"What are you unhappy about?" John asked to the figure stomping past his office door.
Luke stuck his head in the door after a quick u-turn.
"Ah, I got caught in one of the automatic speed traps. Another 20 bucks down the drain," said Luke.
"Well, if you are going to destroy the environment and the safety of the public, you'll have to pay the price," said Mark with a sardonic grin.
"I think that 32 in a 30 zone is not a crime against anyone or anything," said Luke.
The California FastTrack Pass was introduced in the 1990s and by 2020 there were about 2.5 million of them in various cars. The bureaucrats liked the idea of free loans from the taxpayers. Evey Pass required a $40 draw against a credit card. The state didn't let that money sit idle. Of course they didn't invest it, that would be madness. Nope, they did what a modern leftist state would do and that was to spend it on pet projects that would help few peoples, accomplish nothing long term, and enhance nothing but some politician's resume.
This didn't go unnoticed and it soon became the law that every car had to have one. As technology got better a new version of the Pass came out. It contained GPS chips and required connection to a car's electrical system. What the new pass provided was state knowledge of the location of every car. It didn't get used much but there were the odd case where it solved a crime. It was also used in a lot of divorce cases as the data could be opened by court order.
The dark turn came when a bright tech mentioned to his boss that the GPS chips can also report speed with a bit of software updating. The update was required and pretty soon every speed limit sign had the means to read the speed of any car that passed it. The speeding tickets were quite modest to start with, just a dollar per MPH over the limit. But the state was happy and excited to tap this new money stream. The fine per mile over the limit kept going up. There was no speed infraction too small to overlook. Motorists couldn't fight it in court as the electronics were unbiased in theory and numbers were numbers. After a while no one fought them, just allowed the funds to seep from their accounts and tap their credit cards whenever the account balance got too low.
Some smart guys canceled their credit cards. It took no time for that "solution" to be fixed by the state. They knew where the car was, so they just put a wheel boot on it until the account was refunded. They of course, added on $100 for boot installation and removal.
"We could prbably do something about the FastTrack if you were up to it," Mark said.
"Huh? What do you mean?" asked Luke.
"Between you and me and John down the hall, we could probably create some chaos," said Mark. "It would be illegal as hell, but we have the tech to do it."
"Hmm... I'm a bit bored and maybe it's time to do our part to make California free again. What do you have in mind?"
"We get John to get us into the hardware and then you and I do some software mods to their database. We can't just make ourselves immune to tickets, but maybe we create enough problems to force them to become a bit more benevolent," said Mark.
"Let's go talk to John," said Luke.
Saturday, January 18, 2020
Sunday, January 12, 2020
Back of the Envelope
According to the wags that I look at on YouTube, the entire golf swing takes about one second.
Assume that you shoot 90 as a score and each swing is one second, then over the nominal four hour round, you've spent about one and a half minutes actually hitting the golf ball.
Now let's look at Pickleball. The swing is shorter. I don't have numbers, but let's call it one half a second per shot. The number of shots per game varies a bit, but rallies are about 6 shots or so and if you are playing doubles maybe you get to hit one half of those. So three shots per point. Games are to 11 points, but you need to win a point to get the serve in order to actually tally any score. Let's call a game about 30 points all told. The opponents score something and you score something and then there is all the to and fro to win the serve. So in each game you hit the ball about 90 times. Now you've swung about 1/2 as much, but the same number of strokes.
We see that a single game of pickleball (PB) provides the same amount of action as a full round of golf. A PB game lasts about 10 minutes. We must add that PB requires a lot of bodily movement. You have to get to the net and then there are some side to side movements and then the darned opponents on occasion will force you back from the net with a lob or something and then you claw your way back.
I normally will play PB for two to three hours at a time. Call it 5 games per hour - there are breaks for water and panting. The final answer is that a morning playing PB has the action of 10 to 15 rounds of golf. And a lot more aerobic content.
My back has been a problem the last 10 days and it may require that I will not be able to play golf and PB. It would be an easy decision to choose pickleball.
Assume that you shoot 90 as a score and each swing is one second, then over the nominal four hour round, you've spent about one and a half minutes actually hitting the golf ball.
