you this little move right here. This last little move when we
put the left hand on here is to shorten the thumb and increase the pressure in these three
fingers. You see, if the thumb goes up here, we are holding this club in these two fingers
and we're going to get up here and we're just going to flop all over the place and we're
not going to be in this absolutely perfect neutral to neutral to neutral position. So
it's right here, the pressure's in these three fingers, these three fingers. Okay, if you
have that, we're going to put the right hand on the club now. The way you do that is extend
the left hand out in front of you, take your right hand and take the middle two fingers,
the second pad, not the first pad, not the third, but the second pad and place it directly
on the bottom of the club adjacent to your left hand, these two fingers right here. Now
very slowly begin to close by squeezing these fingers. Don't come down here with your hand,
simply close the fingers, close the fingers until you get nearly closed and what you'll
see is that the pad of the right hand makes a perfect pocket for the left thumb and then
just fit that thumb in there and continue to close your hand and that's all you do.
Now what you'll notice is is that your right thumb is over on the left side of the golf
club, that there's no pressure at all of the right thumb on the shaft of the club and that's
extremely important because those pinching muscles with either hand, they are scared,
steered around the golf course, try to keep the ball in play, patty kick it, kind of swinging
but when we get these thumbs off the golf club, particularly the right thumb, by gripping
it precisely in this manner, the second pad slowly closing the pressure, bringing the
right thumb over the left thumb or the right pad over the left thumb and the right thumb
on the left side of the club. We can even do this, we can hit the ball fine just like
this but we can't have the pressure here. Now as you apply more pressure and I want
you to think about those two fingers and just kind of squeeze those fingers like you were
milking a small lemon there, what you'll notice is is you'll get some pressure right here
on the back of the right hand. This is good healthy right hand pressure and I'm going
to do my Arnold Palmer imitation for you hitting a little maybe seven or eight iron punch shot
and I'll show you the right hand functioning in golf. Is that an art? Well he goes a little
more like this doesn't he? You see but he's getting the back of this hand right through
the shot. Now we're going to go by the numbers on the whole grip, we come over, place the
club in front of us, down with the left hand, we check the alignment by the space between
the two ligaments, we make certain that we've maintained the 45 degree angle that all the
pressures back here we could let loose with these two fingers. We come on with the right
hand, simply roll the right hand over, fit right down on the thumb and we've got an absolutely
perfect fit. But what we've also got, most important, is two things. We've got a completely
neutral position, all we have to do is lower the club, it's in exactly the proper position
for the top of the swing and it's in exactly the proper position for the completion of
the swing. Now what I'm going to do at this point is get somebody out of the audience.
Can I have you sir, can you come on up? And what I'm going to show you is how this system
begins to get automatic. Would you leave, just go ahead and leave the dialing back down.
I'm going to talk you through the grip here. Once you've got your grip, I just want you
to hold it out in front of you and then I'm going to get you into position just automatically.
