Pro v/s amateur swings - observed from a less common angle
I do not know if I'll be able to conclude this post making some sense, but thought I'd give it a go to see what kind of responses I get.
The pro observation
I was watching the pros during the Open Championship in St Andrews this year. In quite a few cases I was standing closer to the target and left of the player as he took the shot. I.e. NW if the plane line points north.
As these were all full swings and full speed it was obviously impossible to tell exactly what was goint on, but it seemed that just before impact, the players had rotated their hips past neutral and their hands were well past the ball.
This is nothing special and perfectly according to TGM, so that part of the observation was not woth mentioning.
The amateur observation
What may be worth mentioning is that I never see amateurs in that position. Most of the time you see neutral hips and throwaway at about impact. To me it is was striking to see swings from this angle.
And then what..
I wonder if someone be able to post or point-out a photo of a pro taken (at or close to impact) from the position I am talking about. They are not so common. See below for player and camera position. With such a picture it might be possible to extend the discussion. It would not lead to any new revolutionary discoveries, but I and others would probably be able to translate such a picture to some feel or mindset regarding impact hands (impact hips etc...) to bring to the range.
I try to get in that position, but when I do my arms and elbows get stuck behind me. If my hips are that far ahead I can't stay out in front with the arms.
Yeppers. This same observation is the theme that Roger Fredericks uses to pitch his flex training stuff on the Golf Channel infomercial.
He is looking at swings from the "southside" rather than the north and makes the point that on pro-swings you can see "two buttcheeks" at impact while hackers don't rotate their hips at all (ie, no-buttcheeks seen at impact).
His point is that hacks like me aren't flexible enough to pull it off. I don't buy it. I think hacks like me really dont know WHAT or HOW they are supposed to do. Instead, we go on auto-pilot based on hit-impulse AT-THE-BALL. When it doesn't work, we repeat over and over in hope of a different result.
But...just in case...I have been working on my flexibility. Sorry to disappoint Roger, but got a fitness ball workout from Dick's Sporting Goods cheap and it covers flex and core strength and is good enuff for 'lil me (plus nice hotties in the video to workout with...bonus! ).