If the backswing is just for positional reasons... why not just start from the top? The main point of the backswing is to create a coil of stored energy, when i swing back, i feel like an elastic band.... i cannot hold the backswing position for very long if i swing at full speed as i've built up a lot of energy and coil around my right leg.

This is why I feel at 140 pounds and only 5 foot 10 I hit 300 yards... because of my backswing.

hi neil
yes i agree but is it the kinetic energy that has been genarated in the club head that pulls the right arm throught to extension or is it the right hand thats still pushing or a bit of both.
bill

Hi 2k3
I am very much looking forward to seeing you results.

aft

dear aftford:
how do we stop ours arms from been part of the swing?
i had read so many post about the power from the arms are the swing killers...they said has to be wrist, torso, and hip power in motion and in conjunction
to generate a solid repetitive and powerful swing. now in your point of view how much strong or solid our grip have to be in order to be good grip if we are base in the chart 1 to 10??
apreciate you reply!!

I am going out on a limb here............ shoulders, arms, forearms, wrists, and hands..........

where the power comes from, I would say that the shoulders generate the most power. If you want to know where the power is delivered from - then it’s the wrists/hands. And the link between them is lag...........

hi shooting4par:
are you sugesting start the downswing with you left arm instead of both together?

This is a very interesting thread!

I feel that you can’t say it’s in one particular point of the swing. The paper that atford posted states that “The main source of power delivered to the golfclub originated from the passive joint forces created at the wrist joint during the swing”. This means that the power is generated in the other areas (shoulders and torso) but that the power is delivered from the wrists. This seems reasonable for anyone who has tried to hit a ball using just the wrists (arms straight down and unmoving) versus hitting a ball with just the arms (shoulder rotation with no wrist break).

This might also explain the bit at the bottom in the scigolf link that Started2k3 posted. The author (Jack Kuykendall) appears to have got confused between the generation of power versus the delivery of power let alone the appalling comment on the mass of a golfer having no effect. He completely ignores the fact that a heavy person normally has more powerful muscles and so can more the club head faster and instead treats a person as if they were an un-muscled skeleton. He means that from a physics point of view it doesn’t matter, but rather misses the real world point. The worst mistake is this sentence “How fast does each body part move and what is its contribution to club head speed?” He treats the cumulative effects of the swing as if they were separate! Of course the hands are moving fastest in his analysis of a swing; they are at the end of a long chain of movement.

I think that the total power and speed of a throw (if we can consider a golf swing to be throwing the club at the ball) comes from the ground up. What I mean is that a powerful and efficient throw starts with the knees driving upwards and towards the target line followed by a shift and drive of the hips towards the target, a rotation of the shoulders, movement of the arms and a snap of the wrist. Thankfully, we learned to do this sort of thing from childhood and do it automatically now with no need to conscious co-ordination. With this co-ordination you get a “whip-crack” effect. Your knees move your hips at about 1 metre per second (mps), your hips then add another 4 mps so that you torso is already travelling at 5 mps before they are even involved and so on to the hands releasing at up to 40+ mps (100mph) in professional sportsmen.

If you want to see what it’s like without co-ordination, try throwing with your weaker hand! Makes you look like you’re trying to throw a handbag doesn’t it!

If you want a definite answer to where the power comes from, I would say that the shoulders generate the most power. If you want to know where the power is delivered from - then it’s the wrists/hands. And the link between them is lag.

For what it’s worth, I was a nationally ranked discus thrower as a teenager and spent more than 7 years at University studying Physiology in various guises (although not much biomechanics admittedly).

Hi folks.
Now all the rush to join this debate has ended , i would like to take this opportunity to say that there have been some excellent arguements raised in this thread, but i'm afraid i have lead you all on a wild goose chase,yes i agree with every single argument that has been raised, but everybody failed to notice my wording in the original post, i asked " where does power come from " and being that the last movement into the ball is the releasing of the wrists , then surely this has to be ultimately where the power comes from. I have no arguments that motions leading up to the point of impact help to generate the power , but the wrists have the final say on how far the ball goes.

cheers pals

aft