In this post, I am going to analyse Monte Scheinblum's (MS's) "no-turn cast" swing technique and I will explain why I think that it represents sub-optimal golf instruction.
I am unwilling to waste $30 to purchase MS's 16-part video series on the "no-turn cast" swing technique, but I believe that I can still clearly understand MS's "no-turn cast" opinions based on watching a number of videos and after reading this GolfWRX thread -
forums.golfwrx.com/topic/1756226-montes-new-no-turn-cast/The term "no-turn" refers to his opinions on how to perform the backswing action, and I will not discuss the "no-turn" topic in this post because it is not irrational and I can generally agree with his basic intention/instruction. I am only going to discuss what MS states should happen in the early downswing between P4 => P6.
MS states that one needs to position the clubhead and clubface in a proper position during the transition so that the body can react appropriately. It would seem that a major focus of MS's "proper positioning" opinions is based on the idea that one should keep the club's COM behind the hands during the early-mid downswing.
Here is an introductory video by MS on this topic.
Here is a capture image from the video.
Note the drawn clock where the 12 o'clock position is oriented towards the target.
Note that MS's club is oriented roughly towards 8 o'clock when he is reaching the P6 position, and that it is ~45 degrees angled back and not parallel to the ball-target at P6. In other words, it shows how much MS wants the club's COM to be kept behind the hands during the P4 => P6 time period.
The following Instagram-based video best shows how MS performs the early-mid downswing action using his "no-turn cast" methodology.
I will now analyse this video.
In the first part of the video, he presents a close-up view of his wrist/hand action at the start of the downswing.
Note that is performing the reverse motorcycle maneuver with a degree of twistway - where he palmar flexes his lead hand while it is radially deviated and that causes the club handle to twist clockwise around its longitudinal axis. He is simultaneously moving his lead wrist very slightly in an ulnar direction during his palmar flexion maneuver so that it becomes slightly less radially deviated. Also, note how his trail wrist becomes more extended as the clubshaft becomes slightly more shallowed-out secondary to his lead wrist actions.
Here are capture images from a DTL perspective.
Image 1 is at the P4 position, image 2 is at the P4.5 position, image 3 is at the P5 position, and image 4 is at the P6 position (when the clubshaft is parallel to the ground).
Note how MS is radically shallowing the clubshaft between P4 => P6 in an exaggerated off-plane manner where an imaginary extension line drawn-out from the butt end of the club at P5 will point well outside the ball-target line. Note that it requires a lot of lead forearm pronation and a lot of trail forearm supination to get to that off-plane P5 position where the clubshaft is being excessively shallowed-out.
Note that he is not assertively adducting his trail upper arm between P4 => P5 and that his trail elbow is not below his lead elbow at P5. That is going to result in a trail elbow straightening action between P5 => P6 that will cause a significant loss of clubhead lag by P6.
Note how his clubshaft is not parallel to the ball-target line at his P6 position and it is angled much too far inside.
Note how the lead wrist bowing/twistaway maneuver causes his clubface to become slightly closed relative to his clubhead path by P5.
Note how much he has ulnar-deviated (uncocked) his lead wrist between P4 => P6.
Capture image from a face-on perspective.
Image 1 is P4 and image 2 is at P6.
I don't object to his P4 position where he has a ~50 degree pelvic rotation and a ~90 degree upper torso rotation, where he has an intact LFFW that is seemingly on-plane, and where his RFFW is correctly positioned relative to his intact LFFW.
However, look at his P6 position where there are so many sub-optimal biomechanical features. Note how high his trail elbow is positioned relative to his trail hip area due to a very sluggish trail upper arm adduction maneuver and a very sluggish pitch motion of his trail elbow. Those sub-optimal biomechanical actions, which when combined with an excessive amount of ulnar-deviation motion of his lead wrist and an excessive trail elbow straightening action, causes him to loose a lot of his clubhead lag angle by P6.
Note that the back of his trail hand is facing skywards at P6 due to an excessive clubshaft shallowing action (involving an exaggerated amount of lead forearm pronation) that caused his clubshaft to move off-plane between P4 => P6.
Note how his clubshaft is angled too much inside at his P6 position, and it is not parallel to the ball-target line.
I do not object to the bowed lead wrist technique (as an alternative to the intact LFFW swing technique) and I only object to MS's excessive shallowing action that produces an off-plane motion of the clubshaft between P4 => P6 and that causes the clubshaft to be angled much too much inside at the P6 position.
If one wants to use the bowed lead wrist technique, then I think that one should use Dustin Johnson as a role model.
Consider DJs P4 => P6 golf swing action as viewed from a DTL perspective.
Image 1 is at P4, image 2 is at P5, and image 3 is at P5.5.
The red splined path represents DJ's hand arc path. Note that DJ shallows his clubshaft between P4 => P5.5 and that keeps his club's COM behind his hands during his early-mid downswing. However, DJ does not shallow his clubshaft excessively and he keeps his clubshaft continuously on-plane (where an imaginary line drawn-out from the butt end of the club continuously points at the ball-target line) between P4 => P5.5.
Note how assertively DJ adducts his trail upper arm between P4 => P5 and that causes his trail elbow to be positioned well below his lead elbow at P5. Note how DJ's trail elbow is positioned in an optimum pitch elbow position in front of his trail hip at P5.5 and that he has retained the ~90 degree trail elbow bend angle at P5.5, which allows him to retain his clubhead lag angle to a much better degree than seen in the MS capture images.
Note that the back of his lead hand is more vertical at P5.5 (compared to MS's lead hand at a similar position) because he did not shallow his clubshaft excessively.
Here is another DTL capture image of DJ which includes his P6 position.
Image 3 is at his P6 position. Note that the clubshaft is parallel to the ball-target line, and it is not angled too much inside.
Consider DJs' P4 => P5.5 early-mid downswing action as viewed from a face-on perspective.
Image 1 is at P4, image 2 is at P5, and image 3 is at P5.5.
The red splined path represents his hand arc path.
Note how assertively DJ adducts his trail upper arm between P4 => P5 and that his trail elbow is positioned well below his lead elbow at P5. Note how he continues to assertively adduct his trail elbow between P5 => P5.5, while performing a pitch elbow motion of his trail elbow, and that gets his trail elbow well positioned in front of his trail hip area by P5.5.
Note that he is not excessively shallowing his clubshaft between P4 => P5.5 due to excessive lead forearm pronation (as seen in the MS capture images) and that the back of his lead hand is more vertical at P5.5.
In conclusion, I much prefer DJ's clubshaft shallowing action where he keeps the clubshaft continuously on-plane between P4 => P6 and where he ends up at P6 with his clubshaft parallel to the ball-target line and where he has not lost a lot of his clubhead lag angle due to excessive trail elbow straightening between P5 => P6 (as seen in the MS capture images).
Jeff.