Here's an introduction to my friend Greg Lavern, as soon as Greg resolves his computer problems we'll be talking to him,
Greg Lavern currently lives in Halifax/Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada and has the closest swing to Moe Norman’s in the world. A 17 year member of the CPGA, holder of a black belt in Chito Ryu karate, a BA in Public Administration and a degree in Advanced Public Relations. Greg has three daughters, Heather, Chelsey and Jerica living in Charlottetown PEI. Greg is available to teach professionals and amateurs alike to hit the ball as straight as he does and “right on the nose”. We need to see a new golf show called “The Greg Lavern Project”.
One thing to note: When Greg was Moe's sidekick, Moe wasn't wearing any logos or playing any strange concocted clubs, titleist wasn't paying him and he lived out of his car. If you look at the comparison (side by side), the dynamics are of a young Moe Norman. What I consider the "Real Moe Norman".
In my interview with Bradley Hughes, I asked him how many of the great Australian Players of his era came about developing their own dynamics. (If you watched the Australiasian Tour during the 90's you would have noted how many different and effective stroke patterns there were), to which Bradley replied, "it was a byproduct of not having proper tuition".
Most young people learn best by mimicry, that might have been the case with Peter Senior. One of the Preeminent Australian players during Senior's youth was Kel Nagle, let's watch (pay particular attention to the footwork):
Although it seems haphazard, these Blokes really knew what they were doing.
Here's his bio from Wikipedia:
Kelvin David George Nagle (born 21 December 1920) is an Australian professional golfer best known for winning The Open Championship in 1960. He won at least one tournament each year from 1949 to 1975.
Nagle was born in North Sydney. Although he had won over 30 tournaments in Australia, and had won the Canada Cup for Australia in partnership with five-time Open champion Peter Thomson in 1954 and 1959, Nagle was a shock winner of The Open, as he was 39 years old but had never finished in the top-10 at a major championship before. He beat the rising star of American golf Arnold Palmer into second place, and it was Palmer who deprived him of his title in 1961. Nagle never regained The Open title, but he put together a string of six further top-10 finishes between 1961 and 1969. His best result in a United States major was second in the 1965 U.S. Open, the year after he won the Canadian Open; he lost in an 18-hole playoff to Gary Player. As late as 1970, the year he turned 50, Nagle was ranked among the top ten players in the world on the McCormack's World Golf Rankings, the forerunner of the modern world ranking system.
Nagle won 61 times on the PGA Tour of Australasia, giving him the most wins all-time on that tour, ahead by 30 wins over Greg Norman, who has 31 wins in second place.
Nagle played on the Senior PGA Tour (now Champions Tour) in the U.S. in the 1980s when he was in his 60s. His best finishes were a pair of T-3s: at the 1981 Eureka Federal Savings Classic and the 1982 Peter Jackson Champions.
In July 2007, Nagle was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame, and was inducted in November 2007.
Here's our friend and Gotham Golfer Bradley Hughes describing release styles including the ABS protocol which I consider "Swinging Left".
John Erickson demonstrating
Here's Footwedge's correspondence with Dr. Mackenzie:
The e-mail to Sasho and his reply. It's same thing Bradley is saying about flattening the shaft in his assumed teachings.
Hi, Sasho
I have read your study on the downswing in regards to the clubs position relative to the lead arms plane, above that plane or below that plane at the start of the downswing and how it affects the squaring of the clubface for impact.
The question I have is how is the below plane club accomplished in relation to the lead arm's plane at the initiation of the downswing? What biomechanical process is involved, is it a rotation of the lead forearm clockwise at takeaway or at the beginning of the downswing or some other move that gets the club below the lead arm's plane to facillitate the squaring of the clubface on the downswing?
I hope I asked a reasonable question that's worth the time to answer as I'm sure you have a busy schedule and get lots of these e-mails.
If you are too busy to reply I understand.
Thank You for your time.
Hi Your question is definitely reasonable. At the start of the downswing, it would be some combination of the pronation at the lead elbow joint and internal rotation at the lead shoulder joint. This motion would be accompanied by an equal amount of supination at the trail elbow and external rotation at the trail shoulder joint. I hope that helps. Cheers Sasho ******************************************************Dr. Sasho J. MacKenzieAssociate ProfessorDepartment of Human KineticsSt. Francis Xavier UniversityPO Box 5000 (Courier 1 West St.)Antigonish, Nova Scotia CANADAB2G 2W5
Hit em Straight
Here's the next new thing on the PGA Tour. Given that Gary has maxed out at 202 MPH ball speed, you'd expect him to play grip it and rip type of golf. But it seems the opposite is the case, he's taking the thinking man's strategic approach and it appears to me that he's more concerned with control and winning and less with distance. His swing is "smooth as ice and twice as nice". He's definitely not going at it at more than 80% and still finished 5th. on tour in driving distance with an average of 310.5 yards. His tour radar stats this year were:
Clubhead speed 121.81, 3rd overall
Ball Speed 179.27,3rd overall
Carry Distance 288.7, 7th overall
Not bad for someone who appears to be "Smoothing it out there" and has plenty in reserve. Here's an excerpt from a Q&A with him done by PGATOUR.com:
Q. We've got one of the best swing analyst, maybe "the" best swing analyst in the world on the slow motion camera, and we can't get your swing in slow motion. That's how much club head speed there is. Do you feel like you're hitting the ball hard?
