[coophitter]

Annikan and 6bmike,

I don't understand your posts. And I don't understand the way TGM describes pulling in a golf stroke or centrifugal force in a golf stroke. I know that muscles can only pull on bones so I guess all strokes could be said to originate from lots of pulling, yet the only way to move an object that is inert in a straight line without that object spinning or cantilevering (pressuring or supporting one end of a beam or object more than the other) is to apply a direct linear force to the rear COG point in exactly the direction you would like the object to go. Hitting is using right arm thrust to push against the rear of the inert left fist through impact while Swinging uses the flyweeling spine to push against the rear of the upper part of the inert humerus bone. Cantilevering is minimal in both because of the structural integrity of the left arm in one case and it's attachment to a large fluid object at the other end in the other case. The Left Arm in Hitters or Swingers - who use anything resembling angled to horizontal hinge action - receives a push on both ends of the left arm through impact. Which push is more forceful or active as Homer Kelley would say determines the diametrically opposed difference between the two. However I think sophisticated equipment measuring muscle innervations would find that the right pec major, right subscapularis, right triceps, and both lat muscles strongly contract to accelerate the arms during a good Swing's downswing and the right external oblique and left internal oblique muscles contract to rotate the pelvis and torso during a good Hit's downswing. A Hit within a Swing and a Swing within a Hit. Perhaps the true push stroke as opposed to the pitch or punch is the only stroke that the upper left arm doesn't recieve a push from the rear by the flywheel.

As for centrifugal force, it doesn't exist. All human motion and anything attached to humans during human motions - like a golf club - are governed by the laws of angular momentum and the conservation of angular momentum. Whether Swinging or Hitting the clubhead is pulled into a circular orbit via the centripetal force caused by its attachment to something else that is rotating about a center. The fact that it doesn't want to be pulled into that orbit creates an opposing force that can stretch the clubhead as far away from the center as possible if there is any stretch in the connective tissue.

As for pushing versus pulling: In most scenarios that involve force production to move an object, pushing is favored since more mass can be behind the object being moved. But we often call pushing pulling instead. A speed boat doesn't pull a skier, the propeller creates thrust to push against water to propel the boat forward; the skier just happens to be part of the boat that is on the opposite side of the push and creates a drag on the whole system. A skier actually has to lean back and create a push against the water as well just to stay up. If he veers to one side of the boat or vice versa, he has to lean back and push even harder against water more and more as he gets pulled into a circular orbit by centripetal force and his mph increases. I could go on and on; horses push their legs into the earth to push into the harness in front of them to move the carriage behind them. Tug of war teams that win don't pull harder, they push into the ground harder. Even oarsmen push feet into extreme friction leaning all their mass way behind that friction in order to push water in the opposite direction that they want the boat to go. The man or woman who is behind a golf ball and applying pressure to the rear of a lever that is striking it is pushing behind the lever with his pulling muscles and pushing into the earth with his pulling muscles. If he is doing that then he has a chance to max out the force that he can push into the ball.