This sequence proves that Henry Reis has a mechanically sound swing of his own

Annika Sorenstam’s coaches have some good news for you: The perfect golf swing is simple.

“I’m an engineer, and from an engineering standpoint there is no easier sport than golf,” says Kai Fusser, a fitness expert with a nautical engineering degree and personal trainer to the only woman to ever shoot a 59.  “There’s no movement; you’re standing still. Nobody’s trying to take the ball away or attack you while you’re doing it. You have time. It’s all levers, angles and physics, basically.”

Fusser started training Sorenstam in 2001. His work (and hers) added 25 yards to Annika’s drive and improved her overall accuracy. Today Fusser is the Director of Fitness at the Annika Academy at Orlando’s Reunion Resort. He maintains that good fitness not only boosts performance on course, it protects joints and adds years to enjoyment of the game. But he quickly adds that fitness without technique won’t get the job done. “What’s important for adding distance is, No. 1, that your swing is good,” he says.

Enter Henry Reis, Annika’s swing coach and countryman, who shares Fusser’s opinion that there’s no mystery to a good swing.

“Everyone thinks there are so many secrets—that [the pros] are doing this or that,” Reis says. “But it’s not that; it’s just the basics.”

Those basics, Reis says, are all one needs to begin developing a winning swing. And he should know: the man who crafted Sorenstam’s beautiful arc—“From a biomechanical standpoint and from a physics standpoint, there is no more efficient swing than hers,” says Fusser—can take a lot of credit for creating one of the most effective weapons ever to grace the game.

“The first time I saw her she was only 15 years old,” Reis says of Sorenstam. “She had a normal junior swing; working a lot with her arms, and her hips were gliding through and things like that. Normally when you’re young you’re not strong and you push with the hips and things, and that’s what she was doing. I tried to get her to feel that she was turning more instead of gliding through the ball. It took a long time.”

Annika retired early last year, but she sees Henri more now than she did when she was on tour: he’s the head instructor at her Academy.

“The last four or five years, there was maybe about six to seven weeks between every time we saw each other,” Reis says. “The basics… That’s normally what Annika and I were working on. We’d go back to that. That’s what most good players are doing.”

Those basics include: Grip, posture, balance, ball position and alignment—five fundamentals that, Reis says, are crucial to building an effective swing.

Sorenstam mastered them and that’s what led her swing to be, as Fusser calls it, so technically ideal and efficient.

“It’s very simple, the whole body moving as one,” he says. “It’s very quiet, all around the axis; there’s no extra bending. It’s very easy to repeat, and consistent that way because there aren’t many parts moving.

“Can we all do it? Probably not. Should we try to take some element from that? I would say yes.”

More important than trying to copy Annika’s exact form, says Reis, mastering these basics will help people understand their own swings and identify areas that need improvement.

“When I work with students, it’s important that they understand their own swing. They don’t need a coach always,” Reis says. “A lot of people make it harder than it is.”

We’re sure, like Reis says, that you don’t need a coach. But just in case you’re curious how Annika spends her practice time, here are Henri Reis’ tips on, as he says, THE BASICS.

1. The Grip

“I always say that you have six fingers in your left hand.” We couldn’t guess what the sixth was, so Reis told us: The heel of your hand. Reis says to grip the club with the third, fourth and fifth fingers of the left hand, then fold the rest of the hand over so the “sixth” finger holds the club firmly in position, with your index finger falling into place. “If you grab it like this you can hinge your wrist,” Reis says, explaining that this is crucial to achieving the kick at the end of the swing that helps achieve clubhead speed. “Then, when you put your right hand on, it’s the same as if I shake hands with you.” It’s important to note that Reis is speaking of a polite handshake, not your father’s blood-stopping seize of a paw. The club should rest in the finger joints of the right hand, not in the center of the palm. Another way to explain it, Reis offers, is to think of how you throw a baseball: You hold it at the ends of your fingers, not gripped like a treasure in your fist.

Lastly, Reis says, always assemble your grip holding the club up in front of you, not resting on the ground.

“Good players, they stay more like this,” he says. “You never see them get it down here [indicating the ground].”

2. Posture

“If you have bad posture, you cannot turn or anything,” Reis says. He explains that your stance should be not unlike a professional swimmer about to dive into a pool: Knees slightly bent and a slight forward bend at the waist, with balance basically distributed but secured on the balls of your feet, not the heels. Fusser explains that he tells people to imagine they’re standing in a cylinder. “You can do two things,” he says. “You can slide up and down and rotate, but you can’t throw your hips or dip your shoulder in any way, so you have to stay level.”

3. Balance

“You must be on the balls of your feet, not back on your heels,” says Reis. If your balance is off you could start to sway, leaning away from the ball, then having to overcorrect either by leaning forward or by stretching your arms to compensate. Either option forces you to take the swing off-arc. Poor balance is often responsible for the most common issue in golf, the slice. Golfers come over the top of the ball and swing from the outside, which throws accuracy out the window.

4. Ball Position

Besides having the ball in front of you and somewhere behind your front foot, “The old books always say… a half-inch back for every club,” Reis says. “Ok, maybe theoretically that’s good, but when you’re out there everything slopes up, down or sideways so you always set up differently because of the lie.” Basically, according to Reis, you let the club and the lie determine the ball position for normal shots—but it’s good to be aware of the general rules of thumb as well, he says.

5. Alignment

“Why is alignment important?” Reis says. [I think he’s getting ready to make a statement, but he’s actually asking me.] “Oh, uh, because it determines where the ball is headed,” I stammer. “And do you hit with your body or do you hit with your golf club?” he questions. This time I readily give the obvious answer—club—and in a solid Swedish accent he says, “Jah.”

The point is important because, he explains, so many people align themselves to the target then set the clubhead on the ground and settle into position. In fact, Reis says, “Set up the clubhead first to the target, then set up the body parallel to that lie. The order is clubhead, then shoulders, then arms.” The legs, he says, will essentially sort themselves.

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Meet Annika Sorenstam, take a lesson from Henri Reis and let Kai Fusser help you get in shape at the Annika Academy at Orlando’s Reunion Resort. Visit theannikaacademy.com or reunionresort.com for more info.