Take the club in your right hand, stand it right out in front of you, grip it up a little
bit higher, right up above the grip. Come in with your left hand over and down, I want
you to form your hand, yes there we go, form your hand before you get it on there, no rolling
or closing. And just simply close the hand, okay. Now we've got a couple of things I want
you to observe here. I think the face is a little open so let's start again and get the
face square before we start. Good, come in over here, set it down right there. All right,
let loose with your right hand. Do you feel most of the pressure in your left hand right
here? Extend your left arm, nope, just extend your left arm. Now you should feel a little
pull right back here, little pull maybe right back here. If you let loose this way, you'd
feel all the pull here. I want you to feel it right here. This is a definite, I've got
it kind of a feeling. Okay, now give me your right hand. Uh uh, we're going to do it much
more slowly. These two pads right here, I simply want you to close and let me do the
closing here to get this fitting exactly over the thumb right there. Give me a little more
pressure here, to increase the pressure here, let the thumb go. All the pressure off the
thumb and just simply let it ride against the club. So what we should have here is about
60% of the pressure here, 30% of the pressure here, and about 10 here. Is that approximately
what we've got? Sounds good. All righty, your hands cohesively together, spread your feet
just a little bit, turn your left foot out slightly to the left, and all I want you to
do now is don't lower your upper body, just simply, keeping this position exactly the
same. Now folks, we can't do this, we've got to maintain this position because we want
it to be totally neutral. Simply lower the club, not your upper body, just simply lower
the club, that's right. Now simply sit down, lower your knees, continue to lower the club
with your knees, keeping this hand in exactly this position. No, I don't want you to do
anything right there except exactly what it was. Okay, now right there. Now, I didn't
tell this man about anything about moving two inches behind the ball or whatever. Is
he not in a perfect, absolutely perfect position? Now, somebody in every audience usually says
to me, but Bob, what about if we're hitting a driver and we want the club up in the left
side of the stands? And what about if we're hitting a little wedge shot and the club is
in the back? I'm going to show you something here. Nothing changes. If we're hitting the
ball or if we're planning on hitting a driver, we have a longer club, we're going to use
a wider stance. We put our hands on the club, we stand out here, maybe a slightly closed
stance, a wider stance. All we do is the same thing. Watch what happens, we simply lower
the club and the club is a forward appearing. Now watch this, we're going to hit a little
laid iron shot. All we do is change the stance, open stance, a little narrower stance, remove
the club down. It appears that the club is in a different position. It's in exactly precisely
the same position relative to the power source. So you see it's paint by numbers, paint by
numbers and I hope you'll do it on every shot that you hit from now on. Okay, now the next
step in making this response truly an automatic natural action. We've already gone through
with this gentleman, but I want to show you what we did. We place the hands on the club
and precisely the manner that we've discussed and the first step that we do is simply place
our feet approximately shoulder width, approximately. If we're hitting a wood club, we're going
to be probably about shoulder width between our feet and if we're hitting a short iron
about shoulder width on the outside of our feet, but approximately shoulder width. Now
the first step next is to simply lower the club, not to bend over, not to sit down at
this point, but to simply add nothing to it, lower the club. Then having lowered the club
here, we simply continue to lower by sitting down and all we do is sit down and tour as
far as we want to be. Now we did not sit down to the point that the club touches the ground.
Okay what I'm going to do now is I'm going to show you what the motor of a golf swing
looks like. A golf swing has a motor and you're going to experience it or some of you are
going to experience it tonight up here and all of you are going to see it right now.
In showing you what the motor of the golf swing looks like, I'm going to show you an
exercise that if you'll just do it, if you just won't hit a golf ball for the next week
and if you'll simply do this exercise instead, a week from now you'll be a much better player.
What I'm going to do is put my left hand on the club in precisely the manner that we described.
I'm going to leave my right hand off and I'm going to lower the club and just simply lower
the club and then lower my knees. Now I'm going to begin to swing the club very slowly
and the only step that I'm going to make in addition to the one we've described before
I start is I'm going to turn my chin slightly to the right and I'm going to begin to swing
this club slowly and then faster and faster and faster. First thing I want you to observe
or hear is the sound of a golf swing as I increase the speed and the second thing is
I want you to tell me where the power source is. What made me able to swing this club faster
as I went? Where did the power come from? Okay, I'm going to begin with a nice little
tempo. When I wanted to hit it harder, where did I get it from folks? Pretty obvious, the
feet and the legs and that's the motor of the golf swing. To activate that motor, we
have a little starter and that starter is a simple move with the right foot and the right
knee but to have it active, we've got to sit down, keep the club off the ground, the weight
on the heels. Is it logical that we would start here, go up here with our legs straight
and try to do this when it's just so simple to get in this position? So I'm going to give
you this little exercise to think about doing at home which is to simply take the club and
to simply activate your feet and legs. I didn't say do this, I didn't say make the club bring
your body and I didn't even say stay neutral. Just simply drop the club, carry it and make
this motion with your feet and legs. Then practice left hand, put the club down, shins
slightly to the right and then swing. More power, more legs. Now as we watch this action,
one of the things that should be pretty obvious to you is that it's simply a mechanical fact
that the more centrifugal force we create, the truer the action and what does that mean?
