Shoes, active hands and low point control

[MartyInDFW]

Mike,

I downloaded nuclear golf and soaked up as much as I could. Great stuff in there but there are a few little items that very few instructors deal with and I get the feeling you'll have some amazing insights, so here goes.

Are golf shoes necessary/helpful? It may seem like a silly question but what I'm interested in is the actual physics of golf shoes versus plain old tennis shoes. I've only been playing a few months and play in my old tennis shoes. I don't mind investing in golf shoes but I'm not really sure they do anything for the swing. Could you talk about this a bit?

You mentioned several times in NGS that the arms and hands are just simple levers, attachments to the golf club and not part of the swing. BMan has a video out saying that if you don't activate the hands you're losing 20% of your power.

Would you clarify your stance? I took the NGS out to the range yesterday and tried to keep my hands totally silent/noodly/loose and just let the pivot rotate the sweet spot around into contact by adjusting my core movements and listening for the "swish" at maximum acceleration.

I didn't really notice any loss of power (with range balls roughly as hard as granite boulders) but the now "exaggerated" movements of my body core to produce power caused me to keep shifting the low point of my swing around: some thin, some fat, a couple of complete whiffs. Embarassing but not unexpected when you make a major swing change. The biggest difference was that I felt like I had to swing PERFECTLY or I'd lose the ball right/left when I made good contact. I never realized how much minor tweaking I was doing with my hands to bring bad swings back into playable territory, especially with my driver.

So I guess my point is: if I'm not using my hands to correct on the way down... how do I train my angle of attack and swing arc low point to be more consistent, especially if I allow my head to move a little as you suggest?

Thanks!

Marty

[Michael Jacobs]

Posted by: MartyInDFW
Shoes, active hands and low point control
Are golf shoes necessary/helpful? It may seem like a silly question but what I'm interested in is the actual physics of golf shoes versus plain old tennis shoes. I've only been playing a few months and play in my old tennis shoes. I don't mind investing in golf shoes but I'm not really sure they do anything for the swing. Could you talk about this a bit?


Martyindfw,

I will say that I remember the days of metal spikes in golf shoes and how much better it was to have the sensation to feel as though your are nailed into the ground. The soft spike generation has done wonders for golf course conditions but has reduced that 'spiked in' force form a golfer. As for scientific data on how this exactly relates? I don't recall any specific paper or data in my research library but I will take a gander next time I am in the home office.

I would venture to say that golf shoes with soft spikes would be more beneficial than tennis shoes... #1 The softspikes have some friction allowing some force conducting #2 They are waterproof!! #3 Sneakers tend to arch the golfer up for athletic support
I would get golf shoes!


Posted by: MartyInDFW
You mentioned several times in NGS that the arms and hands are just simple levers, attachments to the golf club and not part of the swing. BMan has a video out saying that if you don't activate the hands you're losing 20% of your power.

Would you clarify your stance? I took the NGS out to the range yesterday and tried to keep my hands totally silent/noodly/loose and just let the pivot rotate the sweet spot around into contact by adjusting my core movements and listening for the "swish" at maximum acceleration.



Marty,
To understand this better I think you need to understand the history behind the Explosive Golf Video. It was never intended to be a distributed golf movie, it was set out to be for golfers who have never played before as a primer for their golf game. It was designed as a beginner's basic pattern pivot powered swing pattern..... Next thing I knew it becomes one of the most successfully distributed videos since Jack Nicklaus' Golf My Way. Goes to show how the golf world starves for simplicity. Let me take you back to earlier discussions on this to help catch you up:

Read these:
Retirement of a legend - 08-18-2008, 08:19 PM
Hey Dodger,

Great question.... The pattern in the Nuclear Swing is very different from the Pattern in DVD #3. The concept of of the Nuclear Swing involves using the change of direction to bring the club up, which is helpful to diminish over accelerating at the ball. The Nuclear swing dvd is the original dvd and is 5 years old and requires a modern revision.

