I am hoping for more input on the release physics in hitters and swingers.
HK writes about the endless pulley effect whereby the clubhead speeds up when the hands are moving around the pulley. He also talks about COAM and how increasing speed of the club during the release phenomenon causes the hands to slow - unless something (another force) maintains hand speed.
Here is a graph from an article by Philip Cheetham on the transition phase of the golf swing (article found on the TPI site).
Note that arm (therefore hand) speed peaks when the hands get to waist level (roughly at the delivery position) and that arm/hand speed decreases dramatically after that period. Do you believe that the decrease in hand speed is due to COAM, and that it occurs automatically in swingers during the release phase of the downswing? Note that clubhead speed maximises at impact. I got the impression from HK's book that clubhead speed is maximum as soon as release occurs and that an additional force is necessary to maintain clubhead speed in the later release period (near-impact period). Have I misunderstood HK?
Do the hands also slow down (like this graph depicts) in hitters, or do hitters have to maintain a fast hand speed all the way to impact? If a hitter's hand speed decreases in the late downswing (as depicted in this graph), what force sustains clubhead speed (considering that centrifugal forces and the COAM phenomenon are apparently not operant in a hitting action, which is equivalent to a radial force applied to an axe-handle)?
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