How good are you?

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wally888

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I have recently started exchanging emails with a knowledable member of this forum.
Since I first started reading TGM and visiting the websites, trying to grasp what is written, I always have one thought:
Why hasn't someone written an introduction to The Star System of G.O.L.F that would encourage those being exposed for the first time to be turned on rather than off?
During those exchanges I posed the following scenario. (Wonder if other readers/posters would care to offer their suggestions here?)

Assuming TGM has all the answers, you are faced with the following scenario:
You are standing in front of 8 golfers, all having played for some time, possessing handicaps of 15 or less, some single digits. Five are amateurs, two are new PGA assistants and one is a class A, PGA Pro. None are familar with TGM.

Your goal is to introduce them to TGM, convince all of the correctness of TGM , or at least increase their curiosity enough to cause them to persue study of the Book. Limit your presentation to no more than 2 hours???


Following is my answer to the question! Bear in mind, I am a TGM novice, don't mind being corrected, just trying to learn. (Flamers/smart alexs can kis my axx in advance!)

If I had a complete understanding of what is presented in TGM and was presented the scenario I presented to you I would explain to my audience :
TGM is not a "do it my way" book ( as almost all golf instruction books are), but an explanation using geometry and physics.
Within TGM there are 3 Imperatives (show each) and 3 Essentials(demonstrate).
I would then cover/show the Zones, the Pressure Points and the Accumulators.
Following that I would mention Hitting and Swinging and demonstrate.
Then I would discuss the summary of Chapter 10.
Time permitting I would discuss/demonstrate the "Magic of the Right Forearm/Hand", why neutral grips vary per individual, posture, ball position, address.....................
When H.K. wrote TGM there were already many golf instructions books(VCR's?) on the market. Today all is overpowering, everyone w/ PGA behind their name claiming to have the secret, buy my.....................and everyone offering useless tips, when incorporated into an already bad swing w/ many compensations, just increases one's mental anxiety/frustration.
 
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mb6606

New
Teach them the 3 Imperatives
The hardest part of the golf swing IMHO is the Flat left wrist. If you can accomplish that the rest is easy.
 
E

EdZ

New
A pretty solid outline for such a hypothetical. Personally, I would use the EdZ drills to demonstrate visually what you have laid out in the outline, and move the right forearm up near the top of the list - right after the Imperatives and Essentials. Balance, balance, balance, lag, lag, lag, down, down, down. I would also add that I personally would stress an understanding of the right ELBOW - as a way of summing it all up. Elbows pointing down and remain the same distance apart, the right forearm pivoting around the tip of the elbow and the right elbow staying on its plane back and through. As far as feels, a figure 8 strap, a swing fan, and a tac tic (while there is zero argument that this is useful, I personally do not consider it a requirement to stay flat during the entire motion, and Hogan would agree - no doubt this is a more advanced position not for new players). I would also use a swing jacket to show the elbow pivot point feel and fanning motion, but not for hitting balls. Add a broom, and a mop as well - hard to beat them as training aids, right up there with the strap.

And to sum it up, the EdZ drills (wedges) and - support the on plane swinging force in balance
 
B

Brian Manzella

Administrator
The Story of The Golfing Machine


In 1941, avid golfer Homer Kelley had a problem. He was playing very good golf, shooting in the seventies, in his very first year playing the game. Golf is supposed to be more difficult than this, he was told, so he wanted to know why he was playing so well. He talked to several golf pros that taught the game, but none could give him satisfactory answers. Being a scientist at work and at heart he knew that there had to be answers. So the engineering aide from Seattle, Washington began what he figured to be a one week project mapping out the "science" of the golf swing.


Twenty-eight years later he finished his project. A wonderfully complete study of why the ball goes where it goes, how the club moves to make it fly long and straight or short and crooked, and what the human body must do to get the club to move in these manners.


This study was published in a book, and has been updated five times since. It has long been acknowledged as THE most complete study on the way the golf swing actually works. It has ALL of the answers within its 241 pages. Every golf professional who has searched high and low to uncover or discover the mysteries of the swing and found the ANSWERS, has all wound up in the same place---this little yellow book.


The book separates fact from fiction and science from opinion. It explains, by using physics and geometry, exactly what is going on at impact and during the rest of the stroke. It breaks down the golf swing into its samenesses and differences. The samenessses occur in every stroke and are explained in fine detail erasing all mystery to the questions of power production and ball flight.
The differences are the variations of the 24 actions of the golf stroke that CAN BE DONE IN MORE THAN ONE WAY. From these twenty-four components and their variations, it is shown how countless effective golf "swings" can be executed to produce ideal ball flight. A trained instructor can use these variations to custom fit a player with a "stroke pattern" that gives them their best chance to execute what the book defines as the three imperatives to good ball striking and what Kelley calls the "secret" of golf---sustaining the line of compression. He defines sustaining the line of compression as keeping the original impact points of the clubface and the ball in contact with each other for the 3/4ths of an inch that it takes for the ball to spring off the clubface after impact.


