Ask The Professor Archives Part 4

I am an Asian of average build; 5'7" and 150lbs. My current club head speed is 105mph.

JK: First, you need to develop Type IIx fast Twitch muscles in your upper body -- especially your forearms. Second, you must practice the power move of starting the down stroke with a sit down and movement of the hands away from the body.

I realize that i am not hitting the ball long enough to lower my scores, I play off a 10. As such, Ii struggle to reach long par 4s in 2. In addition I miss out on eagle opportunities on par 5s. Yes, I also realize that my short game is pretty weak, but I hope to alleviate the pressure on my short game and putting by hitting shorter clubs into the greens.

JK:My Lever-Power-Golf trainer and the Kuykendall Toss for the short game has helped thousands of golfers. It eliminates breaking down the left wrist and provides for the greatest control of club head speed.

I respect that you are an authority on the science of golf and hope you will be generous with your answers and tips (drills) to my question. I will be diligent in applying myself to them!

JK:Although I gave you the correct answers to help you, this is only partial information. Partial information and tips never work. The brain does NOT work on tips.

I am trying a set of Titlest DCI Oversized Irons and am considering purchasing them. The lie on them is a bit flat. My question is,can the material used in these club heads be modified by a clubmaker to correct the lie for me?

You will need to contact Titlest. They are the only ones who can tell you what materials they use and the degree that the clubs can be bent for lie adjustment.

If a ball is struck with the club face open 2 degrees, how far right of the center line will the ball move?

"The Search for the Perfect Swing" book calculates it will be 20 yards to the right or 20 yards to the left - a total of a 40 yard dispesion.

Do you have any excercises to help in the shifting of weight, both on the take-away and the follow through?

NO! I do not want you to make an intentional weight shift. Take the club straight back inside and then biceps curl it to the top. Now sit down make the power move with your arms (Absolutely NO big weight shift to the left). This is totally unnecessary motion that tour players make. Do spine finders work and, more importantly, do they add any value to making clubs?

Yes. Every shaft I have ever tested has one or two points where the shaft resists twisting by a large factor. If you make sure that a set of clubs has this point all the same, you will have the least twisting when swinging the club. If the points are random, each club will twist differently when you swing.

I have a big problem with "reverse pivot" and I am finding it hard to correct it. Do you have any drills or tips to overcome this?

Unfortunately, NO. The brain does not work on tips. You must perform a certain number of repetitions - with restrictive training aids - a minimum of once a week for two years to make an effective change. Only the ineffective golf magazines provide quick fix tips. They do so because the golfing public prefers preceptions (that a quick fix actually exist) to sientific reality (the neuroscience of short term and long term memory in learning mechanical motions). Neuroscience shows that there is no such thing as a quick fix.

On one of Moe's videos he mentions that he has used clubs with an E-3 swingweight since age 19. You answered a similar question recently but weren't asked about swingweight specifically? Is consistent swingweight important and should more of us be swinging E-3 clubs?

You also mentioned frequency matching. There seems to be quite a buzz recently among low handicap golfers that frequency-matched steel shafted clubs can make a huge difference in making golfers more competitive. Is this accurate or just a new marketing tool to encourage golfers to buy new clubs or have their old ones reshafted?

Swingweighting totally mismatches a set of clubs. Moe just liked a heavy head feel. There is no mechanical advantage to a heavy head feel.

Frequency matching is major marketing hype. Step matching means each club is a certain percent stiffer/more-flexible than the preceding club. Single frequency means that each club vibrates the same when clamped in a vise. This has virtually no effect on playability.

Any claim that shows an advantage would have to have been done by a shaft manufacturer. A scientific study would require that you have a minimum of 10,000 golfers of all playing skills over a one year period without changing any part of their swings - lessons, new clubs, same playing condition, etc.

The only statistical thing that has changed due to modern equipment is driving distance. New balls and driver heads have increased driving distance around 16 yards for the pros.

