Golf Baggage – all that accepted wisdom in golf that is just plain wrong. Incredibly many golf myths are happily accepted as fact and are part of everyday golfing paralance.
Recognising golf baggage is a great first step to improving your golf no matter what your age. Once we are over 50 it requires a serious mental effort to change our way of thinking. Making that effort will improve your game and save you lots of money too.
The golf club manufacturers hold most of us in thrall so that we look at this year’s shiny drivers and iron innovations with glassy eyed fascination. No matter what logic tells us – we want the latest and the best.
As discussed in what is probably the most valuable post on this whole site – Awful Golf even the most deep rooted of beliefs, “Drive for Show – Putt for Dough” is just plain wrong. This page is dedicated to debunking the myths of golf.
Golf Double Pendulum Debunked
Have you ever heard how the golf swing is essentially a double pendulum? Somehow the concept is used to suggest that this is the correct way to swing a golf club. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The double pendulum is something pedaled equally enthusiastically by golf manufacturers and golf pros alike. Trouble is it has little basis in fact.
Pendulum – Definition Noun 1. a body so suspended from a fixed point as to move to and fro by the action of gravity and acquired momentum.
2. Horology. a swinging lever, weighted at the lower end, for regulating the speed of a clock mechanism.
While I am all for staying very (very) relaxed throughout the swing I don’t think you would do too well relying on gravity alone.
In reality they are really talking about the additive effects of the angular rotation of the body and shoulders combining with the action of the arms and ultimately the wrists to accelerate the club through impact.
As with most baggage the double pendulum has basis in fact. And in general it is a useful tool to describe the golf swing. Just don’t get too tied to it as a way of describing your swing.
Here’s a youtube video of a genuine double pendulum. The pendulum is released as a freely pivoted double pendulum about 20s into the video. Note that it rapidly moves into Chaotic, unpredictable motion.
Umm, that bit at around 45s may be closer to my golf swing that I care to think.