Mid Body vs. Impact hands Address
Brian:
Can you please clear up for me the advantages of the Lagging Club Take away with mid body hands? Since my goal on the backswing is to load the clubhead this particular takeaway seems that it prohibits loading the club. Could you explain further since I have always heard that your hands should be mid body for all clubs and this mid body position helps load the club?
First of all, let me go on record as saying that you DO NOT HAVE TO have
a "Lagging Clubhead Takeaway" with mid-body hands.
Here is just a short list—off the top of my head of advantages of "Mid-Body" Hands at Address:
1. Hands are centered in the body, between the hips at address. When the hips are more forward at impact, the hands are in a very similar relationship to the hips—centered.
2. Much easier to have shoulders, chest, and hips square to the stance.
3. Right forearm and clubshaft point to a very similar location, making any direction of the "Power Package" (hands-arms-club unit) easier to do effectively.
3. Makes stressing the shaft easier to do because the effective weight of the clubhead is behind (or even with) the hands at start-up. A stressed shaft at start-up encourages the core to be engaged early in the swing, and sets the club up to act in a "rope-like" fashion, something it does in EVERY decent downswing.
4. Makes FULLY LOADING the shaft, the left wrist, the right arm, the left arm, etc. all easier when the change-of-direction occurs because of the greater distance the weight of the clubhead must travel during start down.
5. More "Natural" because of similarities with baseball swing, fishing casting, small ball throwing, etc.
...I could go on, but....
6. More golfers in the Hall-of-Fame who do this.
7. Even though a whole generation (70's) used forward hands, after 5000 years of mid-body hands, most PGA Tour stars use mid-body hands, including Eldrick.
