Sam Snead Golf Swing Analysis
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ก.พ. 2010
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Sam Snead Golf Swing Analysis
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I think as great as Sam Snead was he is still under rated in my opinion.
Sam was in his prime in the 1940s, that being said think about all the majors that
didn't happen because of WWII. The British Open was not held in '40,'41,'42,'43,'44, and 1945. The Masters was not held '43,'44, and 1945. The U.S. Open was not held in '42,'43,'44, and 1945. The PGA was not held in 1943 and Sam was in the service from 1942 to 1944. He still managed to win 7 majors and 82 PGA Tour wins (1st all time) along with four second place finishes in the U.S. Open. I think if the war had never happened Sam would have added at least four more majors and who knows how many more wins to his record.
Sam Snead would be in anyone who knows anything about golf’s list of 5 greatest players
I actually have a 16mm film of this swing. He had the best swing ever in my opinion. The key being the depth of his right hip on the backswing and the initiation of the downswing by the left knee. It's a very easy swing to teach too. The hip turn allows the upper body to turn fully. great analysis.
I've been working the last 2 weeks in initiating the left knee as the factor to my downswing.
and have been playing scratch golf.
I'm a 4handicap.
but this move has me playing consistent and fun golf.
the left knee is the real secret.
I'll take that to the grave .
The way that Sam Snead got into the externally rotated "squat" move was to have the left knee pointing outwards, to the 10 o clock position on the backswing. It makes it much easier to weight shift onto the left and to get more weight onto the right heel at transition to force the right side to transfer the full mass onto the left side.
So the question is did he come over the top of it? Being a pull hitter and with a very closed feet stance, isn’t that the only way to get the ball to go towards your target is if you come over the top of it?
Thanks Wayne! Another great analysis showing the same things you've been talking about. Staying in the box. Hands back to the plane line. Hitting with right arm bent. Deep right hip. Little, to no, backwards hip seat. Head being quiet, but generally lowering (not fixed). Seems from those facts the painters cast a wide brush stroke!
Superb analysis. Thank you.
"Incredibly athletic and powerful"...that's exactly what Snead's swing looked like PLUS remarkably rhythmical. I saw him play in the Legends of Golf when he was in his early 70's and he still hit it pure and long. I can't imagine how far he would have hit it with today's equipment.
very interesting analysis, thanks. Probably the greatest athlete to ever play the game
Snead’s lower body action was similar to Hogan’s in how the lateral shift of the hips back in reaction to the forward press, low sweeping hips/shoulders/hands together takeaway, and straightening of the back leg worked like piston and connecting rod to rotate the ‘crankshaft’ of the swing, the pelvis. The difference was the position of the back foot. Hogan squared his which causes a lot of twisting torque to build up in the upper leg and buttock IF the back leg is allowed to come completely straight. The feeling is like the back leg being a tightly twisted rubber band and it is how Hogan was able to pull shoulders and hands down to the ball with great force without raising and dropping the right arm as Snead and most others did. But in a television interview with Snead here on TH-cam he mentions practicing in bare feet (without metal spikes of the day constraining foot spin out) as a way to avoid over swinging and having duplicated the swings of both I know some twisting tension is felt in the back leg just as it straightens at the top with a flared foot.
What foot flare controls, if feet are kept flat, is the degree to which the hips can rotate in either direction. Hogan kept his front heel down which limited his hip turn to exactly 45° in every swing, stopping hip and forcing shoulders to be pulled past them and triggering the point in the sweeping low takeaway the club head sweeps upward and forces the wrist cock. When the golfer becomes aware of that cause and effect the flare of the back foot can be used to control the timing of the wrist cock and with it the swing plane. Hogan wanted a low backswing and downswing plane favoring draws and Snead, like Nicklaus, a higher one favoring fades.
