If anyone is concerned the Nautilus topic disrupts their ability to absorb the lessons of the ABS modules, it may be helpful to avoid the following questions.
What is over acceleration?
What is acceleration of acceleration?
Does over acceleration before impact always lead to chaotic hitting motion? Why or why not?
Does the intent of acceleration of acceleration through and beyond impact always lead to a chaotic hitting motion? Why or why not?
Can over acceleration be controlled to amplify club head speed without chaos through impact? How? What documentation exists?
Can the intent of acceleration of acceleration through and beyond impact be controlled to amplify club head speed without chaos through impact? How? What documentation exists?
If smooth acceleration creates smooth hitting spirals, what happens to hitting spirals where there is over acceleration or acceleration of acceleration in the down “swing”?
There is accumulating student testimony that thoroughly doing the module drills helps students become more proficient with the ABS hitting protocol without the need to consider any of the above questions at all. If the above questions are too disturbing, or if you are concerned that over thinking is making you stumble, module drills alone and instructor feedback alone is refreshing relief.
What is over acceleration?
Acceleration at an out of control and unmaintainable rate which leads to clubhead throwaway
What is acceleration of acceleration?
A concerted effort to accelerate at an increased or increasing rate
Does over acceleration before impact always lead to chaotic hitting motion? Why or why not?
Definition of chaotic hitting? Over-acceleration before impact leads to clubhead throwaway and loss of clubhead lag pressure because the rate of acceleration is unmaintainable and deceleration is inevitable.
Does the intent of acceleration of acceleration through and beyond impact always lead to a chaotic hitting motion? Why or why not?
Again, definition of chaotic hitting? Intent of acceleration of acceleration acts to maintain clubhead lag pressure through impact.
Can over acceleration be controlled to amplify club head speed without chaos through impact? How? What documentation exists?
Over acceleration leads to eventual deceleration into impact due to the rate of acceleration being unmaintainable. Therefore, if over-acceleration leads to deceleration into impact, it is an inefficient method of amplifying clubhead speed and likely to lead to clubhead throwaway.
Can the intent of acceleration of acceleration through and beyond impact be controlled to amplify club head speed without chaos through impact? How? What documentation exists?
Intent of acceleration of acceleration prevents or minimizes deceleration into and through impact, therefore it is an efficient method of amplifying clubhead speed. Intent of acceleration of acceleration acts to preserve clubhead lag pressure, preventing clubhead throwaway, thus making it a reliable procedure.
If smooth acceleration creates smooth hitting spirals, what happens to hitting spirals where there is over acceleration or acceleration of acceleration in the down “swing”?
I’ll defer to the experts here.
Side notes:
These answers are my attempt to convey my current understanding of these concepts, subject to change as I advance. I would like to hear what problems with these answers people find, so I can improve my understanding of the concepts. For me, the understanding of the underlying concepts allows better absorbtion of ABS material.
I believe a clear and accepted definition of “chaotic hitting motion” is also needed.
It’s getting late, so these answers may not even make sense in the morning.
I had reached a logjam in my mind and hoped to unravel it with some questions. The most I know so far about chaos is the definition is larger than I thought it was and includes a dynamic system with a sensitive dependence on its initial conditions. This sounds like most of the golf that I play.
I had thought chaos is only about disorder, but, so far, it looks like that may not be the whole story. Using it here as “chaotic hitting motion” is my attempt to paraphrase “out of control” to get some discussion going about what “out of control” means to different people.
Clubhead “throwaway” is another thing that is not settled for me.
Right now “sensitive dependence”, “dynamic system”, and “initial conditions” are a handful for me and trying to understand them leads to subjects in math and physics that I am untrained to deal with. One of the books I hope will ease me into this stuff is “The Web of Life” by Fritjof Capra.
I haven’t learned how to skip past a compelling need to understand underlying concepts while also trying to learn and repeat how they “feel”, but just doing John’s mod drills can be a welcome relief. Truth is, the combination is a blast.
Thank you for posting those questions. I trust that the drills alone can work wonders over time, but the underlying knowledge is huge also. I’m sure someone else can probably answer the questions better, as I’ve only been in the program 4 months.
Clubhead throwaway(as defined in TGM): “Allowing the clubhead to pass the hands during release, and set up a centrifugal deceleration condition.”
I think I know what you mean by “chaotic hitting motion” as I sometimes experience it in my golf swing. For me, that type of sense of helplessness is generally caused by too sharp of a transition or “firing from the top”, which at least at my current ability level leads to overacceleration. I do believe that “acceleration of acceleration” can be a destructive thing if done improperly. When I was a new module 1 student, I really struggled with the idea of firing from P3. I would basically make a very jerky arms movement in an attempt to “fire” from P3. Even though I showed the intent to accelerate my rate of acceleration, my method for doing so lead to a “chaotic hitting motion”. Through asking questions, drilling, and trial and error, I have now learned the proper sequence for the firing. If I can save as much forearm rotation as I can until impact (reaching P3 with the feeling the clubhead is so open it faces skyward), I will correctly fire the hands automatically into impact. I don’t know how much of this is just instinct and how much is from 10’s of thousands of module 1 reps, but this is now a mostly automated process. For me, the key feeling or sensation that has to go along with the intent of acceleration of acceleration is that max speed must be reached after impact. If I can manage to focus solely on that, the acceleration of acceleration takes care of itself in a manner that prevents the chaotic hitting motion.
As someone who was always a poor ballstriker relative to my overall ability, I used to decelerate into impact, more out of fear than anything, and I had to rely on lots of forward shaft lean at impact to keep the club from overtaking the hands (clubhead throwaway). Acceleration beyond the point of impact, or at least the intention to do so, has so many benefits to one’s ballstriking that it’s amazing that it isn’t a topic of discussion among more teachers out there.
