Downswing Comparision

[ekennedy]

Seeing all of those beautiful, classic swings yesterday got me thinking...

All things begin equal, if Larry Nelson, Jim Furyk, Jerry Kelly and Matt Kuchar are hitting balls on Trackman and all four "zero out" a perfect five iron, at which point in each of their respective downswings would the club intersect and be in nearly the same position?

Is it at impact? A few inches short of impact? Last parallel? The reason I ask is that if players from different generations and different ideologies all get to impact to create the necessary D-Plane for a perfect shot, then where can we point to as teachers (using 2D or 3D technology) to say that this position is "ideal?" The Holy Grail of Perfect Shots.

It may be a position that is too close to impact to ever consciously practice, but it would be nice to know that every great player (yes, I'm calling Jerry Kelly a great player) gets to a similar position in a roundabout way.

But...maybe some players get there with much less effort. Not more consistently. If I've learned anything, its that anything is repeatable.

Conversely, at what point in the downswing is "the point of no return" where you can't make a fabulous recovery because there is simply not enough time?

Thoughts?

 

[Bigwill]

As far as the point of no return is concerned, I can't see it being any later than startdown. That might even be generous.

I don't know enough to answer the first question definitively. But my guess would be somewhere between the last parallel and impact, closer to impact.

 

[ekennedy]

Thanks, I thought it was a legitimate question.

I have more...

 

[dbl]

If you imagine a zeroed out impact achieved by

- perfectly timed flip
- strong grip and lots of body rotation
- weak grip and lots of roll

I would think that from the delivery position to the "zero" impact all would be considerably different. So I vote for the the last 2 degrees of shaft movement before impact as those swings being similar.