Both ways to hit the ball have strength and weaknesses and once you’ve tried and identified the differences between both techniques you could have a hard time choosing one path or the other as both are equally efficient.

Wouldn’t it be sweet if we could merge Fire and Ice?

Rejoice my friend, because now you can !!!

This "monster" is referred in the Golfing Machine terminology as the Four Barrel Hit. According to Homer Kelley (the author of the book) it is the ultimate way (although tough according to him – on what I tend to disagree) to hit the ball.

A few weeks ago a fellow reader asked me:

Just a fan and reader of you lag blog, had a couple questions:

I myself am stuck in that land between swinging and hitting. I’m not exactly sure what keeps me from committing to one or the other.  I really love the swings of Rory Mcilroy, Trevol Immelman, all of Slicefixer’s students, as well as you’re "swinging" video.  You’ve got sooooooooooo much extension and width that swing it’s just beautiful.

Somewhere on your site you mentioned that recently you’re playing with more of a hitting style.  With a swing as beautiful as yours I wondered why you would prefer the hitting method?  Of course in that video we can’t see what the ball flight looked like.  Maybe you prefer the accuracy and lower flight of the hit.  I too like the control I feel when I’m "hitting", but when I’m working on swinging, making a bigger, wider turn, rolling my forearm, letting centrifugal force do what it’s supposed to do, and I flush one, and that ball goes longer and higher than anything I’ve ever seen, it’s just such an amazing feeling, like a drug, and I just want MORE.

I guess I’m just wondering if it’s possible to have a little bit of both.  A nice wide, long, fluid swing, but with a deliberate squaring of the club, maintaining the lag with that right index pressure point.  Would there be any benefit to this?

Sorry I gota bit long winded with this one, I would love to get a response but also understand we’re all busy people.  Thanks again for such an informative little blogsite.

-Sean

Here’s what I wrote to Sean:

Introducing the Four Barrel Hit!

Now, regarding your question: I found myself switching between the two techniques during the past 4 years and achieved quite the same results in scoring with both.

Also a word about power and distance: I achieved more or less the same results in distance with hitting and swinging.
Without flattering myself, I can proudly say that I’m the longest hitter in my area (I drive the same distance as a friend of mine playing on the Allianz Tour (a Nationwide-like tour in Europe) and slightly longer with my irons (but accuracy not still at par )) and I cannot remember someone overdriving me!

Interestingly enough, this length and power is directly related to the Lag I now have in all my shots – not Hitting or Swinging. Lag pressure is independent of the technique.

After 4 years of studying Hitting, Swinging and Lag, I came to the conclusion that both are very efficient IF Lag is present. This makes the Lag the most important thing to master.

Now, a proper technique eases the use of Lag. This is why learning Hitting and Swinging is so important.

But due to their essence, Hitting and Swinging shouldn’t be combined!

“…you CANNOT pull (Swing) and push (Hit) something at the SAME TIME…”.

True, and I have a nice analogy for you to get a feel for that: Imagine that you intend to spin a bicycle wheel.

You can either:

• Drag the rim with your left hand (Swing)
• Drive (push) a spoke with your right hand (Hit)

Try to do both AT THE SAME TIME – you’ll find yourself chasing one move with the other – it doesn’t work well.

But there is one way!

You surely noticed the capitalized words in “…you CANNOT pull (Swing) and push (Hit) something at the SAME TIME…”.

• Ok, so what about saying: “…you CAN pull (Swing) and push (Hit) something BUT NOT at the SAME TIME…”
• Or, even: “…you CAN pull (Swing) FIRST and push (Hit) something SECOND provided you do not do both at the SAME TIME…”
• Or better: “…you CAN pull (Swing) and push (Hit) something IN SEQUENCE!”

Great, but how to do that practically?

First, a little reminder of the particularities of Hitting & Swinging:

• Centrifugal force
• A lot of “rotary” body power

• Right arm muscular thrust only
• Little to no “rotary” body power

A “4 Barrel” stroke is sequence of both techniques – and it is vital that they stay sequenced.

