Blade

Badger said it. The face condition is the biggest factor. It's not like the ball squishes into grooves. A milled face with no grooves would spin the ball more than with grooves on a clean strike. Once you try that in the rough though, it would slide up the face more and have very little spin.

Where were you hitting the shots from? Grooves themselves don't affect spin much if any except when you're in the rough and grass is getting trapped between the face and ball. The grooves channel debris and moisture away. They don't do much to actually grip the ball otherwise. Some say they do nothing at all if it's clean. The same principle for using slick tires for racing as long as the pavement is dry. If you have a clean strike from the fairway, you won't see a difference. The sharpener can deepen the grooves some if you work at it. Make sure it's clamped solidly. Also know the club is not conforming once you do that if that matters to you.

Something that improved my swing considerably in the last year or so was understanding just that. The club head stays behind longer and that angle between my left arm an shaft is preserved through impact so that rotation adds speed and the club releases itself almost. Down the line, my hands and shaft pass through the same place they were at address instead of my hands lifting and the shaft forming a near straight line with my arm. But I notice some tour players that do just that and have plenty of power. Keegan comes to mind. His hands are higher at impact with the shaft nearly straight with his arm looking down the line. So it's not a universal detail to every good player by any stretch. But for me, while I was always pretty solid with my irons, I sliced my driver constantly. Now my driver is straight. I can hit a slight fade or draw now. My miss is only when I turn my shoulders around a little early and I hit a pull draw. But I know what that feels like and only seem to do that if I get careless now.

I understand what you're saying. Steve probably has less wrist set than anyone on tour. He has some though. The angle gets smaller at the top and tightens up a little more on the way down. But no, he's not setting his wrists like most guys. He's also a relatively short hitter too as a result though. It's not a universal thing one way or the other. If you watch Keegan Bradley, he raises his hands through impact so much compared to address he loses that angle almost entirely. I've never thought that's a good thing. One thing I've always noticed when I've recorded my swing down the line is, I can draw a line on the shaft at address in the video, and the shaft comes through that same line at impact aside from the droop in the shaft. I don't want my hands raising up higher than they started for that reason. I want to keep that angle.

The wrists go from hinged to unhinged, so you can't ignore that part of it. I don't mean you have to force them to unhinge, it happens if you let it. If your wrists couldn't hinge at all and you only had rotation, you would lose club head speed. The club would be farther away from you at the top increasing the MOI of the system, making it harder to accelerate. Plus you wouldn't get the free energy of it unhinging at the bottom.

Since I haven't seen another model similar to yours, I have to agree. I do think the wrists unhinging is part of the equation though. That action is increasing club head speed dramatically. I also agree that it and the rotation are not something you muscle through the ball. As long as you don't throw the club head away too early, it will happen. You just have to move with it to avoid hindering that action. Keep at it. It's interesting and far more realistic than the linear double pendulum I've seen used over and over.

I've always taken issue with the model of a linear double pendulum because it doesn't account for the rotation part of the equation. Where I think people get that rotation wrong in their actual swing sometimes is they over or under do it. They under do it with an over the top move where they've learned they have to hold off the club or they'll hit a big pull every time. But then they're slicing. They can over do it by picturing 180° of rotation with their forearms in relation to their body, but don't consider that their body is rotating at the same time. Add the two together and it's too much. I would guess based on what I feel, the forearm rotation is roughly 120° in relation to the shoulders? That's really just a guess not based on any measurements. Have you studied that to put a number range on it? Honestly though, while your model is an improvement on the double pendulum, it's not a new revelation to golf theory to put your name on. Some have adopted the double pendulum for it's relative simplicity to model. I've never put much stock in it because it's using a two dimensional movement to model a three dimensional movement. It can't fully accomplish it. But there's plenty of teaching that includes that rotation. If your back shoulder doesn't turn through, you'll run out of arm which will pull on the club, prevent that release, and make for a slice for example. But good job on the model. It's the best rendering I've seen.

I have issues in the same place and thought I would need surgery for a while it was so bad. It's much better since I've gotten out of operating heavy equipment. I've used the tens thing, but never heard of the implant idea. Let us know how it goes if you do it. Who knows, I might need it someday.

Type it in every time! Just kidding! In your profile you can setup a signature that appends to your post automatically.

Across your back? The shaft shouldn't hit your back at all. I've had iron shafts break. Over time hitting on a mat was slowly bending the tip until it finally broke. My swing isn't as steep now to be that hard on my clubs. Steep into the ground taking big divots will do the same thing. Steel shafts can take quite a bit. But they can't hold up to that abuse forever. The first one the head came off wasn't the glue breaking down unless it slid off the shaft. If it broke at the hosel, the glue was fine. As far as breaking shafts across your back, yea, take some lessons. Sounds like you're not turning through your finish right or something. Have someone who knows what they're doing watch you.

Mine showed up safe in the envelope. Thank you!

