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As I write this
I am reminded of a commercial on the golf channel; the young
son at the dinner table is playing race-car through his
mashed potatoes with his fork. Finally dad cannot bite his
tongue any longer, and blurts out `son, how many times have
I told you; ACCELERATE through the turns!’
More distance in golf is patiently waiting for you to learn
how to apply mother natures laws, to the design of your golf
club. One law governing distance is acceleration. Defined by
Britannica as rate of change of velocity, one of the
elements is on a curved path, the acceleration can never be
zero.
What this means to a golfer is similar to what it means to
the cowboy snapping the whip; when a straight line or path
becomes a circle, IT SPEEDS UP. Furthermore, the laws
governing centripetal acceleration state that the force on
the object is directed toward the center of the circle.
Putting this together in simple terms, when a straight line
suddenly becomes a circle, tremendous acceleration occurs.
And that acceleration force is directed toward the center.
So how do I put this information into a drive on the first
tee of my weekly match with the girls? In other words, what
does it FEEL like?
The answer is: the arms DROP, then the hips POP. The
dropping arms are the straight line. The popping hips (and
including the whole torso), are the circle. The force goes
to the inside (torso), and the acceleration to the club. The
ball compresses, and goes a mile.
How do I do it? The first step is to create a good coil,
getting the body essentially out of the way, to allow the
space for the arms to free fall. My first coach, Bill
Strausbaugh used to call it `burying the right shoulder’
(right- hand golfers). If the body invades the space that
the arms should occupy coming down, then the straight line
is disrupted and the circle starts too soon. When this
happens, the circle is too far from the center, thus the
acceleration is less. (A ball spinning on a string will
accelerate more if you pull the string to make the circle
smaller).
And if this doesn’t work, just look at the inside piece of
the ball and rip it!
This article is directed toward 2-plane golfers. A one-plane
golfer will have less drop and more turn. If you do not know
which you are, visit a competent PGA or CPGA teaching
professional.
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