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Revisiting Ernest Jones’ “Swing the Clubhead”

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Ernest Jones was a British golf professional who lost a leg in World War I. That didn’t stop him from continuing to play to the level of a scratch golfer, however, proving, as others have, that a golfer needs only one functioning leg, or arm even, to play at that high level. Important history we should keep in mind when considering the physical requirements for good golf.

Jones’ classic instruction book, “Swing The Clubhead,” begged golfers to do only ONE thing. Yeah, THAT. But a lot of people missed what ol’ Ernie was really on about. This article aims to shed light on what Ernest Jones described as a TRUE swinging action.

I will admit that the first time I read through the book as a younger instructor, , I missed the heart of the lesson. Up until that time, I had not even considered the possibility that the wrists could be passive and not actively bending back and forth. Similarly, I never understood what people meant by “keeping the hands out of it.”

“The hands are ON the club, they HAVE to be in it,” I reasoned.

Then one day it hit me. EUREKA! What if I hold the handle VERY lightly, like a 3 on a scale of 1 to 10, wind-up my hands around my center as a means to move the club head, and ALLOW the wrists to behave as they like — passively, in response to the active action of swinging the hands. Would that even WORK? Like a charm, I would discover. With all clubs and swings, long and short. The benefits are numerous, but perhaps coolest of all is that the wrist action is 100 percent AUTOMATED, the wrists truly functioning as a free hinge. Ah, so THAT’S what he meant!

Jones’ only real teaching aid was a pocket knife attached to a handkerchief, a kind of weight on a string. To swing something means to cause it to rotate around something else, an axis. To cause the dangling pocket knife to swing, the swinger needs to only hold the handkerchief and move the hand back and forth through space. The flexible handkerchief ALLOWS the knife to swing and represents passive wrists for the golfer. No torque needs to be applied at the hinge, which is free, to create a hinging action between the knife and handkerchief. The same is true for your golf swing. What a relief! One less thing to worry about!

Jones’ primary practice drill involved swinging the handkerchief and knife simultaneously with a club, to test whether one was even swinging at all. Any conscious and ACTIVE bending of the wrists, which Jones called “levering,” instantly causes the club to fall out of step with the swinging knife.

One of several “whippy” swing aids on the market, like the Orange Whip Trainer, allows the user to FEEL an object swing from a freely functioning hinge — the shaft in this case. Like the knife and handkerchief, this teaches us that an ACTIVE wrist action is NOT a requirement to create the ACTUAL wrist action seen in great swings, but the polar opposite of what Ernest Jones saw as a REAL swing. To do as Jones intended, simply swing or rotate the hands around your body, and ALLOW the club head to swing around the hands.

“Swing the club head with your hands,” Jones said, NOT with an active bending, “flipping,” or “levering” of the wrists.

Now that you know HOW to swing the club head, let’s swing it efficiently. This involves acceleration of the swing of the hands. With passive wrists and light grip pressure, you can learn that sufficient acceleration of the hands in one direction causes the club to initially lag behind and hinge back in the REVERSE direction. A fundamental aspect of efficient swinging is to make contact BEFORE the club head catches up to its axis, the hands, promoting solid contact with a descending attack angle, especially for swings off the turf.

Executing something called the “lagging club head takeaway” establishes the passive-wrist hinging action to start the swing. As the hands are swung back, the club head lags behind momentarily before following the hands along.

Above: Bobby Jones exhibits the classic “lagging club head takeaway”

Another great practice drill is to slowly wind-up the hands fully and stop. Starting the forward swing from this stopped position, you should CAUSE and ALLOW the club to again hinge back in the REVERSE direction, just like with the “lagging club head takeaway.” Consider that the reason you don’t always see this in great swings is because, as the forward swing begins, the wrists may already be bent back to their fullest extent. Since the forward swing to impact lasts only a few tenths of a second, there’s not much left to do now except continue smoothly accelerating the hands through the impact zone. Oh, and keep your eye on the ball! Eventually the club head catches up to the hands, but the ball is already gone.

