Babe Ruth's Mighty Swing Inspires Great Golf Lesson

By Tommy Acosta, Contributor

For years I've wondered why two-out-of-three of my golf swings end up sending the ball far left, far right, not far enough or on a worm burning mission. I tried changing this, correcting that, adding this, subtracting that, reading books, listening to the advice of my well meaning friends, not listening to their advice but to no avail. My swing remained inconsistent as did my entire game.

But things have miraculously changed for me and my swing and after only one lesson at Family Golf Center in Mesa I can only wonder why I waited so long to take the plunge and get professional guidance. My swing now is sure, consistent and more powerful. Listen well to this tale of redemption.

I took my lesson under the direction of Fred Miller, PGA Director of Instruction at the Family Golf Center at Mesa. Miller teaches the Colbert/Ballard system which focuses on using the "big muscles" in your swing, a system which Miller said big hitters like Jim Colbert, Hal Sutton, Curtis Strange, Sandy Lyle, Jim Dent, Jasper Pernevik and 300 other touring pros use.

My lesson began with my being led to the driving range and asked to warm up with my five iron. I did as told and as usual I was connecting with one out of every three swings, sending the ball here and there and everywhere but where I wanted it to go. As that old familiar sinking feeling of frustration in my stomach began building up once again Miller returned with a video machine, which he used to video tape my swing from the front, the side and the back. His only comment was "good." Good? He had to be kidding.

We went into the instruction room which had pictures of all the heavy hitters in golfdom on the walls, with lines drawn on them to indicate their positions during the various stages of their swings. There was a large TV there and Miller popped in my tape into one of the video players.

He said that the reason students are video taped before the lesson was so that they could get a good picture of what it is they are doing. Using the video they can compare their swings to that of the great one's. I really did not want my pathetic swing compared to Nicklaus's but Miller's personality set me at ease as he launched into his lesson.

"The reason we need to take a video is so that we can see where the current golf swing is at," Miller said. "We want to know what is correct and what is incorrect so that we have a starting point."

Before getting into the details of my swing Miller explained that Jimmy Ballard learned the fundamentals of his swing from a golfer named Sam Byrd, who was once known as "The Alabama Yankee" or "Babe Ruth's Legs".

While playing with Babe Ruth, Sam Byrd, studied the hitting styles of all the sluggers at that time. What Ruth taught Byrd was that all great hitters could tuck a towel under the lead armpit and hold it there throughout the swing, thereby, connecting the lead arm to the shoulder. As a result, the body and shoulders, not just the hands and arms, had to swing the bat. This was the lesson I was to learn at Family Golf Center of Mesa.

Byrd took the pointers Ruth had given him to the golf course and by 1945 had successfully made the transition from baseball to golf, winning 23 titles in all. Even though Ruth could out slug him on the baseball field, Byrd was able to hit the golf ball a lot father and straighter than Ruth could.

In 1960 Byrd met Jimmy Ballard and taught him the same principles he learned from Ruth, which is the same swing Ballard teaches today. Ballard also introduced the use of video analysis as a learning tool.

"Beginners need to understand what they need to learn and what they need to let go," Millers said. "There are a number of myths we pick up which hurt our swing and the first thing Ballard does is to debunk these myths."

Miller then played a video where Ballard goes through these myths, which he calls "The Six Deadly Sins" or "Golf's Misleading Terms".

The first myth, according to Ballard is "Keep your head down." According to Ballard, if you try to lock your head down you tend to shift into a reverse pivot on your backswing and inhibit your finish on your follow through. He said the head must flow with the spine during the golf swing in order to generate any real power. I realized that I was already guilty of committing sin number one.

"The head is a seventeen pound weight," Miller added. "You can't hold the head still when hitting. You must balance the weight of the head and the spine over the right leg."

Myth number two is "Keep your left arm stiff or straight". Ballard says this misleading term generates unwanted tension in the swing and an immediate disconnection in the back swing, causing the arms to pull the club back down to the ball with little help from the major body muscles.

Myth three is the advice to "turn" when hitting the ball. Ballard said that this advice encourages golfers to twist into what amounts to a reverse pivot rather than coiling back into a powerful backswing position. This particular error hit home deep because turning was what I had been practicing for the last month. Seeing my video later would prove the reality of this point.

