I decided to do a quick clip on my own in response to questions about the pivot and on the lack of precision hitting experienced by some viewers. If you don’t take the proper measurements at address and don’t keep the head steady, problems with precision may creep in. Actual clips from Mike are to come but this will provide you with some critical foundation.
Hope that helps!
Copyright llenroc enterprises LLC November 3, 2010
Mentored By The Legend - Mike Austin 
I recently learned about Mike Austin. Happens to be that I learned of him from one of the top 100 teaching pros in North America ….. and he happened to meet Mike in California some years ago. Also … a member of my golf club new and golfed with Mike some years ago.
Anyway, I have been struggling with understanding the lower body action in the swing for years now. This video tutorial has finally made clear for me. I haven’t achieved perfection yet, however I now have a clear image of the lower body action and a the way to learn to produce it and make the correct move a habit.
The dinosaur analogy is great and this video explanation was the key for me.
Thank you.
Hi Chuck!:=)
This videoclip is not possible to run from my pc.
Can you pls try to remove and put it back?
Very important to get this one correct.
Thanks in advantage!
Regards Staale, the Austin fan in Norway!
My apologies. I attempted once and thought I was successful. I have been traveling much but will try to remedy as soon as I return.
Best,
Chuck
I have noticed that my right foot drags towards the left foot on full swing shots; I don’t do this intentionally and noticed this in videos of Mike.
I noticed that when my right foot doesn’t drag towards the left on full swing shots, it is due to my head not having stayed steady.
What was Mike Austin’s take on the right foot dragging towards the left at the end of the downswing?
Ron,
I actually have a clip where Mike Austin and I were working on the tilt and then turning of the hips on the through swing.
I commented that my toe of the back leg actually dragged to the front leg. He stated that it would do so. Bottom line is that he didn’t make a big deal of it, but I do think that it is an indication that you are making an aggressive tilt and then turn. I totally agree with your comment on the head movement. If I have a stable swing circle center then everything else goes smoothly and the toe drags.
I really advocate doing pivots in front of your reflection, especially where there is some reference to show where you neck and head is positioned throughout the swing. Best, Chuck
Merry Christmas Chuck~~ it will be wonderful ringing in the new year with your continued musings of Mike Austin. I especially loved this part on the pivot with you actually explaining it in person. You have a gift and we are all the beneficiaries. I will be very interested as you continue to evolve this site …. with the proper knowledge, we can all be winners .. it would be great if you could benefit as much as we. Thank you again and Happy New Year.
David
David,
Thank you so very, very much.
Happy Holidays and a wonderful New Year!
Chuck
Many thanks for your generous enlightenment of the MA swing.
After some swings in my yard at home there is no doubt that my swing speed is much faster.
I like the feel!
I did find it hard to finish on the left foot, without my right foot being pulled forward to keep my balance.
Is this a improper spine angle issue or is it necessary to swing less than full speed to maintain balance?
Cheers
John,
You are more than welcome. Glad to hear of your increased feel of speed. And note, we haven’t even added the hand action which creates the pendulum motion of the clubhead adding even more speed. Paying attention to the specifics of the pivot will pay dividends. it’s the foundation of the swing. In fact, once a student had it down, Mike Austin would have him/her hit balls with just the pivot, with the arms going for a ride with the motion and no hand action. Mike would later add the hands. On your question, you should be able to do it even in slow motion and maintain balance. On the down and through swing your right butt check will push down and at a 45 degrees angle towards the ball.
At the same time your right knee and ankle flex. Your left hip shifts to the left, parallel to the target line. Your left shoulder will come up. Right shoulder down. Now the rotation forces come in. As you come toward the ball your right ankle raises (detaches from the ground) and the back/posterior part of the ankle will rotate out toward the target line. That detachment from the ground and rotational motion allows the whole right side to powerfully hit the ball. (If you have enough force the right foot will rotate out and might also drag toward your front foot.) At the end, virtually all of the weight is on the front foot and you can almost pick up your back foot. Do it in slow motion first. Hope this helps. Let me know. Best.
Thank You for your follow-up. I had the chance to hit several balls with a eight iron today.
The balance issue seemed to disappear with a slightly slower swing speed.