To get a feel for it, let’s go back to our bicycle wheel:

1. Swing the wheel by dragging the rim
2. The wheel is turning – centrifugal force has been generated
3. If the wheel is not turning too fast, you could be able to catch a spoke and push it to give the wheel extra spin!

Now applied in the golf swing :

From the top of the backswing

1. Swing component: with your left arm across your chest, perform your body rotation towards the target in order to blast this left arm away from the chest.
2. Swing component: WAIT for the feel of centrifugal force coming in as your body stops his rotation and your left arm and club are swung into orbit.
   Note: At this point, in the most extreme cases, your body could very well be facing the target!
3. Hitting component: As soon as you fell that centrifugal force coming in, fire the powerful right arm thrust of the Hitter.

It works beautifully if the sequence is done properly and if you stay within your limits.

The good

• Maximum power. For me it gives me one more club at last with irons and could sometimes send the ball 350 meters with a driver!
• No accuracy loss if done properly
• Makes your friends laugh as you send balls out of bounds in the neighbor’s swimming pool the other end of the range!
  

The bad

• Timing is the issue. Be careful with your sequence, do not engage your right arm too soon.

Have fun playing with the beast!

Here’s the story: My wife, Carine, is a casual player who started golf a few years ago and plays around 30. But due to her pregnancy she hasn’t touched a golf club for two years and she only played 4 practice rounds since (!):

• May 5, 2008: One bucket of practice balls
• Aug 24, 2008: One bucket of practice balls
• Sept 1, 2008: Two hours working on Lag & proper swing dynamics
• Feb 13, 2009: One bucket of practice balls with a great smile !

Carine did the first two practice sessions with her old Swing. But at the end of the second session in August, she wasn’t totally pleased by her game and she decided it was time to do something…

As I got great improvements on my own game by introducing Lag in it, I proposed her to give it a try.

And this is what we got (click on the thumbs for the details):

Old Swing – Iron play – Date: May 5, 2008

This is Carine’s old swing.
This swing sequence may look good at first sight but still images tell the truth: The Left Wrist bends at impact due to clubhead throw away. Leverage is lost leading to power loss and poor accuracy.

Old Swing – Driver – Date: Aug 24, 2008

Carine hasn’t touched a club since her last session three months ago. However the same flaws can be seen here again.

They are also magnified by using the Driver in an attempt to hit it hard…

After that session, we watched the videos and she asked me what could be done to improve her golf swing.

I was happy to oblige and gently proposed she’d be my Guinea Pig for some experiments during her next practice session

New Swing – Iron Play – Date: Sept 1, 2008

One week later (without touching a club in between) we managed to get together for that "lab" session.

First, we did a few exercises to make her understand Lag pressure – Dynamics of the stroke.
Second, I explained the correct Geometry of the stroke and how to comply with it.

She gently, diligently and blindly (this must be love!) did all the strange things I asked her to do during the first 45 minutes.

We then moved to an area where we can hit balls a bit longer. After 10 balls, I took the first Swing video: She was performing perfect "Acquired Motion" strokes!

The second Video was shot a few minutes later: She loved the new feels and was looking to compress the ball with increased authority!

New Swing – Driver

As a reward we headed to the range to hit some Drives. I was wondering if she could reproduce the feel with the big stick…

Well, see for yourself!

Absolutely no clubhead throw away here and a nice looking golf swing on still images!

New Swing – Hungry for Lag – Date: Feb 2, 2009

And the final test: She hasn’t seen a golf ball since the last session more than 7 months ago!!! I told you she was a casual player!

I took the video 5 minutes after we arrived – she did it immediately right as if she had played the day before!

That was funny because she loved the Lag Pressure Feel so much that she was compressing the ball like crazy!

She was so concerned by driving it down that she never thought of her finish and always stopped at the end of her follow through – the both arms straight station.

Woah!

Pretty amazing don’t you think?

Isn’t it a great proof that switching to the correct dynamics can lead to huge improvements on the Golf game?

And most important: by accepting to change your conception of the golf stroke those improvements can come pretty fast!

What kind of black magic is in use here?