It is this principle on which the system that the book supports is created around.
This system, The Star System of G.O.L.F. (G.O.L.F. is an acronym for Geometrically Oriented Linear Force) is a synergy of two processes. These processes consist of an "engineering system" and a "feel" system. The engineering system isolates and coordinates the mechanics of the stroke pattern. The feel system translates them into a describable sensation---describable to, and by, the individual player. The result of this interaction is the slogan of The Golfing Machine---"Let Mechanics produce and Feel reproduce".


The book was presented to the PGA of America, the organization that trains the vast majority of club professionals and teaching professionals in the U.S.A., in 1973. It was rejected as the official teaching manual of the PGA because it was considered to be "over the heads" of the PGA members and the golfing public. The PGA then crafted a "simplified" swing and teaching model based on the book that was incomplete and misleading. When this "simplification" was finally updated into a book (The PGA Teaching Manual) it contained 600-plus pages with less information about how the swing works then the 241-page GOLFING MACHINE.


Despite the over 25 years the book has been on the market, and over 50,000 books sold, most golfers have never heard of it. A significant percentage of the golf pros and amateurs who have heard of it ridicule it despite often never having read the book. There are numerous reasons for these opinions.


It is not a how to book. The book is complex due to its complete coverage of the subject. Because Kelley tried to keep the book's size to a minimum, so that it could easily be carried around, there is very little explanations of the explantations. An additional reason for the "heavy read" is it was written by a genius engineer, not an English professor or novelist. Because previously unknown elements of the swing were uncovered during the research, new terminology had to be adapted to classify these elements.


Perhaps the number one reason the book has remained an enigma is that most golf pros are severely undertrained as teachers. Nearly all instruction manuals are written from the experience of the author and this often leads to a "simplicity by omission" that has lead pros to not question old empirical axioms. Any thing, book, or person who is a threat to the assumption by the golfing public that "the pro knows it all," will be most certainly denounced by some in any way possible.


So how can the average player, above average player, or beginner learn from Homer Kelley's brilliant work besides, or in addition to, buying the book and reading it?


Mr. Kelley, who passed away in 1983 while giving a seminar on his work for the PGA of America, in his wisdom, set up a program to authorize instructors to teach utilizing his system.


There are over 150 Authorized Instructors of this system worldwide. Authorized Instructors have won every kind of teaching award there is including National PGA Teacher of The Year (twice). Their students have won every conceivable title in golf. But most would tell you that they are most proud of their former 100+ shooters who now score in the 70's and one time powder-puff hitters who now win long drive contests.


There are dozens of other instructors who teach the system, some very prominent, who have not been authorized, but use the information in their teaching as gospel.


The first professional Homer Kelley authorized was a golf pro with a gift for imaginative thinking. He has utilized this imagination to further develop the practical application of teaching The Golfing machine. His name is Ben Doyle, and he instructs both players and teachers on his lesson tee at Quail Lodge Resort in Carmel, California. Hundreds of teachers have copied many of Mr. Doyle's teaching methods either directly from him or from one of his teaching or playing professional students.


The Golfing Machine organization was run by Homer Kelley's widow, Sally, in Seattle, Washington, since Homer's passing. Today the organazation is run by a small group of Authorized Instructors who plan to preserve Mr. Kelley legacy as well as publish a new edition of the book which includes notes that Homer was to include in his next update.


By Brian Manzella, PGA, G.S.E.M.
 
W

wally888

New
quote:Originally posted by brianman

The Story of The Golfing Machine


In 1941, avid golfer Homer Kelley had a problem. He was playing very good golf, shooting in the seventies, in his very first year playing the game. Golf is supposed to be more difficult than this, he was told, so he wanted to know why he was playing so well. He talked to several golf pros that taught the game, but none could give him satisfactory answers. Being a scientist at work and at heart he knew that there had to be answers. So the engineering aide from Seattle, Washington began what he figured to be a one week project mapping out the "science" of the golf swing.


Twenty-eight years later he finished his project. A wonderfully complete study of why the ball goes where it goes, how the club moves to make it fly long and straight or short and crooked, and what the human body must do to get the club to move in these manners.


