Anatomy of a Swing A breakdown of Tiger Woods' swing shows that it's picture perfect text by Jaime Diaz photographs by Kiyoshi Iwai   Woods has classic posture. His alignment is textbook, with the imaginary lines through his feet, hips and shoulders all pointed at the target. He stands tall to the ball, which allows a wide arc and freedom of movement. He carries his head high, faciliting a big, unencumbered shoulder turn. His feet are wider than shoulder width, providing a solid foundation for the speed and power about to come, as well as serving to limit his hip turn. His body is relaxed and ready.
	Woods' backswing begins with the turning of his left shoulder. His hands remain passive, allowing his extended arms to create a wide arc. Woods' key thought when he is practicing his takeaway is "width."
	Although his swing is wide, Woods' clubpath remains on a correct plane. His arms have stayed close to his chest, and his right elbow is beginning to fold. His right leg remains braced, keeping the hips from turning too much.
	The width of Woods' swing is indeed remarkable. His shoulders have already turned nearly 90 degrees, while his hips have rotated barely 30 degrees. It is this combination that that produces the tremendous winding effect - the torque - that will be released on the forward swing. Notice there is very little wrist cock, as big muscles of the body are controlling the action, not the hands.
	At the top, Woods is a picture of efficiently stored power. He is tremendously coiled, but there is absolutely no excess in his turn - no quirky, unorthodox, "signature" moves. Along with the so called "three-quarter" position Butch Harmon has encouraged in Woods, Greg Norman and Davis Love III, the signature is the simplicity and the correctness. It is remarkably restrained action for a 20- year-old with as much flexibility and strength as Woods possesses. Also note how relaxed and poised his facial features have remained. No strain.
	Having unleashed the stored-up power, Woods is returning to the ball with the club shaft on nearly the identical plane it followed on the backswing. At this point, his rotation to the ball is as fast as has ever been seen in a tournament golfer. A minor flaw that Woods and Harmon are working on is the action of the right foot. The heel here is farther off the ground than is ideal, indicating that Woods lower body still has a tendency to become too active on the downswing. When the legs are so active on the downswing, the lower body tends to slide too far forward. That makes makes the angle of the forward swing becomes too steep, requiring the player to use his hands to square the club at impact, which leads to loss of accuracy and general inconsistency. Woods wants to keep his right foot closer to the ground to "quiet" his lower body, which will reduce the slide forward and bring the club to the ball on a shallower angle, producing the squarest possible hit.
	The club is on plane, as a comparision between this photo and Frame 4 will show. The plane and the fact that the right arm completely extended show an ideally full release at the target. Woods has kept his right heel from rising appreciably since Frame 6, which helped him make a solid strike. Its hard to see, but Woods left leg is nearly straight, producing a stabilizing brace for the forward swing, and indicating that his body did not slide forward excessively. His head, other than turning naturally with the rotation of his shoulders, has remained in an essentially fixed position, creating an ideal fulcrum for his body to swing around.
	This is the classic Woods finish. His body is fully rotated, arms fully released, with no blocking or guiding action by the hands. Woods was taught at an early age to swing as hard as he wanted to as long as he could remain on balance and hold his finish. It is a lesson incredibly well learned.