Energy or Efficiency?

A former German professor suggest rhetorical questions were not the way start anything...

I keep pondering the ability of long hitting golfers of slight stature to move the ball long distances.

I'm guessing that there is required a blend of two things, that of efficient energy transfer to the club and some amount of power to move the body prior to this transfer. 

I would think that I have as much muscle mass as a 160 pound professional golfer.  I could be wrong about that, but I ought to get within some 20% or so.  Sadly that is not the current case.  I can't get the driver much above the low 90s, units being MPH.  The pros are at 120+, long distance specialists are 130 and up.

Back to the main point.  If I can't provide the raw horse power, then can I improve my efficiency? 

For a total transfer of energy the body and hands would stop as all energy is passed to the club.  Think of crack the whip on ice skates, the inner guys stop, then the middle guys and so on until the final body is at maximum speed.

With this in mind, I was thinking that I should be stopping somewhat as I come into the hitting area.  This helps me in a couple of ways.  One being that I'm not sliding forward as I'm stopping before I get to the hit and then if true, I'll provide more energy to the club.

This occurred to me on Friday morning lying in bed.  We'd come back from 8 times zones and sleep was not an easy thing.  On Friday I took it to the course without any range time to see if it was doable.

I was able to do this for the most part.  I didn't see any distance increases, but they didn't seem to be much shorter either.  What I did see was a much higher ball flight.  My effective loft of the clubs was going up and by a lot.  I was also hitting it very straight.

It was a very different swing than that which I normally produce.  As I was willing to just stop at impact, there seemed to be very little effort, the swing felt slow.

I was happy with the ball flight.  I was moving the ball pretty well.  The greens were newly punched and very rough, which made scoring tough.  I did manage to play the back 9 in one over with two birdies and a couple of other chances. 

I should get some time at the range this weekend and I want to continue to explore this method some more.  It required very little effort on my part, my back was not real happy with it, but I'm not sure I was getting hips out of the way as I was coming out of the hit. 

Part of a proper swing is to let the club pull the hands up and around to the follow through, another indication that the body ought to be doing close to nothing at the hit.


I also bit the bullet and ordered some New Balance golf shoes.  They have one built on their cross trainer shoe platform that while a bit heavy, provides support and I've always found them comfortable.  The ball of my right foot has been unhappy lately.  There is a tendon or something that runs across it and this tendon can get unhappy.

I looked around for shoes on sale and found some for $90, but they wanted $7 for shipping and I thought "let me check Amazon."  They had the same shoe for $70 with free shipping and tax of $7.  They will be here on Monday -- Tuesday tryouts!

I will miss Amazon when they are gone.  Gone?  I hear you ask.  The profit margin at Amazon continues to decrease.  Soon they will sell everything at a profit of 0.  A trend that cannot continue.  But for the moment, Yeah Amazon!

I want to write up the differences between play in Cambridge and playing at home.  There are not a lot of differences, but I think I can expound a bit.