[Amen Corner]

Thanks for these instructive views. I find Photos 4-6 particularly compelling. The point I've been making for almost four years now is that almost all great players swing about a reasonably Centered and Stationary Head (or, alternataively, the "Point between the Shoulders"). As a result, the spine remains vertical or, in some players, e.g., Colin Montgomery or Sergio Garcia, may even tilt a smidgeon toward the target.

The reason I've hammered on this is that many teachers take the opposite approach; namely, that the Head should Sway to the right on the Backstroke and that the player's back should assume a significant lean away from the target. They presume that this so-called "slice of pie" -- the 'wedge' created when the back leans away from the vertical -- is characteristic of the ideal pivot and a source of additional power. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, it is nothing more than an old-fashioned Sway that only disrupts the ideal Centered Arc and makes any real consistency diffficult, if not impossible.

I recommend golfers adopt the Pivot shown here: http://www.putfile.com/pic/5075264. [Golf, Bob MacDonald, 1927] Note the vertical spine and the relative degrees of circular Hip and Shoulder Turns. To my mind, this is one of the most important illustrations in the history of written golf instruction.

So there is a value of knowing "6 degrees of freedom" ......