New Medicus Golf Instructional System Demonstrates Five Keys to Pure and Consistent Ball-Striking


August 2, 2012. While it is clear that no two golf swings are quite the same, a recent study by Medicus Golf has identified the five basic elements that every great golfer from Bobby Jones to Tiger Woods has in common. These traits are explained and demonstrated in the new five-disk DVD collection called "Pure Strike: 5 Simple Keys to Consistency," developed and produced by Medicus Golf.

Arguably the next significant advance in golf instruction, the DVD is now available for $99 and features Medicus Founder and President Bob Koch, and fellow Medicus Master Instructors Chuck Evans and Dave Wedzik, who together provide an in-depth look at each of the Five Simple Keys.

The Pure Strike principals, says Koch, can help any golfer to hit the ball pure, with repeated accuracy and steady distance. Although Ben Hogan's swing was sweetly controlled, Arnold Palmer lashed at drives with powerful fury and Jim Furyk famously kills snakes in a phone booth, there are profound similarities between all three players. And it's why their "secrets" so to speak, or commonalities, can help most golfers.

"One reason teaching is so complicated is that a student can't focus on 10 different parts of the swing at once," said Koch. "But while those champions had different grips, stances and swing planes, all mastered five essentials that are obvious on film and in photos. It's the common traits that enabled the greats to strike balls with consistent purity."

A former PGA Tour professional who often talks about his struggles with the game, Koch founded Medicus Golf in 1986, after inventing the now widely-used hinged club that helps golfers address swing flaws. Medicus has since become the most successful golf training company in the business, through a variety of training devices and accessories, videos on the short game and swing, and instruction both online and through its schools in Gold Canyon, Arizona, Erie, Pennsylvania and Destin, Fla.

A Simple Head-to-Clubhead Approach

As Koch suggests, the basics are, well, fairly basic. The first Pure Strike Key is keeping a Steady Head, which means the old noggin atop one's shoulders remains centered between the feet from address, at least until follow-through. Data shows that the average PGA Tour player moves his head only one inch during the swing. While some downward motion is normal - because the body compresses during the backswing - the fixed point of the head without side-to-side motion promotes balance, an initial step toward consistency.

The second key is called Weight Forward, which means that 80 percent of a right-handed golfer's weight should be on the left foot at impact. In fact, the average PGA Tour player arrives at impact with up to 95 percent of their weight on their forward leg. "One hundred percent of the best ball strikers have their weight forward at impact, while 100 percent of the worst have the weight on their back foot," says Evans. "There is a direct correlation between forward weight and handicap." Indeed, the average amateur only gets 55 percent of their weight forward at impact.

The movement of the hips toward the target is essential to the weight shift. To train the proper hip movement, says Evans, "take a training stick and put in in the ground about the width of your hand away from your left thigh. That's about as far as your hips will need to move during the downswing. Get the sequence down that puts the weight forward correctly and you've set the foundation for consistent ball striking."

Incorporating The Flat Left Wrist, which prevents the golfer from "flipping" the ball, follows the first two keys. There are no flippers on the PGA Tour. The local practice range is overrun with them. Flat left wrist keeps the shaft of the club from passing the left arm prior to impact. If the shaft does get past prematurely, it virtually assures fat and skulled shots. On this DVD, Evans and Wedzik demonstrate drills to engrain the right motions that prevent flipping.

Key number four is called The Diagonal Sweet Spot Path of a swing, which helps bring the clubface's sweet spot to the golf ball, followed by Club Face Control, the final Key, involving the movement of the clubface from takeaway to follow-through. While the first three keys ensure a pure, compressed strike on the golf ball, these last two control its flight.

"Because of the shape of the golf club and the position from which a player makes his strike, a swing should follow a tilted plane, like the roof of a house," said Wedzik. "The backswing of the Sweet Spot Path follows that image to where one's hands are level with the gutter and the sweet spot of the clubface is level with the peak of the roof. This puts the golfer in position to follow the sweet path, delivering the clubhead to the ball from the inside out."

Flightscope technology and high-speed cameras have proven that the golf ball starts generally in the direction the clubface is pointing at impact and curves away from the path. If the face is open to the path, the ball will fade, and if it's closed, the ball will draw. A proper fade is hit with a clubface aiming left of the target at impact, and a proper draw with one aiming right of the target at impact. By understanding Club Face Control, both of these shots can be perfectly playable, depending on the target. According to Evans and Wedzik, knowing the true ball flight laws and how to achieve them is the fifth and final Key to great scoring and incredible golf.

"Although the Medicus training aid and our instruction program have helped millions of golfers, I wasn't satisfied," explains Koch. "We still see more swing flaws that need to be addressed. The Five Keys are the next big step in golf instruction, because they will allow a golfer to apply a simple and repeatable swing that consistently produces pure ball striking, regardless of experience level or body type."

For more information, visit www.purestrike.com.