[Jeff]

Yoda - thank you for very much for giving me a place in your forum where I can ask probing questions, debate the validity of certain TGM concepts etc. It is very gracious of you. There is zero chance that certain others would do this, because it requires a great deal of confidence for a TGM golf instructor to allow certain TGM beliefs to be deeply explored and even challenged.

I will definitely adhere to the guideline of decorous behaviour and I would not think of insulting another forum member who has contrary opinions. I like contrary opinions because it forces me to rethink my own position, and I often change my thinking in response to insightful posts that are contrary to my own thinking.

I also will not expect you to participate in the forum and I will therefore not address my posts to you. Of course, you can post freely if you are interested and you want to selectively make a point.

My interest in participating in this forum is to learn more about TGM and about golf mechanics and biomechanics in general, and any LBG forum member should freely participate if they are interested.

------------------------------------------

Regarding the clubhead kick situation. This represents my understanding at present.

Consider this composite photo.



Note that Jamie's clubhead is sagging at the end-backswing position. If one looks at his early dowswing, one will see that the clubshaft bends backwards. I believe that this is due to clubhead inertia. Long drive competitors, like Jamie, pull the grip end of the club forward with tremendous force and the COG of the club is near the clubhead. Therefore, the clubhead lags behind in the early downswing due to its inherent inertia, and that causes the clubshaft to bend backwards. Theoretically, in a double pendulum swing system the peripheral arm is rigid and cannot flex. However, despite the golf manufacturers making their lightweight shafts extra-stiff for long-drive competitors, they cannot make them so stiff that the shafts cannot flex/bend at all.

In the final image, I have drawn a yellow line indicating where the clubshaft should be if it were ultra-rigid and incapable of flexing. I base the position of the yellow line on the direction of the central clubshaft, which has a very small amount of forward shaft lean at impact. Note that the clubhead has kicked forwards, which causes the clubface to have a slightly greater amount of loft at impact (layback situation) because the ball is positioned slightly forwards of the standard position (which is usually behind the low point).

Why does the peripheral end of the clubshaft bend forward? This represents my explanation.

I think that Jamie is a swinger and that he uses PA#4 and then PA#2 and then PA#3 in that sequence. After PA#2 release, the clubhead is traveling at increasing speed towards impact and it probably reaches >160mph when it approaches impact. However, the hands, and therefore central clubshaft slow down just prior to impact, due to COAM and other biomechanical factors.

One can see Tiger's left hand slow down just prior to impact in this photo - giving time for release of PA#3 and squaring of the clubface.



I presume that Jamie's hands, and therefore central clubshaft, also slow down just prior to impact - like Tiger's hands. However, the clubhead is traveling so fast that it cannot slow down and it passes the "expected" clubshaft-line and bends the peripheral end of the clubshaft. In other words, it has kicked forwards. When the clubhead kicks forwards, the clubface loft (which could be around 5 degrees) becomes greater (? 9-10 degrees) which allows for an optimum ball flight trajectory. I suspect that Jamie anticipates this clubshaft bending phenomenon, and he therefore places the ball in the optimum position for optimum ball launch conditions.

There are those that argue that Jamie is actually hitting up on the ball. I don't think that its possible for two reasons. First of all, one can see that his central clubshaft near the hands has forward shaft lean, which is consistent with a descending clubshaft path. Secondly, it would make no sense for him to change his downswing thrust direction from down-and-out-and-forwards to going upwards in the later downswing. I believe that Jamie starts his downswing with a thrust towards an aiming point that causes the thrust to be directed down-and-out-and-forwards. That thrust causes release of all the PAs and I suspect that the thrust is maintained until all the PAs have fully released - which is when both arms are straight (end of the followthrough). In other words, the thrust is still directed downwards even when the club has passed the low point of his swing's clubhead arc. So, when one sees the clubhead moving slightly upwards at impact, it doesn't mean that he has changed his thrust direction. It simply means that the clubhead is traveling so fast that it bends the clubshaft forward at its peripheral end as the left hand/central clubshaft slow down just prior to impact.

Regarding the low point of the clubhead arc in long drive competitors who have a lot of secondary axis tilt - is the low point moved forwards? I don't know the answer. If any forum member has access to a slow-mo swing video of Jamie Sadlowski's swing, I would like to examine his clubhead arc to see where his low point is situated.

Here is Tiger Woods' clubhead arc through impact.



One can see that the clubhead arc is very shallow pre-impact, and that the low point appears to be behind the ball, or just at the ball - which is a point opposite his left shoulder socket.

Jeff.