The Secret of Golf edited by George Peper
 

In The Secret of Golf, which by the way, has a chapter on the Golfing Machine, there is a secret discovered by a cartoonist who studied the baseball swing of Mark McGwire. He says that both arms don't swing into the baseball or golfball at the same speed, but the left arm should pinch backward against the torso at the moment of impact. How does that stack up with golfing machine principles?

In a Pinch
 

I don't believe that this book, The Pinch, has been released yet. It is co-authored with golf professional David Glenz.

Well, i'm no science buff but i do have some goold ole common sense:

You can't compare hitting a baseball (a moving object at anywhere from 50-100mph) to hitting a golfball which is STATIONARY.

Also, a golf ball compresses A LOT more than a baseball does. So, regarding newton's law of equal/opposite reaction, the "opposite" reaction from hitting the baseball (left arm pinching against the torso) is going to be a lot more than a golf ball.

HOWEVER

This is all kinda moot because the upper left arm IS ALREADY pinched against the upper left chest muscle...its a power source ;)

How important is this "connection" between the left arm and chest? When I run into problems it seems my arms get separated from my torso and the shots start right and fade even more right (not pretty:mad:) I just started fiddling with keeping the arm and chest together during the backswing and downswing and there seems to be some benefit - also inhibits my huge overswing. Where is this aspect covered in the TGM book? I didn't see it during my first few passes.

Jay

Thanks for the post! I needed to be reminded of this sequence. Where do the hips fit into this picture (for a hitter)? Do they start the downswing simultaneously with the shoulders, are they passive, or do they start with a slight bump before shoulders?

Check this out tellme what you think?
http://www.batspeed.com/


make sure you click on swing mechanics ...

AS,
The baseball people have no clue. Just as in golf you can hit
(Pujhols, Arod) or swing (Griffey). The baseball sites are still stuck in positions and one swing fits all methods. They do not even understand the "flail". I truly believe that aspects of TGM (as Homer suggested in his book) can be applied to baseball.

Very interesting. Not too sure about them being clueless though.
Need to give it a closer look but on first inspection they would appear to be on to it.
Linear, Rotational, Circle Path, Linear Path, Torques. Sounds vaguely familiar to me.
What do you think Annikan?.

Tongue,
I have been posting on Batspeed and other baseball boards long before there was a TGM board. The arguments go round and round with little science. Similar to golf boards without TGM knowledge.

Thanks mb, you probably saved me yet another wasted trip into the forest!.
Looked interesting from a first glance though. Always looking for clues!.

Excellent response. Chapter 8 often gets overlooked from the aspect of Acceleration and it's four stages:) .