I have been grappling with the push vs pull concept involved in extensor action and wanted to pose something to readers. While the motion can feel like a combination of the two sensations for me (both push AND pull) I�ve reached the conclusion that it is more correctly a �push� (PP#1) coupled with external rotation of the right shoulder (which I think can be confused for a �pull� sensation.) So its �push and rotate� actually, with no real pull.
The analogy I thought of was�.. imagine someone standing about 3 feet in front and facing you. This person ties a short rope around your left wrist and tugs it until your left arm is straight. The person then moves to their left in a semi-circle-like direction (your right) keeping the rope taut and your left arm straight until it reaches the top of the BS. Extensor action has been applied thru-out and the left arm has been kept straight. I view this as a �pure� pulling motion, since the right arm was not involved in any way in this maneuver and the force on the arm is coming externally.
However in the golf stroke, the force applied to the left wrist comes internally (from the straightening right arm) and not externally as is the case with the rope analogy above. I suppose it is biomechanically possible to have the left arm straightening force come externally from the right arm, but I could only imagine how horrific looking that backswing would look!
The reason why this is so important to me is that I have a terrible breakdown of the left arm in my backswing and the EA idea has been a god-send! I am trying to nail the concept down and I was confused with the push/pull ideas being debated.
In my experimentation with both ideas, I found that the pulling sensation was not as effective at keeping my left arm straight as is the push sensation, although admittedly the pull felt easier to perform (easy is not always good in both golf and life right)
Trying to straighten the right arm makes the left arm straight(er). In the backstroke I personally feel like I'm pulling the straight left arm and club back with the 2 middle fingers of my right hand, althou it is meant to be a push from the right triceps...