(Premier Login aceputt) Forum Owner Posted Apr 30, 2009 6:32 AM
Dear NBN,
Yes, you are right about "net" forces, and I am not trying to argue with you about how cars get thru the air drag (although that is very interesting). My main point is that understanding, teaching, and LEARNING human movements for golf (specifically, putting) requires some precision in the language of thought and communication. This is not a "whatever floats your boat" issue. there are serious consequences of using language in thinking about and talking about the basic physics, anatomy, and biomechanics when the language is vague or confused or confusing about the fundamental reality being addressed (whether it is the acceleration pattern, the transfer of momentum, the pattern of muscle recruitment, or what the skeletal structure does or does not have to do with good motion, etc.).
Nor do I mean to imply that getting this language correct is an easy task, such that golfers who don't use well-considered language must be "stupid" or "lazy". It's clearly not the easiest thing to do, as University physics students don't usually come close, and Galileo had to correct Aristotle when for 2,000 years everyone thought he had it right ("heavy objects fall faster than light objects") when he clearly was wrong if anyone cared to check the facts with a really stupid experiment (just try it and see whether a heavy thing drops faster than a light thing -- say, a golf ball and a ping pong ball without wind or a quarter and a dime -- it doesn't and never has or will). But I do say that a serious golf teacher better give it a serious try, and even a very highly reputed golf teacher or student or player who does NOT try to get this fog of golf-speak sorted out and clarified in alignment with reality will definitely limit his ability as teacher, learner, or performer.