Now let's look at Pickleball. The swing is shorter. I don't have numbers, but let's call it one half a second per shot. The number of shots per game varies a bit, but rallies are about 6 shots or so and if you are playing doubles maybe you get to hit one half of those. So three shots per point. Games are to 11 points, but you need to win a point to get the serve in order to actually tally any score. Let's call a game about 30 points all told. The opponents score something and you score something and then there is all the to and fro to win the serve. So in each game you hit the ball about 90 times. Now you've swung about 1/2 as much, but the same number of strokes.
We see that a single game of pickleball (PB) provides the same amount of action as a full round of golf. A PB game lasts about 10 minutes. We must add that PB requires a lot of bodily movement. You have to get to the net and then there are some side to side movements and then the darned opponents on occasion will force you back from the net with a lob or something and then you claw your way back.
I normally will play PB for two to three hours at a time. Call it 5 games per hour - there are breaks for water and panting. The final answer is that a morning playing PB has the action of 10 to 15 rounds of golf. And a lot more aerobic content.
My back has been a problem the last 10 days and it may require that I will not be able to play golf and PB. It would be an easy decision to choose pickleball.
Tuesday, January 7, 2020
The Big Mistake
For the last week I've been playing some pickleball and working on my golf game at the driving range.
I've been pretty happy with my progress in both sports. I'm still working on the basics for Pickleball and trying to make a lot of changes to my golf swing.
This has been going well. At the end of the day, I've been tried and there have been the usual back soreness that is gone for the most part by the morning. Barb and I have been doing some routine car maintenance too. I got some products over the holidays and we've been polishing head lights and washing the beasts. We had a lot of black gunk come down from the trees this winter. It needed a strong hand to get it off the paint. Our theory is that it's ash reside from the summer fires that the trees trapped and then released with the winter rains.
My winter car, the VW GTI, asked to go to the service shop. It has not been there for a year. It had all of 3300 miles since the last service, but there are time limits too. To get ready to take it in, I got the summer car out from its hibernation under its cover. Even while it's covered, it still gets dusty and dirty. So it needed a wash too.
So Monday I play pickleball, then go to the range, and then go wash the car. Lots of "bent over" time to wash and wax and dry the car. And thus we come to this morning about 3 am, when my back is a problem. I got up to get some Ibuprofen and I almost can't do it. Standing and walking is a real problem. I take the pills and manage to get back to bed.
In the morning, I hobble down stairs to send a message to my buddies at Wente to tell them I'm not going to meet them in the morning. I start to go back to bed and walking is suddenly a real problem. Perhaps if I spend some time on the couch? Well, I can't get to the coach. It's too low and bending over is not really possible...
It takes a while of holding on to door frames and stair rails to take some pressure off the back and I manage to get back to bed. Getting dressed and going down stairs later that morning was also a trial. Today has been a series of sitting carefully, popping pills and hoping for relief. The good news is that things are getting better and actually, I can't complain about how quickly it's happening. I expect to be ambulatory tomorrow, but no sports for a few more days. And the cars, ha, they are on their own for a bit.
I've been pretty happy with my progress in both sports. I'm still working on the basics for Pickleball and trying to make a lot of changes to my golf swing.
This has been going well. At the end of the day, I've been tried and there have been the usual back soreness that is gone for the most part by the morning. Barb and I have been doing some routine car maintenance too. I got some products over the holidays and we've been polishing head lights and washing the beasts. We had a lot of black gunk come down from the trees this winter. It needed a strong hand to get it off the paint. Our theory is that it's ash reside from the summer fires that the trees trapped and then released with the winter rains.
My winter car, the VW GTI, asked to go to the service shop. It has not been there for a year. It had all of 3300 miles since the last service, but there are time limits too. To get ready to take it in, I got the summer car out from its hibernation under its cover. Even while it's covered, it still gets dusty and dirty. So it needed a wash too.
So Monday I play pickleball, then go to the range, and then go wash the car. Lots of "bent over" time to wash and wax and dry the car. And thus we come to this morning about 3 am, when my back is a problem. I got up to get some Ibuprofen and I almost can't do it. Standing and walking is a real problem. I take the pills and manage to get back to bed.
In the morning, I hobble down stairs to send a message to my buddies at Wente to tell them I'm not going to meet them in the morning. I start to go back to bed and walking is suddenly a real problem. Perhaps if I spend some time on the couch? Well, I can't get to the coach. It's too low and bending over is not really possible...