The exciting thing is that there appeared to be distance increase.
I will try to ingrain your instructions.
Looking forward to learning more.
Thanks again
You got it John. You are more than welcome.
Hit ’em long and straight in the New Year with effortless power!
Chuck – Thanks for sharing all of this great info. I’m unable to view the video of you on PivotLive3. Don’t know why it won’t run for me. I’m able to view all of the other videos you’ve posted.
I too would be interested in seeing all of this put together and made available on a DVD.
Thanks.
Mike,
You are more than welcome. That video appears to work from this end.
Kindly let me know otherwise and I’ll be glad to investigate further.
We are receiving tremendous interest in a dvd. I hope to put one together with everyone’s continued support.
Thanks for your interest.
Best,
Chuck
Hi Chuck,
Just wanted to say thanks for putting together all of your great information on the MA swing. I am an assistant golf professional who has always struggled with proper hip, leg movement. After stumbling onto and reviewing some of the MA basics I went out and hit half a bucket with the best balance and tempo I’ve ever felt! Really amazing how easy I could put what I just read an hour earlier into practice! It also seemed like I could throw my right hand as hard as possible with no problems just more power! In my ‘old’ swing I always felt like balance came and went easily and like you mentioned before you began with mike, my tempo was always getting too quick. I’m obviously very excited.
One question: Did Mike teach the lead leg straight, back leg bent for all shots- ex. pitch shots.
Thanks again. Rick
Rick,
Thanks for your comments. Great to hear of your success. Despite all the discussion of Mike’s power, balance and tempo were keys to Austinology.
Mike Austin taught that same leg position for even chips. He put a little more weight on his left side on smaller chips and pitch shots there was little weight shift. He also put more weight on the left side for punches. The one place where he did not use that address was on some uneven lies. Contrary to some popular approaches, Mike did not try to conform his body to the slope. Instead, he advocated utilizing the legs on uneven lies so that you get close to having an even lie. For example, on an uphill lie, Mike would flex his lead leg thereby leveling out his overall posture.
Hope that helps! Best.
Very good. Thanks Chuck! I’m off to utilize my new action on the course! I’ll report my experiences for anyone interested.
Regards,
Rick
Terrific!
Look forward to hearing your experiences.
Best
Hi Chuck,
It was a beautiful day on the course.. scored average for me-74. lots of experimenting but with mostly good results. It is going to take some time to get use to the new address stance. I think for most of the day I was bending the right knee at address but maybe keeping my weight too much on the left and not getting the same effortless pivot I felt on the range. I worked on it after the round and got the feeling back by letting my weight get back to my right side a little more as I set up. Today, even though I felt insecure with such a new action, I was always suprised with the outcome- differences I have noticed so far are: better balance; good-looking shallow divots; higher ball flight with similar distance; less effort.
I didn’t notice much difference in driver distance until I got on the range and started letting the right hand go again- the ball looked to be going a good bit farther than usual and higher.
Regards,
Rick
Beautiful! Thanks for sharing.
Chuck,
Love the website and appreciate the help you’re giving us. Been studying Mike’s swing awhile — he was the real deal. The ‘dinosaur’ video is great. We fans of Mike’s swing are convinced of the superiority of his mechanics, and want to replicate them, so the more explanations you give the better! Two quick q’s: On the driver vid from oblique angle, looks like the clubhead stays outside the hands on the backswing, almost like it’s ‘pushed’ out there. Is that so? And, will you do a vid taking us through the full swing with explanations as you go? Thanks again!
Thanks tomba.
Mike didn’t push the club outside the hands. The angle may be misleading or else we were working on something else and that gave it the look you describe.
He wanted the clubhead to circle the body. The only line you had is at the set up which was relative to the target line. After that, the swing was arcs and circles. No lines.
Mike did not, for instance, want the clubhead to go straight back (yet alone pushed out). The club face stayed squared to the points of the circle.
Also, I do intend to go through the entire swing.
Best,
Chuck
Thanks for the reply. “Arcs and circles” sounds just like what I’ve read of Mike. Looking forward to more good stuff to come.
