Swing Cancer, Carcinogens

Lag said

This comment hit me so, I just keep thinking about it.

Maybe it’s just me, but I think we need a thread so folks can elaborate on it ( swing cancer), and discuss the hazardous carcinogens. It sounds like the new lightweight clubs and cavity backs are the equivalent of cigarettes and saacharin.

Anything else? ( balls??)

Should the new clubs come with a warning label…or taxed( to support the cost of lengthening courses), or even banned?

Using tees on par threes.

…and if it rhymes, it’s got to be true.

Upright clubs and offset.

Upright clubs by their very disposition discourage the pivot from getting fully engaged. With the standard setup that most teachers promote, the shaft will no longer be at right angles to the torso on the downswing, and any OTT move starts the ball much more left, quicker… than from a flatter lie angle.

To complicate things, the arms don’t have room to work correctly on the downswing, and we keep hearing the “stuck” term which is exactly what happens.

The offset is just that… an absurd attempt to delay the shutting of the clubface so that OTT has a better chance of starting the ball online… with more of a glancing blow. Two negatives rarely make things right.

A proper golf swing is going to be based upon forearm rotation in sync with a proper pivot rotation. This kind of gear set up will inhibit both, and leave golfers scratching their heads for decades wondering why they don’t get better.

Two kinds of swing cancer created in the modern golf lifestyle.

Low spinning rocketing plastic golf balls give players the false illusion that they are better at controlling the ball than they are… and of course that their swing is more powerful than it is. Without the feedback say the balata balls gave us… this is like putting golfers on steriods. In this case, long irons are replaced with hybrids, and although everything appears to be bigger, faster, stronger, better, it’s actually an illusion.

Kind of like stuffing down a huge plate of pasta with a bacon cream sauce, then topping that off with a big bowl of melted fudge and ice cream, then when you feel bloated and a bit ill, you drink a bottle of Pepto-Bismol and pop a couple aspirin.

30 minutes later you feel great!

This is an older atricle (early 2009) but Golf Digest makes some interesting points in a rebuttal to blade irons.

“The fading fantasy of blade irons”
http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-equipment/blogs/bomb-and-gouge/2009/03/the-fading-fantasy-of-blade-ir.html

Being a beginner player myself (only 6 months of playing, yet to break 100) I tend to find this type of article, coming from a major magazine, very cancerous and even convincing. I am a big fan of Lag’s philosophy but inside my logical sense fights with “why make it harder” for anyone who plays non-professionally?

I purposely bought some so-called harder to hit modern blade-like irons so I could grove and be better in long term. But being masochistic is sure a humbling thing when you step on course with fellow hackers who spend half the time practicing but are doing just as good with their mini frying pan game improvement Irons. While I earn calluses trying to make my irons work for me, my friends shows up with new Callaway/TM/etc that look so easy to hit.

To make things worse I also just picked up a set of 1968 Spalding Top-Flite Professional blades (2-PW) to use. I am hoping they don’t frustrate me enough to surrender to Golf Digest type “Hot List” recommendations or quit golf.

Budman
It is well known the no.1 fallacy in golf is an OTT move. Ironically no amount of technology has the cure for that move. The bigger shovels might give you some leavay on low point control (thin/fat shots) and on off center hits. Those are actually relatively easier to fix. I would start playing the ball way back in the stance till I start thinning everything and settle for a low ball flight initially. The sweet spot control takes a little longer (around 6 months in my case) but getting that to get consistent leads to remarkable improvments in other areas of the swing especially making a tighter pivot. If you belong to ABS where a tight grip is part of the protocol you, helps you a lot with off center hits.
I dont know of the pros approach. May for them as money is involved they dont want to mishit any shots. But then again they have swing coaches; Trackman etc; while for us the club is our only feedback.
Before ABs I was playing with Nickent 3DX which is one of the biggest shovel ever made but now my favourite irons are the Macgregor M75s which I think is the samallest balde in term of volume. Especially the long irons are so small that missing the sweet spot is not too far from missing the ball altogether.

The fact the article’s authors call themselves “Bomb and Gouge” tells me they are in the stone age as far as learning a proper golf swing. I would love to take them to a real golf course, and play them for pink slips with a set of 1950’s blades and persimmons. Then they might change their names to “finesse and shape” while I drive home in their turbo X6M.

There is a new kind of swing cancer that grows on the feet… called plastic golf spikes.