Snead’s foot alignment right of the target is easily explained. Pro back in the day rarely tried to hit a straight shot. They would fade or draw to “eliminate” one side of the fairway, the right side in the case of a draw which his foot to target line alignment suggests. Hogan illustrates the cause and effect in his book of how when the ball is always kept near the front heel and not moved back as clubs shaft swing radius gets shorter than a 7-iron the stance need to widen and become more open and when longer the stance needs to close. The underlying cause and effect is that opening and closing stance relative to target line \ / | affects how far behind the ball the hands wind up with the hips are forced to stop at 45° with foot action in the downswing.
The key here is, like Snead would say in the rhythm and timing like a Waltz. The hips abruptly slowing down as the hands bring the club shaft back down = parallel with the ground is the trigger mechanism for getting the club head to swing around the slowed down hands by forcing the entire left arm to rotate, pronating the left hand back to the address position and pulling the radial deviation (thumb up lag) out of the wrists through impact which allows the club force to easily turn over the hands and pull the right arm straight it the finish..
The move that brings the hands into position to allow the club head to whip around the hands is SIDE BEND, the curving to the right of the lumbar spine something that a long torso individual like Snead who also had super human flexibility could to better than most, including Hogan whose body type was long legs and short torso which limits the amount of side bend. Seen from behind, Snead has a HUGE amount of side bend which is also an explanation for why he set up with a closed stance.
When you side bend and keep everything else in the swing the same the net effect on hands and face angle the hands are pushed up and forward which pushes the club face open. To compensate for that you need to adjust stance to the right and close the face by trial and error until it is square to target not at address but when the ball rebounds off of it. It will have hook spin on it so you need to aim to the right of where you want it to land and expect it to kick and roll left after landing.
I have short legs and a very long torso and arms so Sneads swing style works ideally for me, but I do it with a squared back foot like Hogan to get more torque in the backswing. Something I realized because of my body proportions is that if I lean too far forward at the hips / at address as much as Hogan did the extra body mass will pull me off balance towards ball and target. So to stay in balance I need to use a more upright stance like Snead.
I watched Snead and Gardner Dickenson play in the original Legends of Golf at Onion Creek in Austin Tx, the birth of the Senior Tour in the late ‘70’s. He still hit a pull cut. Same exact swing. Though he could hit any shot any way he wanted. Those guys were wizards with their hands. His Driver really was an interesting edition from the Wilson custom shop. Beautiful persimmon, naturally, but with both horizontal and vertical grooves. The front of the driver almost looked like a waffle iron! Don’t know the purpose, but I’m sure there was one, like for more control. Just a guess.
HUGE shoulder turn....
You're a good man, Wayne. My big takeaway from watching this was the flared out feet, thus setting up "Penguin-Style". Thank you for your insightful video. Did you ever do one for the great Harry Vardon? I'll check your list to see. Thanks again!
The theme I see with great players is no matter their mechanics they have a amazing hands and coordination. This stuff can be refined but each swing is different and their amazing talent is what makes them great. There isn't a perfect swing at all. There isn't a set of rules that must be followed. These guys can put the club on the ball from many unique positions because of what instilled in them at birth. Some people simply have the ability and some don't. Analysis of the swings is fascinating.
@Nightwing690
The hips and shoulders look far more square to the target line than feet. Therefore, I think the foot position was mainly there to allow a free hip turn to the right. He definitely not OTT, as his downswing sequencing is pretty conventional.
Most of Sam swing he’s right knee lock out and I believe this help he’s balanced on such a hard swing.
Thanks great work..😎😎😎😎😎
Beautiful.
I think that lead foot position helps him get a bigger more controlled turn in the backswing and then I think it helps him to clear the lead hip more quickly. I think it gives him greater shear force to push the lead hip further back and around as he straightens the leg. His finish is pretty extreme.
I can confirm Sam used a very closed stance. My former teacher Billy Dee was a good friend of J.C., and also played with Sam. Billy showed me how closed Sam's stance was, and it was in fact around 45 degrees.
Sam hit what the old timers called a shondella. Aim to the right and hit it from inside the ball- target line but he could fade the ball at will.
@MrLuigiFercotti then lemme ask you this then I myself, am a player who is more comfortable rotating through the ball then driving forward, I can't hit the ball very well with a forward push through impact, so would I just have to drop my right foot back and just rotate through?