"If you only had one hip joint you could do this," Miller said. "But you have two hip joints so you can't turn on both at the same time. You have to pivot."

Myth four is "Pull down with the back of the left hand or butt of the club". Ballard says following this advice causes the hands to get way ahead of the body and the club slides through the impact area with an open face.

Myth five is "Stay behind the ball". Ballard believes that this promotes falling back with thin or topped shots and the large muscles of the legs and body are not allowed to play their part in driving through the ball and that there is a tendency to hit under and up instead of down and through.

The final myth is "Hit into a reverse "C" finish". Ballard says that this will produce inconsistent shots and possibly lower back problems. He said all the great ball strikers finish erect with shoulders and hips level and facing the target.

Having been educated about the "The Six Deadly Sins" I realized that at one time or another I had heeded and committed everyone of them and achieved the warned about results.

After having learned what one should not do Miller played a video demonstrating the should be's of a good golf swing. Ballard calls these the "Seven Common Denominators" or "The Swing Traits Present In All Great Ball Strikers".

Briefly, these are:

1. The Golfer must create connection at the outset through a braced, connected address position.
2. The golfer must begin the swing by taking the triangle and the center away together.
3. The golfer must coil center and the triangle behind the ball into the brace of the right leg.
4. The golfer must reverse the club with the right foot and knee to create the proper position at the top of the swing.
5. The golfer must, after initiating the change of direction with the right foot and knee, immediately release the entire right side and center, insuring that the triangle returns to the original position, squaring the club at impact.
6. The golfer must, at waist high past the ball, have maintained the triangle with the belt buckle and center facing towards the target.
7. The golfer must complete the swing with the knees, hips and shoulders level and the weight entirely on the left side. The straight balanced finish is proof that the connection has been preserved during the swing.

After each of these denominators was explained by Ballard in the video, one by one, Miller demonstrated the technique for me live with a club. Needless to say I was fascinated and intrigued by it all, especially the simplicity and the logic behind Ballard's advice.

"Ballard's techniques are totally logical, simple, understandable and comprehendible," Miller said. "If we know what we are doing wrong then we can take action to correct it."

The "moment of truth" had come for us to view my video. As soon as I saw my first swing, which Miller played at regular speed, slow motion and frame-by-frame, I saw my mistakes.

I was trying to keep my head straight, I was in a reverse pivot position in my backswing. I was turning my waist and spine with no pivoting motion from my right leg to my left leg. My right leg was straight at the end of my back swing and I was keeping all my weight on my left leg throughout the entire swing. My upper body, thankfully, was OK. My left arm remained against my body. It was not held stiff. I was taking the triangle and center away at the same time. I thanked the Golf God's for at least that much.

"So what do I do now," I asked Miller.

Miller positioned me with knees bent slightly inward and took me into my back swing, guiding my weight onto my right leg which was now slightly bent at the knee.

"Now just pivot your weight onto your left leg while turning you right knee to the target," he said. "Imagine you are in a sand bag line catching fifty pound bags from your right and passing it along to the fellow on your left. You will see that it's easier to pass the weight if you pivot your right knee to the guy in front of you. It's that simple.

I did as I was told and I noted that I was shifting my weight easily from my right leg to my left leg as long as I remembered to turn my right knee to the imaginary target. As soon as I did that I found that my shoulders and belt buckle were pointing in the right direction at the end of the swing.

"This is your "swing thought", Miller said. "It's something for you to work on. Practice. Use it as a drill and you will break down the old muscle memory and replace it with a new one."

Seeing my swing on the video after seeing the rights and wrongs of a proper swing by Ballard and Miller immediately opened my eyes to what I was doing wrong and what I should do to correct it. I must admit it was an extremely effective way to learn.

Miller took me back to the driving range and gave me a fresh bucket of balls and left me there to practice what I learned. The first ten or 15 balls went this way and that way but as I began to get the fundamentals down, especially turning my right knee to the target after placing my weight on my right leg, things started to change. I began to get that quick "swoosh" sound to my swing with that satisfying "ping" on the connection. My last five shots were almost perfect and the ball traveled farther than I've ever hit it before.

December 29, 1998