Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Sun Sep 14 13:02:36 2008

> Hi Tom
>
> It would also be interesting to study Mr Hardy’s shoulder plane while taking a few cuts
at high outside fastballs.
>
> Jack Mankin

Jack -

As usual you bring up a good point.

The basic learning I take from hardy's work is that we humans come wired to develop 2
basic ways of swinging a club/bat type tool ballistically with the whole body.

One pattern, the single plane a pattern swings the club/bat around the body while the
body turns with the active turning of the shoulders/scaps being encouraged.

In the second pattern, the arms swing up and down while the body turns via a level turn of
the hips.

Now, in golf, the ball is always on or near the ground, so you can choose either pattern.
You can bend over at the waist enough to use the swing around/one plane which Hardy
describes as "baseball off the ground" or you can stay upright with ball closer to feet and
get to the ball by swinging down with the arms.

(somewhat long aside - this 2 plane type swing has a "swing down" NOT a "swing around'
feel - MLB hitters inevitably talk about swinging down as the feel, NEVER swinging around,
nor do they ever emphasize shoulder turn except to be avoided to prevent pulling off the
ball - Williams who thought a lot about this 2 plane type swing described it more in terms
of slight upswing at contact, which is the other end of the swing arc which started as a
downswing)

Importantly, Hardy recommends against mixing these two patterns because they are SO
different. For example, TURNING THE SHOULDERS ACTIVELY is GREAT for the one plane
bend over swing around pattern.

However, ACTIVE SHOULDER TURN IS A HUGE FLAW in the 2 plane swing because it forces
casting and interrupts the coil of the body forcing rushing.

Since the patterns are so different, the body can only master/automate one adequately, so
trying one pattern for high location/ball around waist and another for low ball/ball on
ground is NOT a good idea.

In other words the 2 plane/"swing down"/slight uppercut swing should be used for ALL
locations as suggested by Williams, using the slight upswing for ALL locations, since this 2
plane type swing allows late adjustment of a swing plane that produces a lengthy contact
zone.

Now I DO think you and I see the swing much the same and some of our disagreement is
semantic. For example, I think we both see dropping of the rear shoulder happening, even
if you would not describe the overall shoulder action as tilt rather than turn.

However, I think the emphasis you have on torquing the handle forces the shoulders (both
scaps front and back) to tilt rather than turn to support the hands in torquing the handle.

It is hard to torque the handle enough/in a sustained fashion unless the shoulders are
participating with rear shoulder dropping and front shoulder "staying in there".

ONE TRUE BREAKTHROUGH of your model is the understanding tha active torquing of the
handle does NOT force casting, it actually PREVENTS casting and helps the upper body
resist turning with the hips which creates more coil/load of the torso and more ability to
control the timing and direction of coil.

IF, however, you focus on shoulder TURN, you will degrade this by rushing just as shoulder
turn ruins the 2 plane golf swing, taking it out of its resisting plane and sending the club
over the top losing good coil to be connected to.
IF you focus on torquing the handle, then the shoulder action will reactively "keep the
shoulder in there" AND the shoulder will then turn quicker by being connected to a better
loaded/more quickly unloading torso/bathead.

So What I takeaway from fitting your work with the golf info is that the primary control of
trajectory is handle torque (which starts as PLT) which must be supported by shoulder TILT
(to produce THT at initiation - rear shoulder drops and front shoulder stays up before
turning) to produce adequate amount/direction and timing of torso coil for the scaps to
connect to and be turned by.

AND you use this same 2 plane type pattern for all locations, down and in/up and out/etc.