GARY WOODLAND: I don't. The one on 17 was really the only one I swung hard at today, and I missed it. I'm trying to go 80%. I have a lot of power in the lower body, it's pretty stable down there, and I fire through it pretty hard.
It's obviously a pivot powered swing. My hats off to his Coach, Randy Smith for being able to refine Gary's Raw Athletic ability into what it is today.
After his performance in this weeks World Cup, I expect some great things from him in 2012. In fact I wouldn't put a Major Championship past him.
Here's a video of some of his swings this week:
Let's have a look a EA Tischler working with former PGA Tour Player Mark Wurtz on the concept of "Swinging Left". A couple of things to note:
He's using the now famous "Headcover under the right arm drill", this was in 2003 and was a recap of some work they had done in 2000. The point being that, there's nothing new under the sun. Competent instructors like EA have the experience and knowledge to draw from various resources.
EA is recommending that Mark feel as if he's swinging "Low and Left", just to point out that these concepts have been around for a while.
Most advanced (low to mid cappers) fight the left side of the Golf Course, so these techniques have been applied counteract that tendency for years. In the Hogan era, most believed that a weaker grip would do the trick. In my opinion, a good player with "Educated Hands" can eventually develop a snap hook with a weaker grip.
EA wants the miss to be a pull fade, the stage at which it appears Tiger is at.
This type of instruction is not designed with the Beginning golfer in mind
Conclusion: EA can help Tiger or anybody else!
EA's comments from below:
I believe there are different definitions of "Swinging Left," just like there are a variety of valid/acceptable definitions for most terms in the English language.
In the 80's we (meaning myself and those that worked with me) mainly looked at the swing from the DTL view (as far as viewing swinging left) and defined swinging left as "delivering the stroke down-plane followed by exiting left enough that the shaft appeared on or below the shoulder plane." If the shaft appeared above the right shoulder in the follow-through we did not consider it a Swinging Left action even if it was still swing up-plane. This view became more advanced when understanding the differences between Hip-Plane, Torso-Plane and Shoulder-Plane Slotting stroke patterns.
At times Swinging Left has been described as keeping the arms more strictly connected to the torso and having the pivot carry the lever assembly around to the left. Just like swinging with a rolled up towel being held under both arms and/or using surgical tubing or a theraband to keep the arms more strictly connected. Players like Scott McCarron and David Toms do that well and I use it in what I call a Centerline Swing. And the golfer can use a variety of different release actions with regard to wrist lever action and still Swing Left in this manner, including full roll release actions.
The CP and CF concepts evolved and golfers have often related CP releases (of which I believe there are a variety) correlate directly to Swinging Left. I believe that is because in general with CP delivery actions we will see the shaft exit either on or below the right shoulder from the down the line view, and above the right shoulder with CF delivery action. Again, those are general rules as compared to absolutes. Anyone what to add any other commonly used defintions of Swinging Left?
Here's another one:
Here's Hunter Mahan, perhaps the best at this; watch the Club post impact (hint: Low and Left)
Let's have a look at The golf swing of Robert Tyre Jones Jr. Bobby was perhaps the greatest Amateur Golfer ever and arguably one of the ten best golfers of all time. He was the last great player of the Hickory Shaft era and by studying him I think we can learn from his techniques. A couple of things to note.
1. The Lagging clubhead take away
2. The Corkscrew type pivot
3. THe double cocked top of backswing position
4. The hand action
Here's what his swing looked like:
Here's Peter Kostis with an analysis:
And Here's our friend Wayne DeFrancesco with his assessment:
Not to beat a dead horse here, but I have a hard time with someone sitting on a pedestal pontificating and criticizing, who when asked to demonstrate, balks.
Gerry Hogan wrote the "Hogan Manual on Human Performance" an undertaking similar to Homer's. In his video, Gerry describes himself as a 55 year old busted up, retired ex-copper (cop in the U.S.) and then proceeds to demonstrate his technique by hitting his 6 iron 190 yards.
I'm almost certain he left the force due to disabilities.
I'm going to reach out to Gerry and see if he'll do an interview. Great Character.
Ralph, I agree with the trajectory comments. I have always believed
that the best wedge and short iron players have played lower flighted
shots. It is almost as if they are throwing darts in there, and the
more you would try to lob your darts the less accurate you will be. It
is also the case the most of the great long iron players launch the ball
high, and so too with most great wood players. Of course most great
drivers of the ball can play it low when they need to as well.
I
have taught a variety of techniques to my students to make them very
proficient at playing lower flighted shots with the shorter clubs and
higher flighted ones with the longer clubs as their general method of
play. However, once they acquire the general method of play I encourage
them to learn how to flight it on any trajectory with every club.
The
basic techniques I teach are Power Stacking and Exiting. I feel with
those techniques you can me more passive/aggressive than simply playing
the shorter clubs softer. Many golfers that are aggressive players, or
even passive/aggressive players need to be more positive with there
method instead of conservative with the softer actions.
Also
I just want to note that golfers with differing biomechanical patterns,
as well as swing techniques will have varying power stacking patterns.
They will progress from weight shots to squeeze-it shots to control
shots to power shots to maximum power shots as a general rule, however
they will use differing techniques for each level of the progression.
I
suggest to anyone that wants to be great with trajectory control with
all clubs that they learn techniques such as Exiting and Power Stacking.
