Hand Controlled Pivot- Thesis

[Mike O]

Mike,

It is a curious irony that the Swinger's Centrifugal Force is largely the result of the Momentum Transfer of the Turning Body (the Pivot) into the Primary Lever Assembly (the Left Arm and Club). And yet, we who teach The Golfing Machine maintain that the Pivot (Body) is best controlled by the Hands and not the other way around.

I know you've done a lot of work in this area that our members would find fascinating. It would make a great new thread in The Lab, and I, for one, would read every word! Could you kick this subject off for us?

Lynn,

I feel it's important to differentiate what one is trying to accomplish in a movement- i.e. one's procedure from what is happening in a movement. So you should have a procedure based on the nature of human movement, which is consistent and then you have other issues in regards to if the movement is integrated completely or if it is not and work on those.

Below I have posted a validation and elaboration of the hand-controlled pivot concept- with hopefully additional information that will make the concept more clear. Unfortunately none of the graphics came through but the information is there. I actually have three additional sections that integrate with this section- and if there is some interest could be posted later to further flush out the concepts. Certainly, I post with some hesitation, but as we discussed- I'll take my chances under the category of the LAB, in hopes that it might help at least one person.

Thanks for this opportunity to further explain The Golfing Machine Concepts.

CHAPTER 2

A PROPER PROCEDURE
"Your Consistent Guide to Every Movement"


The Definition Of A Proper Procedure
Complete integration is the epitome of the future—a player’s long-range goal (Chapter 1). Procedure is the epitome of the present—the thought on every movement. A procedure must be consistent for one to achieve complete integration. Every aspect of a player’s movement automatically attempts to integrate to the procedure they use—hence, the importance of having a consistent procedure. The human body has a specific identity. Humans are not jelly one day and a rock another. For one’s procedure to coincide with the nature of a human being, the procedure must and should be consistent. Not only must a procedure be consistent it must coincide with the nature of a human being.

STOP: - Take a few minutes and try to identify what your procedure is and write it down. Do not continue reading until you have written down what you believe to be your current procedure.

In the course of trying to identify your procedure, you might ask yourself what is the definition of a procedure? But don't just focus on the golf movement, look at all of the movements that you make. Is a procedure merely a description of what happens? Is a procedure something that you can see or observe, like a car or boat? Is a procedure merely being aware of the feel of the movement or part of the movement? Are there procedures that have nothing to do with human movement? Is a procedure a thought? Perhaps a procedure is a combination of some or all of these attributes? Should you use a procedure all the time or merely sometimes when you feel like it. All of these are the questions that an independent mind asks when trying to figure out the "how to" of their movement.

STOP: Take a moment to think independently, regarding the answers to these preceding questions. What do you think the definition of a procedure is?


Definition of Procedure - A procedure is your primary thought that initiates and guides a movement from beginning to end.


The fundamental method/procedure of any conscious self-generated movement is a simple thought. First, your mind focuses on moving the part of the body that will contact, or is contacting, the object that you are touching, moving, manipulating etc. Secondly, the mind focuses on where to move that part of the body and object to accomplish the goal of the movement.


For example, "Take the hand to the ball" would be the proper procedure/thought to use when picking up a small ball. "The hand" is the body part and "to the ball" is the where. In a coordinated movement, the body part one should think about moving is not a matter of personal preference or subjective choice—it is determined by the nature of the object or tool being used and the goal being sought.

Examples Of Proper Procedures
All of the following examples demonstrate proper procedures of movement as discussed in the previous section.. The goal and object being used in each movement requires a focus on a different body part.

Example One
The goal: type a letter on a keyboard.

The basic thought/procedure would be: "take the tip of the index finger to the key on the keyboard." The body part is the tip of the finger and the "where" is the key on the board. There are many other aspects of the movement depending on where the correct letter key is located on the keyboard, such as the finger straightening or bending, plus other fingers moving in response to the movement of the directed finger, and wrist/forearm/upper arm movement. But regardless of all the associated movements, the primary thought initiates and guides the body part (fingertip) that will interact with the object (the key on the keyboard). The thought guides the movement by having a goal to accomplish, a "where".