When somebody told you hit it easier to hit it straighter, they were telling you precisely
the opposite of what you need to do. The further you want to hit it, the more you turn on that
motor and the truer the action becomes. Now I'm going to get a little technical here and
show you something else. The more you turn on this motor, you turn your swing into an
elliptical event. You see, you lower down, you move the knees, the swing becomes elliptical.
Now what happens when the swing becomes elliptical? No longer we can find to one point where the
swing is true, but we have a window six or eight or 10 inches long depending on the amount
of leg work we do where we can hit that ball relatively true because we're simply bringing
the club through. Now I told you it was automatic. It's not automatic if you put your hands on
wrong because if you're going from here and then trying to get up here, you have to make
a move. See, so it all starts with the proper hands, the proper position and it's truly
automatic. A natural response to the top of the swing, you just simply turn on the motor
and you stop thinking about your golf swing and you go out and do that golf swing. And
the harder you hit it, as long as you do it with the motor, the truer the action is. The
straighter and more affirmatively, positively the ball flies. That's all there is to it.
Now at this point I want to help you find through this little test your master eye because
that's relevant to this head position. So what we're going to do now is help you find
your master eye. Simply hold your fingers out in front of you and make a little space,
a little window right in between your fingers. And let's look right up at this golf club.
Look at the golf club. Extend your hands with both eyes open. Find the head of the club.
Both eyes open, looking through that space. Now don't move your head. Don't move your
hands. Close your right eye. Did that thing just jump out of the way? For most of you
it did. Open your eyes again. Find it again. Close your left eye. Leave your right eye
open. You probably still see it. About 80% of you in a typical audience are right eyed.
Now the other, how many of you are left eyed, have a master left eye? See it runs about
20%. You're very fortunate. You see, what you've been told folks is keep your head down.
That's precisely the wrong thing to do. What happens when I put my head down? This is down
isn't it? I put my head down and I make a swing and the act of putting it down makes
it come up. You see, in golf we keep our head up, not down, but we do turn our chin slightly
to the right. Now for those of you over here who have the good fortune to have the master
eye as the left eye, you're automatically probably already doing that. In other words,
you're trying to and succeeding and seeing it out of your left eye and you're doing like
this. For the rest of us folks who are right eyed, I want you to simply turn your chin
and you'll know you've done it when you see a little shadow of your nose when you're looking
down at the ball. This opens up the whole swing, allows the motor to get on, gets the
whole position into the proper gearing. But I do want to show you where the wrist cock
is in golf. You may be surprised to find out that it occurs on the downswing rather than
the backswing. You see if we place our hands here, simply lower the club and simply take
it back here, we haven't changed the position of those hands. But what happens is when we
turn on the motor and come here, you see centrifugal force brings the club down. Right here is
the wrist cock. This is when we build up that additional energy. Now when the motor turns
us into the ball, you see, and the release is there, we do get the benefit of that. But
it's nothing you have to think about. And that's the reason that I want you to start
this motor with the feet rather than start the motor here. Because it's just here, start
the motor and there you go. What I want you to do, and I'm going to repeat the exercise
we did earlier, now perhaps if you're having a better understanding of the whys and the
wherefore of the steps, is to simply take that club, push it out in front of you, put
your left hand, lower the club, lower the club, not your body. Simply lower the club,
then lower your knees. Turn the left foot out, turn the chin to the right, and start
the motor right here. The more you do this, the more you get the feel. Do you hear the
sound of a golf swing? When you can do this 30, 35, 40 times, and you're just as strong
the last time, as you were the first time, folks you're ready to go out and hit some
golf balls. Now you notice I never lose control of the club. The reason I don't lose control
of the club is because I placed my hand on there in a precise way and I built up my strength
with the exercise.
Okay, we'll start off with a review of automatic golf part one. The automatic golf method is
a lot like flying your own airplane. It's what happens before you take off that really
counts. You want to make sure that all the dials and switches are giving you the right
readings and that your engine has plenty of power. It's the same in automatic golf. We've
got to get that left hand on there properly, gripping pressure in the last three fingers.