It takes a while of holding on to door frames and stair rails to take some pressure off the back and I manage to get back to bed. Getting dressed and going down stairs later that morning was also a trial. Today has been a series of sitting carefully, popping pills and hoping for relief. The good news is that things are getting better and actually, I can't complain about how quickly it's happening. I expect to be ambulatory tomorrow, but no sports for a few more days. And the cars, ha, they are on their own for a bit.
Sunday, January 5, 2020
It's a Harsh World
I have three pairs of golf shoes in rotation and they all leak.
I'm not talking about "playing the in the rain leaking," I'm talking about walking in low levels of dew leaking. When one buys golf shoes these days, you want to see if the "water resistant" or "water proof" shoes are covered by any warranty.
The shoes I've mentioned all have a two year waterproof warranty. Now, the average golfer on the street might assume from that, that New Balance or Sketchers might then be eager to provide shoes to get you through the two year period with dry, toasty feet. And that they probably expect that one pair of shoes would last beyond that period.
The back story is that I've claimed leaky shoes from New Balance and they provided a new pair, two actually, as I had bought two pairs and after about 7 months both were leaking. They shipped identical shoes out fairly quickly and I didn't have to return the shoes, which costs about $15, don't ask me how I know that, it's another story.
My feet were once again dry and I used both pairs in rotation, even got some shoe trees to help them stay happy. But it's been another 7 months and my feet are now wrinkly and cold. All the replacement shoes are leaking, including some from Sketchers that about 1 year old.
I contact New Balance and what do I find? Yes, well, as they see it they are liable for only the original shoes and there is no warranty on the replacement shoes as "I didn't buy them." The two year warranty is not a time period in any normal sense and it crashes to a close as soon as the original shoes are replaced.
I was a bit surprised by this, but this policy was also in place at the Sketchers web site -- I knew enough to read the fine print this time around. I'm guessing that I have no recourse at this point. The question becomes then how to minimize the cost of golf shoes. Let's buy a new pair, wear them until they leak. Assuming this is in the warranty period, I claim a replacement. But since the replacement shoes have no warranty, put them on the shelf and buy a new pair.
When the new ones leak, which it seems they always will, make a claim and get the replacement. At this point, hopefully two years out, we have two pairs of new shoes with no warranties. We use them, wear them out, then replace them. That should get me about three and a half years wear for a purchase of two pairs.
Current status: I've purchased some Pumas and Foot Joys. I've started the clock and I'll run with these. Warm and dry for the first few rounds. I've still got the Sketchers to return.
Other news: the car wants to go into the shop. The new golf bag is breaking rivets and still is short a few pockets and what's worse, has the zippers going in the wrong direction -- so if you bend over with the bag on your back, stuff falls out of the pockets unless the zipper is fully closed!
New schedule for January. I'm going to play a lot of pickleball, less golf and make a modest five swing changes! Grip, stance, takeaway, downswing, and left foot pressure. Otherwise, I'm happy with my swing. I'll play pickleball in the morning, have some lunch, then off to the driving range in the afternoon.
I've been on this schedule for about a week and I'm happy with the shift in my attention. I'm getting more interested in the pickleball details and there are a few. It's also more aerobic and physically demanding.
I'm not talking about "playing the in the rain leaking," I'm talking about walking in low levels of dew leaking. When one buys golf shoes these days, you want to see if the "water resistant" or "water proof" shoes are covered by any warranty.
The shoes I've mentioned all have a two year waterproof warranty. Now, the average golfer on the street might assume from that, that New Balance or Sketchers might then be eager to provide shoes to get you through the two year period with dry, toasty feet. And that they probably expect that one pair of shoes would last beyond that period.
The back story is that I've claimed leaky shoes from New Balance and they provided a new pair, two actually, as I had bought two pairs and after about 7 months both were leaking. They shipped identical shoes out fairly quickly and I didn't have to return the shoes, which costs about $15, don't ask me how I know that, it's another story.
My feet were once again dry and I used both pairs in rotation, even got some shoe trees to help them stay happy. But it's been another 7 months and my feet are now wrinkly and cold. All the replacement shoes are leaking, including some from Sketchers that about 1 year old.
I contact New Balance and what do I find? Yes, well, as they see it they are liable for only the original shoes and there is no warranty on the replacement shoes as "I didn't buy them." The two year warranty is not a time period in any normal sense and it crashes to a close as soon as the original shoes are replaced.
