Both arms and hands would be very relaxed… very passive. Therefore the hands themselves feel much less pressure than if they are fighting or resisting CF. Obviously, with limp passive hands, the clubface is going to be much more susceptible to twisting sideways due to off centered hits.
If you are going to swing… you need to pure it…right in the center… all the time. Shaft flex, shaft spining, balancing… all that kind of stuff becomes much more critical.
A hitter can get away with off centered hits much better. The firmness and structure in the hands resists torquing similar to what perimeter weighting does for swingers… so that becomes completely unnecessary.
In swinging, can you apply pressure on the right index knuckle (i think the #3 pressure point) going into impact or does that throw off the entire motion?
Felt inspired today. I found an old Spaulding stainless tournament model 7-iron blade in which the third groove lined up with the center axis. The perforated ribbed leather grip was 14 inches long!. Not the heaviest club I’ve ever held, but it seemed ok for me and the shaft seemed fairly rigid which was perfect for some work to be done.
Also, a frequent flyer at the range let me hit his pristine Arnold Palmer persimmons the other day and man were they nice feeling clubs.
I also finally reduced the hitting versus swinging difference in my mind to two simple choices that I would like to share.
One can either “Bring It” or “Send It” in regards to mass.
Bringing it is bringing the entire club mass and torso mass to the dance via the pivot- along with earlier help from the transition in order to do so. Sending it is bringing only the clubhead mass to the dance- and past impact the clubhead mass disconnects from the central torso mass.
As Lag mentions, very similar feelings at P3 in both methods. The thing I like most about hitting is that if one can bring it tightly past impact without any R elbow disturbance, the R arm past impact almost has a “slingy” feel as it gains speed upward.
Had an interesting discussion the other day with a fellow range rat that resulted with an interesting observation.
He was telling me that a few days prior he was swinging the club real well because he was not rushing things from the top due to a mental conversion he put into play. Mental conversions being right up my alley I inquired what it was. He said the average length in travel ( in feet ) from a parallel position at the top for a swinger is about 18 feet. Of course, this travel is an arc, and I am not certain about the number he used.
He then proceeded to get a measuring device out of his truck and laid down 18 “straight” feet on liner travel on a pure line.
It was, I have to say, a moment for amusement as we looked at 18 feet on pure linear travel on the ground, and how long it actually is. There is a lot of space and time there and no need to rush things. Go take a look for yourself, you may start giggling.
I think the average 2-car driveway is about 16 feet wide
Interesting… That number sounds high though. Is he talking about from the top to impact? Or from the top to follow thru? I’d like to know what mine is. It would certainly be a cool visual to lay out that much tape or something.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure he was using feet from the top and in a parallel position then just back to the ball. The number seems a little high to me also, but it might be close.
Whatever the numbers actually are, it was interesting to see the actual amount of travel in a linear sense and how that might mentally and physically slow things down a bit.
I was practicing at the range today, and was working on slowing down my swing. What i have found is that my mishit is from not finishing my back swing and rushing back down into impact. If i take my time on my back swing and have a slight pause at the top before coming back down…this helps me from over accelerating. The body and the arms feel connected and synced thruout the swing which resulted in good contact.
This is one of my biggest problems is rushing my backswing and downswing. One huge habit to break for sure, but i am working on it! My brain still doesnt trust that the ball will go far or even farther if i just SLOW things down…
You have been rushing because in the past you had little going on through impact and beyond… so in a sense, you need to rush so you can at least get some velocity going… however void of acceleration that might be.
As you work through ABS… you won’t need to rush…nor will you want to… because once the brain realizes you have the guns at the bottom of the swing, then there really is no need nor an urge to do so. When hitting balls, don’t try to do anything other than make good contact. The only “trying” you need to do is putting aside time daily to do your module work.
I can attest to the fact that this is the best way to do it, but very difficult for me. I now have an understanding that far surpasses my physical skills, which makes it frustrating to try to just go play golf and not get mechanical. The modules handle it all over time though as I have seen, but it is a real test of patience.
