I notice that when I work with dowels a lot, I tend to shank when I go out on the course. I believe this is because I am aiming the shaft at the ball. When you trace with the shaft of the club, do you trace to a line inside the plane line (the shaft line)? In my desperation I have tried to visualize the shaft location at address or impact fix and aim to pass through that location - that seems to help me a bit. I have heard something about feeling the sweet spot but I can't seem to get that to work. Is it OK to try and aim the shaft rather than the sweet spot?
You have to take into account the sweetspot of the club.
It can be dangerous to work on your swing with an object that doesn't have a sweetspot. However, I'm sure there are people here who can better tell you how to work with the dowels so that the shanking problem doesn't happen.
I read some of the archives on the plane and tracing and had some further thoughts.
I have read that the shaft rotates around the sweetspot. To illustrate this, the example is to hold the grip end in the fingers, let the club hang by gravity and spin the club. Here the shaft clearly rotates around the sweet spot.
But I can't believe that this is what happens in a golf swing. If this was true, then swinging a dowel would result in a very different swing motion than swinging a golf club (or maybe even think of a hockey stick). Rather - it seems to me that the shaft of the club travels on an inclined plane. The base of this plane is along a line that goes through the point where the shaft touches the ground at impact fix - a couple of inches inwards from the center line through the ball. So at halfway back for example, the butt end of the grip should point towards this more inward plane line. Assuming this shaft plane exists, then it's easier for me to envision the sweet spot or club face rotating around the shaft rather than the other way around. I believe this also implies that plane boards are valid training tools.
So, when you swing your dowel you shouldn't be aiming the tip of the dowel directly at your imaginary ball, but rather an inch or so inside the ball where the shaft would hit the ground. Perhaps this is wrong or just extremely obvious, but it subconsciously threw me out of whack for a bit. Once I started thinking about the shaft traveling on this more inward plane, I was making very clean center contact.
I know my "mind should be in my hands" instead of in the shaft but I'm still working on that. Or maybe I just need to get some clubs with the face centered on the shaft .
I am not sure if the following is correct but see what you think...
Homer stresses the importance of the sweetspot plane. The plane between PP3 and clubhead sweetspot. The trouble is that it is invisble... except when the clubhead is turbed to the inclined plane - when shaft plane acts as a surrogate for sweet spot plane.
The crucial thing about sweet spot plane is that it is the plane that you feel rather than see... but if you want to "see" it then use shaft plane as an approximate.
The dowels "look" like a shaft and there is no distraction of clubhead so it is a good way to learn the concept of alignment rather than position... this alone is a leap of conceptual thinking that you have already made!
But in "swinging " a dowel... you won't really feel much because of the lack of clubhead mass... maybe if you added a point mass ( round lump of lead) at the tip of the dowel and swung it then you would feel and see the elusive "sweetspot plane".
typing "off the cuff" at the moment so see what others say ...
Yes - perhaps I just can't feel the lag pressure properly. Here's one other observation though. If the sweetspot plane and the shaft plane coincide when the club is turned to the inclined plane, then this would imply that the shaft should be pointing at the plane line on the ground that runs through ball center. However, when I try doing this with a half swing (like acquired motion), it feels very awkward to me.
Yes - perhaps I just can't feel the lag pressure properly. Here's one other observation though. If the sweetspot plane and the shaft plane coincide when the club is turned to the inclined plane, then this would imply that the shaft should be pointing at the plane line on the ground that runs through ball center. However, when I try doing this with a half swing (like acquired motion), it feels very awkward to me.
I think that the "sweetspot plane" and "shaft plane" only appear the same from down the line view once sweetspot rotated to plane.
Hitters, who tend towards single wrist action. do not turn their sweetspot to inclined shaft plane in acquired motion - clubhead "feels closed"...
Many pro swingers turn sweetspot, or sweetspot is turned, later in swing ...more into total motion... you may feel an early turn to plane as "unusual" for you....
lag pressure will be easier to feel with a "point mass" at end of dowel, i think...
