Tag Archives: Mike Austin

Long Driving With Mike Austin

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Many have asked to see the driver swing. So, here goes:

The driver swing motion is the same as the irons.

Note the ball acceleration and the straight path of the ball flight.

Mike Austin provided me with these results in my second (!) lesson with him. Best of all, there’s no pain and strain.

“That’s killing it!” And, so can you.

Remember, it’s supple quickness.

MisInformed About The Mike Austin Stance

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Wow! I have received a lot of emails concerning Mike Austin’s stance. Apparently, there’s been much internet banter asserting that Mike Austin advocated a closed stance.

Sorry, but this is simply not accurate. From what I can discern the advocates of a closed stance are doing so in order to address additional wrong moves such as coming over the top. Unfortunately, building on an incorrect foundation is only going to impede your progress.

Let’s roll the tape. Mike Austin’s instruction to me quite clearly discredits the assertion that he advocated a closed stance:

This is an important point as it builds on Mike Austin’s swing principles.

Remember, the ankles, knees and hips are the engine of the Mike Austin swing. A closed (aka blocked) stance will impede the hips and reduce your power!

Moreover, Mike Austin was adamant that you had to build the proper foundation (which includes the stance) before you put the roof on your swing.

"Under Pressure" with Mike Austin

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Here’s me hitting some shots at the surprise request of Mike Austin and other students.

Mind you, I had not swung a club yet all day as I had been observing Mike giving lessons to several students. Just a wee bit of pressure:

“Under Pressure” with Mike Austin

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Here’s me hitting some shots at the surprise request of Mike Austin and other students.

Mind you, I had not swung a club yet all day as I had been observing Mike giving lessons to several students. Just a wee bit of pressure:

Mike Austin – the Golfing Bandit – Getting Impetus to the Clubhead

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I wanted to share one of my golf treasures with fellow Mike Austin fans – some very rare footage.

Here is Mike Austin, aka, the golfing bandit, at age 90 hitting balls “on a string” one-handed for me during a lesson. At the time, Mike had an 80% loss of locomotion in his right arm and right leg due to a stroke. Fortunately, he had incorporated his improved swing tenets. Sadly however, most of his later lessons were restricted to his home.

Can you believe the power and accuracy generated with one hand, with virtually no pivot? It’s effortless power. Little wonder why Mike Austin’s long drive competitors commented that it looked like was “just playing with it”.

You can benefit from watching that action, over and over again. It’s an invaluable lesson in itself. There’s no cranking of the body. There’s no forced effort. That’s the beauty of the Mike Austin swing. It can benefit the athletic person and the not-so-athletic person, the strong and the not-so-strong, the young, and the not-so-young.

But don’t stop at just watching the clip. See if you can duplicate that action – with your left hand and then your right hand. Mike had me hit many balls one-handed. The resultant shots will tell you if you are properly using the hands.

As you can see, the name of the game is not brute force. The name of the game, as Mike clearly states, is getting impetus to the clubhead. He did that via a proper pivot and proper use of the hands so as to not impede the swinging clubhead.

Enjoy!

Cruising Speed – Mike Austin and Tempo

The Mike Austin Tripod

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The continuation of the legwork on the backswing:

Mike Austin’s tripod position.

Here’s Mike Austin demonstrating the backswing left handed.

An Upcoming Secret of Mike Austin

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Mike showing me one of the finer points of “precision power hitting”.

More to come.

The Start of the Mike Austin Backswing

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Many have asked how Mike Austin started the backswing. Here’s how:

Remember, when you took the proper stance, the trailing leg was flexed. The trailing leg now goes into extension, meaning it straightens.

For right handers, the right hip gets a bump to 4 0’clock.

The arms begin to move because the body begins to move.

The arms do not swing independently!

The Modern versus the Mike Austin Pivot

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Mike Austin’s pivot differed from the modern pivot. Before getting into the details, check out the overall move. Both types of pivot are used by today’s Tour players.

An example of the modern pivot is Camilo Villegas. Note how the feet are anchored to the ground in the back swing for stability. The knees are often kept wide to inhibit lower body movement. The upper body is then turned against the stable lower body.

Source: You Tube, bignogga

Compare that move to the Austin-like pivot of Bubba Watson. Power is generated through mobility versus stability.

Source: You Tube, golfer 221

In Mike Austin’s opinion, the modern swing led to “arthritis, tendonitis, bursitis, and lots of other -itises”.

I Am Interested In Mobility, Not Stability!!

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“I am interested in Mobility, Not Stability!”, Mike Austin would growl, forever imprinting a new golf secret into your psyche. Mike didn’t agree with most of modern golf instruction including: taking a wide stance, anchoring your feet to the ground and torquing the upper body against the lower body.

Mike advocated supple quickness, not rigid slowness. It started with the stance, including the width of stance.

To promote mobility, Mike advocated a narrow stance. A wide stance causes the knees to work against the hips. A narrow stance, on the other hand, enables the ankles, knees and hips to work in unison as the engine of the golf swing.

Further, a narrow stance promotes balance. The narrow stance allows a shift to the back leg during the backswing, and then a shift to the front leg on the through swing.

Taking It Deep at the U.S. Open

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Like many of you, I watched quite a bit of the U.S. Open yesterday. Two comments of Johnny Miller regarding Dustin Johnson caused me to pause. I’ll have to paraphrase the comments, but they went something like this:

1. “He’s a real solid player, even with that wrist bow.”

2.”Look at that old time leg action – like Weiskopf.”

Funny how today’s commentators view swing features that differ than that presently taught under the “modern approach” (flat left wrist, lower body steady with upper body torquing against the lower) as swing flaws. Here is a guy leading the Open and launching it over 300 yards. Perhaps that bow and leg action are far from swing flaws. Perhaps they are key factors as to why Dustin can stripe it huge distances under pressure.

I know one person who would love the bow in the left hand and that leg action – Mike Austin.

The Stance – Part 2 – The Launching Pad

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Didn’t want to leave you hanging on the second part of the Mike Austin Golf Stance. So, here goes:

In Part 1 of the Stance we: (1) stood erect; (2) allowed the derriere to move back until our arms hung freely above the tips of our toes; and (3) clapped our hands together. (We did not squat with the knees.)

Now, we know that the trailing hand (right hand for righties) must go from the clapped position to a point below the left hand. We get there by flexing the right knee and allowing the right hip to drop. This sets the right shoulder below the left shoulder. Here’s a view from head-on and then down the line.

AND HERE’S THE KEY BENEFIT TO MIKE AUSTIN’S SET UP: YOU CAN NOW HIT IT WITH EITHER “HUND”!

Here’s Mike using his leg to nudge the back of the student’s right knee. The student now feels the motion of going from an extended right knee to a flexed right knee. This allows the right hand to lower properly below the left, with the resultant lowering of the right shoulder.