Transition Move...Going in Opposite Directions?????
 

In the golf swing, do you really move the lower body towards the target, as you are still going back in the backswing?

OR, do you come to a complete stop in the backswing (pause even), and then proceed to the forward swing?

Help lift fog please.

My hip slide starts just as I'm reaching the top. There's not much overlap, but it's there. It's when my left arm becomes "glued" to my chest (pp#4).

Transition
 

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In TGM terms this topic is probably best described as an element of PIVOT LAG.

Now... I worked with another fellow named David Lee that believes that there are a couple of ways this can be done(at least two). The first is called 2:1 timing-- Here the weight moves over and back, from right and back to the left foot, before the backswing is finished. With this type the lower body can now "whip-sling" the arms. He says Jack Nicklaus does it this way.

Another way is, I believe called 1:2 timing-- Here the weight moves to the right side, then back to the left, in a unified manner. With this type he believes the player has to add some manual power out of the arms to get much power. He says Tom Watson is an example of a player that does it this way.

What do you think?

Areas to consider when discussing timing...

Gravity
Motion of the hands around a center, a circle.

Someone who uses a lot of float load (Nicklaus) would use gravity to help keep 'time' consistent.

The relationships of time and space suggest that a ratio of back to through that matches the value of Pi would be the most predictable with motion moving around a center. This would indicate a ratio of 3.14 to 1. Using gravity to 'start' the downswing would be a very consistent approach to 'swinging'.

As long as lag pressure is created and maintained, any other ratio/rate of transition change could be compensated for to a degree, but the question becomes how consistent that approach is over the long term, and under pressure. A true swinger takes advantage of gravity. This may suggest why someone like Sam Snead was able to play top level golf longer than most.

Gravity rides everything ;)

As far as a pause at the top vs starting the lower body (left foot/knee - from the ground up) before the backswing is completed, the issue is creating and maintaining lag pressure, while having a backswing to forward swing ratio that delivers the clubshaft to desired impact location with the most support (to decrease impact deceleration).

I intend to do the former (yet by rotating) and the result exhibits the latter, which is reached at the end of "lag loading" when the downward momentum blances out the backward.

Hogans 5 Lessons
 

Page 93 - "Initiating the downswing with the hips is of
such critical importance that many to-rung golfers, sensing
that their timing will be better accommodated, start to
turn their hips to the left a fraction of a second before
the club reaches the top of the backswing. There's
nothing wrong with this. It amounts to a permissible
personal modification and it underline, if anything, the
salient fact that that under no conditions should the
downsing be inaugurated by the hands."

Ground- Up
 

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This is a good topic, and often misunderstood.

I believe if you did a study of nearly every good player... they swing from the GROUND-UP, whether they FEEL this or not.
Try to stand on ice, and strike a ball. I saw a good player(pro) try to make a swing on ice once, he thought he could, but he went down.

For my own swing, I really began understanding this much more fully when I focused on using delayed hip motion and feeling more 'coiled' on the backswing. Moving to delayed from what had been basically 'standard' hip motion really made a difference in my stability and compression.

At first my tendency was to limit my hip motion both back and through, and learning to really feel what Hogan discusses above on the downswing was a big key in improving my consistency, really using that hip motion to 'fire' through.

Nick Price talks about this stabilty in his swing changes, thinking of the swing being 'split in half'. An image that really helped me feel and allow the upper body to work over a stable base. Stuart Appleby is a great swing to watch for this as well.

It's an illusion imo...

it seems like it's still going back while your lower body is going foward because you are bending/loading the shaft.

That sounds familiar ;).

What if the HANDS (not shaft) is still going back when your lower body is going forward?