First of all, I'd like to thank Brian for his generosity and to start this thread.
Secondly, as said I can offer only the truth - yes, I am a big fan of biomechanics as the science that proved to be so important in many sport areas. However, I am not a biomechanics expert but an amateur theorist; my researches refer only to hard structure of human organism (bones and joints) plus some basic area of Newtonian physics. I am not able to research muscular/ligamental level (not mentioning neuron level) because I lack medical education and possibilities to run professional researches.
Thirdly, I am not afraid of sharp minds; in fact, I would love to be corrected in every area I am mistaken because it would mean I am cinstantly learning. Also in English that is not my native language, so please forgive my lingo mistakes.
Lastly, I am not a great player (in fact I am a weekend hacker who started to fulfill Mr.Hogan's dream of playing high 70-ies/low 80-ies I believe thanks to my researches aimed at automating the motion); I am not an instructor as well, therefore, my "mission" is not to prove someone is right or wrong in microscale; I work in macroscale which means that there is no zillion equally good ways to act but there are simply better and worse ways of acting for 2-legged and 2-armed creatures living in exactly the same physical 4-D reality.IMHO, there are several basis concepts (rules) that help to reach this goal such as e.g.: building and releasing energy from the ground up, subduing the motion of distal parts to the motion of the main body; swinging at a perpendicular plane to the core, leading the motion with that body side that corresponds to the direction of the motion, etc.
Now, the EEP (early elbow plane) is not the goal per se. It's just a logical result of benefitting from the above mentioned rule of swinging perpendicularily to the spine (core) with arms and club. Human joints are "constructed" the way they can move only in certain directions and planes. E.g. elbow joints, unfortunately, cannot bend back which makes it impossible to tie both forearms in one unit (assuming the humeruses cannot because of the distance between shoulder joints). That's why in order to follow the rule of swing perpendicularily to the core either we would need to swing with both arms extended (like Moe Norman) or to have only a part of the arm (forearm) that is square tho the spine (like all great EP golfers, Hogan, Trevino, Snead, Knudsen, Furyk). Please note here that all names cited in the above sentences are the best ballstrikers that ever lived - thus, we can presume that the rule is something as a common denominator for great ballstriking and consistent and repeatable results. If we assume now that it depends certainly on talent and hard work, but first of all on eliminating the impact of timing issues, no doubt following this rule (as well as other biophysical macroscale rules) would make a life of an average weekend hacker much easier.All biomechanical theories (these professional as well as these amateur like mine) never will replace true instruction, they rather should be just servants for instruction.
Lastly, the grip that Spktho mentioned (I call it the Biokinetical Grip) is another product of a great theoretical thinking and understanding how the hard stucture works (in this case: wrists joints). Kevin Shields told me recently that he used the idea for ages in his instructions. Ben Hogan used a version of this grip on his way to be the best ballstriker that ever lived after 1946. Yet noone really though ages looked at this phenomenon through the glasses of biophysicist, instead, everyone blindly following parallel V's theory without looking how e.g. wrists, palms and fingers are being "built" and what function they have while gripping the club.
OK, enough for the first post. We can discuss every single detail. Please ask and criticize as much as one wants. I'll answer as well as I can and if I lack arguments to support my ideas - I'll be the first to admit it. Thank you.
Cheers
P.S. I am leaving for a short holidays tomorrow with my family and will be without access to the net, therefore I won't be able to post starting tomorrow till Friday's evening.