Gravity Golf

[JM986]

What do people think of David Lee's Gravity golf method.   I took a few lessons form an upstate NY teaching pro and he put me down the path of this method.   One question I have is how does one generate the long distance you see the pros have.   From what I understand from Gravity golf is that club head speed is generated solely by core turning speed.   I f you watch the pros it looks like they using core, legs, arms and wrists to generate the power.   Any comments?

Thanks,

Jim

[sixiron1946]

I first ran across Gravity Golf in an Article in Golf Magazine and a few months later in Golf Digest in 1979?.  It had David Lee working with Jack Nicklaus on learning how to fall into the forward foot (left for me, a right handed golfer) and then swing with tensionless arms. I tried it and hit some very good shots.  I was an young US Army Captain at Ft. Benning and we had a couple of nice golf courses on post.  I am an avid golfer, and got to 5 handicap there.  Now, in my later sixties I am getting the frustration of not getting the driver out there and not wanting to move up a tee.  Later in the 80s I got the David Lee tapes and began a real fascination and work on the Gravity Golf swing. l have probably looked at those old VHS tapes I do not know how many times.  My friends would see me on the range and mock me as working on my "Karate Kid" crane moves.  I hit the ball pretty well with the Gravity Swing though and even became an accomplished gravity putter.  In fact, I highly recommend it, especially for longer length putts because it gives you terrific touch.  I even called David Lee one time several years ago and had a nice conversation with him about Gravity Golf.

This is my take on the method.  Get the arms swinging with no tension in them.  The hardest part is in the first two feet of the swing. You have to heave, throw, toss whatever your arms back using your body, kind of like throwing a large bucket of water out to your rear.  The hard part for me is the initial firming of the arms before you start this process, I am so keen on getting the tension out, that my arms usually look like Slinkies attached to my shoulders and I get one of those Walter Hagen looks to the first two feet of the backswing, you know wrists have moved a foot before the head of the club has moved at all.  Next, get the club thrown back there with the "tail of the scorpion look to the right arm", this move makes my club friends gag.  If you have done it right it will feel like the club is going to be thrown out of your hand, and then like an stunt aircraft that goes straight up and then has a zero G moment at the top of its climb, it starts to fall down just by the force of gravity taking hold of it.  Now, this is the dangerous part of the swing because if there is any tension introduced to get the club to come down, there is no telling how far out of plane it will go.  I call this part of the Gravity Swing the "dating the Redhead moment" if you do it right it is so great, but if you are not careful, you get a frying pan across the forehead.  And this is the real criticism of Gravity Golf, you can get some horrid misses because you are so far out there with your hands and the club.  But, when you allow gravity to take the club down, and then allow your body to fall to left foot and then deflect a little behind you into a balancing position David calls the "counterfall", then a gentle turn of the hips will whip those arms and club around in just about perfect balance and you can put some serious collisions into the golf ball. I say, "heave, fall, counterfall".  When the Redhead is right the whole world is exquisite.  I practice the counterfall by actually trying to fall backwards and the consciously whip my arms and club around me to counteract me going to the ground.  Picture the way the ice skaters turn on point. Or better yet the hammer throw event in the Olympics.  One of those guys is going to be the next Happy Gilmore.

I have been on and off Gravity Golf for over 35 years now.  I play well with it, then start hitting it bad and go to traditional John Jacobs instruction or to body swings, ala Jim Hardy or Sean Foley, and play pretty decently.  But, I fall off the wagon and go back to Gravity Golf because I honestly believe that despite its dangers, it is the best way for me to get the most out of my ability to hit the golf ball. I guess the allure of the good times with the Redhead clouds one's memory about the headaches from the frying pan and you believe that just that one time that Charley Brown will be able to kick that football that Lucy is holding for him.

Gravity Golf, give it a try, especially if you are getting up there and want some of that distance back.