! Scigolf presents Scott Hazledine Answers Your Golfing Questions On Your Golf Game.

Question 16

Q: I currently have your video "the IMA way". I also have the Heard super swing video and a couple of natural golf videos. I have tried this system and had some initial success but started having trouble until I sort of went back to conventional golf at which time my handicap started going back down again.
Some of the biggest problems that I had was with the wide stance. I found this to be very hard to comfortably follow though. Some of my friends said that I was slapping at the ball. I don't know whether this is exasperated because I am 6'6" tall. Once I narrowed my stance I was able to comfortably follow through and my scores went down. I still had the palm grip. I have been experimenting with the conventional grip again and have found that I still strike the ball similarly to the single axis. I know that this does not make physics sense. Have you ever seen the problem of slapping at the ball? I guess part of the problem is what to do with your wrists as you follow through. Do you roll over? If you try to hold the club square past contact you definately feel weird.
Your comments will be greatly appreciated and I am definetely thinking about attending your schools.

Thanks, Scott

A wide stance is not part of my principles for single axis, nor is keeping your right foot flat on the ground which in many causes a stance that has gone beyond shoulder width and leads to a falling back on the right side and straightening the left leg through impact. As I have said before Moe's golf swing went all the way to parallel when he was a 30 year old and and his right foot did not stay flat on the ground. He had a full and complete follow through.

Jack Kuykendall's original science said that a hip to shoulder width stance was optimal. The super wide stance came from overzelous Moe deciples. Also Moe also never kept his hands from releasing. In fact, he often would release them as fast as he could to show that his release was not a rolling over of the wrists but a straight line motion that would not close the club face down through impact and separation no matter how fast you released them.

What is happening with the Ideal Mechanical Advantage technique, and Moe Norman's release is this. Notice how in the photos of Moe just past separation you see the left wrist extend backward like a total collapse of the left wrist and you will see the right hand have a bow to it. There is no rolling over of the hand, it is merely a straightening of the right wrist. Do this on a table top place a club, pencil, scissors any instrument in your hands and then point the knuckle of your left hand straight in front of you on plane with the table and your right hand will be extended backward so the right thumb would be pointing back toward your right forearm, now flex your right wrist and continue on until the left wrist bends and your right wrist bows. This is Moe's releasing hand action. If Moe were rolling his hands over you would see the butt end of the handle of the golf club pointing well below the right forearm. You would also have no need for the bowed right wrist and the left wrist could remain flat as well. Looking at Moe's photos past impact you see his hands are facing palm to backhand, not palm to sky or palm to ground. Release as fast as you wish as long as it is straight line motion. The impact backwards drill that you see on my video will train your release to be as perfect as Moes.

Continue to do the impact backward drills for you will achieve mastery by repetition and fine tuning. If you were to ask me what is Moe's feeling of greatness, it's the same release time after time without any variation. You can hit 500 golfballs a day for five years to learn this or do 20 repetitions of impact backwards a day and learn in three weeks, your choice.

One thing that most golfers don't under stand is that if you learn the Ideal Mechanical Advantage single axis technique you don't lose your traditional swing it only improves it. However, do you wish to just improve your traditional motion or achieve mastery over the golf stroke and ball?

Your genetic timing barrier sets probability limits on a rotating golf swing and so mastery is never within reach. The Ideal Mechanical Advantage technique offers mastery, and don't get this confused with a natural golf approach mimicking Moe Norman's idiosyncrasies.