The Natural Golf Swing by George Knudson, Lorne Rubenstein Page A

things with his feet. I believe in playing golf through your feet. Footwork is the voluntary action that initiates the motion. So send a message to your feet. Put yourself in motion through weight transfer; develop your sense of balance so that you know when you’ve gone beyond the inside of your right foot. If you feel yourself getting out of balance, you are no longer transferring weight. You’re swaying. A sway is an imbalance. Keep the weight to the inside of the right foot while rotating.
    The loading motion is generally circular in shape. Instead of transferring our weight so far that we lose balance, we simply let ourselves rotate around our trunk. I’m describing this as if it were separate from the weight transfer, but in reality the weight transfer and rotation happen almost simultaneously. All parts of the body move more or less in unison during the loading motion.
    I say “more or less” because I find that the most effective means of beginning the loading motion is through my footwork. As soon as I start the weight shift, though, my upper body cannot help but follow. I therefore transfer weight while rotating; I rotate while transferring weight.

    Fully loaded, immaculate balance.
    The effect of the motion is to allow the hands to work in tandem with the clubhead. They just travel along, and what a relief it is not to have to think about them. We need not worry about our hands.
    The loading motion, then, is a matter of moving immediately to the right foot. Feel the ground under your feet. Feel your weight go to your right foot. As we do shift weight under the governance of balance, our hands remain passive, and the left arm extends naturally. The right elbow folds on the way back as long as the hands are passive. These are involuntary or automatic responses to the motion. The wrists cock as a result of the mass of the club being put in motion by the weight transfer while loading. This too is an automatic action, as is the wrist cock that happens at the completion of the loading motion.
    The voluntary actions in the loading motion that you need to learn are weight transfer and rotation; that is, you
make
these happen. The involuntary or automatic actions or positions are: the right elbow folding and the left arm extending, thereby creating a maximum arc duringloading; the head moving as it will; the wrists cocking; the left heel coming up off the ground as you shift weight; the back turned more or less to where it is facing the target at the completion of loading, depending on your flexibility.
    We’ve now reached the top of the loading motion. Centrifugal force and inertia have taken us to a powerful and balanced position. We’re in balance and intent on our target. It’s time to begin the unloading motion.

7. Unloading: The Downswing Motion
    F OR PURPOSES of explanation, we distinguish the loading and unloading motions from each other. They are actually part of the same motion. We begin to unload the power we have developed while we are still completing the loading motion.
    The intent to transfer weight to the finishing position generates a sequence of motion. The left foot is the first part of the body to stabilize, or find its finishing or resting place. Depending on a person’s flexibility, it will have come up off the ground to a certain degree during the loading motion. Now, as the golfer transfers weight to the finishing position, the left foot returns to the ground. It takes the weight of the body.
    Following the stabilization of the left foot are the left knee, then the hips, the shoulders, arms, hands, and finally the clubhead. These reach their natural end points because we have transferred weight while unloading.
    Simultaneous with the weight shift, some remarkable things take place without you trying to make them happen. The clubhead begins to lag behind your feet and body, a natural reaction to centrifugal force. This natural happening is known as clubhead delay or clubhead lag. It is