The Golfing Machine heads to obscurity on the book shelf

[Michael Jacobs]

Took on a project of writing a series of articles and thought I would share one of my excerpts:

Due to a lack of courage to update and fix the golfing science in The Golfing Machine, it is now just an obscure inaccurate old timer golf book on the shelf. Here are some brief reasons why:

Article Excerpt

The golf ball and club are in contact with one another for about a Half Millisecond during which they move together for less than 1 inch. This holds true for just about all clubs including slow speed shots.

There is nothing a golfer can do at this point to alter what is taking place during this interval. There are things that you can do early in the downswing to influence the club head’s delivery conditions but nothing a golfer can do during the impact interval.

The long held belief from Homer Kelley’s Golf Machine that a golfer can apply a Hinge Action during the impact interval {from impact to separation} is NOT ACCURATE
According to Kelley - “Hinge Actions describe and control the manipulation of the hands through the Impact Interval. This hand manipulation in turn controls the club face motions.”
Hinge Action is a major theme in his body of work and was discussed for hours upon hours in the Audio Tapes of his golf instructor training classes. This notion of altering the impact interval has done massive harm.

Is a heavy hit possible??
Can the club head resist the deceleration of impact?
NO, unfortunately Homer Kelley was wrong again
Homer Kelley went on to describe in detail in the Golf Machine that a golfer can provide a heavy hit into impact and resist the club head’s deceleration into impact. He states:
“Zero deceleration is what would give maximum ball speed for any and all approach speeds. Treat “heavy feel” of club head recovery as though it were all impact, even though the ball is actually long gone”
So a golfer trying to sustain lag through the impact interval & trying to impart a Hinge Action through the impact interval is NOT EVEN POSSIBLE and a huge collapse of the thesis of Homer Kelley’s Golfing Machine.
As a lifetime proud and loyal advocate of Golf Machine, it breaks my heart to admit its severe scientific flaws and its virtual uselessness in proper golf instruction.

There are countless more flaws that I will be sharing
Conservation of Angular Momentum - Basic & Acquired Motion - Gyroscopic Action
Hitting & Swinging - and much more


My prediction:
The book literalists will throw The Golfing Machine under the bus within a calendar year and relabel what they do and come up with their own version of authorizing instructors and their own system. This will leave The Golfing Machine book itself in virtual purgatory.

 

[billmckinneygolf]

As we saw at the Anti-Summit, some people stick to their scripts in spite of the facts. Facts behave strangely while in movement and under observation. We tend to find what we want to find; Confirmation Bias.
Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle 'proves' much of Einstein's and Newton's ideas...outdated. Yet, they remain GIANTS in their fields. Homer will always be considered a giant by at least some.
The final word on golf science it is NOT. A foundation, indeed.
The 'yellow peril' is still LOADED with insights, but I've always enjoyed puzzles and riddles.

 

[aaron_lohan]

I dont think its totally obsolete, it remains to date the best instructional book of its type, parts of it still valid, dont throw the baby out with the bath water. It just needs to be updated to fit with the discoveries made since it was originally published.

 

[dbl]

I can imagine...like when some church body approves a new/revised Prayer Book...that there would be groups who would want to cling to the old (1928) Prayer Book...and set up their own society/denomination.

 

[jerry1967]

Took on a project of writing a series of articles and thought I would share one of my excerpts:

Due to a lack of courage to update and fix the golfing science in The Golfing Machine, it is now just an obscure inaccurate old timer golf book on the shelf. Here are some brief reasons why:

Article Excerpt

The golf ball and club are in contact with one another for about a Half Millisecond during which they move together for less than 1 inch. This holds true for just about all clubs including slow speed shots.

There is nothing a golfer can do at this point to alter what is taking place during this interval. There are things that you can do early in the downswing to influence the club head’s delivery conditions but nothing a golfer can do during the impact interval.

The long held belief from Homer Kelley’s Golf Machine that a golfer can apply a Hinge Action during the impact interval {from impact to separation} is NOT ACCURATE
According to Kelley - “Hinge Actions describe and control the manipulation of the hands through the Impact Interval. This hand manipulation in turn controls the club face motions.”
Hinge Action is a major theme in his body of work and was discussed for hours upon hours in the Audio Tapes of his golf instructor training classes. This notion of altering the impact interval has done massive harm.