In the plan for the fall, I will be remaking and relaunching 'The Secret of the Nuclear Swing' dvd that has served golf very well. The 1st dvd was distributed to over 50 stores including Best Buy. Best Buy sold through each and every unit of the 2400 they purchased. It is in libraries all over the world, sat in Blockbusters all over the country, and was a popular rental on Netflix. What started off as a free day where I hired a guy to shoot a basic little take home video for my students turned out to be a huge deal. Over 10,000 at large! That dvd introduced hundreds to The Golfing Machine system and led them into many new areas of golf. If I would have known where it was going, I would have made the dvd a bit different. So that is why I have decided to retire the original and make a revised version. The Secret of The Nuclear swing revised version will fit into the system I am designing and will be much more coherent to the overall Explosive Golf School system. So when you study the original dvd, you have to keep it in the context of a basic pattern that I made a dvd of for the purpose of handing it out to my students. Hope that helps Dodger and look forward to the revised DVD. I will post up the official retirement date of the first dvd announce the dispersal of the second dvd. I still have some original dvds left, so if you would like to get one now is the time to order it.


Article on the Nuclear Swing:
http://www.nygolfworld.com/forum/f9/...lear-swing-95/
Tip on The Nuclear Swing:
http://www.nygolfworld.com/forum/f3/...ear-swing-635/


So the concept of The Secret of the Nuclear swing is great for many players, the pivot & core concepts are extremely important for a golfer as are the arms, hands, and club. Using the pivot to generate and over taking process down to the clubhead as described in the Nuclear Swing is a great one for many of folk. I have completed the redo of The Nuclear Swing Part 2 and I am going to put it out in the near future as it will serve as tidying everything up together and its by far my best video to date.
I am probably going to leave volume #1 out there too because its sooo dam successful and everyone loves it and gleams a little bit here and there from it.


Training your arms, hands, and club is a must !!!

[MartyInDFW]

Thanks Mike. I've picked up a set of shoes and will give them a shot. I've noticed that since changing my focus to a pivot driven swing my balance is MUCH better so the addition of a little more traction with some spikes might actually let me really let out the horsepower in the swing.

Training your arms, hands, and club is a must !!!

So you do advocate activating the hands directly?

I've seen some of your other video tips and you talk about "letting" the hands move but I don't think you ever said anything about "using" the hands to generate more power.

Do you apply force to the club with the hands? Brian talks about it in the acceleration video and you talk about it as a part of the "hitting" school of thought but haven't actually said "yes" or "no" to intentionally powering up the arms/hands and I'm really curious as to your official (tm) stance on it.

I tried a blended approach last night by adding in a bit of "forced" hand action and duck hooked the daylights out of everything I hit.

As long as I keep my hands loose and noodly I was (for me) bombing my drives in the 260 range with a nice little draw. 9 iron flying as far as my 7 iron did before I switched to pivot power. As soon as I got "active" everything fell apart so for me. So I think I'll stick with an invisible hands approach for a while and maybe try to squeeze out a few extra yards or different shot shapes by manipulating my hands later.

Much later.

Thanks for everything. I'm loving the easy distance now.

Marty

[Michael Jacobs]

Thanks Mike. I've picked up a set of shoes and will give them a shot. I've noticed that since changing my focus to a pivot driven swing my balance is MUCH better so the addition of a little more traction with some spikes might actually let me really let out the horsepower in the swing.



So you do advocate activating the hands directly?

I've seen some of your other video tips and you talk about "letting" the hands move but I don't think you ever said anything about "using" the hands to generate more power.

Do you apply force to the club with the hands? Brian talks about it in the acceleration video and you talk about it as a part of the "hitting" school of thought but haven't actually said "yes" or "no" to intentionally powering up the arms/hands and I'm really curious as to your official (tm) stance on it.

I tried a blended approach last night by adding in a bit of "forced" hand action and duck hooked the daylights out of everything I hit.

As long as I keep my hands loose and noodly I was (for me) bombing my drives in the 260 range with a nice little draw. 9 iron flying as far as my 7 iron did before I switched to pivot power. As soon as I got "active" everything fell apart so for me. So I think I'll stick with an invisible hands approach for a while and maybe try to squeeze out a few extra yards or different shot shapes by manipulating my hands later.

Much later.

Thanks for everything. I'm loving the easy distance now.

Marty

Marty,

Great questions!! These questions are why I went on to make the Web Movie Grip & Wrist Action

I think it should be next on your list of viewings, will tidy up the hands / arms connection to the pivot