Now
some professionals (like Nick Price) will vary their Swing Anchor
Alignments in order to vary trajectories. For example they may use
Front Anchor techniques for lower trajectory shots, Rear Anchor for
medium trajectory and Center Anchor for higher trajectory shots. Now
though you can do so as a valid approach, my experience has shown me
that it takes more athletic ability to manage the method compared to
both Exiting and Power Stacking. It can also lead to injury. So as a
general rule I recommend staying away from varying your swing anchor
alignments on purpose.
Here some footage I put together of Tiger on his recent stint "Down Under"
.
One thing to note, is how the announcer points to Tiger's obsession with Trajectory; "Traj", he calls it. This leads me to believe he's becoming more Hoganesque in his approach. I will do a Monday Morning Ramble on this.
In the meantime here is an article written by our friend Terry Koehler (aka "The Wedge Guy")
Trajectory Is The Key To Shotmaking Ben Hogan
Being raised
in the Ben Hogan country of South Texas, and having been the Marketing
Director at Hogan in the mid-1990's, I am a strong disciple of Mr.
Hogan's teachings.
One of his proclaimed beliefs about the golf
swing was that the key to shotmaking was controlling the trajectory of
your shots, particularly with your irons. If you didn't know the flight
path of the ball, Mr. Hogan reasoned, then you had no idea how far it
was going to go.
Tiger Woods is one of the masters in this area
now. With his re-tooled swing, he knows exactly how the ball is going to
leave the club almost all the time.
There was a TV commercial
where he was hitting balls through windows on different floors of an
office building - and he was really doing it !!! That's trajectory
control !
I also read a quote from one of the Champions Tour
players a few months ago - wish I'd saved it - where in response to a
question about hitting good iron shots, he replied, " Hit your short
irons and wedges low, everything else high. "
A simplification
for sure, but if you watch the Tour players, you rarely see them hitting
these towering short irons and wedges. Their shots take off like a
bullet on a very controlled trajectory - not too high, not too low.
The
amateurs I watch, however, tend to hit their short irons and wedges
into the stratosphere, where the wind can do anything to the ball and
where they have little distance control.
One key to hitting your
scoring clubs on a more controllable trajectory is to take my earlier
advice and hit them "softer", taking 10-15 yards off what you think is a
"full" 8-iron or pitching wedge. Try that for a while and see if your
shotmaking and distance control doesn't get better.
One of the best tips for hitting those more piercing trajectories is to lighten up your grip and relax your arms - a lot !
Feel
the rotation of your body core lead everything through impact, so that
the hands are ahead of the clubhead as you go through the ball. Try
this on very short half swing pitches on the range - very relaxed arms
and grip, with a smooth move through the ball - NOT AT IT !
Feel
the clubhead trailing the grip, hands, arms and body core. As you get
comfortable with this nice piercing trajectory, gradually lengthen the
swing and speed up the body core rotation with successive groups of
shots, and watch the ball fly further, but still with the same piercing
trajectory.
When you get to a point where it starts flying higher
and higher, back off. You've gone beyond a "full" swing with a short
iron or wedge.
If you know how to control your trajectory, your shotmaking with the scoring clubs will become awesome.
As I promised in the comments section here's the drill. This was 3 years ago and I was first trying to grasp the Hat's version of this concept. His drills have a way of making you look rather clumsy, I have videos of top notch players attempting some of them and you wouldn't believe it. One thing to note is how my body reacts when he speeds up my hands (the hands moving the hands).
In the first video we used a remix by Marshal Mathers in honor of our friend from Michigan, Huggybear. For those who don't know who Marshal Mathers is you would probably recognize him as Eminem. In this intro we'll honor the boyz from the left coast, but we'll always keep our NYC roots. (btw this video was already on youtube, this is the original in hi def, since I filmed it in hi def it had no audio)
Enjoy
Here's our friend Geoff Jones with his thoughts on the subject:
Here are Huggy's comments from the other post:
Ralph,
Here's the same video angle (with driver) of that Slicefixer student that you like so much. Kid's hands are already moving left before impact, yet from this view, it is hard to tell. Do you see the hand path similarity to Hogan?
Now here's a different angle (close to perpendicular to his hand path plane) where you can more clearly determine his hand path:
BTW, at 5'8" and 150 lbs. this kid carries a driver 320 yards with a mid-trajectory draw. Seen it many times with my own eyes. He's pulling 185 mph ball speeds on trackman. So much for Cp being a short, pull faders release!
And, OMG!, he's cupping his left wrist!
A driver swing will always appear more down the line than a short iron because of several factors - more axis tilt, longer club, more forward ball position.
That kid's got some kind of leverage!!!!
What a swing!
Seems like the Talking heads are already eating this up.
BTW The Dr. Mann he refers to at 2:09 is Dr. Ralph Mann not Dr. Jeff Mann. I don't think Jeff played golf in 1990.
Ralph Mann (Ralph Vernon Mann; born June 16, 1949) was an American athlete who competed mainly in the 400 meter hurdles. He was an undergraduate at Brigham Young University, and later earned a Ph.D. in Biomechanics from the Washington State University. His son, Randall Mann, is an award-winning poet and literary critic.
In 1969, Mann won his first NCAA 440 intermediate hurdles championship with a time of 49.6 seconds. Tying the NCAA and American records, the time was three-tenths of a second off the world record. A year later in Des Moines, Iowa, Mann captured his second NCAA championship and set a new world record time of 48.8 seconds for the 440 intermediate hurdles.
During his collegiate career Ralph was NCAA champion three times. He was a three-time All-American, and in 1970 was second in the voting for the Sullivan Award.
