braveheart
I like your attitude. When I started golf 45 years ago, I studied as many materials as I could lay my hands on. Naturally, my first book, Hogan's 5 Lessons, provided a good starting point. But I have not used Hogan's wide stance. It didn't make sense to me. I started instinctively with a narrow stance.
Then, Mindy Blake came along with The Golf Swing of the Future. A lot of his ideas made sense. I kept them in my concept of The Reflex Convex Swing. But I couldn't use his grip which was devised by him specifically to tap power from the right arm (his model was the javelin). His other ideas, especially of turning the right foot towards the target 10 degrees and the left 30 degrees, were very useful.
It didn't take me long to ask "why not turn the feet further towards the target?". That I did because they made sense. I was more convinced when I noted that Tiger Woods and John Daly always finished their swings with their left foot opened to 45 - 60 degrees. Because they had to otherwise they won't be able to complete their swing. So, I ventured again "why not pre-turned the left foot 45 - 60 degrees at address?". In that way, the left foot will not be able to block the downswing throughout the impact zone.
I used to watch a fair bit of field sports. It dawned on me that the hammer throw was a better fit as a model for a golf swing. The hammer throw is powered by the rotary movement of the lower body, it rotates over a narrow stance and pivots on the left heel (in the final swing), the left side and arm dominate the swing. You can't find a better model fit for a golf swing if you subscribe to a the lower body muscles and a left side dominated swing. This really completed my search for a reflex swing.
When I starting my book about 3 years ago, I watching a lot of swings by top professionals, like Ariya Jutanugarn, Rory McIlroy, Jeff Flagg, Tony Finau and Brooks Koepka. I noticed they all have a 'concave'-bend shaft approaching the ball before striking it. It took me not too long to ask why this should be so. Because I know, like everyone else, that a 'convex' bend is a stronger shape.
Then, I went about looking for features of the Hogan method was causing the shaft to transition from the 'convex' bend at 9 o'clock, to straight and then to 'concave' bend at impact. The important thing is to want to look for it. Sporting it is the easier part. Soon, I realized that it must be two factors - (1) the downswing was not fast enough to begin with and (2) the insufficiently open 22 degrees left foot must have been blocking the downswing. Hence the weak 'concave' strike on the ball. That was my 'aha' moment.
I then postulated that the Reflex Swing that I had conceived can form the basis of a swing that can deliver a 'convex' bend shaft to impact the ball. Presto! The Reflex Convex Swing was born.
In the hands of the five professionals that I have mentioned, I am confident that the 'convex' strike will be achieved sooner rather than later. In fact, anyone with a swing speed of 100+mph can do it.
That is a brief genesis of my journey. It shows that the ideas are very simple to learn from so many sources. It boils down to a mind open to learning. Individually, the component ideas are easy to understand; you don't need a rocket science background to understand The Reflex Convex Swing. The key was that gradually I was able to synthesize the components into a coherent whole.
I am perplexed that some readers at other sites seemed so resistant to that idea of a 'convex' strike on the ball. They kept insisting on data and not using simple logic to think the concept through. Sometimes, one can miss the forest for the trees.
Here is the 'convex' strike on the ball as I have imagined it. Enjoy!
Thanks for the patience to read it. I sense you were interested in trying new ideas.
