The Passive Swing (by Ron del Barrio)

[steelydan]

Hello,

Some members of Germany's spicygolfforum are currently discussing Ron del Barrio's "Passive Swing" (www.rdbgolftips.com).

As described in my thread "dead hands and arms" from some weeks ago, I have had great success with passive arms and wrists.

I wonder what Monte and others think of this. All videos on Ron del Barrio's site are free, and I think he shares a lot of Monte's ideas, although he doesn't emphasize the shoulder turn as much. However, he seems to hate artificial lag, low and slow, widening the arc etc. This is the introductory video, there are many more on the website:



I am looking forward to your thoughts.

Cheers

SD

[bob34]

steelydan,

There definitely seems to be some simularities there. It's a very simple - centered swing.

IMHO, the dead hands thing can be taken too far. I've been taught that method in the past from rotaryswing.com. What he calls rotaryswing 1.0 not the new stuff. My dead hands turned into a push or 'holdoff' release which developed into some nasty hooks. Look at Ron's hands at 9:00 in the follow through then look at Monte's. The club has released more in Monte's swing by this time. For me, the club shaft is still dead in line with my arms at this point...

On a different note, the Anika like head swivel is interesting

[RingerPro]

There are passive arms, active arms, and (for lack of a better term) negative arms.

Passive arms are the ones that just go limp and follow whatever the shoulder turn does. Active arms is where the arms are intentionally brought to impact and the shoulder essentially either assist or play no part at all in the delivery of the hands. Negative arms are ones that are pinned back intentionally so that the pivot does everything and the arms are essentially just "connected" to the body.

In passive arms, the delivery of the hands to impact rely on something called the "kinetic chain". When the shoulder slow down, the arms and club throw out away from the body. The timing of the "pivot stall" is crucial to the timing of the arms.

In active arms, the goal is more or less to actively get the hands ahead of the ball and in front of the left hip (for right handers) as soon as possible. If the pivot helps, then so be it.

In negative arms, the hands hang back off the right rib cage (see Furyk at impact). This means there is little to no timing of the armswing required to hit the ball and instead a very open body position is required for impact. You are essentially hitting entirely with the right side turn.

Active arms require some timing and arm strength. Passive arms require timing of the body turn (kinetic chain). Negative arms require proper wrist angles for face and head alignment with a perfectly balanced pivot.

[Monte Scheinblum]

Steely. I want to watch the video and think about how to respond. Crying babies are a calling...LOL.

[steelydan]

RingerPro, nice classification, thanks.

Monte, good luck!

[Monte Scheinblum]

I like Steve's explanation. Here is the thing, most things in the golf swing will be passive if you do what the body can do naturally.

[steelydan]

Monte, how about his head "leading" the turn through the ball. Surely, we should not try too hard to keep our heads down, but Steve actually leads the swing with his head in an active way. He has a spicific video on that on his website.

SD

[Monte Scheinblum]

I don't think I agree with that part. No two people are going to agree on every part of the golf swing. I know Duval and Sorenstam did that, but I think people trying to do that on purpose might get themselves in trouble.