Dear sammy,
"Swingweight" is an artificial concept made up by clubmakers almost exclusively in reference to the full swing, where the dynamics of the swing are grossly more violent than the dynamics in putting strokes. The measure is an outgrowth of technique / teaching notions about "feeling" the clubhead during the swing. The clubhead is very clearly "felt" at the start of the swing, at the top of the swing, at the start of the downstroke, perhaps at impact, and a little in the follow-thru -- but mostly at points of transition in velocity and / or direction. The "feel" is due to the added "torque", which is from extra mass at the end of the lever arm of the shaft in opposition to the restraining / moving force applied by the hands as connectors to the tool of the club. This "feel" expresses itself in the tactile sensations inside the palm and fingers on the handle, to be sure, but also in the reactive activation of other supporting musculo-skeletal systems (arms and chest, middle abdomen and "core", and balance controllers in the lower limbs) -- so it's not all "hands feel".
How does this "swingweight" concept apply in the context of a putting stroke, as I teach it?
In my teaching, at the start of the takeaway, there is definitely a torque applied by the hands as connectors in a ballistic "toss back" impulse movement, after which the whole swinging apparatus of putter and arms and turning shoulder frame are subjected to the retarding force of gravity, which makes the stroke "coast to a stop" at the top of the backstroke. The downstroke is a relaxation of the abdomenal muscles to allow the steady-tone shape of the "triangle" of the total stroke form (shoulder frame and arms and hands and putter) to swing down of its own weight in gravity beneath a fixed pivot at the base of the neck at its own gathering pace of acceleration. Right at or near the bottom of the stroke, there may be a little finishing action that is deliberately paced to "join" the velocity pattern of the swinging putter but not to overtake it and "add" velocity. The whole feeling of the down-and-thru stroke is patience while the hands "ride" the putter handle without retarding it or speeding it along. This vests gravity with the sole role for timing the pendulum down-stroke, so it is always the same timing for all strokes regardless of the size of the backstroke in a particular case.
In order to keep the hands from retarding or speeding the velocity of the putter head out of its self-generated pattern in gravity, the lead shoulder must stay in coordination with the putter head during the down-and-thru stroke. This is done by NOT controlling the trajectory of the putter head during its transit in the critical impact zone (pehaps 3 inches either side of the bottom of the stroke, with the ball a bit target-side of the exact bottom). One way to think of this is to "move the chest sidewall after the inside of the lead upper arm" in the thrustroke to keep the contact between them (or the distance / separation) without change. This, combined with the tonic steady form of the stroke "triangle" and the pivot at the base of the neck staying back over top of the bottom of the stroke instead of dragging targetward along with the stroke action, results in the putter shaft "forcing" the lead shoulder socket up and out of the way vertically, and the golfer should not resist or override how the putter defines the motion path of the shoulder socket and hence the shoulder frame as a whole. Once clear of the impact zone, no one cares much how the stroke form in motion proceeds -- whether "picture perfect" to the top of the follow-thru or casually drifting off to the inside in what many mistake for the same form as a cut stroke.
The above being the dynamics, what is the associated "feel" that results?
At the start of the takeaway, there is a combination of shoving back with the lead shoulder against the putter head at the end of the shaft in which the wrists and hands are firmed sufficiently that the torquing force does not alter angles of the wrists to shaft. This action produces a tactile pressure increase against the lead hand's palm pushing back against the handle, as well as certain tactile stresses, strains and shears felt in the fingertips of the thumbs on the flat surface of the handle. IF the golfer combines a pushing of the lead shoulder with a coordinated but slight extra pulling back of the right arm / shoulder at the takeaway, there is a particualrly noticeable sidewise shear feeling of the handle against the rear-side thumb tip on the handle, like an inner tube standing on pavement being pushed sideways at the bottom. IF the golfer leaves this added torquing out of the rear hand at the start of the takeaway, the "feel" in the lead-side thumb tip is more the other direction of sideways shear plus some downward shear along the axis line of the shaft. Either way, it ought to feel to be the same pattern every stroke, even if the "loudness" of the pattern varies with the force of the toss-back between short strokes and large strokes.
