Post by imperfectgolfer on Jan 7, 2024 21:20:53 GMT -5
In this post I am going to analyse Angel Cabrera's golf swing action because he is regarded as a prototypical on-top golfer (who uses a weak trail hand grip) according to Mike Adams and Terry Rowles.
I have discussed the theories of MA/TR in this thread at newtongolfinstitute.proboards.com/thread/890/book-mike-adams-terry-rowles?page=8
See my post dated July 21, 2021 where I analysed the downswing action of two on-top golfers - Patrick Reed and Angel Cabrera.
I made the following statement in that post-: "An interesting new insight - note that they both have more trail forearm supination at P5.5 than they had at P4- but their trail palm still looks like it is facing groundwards. I now believe that it is biomechanically due to the fact that have their trail wrist well extended and significantly radially deviated, which causes the trail wrist to be rotated counterclockwise due to the presence of a trail wrist circumductory roll motion. That fact, when combined with an on-top trail hand position, causes the trail palm to face groundwards - and it does not necessarily mean that their trail forearm is pronated at P5.5."
I agreed at that 2021 time point that PR/AC had their trail palm facing groundwards between P4 => P5.5 and I came up with a wrongheaded explanation to account for that fact.
I have discussed the theories of MA/TR in this thread at newtongolfinstitute.proboards.com/thread/890/book-mike-adams-terry-rowles?page=8
See my post dated July 21, 2021 where I analysed the downswing action of two on-top golfers - Patrick Reed and Angel Cabrera.
I made the following statement in that post-: "An interesting new insight - note that they both have more trail forearm supination at P5.5 than they had at P4- but their trail palm still looks like it is facing groundwards. I now believe that it is biomechanically due to the fact that have their trail wrist well extended and significantly radially deviated, which causes the trail wrist to be rotated counterclockwise due to the presence of a trail wrist circumductory roll motion. That fact, when combined with an on-top trail hand position, causes the trail palm to face groundwards - and it does not necessarily mean that their trail forearm is pronated at P5.5."
I agreed at that 2021 time point that PR/AC had their trail palm facing groundwards between P4 => P5.5 and I came up with a wrongheaded explanation to account for that fact.
I am now withdrawing my assertion that their trail palm is facing groundwards because my definition of the trail palm area has changed since 2021. I used to mainly look at the thenar eminence area of the trail hand when determining the positional alignment of the trail palm, but that was a major mistake! The true/correct area that one should look at when determining the positional alignment of the trail palm is to look at the palm area just proximal to the base of the 2nd - 5th fingers, and one should not look at the thenar eminence area (which only reflects the positional alignment of the trail thumb's metacarpal area relative to the trail palm). At address, if a golfer adopts a strong trail hand grip you will note that both the trail palm area (just proximal to the base of the 2nd - 5th fingers) faces skywards as does the trail thenar eminence area (but to a slightly lesser degree as it mainly faces targetwards). However, if a golfer adopts a weak trail hand grip, the trail palm area (proximal to the base of the 2nd - 5th fingers) faces more targetwards at address, while the trail thenar eminence area faces directly groundwards because the trail thumb's metacarpal bone is held about 45 - 60 degrees angled relative to the trail palm area when it is positioned on top of the club handle at address.
MA/TR have argued that adopting a weak trail hand grip is a face-opener alignment and they have consequently argued that a golfer must then perform a clubface-closing maneuver that should start in the early-mid downswing to counter that face-opener effect. They have also argued that the trail forearm must pronate between P6 => P7 and that the trail wrist must straighten a lot for the clubface to become square by impact - and that the late downswing's P6 - P7 clubface-closing phenomenon is a continuation of the clubface-closing maneuver that they claim starts earlier in the downswing. In other words, they basically claim that the trail arm/hand's motion is causally responsible for squaring the clubface by impact. See Terry Rowles explaining all these points at the following link.
I believe that they are wrong! I believe that it is the lead arm/hand that is casually responsible for any clubface-closing phenomenon that may be required and that it can only happen in the later downswing (mainly between P6.5 => P7) and not during the early downswing between P4 => P6.
To prove my claim, I am going to analyse the golf swing action of the prototypical on-top golfer, Angel Cabrera.
Consider AC's iron golf swing action as viewed from down-the-line.
Here are capture images of AC's backswing action.
AC adopts a neutral lead hand grip at address where his clubface is closed by ~10 degrees relative to the back of his lead hand. He also adopts a weak (on-top) trail hand grip.
Image 1 is at his P2 position. Note that the toe of his clubface is pointing slightly groundwards at his end-takeaway (P2) position because the back of his lead hand has not pronated enough between P1 => P2 to get the back of his lead hand to become vertical and parallel to the ball-target line. That fact is causally due to the biomechanical phenomenon where he is not rolling his trail forearm clockwise in a fanning manner - as seen in a golfer who uses a strong trail hand grip if that golfer also uses the Right Forearm Takeaway technique, and not the One-piece takeaway technique, and where the trail forearm fans as the trail elbow bends and that allows the lead forearm to pronate so that the clubshaft can angle backwards to an on-plane alignment where the back of the lead hand, and the watchface area of the lead lower forearm, and the clubface all become parallel to a shallower swingplane at P2.5/P3.