As I think you are dying to know what magic was used, let me explain exactly what we did to achieve those tremendous changes almost instantly.
I’m sure this will benefit to a lot of you who don’t know where to start to go from Hackville to Lagville!

My goal was to get rid of her clubhead throw away.
I knew I had to make her feel Lag pressure because the more the Lag Pressure, the harder to throw it away – pretty simple.

But before hitting any ball, we talked 15 minutes about the geometry of the stroke.

From there she understood the need of hitting down (& out) on the golf ball instead of scooping at it.

She then realized that a Flat Left Wrist at impact was mandatory to achieve this and that the clubhead must never travel faster than the hands (the clubhead must stay below the hands until both arms straight).

I told her that one way to ensure a Flat Left Wrist at impact is to think of maintaining the right wrist bent at all times.

With that in mind, she was now ready to get introduced to Mr. Lag Pressure and ingrain that feel in her mind.

We just did a variant of the "Drag the Wet Mop" drill:
With an 8 iron, walk down the fairway while strongly dragging the leading edge of the Golf club. Your goal is to bend the shaft and maintain that stress as you walk. This puts quite a strong pressure into your index trigger finger of the right hand that can’t go unnoticed!

Do it for 3 minutes and keep that feeling in your mind and in your finger.

Now, you are ready to hit some "Basic Motion" shots: This is only a miniature swing where the emphasis is put into the impact zone – two feet back and two feet through.
The goal is to feel exactly the same strong pressure in the index as in the previous exercise while maintaining a Flat Left Wrist (or a Bent Right Wrist) and driving the ball down into the ground.

We did that 15 minutes and moved to "Acquired Motion": Still a miniature full swing (and not a pitch shot), hands no further back than shoulder high and stop to both arms straight with the clubhead below the hands.

The risk when you move to longer shots is to go faster because you subconsciously think of the distance the ball must travel.
To keep her away from that I asked her to think "Slow and Heavy".

That’s all folks: Nothing more than Lag Pressure Feel (good dynamics) applied to a correct conception of the Golf Stroke (good geometry)…

The player’s feel

She told me what she felt different from her old way of swinging the golf club:

1. Compressing the ball by visualizing a line going down and out into the ground and through the ball and that she needed to aim down that line.
   Before that, she was seeing a line going towards the target and laying on the ground.
2. She immediately loved the feel and was "greedy" for more compression!
3. She felt maintaining the Left Wrist Flat by maintaining the Right Wrist Bend.
4. She tried to reproduce the pressure in the index trigger finger of the right hand witnessed during the Drag the Wet Mop drill.
5. Thinking "Slow and Heavy" as a mantra to keep away from over accelerating the clubhead and sensing a heavy Lag Pressure.

I’ll try to perform that little experiment again to see if I can manage to get the same amazing improvements on someone else.
I’ll keep you informed if I manage to find another gentle Guinea Pig!

In the meantime, feel free to try this curriculum by yourself and share the results with others on the comments area.

This is very unfortunate because it is a very efficient way to strike the golf ball and in my opinion a very interesting alternative for strong or less flexible players.

Muscular Thrust

Unlike the Swinger who manipulates centrifugal force, the pure Hitter ONLY uses his right arm to activate the Primary Lever Assembly (that is the Left Arm plus the club as a whole).
For those interested, the muscle involved here is the right triceps as it is responsible for straightening the arm. So if you are a boxer you should give the Hitting stroke a try !

The main action involved here is a muscular thrust of the right arm against the Primary Lever Assembly.
The clubhead is not thrown into orbit by the pivot; Instead, the hitter pushes radially (against the radius!) against the shaft with his right arm only.

Think of it like pushing against one spoke of a bicycle wheel to put the wheel into motion – Swinging would make you drag the rim of the wheel.

The proper action is to straighten the right arm without flattening the right wrist in a piston like action. 

Address: Impact Fix

It all starts at address – the Hitter usually sets up with his hands in a position that is called "Impact Fix":

This position, while not mandatory, allows for an easier pickup of the Primary Lever Assembly as a whole by the right arm (the right forearm takeaway). Also it establishes the proper impact alignments right away.

