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Wow great stuff D.

I like exercises 10 and 11 personally. I see your objections, but think the exercises to be primarily body drills, Zone 1 and really more for the backswing than the downswing. The downswing for full shots normally having some Hip Slide , Axis Tilt as well as some lag to the Arms trailing the Body.

Per 7-12 the Pivot is a massive rotor that sets up the gyroscopic nature of the golf swing. In an actual golf swing, the Hands at about the position illustrated in exercise 11 appear to have Turned but they are still vertical to the Horizontal plane , the ground assuming, Horizontal Hinging. Most guys actually turn the forearms independently and often with a stalled Pivot, no clearing of the Right Hip and hence Mr Macdonalds drill number 10 and 11. The Forearms are Turned per say, but not independently! The Pivot can do much of it. Arm travel and forearm turn on the backswing are not as big as you would assume when isolated!

The first few inches of my swing feel exactly like exercise 10. Is this Pivot to Hands? Yes, briefly I guess, for me anyways. I feel like my turning right hip starts the club back on its journey. It goes really well with a Lagging Takeaway. As soon as I start to Right Forearm Pickup and Trace (1-L-6) the Hands are going Up as well as Back and In. And thereby on plane. Three dimensional Start Up. Lynn says the Hands can start Up right off the start though if you wish. You have to get into the Divergent Vectors of the Pivot and Arms to get this fully.

In short if you add a Right Forearm Pickup and 1-L-6 to Macdonald drill number 10 you've got Hands to Pivot and whatever plane angle you want. TSP or otherwise. Like you I prefer the TSP.

Doing just as illustrated in drills 10 and 11 would be Pivot to Hands and non planar for sure. But the body as rotor , Zone 1 is still critical to the golf swing. Hence the drill. Its a pure turn on an axis with no head Bob or Sway. Its sort of like how the 1-L machine without a second hinge pin would describe a cone shaped, non planar, Single Horizontal motion. Hence the second hinge pin, hence Dual Horizontal. The second Hinge Pin is not in the PIvot! The Pivot does not dictate the Plane Angle unless you are Pivot to Hands! Which would require a precise amount of waist bend to achieve a usable Plane Angle without a compensation of some sort.

I dunno. I've got a few videos of Lynn covering off these drills number 10 and 11 and a few other PIvot drills. Ill ask him if he would mind me putting them up on Youtube for all to see.

Recently, I have been frustrated with my pivot sequence, just couldn't get it right. I read Watson's recent book, The Timeless Swing, and tried using his recommended drills for keeping the spine angle. It just was not working for me. I returned to the MacDonald drills, particularly numbers 10 and 11. They have been the key for me. Using those drills gives me a feel for what "turning in a barrel" is supposed to be. Combining the entire set of drills has worked wonders with my pivot sequence. My thought is that the entire set of drills is useful for ingraining the basic golf swing. Thanks again to Yoda for introducing them to me at least three years ago!