The Rotor

The Rotor

Greetings Golfers,

Let’s talk golf swing.

As you know … I’m obsessed with impact. There are many ways to swing … but good impact is good impact. Bad impact is bad impact.

Impact is truth.

I also believe that good impact means that the hands are ahead of the ball. Too many people try to lift the ball up in the air by flipping their wrists at the ball. That gets the hands behind the ball and usually an open club face at impact. That’s if there is impact. Flipping the wrists can also lead to topped shots and really fat shots. You can hardly call that impact.

Something I don’t hear about anymore is “trapping” the ball. Trapping is a good way to make solid impact. Try it on chip shots. Put your hands ahead of the ball. Obviously, that opens the club-face angle at the ball. So … close the club-face. In fact, close it enough so that the face is slightly closed. You can see how the ball is “trapped” by the combination of hands in front and a closed face.

This is a valid way to hit the ball. And is especially good on chip shots and little wedge shots. And … a weapon on windy days.

However, the trapped shot needs loft because you’re taking loft off …  so, it doesn’t work well on low-lofted clubs.

There are two types of good golfers - hitters and swingers. Lee Trevino is a good example of a hitter, and Sam Snead is a good example of a swinger. Swingers last longer than hitters. Hitters run into trouble in old age as they lose their leg and arm strength.

But young hitters are better wedge players than swingers … and usually just better iron players. Hybrid woods have been great for swingers.

For most of my life, I was a hitter-trapper. But as I got older … I started running into trouble … especially a lack of length off the tee. It was like someone flipped a switch on my game.

So … I started fooling around with releasing the club. I would fan it wide-open on the backswing … then drop it down and really release it on the downswing. Hmmmm. Some days were good … some were really not good … and I’d lost control of my wedge game.

So … I thought the way to deal with it was to just hit a variety of crazy shots. Hooks … cuts … punches … etc … because I didn’t really have a basic shot that I could count on. I was actually much better focusing on hitting a “unique” shot.

Then I was saved. I became old enough to play off the Senior tees. This allowed me to quit worrying about length … and letting me go back to “trapping”.

But … what if there was a combo trapping-swinging way to do it?

Well … I think there is. It’s called the "rotor," and it was invented by a guy named Joe Nichols. About 50 years ago … GOLF MAGAZINE had a big feature article about Joe and his rotor swing. Here is a LINK to the article and some recent commentary about it.

A well-regarded instructor in Arizona - Mike Malaska - teaches the "rotor."

I recommend fooling around with all of this stuff …”trapping” … extreme releasing … and the "rotor."

As I said earlier … people make poor contact because of flipping their wrists. They also make poor contact by “coming over the top”. As they come “over the top” … the clubhead gets there before the hands.

Impact is what matters. Fix your impact with “trapping” and/or “releasing” and/or the "rotor."

Good luck!

Tom Abts
GM/Head PGA Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com