If you find that this short swing shows a prominent wrist action, you would be correct. But looks can be deceiving. All of the bending of the wrists you see here is provided by the acceleration of the hands with passive wrists. The same swing, with firmer grip pressure, would look less “wristy,” but executing the reverse hinge phenomenon you see here at the start-up and transition is a great exercise to prove passive wrists and efficient hand swing acceleration.

The Swing-Eze teaching aid functions nicely as a “weight on a string.” Its free hinge permits a prominent “lagging” action.

1

Impact is made well BEFORE the club head catches up to the hands.

2

The ball has left the face while the club head is still lagging behind the hands.

3

The club head finally catches the hands well after impact.

“Stay ahead” of the club head with your hands this way and you may well be on the road to your personal performance potential. And remember, you can swing all your clubs this way, full and short! Ultimately, you may choose a grip pressure that is firm enough to prevent the “reverse” hinging, but either way, feel FREE, literally, to continue swinging the club head by swinging the hands around your body with passive wrists.

Ernest Jones would have been proud!

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As an independent contractor based in Scottsdale, Arizona, Todd Dugan provides video swing analysis as a player gift to groups hosting golf tournaments and also is available for private instruction. * PGA Certified Instructor * Teaching professionally since 1993 CONTACT: [email protected] vimeo.com/channels/todddugangolf

13 Comments

13 Comments

  1. Rob Saxe

    Jun 1, 2019 at 9:46 pm

    I’ve worked with many instructors from THE TGM guru to former tour players to pga teaching and coaching summits. Now that I’m getting older the only thing that matters after everything I’ve read from sir Walter Simpson to Ernest Jones to Jack Nicklaus to Sean Foley to athletic motion golf on YT, is allowing the clubhead to swing me and control my wrists and footwork. That’s all I pay attention to. The rest of bs. Great post here. Thank you. Oh and I love the imperceptible clubhead lag in takeaway. It sets the tone for the backswing.

  2. BT

    Sep 23, 2015 at 12:01 am

    I’ve been playing 25 years and have been a 5 hc for the last decade. Straight but short off the tee with a good short game. Average drive about 225 or so. Always had a smooth easy swing. I’ve never been able to increase my swing speed much without destroying my accuracy. In fact I really haven’t tried much. Just accepted that I’m a short hitter and still managed to shoot in the 70s most of the time. I’ve read some Ernest Jones stuff before and thought it was compatible with what I do but never fully understood it until I read this article. I’ve now seen that part of my problem creating club head speed all these years was my lack of a truly free release of the club that this article promotes. I had a sound swing but not much speed. No lag to speak of. After I started working on the free swinging motion described here, I had to strengthen my grip slightly so that it’s more neutral now, rather than weak as I’d played for years before. Once I began to trust the free swinging motion this creates, my distance has increased dramatically. I am now driving it 30-50 yards longer than before with less effort. It’s completely changed my game. Clearly I was leaving a lot of distance on the table since I was short before but this has been a revelation. I’ve lost just a little accuracy but the distance gains more than offset that. Used to hit 10-12 fairways a round and now I’m hitting 8-10. None of the par 5s on my home course were ever remotely reachable for me before but now I’ve been around all of them in two at least once including a 520 yd hole today. I’m a club and a half longer with every iron as well. I can’t begin to explain how great it’s been. Anyone who’s worked hard at their game for years and achieved a relatively low handicap can tell you that you don’t just wake up one day and pick up 40 yards off the tee. But I have and it’s entirely due to what I learned from this article. I realize this isn’t the best way to swing for everyone but it certainly works for me and no one should discount it just because it’s not what suits them.

    • Todd

      Jul 13, 2016 at 4:17 pm

      Awesome, BT! When the wrists are allowed to function as “free agents”, a Jack Nicklaus described in his book, “Golf My Way”, the wrists un-cock with greater speed, as you’ve discovered! Ironically, intending to speed-up with the wrists themselves, reduces speed!

