Let's Talk Lag's Golf Machine

[TeddyIrons]

FIFA certainly *is* guilty of selling out. I'm not sure if the ball used in the video is genuine IoZ, but it was certainly the case that FIFA introduced yet another new world cup ball, that reacted quite a bit differently to other footballs of recent times. The result was in fact far few goals scored from a distance, as the footballers had trouble controlling it on more powerful shots, but FIFA or somebody has made more money because kids will want the latest ball, no doubt. Really football has suffered quite a bit over the last 20 years. Cheating is now considered part of the game - an attacker looks for a leg to trip over in the penalty box and it's the defenders fault for being naive allowing it to happen. The European Cup used to be a competition between the champions of every European League, who battled it out in a knock-out competition over the season. Now we have the top four teams in the stronger leagues entering this competition, while teams in smaller countries don't get to qualify, with a new format where they play each other ad nauseum in group stages - it's only when you get to the quarter finals that the real competition starts. The TV rights are huge, but the spectacle is unfortunately diluted somewhat - seeing the top teams play each other over and over again begins to lose its appeal; it's a case of too much of a good thing, and in the end the Champions League is often won by a team that was not a Champion of its league. Some footballers are purchased as much for their selling power than their abilities - David Beckham was a fine player, but Real Madrid purchased him based on the sales of Real Madrid shirts with "Beckham" stamped on the back, especially in Asia. Well, that's my football rant! But at least we haven't significantly changed the rules, but then we didn't need to - football was popular with most of the world and didn't need to introduce larger goals so that more goals could be scored just to appease those that didn't like the sport, like the US TV companies - instead they found other ways to sell out.

[IronOfZion]

Good points Teddy, too bad that the only highlight in the final (between 'my country' and Spain) was the amount of penalties.
My team played too aggressive, Spain looked like they had been taking diving lessons .
BOM, for your collection:

spainNLD.jpg (31.82 KiB) Viewed 718 times

[mandrin]

Mandrin,

Nice to see you back here.. what have you been working on in the lab?

lag,

Very little activity. I have been fooling around a bit with the various forces playing a role in the release of the club. However I don't know if I will eventually post about it as it goes very much against standard wisdom re to the role played by centrifugal force in this release action. A rather major paradigm shift. But I can give you some thoughts I had seeing Tom Watson a couple of days ago on TV.

With the many slowed down sequences shown on television it appears that most pros are swinging the club on a plane. It is clearly visible how they swivel the club onto this plane right from the takeaway. Let's call this a '2D swing motion'.

I always felt that an alternative way to swing a club is a pure 3D approach for the swing, forgetting completely about any notion of plane in the swing. Just seeing Tom Watson with an approach shot it immediately struck me that he used typically this '3D swing motion' :

A simple rotation of trunk about the vertical, hands remaining close to body, with hands and club bisecting the body. In essence rotation of trunk about vertical axis whilst shoulders and wrists rotate around horizontal axes perpendicular to a moving plane, the latter attached to and bisecting the body.

I seem to remember several years back to have read somewhere that Tiger did not have any idea of planes when swinging a club. It struck me at that time as rather intriguing as seemingly almost everyone is so much concerned with various kind of planes that it gets rather confusing.

[BomGolf222]

Good points Teddy, too bad that the only highlight in the final (between 'my country' and Spain) was the amount of penalties.
My team played too aggressive, Spain looked like they had been taking diving lessons .
BOM, for your collection:

spainNLD.jpg

I've been talking about the football development as the reverse of the golf ball development for years now. The early golfers thought that a smooth ball would fly straighter, but what they discovered was that the older it got, and the more scuffed it got, the straighter it flew- hence the dimples on the modern golf ball.
In football, for some unknown reason they've neglected this aerodynamic reality and have been obsessed with eliminating seams and making the ball super smooth- the culmination of this aim was this world cup imo..... so many 18-25 yards shots went everywhere but the goal.... embarrassing. Some claim that this is the same for both teams so it's fair, but I vehemently disagree! The game itself is ruined regardless of the outcome or results- sound familiar?
Anyway, you could argue that the best team won, but I did back both of the finalists from the get go so I feel pretty cool.... though deep down i was pulling for the Orange!..