Check our alignment. After we check our alignment with the left hand, we put the right hand
on very carefully with all the gripping pressure only in the lower part of the middle two fingers.
We make certain that that right thumb is on the left side of the shaft, that we lower
the club and maintain the angle, keep the flex in the knees, the weight back on the
heels, and most important that the chin turns to the right. Finally, we initiate the swing
with the move of the lower body.
Okay, now that's a review of the automatic golf system. That's all the preparation you
need to place the proper hitting muscles in command of the shot. Now you'll recall that
after we achieve the original starting position, or the proper original starting position,
the next step in the automatic golf system was to do the motor, the golf motor exercise.
The golf motor exercise, again, we grip the club, this time in our left hand only. We
simply lower the club, then we sit down into the shot, turn the chin to the right, and
we start swinging the club, held in the left hand only. Keep the chin back, apply the motion
with the feet and legs, more power, more feet and legs. More power, more feet and legs.
Well folks, the good news and the bad news is, the good news is that hitting a golf ball
is no more complicated than applying that little exercise I just did to a golf ball
with the right hand riding on the club, adding nothing to the shot. The bad news is, is that
no matter how much you know about it, you can't do it until you have learned to do that
exercise and mastered the golf motor move. And I want to illustrate the importance of
that with a little piece of equipment I've made up today. What I've done here is simulated
one of the famous David and Goliath slingshots. You've read about it or heard about it. It's
a little pouch with a couple pieces of string. And what I've done is scotch tape in a golf
ball here. And now we all know, or we pretty much know, that the force in a golf swing
is centrifugal force. That's how David beat that big old Goliath, using centrifugal force.
But you know, even though we know that centrifugal force is the force of a golf swing, we all
have a bit of misconception, or most of us do, about the central point. You see, if the
central point, or the axis, the centrifugal force of a golf swing, was at our hands, we'd
swing the club just about like this. But that's not the way we do it. You see, the axis point
is the left shoulder. So the importance of the motor exercise, that I've just showed
you, and we discussed so much on Film One, is first of all to establish the axis right
up here with your left shoulder. You see, when we do the exercise, everything is moving
from the left shoulder, not from the wrist, from the left shoulder. Now, let's look back
at this slingshot again. And if we start whirling this thing real fast, we notice that the arc
is perfectly true. We don't have to think about that arc being true. We don't have to
think about that golf ball, which would be equivalent to the head of the club staying
on path. All we've got to do is swing it, make it whirl. It's the same thing in a golf
swing. You don't have to think about all these things. But what happens is, if I started
thinking about where this thing is, and tried to place it in different positions, and had
it break in the middle, I'd lose all of the dynamics, all the trueness out of the action.
Well, that's the same thing that happens, folks, when you're dealing with a golf club.
That's the same thing that happens when this hinge comes into play. All of the true whirling
action of the golf swing from this hinge caused by this motor breaks down and disappears if
we do this. So, folks, the second purpose of the exercise, first, to establish the proper
hinge point, and secondly, over a period of time, to build up sufficient strength in this
left hand so it can serve its function of maintaining the club in a proper position
throughout the swing. Now, certainly, we recognize that the club responds to the move, and that's
where we have the automatic wrist cock. But as soon as we start doing this stuff, folks,
it breaks down the action. So, there's no replacing the exercise. Now, before we hit
some balls, I'm again going to review the full automatic golf system right through the
workout with the motor exercise. Extend the club out in front of us, the right hand, club
at a 45-degree angle. In, over, and down with the left hand. The club gripped about 70 percent
of our total gripping pressure, 60 to 70 percent, in the last three fingers, the left hand.
We find the space between the two ligaments. It's directly over the shaft. We feel the
pull here. We don't allow the club to release. We come in, place the right hand on in the
two fingers, two middle fingers, two middle pads, with only very light pressure, and the
right thumb on the left side of the shaft. We simply then lower the club, and then we
lower our knees. Turn our chin to the right, and we start the motor move with the right
foot and right knee. Now, the transition from the golf motor exercise to the swing is to
simply place the right hand on in such a way that it does not impinge on, or in any way,
change the exercise. You see, hitting a golf ball is nothing more than doing the exercise
with the ball in the way.