He competed for the United States in the 1972 Summer Olympics held in Munich, Germany, in the 400 meter hurdles where he won the silver medal.[1] Ralph was a five-time AAU champion. He received the AAU’s DiBenedetto Award for the single most outstanding career, most notably for his Olympic silver medal.
Ralph Mann co-wrote the book "Swing Like a Pro: The Breakthrough Scientific Method of Perfecting Your Golf Swing" with Fred Griffin. This book was the culmination of Dr. Mann's expertise in the field of biomechanics and Griffin's experience of teaching golf as a PGA Professional for many years.
The video at the end is called "4 keys to power" available from OHP Direct. (edit They now call this video "Perfect Results"). Here's a link,( please ignore the sensationalistic BS, the content is awesome):
Here are some pictures from Jeff's comments below: (click on the image to enlarge)
In the second picture note where his hands are, they are left of his belt buckle and almost in line with his left hip. It appears as if he's maintained connection between his left arm and pectoral, ie #4 pressure point. His hand and wrist attitudes are not clearly discernible from these images.
Just my opinion
I'm going to have to agree with Jeff, the swing is definitely a CF release (It probably resulted in a HOOK!). This is probably early vintage Hogan.
Hogan's Stance Ball Position Diagram:
To clarify,
I am only using the terms Cp and Cf generically as described to me personally by Mac O'grady in 2006. Since he was the first to use these terms to describe 2 distinctly different release types and popularized their use within the golf instruction world, I use them based on his definitions which are independent of hinge action type. They are not TGM terms.
A swing whereby the upper arms are held in close to the body through impact to P8 and therefore are carried around to the left by P8 would be a "Cp" swing by Mac's definition (at least how he defined it in '06), as shown clearly by Hogan in that rear overhead view from the Slicefixer video clip and by virtually every good slicefixer student. This as opposed to someone like Rickie Fowler who is an extreme example of "Cf," such as shown here:
I agree with your definition. And that's how I learned it in the late 90's.Where the #4 pp stays intact.
and I believe that's the construct Gregg is using, because he's trying to support impact with his pivot. We believe in post impact acceleration, which leads to a full finish. I think this sawed-off/hold off action is what is creating the confusion.
Here's a comment I got on Youtube: ok, its a driver so it gets difficult to CP the longer
clubs. CP to me means shifting the baseline left of the ball target
line DURING the swing and not from setup. Since the plane line shifts
left it gets hard to have a full roll and you get a more half roll,
though as stated tougher to do with driver. Hogan was the best CP
player I have seen, better than Mac who really has evolved the concept.
He's implying that there is a baseline shift during the swing.
Here's another BS session I had with Mark Evershed earlier today:
And here's an analysis by our friend Wayne Defrancesco:
Incidentally, I am now a member of Waynedefrancesco.com. I highly suggest you peruse his site and I believe you're going to enjoy it. Wayne was a world class player and is a world class instructor. Give it a shot.
Here's our friend Kelvin Miyahira with an interesting comparison of Zach and Dustin.
Huggy's comments from below:
Just because Kelvin voices over "stalling, stalling, stalling" on Zack Johnson's video doesn't make it so. There are many high speed videos of his swing that show that Zack is not a pivot staller, quite the opposite in fact. The DTL view is much better to see this than a face on. Here's just one of many examples readily available:
With as strong of a grip as he employs and as well synched he is on the downswing, if Zack stalled, he'd hit it left of left.
DJ is much bigger than Zack, much more athletic, probably a lot more fast twitch muscle fiber as he is a good all round athlete in other speed/jumping sports. Those things account much more for differences in distance than their technique, IMO.
Here's a little tribute to the late Tony Lema, a man who died too soon. In the 60's there was the Big Three and Tony. Take note of his footwork and the incredible amount of Lag he generated.
Here's his bio from Wikipedia:
Lema was born in Oakland, California, to parents of Portuguese ancestry.[1] His father died when Tony was three years old, and his widowed mother struggled to raise the family of four children on welfare. He began playing golf as a boy at Lake Chabot municipal golf course and learned different aspects of the game from a variety of people. Noted African-American golf coach Lucius Bateman helped develop his swing, Oakland policeman Ralph Hall taught him course strategy, and the golf pros at Lake Chabot, Dick Fry and Bill Burch, trained him to use a square stance.[2]
At age 17, Lema enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and served in Korea. After his discharge from the military in 1955, he obtained work as an assistant to the club professional at a San Francisco golf club.
Eddie Lowery, a wealthy San Francisco businessman, who assisted talented amateur players in the area, helped to sponsor and encourage Lema.[3] Lowery is best known as the 10-year-old caddy of champion Francis Ouimet during the 1913 U.S. Open. Lowery's sponsorship gave Lema $200 a week expense money, to be repaid, in addition to splitting his winnings: Lema received two-thirds, Lowery one-third. One additional detail was that all debts at the end of the year were to be carried forward.[4]
By 1957, Lema had developed his skills sufficiently enough to earn his way onto the PGA Tour, winning the Imperial Valley Open in memorable fashion: Assuming he was out of contention, Lema headed to the clubhouse bar, where he had three highballs. Told that he would face Paul Harney in a sudden-death playoff, a relaxed Lema won the tournament on the second extra hole. The following year, he began developing friendships with a trio of fellow golfers: Johnny Pott, Tommy Jacobs and Jim Ferree, and during 11 tournaments in 1958, Lema finished in the top 15, winning $10,282 for the year.
