Lengthening Clubhead Thought Experiment
 

I've been thinking about the sweetspot plane versus the shaft plane some more and came up with the following thought experiment:

Perform your normal swing with a golf club.

Now imagine that the clubface is stretched out horizontally more such that it looks more like a hockey stick - let's say one foot long. The sweet spot remains centered in the club face and is now much further away from you. The shaft length and lie angle stay the same. Imagine swinging this club.

Now imagine that the clubface is stretched even more such that it is stretched out to something crazy like fifteen feet long. Imagine swinging this club.

In your imaginary swings, did the motion and/or plane of the club shaft during the swing differ between the three clubs or was it the same? If it differed, how did it differ? I'd be interested in people's opinions on this (or if somebody can build the clubs and video that would be even better!).

As an aside, did Homer Kelly actually use dowels or used them as a teaching tool?

Yep . . . it's in the Authorized Instructor Curriculum.

What
 

Still don't see how anyone would not benifit from dowels.
I think its the best way to get the motions with speed.
But being not a full TGM guy I would like to here people explain if Im off based.
For and example this is how I into to many junior's how to develop speed and realase on the downswing.I find that kids get real hung up on the clubface and not the left arm(swinger models). With pitching its great for them to on shaft lean.
Anyway if anyone sees any thing that may work better let me know.

Homer's Two Types Of Dowels
 

He recommended the use of both short and long dowels in his written G.O.L.F. curriculums.

And 'Headless' Golf Clubs, too.

:)

School Days
 

Homer Kelley did not use dowels as instruments to create 'speed.' Not that you can't use them for that...of course you can...and I do myself in certain drills.

But he did not.

Instead, he used them only as 'something to hold' as The Hands master their Chapters 4, 5 and 12-3-0 assigments.

A dowel doesn't have the large longitundal pull that a clubhead would because of centrifugal 'effect' (carefully applied word so as not go to that discussion...lol) made by the mass of the heavy clubhead. The great thing about dowels is that they can be versatile to practice the various alignments of the power package. The idea is that when you can keep something onplane by your alignments in motion by itself in a deliberate and positive way without having to deal with sustaining with the Drag or Drive you make on the clubhead. Obviously this effect will be less for the Hitter and here he has a slight advantage because of the nature of drive loading doesn't rely on dragging the centrifugal pull like the swinger.

The light weight of a dowel allows you stop anywhere mid stroke without having to stop the club in motion by not quite the same dramatic fashion as the active muscular resistance used with a golf club would pretty much know what you stop to monitor is the actual placing of where your hands are at. So with a dowel you can stop knowing you actually hit the correct alignments and this way you can practice the various alignments (checklist in 12-3-0) without practicing in a way that will train you to lose the lag presure as your deaccelerating and trying your hardest to resist the primary lever assembly going in to a centrifugally deaccelerated state - per law of the flail 2-k - all the while moving into fake alignments as you deaccelerate. For the same reason it also allows you to do the stroke slower easier if you wish without the weight of the club.

Taken to an extreme as a training aid using a golf club could just become a test to see if you can maintain the alignments and understand the motions to keep dragging or driving the lag pressure all the way down right to followthrough.

They are incredibly versatile.

For example....If you want to check that your left wrist is vertical of your hinge action based on the left flying wedge which is basically maintaining the plane of the left wristcock motion vertical to its associated plane through impact... run the dowel up your left arm - it is far easier to see this plane when you have 2 lines (which is actually the definition of a plane btw). You can now immediately see - yes I have turned my hand to the plane at the top and coming down, yes I have rolled my left flying wedge onto the correct vertical plane for impact, did I keep it vertical at followthrough. This also ensures that you have maintained a flat left wrist for your specific grip type for the emulation of the alignments of a vertical flail as depicted in 2-K. I mean this is only a 1/3 of controlling the club...

Or you practice the right forearm flying wedge coming into its angle of approach into impact.. or just using it as a tool to see your alignments coming down at a slow place where you can stop and hold it for a few seconds.... you could even get a dowel and cut a hole in a sponce ball and use it to lean against your head whilst you practice some acquired motions (cos I would imagine cos for some it might not work after this so that the head pivots in its stationary location to not have a geometrical shoulder turn collision conflict whilst maintaining the advantages of centered arc.

You should really stop though at followthrough because after that period, your onplane thrust is gone and you should just holding onto club allowing the force of the clubhead traveling it is orbit to carry you and you must accomodate it. But you can practice going into a swivel by stopping at followthrough and then just swivel by doing this you always maintain the onplane thrust from the aiming point of pp3 till followthrough and stop and THEN swivel.... It keeps the basic motion in the stroke instead of some fleeting swivel motion.

I am concerned on your idea of aiming the shaft at the ball. The idea is to guide the pressure of the heavy clubhead on your hands and your hands know where to go - alignments and whats creating it. It is a precise tool and a cheap one too :)

Mathew On Dowels
 

Wonderful post, Mathew. Thanks!

Yoda,

Will Homer's written G.O.L.F. curriculum ever be available to the golfing public???

DG

It would be interesting to read it....