[Jeff]

nmgolfer

You wrote-: "f you took a strip of sheet metal say 1 inch wide by 6 inch long and wrapped it around the end of the dowel and attached it to a weight, it's stiffness would prevent it from "releasing" in the plane of the golfswing while still allowing to rotate out of the plane of the swing (provided it doesn't bind up) if indeed it were subjected to a force that caused it to want to rotate out of the plane of the swing. I submit there is no force that causes it to want to rotate out of the plane of the swing."

You state that there is no force that would cause the clubhead to rotate out of the plane of the swing. That would be true if the hands propelling the dowel stick didn't rotate the dowel stick about its own axis while the dowel stick is being moved in a rounded arc. However, the left hand holding the dowelstick may swivel counterclockwise while the left hand is moving the dowel stick in a rounded arc. Wouldn't that cause the clubhead to change its position relative to the clubshaft, and wouldn't that change in position of the COG of the clubhead cause it to rotate even more - because the COG of the clubhead has shifted in space relative to the overall orbit of the dowel stick's hosel?

I am thinking of a similar argument to your argument about the release phenomenon - where the club acquires angular velocity because the hand directional pull is not in-line with the COG of the club.

Jeff.