Perfect Impact
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I have Windows Media Player but it won't open to play the BM audio. WHen I click the download bar, it tries to download Quicktime, which is already installed. The audio simply won't play.
Whatever, I'll add my two cents about what Mike is doing, and to do that I need to make the point that his philosophy of swing was that he obeyed a mental imagery of the action! His intentions have more to do with understanding what he does than a report of what you see. Form follows function, so what is visible is a result of how he understood his anatomy and leverage.
His goal for the top of the backswing was to be fully loaded on plane. By this there are a few things needed: pro-supination of the arms to place the back of the left wrist parallel to the target line; full wrist bend, full wrist cock, full lower body (hip) slide to the right to place the bottom of the spine onto the top of the right femur--the spine is the center of the pendulum of lower body swinging on plane with the arms. IOW, since the hands reach a point about 5 1/2 to 6 feet ABOVE THE GROUND on a slanted plane relative to the ball, and since the hands will return to a point about 3 feet UNDER that topmost point, the torso pivots like a slightly slanted Ferris wheel, not a merry-go-round, to deliver force to the arms from the legs. What we call the slide to the right in the backswing loads the pivot! The additional turn of the hips after the end of travel of the sideways motion of the spine TO the top of the right femur is additional loadup, but it is not for the purpose of adding torsion or elasticity; it adds amplitude or range of motion; so does the additional flexibility of the two shoulders -- what is called adduction and abduction (which you feel when you hunch your shoulders) --permitting a larger backswing without introducing stress up there.
So the fully loaded backswing is a total of arms rolled, hips slid to the right and then turned, arms loaded to their topmost reach FROM the pivot and shoulder flexions; and the hands / wrists fully loaded with fold AND wristcock.
From there, Mike's mental image was to hammer the back of the ball. He never mentioned aft quadrant: I think his visualization had no need for that perspective because he saw in his mind's eye how his path to the ball for the clubhead was mostly vertical, with the object of throwing the clubhead down, under, and up. In describing "hammering" he noted that the clubhead had to move twice as far as his hands (180 degrees vs. 90 degrees) from wasit high hands to impact, so for that to occur, he threw the club head FROM THE TOP so it would arrive at impact simultaneously with the hands. Because of the time lag between intention and its effect becoming visible, there was no early waste of the loaded hands: at waist high the full 90 degree angle between left forearm and shaft is still in tact. BUT because of the speed of his PIVOT there had to be force to uncock the hands applied early--his throw is a karate chop of the base of both hands starting immediately from the top.
He neither dragged the butt end of the shaft nor shoved the clubhead early inTO the ball: he threw it: he HAMMERED it into the ball--and his timing was accomplished exactly the same and with the ease achieved even by children hammering nails, so that the handle and clubhead did arrive at the same time: a key point of timing (impact bag drills reveal our innate ability FOR perfect timing).
The force supplied to the arms and hands originated in the legs giving motion to the hips, causing them to pendulum swing under the vertical center of rotation under his chin at the base of his neck. To increase his force to the ball he would increase the speed of that pivot. It is called compound because after the backswing slide to the right, the hips turned to complete the loadup; in the downswing, after their slide to the left and placement of the base of his spine onto the LEFT femur, he completed the action of hips allowing them to turn and the shoulders also to follow. You can see in the clips just above this post how far his left hip has moved towards the target allowing his shoulders to remain square to the target line--his hips bring his hands to impact, and they remain "in front of his body." He does not use hip turn for his force, although his feet close together and left toe open are mandatory for allowing this kind of leg action: it is impossible with feet shoulder width apart.
DURING THE IMPACT INTERVAL the FOLDed hands unfold freely AND they continue their rolling--and you can see clearly where the crossover first appears in the 9th frame. In freeze frame high speed photography the unfolded left wrist and backward (dorsal) flexion of that hand is evident prior to the rollover -- a feature he referred to as an unimpeded pendulum.
While STANDING in a position such as in frames 8, 9, and 10 is impossible for many, PASSING THROUGH them in a dynamic movement is not: it is similar to those frozen pics we see of a fastball pitch where the motion is caught shortly after the pitcher's transition and it appears his right shoulder is broken because of the amount of lag between lower body and right hand: but while the man cannot place his hand back into that position relative to the body like that statically, he can "pass through it" in the act of throwing...
A feature of Mike's approach was that there was no sequence to his motion: his entire swing mechanism moved simultaneously: hips, arms, hands, etc.: nothing got dragged or pulled: all moved in transition at the same instant.