Yes - perhaps I just can't feel the lag pressure properly. Here's one other observation though. If the sweetspot plane and the shaft plane coincide when the club is turned to the inclined plane, then this would imply that the shaft should be pointing at the plane line on the ground that runs through ball center. However, when I try doing this with a half swing (like acquired motion), it feels very awkward to me.
ejhong, Are you hitting or swinging ? I see them as manipulating the LCOG differently. I'm sure you are aware that a clubhead lag pressure point is imperative.
I have been working on making some pictures showing the LCOG....I will try and get something together for you sometime soon.
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"Golf is not a subject but a motor skill which can only be learned and not taught." - Michael Hebron
"The Body, Arms and Hands have specific assignments during the Golf Stroke, and they must be coordinated into one efficient motion." - Lynn Blake
I notice that when I work with dowels a lot, I tend to shank when I go out on the course. I believe this is because I am aiming the shaft at the ball. When you trace with the shaft of the club, do you trace to a line inside the plane line (the shaft line)? In my desperation I have tried to visualize the shaft location at address or impact fix and aim to pass through that location - that seems to help me a bit. I have heard something about feeling the sweet spot but I can't seem to get that to work. Is it OK to try and aim the shaft rather than the sweet spot?
A dowel doesn't have the large longitundal pull that a clubhead would because of centrifugal 'effect' (carefully applied word so as not go to that discussion...lol) made by the mass of the heavy clubhead. The great thing about dowels is that they can be versatile to practice the various alignments of the power package. The idea is that when you can keep something onplane by your alignments in motion by itself in a deliberate and positive way without having to deal with sustaining with the Drag or Drive you make on the clubhead. Obviously this effect will be less for the Hitter and here he has a slight advantage because of the nature of drive loading doesn't rely on dragging the centrifugal pull like the swinger.
The light weight of a dowel allows you stop anywhere mid stroke without having to stop the club in motion by not quite the same dramatic fashion as the active muscular resistance used with a golf club would pretty much know what you stop to monitor is the actual placing of where your hands are at. So with a dowel you can stop knowing you actually hit the correct alignments and this way you can practice the various alignments (checklist in 12-3-0) without practicing in a way that will train you to lose the lag presure as your deaccelerating and trying your hardest to resist the primary lever assembly going in to a centrifugally deaccelerated state - per law of the flail 2-k - all the while moving into fake alignments as you deaccelerate. For the same reason it also allows you to do the stroke slower easier if you wish without the weight of the club.
Taken to an extreme as a training aid using a golf club could just become a test to see if you can maintain the alignments and understand the motions to keep dragging or driving the lag pressure all the way down right to followthrough.
They are incredibly versatile.
For example....If you want to check that your left wrist is vertical of your hinge action based on the left flying wedge which is basically maintaining the plane of the left wristcock motion vertical to its associated plane through impact... run the dowel up your left arm - it is far easier to see this plane when you have 2 lines (which is actually the definition of a plane btw). You can now immediately see - yes I have turned my hand to the plane at the top and coming down, yes I have rolled my left flying wedge onto the correct vertical plane for impact, did I keep it vertical at followthrough. This also ensures that you have maintained a flat left wrist for your specific grip type for the emulation of the alignments of a vertical flail as depicted in 2-K. I mean this is only a 1/3 of controlling the club...
Or you practice the right forearm flying wedge coming into its angle of approach into impact.. or just using it as a tool to see your alignments coming down at a slow place where you can stop and hold it for a few seconds.... you could even get a dowel and cut a hole in a sponce ball and use it to lean against your head whilst you practice some acquired motions (cos I would imagine cos for some it might not work after this so that the head pivots in its stationary location to not have a geometrical shoulder turn collision conflict whilst maintaining the advantages of centered arc.
You should really stop though at followthrough because after that period, your onplane thrust is gone and you should just holding onto club allowing the force of the clubhead traveling it is orbit to carry you and you must accomodate it. But you can practice going into a swivel by stopping at followthrough and then just swivel by doing this you always maintain the onplane thrust from the aiming point of pp3 till followthrough and stop and THEN swivel.... It keeps the basic motion in the stroke instead of some fleeting swivel motion.
I am concerned on your idea of aiming the shaft at the ball. The idea is to guide the pressure of the heavy clubhead on your hands and your hands know where to go - alignments and whats creating it. It is a precise tool and a cheap one too
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