Mastering the Ten-Finger Grip: Michael Thorbjornsen's Swing
Golf coach Sean Foley breaks down Michael Thorbjornsen's unique swing, and the adjustments made over the years that have made him an eventual PGA Tour winner.
Video Transcript
We just pulled up Michael Thor Bjornsen's golf swing.
Just talk to us a little about, about, what those, you know, ingredients were that you saw.
You talk about the height, managing the height on the backswing.
His 10-finger grip, it's pretty unique, but it's a He's a flusher, man.
Yeah, I mean, 10-finger grip makes sense, you know, to me in a lot of ways.
I've had- like, a lot of I've had a lot of girls that I coached that were really good competitors, and their hands were so small.
Michael actually has fairly, like it's probably medium to large hands, but i- they just had so much more control and power, with 10 fingers.
And it's funny, you- if you get little kids who are good athletes and they go to the, the range, they never, ever grip it any other way but 10 fingers.
So is overlap and interlock a bit like political parties?
Like, you're a Democrat 'cause your parents were, and you're Republican 'cause your parents were.
You're Jewish 'cause your parents were Jewish, or you're Catholic 'cause your parents were Catholic.
So I think sometimes when, when people are like, "Ooh, 10 fingers, that's interesting," it's like, but is it though?
I have the ability to have every single one of my mechanoreceptors and proprioceptors and all of my touch on the club.
So what, what does interlock do to face rotation?
What does overlap do to face rotation?
Mm-hmm.
What does 10 fingers?
And I think for amateur golfers who need to learn how to release the club, 10 fingers is ideal.
It really, it really is.
Um- Wow.
Interesting.
But yeah, it's just, it's just Y- you, you should try it.
I mean, the fact that you've been another way for so, so long would probably be weird, but I mean, that's just discomfort.
And it And, and look, if you wanna get better at anything in life, if you can't deal with the discomfort, then, you know, good luck, right?
But- Yes basically, you know, his, his dad, Ted, has coached him since he was five years old, and as soon as he won yesterday, I called his dad and just said, "Hey, man, like it is absolutely remarkable to take a five-year-old kid all the way to this level at golf."
And he said, "You know, and I can't thank you enough."
And I was like, "Look, you don't have to thank me, man.
This is, this is all you and your son."
and I said to his dad, I said, "By the way, we're doing the 2018 Stanford videos."
And so the funny thing is his dad, his dad taught him to do that, but then as- Mm-hmm as Michael started to struggle, they couldn't see it.
And, and I think his dad's really a smart guy.
He's like, really understands physics.
He's a mechanical engineer.
So you know, the idea of rotating around an axis, like a single axis, is a great idea on paper, but when you bring into the fact that human beings shift their weight from left to right just to even walk, and then you look at tissue and fascia and tendons and ligaments and bones, the idea of my head staying in the exact same place is probably just not gonna happen.
So- Mm-hmm being centered has hurt a lot of golf careers.
Helped a few, but hurt probably more.
Um- Mm-hmm.
And so basically, you know, Michael's Michael would, his He would His hand path would work too much in, and when his hand path- Mm-hmm would work in, that would throw him into left side bend.
Yep.
And then from here, because he, because he's a, because he's a jumper, as soon as he would slide and then start to jump, it would just throw him this way so hard.
So more than anything, like- He'd hung, he'd hung back still, he But he could just The only shot that he had with that is just the Rory just high bomb drive.
Sure.
Which is, which is I mean, I would kill a man to hit one drive like Rory, right, Smiley?
So- Oh, gosh.
Yeah.
But, but, but I'm looking at this kid who's been elite since he was 12 years of age, and I'm thinking, "Okay, what's the most important thing you could do?"
One, help him to understand the language that he uses and that that language that he uses is creating the narrative of his life.
That's step one.
Step two, be an example of what it is to be professional.
And then step three, how can I ensure that this kid never gets stalled because of injury?
And that's it.
Mm-hmm.
Because if he stays uninjured, then, then who Then the sky is the limit really for, for a lot of them, right?
So- Mm-hmm what, what we did was where he got in his posture was I have a, a pre- I know, I know it's hard to see, but I have a preference where- No, I gotcha and I learned this from, I learned this years ago from George Jankos, okay?
Who, who I love deeply.
And George was all about the humerus being over the toe.
Mm-hmm.
And, I always liked the back looking more turtle-like.
Mm-hmm.
So I guess my players were kind of there, but when George explained it to me, I was like, "Man, that makes so much sense."
And so Michael was kind of tilted over in the chest quite a bit, and then in his toes.
So you could almost see no pressure in the heel.
So if I'm in my toes and I've got a lot of my mass out over my toes, when I take it back- Mm-hmm the only thing that my brain is interested in is me not falling over.
So I'm gonna- Yeah, it's balancing balance it.
Yeah.
You could see, like, in his On the TV, you could see him right before he hit how he kind of preset the heels and then got into his knees.
Yeah, I saw that.
So that's what we try to do.
Don't, don't bend from the waist, 'cause w- and remember, when you The more you bend from the waist, the more angle you put in that lumbar spine is not good for the back.
So- Mm-hmm I mean, you go back and like Hogan and Nicklaus and Snead, and those guys almost look like they were standing straight up, right?
Yeah.
Like- Really.
Like, truly if anything, they were quite kyphotic with their back, and then their head was down.
But, but they, they, they did look like a drunk old man at a urinal.
Like, they were not They, they didn't look like athletes, right?
