my "ah ha"moment

[Kevin Shields]

You have been quoted as saying the difference between the bad and the good and the good and the great is clubface control, period. Through all my trials it was the one thing that never got better. My plane, pivot, lag, rythym,etc.all got better but i still hit wild shots. I never knew why until i found you and this site. It got me really thinking about why people struggle so much with this game and not other games or activities.
If you look at other hitting instruments like baseball bats, tennis rackets, lacrosse sticks, hammers, croquet, etc., could it be said that the hands, shaft, and sweetspot are all in the same line? Thus, any and all times you put pressure on the shaft of these objects, you are also automatically putting pressure on the sweetspot? So with good hand eye, you would strike with the sweetspot and with good alignment fairly often. Golf clubs and hockey sticks don't have the sweetspot in line with the hands or shaft. But of the two,golf clubs are the ones designed to rotate the COG to line up with the hands, correct? So my question is, could it be said,with all things being equal, that the real secret to good ballstriking is the ABILITY TO DIFFERENTIATE between the feel of the shaft and the feel of the sweetspot on the pressure points? Sorry if this has been covered before.

 

[golfbulldog]

I think you are talking about the ability to recognise the "sweetspot plane".... it took me a long time to believe it was worth thinking about let alone understand....

At time of my initial TGM knowledge i was thinking :-

-You can't see it and nobody in golf ever talked about it....

-Nobody ever drew a line on the screen in any lesson i had to show it...

-And does the hosel really rotate around the sweetspot...???

So i generally ignored it as a concept....

NOW... i get it ...It is a line of force.... invisible to the video camera BUT if you eductae your hands you can feel it... and that is worth more than any video cam line drawer can ever appreciate.... BUT it takes a long time to get your brain to feel and appreciate it IMO.

PS. to all physics gurus - "line of force" may be incorrect , sorry , but it is the way it feels

 

[RickPinewild]

along these lines

Does it make sense that a club with and underslung hosel would be a little easier to feel the sweetspot. Like the older Hogan irons??? I heard that Wishon has a model with an underslung hosel also.

 

[Kevin Shields]

Bulldog, that's exactly what I'm talking about. I'm totally convinced that if i was told that there are two separate planes - one for the shaft, one for the face (sweetspot) - i wouldn't have had the troubles i did. I was one of those players who always hit it solid, and i mean always, but had terrible accuracy. It's time that the sweetspot plane takes front stage over other plane angles. There are so many plane angles in the Hall of Fame but they probably all control the sweetspot plane alike, I'm guessing. The post about plane angle variations was interesting reading,but i think that if you turn the face off the shaft plane in control, you can play on any plane(it more has to do with your build) Thanks for your reply. Brian.....?

 

[hcw]

underslung hosel?

Does it make sense that a club with and underslung hosel would be a little easier to feel the sweetspot. Like the older Hogan irons??? I heard that Wishon has a model with an underslung hosel also.

rick,
could you define/describe "underslung hosel"?...tia!

-hcw

 

[golfbulldog]

Bulldog, that's exactly what I'm talking about. I'm totally convinced that if i was told that there are two separate planes - one for the shaft, one for the face (sweetspot) - i wouldn't have had the troubles i did. I was one of those players who always hit it solid, and i mean always, but had terrible accuracy. It's time that the sweetspot plane takes front stage over other plane angles. There are so many plane angles in the Hall of Fame but they probably all control the sweetspot plane alike, I'm guessing. The post about plane angle variations was interesting reading,but i think that if you turn the face off the shaft plane in control, you can play on any plane(it more has to do with your build) Thanks for your reply. Brian.....?

Yes - Brians post describing / itemising the plane angle variations actually refer to where the sweetspot plane is at that time... its just that because it is difficult to see - the shaft plane concept is invariably drawn by most instructors not versed in TGM.

The interesting thing is that if you turn the club on the backswing so that the shaft plane and sweetspot plane are the same ( from down the line) then you have to understand what happens on the downswing when the clubhead is released and sweetspot moves onto a seperate plane angle from the shaft.... either "understand" or "feel" what happens...i think preferably both...

 

[Kevin Shields]

What, if anything, should be considered when taking into account shaft droop? Doesn't that cause an in-line relationship with the shaft and sweetspot, forcing the angle of the shaft at impact to be higher than at address? At address the hands are in line with the base of the shaft plane line, but shaft droop causes them to be in line with the ball at impact. No wonder those who have trouble turning the face off the shaft plane in the downswing either shank or slice.