Ask The Professor Archives Part 5

I am a novice golfer and am in the process of upgrading my clubs. I want a lot of the benefits offered by the name brand clubs, but am not yet prepared to spend the high $$$$$. I have seen the "clones" out there, and I want to know your thoughts on them.

Clones by a good club maker are superior to the brand names and far less expensive. First, the heads are equal or superior to the brand names. Second, the shaft and grip, loft and lies will be correct for your swing speed. 99% of the clubs sold by the name brand companies are too stiff and the lies are never correct. You are paying Tiger Woods's salary and for advertising.

Is there any reason why SA golfers shy away from oversize clubs like Callaway or Ping? I have Callaway and am thinking about getting them retrofitted for SA, but don't want to go through the expense if these clubs are not compatible with SA or LPG.

JK: All golf clubs are compatible with SA and LPG. The major fault with oversized and any club that is designed to cure a fault is that you must have the fault for the club to be effective. This is why the majority of tour players use blade size clubs. Virtually all the manufacturers have gone back to blade size.

P.S. - I am doing the LPG practice with the brace at the moment and am getting good results.

In an attempt to make gradual changes to my swing eventually to the LPG method, I have tried changing my right hand grip to the palm grip; albeit to a hybrid one with my right pinkie still overlapping the left hand. The result is a very solid hook shot. By the way, my left hand is semi-strong 2 and a half knuckles showing.

Please tell me what i am doing wrong.

In addition, I am considering changing my grip to a ten finger grip with the right hand being a palm grip. Would you recommend it?

Any time you have the left hand on top of the club, you will be fighting a hook. Ben Hogan was a wild hooker until he moved his left hand to the correct position (back of the left hand and club face pointing in the same direction).

What is your opinion on the 'audience effect' on golfers. The 'audience effect' in basic terms is how the golfer or athlete performs when there is an audience present. How does it affect their performance, and does it have a positive or negative affect?

Also is there any text that contain this information?

The "audience-effect" is just another phase of the FEAR mode. There are two different brain circuits used in motion. One is for the motion and other is to control FEAR. I explain it in great detail on my web site with references to the neurosciece books from which the information was obtained. I also explain why the camera click at the top of a backstroke is a real effect that can cause a stroke to be unsatisfactory.

I think I read you originally used a strong left hand grip as in the Heard Super Swing but abandoned it. How long did you experiment with this grip and did you abandon it because it caused problems hooking the ball?

My original grip when I started Right Way Golf and the one on the video produced by Amway (1988) was a strong left hand. I fought a duck hook under pressure for years. I initially taught body rotation as well. You must perfectly time the amount the hips and shoulders are open in order not to duck hook the ball with a strong left hand grip. This is why almost all lady tour golfers are open at impact -- they all use the unnecessary strong grip. It is definitely why men tour golfers must be open and spinning their hips and shoulders. David Duval and Paul Azinger are always fighting a duck hook.

Ben Hogan became a dominant player when he moved his left hand from strong to weak.

The traditionally labeled weak grip is really not weak, it is the strongest grip you can take.

Very interesting site. I currently play golf for Davis High School. I have a +2 Handicap and have won the State Am the last three years in a row. One of my roommates told me about the site and he ordered one of your packages last year and tried it for a couple of weeks with no results and we both kind of forgot about it.

JK: The brain hates change. The brain only wants to do what it initially learned. Anything new, will initially have negative sensations.

I've been inconsistent this year trying to play through a harsh Utah winter and I came across your video, book, and LPG trainer. I have been working with it for the last few weeks and I think I just figured it out. I have played several rounds with the trainer on with great results. My only question for you is who is the best player that you know of using your system?

JK:That would be all the certified instructors. All of them can shoot under par rounds. I have a lot of single digit handicappers. I have (until someone makes a bigger claim) the single best improvement in the history of the game. A physician in Phoenix was a 22 handicap. He took two lessons and in 60 days shot a 2 under par round.

I play in all of the big amateur tournaments and have never seen a player using this type of swing.

JK: That is because the dominant player of today (Tiger Woods) uses the AVERAGE MODEL SWING - 90% more motion than necessary. Nothing will stop 99% of young amateurs from copying him. Only a few will obtain the knowledge not to go down the path of back problems and unnecessary mechanics. Moe Norman was always being told by his playing partners that he should change to a traditional looking swing. He would say to them, "Let me see you hit a ball." After he watched them hit balls, he would say, "No, I hit it better than you do." He never changed from his simple repeatable mechanics and, as you may or may not know, he is considered to be the greatest ball striker in the history of golf.

My swing speed has gone down but it is still probably good enough to get to the next level. My driver speed is around 130mph with my traditional swing and around 118mph with the LPG.

JK: You need to work on the power move. You have to have more club head speed with a bent left arm.

I guess I have one more question you state that you have a higher ball flight using this system and I have had a much lower ball flight with this system. I think it is just because I create less club head speed and my shafts are very stiff. What do you think?

It definitely has to do with your angle of attack. If I could see a video of your swing, I could tell why you do not get the higher ball flight.