From this position all you have to do is to freeze your wrists into their position and move the whole thing back and forth with your right arm pretty much in a piston like motion.

A good way to feel this motion is, without a club, to hold your left wrist with your right hand and move your left arm back and forth. Simple enough? Well this is the principle of the Hitting motion.

Half Roll of the club face

Due to the way the club is moved, the clubface doesn’t open as much as the Swinging motion during the backswing and doesn’t close as much in the downstroke. Consequently, Hitting naturally produces what is called a "Half Roll" of the clubface: When you look at the clubface at both arms straight, you should see the clubface looking 45 degrees left (for righties) instead of 90 degrees left in the Swinging motion (full roll, clubface closed).

Funnily enough, this produces a no-roll feel which is very important to note as you might intuitively search to feel a roll.

This Half Roll also has a natural fade tendency. As a consequence, the Hitter tends to adopt stronger grips to counterbalance that effect and produce straight shots.

You should also take into account that the more forward the ball in your stance (Driver for example), the more the need for a closed face and a stronger grip because the more the layback of the clubface at this point.

Experience with your grip to find the correct amount of shut face to induce.

Face constantly looking at the ball

Another interesting fact is the way the clubface swivels during the swing.

Unlike the Swinger whose clubface almost immediately swivels against the plane of the swing, the Hitter doesn’t rotate the clubface but rather keep it "looking at the ball" during the backswing: The clubface stays at right angles against the face of the plane. This is the natural byproduct of the angled hinge and you must not intent to rotate it clockwise/open on the backswing or you will have to consciously rotate it back counterclockwise on the downswing for proper contact.

Establishing the Lag: Drive Loading

You will discover that the piston like action of the right arm produces a shorter backswing than the Swinger due to the position of the right elbow set to push against the shaft instead of pulling.

From there, usually the hands cannot go higher than shoulder high – which is called the Top.

But, from such a shorter backstroke, the tendency is to rush on the downstroke.

Make sure you give yourself enough time to transition from Top to Start Down and accomplish the necessary Drive Loading.

Uh? Drive Loading you said?

Let me explain: For the Hitter, an efficient way to establish the Lag is to resist the backstroke motion then perform a right arm thrust against this clubhead Lag striving to accelerate a pre stressed clubshaft from a slow startdown through impact and to both arms straight.

Here, the Pivot (Right Shoulder) must also provide the initial acceleration of the Power Package (Shoulders, Arms, Hands and Club).

But beware! From there, you only have your bent right arm to provide the Thrust. So, if the right arm begins to straighten too soon, you will have triggered the release, and you will run out of right arm before impact and product a nasty Clubhead Throwaway. 

Slow Start Down

As previously mentioned, for the Hitter a slow Start Down is mandatory to allow for the right arm to properly get into position.
In the transition from the Top to Start Down think very Slow and very Heavy and that should do the trick.

A word about Pivot Action

Unlike the Swinging motion, the Pivot (the body) doesn’t perform the blast of the left arm off the chest. Instead its purpose is to put the right shoulder into position (closer to the ball – down plane) as a platform to push against.

Think of a sprinter pushing against his starting-blocks.
Think also of the action of a boxer: before delivering its punch the boxer will get his right shoulder into position closer to his opponent to strike him with maximum force. In the Hitting stroke, you have to move your right shoulder down plane to get closer to the ball and deliver the right arm thrust.

One more word about the Pressure Points involved in the Hitting Procedure

Again, to find the location of the pressure points involved in the Hitting action we’ll do a little drill: grab a club, put the clubhead against something heavy and try to push this thing not by dragging with your body but rather by pushing with your right arm.

You’ll easily identify 3 pressure points:

• Pressure point #1: The palm of your right hand against the aft section of the grip and you left thumb.
• Pressure point #2: The last 3 fingers of your left hand.
• Pressure point #3: The index-trigger-finger of the right hand resisting against the club wanting to stay behind.

Establish those specific pressures during you downstroke while performing the Hitting stroke to become an expert Hitter! 

In the eye of the Hitter!

The Hitter thinks of delivering a cross line blow down and out from the top of his swing. As a result he mentally constructs a "Delivery Line" going down and out to "first base".