The following year, Lema's winnings dropped to $5,900, followed by an even worse year in 1960, when he collected a mere $3,060. A raucous, off-the-course lifestyle was taking its toll until he began talking with television producer Danny Arnold, who helped him improve his composure and bolster his confidence.[5]
While Lema's struggles continued in 1962, along with his debt to Lowery reaching over $11,000, his luck would finally change for good. On the eve of his victory in October 1962 at the Orange County Open Invitational in Costa Mesa, California, Lema joked he would serve champagne to the press if he won the next day.[6] From then on he was known as Champagne Tony, and his handsome looks and vivacious personality added to the legend, such that Johnny Miller has stated that at the time of his death in 1966, Lema was second only to Arnold Palmer in fan popularity.
That win sparked an impressive performance over the next four years that saw him win 12 official PGA tour events, finish second on 11 occasions, and third four times. From 1963 through July 1966, Lema finished in the top-10 over 50% of the time and never missed a cut in a professional major, finishing in the top-10 in 8 of the 15 majors in which he played. He was a member of the 1963 and 1965 United States Ryder Cup teams, and his Ryder Cup record (9–1–1) is the best of any player who has played in two or more.
Friend and tour colleague Jack Nicklaus wrote that Lema's play also stabilized and improved greatly after he married his wife Betty, a former airline stewardess, in 1963.[7] One additional reason for Lema's more relaxed play that year was the end of his agreement with Lowery.
In 1963, Lema finished second by one stroke to Jack Nicklaus at the Masters Tournament, and missed the playoff for the U.S. Open by two shots, bogeying the last two holes, believing he needed birdies. He won the Memphis Open Invitational later that summer.
Lema won two other tournaments that fall and was named 1963 Most Improved Player by Golf Digest. That winter, he wrote, with Gwylim S. Brown, "Golfers' Gold", an autobiographical account of his eight-year apprenticeship in the competitive cauldron of the PGA Tour.
In 1964, Lema won the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am at Pebble Beach Golf Links, and then three tournaments in four weeks: the Thunderbird Classic at Westchester Country Club in Rye, New York, the Buick Open Invitational at Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club in Grand Blanc, Michigan, and the Cleveland Open at Highland Park Golf Course in Cleveland, Ohio (in a playoff with Arnold Palmer).
Then, two weeks later, he captured one of the major championships by taking that year's British Open at St Andrews, Scotland, by five shots over Jack Nicklaus. This was an astonishing surprise, since Lema was not only making his first appearance in the championship, but had only nine holes of practice before starting.[7] However, Lema hired Arnold Palmer's regular British caddy, Tip Anderson, since Palmer was not competing that year; Anderson, a descendant of a past Open champion, Jamie Anderson, had grown up on the course and likely knew more about it than anyone else.
In the matchup of the four major champions of 1964 in the World Series of Golf, Lema won $50,000 (then the largest payoff in golf) at Firestone Country Club over Arnold Palmer (Masters), Ken Venturi (U.S. Open), and Bobby Nichols (PGA Championship).
In 1965, Lema won the Buick Open for the second consecutive year, and the Carling World Open, finishing second in prize money to Jack Nicklaus. In fall 1965, Lema and Nicklaus formed the U.S. team to the World Cup of Golf.[7] Lema's last victory came in May 1966, in his wife's hometown at the Oklahoma City Open. A few weeks later he came back from an opening round 78, to almost capture a third consecutive Buick Open, just losing out to his close friend, Phil Rodgers.
In 1966, at age 32, he was flying from the PGA Championship at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, with his wife, Betty, to an exhibition tournament, the Little Buick Open in Lincolnshire, Illinois, south of Chicago, when their chartered twin-engine Beechcraft Bonanza ran out of fuel and crashed in a water hazard short of the seventh green of Lansing Country Club in Lansing, Illinois, very close to their destination. During the fatal plunge, the pilot swerved left to avoid a group of people standing near the clubhouse. In addition to the Lemas, two other people, Dr. George Bard and Doris Mullen, were also killed. Bard and Mullen's husband, George, were owners of the ill-fated plane.
Lema and his wife were buried in the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Hayward, California, after funeral services at St. Elizabeth's Church in his hometown of Oakland, California.[8]
In 1983, a San Leandro public golf course was named in his honor, the Tony Lema Golf Course, which is now part of the Monarch Bay Golf complex.
Here is the swing of PGA Tour Player Scott Stallings. Scott is an interesting study, he reminds me of Laura Davies through impact. Both are incredibly long hitters and both launch themselves off their feet into a parametric acceleration attitude, something we saw before when we studied Peter Senior. Like Senior, he has an incredible amount of lag and applies our friend Wayne Defrancesco's trademark "Squat-Compression". Let's watch:(Make sure you keep your eye on his left foot)
(I borrowed this footage from our friend Kelvin Miyahira)
Here's TPI's Dave Phillips with an analysis:
I didn't realize there was a stat called "Not Hitting it Left" ;o)
Obfuscation in all things, even trivial ones. "Many golf fans are surprised to learn that I learned to play golf left handed when I took up the game," Hogan wrote in 1948 in Power Golf . "I changed over when I was a small boy. The only clubs I could get were right handed. Moreover, most of the fellows I played with then were very convincing in telling me that left-handers never made good golfers. At that age I was gullible enough to believe them and to make the change, but I wouldn't now."