Example Two

The goal: Kick a soccer ball into the net.

The thought/procedure would be: "Take the foot back and then through to the ball." The body part would be the foot and "back and then through the ball" being the "where".


Example Three

The goal: Bump someone with your hip.

The thought/procedure would be: "Move your hip to contact the other person's body." The body part is the hip and "the where" is a part of the other person's body. Many joint motions are made during this movement, weight shifted etc., but the proper procedure used would be the same for any human being.





Summary
Understanding the principle of a proper procedure in human movement is an important step in learning a coordinated movement. All self-generated movement is goal oriented. The goal of the movement and object being used determines which part of the body will contact the object. The mind directly monitors the feedback information by focusing on the body part and its corresponding feel of the object or tool, to ensure that the goal is being accomplished efficiently.
In golf, the proper procedure is the thought “(move the hands—the body part(s)) from (the set-up position to the end of the backward movement and through (directed at the ball) to the finish (all of that is the where)." I.E. OnPlane
Note: When referring to the "hands" we are referring to the hands and the feel of the club in the hands as one unit. From now on when the hands are mentioned it implies that we are also talking about the feel of the club in the hands.
Note: Later, as we get more specific, the definition of where the hands move will get more detailed, as we understand the concept of “swing-plane”.

The Procedure Is Essential
A very crucial aspect of the learning process is the relationship between the player’s procedure and the integration of different joint motions, i.e. making changes or improvements in your movement. The thought of moving the hands should never be dropped or forgotten when integrating new movements. The primary thought i.e. procedure, should always be on moving the hands, with the golfer’s secondary awareness on the specific change being made to the movement. Let's look at how we can retain the procedure yet at the same time, work on making changes to your movement, i.e. integrating your movement.
The human mind is limited in the number of things it can consciously discriminate between, remember and/or deal with at any one time. For example if a person tries to consciously be aware of all the sounds around them they would discover that they can perceive more than one sound but say less than five. Hence, the mind has the ability to be aware of more than one thing at a time.
Therefore, your mind can think about moving the hands, while simultaneously monitoring a change in the movement. It is this dual monitoring, that allows a player to improve their movement while still having a coordinated, consistent movement.
Let's look at a non-golf example to elaborate on this concept of having your primary thought on the proper procedure and your secondary awareness on making a specific change in the movement.


Example: Eating food with a fork.


Imagine an individual concentrating on bringing their hand and fork to their mouth. As their hand and fork reach their mouth, imagine their elbow above the level of their ear. This would not be a very efficient or integrated movement but is conceivable, even if the individual was only focusing on bringing the hand and fork to the mouth. To correct this problem of the elbow being too high and not closer to the side of the body, the individual would make the following correction: while still primarily thinking of bringing the hand and fork to their mouth, on a secondary level of awareness they would make sure that their elbow was staying closer to the side of the body.
This method of concentrating on moving the hands and club while making changes to the movement has several very important features. First, it produces a consistent procedure of movement i.e. concentrating on the movement of the hands at all times. In direct contrast, current golf instruction changes the procedure for the golf movement every time a player works on a new correction. The player focuses on shoulder turn, then something else such as the movement of the arms, then the folding of the right arm on the backward movement, or keeping the elbow close to the side of the body, etc. In summary, whatever the player is currently working on has their primary focus—there is no consistent procedure.
The other advantage to this method is when the player is not working on anything in the golf movement, they still have a procedure, their mind does not go blank. Because the procedure for most golfers is whatever they are working on at that moment, they don’t know what to focus on when they are not having a problem. They may randomly pick an aspect of the movement, which then changes and disrupts the entire movement.
Finally, this method of having a consistent procedure while improving your movement—integrates and automatizes all the movements being learned to the fundamental principle of human movement. In this case, it is the simple thought of the golfer’s mind focusing on the moving the hands and golf club. This consistent procedure allows the player to build a movement instead of constantly tearing down their movement by always changing their procedure.

