Re: ShopTalk: Harrison Spineless Technology

[Alan Brooks]

Let's see.  We agree that the club face is parallel to the swing plane at 
the start of the downswing and perpendicular to the swing plane at the 
start of the back swing and at impact.  There strike me as two extremes in 
the ways you can do this.  First is to not rotate your shoulders and simply 
raise your arms and rotate the club 90-degrees with your 
hands/wrists/forearms.  The second is to rotate your shoulders 90-degrees 
during the backswing, but not rotate your hands relative to your upper arms 
(that's not exactly right because our upper body is not vertical, but you 
get the picture).

I'm too old to rotate my shoulders 90-degrees without serious head and hip 
rotation so I do a little of both.  I was on the driving range the other 
day watching a girl of about 14 rotate her shoulders a full 90-degrees 
without any head movement and very little hip movement.  Mi Hun Kim rotates 
120-degrees (but she does rotate her head a little).

It's just not fair.  I'm getting old.  I should be becoming more flexible 
to compensate for my declining strength.  This probably has something to do 
with spines too.

Regards all,

Alan Brooks



At 04:58 PM 3/4/03 -0500, you wrote:
At 03:48 PM 3/4/03 -0500, Bernie Baymiller wrote:
> The pictures where the wrists are cocked show the back of the left hand to
> the camera. Between 009 and 010, the hands turn so the edge of the left
> hand is to the camera. That's a 90* roll in the last fraction of the
> downswing before impact. Which is EXACTLY what I was talking about.
>
> BTW, the only way there could be no roll is if the shaft is twisted 90* at
> impact. Sorry, no way. Remember that the clubface is in the swing plane at
> the top (and, in good swings, most of the way down) but is perpendicular
to
> the swing plane at impact.
But his shoulders are also turned 90°, so the only difference in his address
position and his at-the-top position is the wrist cock...which is straight
up with no rolling of the wrist. In the take-away shot with club about 7
o'clock, his hand position is almost identical with the downsing released
club position at 7 o'cloock, so the club is returning on almost a straight
plane...but his shoulders have rotated ahead, his hips have rotated ahead,
yet the club returns to impact precisely as it left. You are looking at a
tilted plane and the club is releasing straight down on plane...sorry, I
just don't see the 90° change.
Gotta disagree, Bernie. (Al, thanks for the support.)

It would be POSSIBLE to keep the hands in the same plane through impact, 
but uncomfortable. It would mean:
 * Keeping the back of the left hand perpendicular to the swing plane 
(where it has been through the first three pictures).
 * Keeping the clubface IN THE SWING PLANE (where it has been through the 
first three pictures).

That last one is the telling point. We KNOW that the clubface goes from 
being in the swing plane at the start of the downswing to being 
perpendicular to the swing plane at impact. Are you saying that the shaft 
is torqued 90* at impact? If not, then the hands have rotated to get it there.

BTW, for purposes of the spine discussion, it really doesn't matter what 
the hands do. All that matters is that the clubface and most of the shaft 
(all but a few degrees that may remain torqued) rotates 90* late in the 
downswing. Unless we disagree about that, it doesn't matter whether we 
agree that the hands turn.

Cheers!
DaveT