Casting

I have had numerous insights over the years.  Admittedly I have had to change my opinions on some things and casting is a great example.

I used to think casting was a result of the "hitters" impulse and people just trying to mash the ball.  Really there hasn't been any good reason to believe that other than conjecture on my part and on the part of others who I learned from.

So what's the REAL reason for casting?  Well, here is my response to Monte Sheinblum's blog post about casting.

I think a lot of people are looking for the answer in the wrong place when it comes to casting.

It's all about the clubface!

Contrary to popular belief, OTT is NOT the #1 swing fault.  The #1 swing fault is not getting the clubface closed.  The way many golfers try to overcome an open clubface is by closing it sooner!

Guess what happens when you try to rotate the clubface sooner in the downswing?  You roll your arms counter-clockwise.  When you roll your arms counter-clockwise you are not just closing the clubface, but you are throwing the club out toward the ball.  Voila! Insta-casting!

As better players try to cope with casting they fix it by actually getting more UNDER plane on the downswing before doing the cast/arm roll.  They can then cast/roll as hard as they feel is normal and produce halfway decent results but can be erratic if the timing or ball position isn't perfect.

I am willing to bet a lot of you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about.

Overall this "new" theory makes a ton more sense.  In order to make the ball go left the golfer tries to close the face early.  The result of trying to close the clubface early IS to also go OTT.  As the right arm tries to roll over the left arm sooner, this throws your right shoulder higher and out.  Just put your right arm out in front of you and turn it counter-clockwise.  You'll see your shoulder go up with it just as it would for an OTT move.

Shear force

Something popped back up on my radar today with a discussion about shear force.  Some people don't know what it is, most don't know how it's useful, and some know what it is but don't think it's important at all.

I'm here to tell you that shear force is the foundation of power.

I've gone on and on about the kenitic sequence in the past.  It may seem overly complicated to some of you and that's fine.  But we all pretty much universally know something, you just may not know why it works the way it does.

Shear force is any force that prevents two objects from sliding against one another.  The shear force that is directly relevant to the golf swing is essentially our spikes sinking into the ground.  Those spikes help prevent our feet from sliding.  That prevention allows us to leverage our legs against the ground.  This is the very first action that starts the kinetic sequence.  Without it you will have less power and you will be starting your kinetic sequence too early in the forward swing.

If you think about it, you actually already knew this.

Ask yourself under which of these two circumstances would you be able to generate more power:

A)  Velcro on the bottom of your shoes that sticks to velcro on the ground.
B)  Wearing a pair of Penny Loafers while standing on solid ice.

The answer should be a pretty obvious A. 

That is shear force at work.  Your ability to use the resistance of your spikes in the ground to push your legs is essential to power in the golf swing.  Just simply "falling" to the left doesn't explain why A is better than B in our scenario as some people might have suggested to you.

Getting Stuck

Stuck is OTT with laid off arms. 

Most people try to fix it by either limiting lower body movement, trying to speed up the upper body, or deeper hands in the backswing with limited arm rotation. IMO, none of these ways are sustainable and all are restrictive to generating speed. 

OTT happens when the right shoulder fires OUT towards the ball. The right shoulder does that usually because of a combination of early hip rotation and lack of axis tilt. The problem people are facing is that they know instinctively they NEED to rotate fast to generate speed. But fast rotation by it's very nature throws the hands out. So, you have to TILT to that the hand throw out happens more from the inside to out than what our natural inclination is. 

If you stand up straight and spin hard you're going to swing OTT. But if you tilt back away from the target and spin hard, you'll stay inside. 

Head BEHIND THE BALL, and get the hands AHEAD of the ball so that you don't hit behind it. 


Take the following swing posted on FreeGolfInfo.com





In the backswing the arms are not rotating much but as the torso twists violently and his shoulder is being thrown out, his arms are rotating clockwise at the same time.  It is the only way he can maintain any sense of being on plane, but it leads to wide open clubfaces.  


Also, watch his swing from face on and you'll notice very little tilt to his swing.  His backswing has tilt but as he goes forward his hips spin pretty much in place while his shoulder twist violently around.  This has the effect of putting him on his left heel and his right shoulder is very high in the finish.  It's about as OTT as a person can get. 


Not all OTT's become slices, some of them just get stuck with laid off arms as he does.

I don't think this is too hard

I read the following advice given to someone in a forum (edited to just the important part).  The poster is a golf professional.

remember, if the ball is back you will pull/hook, if it is too forward, you will fade/slice.

also, set up with your left shoulder closed.

should help you alot.

Huh??  I do not understand what this person is thinking, nor do I know how someone gets to be a professional when they think this is how ball position effects the ball flight.  It's simple.  The further back in the stance, the more from the inside the path will be and open the clubface (push/push fade).  The further forward in the stance the more from the outside the path will be with a closed clubface (pull/pull hook).  It really doesn't take rocket science to figure out that the clubface is closing while the clubhead is traveling along an arc.  Yet year after year, day after day there is stuff like this out there.  Guys like me get hounded for how arrogant, ignorant, or foolish I am for thinking this needs to be rectified.

Please folks.  The geometry is so simple a 3rd grader could understand it.

Add to the simple geometry of a clubface rotating while traveling around an arc with this simple statement:

"The ball will start MOSTLY in the direction that the clubface is aimed at impact, and curve AWAY from the path it was traveling at impact."   That's the D-Plane in a nutshell.

You could go on further to say, "The greater the difference between clubface and path during impact, the more the ball will spin."

Really, with just that little bit of information you can base the rest of your golfing life on.  Find a way to manipulate the ball knowing these things and you can win tournaments. 

"How do I fix my slice?"

It's a common question with a ton of answers, but all of them boil down to this simple thing. 

The ball starts mostly in the direction of where the clubface is aimed at impact. It curves away from the path. 

Based on that you should be able to figure out that the clubface is open relative to the path you're swinging on. If you get the clubface closed and start hitting dead pulls left, THEN start to work on your path going out to the right more.