It is always amusing to hear people discuss golf swings. There is a huge difference between a pretty looking swing and a dynamic, functional swing.

One golfer whose name never comes up in the "pretty" category is Sergio Garcia. He, however, does all the right things in the right sequence and therefore has always been highly regarded as a ball-striking machine. Outsiders see a big downswing lag angle and view that as too loose and requiring too much timing. Let's not forget, however, that lag is a necessity, and you can load as much angle into the swing as long as you know how to get rid of that angle. Garcia does this time and time again. He is a master of the drill one - hand speed via forearm rotation. I was of a similar mold. I had extreme lag on the downswing, but I knew how to and could get rid of that angle the correct way and use it to my advantage.

As a teacher of the game, I fully understand what to keep in a golf swing and how to utilize it. I rarely ever subtract things from a student's swing. They have a natural tendency, so I aim to harness it rather than eradicate it.

The golf ball doesn't care what the swing looks like!!

It only reacts to the forces imposed on it by the club head, the shaft, the grip, the hands, and the body. Of course, the feet and body play a vital role in these aspects also.

It is so cool that Garcia and Jim Furyk's fathers have been their only instructors. And they have both built a phenomenal career around being far from pretty but pretty effective. 

If you honestly believe that taking the club back on a path that is deemed to be 'on plane' is of importance, then how do we explain that some of the most revered ball strikers ever had some unorthodox ways of taking the club away and up to the top of the swing? How could these players move the club away on any old plane they wanted and still strike the ball so straight and pure? Is the back swing crucial to golfing success?

Well, for starters, we don't hit the ball with our back swing!! 

The back swing's function is only to move the club in a manner that sets that individual up for the perfect delivery back onto the ball. All different kinds of back swing can all look the same at impact.

The back swing is earned once the golfer knows and understands the true impact and release. 

Read that again.

If you know the correct entry path to the ball (the 4:30 path) and you know how to release the club through impact and beyond from that spot, then you will find your very own perfect back swing to suit that feel. It really is that simple.

This is why generic teaching based on some formula or teaching fad of the day confuses people and gives them little chance of improvement.

Golfers get far too much back swing information from instructors because it is slow and easy to see. But I have seen thousands of great back swings not be able to hit the ball well. Just as I have seen thousands of 'awful' back swings, just send the ball down the fairway and at the flag time and time again.

Golfers need to be more interested in the blur of the swing. The area that is fast and not really viewable. We don't need to get overly concerned with the start and even the finish to a large degree.

The back swing and follow-through may make you look pretty, but it won't make one iota of difference to your ball striking ability.

History proves the back swing can be a variety of different paths. This is FACT.

Many of my early YouTube videos discussed how the legs work throughout the swing. Especially in the transition and downswing region. Too often we hear we must get over to the left leg early and transfer the weight or the center of mass immediately to the front side.

This may be exactly what it looks like happens in a good golf swing, but it isn't entirely true. We need to distinguish pressure and mass/weight as they are two totally different things.

In the photo above, Hogan is showing how dynamic dispersion of weight is very different from static weight. If he was frozen in time here, he would fall backwards down his right leg. Hogan's static weight is still closer to his rear foot because the majority of the static body mass is back there. He would fall down the rear side. Dynamic weight — or pressure — is, however, being set almost entirely on the lead side because the motion is heading that way.

The great ball strikers all used the right leg to exert pressure down and into to initiate the downswing. They did NOT try and get over to the left side.

Using the right leg promotes a pressure shift of the lead hip bumping forward. If it didn't, the body would fall backwards. The weight may feel like the body is moving left and forward, but the force is going down the rear leg and the pressure is being caught in the lead foot and leg. The artistry of this is that we keep the upper body behind the ball and closed off while the lower half now moves forward laterally.

There will never be enough torso rotation in reserve for the release aspect of the swing if one is trying to shift over into the front leg.

We also want to move more weight and more mass through the strike and the only way to do that is to utilize the right leg at the start of the downswing to maintain a push into the right ankle that can then be used to drive forwards with the release and all the way into the through swing.

Think about Sam Snead and his famous 'Snead Squat'. That will not happen by trying to move left.

This learning is an integral part of my drill 2 and drill 3 training and especially focused on the drill 4 and drill 5 transition and downswing drills. All designed to enable the golfer to feel, train and work the perfect dynamics exhibited by the very best golfers of all time.

Impact is the true number one goal in conquering the game of golf. The ball can only do what it is told. So the collision of the club head onto the ball and then the separation of the ball off the club face a split second later is vital to becoming an excellent golfer.

No matter the club, the goal of impact is to have the club face squarely striking the back of the ball. The stance width can and will dictate the angle the club head descends onto the ball. The narrower the stance for a shorter club the more the blow will feel downwards. The wider the stance — the longer clubs - the more the body becomes tilted behind the ball placement and the swing will feel more sweeping than downwards, especially with the woods.

Each club has a specific loft. This is an important fact to remember!! We want to use the loft engraved on the sole of the club to our full benefit. That way, we can hit each club to the designated distance inspired by its design.

Using the correct loft means having a nice straight line between the shaft and the left arm at impact. Tiger Woods displays that above perfectly on this iron shot.

There is no need to create a huge forward hand lean or shaft lean. That occurs from a proper release and the lateral movement of the lower half, which goes forwards and then opens when it cannot go forwards any longer.

This impact ideal is at the heart of the very first drill I expose my students to.

They learn to rotate the club from an inside path. They learn how to fire the club with hand speed into the strike with an accelerating late hit. They learn to use the right arm as a support, close and bent and not as a thrusting mechanism that will cause mishits and twist the club face off its true loft and face alignment.

They learn to use beautiful wrist dynamics. The left wrist is firm and leading and the right wrist bent and driving, keeping pressure on both sides of the grip and on the shaft.

How the club then exits impact will have a massive bearing on the trajectory and curvature of the shot. The exit is hopefully a mirror image of the entry path keeping the shaft on plane. Hence, why the characteristics of ball flight will be determined there.

Very few instructors pay much attention to post impact. Trust me, however when I say it is of the utmost importance. When the golfer begins to understand that what is still to come in the swing has the capacity to alter what has come beforehand, then we really start to gain total control of the strike and the shot-making capabilities.

This is the heart and soul of drill three. Tying everything together to keep pressure on the club and the ball where it matters most.