My club head speed is 75 mph.110ft./sec (driver)

JK: This is an very low club head speed for a driver. Are you a senior over 60 years of age? Your air carry with kind of club head speed will hit the ball around 160 yards. There is no one who uses LPG that can't air carry a ball over 200 yards.

Distance moved by club head 18 ft.approx. How do you calculate acceleration?

JK: Use a video camera that has 1,000 (or greater) shutter. Each TV frame will be 0.033 seconds. Take the distance traveled at each frame and calculate the velocity ( V = d/t; velocity is equal to distance divided by time). Now divide that number by the time a second time. Accelleration is velocity divide by time (a = V/t). That will be the acceleration at each frame.

Also what is the mass of a golf ball?

JK: 0.003 slugs, Calculations below --

Weight is 1.620 ounces.
Which is equal to 0.1 lbs.
The mass unit in this system is the slug (w=m/g; g is accelleration from gravity = 32.2 ft/sec2).
0.1/32.2 = 0.003 slugs.

JK: Unfortunately you have bought on marketing hype that a big head can hit the ball farther.

At what point in the swing does extension of the left arm become imperative for optimal club head speed and could you explain the physics behind this phenomenon.

I will assume you are talking about the additional club head speed from a bent left arm in the backstroke as compared to the traditional straight left arm method. The maximum increase in club head speed comes at the 0.06 seconds before impact. At this point the left arm will be straight in a bent left arm stroke. If you start with a straight left arm in the backstroke, it is in its most disadvantaged position at the top. It can only support. It can provide minimal speed from the top to the 0.06 second position. The right arm must provide the majority. It also depends on how much pain you like in the backstroke. The bigger the shoulder turn with a straight left arm, the greater the pain in the back and shoulders. So, if you like pain (and a slower club head speed), make big shoulder turns with a straight left arm.

When you bend the left arm in the backstroke, you add a powerful lever, the left triceps to help start the club down. You remove the tension from your back and shoulders and increase the club head speed by about 10% at the 0.06 second position over the straight left arm method. It is now easier to turn on the right arm lever flexors to achieve your maximum club head speed.

The physics is simple - optimum use of arm levers. The body is a stabilizer. There are no mechanisms for transferring any speed, momentum, force, pressure or any other term that has been written about from the body into the arms. Type IIx fast twitch muscles moving arm levers create maximum club head speed. The more of them you employ, the greater the club head speed.

I really appreciate your great discovery of lever golf swing, but I am a little confused with your description on "power move.

When I downswing, I move my elbow in to sling my forearm, and my hands move away from my shoulder consequently, as I throw a ball underhanded. I have no notion of moving my hands "backward". (Feel like throwing my forearm downward). In other words, my hands are passive in the downswing motion, just to be thrown away by my arms. Can you tell me if there is any difference between throwing a club and moving hands away from shoulder as you describe?

Many golfers "feel" it differently. The correct sensation is of tossing a golf club. It is also the drill of touching a stool behind you without any rotation of the body or shoulders.

I was reading your section on the formula m1u1 + m2u2 = m1v1 + m2v2. When you solved for a 180 pound man, I had a question. You stated that m1 was the mass of the club head. You then plugged in the mass of the golfer. Is this right?

Go back and read the entire article. m1 is any mass that is involved with hitting the ball. For a golf stroke the only mass that matters is the mass of the club head. I do another calculation showing that any mass over 11 pounds will have no effect. I do the calculation with the mass of the golfer to illustrate how very tiny this additional mass would effect (even if it were in the club head). There are still golfers who believe that it is the size of the golfer that makes the difference, e.g, weight of men versus women.

Also, I am trying to figure out what effect swinging a heavier club head would have on ball flight and distance. If you were to add weight by lead tape to a driver head and you could produce the same swing, what would be the effect and how do I figure this out?

That calculation is given including an example that shows that any weight over 11 pounds has no effect.

I am looking for information on the Tommy Armour EQL clubs. My Dad, Jack Nix, patented these clubs in the 1970's. I am trying to determine if it was marketing or a flawed design concept that kept them from selling well on the market.

Unfortunately, it was a design concept flaw and not a marketing flaw. All the clubs were the length of a six iron. You created the same club head speed with every club. The only way to get distance was through loft. The lower number irons (wedges, 9,8) would go too far. The higher number irons(2,3,4) would not go far enough. The spread between irons would be on the order of 5 to 7 yards. A full set of clubs 8 irons would allow you hit between 100 and 157 yards with accuracy. That is not enough spread.

Traditional swing weighting assembly (which totally mismatches a set of clubs) allows for a 10 yard spread. You have a different feel with every club. The spread would be from 100 to 180. Since this is the basic way tour player's clubs are assembled, the brain can overcome the negatives with enough practice and coordination.

Scientific assembly of total weight, 1st and 2nd moment of inertia balancing allows for up to a 13 yard spread with the same swing feel. 8 irons assembled using scientific assembly now take you from 100 to 204 yards. Every club feels the same and a controlled swing with one feel produces the 13 yard spread.

The Magic of Science is Awesome.

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