Is a heavy hit possible??
Can the club head resist the deceleration of impact?
NO, unfortunately Homer Kelley was wrong again
Homer Kelley went on to describe in detail in the Golf Machine that a golfer can provide a heavy hit into impact and resist the club head’s deceleration into impact. He states:
“Zero deceleration is what would give maximum ball speed for any and all approach speeds. Treat “heavy feel” of club head recovery as though it were all impact, even though the ball is actually long gone”
So a golfer trying to sustain lag through the impact interval & trying to impart a Hinge Action through the impact interval is NOT EVEN POSSIBLE and a huge collapse of the thesis of Homer Kelley’s Golfing Machine.
As a lifetime proud and loyal advocate of Golf Machine, it breaks my heart to admit its severe scientific flaws and its virtual uselessness in proper golf instruction.

There are countless more flaws that I will be sharing
Conservation of Angular Momentum - Basic & Acquired Motion - Gyroscopic Action
Hitting & Swinging - and much more


My prediction:
The book literalists will throw The Golfing Machine under the bus within a calendar year and relabel what they do and come up with their own version of authorizing instructors and their own system. This will leave The Golfing Machine book itself in virtual purgatory.

For someone that was going to buy the Golfing Machine at one time this is a bold statement. Your observation of the hinge action gives me great relieve because I still don't understand what it is or how it can happen.

 

[Michael Jacobs]

For someone that was going to buy the Golfing Machine at one time this is a bold statement. Your observation of the hinge action gives me great relieve because I still don't understand what it is or how it can happen.

Jerry,

If I owned the book, it would be modernized - 100 % accurate and what Sally Kelley asked for it to be - constantly Updated.

 

[Michael Jacobs]

I dont think its totally obsolete, it remains to date the best instructional book of its type, parts of it still valid, dont throw the baby out with the bath water. It just needs to be updated to fit with the discoveries made since it was originally published.

It should have been corrected proactively ... not as a last resort before it goes out of business.... which will happen within 2 years in my estimation. Any smart business man would sell to the captain of the literalists now and take whatever he can get

 

[natep]

What is the "hinge action" to which the book is referring?

 

[dbl]

Nate that 's a pretty big question, and one that "might be" irrelevant.

But tgm lists three kinds of hinge actions and you can find tons of info by searching. Fwiw, there was horizontal, angled, and vertical.

 

[natep]

Thanks. I just wasnt sure what kind of hinge action was supposedly influencing the impact interval.

 

[leon]

I dont think its totally obsolete, it remains to date the best instructional book of its type, parts of it still valid, dont throw the baby out with the bath water. It just needs to be updated to fit with the discoveries made since it was originally published.

Hey, I just wrote something similar in another thread, but nowhere near as concise or eloquent I guess I need to work on that, as well as my golf!

 

[birly-shirly]

Jerry,

If I owned the book, it would be modernized - 100 % accurate and what Sally Kelley asked for it to be - constantly Updated.

Really liked the excerpt from your article, Michael. As for your comment above, do you think that it would still be a worthwhile investment?

Speaking personally, I have bigger issues with the book than the scientific validity of its content. I agree that's a big issue in itself - but I still think that the layout, structure, the use of (what is in my opinion) pseudo-jargon all make the book pretty unwieldy. My feeling is that any good attempt to update it would end up pretty well unrecognisable as TGM.

 

[twitch127]

Mike,

I think people are taking the whole book literalist thing a bit far. There are maybe a couple of handfuls of instructors on the planet who teach that way, out of 10's of thousands of instructors. Why are you guys so hung up on them? I'm an AI, like yourself and yes I am dissappointed that some of the science has been 'debunked', which is a shame, because like you and Brian I wanted to find the scientific truths of the swing and the most accurate source of this information. But you evolve and constantly update your ideas and philosophy, scientific "truths" get debunked every day in all fields.

