5 minute read
April’s Tip of the Month
The Dynamics of Rear, Center, and Front Anchors
BY RYAN WILLIAMS PLAYER DEVELOPMENT PROFESSIONAL
Piggy-backing on last month’s article in which we presented how to grip a golf club in terms of options, let’s discuss a different facet of the swing that also can be done in different ways but with equal success. You may have noticed watching professional golfers on television or even some of your playing partners pivot differently. Some have a noticeable drift away from the target, others stay very centered, while some even appear to move toward the target while they rotate. For the sake of creating a language for discussion, the world’s top coaches will often refer to the options as rear, center, or front anchor. For the remainder of the article, I will do the same!
The very proposal of the options probably has you wondering which one fits you best. The good news is that you can find this out very simply. By either watching yourself in the mirror or having someone film you, get into a slight athletic squat with your arms extended directly away from your sides, almost like a propeller. Then, without performing a golf pivot, turn 90 degrees in the rear direction (to the right for a right-handed player). Repeat the motion several times until you feel as though you are making as natural a turn as possible. Now, observe whether the center line of your body moved rearward (away from target), stayed centered, or moved frontward (toward the target). Think of this screening as a spectrum from very rearward to very forward. Players can be anywhere within that spectrum and play great golf; what is most important for peak performance as well as injury prevention is the player pivoting in a manner that matches them. Now, here are some examples of each option throughout the history of the game:
Rear Anchor:
These are the players with a noticeable lateral shift in their golf swing. My hero growing up, Nick Watney, was such a player as was Tiger Woods in his younger years. Many of you may recall the early days of swing analysis on TV in which they would highlight Tiger’s head drifting away from the target on the way back. In a historical sense, the game was taught this way for many years. Golf instructors of the 70s-90s taught players, in their minds, proper weight shift that went rearward on the way back and then toward the lead foot in the downswing. These players often feel that a strong lateral shift toward the target in their downswing is their main source of power. Over the last few decades, many coaches have shifted their preferences to a more centered or even front of center pivot, but players like Gary Woodland, Lydia Ko, or Anthony Kim have demonstrated that rear anchor is still a valid option.
Center Anchor:
Players that look as though they are purely rotating with no lateral shift either direction are your Center Anchor golfers. Dustin Johnson is perhaps the poster child for a very centered, extremely rotary swinging action. As mentioned before this has become a preference many coaches in the world of golf today. Tiger Woods, as he has gotten older, has employed a more centered pivot. What’s interesting about Tiger in particular is that he has used all the anchor options throughout his career: rearward in his youth, more centered in the late Butch Harmon and Hank Haney years, front during his time with Sean Foley, now settling on a centered pivot. Center anchor golfers greatest source of power is rotation or torque and will often describe their swings as aggressive turns.
Front Anchor:
Many of you have probably heard of the swing methodology “Stack and Tilt” founded by Andy Plummer and Mike Bennett. Their system focuses golfers pivoting forward of center, their main justification being that would be the simplest way for golfers to hit the ball before the ground. There are many front anchor players throughout history, including Ben Hogan and Fred Couples. Modern players include Bryson Dechambeau and Matt Kuchar. I myself am a front anchor golfer, but my swing differs from the Stack and Tilt paradigm in that I rotate much more level than their preferences when I’m playing my best golf. Front anchor golfers’ strongest source for power will be using the ground in a vertical fashion.
Hopefully, in presenting this spectrum from rear to front, you are beginning to see that there is no one way to swing a club or play this game. I envision a future in which coaching golf is done with as little “preference” as possible, one where players don’t pine after the look of another player’s swing but simply seek to understand their own! Luckily, there are coaches like EA Tischler leading the charge to help you own your swing!