I was a bit surprised by this, but this policy was also in place at the Sketchers web site -- I knew enough to read the fine print this time around. I'm guessing that I have no recourse at this point. The question becomes then how to minimize the cost of golf shoes. Let's buy a new pair, wear them until they leak. Assuming this is in the warranty period, I claim a replacement. But since the replacement shoes have no warranty, put them on the shelf and buy a new pair.
When the new ones leak, which it seems they always will, make a claim and get the replacement. At this point, hopefully two years out, we have two pairs of new shoes with no warranties. We use them, wear them out, then replace them. That should get me about three and a half years wear for a purchase of two pairs.
Current status: I've purchased some Pumas and Foot Joys. I've started the clock and I'll run with these. Warm and dry for the first few rounds. I've still got the Sketchers to return.
Other news: the car wants to go into the shop. The new golf bag is breaking rivets and still is short a few pockets and what's worse, has the zippers going in the wrong direction -- so if you bend over with the bag on your back, stuff falls out of the pockets unless the zipper is fully closed!
New schedule for January. I'm going to play a lot of pickleball, less golf and make a modest five swing changes! Grip, stance, takeaway, downswing, and left foot pressure. Otherwise, I'm happy with my swing. I'll play pickleball in the morning, have some lunch, then off to the driving range in the afternoon.
I've been on this schedule for about a week and I'm happy with the shift in my attention. I'm getting more interested in the pickleball details and there are a few. It's also more aerobic and physically demanding.
Friday, January 3, 2020
Recent Inventions
Yes, it's not just the odd poem or limerick that makes up my creative life. With the lack of software development I've got some creative energy left for other things.
One of the earliest items was golf club holder to be used when you have an extra club or two and need to lay them down in a wet fairway. This was fashioned from a piece of deer antler that had a nice fork in it. I added a rod to the bottom of the fork to push into the ground for stability purposes. This came out pretty well. It doesn't weigh much and is flat enough to slide into a front pocket without disturbing well tailored lines.
The new bag I got has too few pockets and I was tucking phone and keys into various places making them hard to find and a general pain. This added to my woes in re this bag -- more details probably later. I found a padded slip case for a tablet computer and with the use of my sewing machine, added some seams and now it has a nice pouch for the phone, one for keys and another for wallet and card case. It folds nicely and tucks into the jacket pocket.
I can hear you, dear reader, wondering about this sewing machine. I saw a YouTube video on a cheap Chinese manual sewing machine that would sew through multiple layers of leather and just about anything else. With the odd projects that crop up, this looked like an ideal tool to have around. I didn't hesitate to order one up. This is a manual machine with a hand crank to make it all work. It is a bit rough more an industrial product than a consumer item, so there was a learning curve and various parts needed some filing and oiling. But that was part of the fun. It's been useful and fun to play with. It's mounted on a board and I clap it to the work bench when I need to use it.
Finally, I have the habit of clipping a towel to my belt loop. In the winter, I've been not wearing shorts but have some pants that don't have a belt loop. So I've been clipping the towel into the waist band. That chewed up the waist and I had to resew (did I mention my nice sewing machine?) the band. So something had to be done. I cut a piece of leather about 5 inches long that ended in a narrow point. I put a grommet through the point and I can tuck the fob into pants and the point with grommet hangs out and allows an easy way to clip the towel. This has worked quite well. The leather has enough texture to keep the towel from pulling the fob out. Got it in one!
There are a couple of other little things, like tethers for the range finder to keep it from falling off the bag and some items to organize the trunk. But the highlights are above.
One of the earliest items was golf club holder to be used when you have an extra club or two and need to lay them down in a wet fairway. This was fashioned from a piece of deer antler that had a nice fork in it. I added a rod to the bottom of the fork to push into the ground for stability purposes. This came out pretty well. It doesn't weigh much and is flat enough to slide into a front pocket without disturbing well tailored lines.
The new bag I got has too few pockets and I was tucking phone and keys into various places making them hard to find and a general pain. This added to my woes in re this bag -- more details probably later. I found a padded slip case for a tablet computer and with the use of my sewing machine, added some seams and now it has a nice pouch for the phone, one for keys and another for wallet and card case. It folds nicely and tucks into the jacket pocket.