If you became a TPI, One Plane/Two Plane, Hank Haney, Jim McClean, Butch Harmon, MORAD etc.. certified instructor there will be things that you will be told that end up to be untrue. Should you burn at the stake these educators or just be grateful with the information they shared with you so you could shape your own ideas. Socrates taught Plato everything he knew for 20 years. What did Plato do with the vast knowledge he learnt? He turned all of Socrates' theories upside down and then said that it made perfect sense! He didn't castigate Socrates he said that it was his work that allowed him to reach his answers.

You have to start with a base of knowledge so you can then work out for yourself what you see as correct at what you see as crap. That's all these accreditation programs can ever be. That can't be the perfect truth because nothing really is.

I think that TGM LLC will continue to exsist and profit from emerging golf nations as they find there golfing legs, China, Eastern Europe, India. It will still do OK in US and UK.

Mike, Nobody has heard of TGM anyway, except teaching pro's and a handful of pro's, it is just another accreditation scheme that PGA members use to gain crediability and add some letters to their name. Its no better or no worse than all the others!

The literalists will just have to live with the shortcomings but so will other system based instruction organisations. If you label something and bottle it you will be proved wrong and then you have nowhere to go! That is why butch is always No1 in the rankings because nobody knows what the F*&$$k he teaches!!


Twitch

 

[gmbtempe]

Mike, Nobody has heard of TGM anyway, except teaching pro's and a handful of pro's,

No one cares about TGM beyond a few message boards, it provides good discussion and some interesting ideas about the golf swing.

How it takes about 1/2 this boards time is amazing to me.

 

[bax1865]

Just a bunch of letters?

I should then assume that many will now be editing their websites by taking off any reference to being an Authorized Instructor. I just find it odd that so many find it junk yet display their designation as GSEB, GSEM & GSED.

 

[Virtuoso]

Birly, good points about TGM.

For guys that would have been engineers had they not become golf instructors (which describes me), The Golfing Machine, at first glance, is like your first crush. It seems like suddenly you can become a Golf Swing Engineer if you just use some diligence and unravel all the cross referencing.

Even the jargon sucks me in, especially when it starts talking about the blending of the "Feel System" and the "Engineering System" such that, ultimately, the golf swing becomes a "describable whole, both as a mechanism and a sensation."

That just sounds incredibly tasty.....but, unfortunately, it's wrong.

Had to let go of my first crush a long time ago.

 

[gmbtempe]

Really liked the excerpt from your article, Michael. As for your comment above, do you think that it would still be a worthwhile investment?

Speaking personally, I have bigger issues with the book than the scientific validity of its content. I agree that's a big issue in itself - but I still think that the layout, structure, the use of (what is in my opinion) pseudo-jargon all make the book pretty unwieldy. My feeling is that any good attempt to update it would end up pretty well unrecognisable as TGM.

There is not much of a market for it (or TGM in general) but I think a really good communicator could rewrite the book in terms that would not take so long to understand.

 

[Mike O]

Took on a project of writing a series of articles and thought I would share one of my excerpts:

Due to a lack of courage to update and fix the golfing science in The Golfing Machine, it is now just an obscure inaccurate old timer golf book on the shelf. Here are some brief reasons why:

Article Excerpt

The golf ball and club are in contact with one another for about a Half Millisecond during which they move together for less than 1 inch. This holds true for just about all clubs including slow speed shots.

There is nothing a golfer can do at this point to alter what is taking place during this interval. There are things that you can do early in the downswing to influence the club head’s delivery conditions but nothing a golfer can do during the impact interval.

The long held belief from Homer Kelley’s Golf Machine that a golfer can apply a Hinge Action during the impact interval {from impact to separation} is NOT ACCURATE
According to Kelley - “Hinge Actions describe and control the manipulation of the hands through the Impact Interval. This hand manipulation in turn controls the club face motions.”
Hinge Action is a major theme in his body of work and was discussed for hours upon hours in the Audio Tapes of his golf instructor training classes. This notion of altering the impact interval has done massive harm.

