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Rory McIlroy's Magic Move

Rory McIlroy’s Magic Move



Rory McIlroy’s Magic Move

So, I got this cool video of Rory Mroy at full flight in the RDER Cup from Claire Rogers. So, I reached out to her. I’m like, Clary, you got to get me this video because there’s so many cool things that you can learn from one of the generational ball strikers of our time. Now, first off, I want you to watch as Rory just gets into the golf swing. What’s the slightest of bumps? You can see a little forward press there. little trigger. Now watch how the upper body just raises and just bumps to the right hand side. Force precedes motion. So you can see a little body force sets up the back swing. Now midway back, big extension in the arms over there. Upper body winding up. Huge turn. Now watch this too. As the arms are approaching the top of the golf swing, right about here, watch how the lower body starts to settle and drop down and drive in the opposite direction. It’s a beautiful athletic flow. You see arms going back, but watch how the hips and the knees settle down. And you can see that lowering there in the belt buckle. That’s just gorgeous. Watch right where the arrow is, how the belt buckle drives down that and centers him up. And right there, look at the load there in the legs. Notice how he’s using those legs. They’re bent. They’re fully loaded to allow him to push up and really elevate through contact. But the thing I want to highlight is how his right arm, his trail arm works. So if we just progress him down a touch. So right there, see how the trail arm, the back arm is right there against his side. Now, everyone thinks of pulling the handle in front of the body through contact. Quite the contrary. Watch as Rory does this here. You can obviously start to see the front leg pushing up, that belt buckle raising. That’s propelling the whole mechanism now. But now, watch that trailing elbow. You see it’s no longer on his side, but notice how it’s popping up and out. That elbow has not jammed into him. And right there as he approaches the moment of truth, if you look at the location of the trailing elbow, it is still by his right side. And notice how the forearm has rotated just a touch. So that trail elbows never got back in front of his core. In fact, look at where the core is sitting. And can you see how the trailing elbow is in behind that core? The guys at Athletic Motion Golf, AMG, have done a wonderful job of describing this and illustrating this. So, see the arm returns down to the side. But now, watch this right elbow. Watch how as he approaches impact, watch the right elbow extend and rotate away from his right side, almost getting over the top of the left. But watch once again here as you look at the location in relation to the torso of the arms. So the torso is here. Naturally the hips have turned open. The chest is opening up. But can you see how that right elbow is still behind the trailing side. That’s how it’s done, folks. You don’t pull the club back in front of you. You release your arms down to your side. You swing the arms. Watch this. As he lowers, as the body transition, the arms swing down to the side. The right elbow’s by his right side now. But then it stays in front then. Watch how it rotates up and over and all the way into a follow through. Free flowing. Just another T-shot blasted down the middle of the fairway. Watch here in motion. It’s gorgeous. Rory at full flight. And that trailing arm. That’s how you do it, people.

Harvey Penick called the return of the trail elbow to the trail side in the downswing the “Magic Move.” I would add that the understanding of how the trail elbow moves in concert with the trail side, the completion of that Magic Move, and Rory McIlroy does it as well as anybody in the game – and it is a part of the reason why he is so powerful.
HINT: you may want to watch this as it will improve your ball-striking and control.
cc: @AthleticMotionGolf
Credit for the video to Claire Rogers
#golf #golfswing #golftips #golfer #rydercup #golfinstruction

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  7. Very good observation Mark! Hogan was the same. His right elbow stayed „right“ as long as possible. Both have in common their straight left arm – unbelievably straight for almost the entire swing. I’m not able to straighten my left arm in such a fashion. With a much more bend left arm your right elbow will move in front of your body/chest automatically. Hogan was able to swing like this because of his very long arms. He was called monkey behind closed doors and hands – he hated this nickname! Maybe Rory’s anatomy is the same they are both not even the tallest.

  9. Loving this video and the entire verbal explanation of Rory’s swing, especially the part where he recenters and his belt buckle is lowered slightly as he separates his lead knee away from his trail knee squat like movement. In parallel how Rory pulls the handle downwards with his lead hand and reconnects his upper trail arm into his rib cage, as you correctly point out his trail elbow is more to the right side not fully out in front of his body/ core. Also a nice observation about the way Rory is also pronating his lower right forearm move into impact. A Pete Cowen “spin the trail arm concept. Culminating in a lead side extension and powerful release of the club through impact. Myles

  10. when you are talking about the trigger bump at the beginning, you mean his shaft is bending a little bit because he puts pressure on it ?

  11. John Jacobs in his book – practical golf, Ernie Els in his book How to build a classic golf swing, Jack Grout in his book – Golf clinic , Bobby Jones book ‘on golf’ and Seymour Dunn in his golf book golf fundamentals in the early 1900s all describe the same motion which Rory uses perfectly – I call it the 2 swings – 1st swing is hands swinging from the shoulders (with left arm straight going back due to centrifugal force of first swing and body turning on fixed axis) and 2nd swing is the clubhead swinging from the hands which themselves are moving through the first swing.

    First swing drives the 2nd swing throughout and 2nd swing reacts but be conscious of centrifugal force in both swings to not have any loose connections.

    To get first swing to start you can do it by focusing on the arms swing with left arm straight while turning the body on fixed axis which will automatically cause weight shift to right foot. In downswing it’s the same but reverse – weight shift to left foot followed by hip turn, shoulder turn and arms swing and finally hands swinging the clubhead through the ball automatically squaring up through impact due to neutral grip and address posture.

    Both swings are in different planes throughout but the hands through arms rotation (left arm rotation which will automatically happen) still use the centrifugal force to feel the location of the clubhead and drive it accurately through the ball on target line.

  12. excellent analysis. on a different note, it's a sad state of affairs that a state trooper needs to be guarding Rory.

  13. Also notice the repositioning of his lead heal which lands closer to the target during his transition. A real power move that sets up the chain of what follows. Grt video and commentary Tx.

  16. Nice one Mark. From the first time I saw Rory playing in a representative team event with G Mac, I thought I’d never seen a more aesthetically pleasing action in any sport.
    I was fortunate enough to see him live at the 2018 Open at Carnoustie and what a pleasure it was.
    I think the most athletic action I’ve seen from a golfer.

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