Here is a capture image where Martin Hall demonstrates the RFT using a neutral lead hand grip and a neutral trail hand grip.
Note how Martin Hall pronates his lead forearm between P2 ( image 1) => P3 (image 3) so that the back of his lead hand, the watchface area of his lead lower forearm and the clubface become parallel to a slightly shallower swingplane by P3 (images 3/4).
By contrast, note that AC's clubshaft is nearly vertical at P2.5 (image 2) because he is not allowing his lead forearm to pronate - and that is because he uses the lawnmower rope pull action pattern of trail arm motion where he pulls his trail upper arm/elbow back away from the ball-target line while preventing the trail forearm from rotating clockwise in a fanning motion (as seen in the capture images of Martin Hall's takeaway).
Image 3 is at AC's P3 position. Note that he is lifting his club upwards, but he is still not allowing his lead forearm to pronate, which would cause the clubshaft to shallow-out to a shallower swingplane alignment. Note how he keeps his trail elbow back behind his hands and he never allows his hands to get behind his trail elbow and that prevents the lead forearm from pronating more and prevents the clubshaft from laying-back onto a shallower swingplane.
Image 4 is at his P4 position. Note that he has a flying trail elbow alignment where his trail humerus is slightly internally rotated and where his trail forearm is slightly pronated. That causes his trail palm to be near-vertical and facing towards the ball-target line, and not facing significantly skywards (as seen in Martin Hall's backswing action). That also causes his clubshaft to be angled in a direction that is slightly across-the-line.
What is his clubface alignment at P4 relative to his clubhead path? I believe that it is open relative to his clubhead path. However, note that his clubface is ~10 degrees closed relative to the back of his lead hand and watchface area of his lead lower forearm (which is the same relationship that existed at address) - and that means that it is still neutral relative to the back of his lead hand, and watchfacea area of his lead lower forearm, because he is not cupping-or-bowing his lead wrist during his backswing's lead arm action.
AC's backswing action is typical for a golfer who uses a weak trail hand grip and a lawnmower loading type of trail arm motion, and it is 100% concordant with MA/TR's recommendation for a golfer who adopts an on-top trail hand grip at address.
Now, let's examine AC's P4 => P6 downswing action.
The red splined path is his hand arc path.
TR/MA recommend the use of a punch elbow motion of the trial elbow where the trail hand bypasses the trail elbow during the early downswing and where the trail palm faces groundwards between P5 => P6.
Here is an image of TR (wearing a paddle on his trail hand) showing how the trial palm should face groundwards when performing a punch elbow motion of the trail arm/hand.
Note how his trail forearm is not supinated and note that his trail palm is facing groundwards.
However, note that AC's trail palm area (= area just proximal to the base of his trail hand's 2nd - 5th fingers) never faces groundwards between P5 => P6.
In image 1 of those downswing images of AC's P4 => P6 time period, note that his trail palm is near-vertical and facing the ball-target line at P4.
In image 2, AC is at the P5 position - note that he has shallowed his clubshaft to a small degree so that it lies on a slightly shallower plane than the plane of his hand arc path. Note that his trail palm area is parallel to his clubshaft's swingplane, and that it tilted back slightly from a vertical position, and that means that his trail palm area is facing slightly skywards (and not facing groundwards).
In image 3, AC is at the P5.5 position - note that he has continued to shallow the clubshaft to an even shallower swingplane and that his trail palm area (= area just proximal to the base of his trail hand's 2nd - 5th fingers) is parallel to that slightly shallower swingplane, which means that his trail palm area is facing slightly skywards (and not groundwards). Note how supinated AC's trail forearm is at P5.5 - compared to the TR capture image.
In image 4, AC is at his P6 position - note that his trail palm area is near-vertical and roughly parallel to the ball-target line and also roughly parallel to his lead palm. Note that his trail palm area (= area of the trail palm that is just proximal to the base of his trail hand's 2nd - 5th fingers) does not face the ground. The only area of his trail palm that faces groundwards is his thenar area overlying the thumb metacarpal area, but that thumb metacarpal alignment only exists because the thumb metacarpal is held closer in opposition to the trail palm area when the thumb is placed more on-top of the club handle when adopting a weak trail hand grip.
Look at AC's clubface between P4 => P6. Note that his clubface does not close more relative to his clubhead path or relative to the back of his lead hand/watchfacea area of his lead lower forearm between P4 => P6 and that means that there is no clubface-closing phenomenon in play during the P4 => P6 time period.
Now, let's consider AC's late downswing action.
Angel Cabrera swing video.
Here are capture images from his swing video.
Image 1 is at P6, image 2 is at P6.5, image 3 is at P7, and image 4 is at P7.2.
