Jack Nicklaus’ swing key for belting lengthy drives down the green

Golf instruction is ever-evolving, however the very best recommendation stands the check of time. In GOLF.com’s new collection, Timeless Suggestions, we’re highlighting among the best recommendation lecturers and gamers have disbursed within the pages of GOLF Journal. At the moment, we revisit an influence tip from Jack Nicklaus from our April 1968 subject. For limitless entry to the total GOLF Journal digital archive, be part of InsideGOLF right this moment; you’ll get pleasure from $140 of worth for under $39.99/12 months.

Energy off the tee is an irreplaceable talent in golf. When you possibly can hit the ball longer than your opponents, you might be at an instantaneous benefit.

This reality has been true for so long as golf has been performed. One instance? The Golden Bear, Jack Nicklaus.

Whereas it’s true that Nicklaus might do all the things nicely on the course, one in all his best abilities early in his profession was his energy off the tee. When he arrived on the scene within the Nineteen Sixties, he performed golf in a means that few had ever seen earlier than.

Nicklaus’ dynamic energy was an enormous think about establishing him as a close to unstoppable drive within the 60s and 70s. Over the course of these twenty years, the Golden Bear gained 15 of his 18 profession main titles — and it began together with his prolific talent off the tee.

Again in 1968, GOLF Journal highlighted the keys for Nicklaus’ energy, which you’ll learn under.

Jack’s energy key

Jack Nicklaus is among the finest golfers anyplace at any kind of shot you need to identify, though his versatility is typically virtually forgotten. Ask a fan to explain Nicklaus’s sport in a single phrase, and each time that phrase comes again loud and clear — energy.

It is because nobody constantly hits the ball farther than Jack, and due to this fact he has turn into acknowledged because the longest hitter in golf right this moment. Though he’s a giant fellow, standing 5-feet 11-inches and weighing over 200 kilos, the key to Nicklaus’s size lies extra in his nice swing, excellent timing and great energy generated from his hips and legs. A research of the Nicklaus swing is actually a research of energy — but additionally a research of precision motion and full utilization of the physique for the absolute best efficiency.

Jack makes use of an upright stance and begins his swing with an amazing coiling of his shoulders and hips. Within the recoil, he strikes the left facet out of the way in which very early, with excellent timing, to unleash the large energy in his physique.

Coming into the ball, Jack drives his proper elbow tightly towards his proper facet, delaying the wrist break till the arms have reached hip degree. A giant supply of energy is within the knees, and particularly the fitting knee. His complete decrease physique — the hips, knees and ft — all work collectively to generate energy and a fluid swing, however the knees function the focus or coordinator of the swing.

In Nicklaus’s swing, one sees that because the membership comes again the left knee turns in towards the fitting and the fitting knee turns into the vital a part of your complete swing. It’s locked into place all through the swing, because it have to be, and the knee then works because the brace round which the physique coils.

This firmness helps construct up energy and in addition makes it not possible to sway off the ball, thereby shedding energy.

Nicklaus’s energy is launched by pushing off the fitting foot, inflicting the hips, knee and foot to all thrust ahead, into and thru the swing. The best knee turns straight towards the goal after impression and on the follow-through, and thereby pushes your complete physique and all its energy within the course the ball is being hit.

It’s the Nicklaus technique — one with confirmed success each in distance and accuracy — and it actually entails much more than easy brute energy.