Part 2 of 6 | Transition Pull Down & Ice skater Twirl Physics
If you have issues turning your hips in the downswing and maintaining lag this is the video for you...! The transition “Chain Pull Down Move”, helps you to maintain your lag, prevents casting and over the top swings which are all causing your hip rotation to stall at impact creating destructive compensations in your swing.
The GForce Swing Trainer is a great tool to help you time the transition and prevent casting, which is when you release the club too early and throw away all your lag. The Super Flexible Shaft helps you with a slight pause at the top of the backswing, this loads the shaft ready for the perfectly timed downswing transition.
As Bobby Jones once said he was just trying to “Pull The Slack Out The Shaft” which is a great thought for the transition downswing move, and then just hold on for the ride. Swing a towel or rope and you will see this in action straight away, you will instinctively pull on the rope or towel in transition not push on it or try and manipulate it in any way with your hands, your golf swing should work in the same way.
Have you ever watched an ice skater twirl when they bring their arms in closer to their body they twirl around faster, then when they spread their arms out wide they slow down, the same effect (Physics) happens in your golf swing and I will teach you how to do it and harness the forces in the golf swing to your advantage.
We need a tight downswing radius (arms and club closer to body’s centre / chest) to create speed and improve hip rotation AUTOMATICALLY...! How is that possible you ask...? It’s all about the Physics…
If you cast the club in transition and lose all your lag too soon, effectively you are widening your arms and swing arc / path, so just like the ice skater your hip rotation slows down and stalls, this creates compensations to make up for the lost speed such as overusing your arms or body to force the club through with inconsistent results causing chicken wing, flips and all sorts of manipulations to make any sort of desperate contact with the ball.
We need to do the opposite and keep the club and arms closer to our body in transition to take advantage of the ice skater physics (angular momentum)
Quick Ice Skater Physics – Angular Momentum Demo
In transition it is important to build speed in the arms to get the club down quickly, Gears 3D shows this with all the tour players with the hands accelerating quickly in transition pulling the club down and keeping tucked in, amateur golfers do the opposite. If you did not pull down first in transition, the rotational force of the golf swing would cause some serious issues which I explain in this video below.
The arms and club have a long way to travel in comparison to the hips so we need to get them down and synced up and coordinated with the body rotation. Applying rotation of the body too quickly before getting the arms and club down is disastrous and one of the main reasons why so many golfers swing over the top, cast, flip, loose speed and generally never improve their game because of always fighting their swing, compensating and manipulating because of a poor transition.
Sergio Garcia explains it very well in this video, we should listen to this guy as he is the best example of how to shallow the golf club on the downswing transition.
In transition feel like you keep the club head close to your body’s centre (Chest) and keep your wrists free like a door hinge and fully cocked / loaded. Don’t try and hold / lock the wrist angle or manipulate it in any way coming down, keep your wrists completely passive (do nothing with them basically, keep them really soft)
Firstly you need to start by learn to get awareness of the weight of the club swinging FIRST, it is important to feel the weight and let your body naturally respond to it, rather than trying to position your body or focus on turning your hips out of the way because research proves this does not work (Internal focus v’s external focus, another video I will cover sometime)
You can then then learn to tap into and feel when the right time is to apply any force such as posting / extending up to help release the club and speed it up.
See the first video of this series 1 of 6 and my 1 handed swings and how my body responds naturally to the swing of the club, start with “SMALL” 1 handed swings switching between left hand and right hand, then apply both hands and maintain the swing and its rhythm, then you can gradually swing further back and through and your body instinctively responds to the weight / forces applied to the body from the weight of swinging golf club, if you try and interfere by locking, manipulating, thinking about body positions you will lose the ability develop your best golf swing potential.
The flexible shaft in the GForce Swing Trainer helps you with greater awareness of the weight of the club head, like twirling a ball around on a piece of string and feeling the weight of the ball (see video link Below) or catching a fish and feeling the weight / pull of the fish on the flexible rod, your body naturally responds to the weight of the fish...!
Stuart Small’s Ball Twirl Analogy Golf Swing Physics
We use Centrifugal and Centripetal force on the golf swing, just like I am using in the ball twirling video analogy demonstration, if you can tap into these forces and harness then rather than trying to fight and over power them, you will have the most effortless, powerful, consistent golf swing you ever dreamed of, and injury free...! And I can help you find it and do it 😊
Do not try to manipulate your wrists during the downswing or follow through. Use centripetal and centrifugal force, so you should be pulling on the grip in transition, release and follow through no pushing, rolling, bowing, bending or manipulating and any way. Because that would cause the Kinetic Chain to break down, imagine twirling the ball around and then trying to manipulate it, you would instantly loose the tension through the string, the ball would lose speed and become uncontrollable just like your golf swing unfortunately ☹
GForce Swing Trainers are great because they give you feedback from the feeling through the shaft and ball flight, you can feel the weight of the club head improving club head awareness which allows your body to become more responsive to the weight of the club head swinging around your body.
Some key 🗝️ references that have helped me over the past 20 years to put this video together in the simplest possible way, you should go and check out their work :-)
Ernst Jones - Swing The Club Head
Chris Riddoch - Sports science professor and coach
Gabriele Wulf - Professor in the Department of Kinesiology
Rob Gray - Professor of Human Systems Engineering
Michael Neff - Director of Gears Golf 3D Motion Capture
Pete Cowen - PGA Tour Coach
Shaun Clement - Wisdom in Golf
Chuck Quinton - Rotary Swing Golf
Good Luck 🍀 Stuart
Founder - GForce Golf
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