The following picture is from SEP82 issue of Golf Digest.
The caption for the left picture:
If you lower the right side, this puts the bottom of your swing arc behind the ball, so that you either hit the shot fat or swing up on the ball and top it.
The more you lower your right side, the less you’re swinging down on it.
A second thing, the more you lower the right side, the more the club stays in the air. When I say “stays in the air” I mean that the club is in the same relationship w/ the body as it was at the top of the swing. All you’ve done is lower your body and the club has not swung relative to the body for at least half of the downswing. By the time it does swing, it is swinging up into the air with the bottom of the arc well behind the ball.
The caption for the swing on the right hand side:
From the top, practice swinging the arms down while the body remains steady, just as if you were to hit a ball while seated on a stool.
Keep body up while you swing the club down with your arms and hands. This will put the bottom of the arc slightly ahead of the ball, creating the descending blow that spins the ball into the air, making use of the upper body flexibility and “flail potential” that you have. In this manner you're using a whipping arm motion.
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I realize that the golfer in the picture looks too low in the left hand picture, and the whole article seems a bit of an exaggeration, but I thought this article would help me ask the questions I wanted to ask. By the way, I do believe in the TGM principles.
Questions
1. Can axis tilt put the bottom of your swing arc behind the ball? If not, why not? When I lower my rear shoulder on the downswing, it seems like it's easier to hit the ground with my clubhead way before the ball. Or could it be that you could be doing everything right, by just that you're running out of right arm too early? With my rear shoulder lowered, if I run out of right arm too early, I notice ,more easily, that my swing arc does seem to bottom out way before the ball.
2. Does axis tilt cause you to swing relatively less down on the ball? Is the arc less steep because of lowering the right side?
Neither drawing illustrates advisable technique. Here are the faults and cures:
1. First drawing. We're Bobbing big-time. Instead, keep your Head Stationary.
2. Second drawing. The Right Shoulder is being held passive. As a result, it is providing neither Thrust for the Swinger's inert Left Arm or Back Up Support for the Hitter's driving Right Arm. Instead, from the Top, turn your Right Shoulder directly toward the Ball. If you're a Swinger, use this active Thrust to 'crank the Gyroscope of the circling Clubhead' and Pull the Club through Impact. If you're a Hitter, use the Turn to provide only the initial acceleration. Then, use the Shoulder as a 'backstop' from which you Push the Club through Impact.
If you do those two things -- keep your Head Stationary and learn to properly use your Right Shoulder -- Axis Tilt worries will soon be a thing of the past.
Thanks for the summary - I was pretty sure Yoda would get you into the
4-barrel HITTING procedure with the driving right shoulder. [Bold by
Yoda.]
To accelerate the Clubhead from the Top, Swingers use Centrifugal Throwout
Action and Hitters use Muscular Drive-Out Action.
Accordingly, each uses the Right Shoulder in a very different way. Swingers
use it to actively 'drive,' or accelerate, the essentially inert Left
Arm (the #4 Power Accumulator) into Impact. Hitters use it to take up the
initial slack during the Start Down and then as the 'equal and opposite
force' backstop required to accelerate their Driving Right Arm
(the #1 Power Accumulator) into Impact.
The Swinger's active Right Shoulder accelerates the Left Arm,
and Centrifugal Force and its Throw-Out Action then powers the
Clubhead. The Right Arm remains passive -- except for its Right Triceps
Extensor Action and the #3 Pressure Point sensing and directing the Clubhead
Lag -- and thus the Stroke remains Three-Barrel. In contrast, the Hitter's active Right Shoulder serves as the 'launching pad' for the Right
Arm and its Muscular Drive-out Action that
powers the Clubhead. Since the Right Arm then drives the entire Primary Lever
Assembly (including the Left Arm), the Full-Power Hitting Stroke
can be properly classified as Four-Barrel.
Thanks for the summary - I was pretty sure Yoda would get you into the
4-barrel HITTING procedure with the driving right shoulder. [Bold by
Yoda.]
To accelerate the Clubhead from the Top, Swingers use Centrifugal Throwout
Action and Hitters use Muscular Drive-Out Action.
Accordingly, each uses the Right Shoulder in a very different way. Swingers
use it to actively 'drive,' or accelerate, the essentially inert Left
Arm (the #4 Power Accumulator) into Impact. Hitters use it to take up the
initial slack during the Start Down and then as the 'equal and opposite
force' backstop required to accelerate their Driving Right Arm
(the #1 Power Accumulator) into Impact.
The Swinger's active Right Shoulder accelerates the Left Arm,
and Centrifugal Force and its Throw-Out Action then powers the
Clubhead. The Right Arm remains passive -- except for its Right Triceps
Extensor Action and the #3 Pressure Point sensing and directing the Clubhead
Lag -- and thus the Stroke remains Three-Barrel. In contrast, the Hitter's active Right Shoulder serves as the 'launching pad' for the Right
Arm and its Muscular Drive-out Action that
powers the Clubhead. Since the Right Arm then drives the entire Primary Lever
Assembly (including the Left Arm), the Full-Power Hitting
Stroke can be properly classified as Four-Barrel.
In the case of the swinger, that sounds more like a body control pivot rather
than hands control to me?
In both procedures, the Body follows the commands of the Hands, not vice
versa. In everyday life, that's the way things work.
As an example, raise your hand. Did it go up in the air? Of course it did,
and the reason it went up in the air is because you gave it an assignment.
Now, how did the hand get up in the air? The shoulder lifted it,
that's how. But...your hand controlled the motion, not the
shoulder.
The same is true with Hand Controlled Pivots, both Hitting and Swinging. When
I Hit, I tell my Hands to Drive the Club Out. When I Swing, I tell my
Hands to Throw the Club Out. My trained Body -- including the Right
Shoulder -- accomodates these distinctly different Actions perfectly. I don't
give the Pivot a second thought; which, by the way, is why you find no Pivot
Components listed in the Mechanical Checklist of 12-3-0.
I think I understand...so, swingers will thrust the right shoulder down to
(through) the inside back of the ball, which keeps the club on-plane and
delivers the power package through impact "correctly" (i.e., on
plane)?
Is there also and simultaneously, an accompanying pull of the left side at
all?
The Push of the Right Shoulder accelerates the Swinger's Left Arm and
causes it to Pull the Hands and Club (6-B-4-0). The direction of that
Pull is toward its source (the Pushing Right Shoulder). Therefore, when you
Turn your Right Shoulder Down Plane (toward the Ball), i.e., 10-13-D #3 per
2-H, 2-L and 6-E-2-1, that is the direction taken by your Left Arm and Club
-- the Golfer's Flail (2-K).
This Push -- a Thrusting Force -- is much misunderstood, both
Mechanically and Kinesthetically. All that is needed to create this steady,
driving force or pressure is a positive motion that initiates and
sustains the Pull of Centrifugal Force. Its Execution need not -- in
fact, should not -- be quick or jerky (3-F-6). And any violent action
is not only unnecessary, it is counterproductive (due to its Throwaway
tendencies).
Remember, every Pull requires a Push. A horse cannot pull a wagon
until he pushes his shoulders against the collar of his harness.
Hybrid Mode