You really will gain a lot of understanding when the body actually does what it needs to do. Understanding the golf swing is not happening from the armchair… sorry folks… it happens when you can internalize it within the body and attach a real sensation that youfeel to it. And don’t for one second think that the proper feeling can be void of adequate strength and conditioning to support such an action in a structural way.
Lag,
Have you tried to do a CP release(hitting) with the modern day titanium driver? Im wondering if a CF release of the modern driver is a better choice considering nearly every modern player does it yet alot still have a CP release with their irons? Or is it a case the club has such a crap design it almost forces a player into a crappy release pattern?
On courses I need to use the modern driver am i better doing a CF release? or sticking with the CP with the titanium?
I know you detest the modern day drivers:) but some courses almost require it these days. The monthly medal at my course have Tee boxes 20-40meters further back so hitting it longer really helps…
When you replace flying arm speed with more pinned arm torso speed you can still garnish up the same distance but with much greater accuracy…
I think all these guys 1) do this because of the lighter clubs and 2) get taught to do this because everyone seems very interested in the back and down and not the through of the swing
The year I broke Norman’s record score in The Masters at Huntingdale in 1998 I used a driver 4 times for the entire WEEK…on hole 14… everything else was irons and 3 woods…In the context of things having a 7 iron instead of a 9 iron is not a bad thing most times…In fact I liked hitting first into the greens that week to put it inside 20 feet each hole and show my playing partners I wasn’t going to make many mistakes…so they became the ones forced into trying to scrag a hole from the tee and it didn’t work as well because it invited more trouble.
We don’t always have to try bust a hole’s heart out from the tee shot because we don’t often make a birdie with the tee shot…if we remember the second shot is the best way of attacking a hole then we can get into position to do such a thing.
That was last July. He came in today and I asked him if he still had those persimmons, he not only said he did, but truth be told he doesn’t really like them. That’s why he hardley ever used them, but would still bring them out once in a blue moon to see if there was any magic in them.
I said I would buy them and he said " heck, you can have them for free, they don’t do anything for me and never did."
If rats could sprout wings I would…I was flying high. I couldn’t believe it.
So I said “I have to pay you something” and he said “how about a free bucket of balls and you can have the woods.”
DONE!
He went home- he lives just moments away- and returned with a Driver, Spoon and Baffy all three for the nifty price of $5.00.
I had a blast with them today…gosh what a nice feel to solid hits.
Truth be told…kind of missed the sound they make too.
Will get a picture of them up when I have time…but right now I am just going to have some fun turning back time a little.
This may be a stupid question but do hitters typically stand further away from the ball than swingers? Or is the opposite? It seems like hitters would have to stand further away to access the 4:30 better.
A hitter will typically stand closer as they are using forearm and torso rotation around a solid groundwork base using knee flex.
A swinger will typically stand farther away as the hands and arms will move away from the core and the legs will tend to straighten to make room for the velocity propulsion of the club down from the top
To go along with this, just sent to a guy based no him telling me he has been taking big divots or hitting the ball off the toe with no distance. He is a good player and a picker.
You have an easy fix I think, you are releasing early from what you told me. Hold your wrist from releasing early, everything else will improve. Simple I know, but here is what is going on if you like mechanics.
You release your wrist and hands early, and your body has not had time to get out of the way. The body knows that you released early, it makes your right arm straighten and fly away from the body is an effort to square the clubface because your wrist rotation is finished. When the right arm straightens it is longer than in a bent position, causing the club to hit and dig into the ground. This is where your big divots come from.
The body is smart, and compensates. Your wrist release and hands release early, right arm straightens and it knows you will hit the ground from previous shots. The body makes the compensation, the legs straighten and upper body raises from the hips. This corrects the big divot, but getting more vertical through impact causes your clubface rotate faster. This makes you hit the ball on the toe.
This is information that is not important to know, the effects of a cause.