Bummer. They probably felt it thru the envelope and hoped it was a $10,000 poker chip or something.

It's the most "real" site I know of to get honest reviews from. And good peeps! Now, you really keep us coming back knowing there's even better stuff to come! Woo hoo! Looking forward to it! P. S. And T comes up with some good stuff every now and then too. Haha!

Oh, that was good!

It looks like it would train your slow twitch muscles for power, but not fast twitch for speed. The guy's swing at the beginning and end of the video looked ridiculous although maybe he bombs it. If that's the swing you develop using that thing, NO THANKS! Plus it would train you to muscle the club and try to steer it through the ball instead of swinging it. It looks like a good core exercise, if you can do it both directions. But swing training? It would be a train wreck for me.

OK, so I have a Cally 18° X Utility which I really like. It's much more dependable for me than a 3 wood has been in the past. Anyway, I've been experimenting with adding weight to my clubs. For the most part adding some helps me. I still need to find how much is just right and how much is too much. Anyway, for the purpose of experimenting, I had a roll of high density lead tape laying around. It works nicely to wrap it around the hosel. 4" of it is one gram. Adding a couple grams to that club smooths me out and helps me feel it better during the swing. Well that club has a removable weight in the sole. It was said early on that the weight port could hold a 2,4,6 or 8 gram weight. What's the logical conclusion to that? Certainly, that the weights would be available to change out to your preference. Well, apparently, that would just make too much sense. I sent a message to Callaway through their website asking about the weights. A couple of weeks later I got a response that said, "The clubhead weights of Callaway's Tour Authentic X Utility Prototype irons cannot be adjusted."! So I'm thinking, that can't be right. So I called the Customer Service number they provided to talk to someone. He said they were not made to be changed and they do not sell the weights at all. The weights unscrew with a Torx head driver. It's not a permanent built-in weight or anything. So why on earth would a company design an interchangeable weight system into a club, tell you what different weights can be placed in it, but tell you they will not provide any different weights than what came in it? That makes no sense. I don't think the weights for their drivers will fit. Has anyone found weights available that will fit?

Haha. I logged in for the first time in maybe 6 months. That's about all I have. I never do anything on it. Oh well.

Good job Dan. That's a, "Why didn't I think of this a long time ago?" thread.

C'mon Vince, you're starting to sound a bit Kranky about this. You're kind of missing the point of why people are upset. Delays happen, sure. But the bigger issue is how a pattern of lack of communication about the problem from Krank was developed. We kept hearing from different people basically the same story of no returned calls or emails. When there was communication, it was a promise of a new delivery date that came and went again and again. Throwing Fugikura under the bus on top of that just made Krank look worse, not better. If they are that much of a problem, Krank should go somewhere else for shafts. If they aren't though, they now have a real reason to think twice about doing further business with Krank! Not a good situation either way. As for Richard's (RP) posts; he has more business sense and experience than I know I'll ever have. His observations come from understanding what can get a business through a tough time like this and what will put the final nail in the coffin of a business in trouble. I'm not saying Krank is in trouble, but it sure doesn't look good or professional. Honestly, to smooth this situation out now, you couldn't do better than listening to what Richard has to say. Heck, PM him and ask for his advice on the best way to navigate out of this! It's about damage control now. The right moves now will help. The wrong ones will make it worse. I would want some help from someone who knows at this point if I were in your situation. Not sayin', just sayin'.

Owww crap Dan! Too funny. You should get paid for this stuff!

You can bet all these guys that can't follow a few simple instructions and requirements to be considered for testing would just do a fantastic job on the actual review! Oh Brother!

Man, this keeps getting worse, not better!

I like my Rage Black, but this just sucks. I sure hope they don't bail out of the driver testing. I hope they send the Rage and Element for that matter. This has gotten to the point it may be hard to recover from. Who wants to hear a bunch of great things about the driver then have to hear how you may pay for one, but no telling when you'll get it, and oh, by the way, they won't let you know what's going on. It may be sitting ready to ship, but no one bothers to give it to Fedex. They have some serious damage control to do. I like the driver I got from them, but I won't be willing to buy from them again at this point unless something drastic changes. They should refund half the money back to people who have been waiting and give them some free stuff besides. If they do something dramatic to make up for it, maybe people will be excited to brag about them and they can recover from this baloney.

Wow AJ! How disappointing! I feel for you. I'm happy with the Rage I got. Too bad you can't say the same. Don't like hearing ongoing issues like yours are still not getting resolved. At this point, they should give you a refund and send you the stuff anyway, even the driver!

You might want to try getting a hold of them on their thread here. http://forum.mygolfspy.com/topic/7754-element-launch-and-mgs/ I forgot they said it would be late Jan. and early Feb. the Element would start shipping in that thread. AJ and I both had a response from them there. I'm really surprised they still didn't take care of AJ. That doesn't sound good.