Think of it this way. When pushing a shopping cart down the aisle of a grocey store you have both hands on the handle of the cart and are applying an even pressure to the handle in a forward motion in a constant measure of velocity. If you then suddenly push, or accelerate, the cart forward in a quick accelerating fashion, you will then have to play catch up with the cart as the cart is getting away from you. Something like that.
Wow! Didn’t know that…that’s
Hey Teebox…me and the son of black rooster are doing our kabooky dance again. He wants to attack as he thinks I am a chicken trying to steal his hens. Was watching him for a bit the other day and saw something you may enjoy…I sure did!
If one looks one finds both the backmove and transition spirals, 4:30, post impact vertical and finish swivel are all there. Never knew roosters, although a royal pain in the ass, really have their stuff together- in one complete module!
Hope no one goes off half-cocked about my rooster post
To single out only one thing: “I used to decelerate into impact, more out of fear than anything,…” At one time, long before ABS, I became briefly aware that fear, of another bad shot in a long, long succession of perfectly poor outcomes, was a problem for me, contributing to deceleration into impact. It is extremely disappointing that I did not commit fully to account the implications and failed to investigate and deal with it adequately at that time. Hearing this from you now jumps out at me because it coincides with me dealing more with it lately and I believe your post will go a long way toward wrenching that fear out of its groove. The light is only beginning to appear at the end of the smoky tunnel. Thanks for your post.
The whole cycle of deceleration into impact out of fear is a nasty cycle. I was more of a “steer the ball around” guy than a “decelerate and flip and spray it all over the map” guy in the past. I have even managed to scrape the ball around okay that way sometimes, and that’s how I played all last season (my sophomore season of high school golf). I could occaisonally play halfway decent, but now, I understand that if I accelerate hard into and out of impact, the results will almost always be servicable, and more often than not, very good, if not great. I still struggle to commit to this under pressure, but I know that the harder I work at the modules, and the better I understand the logic behind them, the easier it will become over time. I am playing the best golf I’ve ever played in terms of ballstriking by a longshot now. I’ve seen firsthand how well this works if you can make the leap of faith and be willing to hit the ball hard. To paraphrase Knudson, you need to give up control to get control.
My last time out, some idiot from the group in front of us obnoxiously interrupted me as I held my finish after hitting an 8 iron at the pin, essentially accusing my partners of picking up his ball. I was a bit irritated because he felt so compelled to make an ass of himself that he couldn’t even wait for my ball to land on the green, robbing me of the opportunity to savor the feeling of a nice golf shot, the sensation of which is so important for me to nurture and develop as I try to improve my game. So, of course, after hitting my tee shot on the next hole, we find his Titleist 2 a foot off the cart path. Not wanting him to have to part with his ball or the opportunity to eat some crow, I picked up his ball and jogged up to the next tee box so I could politely hand him his ball and inform him that I thought he was a bit rude to interrupt my shot. By the time I got back to my ball, I was a bit adrenalized, and I thought to myself, “okay, Lag, let’s put the theory to the test. I’m all jacked up, let’s see if hitting is what I want to do when the adrenaline is pumping.” So I gripped the club tightly, felt the tension in my body, and hit my ball dead at the pin, twenty yards past the green and comfortably into the woods beyond and down the embankment I forgot the other part of Lag’s advice which was to club down!
Adrenaline is amazing stuff alright. Deciding to go two clubs less would be a challenge in itself. You have solid experience to reinforce how much less club to use and you know you can hit straight when stuff gets crazy next time. Thanks for your example crr.
I wonder if Ben Hogan and Albert Einstein ever conferred.
It is said Einstein gave golf a very brief try.
Einstein was very sharp picking easy stuff like the Unified Field Theory over golf.
If Einstein with his smoking pipe is still trying to work out something about Unified Field Theory and Ben Hogan is trying to round up a fresh carton of Chesterfield cigarettes, they might eventually cross tracks searching for the Astral Smoke Shop.
If you haven’t studied TGM then I think you should be aware of a concept Homer Kelly highlighted as “Downstroke Blackout”. Over-acceleration is simply that… you’re getting too fast too soon and you can’t sustain it. Fine… so we know that but what to do about it? I think it boils down to loss of intention. The ball has become our focus and the intent to accelerate well past it no longer exists . It’s as if we “blackout” at transition and our whole objective is to hit that stationary white ball as hard as we can, leading to an acceleration rate that is unsustainable.
Your post matches up with and firmly reinforces my recent experience gradually learning to increase the intensity and clarity of ABS post impact intentions.
To get past the “Downstroke Blackout” and get intent focused more on what needs to be accomplished beyond impact, I had to apply unusual discipline to squash my fear of bad ball flights expected during the changeover. It is shocking and embarassing how challenging that has been. It took an extreme level of desperation to finally begin climbing out of the old rut. It seems like a case of falling breakneck through the sky clutching a ripped and burning parachute desperately afraid to let go of it to reach for a different one that might work or might not. That was a crucial psyche problem to recognize and face up to, but once done, it started a trickle of initial success. I am told and trust that each one of these small successes accelerates the rate we release ourselves from doomed dependence on “Downstroke Blackout” Over-acceleration chaos. For me, a dusty old junk yard dog, it remains a challenging “work in progress”.
1T, here are a few concepts/images I’ve been playing around with lately. I’ve got lots of different versions of both, I never seem to find the one perfect version that fits the picture… such is the journey…
I hope all is well…
With these fine images from you Bom, without a doubt all is very well.
Also, it would be great to see any other versions you mentioned if you decide to post them.
All this is very good.
The non linear presentation, and the images getting bigger as we near the critical moment is very much how my own swing feels. Things seem very big at impact for me… almost bombastic.