"So,"the interviewer asked him in 1987, "you were left handed? "Hogan replied, "No, that's one of those things that's always been written, but it's an absolute myth. The truth is, the first golf club I owned was an old left handed, wooden-shafted, rib-faced mashie."
Today we're going to look at another one of the potential Superstars in the World of Golf, Argentinian Phenom Tano Goya. Here's our very own Dan Whittaker with his analysis.
Here's his bio from Wikipedia:
Carlos Estanislao "Tano" Goya (born 1 June 1988) is an Argentine professional golfer.
After turning professional in 2007, Goya won the Tour de las Americas qualifying school by nine shots, and followed that with victory in the first event of the 2008 season, the Challenge Tour co-sanctioned Center Open, and third place in the Argentine Open. He went on to finish top of the Order of Merit that year.
That first win also gave Goya Challenge Tour membership, and he finished the season by winning the Apulia San Domenico Grand Final, which lifted him to fifth in that tours final standings, gaining exemption to the full European Tour for 2009. He won the TPG Tour Order of Merit in 2008.
In March 2009, in only his 6th start on the European Tour, Goya won the Madeira Islands Open BPI - Portugal, earning him full exemption on the tour until the end of 2010.
The Following is from Golf.com, the footage provided is from my library
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Thomas Dickson Armour embodied the greatest melding of playing and teaching talent the game has ever seen. After immigrating to the United States in 1923, he turned professional and went on to win the 1927 U.S. Open, the 1930 PGA Championship, and the 1931 British Open -- accomplishments that are all the more remarkable considering he lost the use of his left eye during World War I. After establishing himself as one of the game's finest players, Armour began to cultivate a reputation as a keen student of the swing and eventually as one of the game's most successful teachers. He was legendary both for his fee and the large sun umbrella he sat under, drink in one hand, golf club in the other. He charged $50 per hour, during the Depression no less; it was by far the highest sum commanded by any teacher at that time.
Even though he only offered a few minutes of hands-on instruction during a lesson, he was often booked solid six months in advance.
Hit With the right Hand
Armour is often remembered for his advice to "whack the hell out of the ball with the right hand." This swing key included the caveats that the grip must be correct (as explained earlier) and that the body must first be in the proper position.
On the backswing, a steady head and good lower-body action is required, which Armour said comes from working the left knee behind the ball. If the left knee gets into the correct position, the hips will turn, which coils the upper body and cocks the wrists.
"On the downswing, keep your head still. Your lower body is triggered by shooting the right knee toward the ball, which drops the club down into the 'late hit position' -- the hands well in front of the clubhead. The longer you delay the hit, the more power you can apply 'whacking the hell out of it' with the right hand."
From "How to Play your best Golf all the Time":
"Always have your mind made up that you are going to whip your right hand into the shot....That is a "must""
Anytime you hear an argument against right hand whipping into the shot, you can be sure that the argument is fallacious.
Something about the right hand that must have your thought and practice is having that part of the right forefinger, which is nearest the palm, functioning positively into the hitting action. When the right-hand grip lies firmly between the forefinger and the thumb, it is in perfect position for a fast firm lashing action.
One thing to note is how level his shoulders are, it seems a pre-requisite for this stroke pattern.
Classic Quote:
"Possibly you have been made a victim of the great delusion in golf, that of believing that the answer lies in tricks rather than in mastery of the alphabet of golfing knowledge. I will have no part of catering to that fond and fantastic dream of the gullible."
--Tommy Armour
As we've said before, most of this stuff is not new, Tommy was preaching this stuff since the 1930s
Any way, if you go to Dave's site he analyzes this right hand hitting notion and concludes: Hitting with the hands at impact produces no additional clubhead speed -- none. That might not prevent it from being effective instruction, though.
He uses plural because Hogan claimed he hit it hard with both hands.
For more good stuff from Dave please visit his website at:
Just an FYI here. Last spring I attended the Toronto Golf Show where Sean Foley was a guest speaker. He did in fact relate a story of when he was younger taking lessons from Greg McHatton in southernCalifornia. Greg would have him hit a half pitch shot with a bowed left wrist. Sound familiar?
Cheers,
For more information on Mark and his philosophies visit his website:
Our Danish contingency headed by our good friend Andreas Kali has reached out to us to introduce us to the Gotham Golfers in Denmark. We've already met Peter Ellebye and now we will be introduced to a couple of other fellows.
Andreas was a Juco All American here in the States and is currently pursuing his PGA status in Europe.
We're going to start with a gentleman by the name of Per Barth, here is what Andreas has to say about him:
Per is from Sweden and used to play on the Challenge Tour. This is the longest player I have EVER played with. He told me his swing speed is 135mph with his driver when he is on. I played two rounds with Gary Woodland five years ago in Long Beach, and this guy is longer.
I wonder what kind of smash factor he has, if it's near 1.48 we're talking 200mph ball speed. He says he carries it 300 mts. which is 330 yds, which is about what Gary Woodland's max carry is.
I saw one of your recent videos through a post on the network54 single axis forum and sent you a message through youtube, as I did not have an email ID for you.
As you have interviewed so many people on your forum/blog, you surely know some /method' teachers, or people like Jeff Mann who have made themselves very familiar with methods.
I am keen to present a symposium at the World Scientific Congress of Golf (golfscience.org) where 2-3 'methods' are explained, and a discussant, who is a theoretical expert, such as a biomechanist, discusses the biomechanical validity of such methods. I have emailed lots of people to see if they'd be interested in explaining a method. Few will agree (specially inventors of such methods as they probably do not wish to expose scientific flaws in their methods).
