THERE IS NO WAY TO AUTOMATE THE GOLF SWING.
Dr. Zick says the release is VARIABLE and MUST BE DONE "on purpose."
It is ALL TIMING.
I agree that there is no way to automate the golf swing ENTIRELY. However, every possible human action can be automated to a bigger or smaller degree depending on the complexity of the action.
Automating means limiting the impact of timing - every human activity is happening in our 4-D reality; three of those 4 dimensions are spacial while the last one is conventional (time is a convention). The whole trick is to find the way to diminish the impact of it through mechanics. If we vivisect a golfer's ability to play good golf we will learn that it is only a sum of better or worse mechanics and better or worse ability to deal with timing isues (let's omit luck or mental issues here). The latter you can call a talent or a gift - i.e. a gifted golfer can achieve pretty consistent results despite his/her biomechanically flawed motion - IMO, 99.9% of golfers on Tour are like this. Golfers without such a gift struggle much more to achieve consistency - unless they can find a mechanical way to win against timing issues even a little - post-secret Hogan or Trevino are the best examples.
We used to be told that they hit thousands balls on the range and that's why they could be equally good to their more talented and we forget that e.g. both found the mechanical way to avoid hitting left no matter how hard they hit - and what is it if not a partial automatization of the swing and limiting the impact of timing issues ?
Lastly, a remark. The idea of automatization of human action was never popular because people were told from primary school times that one can't automatize living tissues - exactly what Brian repeated here; that's why people did not even try to - I really feel as a pioneer.
I claim that with a proper knowledge and some help from nature and theory of natural limitations EVERY POSSIBLE HUMAN ACTION CAN BE AUTOMATIZED TO A DEGREE. And it's very clear that if we assume that the gift (or lack of) remains all the time on the same level - the added automation factor WILL ALWAYS MAKE A BETTER GOLFER independently on other things.
Let's start to boil this thread down.
1. What is DJ's exact backswing positon of choice?
2. When will he give (or observe) a couple hundred lessons (or a few thousand) trying to EEP everyone so he has a clue about what people can do in the real world?
ad.1. I presume you mean top of backswing position, yes ? If yes, the biomechanically soundest one is when the entire lead arm is perpendicular to the spine and the rear humerus is parallel to the spine. The shoulder line should be perpendicular to the spine as well which means that the lead humerus is pinned to the chest and can work together the main body automatically. A sort of one plane backswing position. Upright two-planish backswings never give such a possibility since the lead shoulder joint alone is too weak (in the sense - too unsecure) a connection with the upper body to guarantee a simultaneous work.
ad.2. It's a good question and I admit that as a theorist I can meet a very important obstacle when it appears that my theories cannot be implemented into practice in 100% of the cases of heathy people. It is my biggest weakness and it would be my biggest loss - but until now noone has proved that it is impossible. Instead, I can hear only empty slogans that everyone has different DNA (?) whatever it means. The macroscale does not give a rats about different DNA - in macroscale all healthy humans are identical.
I'd risk to claim that I can bring every healthy man or woman to the EP and I can make every healthy man or woman to swing perpendicularily to the spine and I can automate everyone's action to a degree. But I will never ever go into a microscale details - this is a real instructor's job.
Cheers
Also I would like to know what "automate" the golf swing means exactly?Does it mean timing is not needed?Does it mean the swing is "owned"?Does it mean the swing is swing thought free?Does it mean striking a golf ball cleanly become easy as pie and one can laugh at how easy golf is like Moe Norman?
As said above - to automate the swing means to limit the impact of timing issues, or better said, to limit the occurence of occassions when such timing issues are crucial.
Yes, ideally it would mean that the swing is thoughtfree and based on sequential cascade of events that occur one after another because there is no other room left. That's why the theory of limitations is so powerful a tool.
Lastly, I'd not use Moe's example here - IMO, he automated his motion on the neuron level (similarily to various strange gifts of autistic people) which is beyond any possibility of going into. If I use Moe's example in my work I concentrate only on mechanical values that existed as well - or better said, that must have existed as well.
Cheers
