Bobby Jones: There is perhaps no game which encourages theorizing and experimentation so much as golf. A golfer is nearly always eager to try out any new idea which may be suggested or which may occur to him. But, in most cases, the experimenting is done without the background of a basically sound understanding of the mechanics of the swing.
I am aiming at a broad understanding of the whole swing, rather than attempting to cure individual faults. I want to describe how to do the whole thing correctly rather than how to avoid doing a part of it wrong.
Here is a simple example for understanding the force during the golf swing. For the swing in a park, what will happen if there is only one side of two poles and half crossbeam to support the swinging seat (adding more weight as a person sits on it), like the picture above? It is the one side’s two sticks to take the weight of the seat with a person: the stronger the two sticks and the crossbeam, the faster the seat can achieve; if any point of this half structure is not strong enough, the structure will collapse before the swing gets more angular speed.
We all know this kind of park swing is unreal and need to redesign the structure of this one-side swing. But it is just like our body structure for golf swing: it is two legs and bending spine to take the huge force (weight) from the circle swing of the arms with the club during the impact zone. So we have to build up strong legs and torso before swinging the arms & club to hit the ball because the body structure will topple down if it is not strong enough to take the huge centripetal force created by the circle swing. (Of course we wouldn’t fall down by the golf swing, but our brain and body will naturally reduce the pulling force and club speed in many ways for protection).
The positions or actions are different for the individuals, if they are created by science and technology concepts, the result will be good shots even though they are not according to the so-called “standard” position or action— because there is no single standard position or action fitting for everybody.
Just like Bobby Jone’ talking about the sound fundamentals in the golf swing: “The stroke as a whole is not developed upon any set lines. The fundamentals must be observed, but there is great latitude allowed for accommodating individual needs.”