I can hear you, dear reader, wondering about this sewing machine. I saw a YouTube video on a cheap Chinese manual sewing machine that would sew through multiple layers of leather and just about anything else. With the odd projects that crop up, this looked like an ideal tool to have around. I didn't hesitate to order one up. This is a manual machine with a hand crank to make it all work. It is a bit rough more an industrial product than a consumer item, so there was a learning curve and various parts needed some filing and oiling. But that was part of the fun. It's been useful and fun to play with. It's mounted on a board and I clap it to the work bench when I need to use it.
Finally, I have the habit of clipping a towel to my belt loop. In the winter, I've been not wearing shorts but have some pants that don't have a belt loop. So I've been clipping the towel into the waist band. That chewed up the waist and I had to resew (did I mention my nice sewing machine?) the band. So something had to be done. I cut a piece of leather about 5 inches long that ended in a narrow point. I put a grommet through the point and I can tuck the fob into pants and the point with grommet hangs out and allows an easy way to clip the towel. This has worked quite well. The leather has enough texture to keep the towel from pulling the fob out. Got it in one!
There are a couple of other little things, like tethers for the range finder to keep it from falling off the bag and some items to organize the trunk. But the highlights are above.
Wednesday, January 1, 2020
New Year, New Plans
In a recent golf outing Phil brought out his camera and a ball analyzer. Well, they are called something else, but it's not coming to me... It will, but it may take a paragraph or two.
The analyzer said that my swing speed with the driver was 84 MPH. On my instruments I see about 10 MPH higher than that. Phil also sent along the video of my swing. Well, guess what, apparently I have no shoulder turn!
This is a problem theoretically. Interestingly I've been hitting the driver well lately. Ah, it's not going far, but it's in the fairway and matching the distances of my homies, so it's not too bad. But with a shoulder turn, it ought to be a bit bolder.
The launch monitor (Ha! there it is!) calculated that I have a 1.52 smash factor (SF). SF is the ratio of ball speed to club speed. If your club speed was 100 MPG and the ball was 100 MPH then the SF is 1.00. I believe the theoretical limit is 1.5, so 100 MPG club speed gets you 150 MPH ball speed. Thus it looks like something is off a bit But we are not talking about less than one percent error.
Here is the plan for a bit: Play pickleball on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, then a short lunch, let my back recover from the pickleball, then off to the golf range in the afternoons to work on my shoulder turn. I have a launch monitor too and I'll see if I can record some data and see if I can make a change.
Phil and company are usually playing on Tuesday and Thursdays, so I'll be seeing if my golf training will bear any fruit.
The analyzer said that my swing speed with the driver was 84 MPH. On my instruments I see about 10 MPH higher than that. Phil also sent along the video of my swing. Well, guess what, apparently I have no shoulder turn!
This is a problem theoretically. Interestingly I've been hitting the driver well lately. Ah, it's not going far, but it's in the fairway and matching the distances of my homies, so it's not too bad. But with a shoulder turn, it ought to be a bit bolder.
The launch monitor (Ha! there it is!) calculated that I have a 1.52 smash factor (SF). SF is the ratio of ball speed to club speed. If your club speed was 100 MPG and the ball was 100 MPH then the SF is 1.00. I believe the theoretical limit is 1.5, so 100 MPG club speed gets you 150 MPH ball speed. Thus it looks like something is off a bit But we are not talking about less than one percent error.
Here is the plan for a bit: Play pickleball on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, then a short lunch, let my back recover from the pickleball, then off to the golf range in the afternoons to work on my shoulder turn. I have a launch monitor too and I'll see if I can record some data and see if I can make a change.
Phil and company are usually playing on Tuesday and Thursdays, so I'll be seeing if my golf training will bear any fruit.
Sunday, September 22, 2019
Is That a Light or a Train?
When I look into the golf swing there are two authorities that I trust.
One is Tutelman.com, written by Dave Tutelman, a physicist, and the second is Athletic Motion Golf, a YouTube site.
I trust the physics point of view as it has been proven in other fields and then applied to golf. I'm not sure that there isn't too much reliance on his model, but it seems to hold together well. If someone else proposes something in re the swing, I look for conflicts with Tutelman's point of view.
Athletic Motion Golf (AMG) comes from a different direction. They collect swing information from golfers and then look at the differences between the good and the great players. Frequently the differences are stark. AMG is not proposing a model for the swing, they just tell you what they see; the how and the why are left to you, the viewer.