Now, we're going to apply the same procedure to the driver. We're going to tee the ball
real high, and if there's any sort of little tip that I want to give you golfers today,
and that is to tee the ball very high with the driver. When you tee the ball low, you
get an inordinate amount of backspin when you hit the driver. The ball gets out to the
point of terminal velocity, and it falls flat. The really long drivers hit the ball from
high to high, so tee the ball real high.
Take about a million like that.
Now we're going to show you some golf shots with the driver from the rear, and the significance
of this point of view is that you can see the foot and leg action very, very clearly.
As we look at the lower body from the rear, we see very clearly that the knees are flexed,
and that the lower body leads the club down and through the ball. Now, if we start the
swing properly, initiating the action with the lower body through the forward press,
and if we have established the proper starting position with the knees flexed, all of this
is possible, and you will indeed have truly a dynamic, automatic golf swing. Now, as we
again look at the same sequence in slow motion, it's absolute. There's no question. The lower
body is the motor of the golf swing. It produces the fluidity, the accuracy, the dynamics and
the power, and when we finish the golf swing and finish it properly with the lower body
leading, we see that the knees lead the golf swing and ultimately point in the direction
of the line of flight. After I hit the last one, which was quite excellent, Judy said,
well, Bob, I can see it. You did it with your feet and legs. Folks, I want an introduction
to my golf club. This golf club has no moving parts, and every time I try to swing this
golf club, it doesn't work. You see, this golf club wants to do the swinging. This golf
club wants to swing in response to something I do, and that something is with my feet and
legs, and as soon as you try to do something with this club, mine, yours or anybody else's,
it goes wrong. It goes wrong in direct proportion to the amount you try to do. All you're really
doing is supporting this club, supporting it through the dynamics of this movement,
and the club does the swinging. There are several advantages we pick up by keeping the club
off contact with the ground. First, we make certain that we are in total compliance with
the rules of the game. Secondly, we minimize the possibility of re-gripping the club. In
other words, the proper grip is established and it's maintained because the club is not
sold prior to the takeoff. Moreover, by keeping the club off contact, we make certain that
our weight is back through our heels and the knees are unlocked. As we look at the full
swing from the front, we see club off contact, chin pointed to the right, and a dynamic move
with the lower body. That's the best stroke one can put on a golf ball.
Only perfect. The motor is in high gear here. Well, I'll take about a million of them like
that. We'll finish up our workout today like we suggest you finish up yours with the golf
motor exercise. Don't do it before you work out with the balls every day to make you a
little tired, but afterwards, definitely do so. This is one of my favorite shots. I call
it the pancake shot. I want to give credit where credit's due. This and many of the other
shorter shots were taught to me by John Guston, a fine professional at the Birmingham Country
Club, Birmingham, Alabama. The reason we call it the pancake shot is it goes up nice and
high and drops nice and soft. The purpose of this shot is to play over an obstacle, perhaps
over a sand trap onto the green. This is one shot that violates the rule of no wrist. Here
we are going to release the wrist. Now, this shot is actually played very much like a sand
shot out of a deep pot bunker. First thing that we do is make a grip adjustment. We place
the club out in front of us, but we turn the blade open. Oh, about 10, 15 degrees open,
just as we would in a sand shot. And then with the blade open, we come in over and down
on the club. Place the right hand on in the standard manner, and the meaning of that is
that when we lower the club, it looks very much like it would look if we were playing
a proper sand shot. The club is open. Now, the action of this shot is to pass the club
under the ball. And the way we do that is we allow the hands to relax, and we release
the hand in much the same way we would play out of a pot bunker. Most golfers have the
impression that they're going to add power by using the wrists. Now, in this shot, we're
reducing the power. We want a soft landing, and we use the wrists. Now, we can't both
add power and reduce power with the same action. So, what I'm getting at is this. To add power,
we use the feet and legs and keep our hands quiet during the golf swing. To take away
power and have a soft landing, we relax the grip and we use our hands. Now, hitting a
sand shot is really easy, and it's a lot of fun. We just use the golf motor move, and
we pass the club under the ball. Here we are on the holeless putting green. And a couple
of ducks walking across the greed, but we're not going to duck hook it. And it's just as
well that there's no holes on the putting green, because the objective in putting is
to make the ball roll well. If you can make the ball roll end over end with proper English,
that's going to find the hole for you. And in watching putters good, bad, and indifferent
over the years, I found out that the secret in putting is exactly the same as the secret
in hitting the full shots. It's in the left hand. If the left hand is properly positioned
and holds that proper position throughout the stroke, the ball will roll well. You see
what happens when we strike a putt and it does not roll well, usually because of tension.
