Motor Preferences in Golf: Reading the Swing You Already Have

Most golfers spend years trying to build somebody else's swing. They copy a professional they admire, they take a lesson built on a model, and they work patiently against the way their own body wants to move. Then they wonder why the good rounds never repeat.

Grounded and aerial in the swing

A grounded golfer stays low, keeps pressure into the ground and builds the swing from the feet upwards. Their rhythm is generally slower to start and their power comes from resistance against the floor.

An aerial golfer rises through the swing, uses elasticity and rebound, and produces speed through the whip of the movement rather than through ground pressure. Their tempo tends to be quicker and lighter.

You can spot the mismatch on any driving range. A grounded player told to stay tall and light loses their base. An aerial player told to sit into the ground loses their speed. Both are working hard. Both are working against themselves.

It starts at the feet

Golf is a game played from a fixed stance on uneven ground, in shoes that are usually chosen for grip and weather rather than for the player. Everything the swing does above the waist has to be paid for below it.

This is where my work sits. I look at how you organise yourself in the stance, how your weight travels through the swing, and how your shoes and insoles either support that or fight it. Custom insoles for golf are not the same object as insoles for running, because the demand is not the same.

What a session involves

Movement tests to establish your profile, then observation of your stance and swing, then the practical part: footwear, insoles, and the adjustments that let you play with your natural organisation instead of correcting it. I do not teach the golf swing. I make sure your body is not being asked to fight itself while you play it.

I am affiliated with the French Golf Federation and work with players on motor profiling and injury prevention. Appointments are available in the Cambridge area and at my Paris practice in La Defense.