Improper Procedures
An improper procedure is one in which the mind's primary thought is not focused on the part of the body that is contacting or will contact the object that one is moving. In addition, an improper procedure is when the golfer’s mind is not thinking of where to move the part of the body interacting with the object.
Imagine making the movements covered in the proper procedure section focusing on a different body part and feel how awkward and unnatural the movement would be. For example, when eating food with a fork, imagine bringing the fork to the mouth while concentrating on the movement of the elbow. That would be a much inferior and improper procedure compared to concentrating on moving the hand and fork to the mouth. Just as focusing on the elbow movement would be an uncoordinated movement, so is any golf movement equally uncoordinated if the player’s primary thought is on some other aspect of the movement other than moving the hands and club.
Many people have not understood the importance of a proper procedure in movement based on the nature of a human being. The following are common procedures people use that are uncoordinated and ineffective for consistent golf.

1) Primary focus on a specific feel in the player's current movement.
2) Primary focus on a specific thought not based on the proper procedure.
3) Primary focus on the overall feel of the movement.
4) Primary focus on current change in the player's movement, either by a feel or a thought.
5) Primary focus on many factors—using a description of the movement as the player's procedure.

Let's review examples of these improper procedures to clarify the concept of a proper procedure:

1) Primary Focus on a specific feel in the player’s current movement. Large and small sensations (feels) either from contracting muscles or stretching muscles, tendons or ligaments, as effects caused by the effort to accomplish one's goal of moving the hands and club. Therefore, a specific feel is not to be one’s primary focus. Specific feels should and are meant to be on the player’s secondary level of awareness, as important information to guide the integrative process. Shown below are three examples (A,B,C) to help clarify this kind of improper procedure.

Example A
When a person is eating food with a fork, their primary thought is to move the fork to their mouth with the hand. However, from sensation level or feel perspective, the muscles of the upper arm and shoulder produce the largest sensation. But one would not make this movement by focusing primarily on the muscles of the upper arm and shoulder.

Example B
Lift your golf bag with one hand to your shoulder in a curling motion. While the movement is being made, the thought is on moving the hand and the feel of the bag in the hand to a specific place; between the neck and shoulder. Notice that the largest sensation is not in the hand but in the upper arm and shoulder area. The upper arm and shoulder area would be the area you would be focusing on if you let your primary awareness be directed at the area of the body that has the greatest stimulation. But again, having the feel of the upper arm and shoulder as your procedure for lifting a golf bag would be an uncoordinated movement. Make this movement with the primary focus on this feel to understand that it is an improper procedure.

Example C

A golf example would be the muscle stretch you might feel during a full shoulder turn. This feel can dominate all sensations based on overall intensity, but instead of having that feel as your primary focus you should still have your primary thought on moving the hands. You would still feel the shoulder turn, sense it, and be aware of different feels, but those feels belong in the background, not the foreground. To summarize, the mind can selectively focus on what is important, regardless of the degree of any sensation.


2) Primary thought not based on the proper procedure.
A player may take one aspect of the movement and have that aspect as their primary thought. For example, they may notice the club head moving inside the target line, on the beginning of the backward movement. The player may decide this is crucial to their success and isolate the thought, “Take the club inside the target line.” Merely focusing on the club head and only the beginning of the movement is not a procedure.

3) Primary focus on the overall feel of the movement.
Focusing on the overall feel of the movement is a common "method" beginning golfers use. After hitting a good shot, the player will try to mimic or copy the feel of the previous movement. This is only helpful short-range, maybe for the next movement or the next five movements but to chase a consistent feel is a goal that can never be accomplished.
Let's look at a simple movement that you can duplicate to begin to understand this improper procedure. Put a ball down on the ground and stand up. Pick up the ball with your hand. Now repeat the procedure. Notice, you didn’t try to copy the entire feel of the movement. The proper method would be the thought "take the hand to the ball". That thought would initiate and maintain the movement. You can be aware of certain feels and sensations associated with the movement but they should not be your primary focus.

