Fortunately there is no debate that all earthly human movements are precipitated by a ground reaction force. However, this doesn't mean that a golf downstroke is started by the lower body. The downstroke may be described as a harnessing and redirection of a ground reaction force via muscularly driven levers which doesn't begin until the clubhead changes direction. The final muscularly driven lever that ultimately changes the direction of the club can be both hands working together as a force couplet. Of course there are many fine methods of beginning the downstroke wherein the hands are not the ultimate levers or lever to musculary cause the clubhead to change direction, I don't think there is any method whereby ground reaction force alone could cause the clubhead to change direction.
Looking at things your way Delaware is okay by me. I prefer to see the legs pushing into earth as the means to stop the backswing and create the necessary groundforce to facilitate rather than cause the downswing. Once that ground reaction force is created, a golfer can avoid, overpower, or harness it. You can always check your swing after you push into the earth. Using the hands as levers to iniate the change of direction of the clubhead is a superlative way to finalize the harnessing and redirection of the previously created ground reaction force. So start your downswing with your hands and you may do quite well. You may do well to change the direction of the clubhead with your right forearm or your pivot but even those forces must slow down and transfer their force into the hands before impact and even the hands must slow to transfer groundforce into the clubhead before a good impact can happen.
Delaware, you've done a fine job of trying to explain what words will never adequately explain. The human kinetic chain is a beautiful thing that really has no beginning or end until you are no longer able to move. Keep moving your ball the way TT said you could and you'll do better than most for many years to come. Hit it before it moves. Get that groundforce out of your body and into your ball as soon and as efficiently as you can. Be a muscular conduit. Thanks for courage and conviction.
CH
What an excellent and thoughtful post...thank you ...it was an enjoyable read
CH
What an excellent and thoughtful post...thank you ...it was an enjoyable read
Without wishing to appear impolite or contentious, the post in question fails not only for the vice of uncertainty but because it is just plain wrong.
Coops post is built upon the premise that a reaction force can be precipitated - "precipitated" in this context meaning
Quote:
pre·cip·i·tate Pronunciation (pr-sp-tt)
v. pre·cip·i·tat·ed, pre·cip·i·tat·ing, pre·cip·i·tates
v.tr.
1. To throw from or as if from a great height; hurl downward: "The finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below" Thornton Wilder.
2. To cause to happen, especially suddenly or prematurely. See Synonyms at speed.
- that is simply not so. A reaction is a result and not a cause.
There is no natural force on the good Lords planet that can start from the ground up and defy, let alone be made to override, gravity. This, so called, upward generated, "ground force" is simply the equal and opposite reaction to the force the golfer exerts when swinging his club downwards. Newtonian laws apply, where every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
Simple test. Address a ball, make a back swing and without further interference from yourself use force from the ground up to bring the club down.
Right, you've got it; it just 'aint possible. The club stays up until you physically exert a force that brings it down , thus causing the upward "ground force" reaction.
DG is not the bad guy in all of this and receives, in my opinion, less than generous consideration from some for his efforts in conveying his understanding of Mr Tomasellos's teaching to us.
DG is merely passing on the message/knowledge given to him and should not be called upon, mostly unfairly, to justify the help that he is trying to give us when so doing.
We should be grateful for his generosity in this regard rather than seek to use him as a "whipping boy" should we hold contrary beliefs.
Delaware Golf, thank you for making available to us your knowledge of Mr Tomasello and his teachings .
Whether members agree or not with what you bring to the forum in this context, your generosity in making this material available to us cannot be denied.
After studying with Tommy back in 1993, I didn't believe what Tommy taught was the real deal. It wasn't until 2003 after restarting my TGM studies with a local AI did I really realize the importance of what Tommy taught. All of the things that needed to be improved in my swing could have been fixed by doing the drills that Tommy taught. So, I can understand the reservations by many of the forum members to this way of moving a golf club, been there done that. Today, I guess you could say I'm on a mission to completely learn what Tommy taught and see what are the true results. Hopefully, along the way some of the forum members amateur or professional who have more time than me to develop the TGM swinging and hitting approach that Tommy taught will be able to take this thing a step further than me so the end results will not come from my prespective only.
And thanks to Yoda for giving us a place on this forum to explore and share the end results. I believe the golf swing researcher Homer Kelley would have appreciated it too.
DG
Last edited by Delaware Golf : 03-17-2007 at 09:46 AM.
Without wishing to appear impolite or contentious, the post in question fails not only for the vice of uncertainty but because it is just plain wrong.
Coops post is built upon the premise that a reaction force can be precipitated - "precipitated" in this context meaning - that is simply not so. A reaction is a result and not a cause.
