SilverUberXeno
El Tigre Blanco
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2005
- Messages
- 4,620
- Reaction score
- 26
- Points
- 198
I was reading through Golf Digest two days ago (whatever issue Lorena graces the cover on) and decided to study her swing sequence a bit.
Firstly, it's worth noting that Lorena Ochoa uses a 7.5* driver. What the **** is that about? Does that not spit in the face of all proper fitting guidelines? I don't thinks he's swinging at 140mph, and it doesn't appear she has a wildly high ascending angle of attack. Maybe she's onto something, here?
The real curious thing about Lorena's swing, other than her fruity head tilt, is that she has some significant bend in her left arm at the top.
I'm going to quote some information from a book I read, "The Physics of Golf," which I felt was actually too much physics and too little golf to be enjoyed by the non-physicist golf addict... The following is on the Vardon swing (Harry Vardon), in which the left arm is bent at the top of the swing, contrary to popular swing mechanics:
FYI: This is worth reading.
The Three Rod Model
The model representing the Vardon swing would be a three-rod model; the golfer's arms would be considered as two rods with the club being the third. The technical aspects of the three-rod model are too involved to be presented here.
After setting up three different equations and writing a suitable computer program for solving them, preliminary calculations showed that the Vardon swing did indeed give greater clubhead speed at impact with the ball.
At this stage in my study, I had no idea how the lower part of the arm in my model should be managed during the downswing. If in my calculations I allowed a torgue to act on the lower arm, a torque similar to the one that acts on the club in the latter part of the downswing, the clubhead would swing in above the ball. However, I knew that a bent left arm straightened early in the swing produced a lower clubhead velocity.
Some Practical Experience
We can only guess what Harry Vardon did with his left arm during the downswing. We know from geometry that he needed an almost straight left arm when the ball was hit; an arm seriously bent at impact would at least top the ball and perhaps miss the ball altogether. While we know that no action of the wrists is needed to uncock the wrists in the downswing, calculations show that the centrifugal torque in the rotating system on the lower arm is not adequate to straighten the arm by the time of impact.
Calculations Show That Vardon Had Something
Of the many possible ways Vardon could have straightened his left arm in the downswing, I chose to try the one in which the angle of bending, the angle between the extensions of the upper arm and lower arm, decreased to zero with a constant negative angular acceleration... [Rock, if you got your wife to read this much to you already, this means he straightened his arm with ever increasing speed from the top of the swing.] These calculations showed that the clubhead velocity at impact became much greater as the elbow was bent through larger and larger angles at the top of the backswing. If at the top of the backswing the elbow was bent through the possible angle of 100 degrees, the clubhead velocity at impact was about 50% greater than that for the same swing with no such bending.
We must not assume that the swing just described is the ultimate Harry Vardon swing. A calculation in which the constant angular acceleration of the angle of bending of the left arm was delayed 1/20 of a second into the downswing gave a clubhead speed 60% greater than the standard swing.
His Swing Is A Success
Firstly, it's worth noting that Lorena Ochoa uses a 7.5* driver. What the **** is that about? Does that not spit in the face of all proper fitting guidelines? I don't thinks he's swinging at 140mph, and it doesn't appear she has a wildly high ascending angle of attack. Maybe she's onto something, here?
The real curious thing about Lorena's swing, other than her fruity head tilt, is that she has some significant bend in her left arm at the top.
I'm going to quote some information from a book I read, "The Physics of Golf," which I felt was actually too much physics and too little golf to be enjoyed by the non-physicist golf addict... The following is on the Vardon swing (Harry Vardon), in which the left arm is bent at the top of the swing, contrary to popular swing mechanics:
FYI: This is worth reading.
The Three Rod Model
The model representing the Vardon swing would be a three-rod model; the golfer's arms would be considered as two rods with the club being the third. The technical aspects of the three-rod model are too involved to be presented here.
After setting up three different equations and writing a suitable computer program for solving them, preliminary calculations showed that the Vardon swing did indeed give greater clubhead speed at impact with the ball.
At this stage in my study, I had no idea how the lower part of the arm in my model should be managed during the downswing. If in my calculations I allowed a torgue to act on the lower arm, a torque similar to the one that acts on the club in the latter part of the downswing, the clubhead would swing in above the ball. However, I knew that a bent left arm straightened early in the swing produced a lower clubhead velocity.
Some Practical Experience
We can only guess what Harry Vardon did with his left arm during the downswing. We know from geometry that he needed an almost straight left arm when the ball was hit; an arm seriously bent at impact would at least top the ball and perhaps miss the ball altogether. While we know that no action of the wrists is needed to uncock the wrists in the downswing, calculations show that the centrifugal torque in the rotating system on the lower arm is not adequate to straighten the arm by the time of impact.
Calculations Show That Vardon Had Something
Of the many possible ways Vardon could have straightened his left arm in the downswing, I chose to try the one in which the angle of bending, the angle between the extensions of the upper arm and lower arm, decreased to zero with a constant negative angular acceleration... [Rock, if you got your wife to read this much to you already, this means he straightened his arm with ever increasing speed from the top of the swing.] These calculations showed that the clubhead velocity at impact became much greater as the elbow was bent through larger and larger angles at the top of the backswing. If at the top of the backswing the elbow was bent through the possible angle of 100 degrees, the clubhead velocity at impact was about 50% greater than that for the same swing with no such bending.
We must not assume that the swing just described is the ultimate Harry Vardon swing. A calculation in which the constant angular acceleration of the angle of bending of the left arm was delayed 1/20 of a second into the downswing gave a clubhead speed 60% greater than the standard swing.
His Swing Is A Success
Without knowing exactly what Vardon had done, and without much practice, I began to use my approximation to the Vardon swing and found that I was able to increase the length of my drives, losing little if any directional precision. This increased length was noticed by one of my weekend golfing colleagues. He asked me what I was doing, whether I was into "monkey glands or something."
So at this point... Maybe Lorena, too, is onto something? Is this the secret to the 126 pound girl driving the ball 290 yards?
So at this point... Maybe Lorena, too, is onto something? Is this the secret to the 126 pound girl driving the ball 290 yards?
