Quarter-swing, Half-swing, Full-swing, or Best Swing?
By Tom Goodspeed
Ok…lets assume the full swing is the full revolution starting from down, the half-swing is starting at the top of the swing and a quarter swing is starting from around the horse’s hip. Over the years, I have watched and listened to many a player speak of which style might be the preferred choice. I have even watched some players make modifications through their career. It would make sense that our style might also be affected by a number of variables…such as: ability, level of your mobility, and quality of horse would be major factors. There have been times that I have made significant modifications to my swing due to a sore lower back, a greener horse, or field conditions.
However, my point of this presentation is to educate newer players to the fact that the half shot seems to have all the important components of a successful shot. The full swing seems to have more to do with the rhythm of the swing for a lot of players. Pulling the mallet into position is almost a pre-swing ceremony in preparing for the actual stroke. If it works for you…fantastic. But in some cases, often times with novice-intermediate players, I have noticed that the player struggles a little with the advantages of the full swing, versus the reality of the required timing to hit the ball at greater speeds.
You may want to try the half swing for a while to be able to place more focus on getting your mallet to the ball earlier, when traveling at greater speeds, for both your forehanders and backhanders.
I still like the full swing on the near-side fore-hander because that particular shot doesn’t allow our body tp turn through the shot as easily as the other three basic shots. On the near-side fore-hander, that full swing often helps us get a little better kick into the swing. On the other three shots, we have much more ability to turn our own shoulders and hip through the shot, so a half swing along with the stride of the horse will offer all the power we need in the stroke.
One of the clear examples that comes to my mind was watching Mariano Gonzalez running with the ball one afternoon. He was galloping down field, just inside of mid-field. He selected just a quarter swing at speed…his resulting shot was about 170 yards and wide of goal. It seemed that his intention was to take an approach shot as he had his opponent beat, but he launched the ball with only a partial swing. The reason was that he was at top speed. This example demonstrates that the speed and power of the horse in combination with great technique and proper timing (both trademarks of Mariano’s remarkable ability) is the formula for distance, even when you try to ease up your swing. At top speed, you need to be careful to not get too far under the ball and possibly even reduce the extent of your follow through if you are trying to carry the ball and keep the ball down. Now, at the same time, I have witnessed Mariano score from outside the mid-field mark(He won a triple chukker over-time with a shot from 140 yards out at the sidelines in san diego some years back), so it is possible that he was shooting on goal……..but it seemed to me that he was hoping for an approach shot due to the fact that he was pushing his horse as if he was expecting to finish the play further down field.
The forces created when you are traveling at speed are monumental. You have close to a one thousand pound horse going around thirty mph. The only real challenge at those speeds for most amateurs is to start your swing early enough. Until you develop a better eye at speed, we tend to wait until the ball is at our side before we actually swing…way too late. And if we are going through a longer full swing for the off-side fore-hander or either back-hander, you odds for better timing on the hit are significantly reduced.
Now at slower speeds, the dynamics shift. The slower your horse goes, the lesser the power they contribute into the swing. This mandates you need to add more body power into the stroke. This does not necessarily require a full swing……But you do need to put in all the proper components of the swing that come packaged with the half-swing. Now I am not saying the full swing is bad, I am just pointing out that the important ingredients are proper preparation, the proper length mallet, beginning the stroke at the proper place, and following through with your swing. All of this is possible with a half-swing. I have had some success with helping amateurs with their back shots by encouraging them to use half shots and to hit the ball earlier. Too many players turn their body first…and then they swing the mallet on their backhanders. You need to face forward on your backhanders and then turn through the shot with your body as you stroke the ball. There are times when you do reach further back when you are looking for a shorter shot with greater angle. But if you want power, the players need to learn to start forward and get that same angle by turning the mallet head across the ball as they make contact. That is another chapter and requires a fair amount of practice.
In closing, if you are struggling with your timing, consider chopping your full swing in half and buying yourself some time in getting your mallet to the ball quicker.
In any event, whichever swing style you prefer, I wish you many of them for many years to come.
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