The left hand moves forward, and the putter head attacks the ball and produces a backspin
or a side spin. So the whole secret in putting and getting a good roll on the ball is after
placing the right hand, all of the fingers on the club, to place the left hand on the
club and be certain to maintain this position, this arch throughout the whole stroke. If
we maintain this arch, we're going to maintain the loft on the putter, and the ball will
roll well. Now some of the best putters that I've ever seen will actually increase the
loft through the putting stroke. It's not really important whether you simply maintain
the loft by keeping the left wrist in the proper position, or as Billy Casper does,
increase the loft. What's very important is that you do not reduce the loft.
Left hand, maintain this position throughout the whole stroke. Folks, that's your whole
putting lesson for today. I was watching something interesting over here on the practice tee
adjacent to us. There was a blind golfer out there and he wanted to hit some practice balls
and he wasn't exactly certain which direction to go. So one of the lady members here saw
his plight and went up and asked if she could help out and he said, Bill, if you could help
me out, point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it. And she did that and she was
about to leave and he says, mate, before you leave, I have for you a question. And she
said, certainly sir, anything you'd like to know. He says, am I tall or am I short? And
she says, well, sir, you're not exactly tall, you're not exactly short, you're about average.
He says, Bill, very, very good. He says, I have for you another question. He says, am
I handsome or am I ugly? She says, well, I wouldn't say you were handsome, but on the
other end, you're not ugly. And by the way, would you please drop the Jewish accent your
Chinese? Are we going to use that joke? It's up to the editor. Good morning. Got a ride
out to the golf course today with Muhammad Ali. Brought me out in a big Rolls Royce.
On the way out, he says, Bob, have you ever ridden in a Rolls Royce before? I said, Muhammad,
yes, but this is the first time in the front seat. And on the way out, Muhammad helped
me prepare a little poem for you this morning that summarizes where we are up to this point.
So our poem for the day. If you use the wrist, you probably missed. But if you make the move,
you're right in the groove. Now, if you keep your head down, you'll hit it like a clown.
But if you point your chin, you'll get the proper spin. And if you grip it too tight
in the right, that ain't right. It's a grip it light. Now, in graduating people through
my class, I noticed that some people can move very rapidly in a transition from the motor
exercise to hitting the golf ball successfully. Some people, it's not so easy. They put the
right hand on there, develop too much tension, too much control. And scientifically, what
happens is this, is the right hand is controlled by the left side of the brain. And this is
our calculating thinking side of the brain. And we're trying to aim and steer the ball
too much. So I'm going to start off today by showing you a modification for the right
hand grip. It's one I've adopted. It's a little untextbooked, but it probably will help you
if you're feeling that your swing with both hands on the club is not the same as the motor
exercise. We place our left hand on the club in the standard manner, 45 degree angle, left
hand over and down. We still place the right hand on the club with the club crossing the
second pad of the middle two fingers. But the slight change is when we close the hand
instead of creating a perfect fit of the pocket of the right hand directly over the left thumb.
We modify that slightly and bring the right hand up higher. The purpose of this adjustment
is to make certain that the only pressure in the right hand is in the middle two fingers
and slightly in the right forefinger. In doing this, I found that I'm able to maintain the
pure motor move throughout the hitting of the golf ball. You'll be amazed how much
distance you can add if you gain a little flexibility and improve your hand and forearm
strength. Do the routine that I'm going to show you in the next five or six minutes and
you'll be a much better golfer. A few months ago when I completed the instant karate video,
I was delighted with the video, but I was not totally pleased with my muscle tone in
my upper body. About a year prior to making that video, I had stopped doing upper body
workouts because when I did so, I experienced a lot of tightness and discomfort between
my shoulder blades. But I wanted to get back working out, so I looked into the possibilities
of adding stretching to my workout routine and I discovered the principle of isometric
stretch and it's just terrific. What it does is it combines static stretch with isometric
exercises in such a way to dramatically speed up the rate at which you will gain flexibility.