Is a heavy hit possible??
Can the club head resist the deceleration of impact?
NO, unfortunately Homer Kelley was wrong again
Homer Kelley went on to describe in detail in the Golf Machine that a golfer can provide a heavy hit into impact and resist the club head’s deceleration into impact. He states:
“Zero deceleration is what would give maximum ball speed for any and all approach speeds. Treat “heavy feel” of club head recovery as though it were all impact, even though the ball is actually long gone”
So a golfer trying to sustain lag through the impact interval & trying to impart a Hinge Action through the impact interval is NOT EVEN POSSIBLE and a huge collapse of the thesis of Homer Kelley’s Golfing Machine.
As a lifetime proud and loyal advocate of Golf Machine, it breaks my heart to admit its severe scientific flaws and its virtual uselessness in proper golf instruction.

There are countless more flaws that I will be sharing
Conservation of Angular Momentum - Basic & Acquired Motion - Gyroscopic Action
Hitting & Swinging - and much more


My prediction:
The book literalists will throw The Golfing Machine under the bus within a calendar year and relabel what they do and come up with their own version of authorizing instructors and their own system. This will leave The Golfing Machine book itself in virtual purgatory.

Let me start by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed learning the Golfing Machine! Fascinating piece of work! Left it behind a long time ago and while I kept some basic ideas - I continue to search for additional new information and avenues of knowledge regarding the golf swing. Therefore while I understand the book - I wouldn't consider myself a "book literalist", however that doesn't mean that I can't put my "Golfing Machine" hat on and limit my discussion to a strictly Golfing Machine perspective. Do I have issues with the book - absolutely however I don't find it a valuable use of time to bark them out and focus on them - I'm moving on and appreciating what Homer provided - at the very least a nice framework that allows others to build off of it.

So Mike, before I strongly disagree with your post - let's first acknowledge that the book is poorly written and the potential for mis-interpretation is great. With that said - regarding Hinge Action - if you or anyone else thought that Homer Kelley was implying that you consciously thought about or tried to do something - only during impact, - YOU MISSED THE ENTIRE POINT. You've taken his defintion of WHAT IS HAPPENING and ON YOUR OWN translated it into some first person - THIS IS WHAT YOU ARE TRYING TO DO DURING THIS MOMENT IN TIME (IMPACT!) - That's ridiculous - talk about creating a strawman.

This is one reason why he moved hinge action from zone #3 "The Hands Lane" to zone #2 "The Arms Lane" in the 7th edition - because too many people were thinking that "Hinge Action" is something you do with your hands.

When he says “Zero deceleration is what would give maximum ball speed for any and all approach speeds." He's realizing that there is deceleration in the impact interval - and he's stating that theoretically - “Zero deceleration is what would give maximum ball speed for any and all approach speeds." and something that would be good to strive for in that direction.

Then he goes on to say "Treat “heavy feel” of club head recovery as though it were all impact, even though the ball is actually long gone” - which procedurally isn't a bad thing to feel. You've done the exact same thing as you did in the Hinge Action example - just in the opposite direction. You've taken a described feel and flipped it around as if to say Homer Kelley thinks there is No deceleration and there is No heavy hit because the clubhead doesn't actually lag into impact- mechanically speaking. Bottom line in this regard is YES a golfer can TRY to sustain lag - and a golfer can even TRY to sustain lag through impact. Doesn't mean actual lag is sustained - it means procedurally the effort to sustain lag versus the feeling of losing it - is a beneficial effort and difference of procedure. YOU NEED TO DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN WHAT'S HAPPENING AND WHAT THE PLAYER IS TRYING TO DO - THEY ARE NOT THE SAME!

Homer Kelley didn't get these two issues wrong - you got these two issues wrong - albeit maybe as a result of his poor writing technique - especially the Hinge Action concept which is a gross lack of understanding of the actual concept. If you are just trying to clear up a "common mis-conception" of the concept Hinge Action - FINE - but you're burying the author and that's where you missed the boat on this one.

 

[JonWil]

Let me start by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed learning the Golfing Machine! Fascinating piece of work! Left it behind a long time ago and while I kept some basic ideas - I continue to search for additional new information and avenues of knowledge regarding the golf swing. Therefore while I understand the book - I wouldn't consider myself a "book literalist", however that doesn't mean that I can't put my "Golfing Machine" hat on and limit my discussion to a strictly Golfing Machine perspective. Do I have issues with the book - absolutely however I don't find it a valuable use of time to bark them out and focus on them - I'm moving on and appreciating what Homer provided - at the very least a nice framework that allows others to build off of it.