I thought it could be interesting and fun to show what the Hitter sees in his mind. This gives a very good sense of the Hitter’s intents during the stroke.

Click on the images to display the slideshow, and then use the PREVIOUS / NEXT controls to navigate through the images.

Summing things up

1. Set up at Impact Fix and "freeze" your wrists alignments.
2. Pick up the whole thing back in a "piston + fanning" like motion (a piston-only motion would make you look like starting a lawnmower which is not the motion we want).
3. Perform what feels like a shorter backstroke as what you are used to.
4. From the top, initiate a slow startdown by pushing against the shaft with your right arm only (pressure point #1 feel). The slow start down will give yourself enough time to get closer to the ball to deliver your blow.
5. Drive it strongly down and out. Destroy the ground!

Swing sequence

As a reminder, here are the sequences of the Hitting Procedure. Click on the images to display the slideshow, and then use the PREVIOUS/NEXT controls to navigate through the images.

Hitting stroke video

Hitting stroke sequence

Throw it incorrectly and the flail will go out of control and hurt you!

We must generate and master centrifugal force and make it an ally.

How to generate Centrifugal Force?

Centrifugal force allows striking the ball with a sensation of effortless power which is quite interesting!

The key here is the Throwing motion. More precisely it is a Throw-Out Action induced by the rotary motion of the swinging stroke.
The goal here is to (intend to) Throw the club out of the radius of the stroke (the Throw out Action).
Doing it is fairly easy as the only thing you have to do from the top of the swing is straighten the right arm. It won’t look like that on video but it is the correct feel.

How does it feel?

Try this tip: Go to the Top of your backswing. From there, try to hammer your clubhead right into the ground to the right of your right foot. Do not turn your body to the ball, just straighten your right arm as you would with a hammer in your hand, on a vertical plane.

You can hammer the ground very hard this way and it is pretty natural!
This is the Throw-Out Action!

Next step: All we have to do is to let this motion happen on the inclined plane of the swing passing through the ball instead of a vertical plane passing through our feet.

This is the tricky part because it means that in order to perform the same action as when hammering the ground on a vertical plane, this motion on an inclined plane puts your club face facing up and out to the right!
This is most disturbing for a vast majority of golfers because their brain senses this wide open clubface going down plane and tells their hands to urgently turn the clubface to the ball!

This is steering the clubface and it disrupts centrifugal force.

Have a look at this picture: I put in evidence the desired orientation of the clubface during the Throw-Out Action of the clubhead.

So the trick is to initially throw the club with the clubface face up under the plane of the swing.

What it means is that even very close to impact the club face remains pointing to right field almost at right angle!!! Then, at the very last moment, centrifugal force and inertia will automatically square up the club face for impact.

It’s really scary when you try it for the first time. But it is a test of faith!
The more you throw it DOWN and OUT freely “open” without trying to line up the club face yourself, the easier for centrifugal force to line up you club face at the very last moment!

What breaks the Swing?

You probably have an idea right now: You can mess things up very easily with the SLIGHTEST attempt to manipulate/control the club FACE.

Doing that will disrupt centrifugal force and you’ll break the motion.

Summing things up

1. Throw the club (Throw-Out Action) to generate centrifugal force by straightening the right arm.
2. Hold on to the club and resist the temptation of interfering. There is a sensation of no muscular effort and a freewheeling of the club head.
3. Keep the faith until low point! Centrifugal force will align everything at the last moment!

A last word about the Pressure Points involved in the Swinging Procedure

(This is an extract of a reply to Craig Vogel’s question about this particular subject)
To discover the location of the pressure points involved in the swinging action, do the “Drag the Wet Mop” drill and focus on pulling the mop (do not drag it by pushing it with your right arm or you’ll switch to Hitting with a different arrangement of pressures).

You can also replace the mop drill by putting your clubhead behind something very heavy and trying to move it forward by dragging the club.
You’ll easily identify 3 pressure points:

• Pressure point #4: The point where your left arm touches the chest.
• Pressure point #2: The last 3 fingers of your left hand dragging the club.
• Pressure point #3: The index-trigger-finger of the right hand resisting against the club wanting to stay behind.