The good takeaway is started pretty straight back from address with a down and back motion of the lead shoulder beneath a fixed pivot, moving the putter head off its static address position ppretty straight back and slightly rising, and never out across the line away from the feet, although the backstroke path may thereafter trend a wee bit to the inside depending on the orientation of the plane of motion of the shoulder frame, and the least violence and most smoothness in the takeawy for the given distance and backstroke size the better. Consequently, there is not much note at all of stress or strain forces felt in the thumb tips during the takeaway action. Due to the combined tonic steady form and the shoulder-push down and thru the putter head to move it back and slightly upward, at the takeaway there is also a little resistive feeling in the lead elbow that is not mirrored in the rear elbow, which is dormant. (This correlates with Stan Utley's "soft right elbow" jargon in his description of the backstroke.)
In all these "feelings" in the takeaway, the "swingweight" plays some role, but the real role is the independently considered mass of the putter head itself, as this is primarily responsible for the level of torquing required in the "toss back" takeaway action, and this level of force sets the tactile "feel" in the body. There is a threshhold mass in the putter head for any given golfer where the takeaway becomes too stiff and jerky in an attempt to overcome static friction and inertia of the mass at address. It is very nice to know when this mass level reaches threshhold.
Paradoxically, going the other direction, IS THERE a minimum mass that is too light for a good takeaway? I don't think so. Making a stroke with just a putter handle and shaft without a putter head should proceed exactly the same as making a stroke with a 370-gram putter head adding torque at the end of the shaft, unless the golfer focuses on the sensation of the hands at the start of the takeaway searching for the torque-generated "feel" he expects in a handsy stroke. Then of course the "feel" in the hands and elbow will be "naked" of reaction to the putter head mass in this case, and the golfer won't "like" it. But if the golfer focuses instead on the feel of the shoulders and upper torso at the start of the takeaway to the near exclusion of awareness of the hands as actors, he won't miss the putter head mass very much, since it does not serve much of a role in marking the movement, given the golfer's different movement strategy (move the shoulders to start the stroke -- not: pull the putter head back with the hands and arms).
At the top of the backstroke, where the stroke "coasts to its own conclusion under gravity retarding force", the relationship of hands to handle and swinging putter head is neutral, as is the hand with palm up with a baseball on the palm during a free-fall of an elevator with the cables cut. The baseball in this case does not "weigh" down against the palm, but is merely "next to" the palm without changing relative position during the free-fall. At the start of the downstroke and until the slight finishing action (if any) kicks in, the same free-fall neutrality pertains. This all means for a "feel" in the hands that there is "no change" in feel after the toss-back takeaway. The golfer simply "rides" the handle in the downstroke. Specifically, there is no change in pressure of the handle against the palms on either the front or the rear hands, and the thumb tips on the flat surface of the handle feel like the "oval" footprint of a tire on pavement and this oval shape does not alter from stress, strain, or shear forces operating on the thumb tip's elastic skin. Maintaining the "oval" shape and feel is a sign that the stroke back and down is proceeding with good form and path AND good timing -- on plane, on time.
The putter head mass and the shaft and handle (and the ball and the velocity of impact) together result in the vibrational and acoustic sensations presented by impact. Swingweight, per se, really doesn't have a causative role in this, as the measure is made up and not a real physics parameter.
If the putter head is allowed to define the lead shoulder "reaction" in the thru-and-up stroke, then there is a role for the total weight of the putter to play as added weight adds to momentum of the stroke against the inertia of the shoulder frame, but nothing indepently attributable to "swingweight." If the golfer "adds" to the velocity pattern of the putter thru impact into the follow-thru, then there is a relationship of the swingweight to the "feel" level in the hands and arms. If you again consider the thru-and-up stroke as felt in the body when the "putter" is only a handle and shaft sans putter head, there is a "naked" feeling, but that is in the arms and hands mostly, while the "feel" of the stroke focusing on the shoulder frame is much less affected by the absence of the putter head.
A different aspect of swingweight is fitting it to the golfer's individual physical charactersitics: the mass and inertial properties of his body segments (hands, forearms, upper arms, upper torso as a whole), his strengths, his hand size and shape, and his sensitivities -- to promote good timing and consistent registration of feel in all strokes. This is a totally new and largely unexplored "next frontier" in putter fitting. But again, even this is more about the real physics parameters (putter head mass, shaft mass, handle mass, total putter mass, mass distribution as affecting inertia response of putter-in-motion) and not really about the concept of "swingweight."
The stroke I teach is a shoulder stroke, with dead hands, and the primary focus is on the "feel" of the shoulders in motion, with an initial toss-back impulse from the lead shoulder to generate a backstroke that conforms to the backstroke timing, and then a relaxation of the abdomenal muscles while preserving the same tonic form and coordinating the lead shoulder with the putter head in a gravity-sponsored down-and-thru swing. So the "swingweight" plays a role mostly at the takeaway, but not at the top of the backstroke and also ideally not thru impact.