If the lie on your club is too flat, what will happen to the direction of the golf ball? Assuming you are right handed.

With a swing that would hit a straight shot with a correct lie, a club that is too flat will go to the right. It would be equivalent to hitting from a slope with the ball below your feet.

I have been using your Lever Power Golf and I have found that if I use your single axis grip for the short game, the golf ball goes straight all the time. I am wondering if this is the right way to do it.

ABSOLUTELY!

I have a big problem with "reverse pivot" and I am finding it hard to correct it. Do you have any drills or tips to overcome this?

Unfortunately, NO. The brain does not work on tips. You must perform a certain number of repetitions - with restrictive training aids - a minimum of once a week for two years to make an effective change.

Only the ineffective golf magazines provide quick fix tips. They do so because the golfing public prefers preceptions (that a quick fix actually exists) to scientific reality (the neuroscience of short term and long term memory in learning mechanical motions). Neuroscience shows that there is no such thing as a quick fix.

1. How can Moe hit the ball so far at 71 when he doesn't lift any weights or exercise at all?

JK: It is only necessary to develop TYPE IIx fast twitch muscle in your arms and shoulders to create high club head speeds. Moe has been swinging a heavy golf club around 1000 times per day for 55 years. Nothing else is needed.

Moe's club head speed is about 100 mph with a driver. He air carries around 250 yards because he has the perfect launch angle and the least backspin of any golfer Golf Digest has ever put in their magazine.

2. Also on a tape with you Moe states that he made his grips big & his clubs heavy after talking to a carpenter. Moe says the idea of heavy heads is so the club does not waiver. Will a heavy head stop a club from waivering & will it also send a ball further without swinging faster?

Heavy is relative when you are talking about head weight. We are talking, for example, a wedge head that typically weights 300 grams being taken to 310 grams by Moe. This can have virtually no effect on the club head waivering. It is just that he got used to a club's sensation and did not change. Since he was always asked the question, he came up with an answer that seemed reasonable to him.

The formulas and calculations are performed for the effect of head weight versus club head speed on my web site for members ($60/year).

In an effort to hit my irons more consistently I began going over my various pieces of information including the book "Get a Grip on Your Game", a version which still gave you much of the credit. On the downswing one of the initial movements was to move the right elbow in front of the right hip while abducting the hips back. I'm quoting from memory so please forgive any inaccuracies.

JK: This move is a reaction to the action of the power move, moving the hands backward and downward. It is not the action.

After hearing about dropping into the slot all these years I decided to focus on doing this my next practice session. Being careful not to alter my swing in any fundamental way I simply focussed on leading the downstroke with my right elbow rather than my right arm, I realize its a subtle difference at best. Basically, I concentrated on getting my right elbow just a bit further up line before the forearms released.

JK: I would need to see a video of what you are actually doing versus what you think you are doing - IT IS NEVER THE SAME. It would greatly surprise me if you actually had the right elbow leading. None of the Great Ball strikers had the right elbow leading.

I must say this seemed to work very nicely. Honestly,I would have kept 38 out of the 40 balls I hit that morning. I imagine that many issues regarding the breakdown of the left wrist and the resulting pushes and hooks, my problem, could be do to releasing the club head before the right elbow is in the proper position. Your opinion?

JK: The major thing you want to be sure of is that the club head is well behind the body and not out in front of the body. If you do this, the right elbow will react correctly.

Should I consciously force my forearm rotation at impact? If so, when do I begin that rotation on the downswing?

From the top of the stroke, straighten both arms, using the power move from Section 9 of the kinesiology section, to waist high without any rotation of the body or hands and arms -- just straighten the arms. From the waist high position -- gradually rotate the right forearm over the left forearm. It should feel like a very deliberate rotation of the right arm over the left. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAPPENS AUTOMATICALLY until there is a neuronal pattern established from 1,000s of repetitions. Initially, it must be conscious and deliberate.

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