While I vowed the other week to not change my swing, AMG put up some interesting videos about shaft and hand positions. This was one of their usual Pros versus Ams presentations. If I were to sum it up, the pros will get their hands almost back to the address position before losing the angle between the left forearm and golf shaft and the Ams will lose it earlier and the club shaft is parallel to the ground much earlier in the swing. (At impact the Pro's arms are ahead of the impact position, the Am 's is behind the address position. )
The next item was that the left shoulders of Pros will move downward towards the ball during the downswing, while amateurs return on the same path they got there. Ams become much flatter in their swing plane than do the pros. In simpler terms the pro is closer to the ball than the Am, this is even true in the backswing as a pro will get shorter and the Am will straighten up a bit. This distance is not huge, just and inch or two, but it may be more important for what is to follow, to note the direction of the motion. Pros are getting closer, Ams moving away from the ball.
Let me put some of this together and I'll pass on what I think is happening and important in these variables.
We have to start by recognizing that in either case, you have to get the club face back to the ball. There is not a lot of error that is available here. Thin shots and thick ones are a problem. Clearly the pro is more consistent in avoiding these extremes.
Secondly, if you are a pro, you need to "shorten" your club to get to impact. If you move away, you need a longer club. So how do the two golfers do this? They both start with a setup position where the club face is vertically aligned with the ball, but as they swing the pro makes the distance shorter and the Am makes it longer.
The answer is found on the AMG video when they talk of hand position at impact. The pro's does not match the Am's. And the pro's hands will be ahead of the ball at impact. There is more angle from arms to club shaft than the Am's. This in effect shortens the club shaft length. In fact all pros will have hand positions more towards the target than the address position.
What does the Am do? He loses the angle between arms and shaft earlier, which makes the club longer. If it's not long enough, he will raise his body up too and uses the flatter shoulder motion, another means to increase the space between body and ball, to allow the club to hit the ball. If our bodies were not as wonderful at making things happen, there would be a lot of misses. So the pro maintains wrist shaft angle, the Am loses it. The Am unloads the angle earlier, the pro wants to retain it.
AMG has measured the time available from the top of the backswing to impact and it's less than a quarter of a second. The Am and the Pro have the same time -- speeds are the same! But look what each of them is doing. The pro is basically just rotating his body to the ball with a slight lowering of the body, which occurs early in the downswing. The Am is opening wrists, lifting up and making room for the impact. AMG has often stated that pros do less work than Ams. The Am is spending time losing angle, raising the body, lengthening then trying to get out of the way.
The pro ends up with more club speed at the ball, a simpler motion and with less moving parts, more consistency.
Now does this stand up to what Tutelman has to say? Yes it does. His view of the swing is that the arms and club will swing out and strike the ball. The longer you can hold on the "90 degree" angle, the faster the club will be at impact. He sees the swing as the opposite of a figure skater doing a spin and pulling in her arms. As the arms come in, the speed increases.
AMG states that there is nothing that the pro does that is physically demanding, or requires exceptional strength or skill. They suspect that they found the proper motion early in life.
For some reason the sport of golf lends itself to improper actions. If the game were more dynamic and the ball in motion, it might be easier to swing well. But going from a stand still to a 100 MPH club head seems bring out the worst in golfers.
On a personal note, I've been working on keeping the arm club angle later in the swing, trying to not move the left arm up against my chest, and then getting my hands in front of the address position at impact. While this sounds like a lot of stuff to try, it's simpler than my old swing. I've been hitting the ball better and even the driver has shown signs of being a weapon of mass destruction.
---
I dreamed of Einstein the other night and felt I should put it on record. He and I met and talked in German a bit, then we went out to a swamp and using our feet pushed down into the water. Einstein thought that the water motion was going to create an electrical discharge and he wanted to measure it. I think we had some sort of grid that lowered onto the water to pick up the weak electrical signals. The dream faded away at that point. But it is the first time I got to talk to him, so I thought it was worth mentioning.
One is Tutelman.com, written by Dave Tutelman, a physicist, and the second is Athletic Motion Golf, a YouTube site.