4) Primary focus on a current change in the player’s movement – either by a thought or a feel.
Because the procedure is whatever the player is currently working on, the player’s procedure changes as frequently as each new change is made. This is by far the most common improper procedure used by golfers today. Psychologically, it breeds lack of confidence because there is no consistency in your procedure. Physically, every cell, every joint motion, every part of your movement is trying to integrate with your procedure. When the procedure is constantly changing, the automatic integration to the new procedure has to start all over from the beginning.


5) Primary focus on many factors - having a description of the movement as the player’s procedure.
From the players perspective the thought process might be similar to the following. " Now start the movement by shifting the weight over to the right side. Make sure the hands get high at the top of the backward movement. Keep the left arm straight, now pause at the top, drive the legs on the downswing before the upper body starts down and turn the hips through and finish with the hands high in the finish position." This is seen in may golf instruction books where there is no differentiation between procedure and a description of the movement.

Evolution Of Procedure
The following is an example of the evolution of one individual's procedure. This section puts into perspective some improper procedures as natural and understandable given the player's perspective and length of time around the game of golf. The reader may be able to point to a stage described herein and have an appreciation of where they are and where they need to go with their movement.
Initially after picking up the game of golf the golfer makes random changes or experiments with different movements in order to improve their ball flight. Given the lack of integration and skill level, some of these changes make immediate, tremendous and dramatic improvement to the ball flight. The key attribute of this initial stage of development is a lack of knowledge of a proper movement, therefore the ball flight is "king" in regards to the player determining if they are making a correct change to the movement.
In a short time, the immediate ball flight improvements come few and far between as the movement becomes more integrated and ingrained. Now the player becomes frustrated that they are not seeing the great changes that they saw when they started the game. They continue to search for the changes that will produce immediate and dramatic ball flight improvement—without success. The player starts to realize that by making constant changes to their procedure, they have no consistency.
Now realizing that they need consistency, the player tries to decide what exactly to use as their consistent method. Something is chosen—such as tempo—that the player stays with for the short term. But as ball flight does not improve, the player realizes that something must be changed, so another swing thought replaces the tempo swing thought. The key attribute of this stage is that the player tries to make their procedure stay the same, but it still changes—just less frequently. The player has not differentiated between one’s procedure and integrating new changes into the movement.

After being frustrated with the failure to achieve a procedure that produces consistent ball-flight, the player discovers a consistent procedure based on the nature of human movement—focusing on moving the club with the hands. Previously making a change in the movement and the player’s procedure were the same thing, and the standard used to determine the success of a new movement change was the ball-flight. Now the player is able to mentally separate procedure and integration; proper integration and ball-flight; procedure and ball flight.
In the next stage, the golfer uses the proper procedure “take the club back and through with the hands” as their consistent procedure, but the player improperly interprets this to mean the only sensation or feel experienced should come from the hands. Thus the hands are moved in such a way as to not have the body contribute to the movement. Feeling the inadequacies of this movement, the player may revert back to a shoulder turn/body focus with the hands going along for the ride. There may be periods of flip-flopping back and forth between these two procedures, the player unsure if the focus should be on the hands or body.
Finally, the player realizes that by moving the hands in a certain manner they bring the body into the movement. The player also realizes that they can focus on moving the hands while sensing the entire body. Much like when picking up a ball the thought is “Take the hand to the ball”, this does not mean that the primary feel emanates from the body.
In summary—focus on moving the hands, even if initially this causes you to leave out body movement. As you work with and understand the procedure, you can integrate more body movement later.

Exceptions To The Proper Procedure
When integrating a fundamental change, it can be too much for a player’s mind to focus on the new change as a secondary thought to the primary procedure of moving the hands. The new change and corresponding sensation may be so strong, exciting, and produce great results, the player may not want it to be secondary no matter how much they try.
An exception should be made with the following understanding. The player will get back to having the proper procedure as their primary thought and the new change secondary sometime in the near future. As the new addition becomes comfortable its initial “wow” effect will wear off, allowing for the proper procedure to be used.
Keep in mind that there is a tremendous difference between this exception and how most people are playing the game today. Most people focus on their new addition because it provides the biggest sensation but they never have the understanding or the goal to use the proper procedure as soon as the change becomes comfortable. They move from having their primary focus on one new addition to another, never building a golf movement.