  3. Jeff

    Jun 8, 2015 at 3:48 pm

    Unfortunately, I regret to report that the information in this article is worth exactly what I paid for it. Total crap. I am convinced that golf instructors know it’s bad business to make people better golfers and no longer need lessons. Its maddening and cruel, in my opinion.

  4. Jeff

    May 31, 2015 at 8:11 pm

    I have read STC so many times that I have lost count. I have also purchased an expensive DVD which claims to teach pure Ernest Jones. Never did it occur to me that passive wrists was the missing link to my success. Yes I know they are mentioned, but I always honed in on other details. There have been days where I have the feel and I can’t miss, where golf actually feels easy for 5 or 6 straight holes. HOWEVER, much more often, I have struggled to implement STC and typically go back to experimenting and doing what gets me by. If there weren’t thunderstorms outside, I would be at the range trying this right now. Rest assured I will soon, and I will post the results.

  5. James G

    May 4, 2015 at 11:33 am

    The lagging clubhead move was also used by Julius Boros and his swing was very much like what Earnest Jones advocated. Boros’ swing is still as relevant today to study as when he was playing on the Tour.
    As an aside, this is the theory behind the Whippy Tempomaster training aid as well. The man who developed it said he had been swinging a ball on a string and came up with the Whippy as a better alternative to that.

  6. dcorun

    May 1, 2015 at 12:49 pm

    I’ve used this swing for some years after reading an article about Ernest Jones and thought how simple this swing idea was and why it wasn’t popular with more golfers. This is a very simple swing as explained. Light grip pressure, pick a target, turn the shoulders and swing through the ball not at it. Let everything happen naturally not mechanically like a lot of today’s teachers try to teach. I found a book by Manuel de la Torre a Top 100 and highly regarded instructor/teacher called ‘Understanding The Golf Swing’ and it is a great book which teaches this swing. It is easy to understand and has illustrations always help a lot. If you can get it do so since it goes into greater detail than Todd can in this short space. Manuel and his father who taught him were disciples of Ernest Jones and Manuel’s father met and worked with Earnest. Todd is also right that this swing is for all shots.

  7. BA

    Apr 29, 2015 at 9:00 pm

    Todd, have you followed the work of Manuel De Le Torre? He is a direct disciple of Ernest Jones.

    • Todd

      Apr 29, 2015 at 11:39 pm

      BA, yes, I have studied Manuel’s book, “Understanding The Golf Swing”. None other than Moe Norman adopted Manuel’s method later in life!

  8. LK

    Apr 29, 2015 at 10:17 am

    I’m not sure about the orange whip or the swing eze but back in the day I learned to swing this way using a Whippy Tempomaster. Over the course of a couple years I dropped about 25 strokes (100ish to mid 70s) and gained 30 yards with every club. I’m proof that Mr. Jones theory is legit.

  9. Skip

    Apr 28, 2015 at 2:13 pm

    Wow, nice to see you understand it now. Probably would have come in handy way back when, when you were teaching people how to play.

    • Todd

      Apr 28, 2015 at 9:48 pm

      Skip, you’re right. It would have. After years of study and experience, I feel better-equipped to teach effectively today than when I started teaching 20 years ago. But the thing that keeps me most interested in the golf swing is knowing there is always more to learn.

  10. Greg V

    Apr 28, 2015 at 10:17 am

    Percy Boomer took it one step further by teaching how to hit the ball using pivot, while keeping the upper body (everything above the belt line) relaxed and reflexive to the pivot of the legs and hips. Percy could play a bit; he won the French Open, beating Henry Cotton and the other good English/European pros of the day.

    If you think about Earnest Jones playing single digit golf while pivoting on one leg, that is a pretty good trick!