I trust the physics point of view as it has been proven in other fields and then applied to golf. I'm not sure that there isn't too much reliance on his model, but it seems to hold together well. If someone else proposes something in re the swing, I look for conflicts with Tutelman's point of view.
Athletic Motion Golf (AMG) comes from a different direction. They collect swing information from golfers and then look at the differences between the good and the great players. Frequently the differences are stark. AMG is not proposing a model for the swing, they just tell you what they see; the how and the why are left to you, the viewer.
While I vowed the other week to not change my swing, AMG put up some interesting videos about shaft and hand positions. This was one of their usual Pros versus Ams presentations. If I were to sum it up, the pros will get their hands almost back to the address position before losing the angle between the left forearm and golf shaft and the Ams will lose it earlier and the club shaft is parallel to the ground much earlier in the swing. (At impact the Pro's arms are ahead of the impact position, the Am 's is behind the address position. )
The next item was that the left shoulders of Pros will move downward towards the ball during the downswing, while amateurs return on the same path they got there. Ams become much flatter in their swing plane than do the pros. In simpler terms the pro is closer to the ball than the Am, this is even true in the backswing as a pro will get shorter and the Am will straighten up a bit. This distance is not huge, just and inch or two, but it may be more important for what is to follow, to note the direction of the motion. Pros are getting closer, Ams moving away from the ball.
Let me put some of this together and I'll pass on what I think is happening and important in these variables.
We have to start by recognizing that in either case, you have to get the club face back to the ball. There is not a lot of error that is available here. Thin shots and thick ones are a problem. Clearly the pro is more consistent in avoiding these extremes.
Secondly, if you are a pro, you need to "shorten" your club to get to impact. If you move away, you need a longer club. So how do the two golfers do this? They both start with a setup position where the club face is vertically aligned with the ball, but as they swing the pro makes the distance shorter and the Am makes it longer.
The answer is found on the AMG video when they talk of hand position at impact. The pro's does not match the Am's. And the pro's hands will be ahead of the ball at impact. There is more angle from arms to club shaft than the Am's. This in effect shortens the club shaft length. In fact all pros will have hand positions more towards the target than the address position.
What does the Am do? He loses the angle between arms and shaft earlier, which makes the club longer. If it's not long enough, he will raise his body up too and uses the flatter shoulder motion, another means to increase the space between body and ball, to allow the club to hit the ball. If our bodies were not as wonderful at making things happen, there would be a lot of misses. So the pro maintains wrist shaft angle, the Am loses it. The Am unloads the angle earlier, the pro wants to retain it.
AMG has measured the time available from the top of the backswing to impact and it's less than a quarter of a second. The Am and the Pro have the same time -- speeds are the same! But look what each of them is doing. The pro is basically just rotating his body to the ball with a slight lowering of the body, which occurs early in the downswing. The Am is opening wrists, lifting up and making room for the impact. AMG has often stated that pros do less work than Ams. The Am is spending time losing angle, raising the body, lengthening then trying to get out of the way.
The pro ends up with more club speed at the ball, a simpler motion and with less moving parts, more consistency.
Now does this stand up to what Tutelman has to say? Yes it does. His view of the swing is that the arms and club will swing out and strike the ball. The longer you can hold on the "90 degree" angle, the faster the club will be at impact. He sees the swing as the opposite of a figure skater doing a spin and pulling in her arms. As the arms come in, the speed increases.
AMG states that there is nothing that the pro does that is physically demanding, or requires exceptional strength or skill. They suspect that they found the proper motion early in life.
For some reason the sport of golf lends itself to improper actions. If the game were more dynamic and the ball in motion, it might be easier to swing well. But going from a stand still to a 100 MPH club head seems bring out the worst in golfers.
On a personal note, I've been working on keeping the arm club angle later in the swing, trying to not move the left arm up against my chest, and then getting my hands in front of the address position at impact. While this sounds like a lot of stuff to try, it's simpler than my old swing. I've been hitting the ball better and even the driver has shown signs of being a weapon of mass destruction.
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I dreamed of Einstein the other night and felt I should put it on record. He and I met and talked in German a bit, then we went out to a swamp and using our feet pushed down into the water. Einstein thought that the water motion was going to create an electrical discharge and he wanted to measure it. I think we had some sort of grid that lowered onto the water to pick up the weak electrical signals. The dream faded away at that point. But it is the first time I got to talk to him, so I thought it was worth mentioning.
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