Jesper Parnevik has always been my Swedish golf hero(outside Annika Sorenstam that is). I remember seeing him for the first time on TV about 15 or so years ago and I still remember how he had his cap backwards and advertisers actually started putting their logo inside-out just for Jesper.

Let’s look at his swing:

At takeaway, Jesper is slightly inside the plane but no big deal here, looks great.

At half-way, Jesper is still on-plane, maybe slightly flat but it works.

At the top of his swing, Jesper is pretty much on plane, maybe slightly upright. His clubface is slightly shut, meaning it’s a little closed, meaning it’s pointing a little too much at the sky. This isn’t problem for Jesper as most pro tours do have it slightly shut for a nice draw.

At half-way down, you can see how well Jesper fits his hands and club onto the red plane. Most pro tours are great at this.

At impact, Jesper is great. Maybe his right arm could be extended a little but that’s because his head dipped about 3-4 inches from address. (If you take a look at the location of the bunker at address and here, you will see.)

The dip usually isn’t a big problem for most pro tours as it’s a natural thing. You might want to watch out though if you are dipping more than 4 inches. (My recommendation is to try around 1-2 inches of dip at most. To lessen dipping on your swing, swing effortlessly and also feel like you are standing up tall during your whole swing)

Jesper looks great after impact. Take a look at the triangle formed by his arms, shoulders, and hands. This is a characteristic a lot of the good ball strikers on tour all have. (Sorta like the mirror image position of the backswing.)

At finish, Jesper is in perfect balance, enjoying his perfect tee shot. Take a look at his right foot and how the tip of the foot is straight down. You want this at the finish for a perfect balance in your swing.

What to take from Jesper’s swing?

Well, golf is partly or mostly about balance. If you can be in balance at address, backswing, and the finish, you are 10 times more likely to hit the ball straighter and farther than if you are not in balance.

Next time you go out on the range, see if you can stay in balance during your swing and also hold your finish for 3 seconds. If you can do this on every shot, you must be hitting the ball pretty good, at least solid even if you spray it.

Here’s Jesper Parnevik’s Driving Swing in action:

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

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Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

I love Fred Couple’s swing. He probably has the most relaxed swing with such a fluid swing rhythm you can describe simple only as, “butter”.

He’s rhythm is the thing to copy. If you can watch his swing everyday and copy his rhythm, it will definitely help you.

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Apart from the Men’s Golf, Annika Sorenstam probably has the best swing in golf. The above animated gif is a favorite among mine that’s floating on the internet.

Click below for the full swing analysis of Annika Sorenstam and a HOWTO drill for copying her “stand-up-head-up” downswing.

Here’s Annika’s Swing analyzed step-by-step by Junger Woods:

STANCE

If you look at Annika’s stance, you will find that she does not tilt terribly too much and stays centered over the ball. Not exactly a Stack and Tilt swing but very centered over the ball.

The takeaway looks very simple and controlled by the body, not hands or the arms.

HALF-WAY

Annika’s still very “tall”, meaning she still looks like she’s almost standing up, which is what you want. You want to be in perfect balance at takeaway.

3/4 Swing

She’s still tall, meaning she’s not trying to overswing.

Even though her club has gone beyond parallel, she’s in perfect balance. As you can see, the yellow line is approximately where her weight is, just inside the right heel. Excellent.

The downswing looks very good here, she’s transferring her weight to the left and just letting the club, arms, and the hands to follow along.

Before Impact

Wow, check out how balanced she is right before impact and her weight is just about over the center of her stance.

Impact

Check out the V her arms make at impact. That means she’s really rotating around her body without losing any connection.

After Impact

Wow, check out how her V is still intact and she’s in perfect balance. This is similar to Ben Hogan’s swing. The only difference between Annika and Ben is that Annika does not care where her head goes. I agree that the head can freely follow the body. As long as you are striving to “stand-up” on your downswing, your clubface will meet the ball square. Check out the drills belowfor more explanation on this.

Here, her head does NOT swivel, it simply follows the body as it wills. I bet you will start hitting the ball everywhere if you tried to swivel your head. Instead you can just let the head go whereever it want to go naturally.

The Finish

Annika’s finish clearly shows that she’s standing up straight and tall. This is very good for your back and your swing. If you can finish your swing standing tall like this, I bet you will hit many many more good shots.

The Drill to Imitate Annika’s Swing Functionalities

There’s a book about this by George Knudson, who was a very famous Canadian golfer who studied Ben Hogan’s swing most of his life. In the book, George will teach you how to swing in balance and with your head moving freely along with your swing.

George Knudson has a swing exactly like Ben Hogan, except his head did move like Annika during the downswing.

The simple drill he suggest is to simply, “Shake hands with someone on the right and then shake hands with someone on the left“.

This concept allows your clubface to stay square no matter where your head is during your swing.

Here’s a picture from his book, “The Natural Golf Swing“:

As you can see, the clubface will point up at the sky “naturally” if you shake hands with someone on the right and the left.

So where ever your head goes, the clubface will still be square in proportion to your swing. This is the body control of your swing instead of trying to steer it square like a lot of golf books and teachers teach you. By keeping it simple and keeping the control of your clubface to simple actions of shaking hands, you can hit the ball much better and save your back too.

I’ve read so many golf books in my life, I probably read more than 90% of them, but this one advice has always helped my golf swing. So go try it…

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This is not an accident that I have an unlit cigarette while hitting a golf ball. It’s actually a training tool. You don’t have use a cigarette, you can also use pens, anything that’s about 3-5 inches.

What I’ve found that the cigarette does for me when I swing with it is that:

1. Keeps me in balance. If I try to swing to hard, I will bite the cigarette with my tooth and I won’t be able to smoke it after my practice.

2. Keeps your shoulders relaxed. If your shoulders are tense, you will hit the cigarette with your shoulders on the backswing.

3. Keeps your head up for balance…. balance …. balance is everything in golf and life…

If you think I am wrong, look in the history of golf and look at Ben Hogan.  If you find a Ben Hogan’s swing without a cigarette, let me know and I will send you five dollars!

(Could be that because Ben Hogan was a chronic smoker, he’s golf swing HAD to be in BALANCE!?!)

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