[Mike McFadden]

Hey Dan,Roy,

Great thread:

WHY WE NEED TO KNOW THE MECHANICS OF THE GOLF SWING

As Fitters, I see it as just another weapon at your disposal to win the “best fit possible” fight. I personally want to know as much as I can about everything that could influence the fit and my ability to help who ever I am working with at the moment. That is just me, everybody is different and I respect that. When I found out about Wishon Golf I learned real quick how little I knew about true custom fitting. I spent a week in Durango with Tom and MEW. Tom came to Germany more that a few times to do Seminars and I can honestly say I have never met anyone in the golf world more generous with their time and information than TW. One of the smartest things he ever told me was to join the AGCP. He said they are really good people and work under the motto “share and care”. I have only been a member for 8 years, but I can not even come close to explaining everything that I have learned here in that time.

I just wanted to get that off my chest before I go into what I really want to write about. The question here is a “why” question. For me at least, that is pretty obvious, as I said earlier it can have an influence on the fit so I want to know as much as I can about the mechanics of the golf swing. I also want to have the inner peace you get from knowing what to expect when you change something. I love predicting what will happen when I change something. I love having an apprentice present to whisper my prediction to and watch it happen. Often I will write it done and then show it to the golfer after the shot. I don’t mind being wrong, fortunately it does not happen that often because I have the “cause and effect” charts in my head on my hard-drive ;-).

No pun intended John S. but this is not rocket science. It is just memorising a few basic ball flight laws and the things that influence them along with their relationship to each other. Then add experience with this knowledge to the mix.

So, it just came to me that I am probably hijacking this thread. Not my intention. But, what I wanted to do was share with care, “what” you need to know about the mechanics of the golf swing. 

I have been in the education committee of the PGA of Germany for 25 years. My speciality is motor learning and how the brain works in learning movement but I have a very good background in the biomechanics of the golf swing, ball flight laws, impact alignments, the influence of functional anatomy and cause and effect. 

I think after reading this, you can decide for yourself, is this something I am up to par on or need/want to learn?

I am going to try to simplify this as much as possible.

Please remember, I agree with all that has been said: 

an understanding of the influence of equipment, an understanding of the influence of functional anatomy and an understanding of the mechanics of the golf swing can help us help better.

Rule #1. Always work backwards.

Start with ball flight (or lack of). The ball is always talking to you, on every shot, trying to help. 

There are only four major things (outside of equipment and conditions) that influence ball flight.

• Ball Speed
• Launch angle
• Spinrate 
• Spin axis

The good news is that there is only one thing that influences these things:

Impact Alignments.

There are three subdivisions at impact:

Face Orientation

–   face angle

–   dynamic loft

–   dynamic lie

Club Direction:

• club path
• angle of attack

Smash – PTR:

• clubhead speed
• center of contact (vertical and horizontal)  

There are fundamentals and basic movements that have an influence on these impact alignments.

There are two categories of influential factors:

Static and Dynamic.

The static fundamentals, GASP:

1. Grip
2. Aim
3. Stance
4. Posture

The dynamic fundamentals consist of six basic body movement patterns:

1. Body rotation.
2. Body translation (lateral movement).
3. Raising and lowering the arms.
4. Upper and lower arm rotation.
5. Setting and releasing angles in the wrist (ulnar/radial).
6. Bending and extending angles in the wrist (dorsal/palmal).

The good news here is there are only three possibilities for each movement:

1. Too little.
2. Too much.
3. The right amount.

Here is where I usually make the first cut with my apprentices. You have to memorise these things and practice recognising them and learn to understand “what causes what” before you move on. 

For a person who spends most of the time fitting not teaching, this is enough. You are very well equipped to understand that when I do this then that is most likely going to happen.

In the end it is nothing more than memorising some basics and applying it in the field, gathering experience along the way (learning to see). Sounds a lot like fitting, or? 

All the best,

Mike

 

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