tongzilla is very excited about the revamped forum and is poised to make his first contribution. I hope Yoda won't smack me with his dowels for butting in
.
As
phillygolf has elluded to earlier, there are two Secrets of Golf. I will give an overview which hopefully will spark off some discussion.
1) Sustaining the Line of Compression (2-0).
One can imagine this to be a shooting a pool stick
through cue ball. The straight path the cue takes as it goes through the ball is the Line of Compression. The point where the stick striks the ball is the
Compression Point. This is a
Linear Force, which simply means the force acts in a straight line.
In golf, the Clubhead is moving in a circle, hence we have
Angular Force. But our objective is to produce the
same effect as a Linear Force with the orbiting Clubhead. We achieve this by having the contact point between the Ball and Clubface welded at the same point from Impact to Separation. All while the Clubhead is moving in an arc.
This can only be achieved by using
Horizontal Hinging.
Hitters using
Angled Hinging does
not have the Clubface and Clubshaft rotating around the same center (in fact the Clubface has
no center), and hence cannot maintain the same Compression Point through Impact. So you better find a good way to compensate for this inferiorty if you're a Hitter!
2) Clubhead Lag (6-C-2)
There are actually three types of Lag:
Pivot Lag (Body Poit for Swingers and Launching Pad for Hitters),
Accumulator Lag (6-B-1/2/3/4) and
Clubhead Lag (6-C-2). So that angle between the Clubshaft and Left Arm everyone in the Golf World talks about is merely Accumulator #2 Lag. Contrary to popular belief, you can be using a Sweep Release and still have lots of Clubhead Lag.
Clubhead lag is that
heaviness you feel through
Pressure Point #3 as Club changes direction. The Longitundinal Center of Gravity of the Club (i.e. the Sweetspot), resists that change due to its inertia (i.e. mass). The Sweetspot doesn't want to move, but it
has to. This stresses the Clubshaft and produces that heavy feeling which you try to
maintain all the way down, never even thinking about releasing this heaviness. This feel may be cultivated by dragging a wet mop from Release to Follow-Through.