While I consider every page of my website of some value, if I have to pick the most important page, this is it. The mini-Swing is the foundation of my swing. Whenever I lose the feel of the Swing, I come back to my mini-Swing. It is a good place to start LEARNING the Swing as well. I will introduce some mechanics on this page, particularly relating to the swing plane and the clubface alignment. However, keep in mind that my primary objective is to communicate the FEEL. Spend some time digesting this page, and please do all the exercises and drills on this page. Don’t jump to the full Swing until you have spent the time doing the things I suggest on this page.

The mini-Swing is exactly that. It’s a miniture version of the Swing. The exact length of the backswing doesn’t matter so much, as long as it enables you to FEEL the motion of the Swing. My version of the mini-Swing is rather short, with the club only reaching the horizontal position on the way back and on the way through. The hands stay pretty low, below the waist line.

Before we move onto the feel aspect of the mini-Swing, let’s get through the mechanical stuff first. I’ll try to be as brief as possible. Two things I want to discuss are the swing plane and the clubface alignment.

I’d like to suggest you build a "plane club". It’s pretty simple. All you need is an old unused putter, preferably heel shafted (eg. Wilson 8802), a small flash light (or laser) and some strong elastic bands. The reason we use a putter is because it is easy to see the clubface alignment without the loft of a regular club.

All you have to do is tie the flashlight on the shaft of the putter just below the grip, so that the beam of light shines just IN FRONT of the putter face. At address, the beam should shine where the ball would be.

Now, if you swing on plane, the beam of light should trace a STRAIGHT line on the GROUND. To check this, you need some clear space. A long hallway is perfect for this. Stand facing one of the walls in your hallway, and gently perform the mini-Swing, observing the path of the beam and the path of the putter head. If you are swinging on plane, the beam should trace a straight line one the ground, where as the putter head traces a curved path, like this:

As you are performing the mini-Swing with the aid of the flashlight, try to feel the gentle movement of your navel. Gentle turn (about 20 degrees) to your right as you swing the club back, and a gently turn to your left as you swing the club through. Concentrate on feeling a gentle, slow, small turning motion of your navel, and the straight line movement of the beam of light. Compare the inside motion (navel) and the outside motion (clubhead, beam of light). Can you feel how the butt of the club seems to point towards your navel through impact? This keeps the club (outside) moving in harmony with the navel (inside). With the mini-Swing, you should feel a certain amount of "connection" between the butt of the club and the navel. Be careful here. I don’t want you to tense up in order to keep the connection. As we move onto the full swing, you’ll see how the swinging motion of the hands feel very much separate from the slow turning motion of the navel. Only for a brief time through impact do they feel "connected". You are feeling that "connection" now with the mini-Swing. I’ll go more into the interaction between the inside (ie. navel) and the outside (clubhead) further down the page when we move onto the feel aspect of the mini-Swing.

I like to feel that there is no CONSCIOUS rotation of the clubface during my swing. This allows me to flail the club aggressively without worrying about the timing of the wrist-roll. I like to think in terms of "keeping things in their own lanes" during the mini-Swing. The toe of the clubhead stays in it’s own lane, as does the heel of the clubhead. They don’t cross one another. Also, the left and right hands stay in their own lanes relative to one another.

Notice how the lanes are on an INCLINDED plane. The are NOT on a horizontal plane. I hope you can see how if you keep the toe and the heel of the club in their own lanes, by the end of the mini-Swing, with the club horizontal, the clubface will look "hooded", facing the ground a bit. Instead of the toe pointing straight up at 12 o’clock, it will be pointing more towards 11 o’clock. This is perfectly OK, and even desirable. Many top pros have this kind of "hooding" action (eg. Colin Montgomery, Hal Sutton, Payne Stewart, Annika Sorenstam). It is not really hooding or closing the clubface, because the clubface is staying square to it’s path along the inclined plane.