Image 1 is at his P6 position. Note that his trail elbow is located in a position that is alongside his trail shirt seam and just behind-and-above his trail hip joint area. MA/TR refer to that position as a rear linkage position. However, note that his hands have still not bypassed his trail elbow to become closer to the target so it would be incorrect to claim that AC is performing a punch elbow motion between P4 => P6. A punch elbow motion only happens when the trail humerus becomes internally rotated to such a degree that that the hands get closer to the target than the trail elbow and that only happens after P6 (note how his trail humerus becomes progressively more internally rotated between P6 => P7).
Note that his trail palm area (= palm area just proximal to the base of his trail hand's 2nd - 5th fingers) is facing partially skywards, and facing partially towards the aft side of his club handle, at P6 and P6.5 and it is not facing groundwards. That trail palm alignment is biomechanically possible because his trail forearm is supinated at P6 and P6.5.
Note that I have drawn a red line down the middle of his trail antecubital fossa and a blue line along his trail lower forearm's radial bone in images 3 and 4 - and that the blue line is rotated clockwise relative to the red line, which means that his trail forearm remains supinated during the P6 => P7.2 time period. There is no evidence that AC's trail forearm ever becomes frankly pronated between P6 => P7.2 - although it is obviously less supinated at P7 compared to P6.
Note that AC still has a slightly bent trail arm and a slightly extended trail wrist at P7 and also at P7.2 and he never allows his trail palm to roll over his lead hand through impact.
Note that the back of AC's lead hand is parallel to the ball-target line at P6. Note that the back of his lead hand has rotated counterclockwise by about 10 - 20 degrees between P6 => P6.5, but his clubface is still significantly open to his clubhead path. Note that the back of his lead hand is about 70 degrees open at impact, which means that it rotated counterclockwise by >50 degrees between P6.5 => P7 due to a lead forearm supinatory motion (which is called the release of PA#3 in TGM terminology) - and I believe that his PA#3 release action is casually responsible for squaring the clubface by impact. I cannot understand why anybody would believe that the trail arm/forearm's motion is the main factor that is casually responsible for getting the clubface square to the clubhead path between P6 => P7.
Consider another pro golfer - Patrick Rodgers - who also uses a weak (on-top) trail hand grip and a neutral lead hand grip.
Image 3 is at his P6 position. Note that his trail elbow is alongside his trail shirt seam, which represents a rear linkage position. Note that his hands have not bypassed his trail elbow by P6 so it would be incorrect to assert that he was using a punch elbow motion between P4 => P6.
Note that I have drawn a blue line down the middle of his trail antecubital fossa and a red line over his trail forearm's radial bone in images 3, 4 and 5. Note that the red line is rotated clockwise relative to the blue line at P6, which means that his trail forearm is significantly supinated. Note how little his degree of trail forearm supination is changing between P6.5 (image 4) and impact (image 5) as his clubface progressively closes relative to his clubhead path between P6.5 => P7 due to a PA#3 release action (which is biomechanically secondary to lead forearm supination that causes the back of his lead hand to rotate a lot counterclockwise between P6.5 => P7).
I think that MA/TR are wrong to state that an on-top golfer i) must use a punch elbow motion between P4 => P6 involving a scenario where the trail palm must face groundwards and ii) that the trail forearm's counterclockwise rotation is casually responsible for squaring the clubface relative to the clubhead path in the later downswing.
There is another myth that MA/TR perpetuate about the hand release mechanics of an on-top golfer. They claim that the hand release action through impact involves a i) straightening trail arm combined with a pronating trail forearm and ii) a straightened trail wrist that rolls the trail hand over the top of the club handle soon after impact.
That type of hand release pattern is seen in some on-top golfers eg. Patrick Reed.
Capture images of Patrick Reed's hand release action.
Image 1 is at P7, image 2 is at P7.2 and image 3 is at P7.4.
Note how PR's trail arm fully straightens and how his trail forearm pronates by P7.4, and how his trail wrist also fully straightens so that his trail palm rolls over the top of his club handle due to his trail forearm's pronatory action.
Note how his clubshaft bypasses his lead arm (from an angular rotational perspective), which means that Patrick Reed is using a non-DH hand release action.
However, there is a significant difference with respect to Angel Cabrera's hand release action.
Image 1 is at P7, image 2 is at P7.4 and image 3 is at P7.8.
Note that AC still has a slightly bent trail arm and and a slightly extended trail wrist at P7.4 and his trail palm is not yet rolling over the top of his club handle.
Note that a fully straightened trail arm, and fully straightened trail wrist and a pronated trail forearm that causes the trail palm to roll over the top of the club handle only happens after P7.4.
Finally, here are capture images of Patrick Rodgers' hand release action.
Image 1 is at P6.5, image 2 is at P7 and image 3 is at P7.4.
Note that Patrick Rodgers uses a a DH-hand release action where his clubshaft does not bypass his lead arm (from an angular rotational perspective) between P7 => P7.4. Note how he maintains a slightly bent trail arm and a slightly extended trail wrist all the way to P7.4 and his trail palm never rolls over the top of his club handle due to a trail forearm pronatory motion.
These capture images demonstrate that it is possible for an on-top golfer to use a DH-hand release action through impact, and its not obligatory for all on-top golfers to perform a non-DH hand release action like Patrick Reed.
Jeff.