[BerntR]

No need to be so conservative

ALLRIGHTYTHEN

I am puzzled about some of Homer's club shaft ideas.

Any shaft bends and unbends. It stores and releases energy. A very stiff shaft will release the energy sooner, a very weak shaft will release this energy later and slower. Therefore it is easier to maintain a weak shaft prestressed at impact than a stiff one. Homer's preference for stiff shafts is in this regard conflicting with a preference for a prestressed shaft at impact. Did Homer btw write that the shaft ideally was prestressed at impact?

I would think the best way to apply the energy being stored in the shaft is to increase clubhead speed at impact. And that will be max'ed if the clubshaft has recovered to straight at impact.

Or thereabout. Centrifugal force complicates things. What happens between impact and separation could be complicating the mater further.

In addition to the "rebound" effect above, there is an issue of thrust power versus centrifugal power - drive versus drag (of the club). When drive is converted to speed, the clubhead will increase it's rope pulling forces through the shaft. The clubhead's centre of inertia will seek it's inline condition. As an isolated force this will bend the shaft downward and forward. So this rope pulling will work against efforts to keep the shaft prestressed.

Regarding the stroke itself: I do not recall having read anything in the yellow book about impact that didn't make sense to me. From the loading profiles I've seen at TrueTemper and other places it seems obvious that timing is involved though. The last shaft loading sequence in the swing maxes a brief time before impact - not at impact.

I have now idea how much right hand thrust that ideally should be applied through the ball. In my own mediocre golf game it is much more important to feel "rope handled" clubhead lag in the left hand (and sometimes shoulder and maybe even foot) than the sensation of a strong thrust from PP#1 and pp#3 through impact. Judging from the famous image of VJ letting go of his left hand I believe I am in good company.

I am not a golf pro, and my reply may be regarded as (more or less) qualified speculation. It would be very interesting to hear some of the TGM heavyweighters' take on these issues.