    On the other hand, Jim Flick used to sit on a stool and hit the ball pretty darn well with only a little trunk rotation and an arm swing. I guess the principle is the same – keep the hand action reflexive and a result of a pivot. The means are just different.

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Instruction

Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!

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Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?

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How a towel can fix your golf swing

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This is a classic drill that has been used for decades. However, the world of marketed training aids has grown so much during that time that this simple practice has been virtually forgotten. Because why teach people how to play golf using everyday items when you can create and sell a product that reinforces the same thing? Nevertheless, I am here to give you helpful advice without running to the nearest Edwin Watts or adding something to your Amazon cart.

For the “scoring clubs,” having a solid connection between the arms and body during the swing, especially through impact, is paramount to creating long-lasting consistency. And keeping that connection throughout the swing helps rotate the shoulders more to generate more power to help you hit it farther. So, how does this drill work, and what will your game benefit from it? Well, let’s get into it.

Setup

You can use this for basic chip shots up to complete swings. I use this with every club in my bag, up to a 9 or 8-iron. It’s natural to create incrementally more separation between the arms and body as you progress up the set. So doing this with a high iron or a wood is not recommended.

While you set up to hit a ball, simply tuck the towel underneath both armpits. The length of the towel will determine how tight it will be across your chest but don’t make it so loose that it gets in the way of your vision. After both sides are tucked, make some focused swings, keeping both arms firmly connected to the body during the backswing and follow through. (Note: It’s normal to lose connection on your lead arm during your finishing pose.) When you’re ready, put a ball in the way of those swings and get to work.

Get a Better Shoulder Turn

Many of us struggle to have proper shoulder rotation in our golf swing, especially during long layoffs. Making a swing that is all arms and no shoulders is a surefire way to have less control with wedges and less distance with full swings. Notice how I can get in a similar-looking position in both 60° wedge photos. However, one is weak and uncontrollable, while the other is strong and connected. One allows me to use my larger muscles to create my swing, and one doesn’t. The follow-through is another critical point where having a good connection, as well as solid shoulder rotation, is a must. This drill is great for those who tend to have a “chicken wing” form in their lead arm, which happens when it becomes separated from the body through impact.

In full swings, getting your shoulders to rotate in your golf swing is a great way to reinforce proper weight distribution. If your swing is all arms, it’s much harder to get your weight to naturally shift to the inside part of your trail foot in the backswing. Sure, you could make the mistake of “sliding” to get weight on your back foot, but that doesn’t fix the issue. You must turn into your trial leg to generate power. Additionally, look at the difference in separation between my hands and my head in the 8-iron examples. The green picture has more separation and has my hands lower. This will help me lessen my angle of attack and make it easier to hit the inside part of the golf ball, rather than the over-the-top move that the other picture produces.

Stay Better Connected in the Backswing

When you don’t keep everything in your upper body working as one, getting to a good spot at the top of your swing is very hard to do. It would take impeccable timing along with great hand-eye coordination to hit quality shots with any sort of regularity if the arms are working separately from the body.

Notice in the red pictures of both my 60-degree wedge and 8-iron how high my hands are and the fact you can clearly see my shoulder through the gap in my arms. That has happened because the right arm, just above my elbow, has become totally disconnected from my body. That separation causes me to lift my hands as well as lose some of the extension in my left arm. This has been corrected in the green pictures by using this drill to reinforce that connection. It will also make you focus on keeping the lead arm close to your body as well. Because the moment either one loses that relationship, the towel falls.

Conclusion

I have been diligent this year in finding a few drills that target some of the issues that plague my golf game; either by simply forgetting fundamental things or by coming to terms with the faults that have bitten me my whole career. I have found that having a few drills to fall back on to reinforce certain feelings helps me find my game a little easier, and the “towel drill” is most definitely one of them.

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Instruction

Clement: Why your practice swing never sucks

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You hear that one all the time; I wish I could put my practice swing on the ball! We explain the huge importance of what to focus on to allow the ball to be perfectly in the way of your practice swing. Enjoy!

 

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