Please, please please find me 2-3 such presenters who are experts on any method
My interest in such a forum, besides letting the world of golf know what is science and what is not? I am the inventor of a method myself, and claim that it is 'biomechanically valid and anatomically more efficient', and unlike others, I am willing to have it 'put to the test'.
Many thanks,
sincerely,
Kiran
Symposia - This format involves verbal presentation concerning related research/theoretical abstracts by several researchers. Generally, symposia consist of 3-5 researchers who will present during the session. These sessions can range in length from 1 to 2 hours. For symposia, it may be useful to include a discussant. As an example, if the symposium is research focused, perhaps a professional in a field of practice might elaborate upon the practical implications of the research/presentation. If the symposium is practice focused, a researcher might speculate/expand upon the theoretical and/or research implications of the presentations.
Select major section:
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Select most appropriate review category
Biomechanics
Brief Description
Symposia authors should provide a short (100-word maximum) paragraph to provide a general introduction of the topic and individual presentations. This description is intended to give a general overview of the purpose, content, and importance of the session.
Discussant
Discussant: If you intend to have a discussant (i.e., researcher or practitioner/professional) to comment on the presentations contained in your symposium, please provide his/her name, mailing address, telephone number and email address. Discussants do not need to provide an abstract.
Abstract
Abstracts should contain the following sections: (a) Purpose – briefly outline the background for your research and guiding research questions, (b) Method – describe participants/objects/events, measures, and procedures, (d) Analysis/Results – present any statistical or analytical methods and your findings, and (e) Conclusions – place your findings in context and indicate their potential impact on the field.
--
Kiran Kanwar
Golf Teaching Professional
Class A: The LPGA (T&CP)
The PGA (UK)
The PGA of India (Board Member)
National Golf Academy of India (Teaching Staff)
BS:Physics, Math
MS: current student, Sports Science and Rehabilitation
American College of Sports Medicine: certified Personal Trainer
Columnist: Golf Digest
Member: Golf Writers' Asscn. of America
Before you go forward, here are some definitions:
FLW= Flat left wrist
LAFW= Left Arm Flying Wedge
GFLW= Geometrically Flat Left Wrist
HH= Horizontal Hinge/hinging
Mike Jacobs has introduced his rotation-around-the-coupling point idea and BM has fully endorsed this idea. They both promote this idea as representing advanced thinking regarding the hand release action through impact. I take the opposite tack and I believe that they are endorsing a flipping motion through the impact zone. In this thread I will compare Hogan's "real life" swing and his intellectual thinking regarding hand actions through the impact zone to MJ's/BM's rotation-around-the-coupling point idea.
Here is BM in his "flicking action" video showing the rotation-around-the-coupling point idea.
He demonstrates the "flipping action" around the 1:37 minutes time point. He demonstrates a horizontal hinging action of the wrists (palmar flexion of the right wrist and dorsiflexion of the left wrist). This action represents a rotation of the clubshaft around the coupling point in a perpendicular plane (a plane that is roughly parallel to the ball-target line). BM even claims that ALL good players have a bent left wrist in the followthrough as a result of this "flicking action". Is that true?
I don't think that it is true that all good golfers bend their left wrist post-impact. Ben Hogan didn't believe in this "flicking action" idea. How do I know that "fact".
Let's consider Hogan's swing and his teaching.
Here is Hogan's swing.
Image 1 shows Hogan's FLW pre-impact (position 1) - note that it is not parallel to the ball-target line and that it still has to rotate to become square to the target by impact. Image 2 shows Hogan's FLW at the end of his followthrough (position 2) - note that he still has a FLW and that it is roughly parallel to the ball-target line. How did his FLW get from position 1 to position 2, and did it involve a rotation-around-the-coupling point maneuver?
Here is Hogan's explanation from his "Five Lessons" book.
This diagrammatic image shows how Hogan believed he rotated his left wrist/hand through impact - image 2 represents position 1 (in the previous photo) and image 6 represents position 2 (in the previous photo).
Note that he arches/bows his left wrist at impact - image 4. In image 1 he had a scooped left wrist (GFLW) and in image 2 & 3 his left wrist is flattening and in image 4 it is distinctly bowed. How does that happen from a biomechanical perspective? I believe that the rational answer is that it occurs naturally/automatically if the left wrist/hand leads the club through the impact - during the rotation of the hands through the impact zone. Hogan is using a release of PA#3 to square the clubface in the late downswing and he transitions into a HH action in the followthrough, and he leads with his left wrist/hand because he is a swinger who pulls the grip end of the club.
-- continued in part 2.
September 22, 2011 7:57 PM
Jeffrey said...
Part 2.
To quote Hogan's book - see page 99-100 where Hogan describes the following two-handed basketball pass from the right side towards a target on the left.