Wayne his feet are aimed right and his shoulders are left or open to the target line significantly. Almost seems like he's increasing the stretch between his upper and lower halfs at address.? Is this similar to Hogan's Five Lessons? Does he also open his stance way left on the short irons and wedges, like Hogan? Thanks Wayne, Larry
Deep and then back in the box - and then got it on back around.
aka Slamming Sam Snead.
A very very strong rubber band type of human. Not many can do that. It meant this worked into his 70s with small drop in power
Did he always have his stance closed? Or was that just with the longer clubs? I know Hogan closed his stance a bit as well, but I think both of them squared it as they went down in the set to the shorter clubs. Would that be correct?
I read Kelvin's articles quite often. He has some good stuff in there, and for myself I recently pulled a real nugget out gold out his articles on the release.
As for reacting forces into the ground, I would suggest someone try swinging on a polished wood floor in some nylon socks. Be careful though, you might just fall on you ass with anything but a very easy swing.
Doesn't look like a pull hitter to me, according to ball flight on this shot. Looks like he is aiming to the middle of the green with a closed stance, and that is where the ball seems to be going
This much different than the way Trevino aligned his body to the left as Trevino aligned his feet shoulder and hips about 30yards to left of target, but Snead just aligned his feet right but the hips and shoulders are aligned parallel left of target or in other words normal alignment. About Snead’s grip his left hand was fairly neutral but he had pretty weak right hand grip with the V formed by the forefinger and thumb pointed to his chin or even his left eye.
The depth in the right hip is something I have struggled with forever. I feel balanced in my setup, but by the time I get to the top of the swing I find that my hips (and whole upper body) have actually moved a couple of inches towards the ball. But I can't feel why I'm doing it. It must be a balance thing. I just can't put my finger on what in my setup is leading me to feel the need to do it. I then end up making awkward clearing moves to keep from hitting the ball fat or shanking it.
Golf knowledge versus your game. For me I have extensive knowledge of many great players swing mechanics, but I have a certain body type and I am at a certain point of my game as far as handicap. Currently when I try to power my swing with my hips I usually hit a big slice when using the driver. To counter that and make an adjustment, I slow down my back swing and then think more about my upper and lower body as a single unit and then on the forward swing have more rotation of my entire body so that in the follow through so that the right side trail body kind of swing around and almost like Gary Player almost like I almost walk towards the target after I hit the ball. Also to avoid the slice with my driver I usually have a spine angle at impact that is not tilted towards or away from the target but fairly vertical, which makes it easier for my body as a whole unit to move and rotate towards the target. This usually gets rid of the slice with my driver and results in a slight straight pull that produces my current maximum distance. My body type is like a June bug, big torso and short arms and legs, which might limit me to certain swings to imitate, at least until my handicap gets lower. Also my hips can turn independent of my upper body, but my torso is not flexible meaning my spine is not able to rotate from disk to disk very much, which forces me to swing my upper and lower body as a single unit, in theory. Currently I shoot between the high 80's and lower 90's on my home course which has no bunkers and is only about 5300 yards long from the middle tees and 5600 yards from the back tees.
The right leg only needs to be well anchored during the initial rotation down, thats the real acceleration phase. You need to be able to react the torque of rotary acceleration into the ground, you essentially use the mass of the earth to react against. Once the hands get about halfway down you're moving onto the left side and the amount of force and torque reacted through the right foot diminishes very quickly. There is a reason golf shoes have spikes in them.
All the guys that finish far left after impact, their shoulders are always pretty open at impact, and they square the club up mostly with the body rather than the hands.
SPUDS CARY that would be the proper way.
Ritter Lott Agree, it is the most consistent way to swing day in and out, not so much dependent on timing.
So, he set up right to start his pull online? So, as far as you know did Snead hit a slight pull-draw? Pretty amazing stuff, great intuition.
Also, why do modern teachers say restricting hip turn is necessary for producing power? This is something that I am confused about. It seems that Snead made no attempt to restrict the hips in the backswing yet was a very powerful player.