For golfers who "want to feel the putter head" during a putting stroke, their stroke dynamics cannot be a "dead hands" technique. The takeaway will present torque "feel" regardless of whether the takeaway is powered by the shoulder or the hands, although the precise form of the "feel" will differ. But at later phases of the stroke, a handsy style is required to "feel" the putter head at the top of the backstroke, at the start of the downstroke, at impact, and into the follow-thru. In order for the velocity pattern of the putter head to generate these "feel changes", the putter head velocity pattern has to be different (i.e., faster or slower) than the velocity pattern of the hands and arms, or else there is no change in the "feel". That means that the hands slow down but the putter head keeps moving or the hands go faster than the putter head -- the definition of a handsy stroke with some wristiness. The putter head motion is NOT kept in coordination with the motion of the shoulder sockets.
What purpose is being served by these "feel" changes in a handsy style?
My opinion is that these golfers need the added tactile sensations from extra torquing (to stop the backstroke, to start the downstroke, to flinch at impact, to define the thru-stroke, to stop the follow-thru) to gain a sense of ordered pattern and control so they can more tightly associate the present stroke with past strokes, generating timing and "feel changes" markers at the various key transitions in the stroke. To these golfers, every putting stroke is a unique enterprise, with uniquely achieved "feel", and one-off characteristics appropriate to this specific putt and no others. Hence, only a great "artist" with specially endowed "talents" or "skills acquired by dint of long, hard experience unavailable to other golfers" could possibly be an expert putter at this "professionals only" level. To me, this stroke style is a perpetual living in the past, and in the mind's past at that.
If Loren Roberts "wants" a little "feel" in the breakdown of the rear-hand wrist at the top of the backstroke, in the stated belief that this gives him a nicer sense of the "feel for touch", what can he really mean by this language? The rear wrist will not gain a slight back-folding UNLESS the timing of the backstroke has overspeed at the point where the arms stop the backstroke from proceeding any further. There is no wrist breakdown unless the arms stop or slow to less than the speed of the hands. I believe that what is really going on is that Roberts uses this "feel change" at the top of the backstroke partly because it presents itself from his habitaully not making a smooth and full backstroke with his shoulders and partly to reorganize his movement from back to thru by the timing and position marking function of the feel change. This has nothing at all to do with touch, per se, except indirectly by making his backstrokes have the same timing, which is the key factor for the brain's instinctive processes.
Note that Roberts does not change the wrist angle after it sets at the top of the backstroke, but preserves this angle thru impact and beyond. This means that his downstroke is a dead-hands style in which the shoulder frame is the sole power agency, if he uses anything in addition to the natural gravity-sponsored power (as he appears to do minimally). In a dead-hands downstroke, with a minimal torquing, Roberts will feel a "constant, no-change" feel in his hands the same way one is pressed back in the seat of a car gaining speed away from a just-green stoplight. So he doesn't quite have trust in the backstroke initial impulse to define for him, sans this top-of-backstroke marker, the correct size of backstroke appropriate to the putt in light of his same-every-time downstroke timing. He could, but he doesn't, and his added but unnecessary feature is an expression of the desire for control similar to less skilled golfers who are seeking even more sense of control at a conscious level in their past-based putting.
But the stroke I teach -- a stroke that is always the same dynamic regardless of the specific putt (except for the instinctive size of the backstroke and perhaps the level of tactile reaction briefly at the takeaway toss-back) -- requires no past memory of prior putts, and no searching for the "feel" of this or that putt, and is one that actually "trusts" or relies upon the effectiveness of NORMAL adult movement processes, not special artistry. (One of these styles is more stable and consistent than the other, without any less accuracy.)
In summary, "swingweight" surely is reflective of the putter head mass varying in comparison to the usually-same masses of the shaft and handle, so "swingweight" mostly varies due to changes in putter head mass, as you say. And putter head mass affects the "feel" of the takeaway, but in my stroke style, mass changes are irrelevant to the rest of the stroke, which is a matter of free-fall coordination of body with tool-in-motion. The primary focus of "feel" in my stroke style is in the top of the upper torso where the pivot and shoulder frame relate to one another for timing and form, and only incidentally in the hands and arms, where the main objective is to start a good backstroke and then feel "nothing changing" thereafter.
Cheers!
Geoff Mangum
Putting Coach and Theorist
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