Hitter or Swinger - Which One Are You?

by Martin Green

Much has been said about who are hitters and who are swingers. Do you think that you are a hitter or a swinger? Is there a difference? Let’s find out!

The player who swings the club smoothly and gracefully has been labeled a swinger- Sam Snead and Ernie Els for example, come to mind. Conversely, Arnold Palmer personified a hitter.

Webster defines a swing as a stroke or blow delivered with a sweeping arm movement. Here are a few examples: A pendulum, a wrecking ball, a child swinging on a tire. All of these motions move through an arc of sorts, not a straight line. Whatever is being swung has a free motion along an arc or in a circle. It definitely is not being jerked along its arc.

The hitter is thus named because his motion appears to be more violent. Webster defines the hitter in this way, to come in contact with; to deliver (as a blow) by action applied forcefully or suddenly. Some examples are: A fighter hits his opponent, a driver hits the brakes, one car hits another.

So we have concluded that hit and swing are different words. To be successful the golfer must be able to hit the ball with the clubface correctly. To do this the club must move through the correct arc. A correct arc consists of many things, but if the club is on a jagged, jerky sort of arc then consistently good shots are impossible.

I believe that good swinger’s hit and good hitter’s swing! They both have enough of each to be good. Els can hit the ball hard, very, very hard in fact and John Daly has one of the softest short iron and wedge swings around.

One can swing so slowly and have almost no hit or you can swing so violently that club misses the ball. The trick is to be able to control the clubhead and clubface. Very good players talk about feeling the clubhead, they have clubhead awareness and know where the clubface is.

Try this for yourself. Hold a short iron with your thumb and forefinger, swing it a few feet left and right. You can readily feel the weight of the clubhead. Now hold it with either hand and swing it back and forth a few feet, you will be able to maintain the clubhead weight awareness. Try to swing a little longer and vary the speed, you will find you are able to maintain clubhead awareness. Whether you swing quickly or slowly you must cause and allow the clubhead to swing on the correct arc and hit the ball.

Very good players say they can feel the clubhead during the swing and to a player they will tell you that this clubhead awareness is critical to them. Have you ever hit a shot that felt effortless and was dead solid perfect? I am certain that the answer will be yes you have, so the next question is how can you repeat those wonderfully, effortless shots? I’m quite sure that those times you hit the effortless shots they “just happened” almost as if you had nothing to do with it.

The more you swing the club, maintaining your awareness of the weight of the clubhead, the easier it becomes to feel the clubhead. The clubhead can be felt easily when swung on the proper arc. The opposite is also true if you try to jerk it from the top, over swing or force the swing.

Can you hit a ball with the same swing and ease, as you would hitting a daisy or dandelion? Why not, it’s not the ball controlling the swing. Think this through - you cannot hit the ball, it’s the clubhead's job. Your job is to swing the club and let the clubhead do its job. Swing the club on a good arc (proper path) and in the correct direction (direction of hit) and the clubhead will do its job.

Occasionally, I will have a student that simply gets in their own way and I always share this with them: Think of the swing or if you prefer, the hit, in terms of motion, because that is exactly what it is. If there is no motion in a position, how can there be positions in a motion? The swing is not a series of positions, jumping from one to another like connect the dots.

At my academy we are able, often rather quickly, to have our students making a more powerful hit by having them swing with far less effort. You may be surprised at how well this may work for you in your game.