Apart from the whole being-really-amazing-at-baseball thing, Babe Ruth was an avid golfer. He was a good one, too: A five handicap, by most estimates, who reportedly once made a hole-in-one on a 220-yard par-3 at Long Island's Country Club of St. Albans.
Ruth's love of the game was well known at the time, and there's lots of footage of Ruth's golf swing from various celebrity charity events he played in. But recently, the Instagram account Sports_card_collector78 unearthed a insightful old video of Ruth explaining the similarities between the golf and baseball swings.
It's been making the rounds on social media, and you can watch it for yourself right here...
In the video Ruth explains that the two swings are, essentially, the same. The only differences of note are that…
- The ball is being hit from a more elevated position in baseball, which changes the plane of the swing.
- That while the weight shift is the same in both, "in baseball the shifting of the weight is combined with the stride." In golf, the stance stays fixed.
They're some observations that have been validated by biomechanics experts in both sports more recently. The Titleist Performance Institute, for instance, discusses how the essential sequence of both swings is the same: In both swings, it starts with a lateral shift towards the target, then a rotation, then finishes with a rise.
Interestingly, even the flaws that creep into both swings are the same. One of the most notable is "drifting" in baseball, which is the same as "sliding" in golf. This is when, basically, players overdo their weight shift, which costs them power.
Anyway, if you're interested in learning more about the technical similarities, you should check out this cool old Golf Digest article of Sam Snead and Ted Williams analyzing each other's swings. And, of course, you should tune in via our friends over at TBS and MAX (You can find a full schedule and more information here).
