No truer words were ever spoken. Yes, Fantasy Island was really about golf.
In the setup to the ball we have several planes defined.
The first is defined by the shoulders and the ball. Shall we call this the ball plane? Yes. Note that the shoulders are on this plane and the ball and the head of the club.
The second plane is defined by the arms. We'll name this the arm plane. The arms hand down almost vertically. They will extend a bit with the longer clubs. But short irons are vertical.
Note that the club (shaft) is laying between the two planes at address. The butt of the club in on arm plane.
On the backswing the arms stay on their plane and as the forearms rotate 90 degrees, the club shaft aligns with the arm plane. Note that the club flops over to join the arm plane. The arms don't drop under the arm plane to move the club onto the arm plane. If you do that, the club will end up below the arm plane. That's were ugly hooks come from.
Both planes have vertical components. The arm plane, while it starts below the ball plane, intersects and passes through the ball plane. We can then describe the ball plane as being flatter or less vertical than the arm plane.
On the down swing, the arms stay on the arm plane and, as we get to impact, the forearms rotate back 90 degrees to their original position and the club shaft crosses the area between the two plane and smacks into the ball. The arms will do this automatically as long as they are on their plane. If they are above or below, then you will have to make adjustments to the downswing to make it work. Accuracy and speed will suffer.
In a good golfing world, the impact for the longer clubs can be described as a pivot from the left shoulder. A number of golfers take their right hand off of the club during the swing. And as it is a swing and not a hit, this is valid. It's a back hand motion with the left arm, connected at its shoulder that is doing all the work.
Now, how does this help us perfect (ha!) the golf swing?
The fundamental theme that needs to be accepted and used, is that the arms are coming into the ball on the arm plane which is below the ball plane. It is an underhanded throw.
Bobby Lopez, a teaching pro, easily found on YouTube, is an advocate of this. He says that he could take a fast pitch softball pitcher and teacher her the game quickly. They are used to this under handed motion.
Staying on the arm plane returns the hands to their starting position.
It also will not allow the golfer to come over the top. Which is where those wonderful slices come from.
There is no need or reason to help the club shaft cross from the arm plane to the ball plane. That happens as a function of the acceleration of the club. It will return to its start position, i.e., where/when the club head broaches the ball plane and impacts the ball.
One more added benefit of being on the planes is that you can swing as hard/fast as you can and all will be well. The forces are balanced there and speed does not make any difference. However, get off the plane and then speed is a problem in that to hit the ball at all, you will need to slow down the club to get it back close to its proper position. The direction of the club as it comes into the ball is of interest. If it comes from the inside to the outside of the arm plane, you will get a hook. From the outside back to the inside produces a slice.
The last part of this golf model is to embrace the left shoulder as the pivot point. When this is used, the body can't get in front of the ball. The swing then comes from the back of the batter's box. The impact position is in front of the body.
With this a slide is eliminated, once again keeping the body in a good place relative to the two planes, allowing the club to be delivered without any manipulation into the ball plane.
That's all I know and I can do it a couple of times a round. And for some reason on the 18th hole, it's easy. A medium length, double dogleg par 5 produces some of the best drives of a round. Perhaps the golfing gods making sure I'll be back to play another round.
Ok, enough of that stuff. Yesterday Steve, a new retiree, and I played behind the seniors. It was slow. What is worse neither of us brought any snacks. By the end of the round we were tired. I hadn't felt that wiped out in a long time. The hotdog as Costco tasted as good as it ever had. "Hunger is the best pickle!" Old Ben Franklin was correct.
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