I have a poster of Ai Miyazato’s swing sequence here on my wall in clear view as I sit at my desk. I have starred at it for over a year, every day and watched her swing on video over and over. Why? Because I want to swing like her. Yes she’s a girl but the flow and tempo and full length of her swing has always blown me away. I have actually altered my swing to do a slow take back but unlike Ai, I have a but more aggressive transition. This slow take back actually helped me overcome my bad shot, which was a push or slice. Now my aggressive transition can lead to hooks if I get overly aggressive or block right if I lag the club behind too much. However when working correctly (don’t we love those days), it has produced some amazing results for me. Of course nothing beats practice and everyone should certainly develop their OWN swing but I tried it and liked it and it worked for me.
I saw some of these videos online and thought I’d post them here. The first one is a real time comparison of Ai’s swing with Brittany Lincicome. The difference between the two is amazing. Ai is only 5 foot 2 (157cm) and she doesn’t seem to swing hard or fast… just smooth and with beautiful flow.
Utility club (this is her favorite club) slo mo:
Nice video about Ai-chan in late 2009 before she went on her awesome win streak at the beginning of 2010:
So how many of you try to imitate or take parts of pro players’ swings and incorporate them into yours to some degree?
[poll id=”41″]
Yeah, pretty smooth swing. But it looks VERY steep in the backswing? How does it look down the line? And it looks like she would not be able to really hit it far with that swing, is she a long hitter?
Hi Christian,
She is 5 foot 2 and 157cm and pretty small build, she is certainly NOT a long hitter. She is not know as a distance player at all. Her strongest point is accuracy. I think it was Brittany Lincicome who actually said it once “I can out drive Ai by 50+ yards but then she will stick it to the pin closer with her 5 wood than I would with my 9 iron”. Accuracy is what got her 4 tour wins last year on the LPGA.
You can see different angles of her swing in the last video.
I’m a HUGE fan of Ai’s swing. Where did you get the poster of her swing sequence?! I can’t find it!!
When I started getting inspired by Ai’s swing, I’ve had the same problem as you (hook or push). I definitely don’t have a relaxed swing! Work in progress…!
She has an amazing swing. It’s no wonder she can hit it far with all that momentum.
Not many people can swing like Ai.
She has incredible flexibility.
Toes point square or slightly in. Left foot still planted on the ground during backswing. Unless you are very flexible, forget about copying her style.
Flexibility is indeed the biggest challenge!
Even if you are a Pro, it doesn’t mean that your upper body/torso can be Gumby, which Ai-chan clearly has, considering she has no knee kick back in her backswing. Gosh it must be nice to be able to be so flexible, not really needing to hit it very far, as she is a tremendous scorer with her precision chipping and putting, where she makes all her money.
Saw Ai chan during one of the LPGA events last year, indeed she is small, but with great flexibility and fitness.
Your Message@gocchin:
Aha, impressive accuracy then! To have 4 wins, with having to hit 5 woods (!) or long irons into the greens, very impressive. Makes you wonder whats gonna happen if they continue to lengthen the courses and play on ever faster greens though, like in the mens game? She might go the way of Corey Pavin..
Says a lot that the South Koreans outnumber the Japanese on the LPGA by 4-5 to one, but the lady Japanese players outnumber the Koreans 3 to 1 in the top 20-25 this week.
In regards to Ai, I would give anything to copy her tempo and as Gary Koch recently pointed out and I have always believed, most men would benefit by imitating the Lady Pros (Swing and bag make up), as opposed to the PGA. Much about egos.
Ai’s tempo is impressive to say the least. Ive tried to slow my swing down recently. I found that I gained a lot of accuracy and didnt really lose any distance.
As far as trying to mimic any pro’s swing, I dont. I feel that each player needs to find their swing and while its perfectly OK to try to impement attributes of any pro’s swing, trying to copy their swing move for more is a waste of time. You just need to find YOUR swing and do the best you can to perfect that swing.