This study was published in a book, and has been updated five times since. It has long been acknowledged as THE most complete study on the way the golf swing actually works. It has ALL of the answers within its 241 pages. Every golf professional who has searched high and low to uncover or discover the mysteries of the swing and found the ANSWERS, has all wound up in the same place---this little yellow book.


The book separates fact from fiction and science from opinion. It explains, by using physics and geometry, exactly what is going on at impact and during the rest of the stroke. It breaks down the golf swing into its samenesses and differences. The samenessses occur in every stroke and are explained in fine detail erasing all mystery to the questions of power production and ball flight.
The differences are the variations of the 24 actions of the golf stroke that CAN BE DONE IN MORE THAN ONE WAY. From these twenty-four components and their variations, it is shown how countless effective golf "swings" can be executed to produce ideal ball flight. A trained instructor can use these variations to custom fit a player with a "stroke pattern" that gives them their best chance to execute what the book defines as the three imperatives to good ball striking and what Kelley calls the "secret" of golf---sustaining the line of compression. He defines sustaining the line of compression as keeping the original impact points of the clubface and the ball in contact with each other for the 3/4ths of an inch that it takes for the ball to spring off the clubface after impact.


It is this principle on which the system that the book supports is created around.
This system, The Star System of G.O.L.F. (G.O.L.F. is an acronym for Geometrically Oriented Linear Force) is a synergy of two processes. These processes consist of an "engineering system" and a "feel" system. The engineering system isolates and coordinates the mechanics of the stroke pattern. The feel system translates them into a describable sensation---describable to, and by, the individual player. The result of this interaction is the slogan of The Golfing Machine---"Let Mechanics produce and Feel reproduce".


The book was presented to the PGA of America, the organization that trains the vast majority of club professionals and teaching professionals in the U.S.A., in 1973. It was rejected as the official teaching manual of the PGA because it was considered to be "over the heads" of the PGA members and the golfing public. The PGA then crafted a "simplified" swing and teaching model based on the book that was incomplete and misleading. When this "simplification" was finally updated into a book (The PGA Teaching Manual) it contained 600-plus pages with less information about how the swing works then the 241-page GOLFING MACHINE.


Despite the over 25 years the book has been on the market, and over 50,000 books sold, most golfers have never heard of it. A significant percentage of the golf pros and amateurs who have heard of it ridicule it despite often never having read the book. There are numerous reasons for these opinions.


It is not a how to book. The book is complex due to its complete coverage of the subject. Because Kelley tried to keep the book's size to a minimum, so that it could easily be carried around, there is very little explanations of the explantations. An additional reason for the "heavy read" is it was written by a genius engineer, not an English professor or novelist. Because previously unknown elements of the swing were uncovered during the research, new terminology had to be adapted to classify these elements.


Perhaps the number one reason the book has remained an enigma is that most golf pros are severely undertrained as teachers. Nearly all instruction manuals are written from the experience of the author and this often leads to a "simplicity by omission" that has lead pros to not question old empirical axioms. Any thing, book, or person who is a threat to the assumption by the golfing public that "the pro knows it all," will be most certainly denounced by some in any way possible.


So how can the average player, above average player, or beginner learn from Homer Kelley's brilliant work besides, or in addition to, buying the book and reading it?


Mr. Kelley, who passed away in 1983 while giving a seminar on his work for the PGA of America, in his wisdom, set up a program to authorize instructors to teach utilizing his system.


There are over 150 Authorized Instructors of this system worldwide. Authorized Instructors have won every kind of teaching award there is including National PGA Teacher of The Year (twice). Their students have won every conceivable title in golf. But most would tell you that they are most proud of their former 100+ shooters who now score in the 70's and one time powder-puff hitters who now win long drive contests.


There are dozens of other instructors who teach the system, some very prominent, who have not been authorized, but use the information in their teaching as gospel.


The first professional Homer Kelley authorized was a golf pro with a gift for imaginative thinking. He has utilized this imagination to further develop the practical application of teaching The Golfing machine. His name is Ben Doyle, and he instructs both players and teachers on his lesson tee at Quail Lodge Resort in Carmel, California. Hundreds of teachers have copied many of Mr. Doyle's teaching methods either directly from him or from one of his teaching or playing professional students.


The Golfing Machine organization was run by Homer Kelley's widow, Sally, in Seattle, Washington, since Homer's passing. Today the organazation is run by a small group of Authorized Instructors who plan to preserve Mr. Kelley legacy as well as publish a new edition of the book which includes notes that Homer was to include in his next update.


By Brian Manzella, PGA, G.S.E.M.
Click to expand...

I knew that!
 
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