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Date Posted: 11:32:00 03/11/07 Sun
Author: Bart O'Shea (Bart O'Shea)
Subject: Two different swings

Mr. Lake,
I am using the material from Jim Hardy to try and improve my play. I have found substantial improvement in my ball striking, at an indoor dome over the winter, with his one plane method and my recent 1iron clubs.
He defines in his material that there are two fundamentally different ideal swings. A one plane swing is similar to Hogan and Snead in that the arms are swung around the body and the defining characteristic is that at the top of the backswing the forward arm is approximately at or below the line of the shoulders, so that the arm and shoulders are on one plane This swing is very similar to a baseball swing lowered to the ground by bending at the waist.
The two plane swing is defined by a more vertical movement of the arms as the body turns and the defining characteristic is that the forward arm is above the line of the shoulders at the top of the backswing, creating two planes from a down the line view. Tom Watson and Colin Montgomerie swing in this manner.
Do you recall from your development or continuing research if the ideal swing you use as the model for the 1iron clubs is more prominently along one line or the other. From a playing standpoint I can't see it making a large difference with the lie angle as the hands have to be within a certain area, in relation to the body, to strike the ball with either swing.
I have about a month before I am playing or practicing consistently. When I am doing so I will do a lie board test with my 1irons with as good of a one plane swing that I can create and let you know the results.
Bart

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Replies:

[> Re: Two different swings -- David Lake, 14:52:53 03/12/07 Mon

Bart,

You hit upon the key when you stated:

"From a playing standpoint I can't see it making a large difference with the lie angle as the hands have to be within a certain area, in relation to the body, to strike the ball with either swing".

Simply put, it is not important how you get to the ideal impact position as long as you end up in the ideal impact position. To give a perfect example, Jim Furyk has the most unorthodox swing in golf yet at impact he is in the exact same position as Tiger Woods, Fred Couples, etc., and is the reason that he plays well on tour.

Obviously the rest of us who do not have the "off-the-chart" neuro-muscular response time and hand/eye coordination of a professional golfer (that is why they are professional golfers), need to develop the ideal swing posture and swing plane in order to get to the ideal impact position. This is the design/fitting philosophy of our 1 Irons, to force the golfer into these ideal positions.

As far as dynamically testing a golf club using a lie angle board, you must realize that it produces false information. The idea behind the use of a lie angle board is to hit golf balls off of a colored board which will leave a mark on the sole of the clubhead. Depending on the positioning of this mark in relation to the toe and heel of the clubhead you can supposedly determine the correctness of the clubhead lie angle. The problem is that due to centrifugal force created in a golf swing the golf shaft bends downward through the impact zone and through impact with the ball, thus resulting in an effective/dynamic lie angle at impact that is different than the static lie angle. This dynamic lie angle is the one that determines how well the ball is struck and is the intended effective lie angle of the golf club designer. If the ball is being hit off of a lie angle board (hard surface), the shaft will straighten out and even bend upwards upon contact with the board thus resulting in a widely miss-positioned impact mark on the sole of the clubhead. Obviously, what we want to know is where the clubhead sole mark would appear at the point of impact with the ball, not where it actually appears after the ball is gone and the shaft has been bent upwards by the force of contact with the lie angle board. Therefore, any information produced by a dynamic lie angle board test must be considered flawed at best.

David

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