Pendulum
Mike Austin’s swing is powered by the swinging of two pendulums. If the swing is performed correctly, both pendulums will reach the impact zone at the same time. When this happens, all of the energy contained in the swing is transferred to the golf ball. If one pendulum or the other reaches the impact zone first, energy will be lost and the shot could be thinned or fatted.
Let’s look at the two pendulums.
The easiest way to look at the first pendulum is to think of it as the hands swinging around the body. First, think about the half way back position, where the left arm is parallel to the ground and the club is at a right angle to the left arm. Now, picture the hands swinging around to the follow through, where the right arm is parallel to the ground with the club at a right angle to the arm. The hands have swung 180 degrees from position one to position two. They have moved half way around the swing circle. The pivot has driven this swinging of the hands. This is the first pendulum.
The second pendulum is also a 180 degree swing, but this time it is the clubhead swinging around the hands. From position one to position two, the club will travel 180 degrees around the hands. At position one, the clubhead is at a right angle to the left arm. It is lagging 90 degrees behind the hands. By the time the hands reach position two, the clubhead is 90 degrees ahead of the hands. The clubhead has actually traveled 360 degrees by the time position two has been reached. 180 degrees supplied by the pivot and another 180 degrees from the clubhead releasing around the hands. When the club started at position one it was perpendicular to the ground. It ends the same way, making a full circle.
Here is the key, as the hands (which are being driven by the pivot) reach the impact zone, you also want the clubhead reaching the impact zone. If the hands get there ahead of the clubhead, the hands must hit the brakes and wait for the clubhead to catch up and make impact. This is why we don’t hold the lag. If lag is retained, the hands must stop moving. Obviously this kills speed. If the clubhead gets to impact before the hands, well, you have stopped the pivot and flipped at the ball. It just won’t ever work that way.
Since we want the two pendulums to sync up at impact, it will be affected by ball position. With a driver and the ball placed to the front of the stance, the clubhead should be at a minimum even with the hands at impact, preferably a little in front of the hands. With the ball placed back in the stance for a low shot, the hands will be in front of the ball at impact. Since we account for ball position with our grip before we strike the ball, we can use the same swing action for any ball position and still get the pendulums to sync up at impact.
The second pendulum (clubhead swing around the hands) must be allowed to swing. It can’t be held back in an artificial attempt to build lag into the swing. Don’t ever worry about lag. The power of both pendulums releasing into the ball at the same time is all you will need.
A throwing action can be added with the right side to assist the acceleration of the second pendulum, the club.