Hogan stated that this motion represented the movement of his hands through the impact zone. Note how his left wrist/hand is rotating during this motion - it is near-identical to his diagrams. Note that his left wrist never bends during this action, and note that there is no independent "flicking action" of the wrists during this throwing motion. The rotation occurs solely due to a conjoined body/arm rotational motion with no superimposed wrist motion. On page 100, Hogan states-: "The great value, as I see it, of thinking in terms of this two-hand action is that it keeps the left hand driving all the time". At the top of page 101, Hogan states regarding the left hand at impact - "AT IMPACT THE BACK OF THE LEFT HAND FACES TOWARD YOUR TARGET. THE WRIST BONE IS DEFINITELY RAISED. IT POINTS TO THE TARGET AND, AT THE MOMENT THE BALL IS CONTACTED, IT IS OUT IN FRONT, NEARER TO THE TARGET THAN ANY PART OF THE HAND." That will not happen with a "flicking action" which is more likely to bend the left wrist in a flipping manner. Then Hogan states immediately thereafter-: "When the left wrist is in this position, the left hand will not check or interrupt the speed with which your clubhead is traveling. There is no danger either than the right hand will overpower the left and twist the club over. It can't. As far as applying power goes, I wish I hand three right hands!" I believe that Hogan's is stating that if he had three right hands to push the club faster through the impact zone, then that additional "right hand power" would potentially increase clubhead speed - as long as he maintained a FLW through impact and didn't allow the left wrist to break down and bend (dorsiflex).
I believe that this is a key to understanding Hogan's hand action through the impact zone - he maintained a FLW and intact LAFW through the impact zone and he ensured that the left wrist would never break down during its travel through the impact zone (via the utilization of an independent left wrist flipping motion that is added to the body/arm motion).
I also believe that Hogan's hand action through impact is used by the majority of skilled golfers, and that this "rotation-around-the-coupling point" is a wrong-headed idea that doesn't make sense from a mechanical/biomechanical perspective.
Jeff.
Here is Erik's chart: (click on the image to enlarge)
Chart by:Andy Gordon: https://www.facebook.com/andygordongolf
Hit em Straight
Here's a gem bought to us by our friend Bradley Hughes. It's a 15 year old Jack Nicklaus. Remember Young Jack was being taught by Jack Grout, who in addition to being a world class tour player was an Assistant Pro under Ted Longworth at Glen Garden Country Club. Both Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan were caddies at Glen Garden. Given that Grout was an Assistant, it might be safe to assume that he played a part in both Ben and Byron's development.
" Nothing about Hogan's golf swing initially made an impression on Byron, or on anybody else around Glen garden, but the saga of Hogan's battle to get down the basics of a grip and swing remains one of the most beguiling mysteries to emerge from this time. Hogan claimed he was naturally a lefty--probably true--but in those days left-handed clubs were rare to nonexistent. The story goes that Ted Longworth was the first to place a right-handed club in Ben's oversized hands and correct his "hog-killer" grip. Hogan himself cites brother Royal Hogan (who took up golf about this same time) as the one who actually switched Ben from left-to right handed playing, assuring him no athlete was ever successful playing left handed. "I was a southpaw who never stopped playing baseball right handed until my brother, Royal, made me switch," he told reporters following his breakthrough win at Pinehurst in 1940. "My brother would slap me every time he saw me use that right." Still others maintain it was Longworth's newly arrived assistant Jack Grout (who much further down the fairway would shape the swing of a promising Ohio youngster named Jack Nicklaus) who realized the game would be a lot easier for him if Bennie Hogan played it from the right side.
Whoever finally got Hogan squared away, the early switch in part explains the incredible power he was always able to generate from his left side, including his tendency to hook the ball. Years later, Hogan ruefully joked that he wished he'd been born "with two left hands," reflecting the commonplace view that a dominant left hand was an asset to the right handed golf swing."
--It's interesting that the debates below seem to revolve around Hogan wishing he had 3 right hands, when there was also a time when he wished he had 2 left hands. I think it's important to properly research the subject matter before jumping to conclusions.
Back to Nicklaus:
This swing is the epitome of unrestricted, free flowing motion and a very powerful leg action.This is one of the reasons why he is among the longest hitters in history.
This next video is a testament to Nicklaus' power.
The circumstances were as follows:
Nicklaus needed a birdie on the 18th hole to tie the U.S. Open scoring record held by Hogan, but he had 238 yards for his third shot -- uphill, all carry, into the wind. He hammered his 1-iron to about 20 feet and made the putt to finish at 272.
Here's our good friend Dan Whittaker with an analysis of British phenom Tom Lewis:
Here's his Bio from Wikipedia:
Tom Lewis (born 5 January 1991)[1] is a professional golfer from Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England.
In 2009, Lewis won the Boys Amateur Championship at Royal St George's. In 2010, he lost to Peter O'Malley in a playoff for the New South Wales Open,[2] and then tied for 12th place at the Australian Open.[3] This was followed by victory on the Old Course at St Andrews in the 2011 St Andrews Links Trophy.[4]
Lewis qualified for the 2011 Open Championship at Royal St George's via Local Final Qualifying at Rye. In the the first round he shot a five-under-par 65, giving him a share of the lead alongside Thomas Bjørn.[5] This was the lowest single-round score by an amateur in Open Championship history, and the equal lowest in any major championship, as well as making him the first amateur to lead the Open since Michael Bonallack in 1968.[6] One of Lewis's first-round partners was Tom Watson, after whom he is named.[2] Lewis finished tied for 30th place and as the low amateur, he won the Silver Medal.[7]
Lewis turned professional after the 2011 Walker Cup.[8] He made his professional debut at the Austrian Golf Open in September 2011, shooting a two-over-par 74 in the first round.[9] He recovered to finish in a tie for tenth.
His maiden professional win came at the Portugal Masters on the European Tour in October 2011, shooting rounds of 70, 64, 68, and 65 to finish two shots clear of the field. It was his third professional start.[10]
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Sit back and enjoy the rants of an avid Golf Aficionado. My name: Ralph Perez Location NYC Email:ralph_p1@yahoo.com
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