Just a quick aside. By preventing the clubface from fanning open during the backswing, you are essentially swinging the sweetspot of the club. If you rotated the club open with your hands, you are twisting the club along the axis of the shaft, and thus you are swinging the shaft and the hosel rather than the sweet spot. This will leave you prone to shanking. Instead of trying to manipulate the club with your hands through the shaft, feel as though the sweet spot of the club is freely "orbitting" around your centre of gravity. Swing the sweet spot instead of manipulating it through the shaft.

OK. Now that we’ve got the mechanical part out of the way, let’s concentrate on the FEEL. We’ll keep working with our "plane club".

Remember how I said the most difficult part of the swing to learn is the very beginning of the backswing? Well, lets work on it now. Once you feel it, it becomes very easy and repetitive.

I talked about smoothly injecting some momentum into the Swing at the start. Let me go into this a little deeper. I like to "rev up" my swing slightly, for a fraction of a second, before the clubhead starts moving. With the clubhead lightly resting on the ground behind the ball, I move my navel and my hands away from the ball. Because my hands are relaxed, the clubhead stays where it is for a fraction of a second due to its own weight. When it finally starts moving, it does so in a smooth manner, with the momentum successfully injected into the Swing. You’ll be amazed at the smoothness, and how the clubhead stays low, seemingly "hugging" the ground as it moves away from the ball. Once the momentum injection is complete, and things are SWINGING, the rest is a piece of cake.

Please note that the "cupping" of the left hand in the second picture from the left is greatly exaggerated. The initial lagging of the club does not look as severe as this in real life. However, it FEELS like a lot. Also, please notice that the club should be resting on the ground only lightly at address. The clubhead is not lagging because it is pressing hard on the ground. It is lagging because of its own weight resisting the initial momentum injection. Once this has been overcome (which only takes a fraction of a second), the clubhead will start accelerating smoothly.

Practise this momentum injection until you get used to it. At first, it will feel as though you have no control over the clubhead. Remember what I said about giving up manipulative control in order to gain swinging control. Once this kind of start to the backswing becomes second nature, you won’t want to go back to your old ways of manipulating the club into the backswing. You’ll want to SWING it away.

To finish this session off, practise the entire mini-Swing, from the address position to the throughswing position, where the club is horizontal, with the butt of the club pointing at the navel, and the beam of light pointing at the target.

Concentrate on feeling the following things:

a) Feel the centre of the swing. Feel the navel turning back and forth (about 20 degrees each way) in a slow and gentle manner.

b) Feel the outside of the swing. Feel the hands and the clubhead. You must be aware of where the hands are throughout the swing. They are the chieft "sensors" that tell you where the clubhead is.

c) Observe the beam of light. Trace a straight line with the beam of light away from the target on the backswing, and trace a straight line towards the target after impact on the throughswing.

d) Feel the "connection" between the navel and the clubhead for a split second through impact. This should not be done by tensing up and "locking" yourself into connection. Instead, for a brief moment through impact, the beam of light should feel like it’s coming directly from the navel, not the club. During this fraction of a second through impact, the clubhead should feel like a "free" satellite orbitting around the navel. There should be a feeling of a "direct" connection between the navel and the clubhead through impact, with everything in between forming the string. This is another example of seeming conflicting qualities that is inherent to the Swing. The clubhead should feel free from the body through impact. At the same time, there seems to be a direct connection between the centre (ie. navel) and the orbitting satellite (clubhead) through impact. Imagine a satellite orbitting around the Earth. While the satellite is seemingly "free" from Earth, they are bound together by the force of gravity. While this kind of inside-outside connection through impact is obvious with the mini-Swing, it is subtle and transient in the full swing. It is, never the less, very important in controlling the Swing, and thus should be felt and sought first with the mini-Swing.

When you feel ready, hit some 30 yard shots using a nine iron. Feel the mini-Swing as a whole. One motion. Don’t divide it into multiple steps. Once the backswing has started, don’t stop. Follow the swinging motion until the throughswing. As you hit the 30 yard chips with the mini-Swing, imagine flowing water. Feel its smoothness. Feel its motion. There is no stationary moment. One motion.