Fishing and Golf by Shawn Clement

Recently on the message board we have been talking about taking the 'thrust' out of the right arm out of the golf swing and unbending the right wrist at impact. Here's a video that Shawn Clement made about fishing and golf that somewhat illustrates the point.



If you look at when Clement 'casts the lure' his right arm is still bent at the elbow and right wrist unbends as he casts the lure out to the pond.

Here's a couple of looks at Ben Hogan.



As you can see Hogan has a very bent right arm at impact and then it stays bent (but to a lesser degree, but still more than your average golfer) well past impact.

One of the things experienced golfers have guarded against over the years is casting the golf club. But I think what has happened is that because of that fear of casting the club, they wind up throwing (thrusting) the right arm and try to keep the right wrist with it's maximum bend at impact.

Instead, I think a better and more efficient way is pivot on the downswing, unbend the right wrist and keep the right arm bent in and thru impact.

On the downswing, everybody's main objective is to get the clubhead to the ball. I think there's different ways golfers do it.

'Casters' = No or little pivot on the downswing causing them to throw the right arm and unbend the right wrist to get to the ball. The also usually do not have much axis tilt.

'Thrusters' = Frozen right wrist, some pivot, axis tilt varies, and they thrust the right arm to get the clubhead to the ball. The right arm is usually bent at impact, but not nearly as much as Hogan and they usually use a CF release (releasing out to the right).

Here's a good pic demonstrating a CP release (releasing left, left pic) and CF release (releasing out to the right, right pic).


John Erickson calls the CP release (hitting) and CF release (swinging), but that can be confusing for golfers who understand TGM. So I will tentatively call the CF release (thrusters) unless I see somebody that I think thrusts and uses a CP release.

Thrusters are not all bad. Moe Norman was certainly a thruster in my book. I think in order for him to hit it dead straight like he did he had fabulous face control and a shallow attack angle.

'Savers' - Right Wrist unbends, plenty of pivot action to and thru the ball, arms are very inactive thru the impact interval. They more or less:

1. Drop the arms on the startdown a bit while pivoting.
2. Get plenty of axis tilt.
3. 'Cast' the club by unbending the right wrist and keep pivoting.
4. Have a lot of right arm bend at impact.

Very tough to 'flip' with a lot of right arm bend at impact. I call them 'savers' because when a golfer has a straight right arm at impact or close to a straight arm, it's often referred to as 'running out of right arm.' If they have plenty of right arm bend and keep it thru impact, then they have 'saved the right arm.'





3JACK