My question is does a natural swinger do anything to actively square the face, or does centrifugal force take care of it on its own. Is the face taken care of by your setup alignments then just let it go??
In a true swing CF takes care of everything. Given that over acceleration is a problem for the vast majority of people, I suspect there are relatively few who have really 'allowed' a true swing to happen once, let alone every time.
A true swing is the easiest motion to repeat if you let it, in my opinion. Learning to allow that 'swing' can be very difficult however, because all our instincts say "kill the ball" and as soon as you 'do' anything to the swinging club, you can't get that true swing back.
Swinging a heavy club, feeling like you swing in 'slow motion', allowing gravity to let the club 'fall' from the top are all ways to begin to feel a true swing. Ernest Jones and his pen knife, or even better - rope swinging - which will begin to show you that you can not rush the motion and that it must build smoothly.
When I really get the Rhythm, it feels like my hands and club are 'floating' through the motion, and the ball just gets in the way.
I like to warm up by hitting my 170 club 100 yards with a full motion (not choked down) and build up to full distance 10 yards at a time. This will teach you to allow the swinging force to work for you, rather than fight against it. Effortless power is not a myth
Another big key that can be difficult is allowing rotation - the startup swivel - to happen. A true case of opposites, you will find that if you allow the rotation and the swing to happen, you can really "give up control to gain control" as Knudson would say.
__________________
"Support the On Plane Swinging Force in Balance"
"we have no friends, we have no enemies, we have only teachers"
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Another big key that can be difficult is allowing rotation - the startup swivel - to happen.
Indeed Ed, I've been looking into this area of the stroke and I'd like to hear more.
Theoretically, the start up swivel (standard wrist action on backstroke) should occur quite early in the stroke (i.e. during stary up!). However, I have found that this requires some sort of manual muscular manipulation to turn your wrist. If you really let CF do everything, and just take the lagging clubhead back, you would find that the face stays quite square with the ball for some time. If would appear as if you are using single wrist action. But if your wrists stay supple and let the weight of the club and CF do its magic, it will swivel before you get to the top. So should we teach an early startup swivel? Hmm...
tongzilla - this was one of the areas that Lynn and Ted helped me with at OCN. I had been loading for hitting (not allowing the rotation) but with basically everything else I had a pure swingers pattern.
Getting back the startup swivel was an odd feel at first, because I had worked into an underplane backswing and held off the rotation. There were two key feels that I focused on that once I got them back made swinging fun again....
One was feeling the toe 'up' position at halfway back. Not just the alignment, but getting more 'up plane', which I could only do if I first, and immediately, had a startup swivel. The second was getting my extensor action back. I had been underplane and was getting lazy with my extensor action.
The startup swivel really feels like it begins with the left shoulder, not so much of a hands only roll, but a roll of the entire lever assembly.
Two training aids that give this feel very well - the Medicus and the swing glyde. A momentus 'can' give this feel, if you allow it to, as can a figure 8 strap or swing jacket, but the later two aren't as direct. If you know the feel, its there with them, but they can be tricked.
Hope this helps - it really is a bit of a 'leap' to get that startup swivel going properly, but if you can do it on plane it is fairly easy to groove.
__________________
"Support the On Plane Swinging Force in Balance"
"we have no friends, we have no enemies, we have only teachers"
Simplicity buffs, see 5-0, 1-L, 2-0 A and B 10-2-B, 4-D, 6B-1D, 6-B-3-0-1, 6-C-1, 6-E-2
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