Swing sequences

As a reminder, here are the sequences of the Swinging Procedure. Click on the images to display the slideshow, and then use the PREVIOUS/NEXT controls to navigate through the images.

Swinging stroke video

Swinging stroke sequence

But for the moment, think about this for a second: In order to move something like a shopping cart you need to push against it with your hands (actually, you could also pull it, but for simplicity stakes, let’s stick to pushing…).
While you push the cart, you feel a pressure in the point(s) of contact of your hand(s) against the handle of the cart: These are pressure points.

In the Golf swing there are 4 distinct pressure points (more on that in another article) but again, for simplicity stakes, we will focus on the easiest and more convenient to feel: the meaty part of your index (the "trigger finger") of your trailing hand where it touches the club.

Here is the trick: Are you able to perform a Golf stroke while feeling pressure in this index from start down to both arms straight (the end of the follow-through and before the finish)???

Even better: if you can feel this pressure not decreasing (unrelentless pressure), I bet my shirt you must be a 1 digit handicap as you must have Lag in your swing with all the good things that come with it!

Poor players have almost no pressure feel at all because they are "running after the club", exactly as you would run after your cart after having pushed it violently: the pressure against the handle was very strong the moment you pushed hard but disappeared as the cart when away from you (you can’t push something faster you can run!).

A player who casts the club (club head throwaway) does exactly that: he feels a lot of pressure in the start of the downswing (by accelerating the club very hard and convulsively). Such a sudden accelartion thows the club away with no chance to catch it up before impact.
Needless to say, that player feels no pressure at all in the index finger when the club head arrives at the ball.

The correct way to do it is to push your cart evenly with no over-acceleration.

The correct feel is a pressure in the trigger finger that is even and present from start-down to follow-through. Light or heavy pressure doesn’t matter. The important thing is that it must be there and steady.

A Tour Player’s feels exactly that. But imagine he is able to put and keep (most important!) a LOT of pressure in the trigger finger: harder to sustain during the swing but highly rewarding in terms of ball compression/distance/control.

Sounds easy to practice? Next time you go to the range, spend a bucket of ball focusing on that pressure. Start with half swings as it is easy to feel with shorter backswings.

Oh, by the way: This is how Lag feels; it’s a pressure in your hands!!! – The more unrelentless pressure you feel, the more Lag you have!

And if you are a Golf nut like us, look for the feel the next time you push your cart in the shopping mall!

Now, what kind of feel do you have to look for?

This is where the wet mop analogy comes in handy!

1. Grab a mop (a towel will do the trick) and wrap it around the clubhead. Now, soak the mop in a bucket of water then put it on the floor (this tip may actually help you clean the house!).
2. Take your normal stance and put the mop in front of your trailing foot. At this point, your hands should also be in front of your trailing leg.
3. Now, gently, try to drag everything in one piece by moving your hands past your leading leg and straight toward the target (we call this "Tracing the Line"). Do not try to manipulate the clubhead! We do not want the Mop to go past the leading leg: only the hands – so allow the Wet Mop to trail behind when you try to move your hands towards the target.

Congratulations, you are lagging!

Do it again and monitor those important things:

• The grip is pressing hard against the forefinger of your trailing hand – this is the exact feel of pressure we want in a normal golf swing.
• The mop feels very heavy as it lags behind your hands – this is the exact feel of heaviness we want in a normal golf swing.

Did you notice:

• that your body reacts naturally to ease the drag? The hips clear, the torso turns automatically when you try to create lag and not the opposite: deliberately putting those elements in motion won’t create any lag!
• that you automatically pushed against your leading foot to resist the drag?
• you might even notice that your shaft was bent and put in tension.

Now, your next task on the range will be to seek and incorporate those feelings of pressure and heaviness in your swing.

I recommend that you begin with very small swings (almost a chip – we call this "Basic Motion") using a seven iron and sending balls no more than 30 feet away. Basic Motion is important because they are less moving parts than in a full swing it’s easier to concentrate on pressure and heaviness in your hands.