The Big Muscle Myth

There are two basic schools of thought for producing maximum club head speed.One is the big muscles (body and legs) and the other is the arms and hands.

The theories of the big muscle proponents:

• The dog wags the tail.
  
• The inside moves the outside.
  
• Both the direction and speed of the club head are controlled by your torso. Your hands remain passive - think 'active body, passive hands'.
  
• The very best players controlled the hands and arms with the big muscles of the body - the large muscles of the legs torso and shoulders - rather than the smaller muscles of the arms and hands.
  
• Hand and arm dominance is the arch-enemy of the average golfer.
  

  A golfer's main source of power is in the torso. It starts in the big muscles of the legs, hips, and upper body, then passes through the arms to the club. This is an outline of Tiger Woods at impact. You can see that his shoulders are parallel to the intended line of flight and his hips are rotated almost 90 degrees to his shoulder and arm plane. There is major torque on his spine, and that's most likely the cause of his back problems.

• I don't want my 10-pound arms trying to move my 160-pound body.

All of the above authors also believe in centrifugal force. This was shown scientifically tobe false in my first myths paper.

The theories of the arms and hands proponents:

• Ernest Jones: The hands control the swing, with the large muscles of the body -- upper arms, shoulders, and legs -- performing as "admirable followers."
  
• Tommy Armour: Whack hell out of the ball with your right hand.
  
• John Jacobs: The fundamental action in the golf swing is without a shadow of a doubt the swinging of the arms.
  
• Joe Norwood: Rotation causes 90% of the errors in golf.
  
• Mark O'Meara: Start the downswing with your hands and arms, then let them join in with your lower body.
  
• Bob Toski and Jim Flick when they conducted the Golf Digest schools taught arm swing as the source of club head speed.

You will observe right away that I have included the names of the proponents of the arms and hands method. They are the ones who are scientifically correct. Each of the authors of the big muscle theories are serious students and teachers of the game. They are not incorrect because of time-on-task work. They are incorrect because they are not scientists. They base there findings on the only thing they can, there perceptions. I have great respect for these teachers as sincerely trying to improve your game. It is unfortunate that scientific observations have to prove them to be incorrect.

Jack Kuykendall's scientific theories for the production of club head speed.