They call it weight shift....

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In the Hogan photo below ( sorry Self Mastery - Lorena has not done her instructional book yet:) ) he states that 85% of his weight is on his left foot.



The reason i write this is because I ...and I presume many others... have fallen into the mistake of moving my body mass - the bulky bits - to be about 85% over the left foot at this stage/impact... ie. i was moving my bulky bits over my left foot...my COG... this had resulted in a tendency to lunge target-wards and not tilt the axis properly.... Brian, when I saw him in May, called it "running down the fairway" i think ...


Hogan's COG - what i think of as the centre of bulk ( the summed point source that gravity can be assumed to act on) is ( i am estimating here) very stable at this point and somewhere between his feet....


Does that make sense??

Remember I am not physics guru so be gentle if my terminology is flawed...:cool:
 

Chris Sturgess

New member
A person's center of gravity is around waist/navel level. In that picture that area is closer to his left foot than his right which means thats where most of his weight is.
 
A person's center of gravity is around waist/navel level. In that picture that area is closer to his left foot than his right which means thats where most of his weight is.

Imagine a man in a vertical position, standing upright but with feet shoulder width apart - i would agree that the centre of gravity in 3D is around your midriff/waist/navel area..

Take that vertical man and tilt it to his left ( like a leaning tower of Pisa) ...and the COG will move away from the centre ( between the feet position) towards his left foot ... in the manner that you describe..his weight will mainly be on his left foot.

In this Photo, Hogan's head and upper body are tilted away to his right, away from his midriff...

His COG will be altered accordingly.

I guess that his COG is more centred than you suggest.
 

Dariusz J.

New member
I guess 85% it's the matter of feeling. Try an experiment: raise your right foot completely at impact - where do you fall ? If your COG is behind the ball, you will fall back to the right foot. If your body is "running down the fairway" you won't fall back onto your right foot.

Having said that, it's a great thing you touched this subject, Bulldog. I often catch myself helping in moving my COG forward by moving my upper body + head too much forward. But I am not a flexible person - perhaps I cant move my COG enough leaving my torso and head more back...maybe knee+hip action is a key here...
...when doing this experiment with lifting rear foot at impact I often end with staying on my left leg (not falling forward or back) - which I believe is still too much forward.

Cheers
 
I reckon that most great players are actually very centred at impact...COG is centred between their stance....

If you lift either leg they will fall - all that means is that the COG is not over the foot which remains on the ground... Clearly Hogan's COG is not 85% towards his left foot....

But he , and many others describe a weight/feel shift...Do they feel this actually when they swing or do they only "feel" it when they see photos of their right foot up on tip toes and assume that their weight must be predominantly on their left foot?? :rolleyes:

Who knows...
 
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Do you guys still worrying about the bits n pieces of your swing? When you model someone else's swing, you are left to decipher someone else's feels into real.

Is it grammatically correct to use a semicolon in the above sentence?

Hogan's pivot looked like a small rotation to center then a huge slide. His COG looks about 6 inches behind his left foot.
 

Bronco Billy

New member
Do you guys still worrying about the bits n pieces of your swing? When you model someone else's swing, you are left to decipher someone else's feels into real.

Is it grammatically correct to use a semicolon in the above sentence?

Hogan's pivot looked like a small rotation to center then a huge slide. His COG looks about 6 inches behind his left foot.

You Said a Lot There.... They Spend There Entire Golfing Lives trying to Copy Someone Elses Success in Propelling a Golf Ball.... I Sure as Hell Can think of Better things to Twiddle the Time Away......:)
 

JeffM

New member
Golfbulldog

If a golfer states that 85% of his weight is over his left foot as he nears impact, it doesn't necessarily mean that the COG is situated 85% of the way between the right and left foot. Surely, there is also a dynamic element - due to the change in momentum of transfer of the body mass to the left during the downswing that increases the body's effective mass over on the left side.

Jeff.
 
Golfbulldog

If a golfer states that 85% of his weight is over his left foot as he nears impact, it doesn't necessarily mean that the COG is situated 85% of the way between the right and left foot. Surely, there is also a dynamic element - due to the change in momentum of transfer of the body mass to the left during the downswing that increases the body's effective mass over on the left side.

Jeff.

Effective mass .... maybe ... but what does that really mean??
 
Golfbulldog

If a golfer states that 85% of his weight is over his left foot as he nears impact, it doesn't necessarily mean that the COG is situated 85% of the way between the right and left foot. Surely, there is also a dynamic element - due to the change in momentum of transfer of the body mass to the left during the downswing that increases the body's effective mass over on the left side.

Jeff.

Effective mass .... maybe ... but what does that really mean??

Would mandrin like the idea?? :rolleyes:
 

jeffy

Banned
I think Hogan's weight shift changed over the years. What I'd like to see is a comparison of his "Power Golf" vintage driver swing and a 1967 vintage driver swing, when he said that the back nine at Augusta in the third round was the best nine he had ever played: "I didn't come close to missing a shot".

In the "Power Golf" era, he seemed to fall back onto his right foot pretty quickly at the end of his swing:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BI3w9zZmHG8

In the driver swing here, from 1967, at about 0:20 into this clip, he drags the right foot toward the target quite a bit more and has a lot more balance on his left foot at the finish (turn the sound down so you won't have to listen to McLean):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=inC8gkGcBtg
 
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If I feel flat footed and tilted, I tend to hit very good golf shots. If I try to move my weight left, I come out of my tilt and hit weak pushes or duck hooks. I have found that feeling pressure, not weight shift, really helps. I see that in Hogan's swing. His center does not appear near his left foot as far as I can tell from the photos. Interesting topic
 
If I feel flat footed and tilted, I tend to hit very good golf shots. If I try to move my weight left, I come out of my tilt and hit weak pushes or duck hooks. I have found that feeling pressure, not weight shift, really helps. I see that in Hogan's swing. His center does not appear near his left foot as far as I can tell from the photos. Interesting topic

I agree with the feet grounded and body tilted sensation...need to increase my flexability! ...I think that this pressure feel is important - i agree... he seems fairly centred COG -wise.

I Pressure = force/area .... if his COG is centred and he has two points of contact with the planet ( left and right feet)...does that mean that an equal force is transmitted through each foot....and the surface area of the right in contact with the earth appears smaller ( on his balls-toes rather than flat footed)...does that mean the right foot is exerting more pressure on the earth....right foot had extra spikes , or so the story goes...certainly the power golf photos reveal alot of spikes on his right shoe...

Hogan also talked about pushing with right leg just before impact...is that a feel of increased pressure being exerted ( same force as left foot...just over smaller surface area)....??

Some of you guys are going to think that this is Hogan worship again... hahahahahaha:D ...



I love these Snead ones too....right foot fairly grounded ( certainly not dancing on tip-toes) ...arms flung across chest....tilt +++.... he went to both arms straight with full extension! He describes the arms as "almost flying out of their sockets!"... sound familiar!

Snead says "the expert finds that at impact the right heel has left the ground and the foot is pushing against a resisting force. Although terrific force thrown against the left leg in the downswing may slightly roll the left foot over, it is firmly set, receiving the weight which has been shifted against it."

Can the physics guys help out please? If his COG were still centred (not saying it is definitely centred ) and he has left foot flat and right heel off the ground...has weight been shifted....or is he just experiencing greater pressure on the right foot which he assumes will move weight towards the left.....

Thanks.
 

Burner

New
Don't think you can relate this argument to Hogan's weight shift, real or imagined, or to the position of his feet, centre of gravity and such.

He is simply in dynamic motion with his left side pulling his lagging right side into and through impact - hip first.
 
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