So Mike, before I strongly disagree with your post - let's first acknowledge that the book is poorly written and the potential for mis-interpretation is great. With that said - regarding Hinge Action - if you or anyone else thought that Homer Kelley was implying that you consciously thought about or tried to do something - only during impact, - YOU MISSED THE ENTIRE POINT. You've taken his defintion of WHAT IS HAPPENING and ON YOUR OWN translated it into some first person - THIS IS WHAT YOU ARE TRYING TO DO DURING THIS MOMENT IN TIME (IMPACT!) - That's ridiculous - talk about creating a strawman.

This is one reason why he moved hinge action from zone #3 "The Hands Lane" to zone #2 "The Arms Lane" in the 7th edition - because too many people were thinking that "Hinge Action" is something you do with your hands.

When he says “Zero deceleration is what would give maximum ball speed for any and all approach speeds." He's realizing that there is deceleration in the impact interval - and he's stating that theoretically - “Zero deceleration is what would give maximum ball speed for any and all approach speeds." and something that would be good to strive for in that direction.

Then he goes on to say "Treat “heavy feel” of club head recovery as though it were all impact, even though the ball is actually long gone” - which procedurally isn't a bad thing to feel. You've done the exact same thing as you did in the Hinge Action example - just in the opposite direction. You've taken a described feel and flipped it around as if to say Homer Kelley thinks there is No deceleration and there is No heavy hit because the clubhead doesn't actually lag into impact- mechanically speaking. Bottom line in this regard is YES a golfer can TRY to sustain lag - and a golfer can even TRY to sustain lag through impact. Doesn't mean actual lag is sustained - it means procedurally the effort to sustain lag versus the feeling of losing it - is a beneficial effort and difference of procedure. YOU NEED TO DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN WHAT'S HAPPENING AND WHAT THE PLAYER IS TRYING TO DO - THEY ARE NOT THE SAME!

Homer Kelley didn't get these two issues wrong - you got these two issues wrong - albeit maybe as a result of his poor writing technique - especially the Hinge Action concept which is a gross lack of understanding of the actual concept. If you are just trying to clear up a "common mis-conception" of the concept Hinge Action - FINE - but you're burying the author and that's where you missed the boat on this one.

WOW, well stated.

 

[Michael Jacobs]

This is one reason why he moved hinge action from zone #3 "The Hands Lane" to zone #2 "The Arms Lane" in the 7th edition - because too many people were thinking that "Hinge Action" is something you do with your hands.

Had a bet with Bob Becker the other golf pro at my country club that within the first 12 hours someone would jump out and say THIS IS WHY IT WAS MOVED TO ZONE #2

Are you kidding me, because too many people were doing it with their hands???

The whole entire book hinges upon clear concise definitions and 'pure dictionary English' so a definition would be pretty important ---

HINGE ACTIONS DESCRIBE AND CONTROL THE MANIPULATION OF THE HANDS THROUGH THE IMPACT INTERVAL

The descriptions and definitions of hinge action are so far from reality its a joke. Mike, I have a GSED degree... got handed it from Sally Kelley, was the youngest one in history besides maybe Bobby Clampett. There were less than 30 that ever lived and no one would have benefitted from it more than me especially with all the years I hopefully had ahead. Hinge Action is a HUGE mistake there are so many more that I am going to make sure get fully recognized as it is a necessary thing for advancement. When the book establishment is spooned fed a meeting with Doppler 3D experts from the leading manufacturer and they respond as though they are the true authority in science and not only reject devices like Trackman and Flightscope but go so far as notifying instructors to be leery of the veracity of these machines until the scientists from these companies provide the golf machine with all of their information for peer review and until that point Golf Machine declared itself the true science in golf. So Mike O, this is necessary, I own a machine I use it everyday, I help golfers everyday, I helped golfers when I engrossed my style in TGM but nothing like the capacity at which I do now. So bullet holes in the book are on the way, but don't worry your collection of golfing machine trinkets will still have value