There is no natural force on the good Lords planet that can start from the ground up and defy, let alone be made to override, gravity. This, so called, upward generated, "ground force" is simply the equal and opposite reaction to the force the golfer exerts when swinging his club downwards. Newtonian laws apply, where every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
Simple test. Address a ball, make a back swing and without further interference from yourself use force from the ground up to bring the club down.
Right, you've got it; it just 'aint possible. The club stays up until you physically exert a force that brings it down , thus causing the upward "ground force" reaction.
DG is not the bad guy in all of this and receives, in my opinion, less than generous consideration from some for his efforts in conveying his understanding of Mr Tomasellos's teaching to us.
DG is merely passing on the message/knowledge given to him and should not be called upon, mostly unfairly, to justify the help that he is trying to give us when so doing.
We should be grateful for his generosity in this regard rather than seek to use him as a "whipping boy" should we hold contrary beliefs.
Delaware Golf, thank you for making available to us your knowledge of Mr Tomasello and his teachings .
Whether members agree or not with what you bring to the forum in this context, your generosity in making this material available to us cannot be denied.
Thank you.
Burner, perhaps I should have said that the downswing is "predated" by 1) the body (primarily the legs) exerting pressure and weight into the earth under hopefully stable feet, and 2) the resultant reaction force of the earth pushing an equal amount of energy back in the opposite direction. The body/brain can then choose to harness this batch of reactive energy and muscularly redirect it via what is known as a human kinetic chain. This energy is ideally channelled via the body's ability to create speed and power by TRANSFERRING or conserving momentum from large base segments to smaller extrmities. The whole process is due to the law of conservation of energy and MUSCULAR stretch-shorten cycle. In your example you are only agreeing with me. You definitely can't swing the club down until you push into the ground. But you don't have to swing. You can just let the undestroyable groudforce energy flow out of your body. You don't have to TRANSFER that momentum via your muscles. So you can physically exert a force into the ground in order to faciltate a downswing but after you do that you can AVOID that energy. You can even stop or derail your downswing once it has started by pushing into the ground again PRIOR to the derailment. In that case you have OVERPOWERED the original ground reaction force.
Your brain has to decide to do something with RESULTANT groundforce energy and it does so by innervating muscle activity AFTER you have used a PREVIOUS muscle force to give you that opportunity. Its all confusing and most people say semantics makes the argument moot. I am not wrong. You can not start your downswing without muscularly causing a ground force reaction but this RESULTANT force cannot cause the direct muscular force required to harness and redirect that very same resultant force. The RESULTANT REACTIVE ground force does not swing the club down for you. Your muscles can only do that with a DIRECT FORCE. You will NEVER convince me otherwise and I'm not trying to be polite.
Burner, perhaps I should have said that the downswing is "predated" by 1) the body (primarily the legs) exerting pressure and weight into the earth under hopefully stable feet, and 2) the resultant reaction force of the earth pushing an equal amount of energy back in the opposite direction. The body/brain can then choose to harness this batch of reactive energy and muscularly redirect it via what is known as a human kinetic chain. This energy is ideally channelled via the body's ability to create speed and power by TRANSFERRING or conserving momentum from large base segments to smaller extrmities. The whole process is due to the law of conservation of energy and MUSCULAR stretch-shorten cycle. In your example you are only agreeing with me. You definitely can't swing the club down until you push into the ground. But you don't have to swing. You can just let the undestroyable groudforce energy flow out of your body. You don't have to TRANSFER that momentum via your muscles. So you can physically exert a force into the ground in order to faciltate a downswing but after you do that you can AVOID that energy. You can even stop or derail your downswing once it has started by pushing into the ground again PRIOR to the derailment. In that case you have OVERPOWERED the original ground reaction force.
Your brain has to decide to do something with RESULTANT groundforce energy and it does so by innervating muscle activity AFTER you have used a PREVIOUS muscle force to give you that opportunity. Its all confusing and most people say semantics makes the argument moot. I am not wrong. You can not start your downswing without muscularly causing a ground force reaction but this RESULTANT force cannot cause the direct muscular force required to harness and redirect that very same resultant force. The RESULTANT REACTIVE ground force does not swing the club down for you. Your muscles can only do that with a DIRECT FORCE. You will NEVER convince me otherwise and I'm not trying to be polite.
Thank you.
Interesting comments about groundforce....after practicing what Tomasello taught me....the two areas that get worked out the most are the right forearm and my feet. Both tend to be sore and the muscles in the right forearm feel slightly tight consistent with a good workout. The interesting thing is I have no back pain or tightness at ALL.
Hybrid Mode