Hey Chuck,
Great website, love the MA swing theory but I have some physical limitations which may prevent me from pivoting, was wondering if you could offer some advice which may enable me to use the MA swing but perhaps not at it’s full potential. I have a muscular disease which affects my lower extremities, mostly my feet and ankles. I have very weak ankles, my left being the weaker of the two. The best way I can explain it is pretend you are walking on the outer edges of your feet (ankles turned outward) and try to swing a club, that’s what I’m working with lol. Any tips or ideas?
thanks,
David
David,
Thanks for the email.
I might focus on balance rather than a large shift of weight. Practice in front of that mirror and see the extent to which you can shift and turn with you head staying centered.
Also, the majority of power comes from the free release of the hands which you should have little problem with.
If you’d like to send a video so I can see what you are dealing with please feel free to do so at llenrocenterprisesllc@gmail.com
Best
Thx Chuck
When you clarify a fundamental like this it gives me confidence when practicing. I like to know that Mike wasn’t just speaking casually about this aspect of the swing. It requires focus. Camera angle was perfect for me. Love to see the face on view . Love to see your full swing and address position from this angle also.
Great Stuff
Steve
Glad it helped. Thanks!
Great explanation Chuck. Good to see your face finally too! 😛
I just got back from REMAX…nearly 200 players and the only player even close to the Mike Austin pivot was Domenic Mazza. He’s actually kind of a little guy and looked like he was barely hitting 300…but he was hitting over 400! Talk about efficiency! Every other player was either turning their hips or locking them and trying to wind the upper spine against the lower.
Great to hear. I agree looks tremendous.
Would have love to have seen him live!
Nice video. Whenever I tried to keep my head still like that I always felt like I was reverse pivoting or at least what most people would call a reverse pivot. Even though I did have my weight on my right side instead of my left. What’s the difference? I’m still working “modern” swing tendencies and ideas out of my swing.
In a “reverse pivot” you wouldn’t be able to stand one legged on your trailing leg.
In addition, your head would normally bob toward the target, although it would feel steady.
Yeah, lately I had been shifting my head back with my weight. Today I kept my head more in place while still shifting to my right foot. Definitely helped my ball striking today. Had much better contact with my irons. Thanks for the vid. I was doing the pivot like that earlier in the year and one of my play partners kept saying I was reverse pivoting a bit. I gotta’ stop listening to other people that aren’t familiar with this swing method.
Glad to hear of your improvement.
Remember to practice the pivot in front of your reflection with a reference point behind your head.
You can also use your shadow while practicing or playing.
recorded to low – i couldn’t hear it – after turning as many volume switches up as much as i could
My sincere apologies.
Sorry about that. The recording on my web view is crystal clear.
I will try to rectify it.
Thanks
I have to agree with Steward, I couldnt hear it. But seemed to me a lot of talk …I’d rather prefer a short 10sec precise instruction incl. a “how to do it right” demonstration. But thats just my thoughts on that.
Sorry for being to straight!
Thomas
I believe that the audio issue is cleared up. Kindly let me know if that is not the case.
Thanks for your input.
To meet the request of the multitude of varied viewer requests i hope to provide clips directly from lessons together with explanatory pieces.
Unfortunately, there is an ever increasing amount of misinformation out there about what Mike Austin actually taught which is having a negative impact on learning curves.
Mike Austin was very, very particular about building a proper foundation a major component of which was the foundation. “You don’t put a damn roof on before you have a proper foundation”, was one of Mike’s refrains.
Best
Hi Chuck,
audio works fine now!
Thanks,
Thomas
Terrific!
well done Chuck, it will be a good vehicle to fill in the gaps and perhaps expand on a point made by Mike in the archival footage. Perhaps the camera a bit closer
would be my only suggestion.
Got it. Glad it helped.
I hope to do just as you suggest. Thanks!
Thanks, that was great. I needed the tune up. Google offered an add attached to your blog and the “perfect” address position that was going to lead to the Secret of the “Perfect Swing” showed a drawing with the golfer’s chin nearly on his chest and his spine above the shoulders with a pronounced curve in it. I can hear Mike yelling No! Ronnie No! You’ll get arthritis in your spine.
LOL. As you pointed out, Mike would be yelling, “arthritis, bursitis, tendonitis and lots of other ‘-itises”.
Glad you enjoyed the video.