In retrospect, this is three cents worth, not two. Inflation.
Whatever, I'll add my two cents about what Mike is doing, and to do that I need to make the point that his philosophy of swing was that he obeyed a mental imagery of the action! His intentions have more to do with understanding what he does than a report of what you see. Form follows function, so what is visible is a result of how he understood his anatomy and leverage.
His goal for the top of the backswing was to be fully loaded on plane. By this there are a few things needed: pro-supination of the arms to place the back of the left wrist parallel to the target line; full wrist bend, full wrist cock, full lower body (hip) slide to the right to place the bottom of the spine onto the top of the right femur--the spine is the center of the pendulum of lower body swinging on plane with the arms. IOW, since the hands reach a point about 5 1/2 to 6 feet ABOVE THE GROUND on a slanted plane relative to the ball, and since the hands will return to a point about 3 feet UNDER that topmost point, the torso pivots like a slightly slanted Ferris wheel, not a merry-go-round, to deliver force to the arms from the legs. What we call the slide to the right in the backswing loads the pivot! The additional turn of the hips after the end of travel of the sideways motion of the spine TO the top of the right femur is additional loadup, but it is not for the purpose of adding torsion or elasticity; it adds amplitude or range of motion; so does the additional flexibility of the two shoulders -- what is called adduction and abduction (which you feel when you hunch your shoulders) --permitting a larger backswing without introducing stress up there.
So the fully loaded backswing is a total of arms rolled, hips slid to the right and then turned, arms loaded to their topmost reach FROM the pivot and shoulder flexions; and the hands / wrists fully loaded with fold AND wristcock.
From there, Mike's mental image was to hammer the back of the ball. He never mentioned aft quadrant: I think his visualization had no need for that perspective because he saw in his mind's eye how his path to the ball for the clubhead was mostly vertical, with the object of throwing the clubhead down, under, and up. In describing "hammering" he noted that the clubhead had to move twice as far as his hands (180 degrees vs. 90 degrees) from wasit high hands to impact, so for that to occur, he threw the club head FROM THE TOP so it would arrive at impact simultaneously with the hands. Because of the time lag between intention and its effect becoming visible, there was no early waste of the loaded hands: at waist high the full 90 degree angle between left forearm and shaft is still in tact. BUT because of the speed of his PIVOT there had to be force to uncock the hands applied early--his throw is a karate chop of the base of both hands starting immediately from the top.
He neither dragged the butt end of the shaft nor shoved the clubhead early inTO the ball: he threw it: he HAMMERED it into the ball--and his timing was accomplished exactly the same and with the ease achieved even by children hammering nails, so that the handle and clubhead did arrive at the same time: a key point of timing (impact bag drills reveal our innate ability FOR perfect timing).
The force supplied to the arms and hands originated in the legs giving motion to the hips, causing them to pendulum swing under the vertical center of rotation under his chin at the base of his neck. To increase his force to the ball he would increase the speed of that pivot. It is called compound because after the backswing slide to the right, the hips turned to complete the loadup; in the downswing, after their slide to the left and placement of the base of his spine onto the LEFT femur, he completed the action of hips allowing them to turn and the shoulders also to follow. You can see in the clips just above this post how far his left hip has moved towards the target allowing his shoulders to remain square to the target line--his hips bring his hands to impact, and they remain "in front of his body." He does not use hip turn for his force, although his feet close together and left toe open are mandatory for allowing this kind of leg action: it is impossible with feet shoulder width apart.
DURING THE IMPACT INTERVAL the FOLDed hands unfold freely AND they continue their rolling--and you can see clearly where the crossover first appears in the 9th frame. In freeze frame high speed photography the unfolded left wrist and backward (dorsal) flexion of that hand is evident prior to the rollover -- a feature he referred to as an unimpeded pendulum.
While STANDING in a position such as in frames 8, 9, and 10 is impossible for many, PASSING THROUGH them in a dynamic movement is not: it is similar to those frozen pics we see of a fastball pitch where the motion is caught shortly after the pitcher's transition and it appears his right shoulder is broken because of the amount of lag between lower body and right hand: but while the man cannot place his hand back into that position relative to the body like that statically, he can "pass through it" in the act of throwing...
A feature of Mike's approach was that there was no sequence to his motion: his entire swing mechanism moved simultaneously: hips, arms, hands, etc.: nothing got dragged or pulled: all moved in transition at the same instant.
In retrospect, this is three cents worth, not two. Inflation.
