Post by imperfectgolfer on Jan 11, 2020 13:20:10 GMT -5
I have started to study the driver swings of LPGA golfers for the first time and I have discovered that many of them have very suboptimal golf swings, and I can now also understand why they cannot hit the ball as far as PGA tour golfers (despite having faster pelvic and upper torso rotation speeds).
I will present a new example every few days, and I will start off by analysing Brittany Altomare's driver swing.
Here are capture images of her downswing action.
Image 1 is at the P4 position. Note that she has a limited pelvic rotation but a large degree of shoulder rotation due to her high degree of spinal flexibility that allows her to have a large degree of torso-pelvic separation (static X-factor).
Image 2 is at the P5 position. She has retained her lag, but note that you cannot see her right elbow sticking out below her left arm due to the fact that she is not using an active right arm adduction maneuver combined with an assertive pitch elbow motion. She has squared her pelvis very efficiently, but she has not rotated her upper torso very much between P4 and P5.
Image 3 is at the P6 position. Note that her pelvis is slightly open, but her shoulders are very closed due to a delayed upper torso rotation secondary to an excessive dynamic X-factor phenomenon. Note that her right elbow is well back and far away from her right hip area and that she is manifesting a punch elbow motion. Note that she is already losing lag.
Image 4 is at P6.5. Note that her right arm has significantly straightened and her clubshaft has nearly caught up to her left arm. That represents an inefficient release of PA#2. I suspect that she is using a swing-hitters action where she starts to actively use her right arm to hit at the ball - starting at the P5 position.
Let's compare her hand arc path and body characteristics to Dustin Johnson's driver swing.
Images 1,2 and 3 show Dustin Johnson's driver swing while image 4 shows Brittany's driver swing.
The red splined path is their hand arc path.
Look at image 3 - note that DJ gets his hands well below waist level due to the fact that he is using i) an active right arm adduction maneuver + ii) getting his right shoulder much further downplane due to the combination of a greater degree of upper torso rotation that moves the right shoulder socket further groundwards by P5.5 + iii) he has far more right lateral bend. Note that these biomechanical elements allow DJ to get his right elbow in front of his right hip area by P5.5, which combined with his pitch elbow motion allows him to retain lag for longer (note that his "straightish" section of his hand arc path is longer and it goes to well below his waist level before his hand arc path curves in a tight turn" towards the target).
Compare image 4 to image 3 - note that BA has her right shoulder too far back because of her delayed upper torso rotation, and that prevents her getting her right elbow closer to her right hip area by P5.5. In fact, her right shoulder socket is higher than her left shoulder socket at P5.5 and she has no right lateral bend. From that sub-optimum P5.5 position, she cannot release PA#2 efficiently using a TGM swinger's type of PA#2 release action (which works according to the D'Alembert principle) like DJ. I think that she induces the release of PA#2 manually by straightening her right arm - using a swing-hitter's technique.
Now, consider her hand release action through impact.
Ignore the bent clubshaft (which is a camera shutter artifact).
Image 1 is at impact, image 2 is at P7.3 and image 3 is at P7.6.
Note that her shoulders are square to the ball-target line at impact, and her right shoulder is too far back (due to the combination of a delayed upper torso rotation combined with a lack of right lateral bend) and that causes a "running-out-of-right arm" appearance at impact.
Note that she uses a flip-rolling subtype of non-DH hand release action between P7 and P7.6. Note that her left arm has stalled its targetwards motion and that she is i) actively straightening her right arm, ii) straightening her right wrist and iii) over-pronating her right forearm between impact and P7.6 causing her left wrist to both flip and roll during her early followthrough. I think that her followthrough action is not compatible with a TGM swinging action combined with a DH-hand release action and it is more suggestive of a swing-hitter's technique that uses a LOP release action (LOP = Jim Hardy's term for a "left arm outward pull" type of hand release action).
In conclusion, I think that this type of sub-optimum driver swing action is not suitable for hitting the ball far and/or accurately.
Jeff.