This just made my day :laughing:

You could probably ditch your glove. I’ve felt a definite balance/awareness/feel benefit, plus an overall strength increase in my left hand from not wearing one anymore. It’s also made me have a better left hand grip because I have to be disciplined with the placement and pressure of my left thumb- it used to slip when I wore a glove and I’d tear up that spot just below the thumb bend. When I stopped wearing a glove I used to rip the skin there, which is really painful, so I would have to wear athletic tape. Over time, I’ve been forced to move the pressure into the pad of the thumb and keep it there. It’s brought so much feel, life, and strength to my left hand as a result. We’re less coordinated and more clumsy the further you go down into the thumb- you’d never pick something up by pressuring below the pad or bend in the thumb- try it and you’ll say how ridiculous it is. The glove was basically just letting me feel like nothing was wrong, but all the while, I was being inefficient with my energy transfer through the hand. Pure swing cancer. To be honest, I thought I’d never be able hit long irons and woods without a glove on, but now I can’t imagine hitting them with one on. Or any club, to be honest.
Plus it’s eliminated that annoying chore of trying to find a glove that actually felt right. I swear I’d play well when I had a glove that felt good, and not great when I didn’t. I’d go through the box and pick the ones I’d wear and I’d end up with about 3 out of 12. Sometimes the leather would be really thick and you’d feel like you’re going out to chop wood, and then sometimes they’d be so soft that you could wipe a babies bum with it. Interestingly, gloves are a lot like clubs when it comes to the ones you get to buy in the stores, and the ones pros play. In all honesty, it’s like the difference between a fine pair of hand made shoes, and a pair of cheap work boots. Or a nice filet vs. steak and eggs at the truck stop. We don’t need these kind of stresses when trying to play well. Ditch the glove. It might hurt for a while, but it will be worth it.

Could not agree more with not wearing a glove. I carry one only to use it if it is too cold (I just carry my right hand in my pocket). Intrestingly I have less calluses now than when I used to use a glove. I thik a corded wrap grip with bare hands is the best grip you can have.

Ditto Macs and Bom about gloves…tossed the glove away at the beginning of the season…and was the best move I have made in a while. The old hands got trashed pretty quickly after ditching the glove…but have long since recovered- and it was well worth the effort. Played last week with full cords sans glove…and it was the best. I could actually grip the snot out of it and it felt like butter…another opposing feeling :laughing: RR

RR now that you have seen the light and the face, please send me ALL of your red pills. Here’s what ails me lately.

It’s NO more FUN…
…spanking my big, balloon headed driver through the fairway into the rough, because I know it’s killing my feel. :cry:
…loving my thick, ugly, perimeter weighted, easy to hit, game improvement clubs because they cause cancer. :open_mouth:
…hanging out way too long at the 19th hole, because I have module reps to fit into my day. :angry:
…exercising till it hurts and I fall to the floor because it just creates more tension. :confused:
…running for my health because I am afraid I am going to drop dead on the trail. :imp:
… wearing my adorable pink polka-dot glove because it’s giving me nasty callouses. :blush:
Help what’s next !

So funny you mention this article - i read that thing before i ever heard of ABS - and thought it was an opinion full of balony back then. First, their hotlist is nothing more than a marketing gag - who advertises over the year gets a spot - no names with proper product dont even get mentioned. Second - this kind of writing gives Mr. Weekend hack a cheap argument against blades that he will happily share with you whenever you just slightly mishit a shot.

But then again - whoever reads any public golf magazin and takes it serious has a long way to go.

You’re away, Mr Chaos…

I think I’m going to toss the glove in after reading these posts too. It makes no sense that I can’t seem to chip without a glove or putt with a glove…it has to be in the head. Sick of the things drying out, being totally overpriced and buying a new one at the last minute when I’ve left it out of the bag.

Some more swing carcinogens:

  • modifiable and draw-weighted clubs.
  • launch monitors if used without thorough understanding of swing and machine limitations
  • practice prior to round
  • swing video overlay software
  • training gadgets
  • range mats
  • repetitively playing same shot from same place (ranges, chipping green, putting greens)

Seriously, Now I can’t even enjoy a good commercial golf magazine while in the bath for fear of being called a hack, and I guess my dream of having a X6M in Melbourne Red is just WRONG on so many levels :laughing:

As long as you dont carry around a laminated copy to the driving range going through the tips page by page i think you´ll be fine :wink: . Btw, i read them too - many colourful pictures and lots of stuff to laugh about! Its the comic book for audults.

I´ve got one more

Bad teaching professionals - just as bad school teachers - not will they not teach you properly, but they might just mess you up for the rest of your golfing life

This is a good one for this list. I honestly believe they messed me up while first learning earlier this year and I am still trying to rid myself of the effects. I would head to range and was ecstatic I could beat cheaply and started to think I was improving. I would be hacking some darn good looking golf shots at the range. Then I booked a golf outing with some friends, confident as I drove to course. Boy was playing on real grass again a humbling experience. I felt bad for greenskeeper afterwards as I was hitting fat most of my shots then thin the next trying to adjust.

To this day I only take a thin divot IF one at all. I am a picker and trying to rid myself of it has been difficult. My first 1k+ balls of trying to learn a golf swing were off mats. I think over time my mind started to avoid the jarring effects of properly hitting the ball on mats to instead pick it clean. I recently saw a fellow hacker friend of mine suffer same fate as he warmed up for hour on mats before playing. He was frustrated in his fats compared to how well he was hitting in practice. I kept it to myself why… I now pay more for the grass area and only use mats for drivers.

I don’t agree with some others on your list though. For example, why would repetitively playing same shot be bad? It is a quick way to smooth and ingrain a motion. We learn through repetition. Suggesting otherwise would be like saying NBA players pausing practice to isolate and repetitively shooting 100 free throws in a row is a cancer for their game.