[Steb]

Football has already been ruined IMO because of the cheating--the diving is bad but the level of player holding is disgusting.

Maybe there's just too much glory in coming first, makes people do whatever it takes, ethical or not. They've lost me as a spectator. Thank god cheating hasn't become the norm in golf--could you imagine Steve Williams purposely dropping the bag halfway through Phil's downswing, and just copping the insignificant fine?

[BomGolf222]

I agree in a lot of ways, Steb, but I also think that things tend to be in flux or transition, and not necessarily ruined. In a similar way to golf I think football is going through some dodgy times, but it's not finished. What cracks me up about football players and managers is that they keep blaming the refs on the bad calls- but if they stopped diving then the refs would have an infinitely easier time making calls. They have what they claim to want, right in their hands, yet they somehow don't see it. I don't think golf is immune to such things even if we don't get to hear about them- golf, with it's image of decorum and civility, has a lot more to gain by keeping these types of indiscretions under wraps. That's not to say that they're happening, but that they very well could be.
In the meantime though, I agree, it makes for painful viewing- worse if you love the game.

[kafka01]

Old
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 76542.html

VS.
New

http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-equipmen ... a-cha.html
http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-equipmen ... de-ir.html


Its kinda old so maybe it has been posted here before. The first guy (the ignorant GD-guy) even offered a challenge to the WSJ-guy, that he couldnt keep his current hcp. while playing old gear. I guess he never tried, but maybe someone here want to give it a try and try to proove him wrong?

Well, i couldnt, thats for sure, but if you consider that within the last 20 years the hcp only dropped 2 strokes on avg, despite all the new gear, which the club manufactures sell as a "big success" , it shouldnt be too hard, or?

[1teebox]

Mandrin,

Nice to see you back here.. what have you been working on in the lab?

lag,

Very little activity. I have been fooling around a bit with the various forces playing a role in the release of the club. However I don't know if I will eventually post about it as it goes very much against standard wisdom re to the role played by centrifugal force in this release action. A rather major paradigm shift. But I can give you some thoughts I had seeing Tom Watson a couple of days ago on TV.

With the many slowed down sequences shown on television it appears that most pros are swinging the club on a plane. It is clearly visible how they swivel the club onto this plane right from the takeaway. Let's call this a '2D swing motion'.

I always felt that an alternative way to swing a club is a pure 3D approach for the swing, forgetting completely about any notion of plane in the swing. Just seeing Tom Watson with an approach shot it immediately struck me that he used typically this '3D swing motion' :

A simple rotation of trunk about the vertical, hands remaining close to body, with hands and club bisecting the body. In essence rotation of trunk about vertical axis whilst shoulders and wrists rotate around horizontal axes perpendicular to a moving plane, the latter attached to and bisecting the body.

I seem to remember several years back to have read somewhere that Tiger did not have any idea of planes when swinging a club. It struck me at that time as rather intriguing as seemingly almost everyone is so much concerned with various kind of planes that it gets rather confusing.

mandrin,

I look forward to more of your posts and I could use a bracing paradigm shift right about now.

Best to you,
1teebox

[Range Rat]

Mandrin...nice to hear from you again.

If I understand the description correctly....it sounds close to an Eddie Merrins approach to the process....at least on the thru move. RR

[mandrin]

Mandrin...nice to hear from you again.

If I understand the description correctly....it sounds close to an Eddie Merrins approach to the process....at least on the thru move. RR

Range Rat,

Eddie Merrins taught a vertical hinging of the wrists and this indeed leads to a '3D' type of swing action. Another teacher which comes to mind is Michael Mcteigue, teaching to keep the club up and down in front of the body combined with a 'light house turn' for the body, very much '3D'. There are also those who teach keeping the arms in front of the chest which is along the same line of thinking.

With the '3D' approach, if actively using the wrist/hands prior and through impact, the feeling is of unhinging the club down vertically onto the ball, hence not sideways into the back of the ball.

I don't think being far from the truth feeling that most instruction however is along that of swinging the club on some plane. It has a very different feel for me, this '2D' and '3D's approach to swinging a club. The '3D' approach seems to lead more naturally lead to a rather compact connected type of swing.