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Clarifying the First Release by Taylor Spalding Lee's notion of the first release needs a little bit of clearing up. He's definitely on the right track. The confusion however is the result of Lee falling victim to The Greatest Illusion in Golf. If you examine the diagram below you will begin to understand. I've had the original diagram in a Publisher file that's been sitting around for five years now. I finally had the chance to use it. Of course I've spruced it up a bit for the web presentation. The diagram depicts various types of "Whening " moments. For the sake of this presentation I have left off the second waning(follow through). But if it were depicted, the top right hand corner of the diagram would look like the top of an arch as the movement would lose velocity after impact.
Now the red portion of the diagram tends to depict what Lee is talking about. The initial burst begins immediately at the commencement of the Whening moment. The "first release" is represented by the apex of the red triangle. I have circled it. This release is performed early in the golfing movement. Lee recommends that the first release should not occur past the 7:30 clock position. After this the motion goes into the Waning mode. Lee calls this the "freefall." A modern day golfer that seems to have this type of release is Nick Price. I would tend to agree with Lee that a moderately expedient first release is probably the best way to go. But the rule is by no means a rigid standard. Lee actually disproves the veracity of his theory by using something called the "no reference drill." This drill is pretty much a formalized baseball swing where the club is held out in front in an "en garde" position. The club is then set to the top from there and the swing is commenced from the "set at the top" position. What Lee doesn't realize is that the person performing this exercise will experience the first release in a very short space near the top of the swing (much like a baseball hitter). This type of Whening moment could begin like what is depicted by the blue area of the diagram. A modern day golfer that seems to embody this release is Nancy Lopez. The zig zags before the apex could be looked at as physical manipulations occurring through the time leading up to the first release. This fact is part of the reason why swing is so hard to understand. Every person is different and will experience his or her own unique release point in his or her own true swing. The best is probably somewhere in between these two extremes. Because of the greater tensile connection, early releasers will usually be able to generate more club head speed. The late releasers will usually release from more of a static pose nearer the top and therefore generate slightly less club head speed. Also, and this is not in any form a sexist remark, men tend to make a movement that requires and early release and then fail to release or release too late. Women tend to make a movement that would require a later release and the fail to release or release too early. Both forms cause the body to lose center. And when True Center is lost all is lost! Keep in mind this maxim: The stronger the heave, to use Lee's terminology, the earlier the first release must be. The weaker the heave the later the release must be. In either case loss of connection with True Center can occur through too much momentum in the former and lack of inspiration in the latter. The key point is that the whole thing is about balance and a form of movement that exhibits harmony and reciprocation between center and periphery. This is the simple mantra of the Spalding Method. The movement must be released to the golden principle, that which forms the aesthetic basis for the method. |
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