Re: Head position - woods vs. irons

On Tue, 28 Mar 2006 10:14:31 -0700, Howard Brazee <howard@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

On Tue, 28 Mar 2006 08:29:45 -0800, LurfysMa <invalid@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Then he said exactly what you just said: hit down on irons and flat or
up on woods. I asked him why they are different. I don't recall
exactly what he said, but it didn't make sense to me.

Intuitively, it seems to me that:

1. As long as the club doesn't contact the ground (at least prior to
contact), the exact point of contact (within a few inches) should only
affect (a) the launch angle and, to a much lesser degree, (b) the club
speed.

2. For overall consistency, it would be better to have the same swing
motion for all clubs. Learning 2-3 (or 15, really) different swings
seems unnecessarily complex.

I'd really like to understand why this makes so much difference.

You and I aren't consistent enough to hit the ball exactly the same
every time. So we need to have swings that allow for the greatest
degree of error without messing us up. We can mess up by:

Let's say we swing with the intention of hitting the ball at the
bottom of the swing. If we bottom up early, we may dig into the
ground, we may bounce the ball up, or we may simply be on the up swing
when we hit the ball - causing a blade or a top. If we are
slightly late, we will hit the ball with the bottom of the club face
instead of the sweet spot. If we don't have the club low enough, we
can top or blade the ball.

But all of those variables still apply whether I am trying to make
contact at the bottom of the arc or slightly before or after. Whatever
my intention is, if I am off a little, the result will be different. I
don't understand why it's better to be a little off on the downswing
vs at the bottom.

It does make sense to me that trying to hit on the upswing would be
very problematic. If I swing too low, I will have contacted the ground
before the ball and lose a lot of power. If the bottom of the arc is
too far back, I will strike the ball thin.

If our club is on the way up, it is also
slowing down. Decelleration robs us of power and control.

Yes, that, too.

We want to optimize the chances of hitting the ball with the sweet
spot of the club head - while the club is still accelerating. Plan
on imperfection. Picture the arc when you make a small divot past
the ball. You haven't slowed down yet when you make the divot - and
the ball is already gone. You hit the ball in the middle of the club
face, so if you missed a bit early or a bit late - it still hits the
face.

So the bottom line is this: aiming to make contact just slightly
before the bottom of the arc allows for greater margin of error than
either right at the bottom or, worse, after bottom (on the way up).
Right?

So, if my swing were perfectly consistent, would it still be better to
make contact on the way down or at the bottom?

Suppose I built a mechanical swing machine that would simulate a gold
swing. I get it calibrated so that the exact bottom of the swing it at
a point on a hitting mat that I have marked. I let it hit a few balls
with contact being made at the exact bottom of the arc and measure
their flight.

Now I recalibrate the machine so that it is slightly lower and I place
a ball such that it makes contact about 2-3 inches before the bottom
of the arc, but at the same height as when it it the other balls at
bottom. How will this trajectory compare with the previous one?


--
For email, use Usenet-20031220@xxxxxxxxxx
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Hit Down on the Ball! Help!
    ... ball, with great impact position (hands ahead of the club, etc)... ... place a pine cone 6 inches in front and swing so I miss the ball but hit the ... The long-term permanent fix is to learn the transition move. ...
    (rec.sport.golf)
  • Re: My swing video....beat me up
    ... Hogan demonstrates the transition move. ... left side when the club is only in the pre-impact position. ... Even when you can make the move with no ball down, ... This is my swing. ...
    (rec.sport.golf)
  • Re: Practice Swing vs. Real Swing. Why are they different?
    ... before I learned to "use the club properly" and understood that my ... >"reflexes were totally in control" at the time I made contact with the ball, ... >my practice swing was smooth as silk, but my real swing was complete ... Since the club head is in the ...
    (rec.sport.golf)
  • Re: The most difficult thing about learning to play golf
    ... Terms like release the club, lag, lay the club off, over the top, etc. ... Then you have golf analyst on TV going through Tigers swing point by ... I would add that in addition a beginning golfer should learn to hit DOWN ... the ball and accerate the clubhead through impact. ...
    (rec.sport.golf)
  • Re: The most difficult thing about learning to play golf
    ... Terms like release the club, lag, lay the club off, over the top, etc. ... Then you have golf analyst on TV going through Tigers swing point by ... I would add that in addition a beginning golfer should learn to hit DOWN ... the ball and accerate the clubhead through impact. ...
    (rec.sport.golf)