Look at Nicklaus aswell in his prime, nothing restricted, everything turned as far as they could especially with the driver.
So he's basically aiming to the right?? Because I seem that this is very comfortable
I was privileged to watch the Great Sam warm-up at Oakmont at the 1973 US Open. What struck me were two things: 1) His back leg was like a balancing rod and he noticeably slowed down and lingered on it.....then moving forward. Almost in slow motion. He was also 61 years old then. 2) He faded his driver off the practice tee, one after another. I read once that he played whatever shape he was striking on any given day. My thought that Oakmont's length demanded a draw. Nope. Not for Sam.
As Sneed once said, 'If you don't turn, you eat chicken." By the way, he did have a slightly closed stance, I've seen him play.
so did snead aim his whole body right, or just drop his right foot back?
Great analysis. It's nice to see a swing where the emphasis isn't on achieving certain positions at various aspects of the swing, such as having a perfectly parallel club at the top of the backswing, etc. With almost all of the "old time" swingers, it seems that they draw the right foot back for the longer clubs, and draw the left foot back for the short irons. See Tommy Armour's book for his take on this.
Yes, the stance is "closed," but maybe not so much as it appears; I think the camera is in front of him, that is to say, not directly behind him, so we see the left foot further in front. Nevertheless, this would account, I think, for his being labeled a "pull hitter."
The amount of lateral and vertical force one generates between the your feet and the ground is dependent on your particular mechanics and sequencing. Some can play barefoot. Hogan put in an extra spike, and Sergio throws a show when he slips.
I don't make up the physics, I just analyze them.
Are you saying his feet are shut to the line? I'm not disputing you I'm just simply asking.
Amazed he could get away with moving the left knee that much on the backswing and still get the club back on plane.
Perhaps that in fact helped his stability. After all, look at the left knees of Nicklaus, Palmer, and Bobby Jones.
Theirs no rite or wrong answer on how ur aiming??
Eye examine lately?
Man snead can hit it a country mile. I swing like him but my clubs are what is holding me back there old, worn, and dont fit. To anyone who wants to help me get new clubs please go to my GoFundMe page tillited, help Adam get a new set of golf clubs. Thank you to those who donated ahead of time.
omg... i never see anyone analyzing base ball, tennis, pitching, cricket, wood splitting swings or any other sport in the way it's done with golf. you show this to a beginner and they buy into it you will have sent them merrily on their way to great pain and failure in the sport of golf. been their done that.
What ever, free swing that most of us don't have, nuff said.
3:00...Does anyone else think that this position resembles Bubba Watson??
i appreciate the technology we have in modern equipment, but i really miss the sound of a persimmon clubhead hitting a balata ball.
draw more lines please
Wayne, you're line of reference on the feet is off, bud. Snead's feet are parallel to the target line; it's his shoulders that are closed.
U have it backwards
Formlery Chcuk
@MrLuigiFercotti Snead grew up playing barefoot: no spikes. Played a few holes at the Masters one year without shoes on and got yelled at, but played great. There is a great video posted by speedchain111 of Jamie Sadlowski from behind that shows him going up on his right toe at the START of the downswing: no "rotary acceleration into the ground" that I can see. And his shoes DON'T have spikes. Like Bubba, his feet seem to float. I think this "ground force" stuff is just a junk-science fad.
Breaking down anyone's swing is just ridiculous. Every person swings differently. All that matters is can you hit the ball where you want. That's what makes a great player no matter how they do it.
Dude , really?...
i dont know why you waste your time drawing all of those lines when the video isnt even straight from behind.
Believe it or not it is straight down the line, it's just Sam is closed with his stance and square with his shoulders. You also might note that he draws the ball, so the ball starts right and comes back, and Wayne's ball track line he drew starts right and slightly comes back. It is perfectly on line
Wayno the draino. This is just silly. The DTL is across the line. Come on brother, you are better than this. More harmonica, less lines, bro!
Could this be any more boring. Draw a few more lines!
hahhahha
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