The top of the swing a vital position, and when it is reached the next fatal flaw makes its appearance.
It might be well to first take a general look at the top of the backswing. Actually there is no absolute top, in the sense that everything which has been moving in one upward and backward direction reaches its limit at the same time and starts forward and down together. All the parts of the swinging system the club, hands, arms, body, and legs-do not reach their backward limits at the same time.
They reach them in a steady progression, from the ground up. The knees get there first, followed by the hips, then the shoulders, the arms, the hands, and finally the club head.
There is quite a time gap, too, between the extension limits of the first three parts and the last three. There is a similar lag in the time they start down, too. Swings of the top professionals vary somewhat, of course, but sequence pictures never fail to show that the knees, hips, and shoulders reach the end of their backward movements well before the arms, hands, and club head.
The same pictures invariably show the knees and hips moving into the downswing before the upper part of...