Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Sun Dec 23 11:46:31 2007

Jack and Gray -

Great stuff !!!!

I do not have time for a well thought out reply. I will respond more when time allows. I would just point out now that what you are talking about is best explained here:

http://www.newgolfswing.com/newgolfswing08.php

See the section - "how the hands help"- in this chapter on how conservation of angular momentum works in the classic 2 Plane golf swing.

In this pattern golf swing, the hands help by continuing to swing with the arms rather than by trying to throw the clubhead.

Trying to throw the clubhead (top hand dominance or "hitting early") interferes with the coil/uncoil/segmentation/kinetic link/whip.

This is the same thing as Jack's principle that the shoulders need to keep turning (still tilt then are turned vs turning actively is a useful distinction which is covered in the preceding chapter of the online golf text).


In hitting you can throw thw clubhead with THT AND the shoulders will continue to be turned all the way to contact (but RELATIVELY more passively than actively, a hard thing to describe, better experienced as different feeling ways to run the kinetic chain, these 2 different ways only explained by Jim Hardy in 1 vs 2 plane golf swing pattern descriptions - see PLANE TRUTH FOR GOLFERS).

From chapter 8:


"The original rotational system consists of arms and club swinging around a fixed axis midway between the golfer's shoulders. Now, as the downswing gets under way, the angle between the left arm and the shaft of the club remains (or should remain) what it was at the top. But as the downswing proceeds, this angle begins to open up, slightly. When it does we set up a secondary system of rotation, that of the club alone rotating around an axis formed by the hands. When the hands get down to the hitting position of Photo A the angle opens up very rapidly, as we have seen, until it reaches about 180 degrees (a straight line) at impact.

"Within this secondary system there is no additional feeding of momentum due to the mass moving farther from the axis; the club is rigid and nothing in it moves in relation to the axis. But the axis itself moves. The axis of this system is at the hands, and so it moves along with them in the same direction as the club. They are slowing down, to be sure, because they are getting farther from the primary axis, through the spine, but they are nevertheless moving. Their speed adds somewhat to the speed of the club head. The faster we can make our hands move, down in the hitting area, the faster we will move the club head. This is the point at which sheer muscular strength counts."

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Note:

This action can be appreciated also by looking at double pendulum simulations where the first pendulum reverses as the second pendulum accelerates.

THT/handle torque applies force to prevent this hinge reversal which makes for a quicker/earlier/better timed MLB swing.

This handle torque is also a key control point for enabling and executing late swing adjustment/creating an optimal contact zone for a given pitch.

More later if interested.