Jump to content

Liquid Torque


BrettSmith

Recommended Posts

Hello TSG'ers!

Put a lot of time in the trenches with clients looking to stack more distance in the last 6 weeks. Previously I shared that launch monitor feedback and significant on range/on course time has shown that most people are working shafts that are too stiff. I still can't emphasize enough the importance of the right shaft fit for the individual biomechanic. Precisely the ahmm... REPEATING "potential" movements- or that one in 10 swing vs. a repeating, less-stressed and balanced set of moves that the shaft should be fit for. The move that can actually be repeated again and again. I strongly encourage you to harness the amazing benefits of higher grade shaft functions that were not available to this extent 10 years ago- use the technology!

Here is something additional I'd like to share to for you to consider. I already know it works because I have client referrals to back me up- it's up to you to train it, train right with discipline and focus and reap the distance increase payoff. Here goes the story-

PGA TOUR player Kenny Perry long has been one of the longer hitters on tour despite his age- much like Freddy Couples. I've known HOW Freddy gets his power for a long time, but from the teaching end- it's more about the WHAT... that is what can somebody (the normal joe) do to get more of those power functions: coil and resistance. About 2 months ago, I saw Kenny working this move with his left side so that he could:

a) get his right side coiling faster

b) eliminate the slide off the ball

What he was doing was stacking his right brace at address square to the target but leaving the left side hinged open (like a door hinge) to the left. Kenny was staging his left hip socket more open so that he could start instantly coiling with the right side. I saw this right away and personally started experimenting with it right away. I realized that this was also something I had seen David Duval do when he was in top form and from spending time with him In Florida. Here is how you can easily get this feeling in it's most simple way>

First with no club but your arms staged with hold and stance, square-off both feet completely to your taget line. Now here are the levers-

Lever 1: Right Foot. Turn it inward torwards your target 25-40 degrees.... depending on your level of flexibility.

Lever 2: Left Foot. Do the same.

We should prob call this "walking like and Egyptian", but here's the beauty of it- work some very fluid backswing and rotary moves against all this extra resistance. The left hip is help in place and this restricts the amount of hip rotation- creating more resistance and greater torque. You have to go at your own pace here, but take the next month as I did and train this religiously. You will see greater separation in your shoulder rotation vs hip rotation. The idea of this resistance is nothing new as Jim McLean talked Xfactor many years ago. The problem was he couldn't get anybody to do it! :atsg_smilie_roll:

Just kidding partly... I'm not taking a shot at JimmyMac, I'm putting myself out there that mechanics are great but none of it matters if you can't show people how to realize the concept. Here is a way for you to AT YOUR OWN PACE take some of the genius of McLean and put it to work. I recommend starting with driver and fairway metals. Most importantly keep your moves fluid and get more at peace with meeting the earlier resistance and harnessing it. The usual tendency here is to spin out and get across. You have to strive to stay in the hitter's squat longer because you will be unloading more energy.

Very interested to hear any test pilot yardage feedback- as long as you give it some time. I really think you will be pleased with more rotary rip potential!

Brett :atsg_smilie_roll:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Brett,

I'm going to give this a go and report back. This might work very well for me as my right knee continues to give me problems here and there from two previous ACL surgeries. I did play around with this with some short game shots and I was unbelievably so stable. I can really feel the load into the right side immediately. Let me put this into play for a few days and I'll report back.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I been doing just the opposite with great results. I find many teachers emphasing coiling against the hips. This to me resulted in a reduced turn back. I admit I am old and decrepit, but restricting the natural motion of the hips back reduced my core turn and resulted in excessive arms and spine angle changes. I am now letting hips turn with my chest back naturally against a braced right leg, knee slightly in and I have improved my distance considerably. When I see photos of Hogan at the top I see a full 45 degree hip turn and the resistance is against his legs which allows the legs to spring forward. Resisting against the hips to me puts the tension too high in my body for the ultimate power source to be utilized to its fullest, the legs. My power is in my legs, not my mid body.

Thanks for the imput.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is a great tip, in fact I'm really going to give it a shot. My knees seem to kill me after 18 holes and the more I play the shorter my drives get. Anything I can do to save my knees and my score I'm all for it. If anybody else has tried this, I'd be interested in hearing from them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There of course will be diminishing returns and complications from this set if you are limited with range of motion and flexibilty. If this is the case, you could always stagger the right with a slightly closed set of the hips and work the same concept. Torque and coil are both ground-up operations, so the working more resistance makes the legs more explosive- not less.

Mr. Hogan is actually not a good biomechanic example for you to emulate with the 45deg hip action because he created more than double that in separtation factor with shoulder differential. If you stagger the right post behind you slightly, you could more effectively create more powerful differential. So in closing, you should be 10-15deg closed with the hips and seek to stop the hips at 25deg or so with the resistance levers I mentioned. This will give you more coil with previously mentioned restricted range of motion.

Brett :tsg_smiley_putter2:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Update for those interested.

Like I stated previously, when I read this from Brett it was very intriguing to me as I have a constant fight with my right knee "feeling" solid since two ACL surgeries. Although its been almost 9 years since the last operation, I still experience laxity in the knee. The ACL itself is fine, its just because I had so much damage to the knee the secondary supporting structures have all been stretched out. What it feels like is balancing upon a ball and pean hammer on my right side. It doesn't so much affect me going back but more so coming through. And its something that varies from time to time so you just never know how it'll react.

After having played a few rounds by turning my feet as Brett suggested, I no longer experience that instability. What this move has allowed me to do is to actually slow my swing down and still experience no loss in distance. In fact I really believe I'm at least 5-8 yards on average longer than I was. Because my right side isn't breaking down, I can really just turn fluidly back and then let it go on the way through without over swinging. It took some adjustment visually as I felt I would just massively slice everything. I also discovered that my left-side misses which can be huge from time to time were reduced and in fact I found that I was able to work the ball both ways once again. My accuracy has improved by a fair amount.

An additional improvement which this helped me with was limiting my backswing. I'm blessed with a good amount of flexibility and in my golf swing this would sometimes hurt me. I still get a great turn, but now I'm not overturning. However, if you struggle with turning in your swing, this will only make matters potentially worse.

I'm actually using this set-up and pretty much all types of swings, except for greenside bunkers. I found that this set-up produces very crisp contact of the ball and I was catching it very clean from the greenside bunker. Great from a fairway bunker, but not so hot if your greenside as I'm sure you all can imagine.

I'm going to continue to groove this as I really think this will help me tremendously. I've played some very good golf the past few years but always felt my knee was holding my back as it would always feel different depending upon the day. However, with this set-up there is no instability at all and I can't tell you how good that feels after all this time.

The best thing about it all is how smooth I feel now. I've always been very aggressive in my swing and its by biggest limitation. With this set up, I don't need to be so aggressive but yet I'm more accurate and have no decrease in length at all. Like I said, my drives are a bit longer, and a couple have been massive. I'm really hoping to continue honing this move and enjoying my game more.

Brett, thanks very, very much for sharing this. I'm very grateful. I owe you a beer or something!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Blade,

Psyched!!

I personally tested this on myself first and since have seen amazing results- so I KNEW it worked. Of course the trick is, like you said- there has to be a good supportive base in place. (sound overall mechanics and good range of motion) If you have something good in place, this will make it more powerful.... but if there are cracks in the foundation, the extra pressure will create a meltdown.

All the more special though that you are validating my mad science! :tsg_smiley_wiz:

:tsg_smiley_putter2:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...