Breaking down the unique golf swing of tennis legend and two-time Wimbledon winner Rafael Nadal, who plays off scratch with his backhand-esque move.
by PGATOUR
Breaking down the unique golf swing of tennis legend and two-time Wimbledon winner Rafael Nadal, who plays off scratch with his backhand-esque move.
by PGATOUR
29 Comments
https://preview.redd.it/5ywykls8yoaf1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7f4615c26d8d62f5387e511357d4cccabca31c3b
This is all you need to see. Dudes a top 5 tennis player in history. It’s a shitload of speed. The impact position is perfect.
And for any idiots doubting his scores… he has played in mid am tournaments, and you can see how he’s done in them.
Can’t believe this shit is still even talked about all that matters is the end result.
If your club head face is square at impact, you can play good consistent golf no matter how weird your swing is.
In addition to that, he knows how to generate speed and use his body rotation. That’s where he goes from good to scratch. But a big part is making sure he’s square at impact, which is what truly matters.
Insane but maybe genius he plays righty using his backhand form. I feel like I open my body uo way too quick from years of tennis, but I’m righty doing both.
Kinda funny that you used Wimbledon, which is the major that he has the least of. Dude won 14 French opens lol
He’s one of the greatest athletes of our time, I’d be more shocked if he didn’t play off scratch. Won’t be trying his swing out anytime soon myself though
I mean its like Jordan and Gretsky golfing… they both could have dominated golf. Also Bo Jackson to include the whole Saturday morning cartoon thing, like in the early 90 Jordan, Gretsky and Jackson had a cartoon they like fought crime and drank the ALl SPORT drink that I think id now poweraid.
I know this isn’t the point, but it’s interesting to see that even though he’s one of the biggest Nike brand ambassadors in the world, he’s wearing the Nike Infinity G golf shoes which are near the very bottom of their golf shoe range.
Should not be shocking to anyone that his golf swing is unique or that it works very well for him.
A: He’s a world class athlete
B: He’s a world class tennis athlete
Dude spent his life manipulating a “club face” to precisely place a moving ball on a thin white line in the back corner of a tennis court. I’m sure there are skills that transfer
Swing your swing. If you can consistently get to that impact position, who gives a shit what the rest of the swing looks like?
Damn that’s uglier than most of your swings
Golf, tennis, baseball, hockey all have common moves that can cross over between the swings. As long as it’s square at impact and moves through the hitting zone well, how you get there doesn’t matter so much.
I have a (sorta) similar swing motion to Nadal and Rahm and it works just fine for me. All that matters is if you make good contact and the ball goes where you wanted it to lol.
Presume his shoulders are fucked from decades of high level tennis and he doesn’t have the mobility for a full swing motion.
It’s like if Rahm played tennis. Unreal he won 14 French opens
It’s always cool to see some unusual swing that works.
I’ll believe scratch with that swing when I see it
If you can square the club at impact, and dude has insane hands, he is one of the few people I would “Buy” being Scratch with a swing like that.
Scratch or not, that swing is dogshit.
Good friend of mine was an elite high school tennis player. State champ, nationally ranked. He started golfing about a year before Covid. He’s now a scratch golfer.
I’m a firm believer in certain skill sets/sports directly translating to golf. It’s amazing how quickly he picked up the game.
So here’s the thing with weird swings. There is a big difference when the person doing it is one of the most elite athletes on the planet with elite hand eye coordination, rotational strength, etc vs a guy that was never really good at any sport and decided to try golf.
“two-time Wimbledon winner Rafael Nadal”
Is like saying “one time Super Bowl winning Tampa Bay QB Tom Brady”
Your golf swing will be much easier if you understand you’re trying to hit a backhanded tennis shot.
As a righty, we should technically be hitting like lefties – a true backhand in tennis.
Just hit the golf ball like a back handed tennis shot and it’ll solve a lot of your issues.
Give it a try.
My buddy Eric played tennis in college and has a very similar swing. He’s also a big strong boy and the ball explodes off the face from a seemingly no effort half back swing shot.
What’s up with these Spaniards and short back swings? Him and Rahm go to the same coach? lol
Only person I’ve ever seen with in inside takeaway and inside delivery. Absolute freak of nature golf swing. Love to watch it
He tees it up quite high for an iron as well. Interesting stuff!
Looks better than Jim Furyk, to me.
Flat, one-plane swings have kinda gone out of fashion – and this is hardly an ideal version of that – but this is proof it can still be effective.