And the routine is so effective that you don't have to do it every day. Every other day for
less than 15 minutes is just fine. Additionally, if you want to do some static stretching between
your isometric stretch workouts, just do these same exercises without the isometrics. Before
you join me in this routine, let's take a look at the history of stretch. Years ago
people did toe touches and other very rapid movements that tend to traumatize the muscles,
so ballistic stretch is out. The next phase in stretching development was static stretch.
Static stretch is a continual, steady, but non-traumatic pull on the muscles. It's safe,
but it's not very fast. Now we have isometric stretch. It starts with a static pull, but
after the static section, we then push against resistance and we relax more muscle fibers.
After we relax the additional muscle fibers, we completely relax the body. And then a few
seconds later, we complete the isometric stretch with another static stretch and gain a lot
more flexibility. This is the ideal way to stretch. It's very productive. Before you
join me in this exercise for inner thighs and the pelvic area, I'm going to use this
exercise to demonstrate how the isometric stretch method works. We'll repeat the exercise,
so just watch for now. Probably some of you have seen this exercise done before, maybe
you've done it. The objective here is to keep bringing your heels in, soles of your feet
together and to bring your knees down towards the ground. What I'm going to do here now
is I'm going to use my elbows to increase the pressure on the inner legs and bring my
knees closer to the ground. Now this is the static portion of this exercise. To do the
isometric portion, I resist against my legs with my elbows. I don't allow my knees to
come up, but I try to bring my knees up. I push my legs against my elbows isometrically
and hold, push, and push, and push, and then I relax for a second or two. This leg over
movement is great for golfers and tennis players. Cross your left leg over and with your right
arm pull your left leg up high. We're stretching the outside of the thigh and the hip. Get
your opposite shoulder as low as possible. Now push up. Try to get your knee up to the
sky, but don't let it move. Push the isometric, and now relax, relax completely. Try to get
your knee a little higher, shoulder a little further down in the static portion. Now push
the isometric, and relax. Now pull the static. The other side, right leg over. With your
left hand, bring the knee up nice and high, right shoulder down to the mat, and a nice
steady pull in the static portion. Isometric, relax completely, and static. One more isometric.
Relax. Finish off this exercise with a good high pull, shoulder down. This twist will
improve your golf, your tennis, and your martial arts performance. This is another great exercise
for golfers, tennis players, and martial artists. Stand about 8 or 10 inches from the wall.
In this case, I'm using the pillar. Toes straight ahead. Keep your feet planted. Turn around.
Place your hands against the wall or the pillar. This is the static part of the exercise. Hold
and stretch. And now for the isometric, resist with your hand and turn back in the other
direction. Push hard. Relax completely. Push hard again. And static. Nice good static stretch.
Now the other side.
We're doing so many takes today, I'm going to market the outtakes as a sequel. To do
this exercise properly, and by the way, it'll improve your golf game, your tennis, and your
ability to squeeze oranges, because it works the forearm. Grab the dumbbell with your palms
facing in, and back your hands out towards the camera people. The action is really simple.
Let me demonstrate it once before we start. Simply up to the chest, down, keep breathing
while we do 15. And 1, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. This simple little exercise routine that
I just showed you won't turn you into Arnold Schwarzenegger, but it will make you play a
lot more like Arnold Palmer in his heyday. Give me 5, 10 minutes a day, 3 times a week,
you're going to be a lot better player. Thank you for attending Automatic Golf Volume 2,
and ask at your favorite store for Automatic Golf, the operator's manual in book form.
Soon to be introduced, look for the automatic golf balls. They're just as automatic as your
willingness to apply the motor move to your golf game.
お疲れ様。