the dowels their history

[davel]

Just curious who first started using dowels for golf instruction. Also do many of you golfers spend a lot of time with dowels to practice and learn versus working with a actual club?

Dave

[neil]

Just curious who first started using dowels for golf instruction. Also do many of you golfers spend a lot of time with dowels to practice and learn versus working with a actual club?

Dave

Absolutly Dave.
From Plane line ,target,angle of approach,wrist positions,flying wedges,ball position - you name it ,Dowels will help.
The biggest difference they made to me were understanding the correct left and right hand wrist /hand positions -and how the hand alignments translate to clubshaft alignments.
Sorry for the long answer, it should just have been YES

[golfbulldog]

Dowels represent the invisible - the sweet spot plane - where the pp3 in your hands is the same as the normal pp3 but the tip of the dowel represents the sweetpot ( the centre of gravity of the clubhead) - it is a visual representaion of a line of force...at least that is the way i see it - please correct if wrong!

It is confusing because it looks like a shaft but rather than have an imaginary clubhead at the end of the dowel , one should have an imaginary hosel on the undersurface- then you have no problem understanding that the hosel rotates around the sweet spot and not the other way round.

[davel]

The point you made in this posting was what I though of this morning. If the end of the dowel represents the shaft everyone is practicing a shank. If the end of the dowel represent the club head the dowel is correct.

Now for myself the dowels are good for explaining and demonstrating concepts. Using them constantly as a training tool for myself I find very boring to the point I get diminished returns . I can get a real golf club and attach lasers and track a plane line map and feel I am doing something more golflike and achieve my golf of training my hands and the plane to make the lasers track the plane line.

Dave

Dowels represent the invisible - the sweet spot plane - where the pp3 in your hands is the same as the normal pp3 but the tip of the dowel represents the sweetpot ( the centre of gravity of the clubhead) - it is a visual representaion of a line of force...at least that is the way i see it - please correct if wrong!

It is confusing because it looks like a shaft but rather than have an imaginary clubhead at the end of the dowel , one should have an imaginary hosel on the undersurface- then you have no problem understanding that the hosel rotates around the sweet spot and not the other way round.

[golfbulldog]

The point you made in this posting was what I though of this morning. If the end of the dowel represents the shaft everyone is practicing a shank. If the end of the dowel represent the club head the dowel is correct.

Now for myself the dowels are good for explaining and demonstrating concepts. Using them constantly as a training tool for myself I find very boring to the point I get diminished returns . I can get a real golf club and attach lasers and track a plane line map and feel I am doing something more golflike and achieve my golf of training my hands and the plane to make the lasers track the plane line.

Dave

Hi Dave - i know what you mean with lasers but they so rarely trace the sweetspot plane- they usually just give an extension of the shaft plane.

The sweetspot plane is the "living and breathing" plane in golf... the shaft is a convenient simplification ( and hence not as accurate)

I have one of those DIY laser devices which project a straight line onto any surface... put it on the grong and you have your plane line going on to infinity... works well indoors ( outdoors only at dusk/night) but you can trace this line with your dowel or your pp3 with club in hand ... ( some may get worried about reflections from chrome clubhead but in reality you will do know harm!)

[12 piece bucket]

Not sure about who in golf started with dowels . . . . but the who in The Golfing Machine was Mr. Homer Kelley himself.

[6bmike]

Dowels get the Mind out of the clubhead- the worst place to have it -and into the Hands and alignments. The clubhead and ball are incognizant collaborators.

[Uppndownn]

"incognizant collaborators"

Wow!!

I thought that was you and the bucket, Mike.

[davel]

My laser is the butch harmon laser which lets you set the beam to the sweetspot of the club.

Dave

Hi Dave - i know what you mean with lasers but they so rarely trace the sweetspot plane- they usually just give an extension of the shaft plane.

The sweetspot plane is the "living and breathing" plane in golf... the shaft is a convenient simplification ( and hence not as accurate)

I have one of those DIY laser devices which project a straight line onto any surface... put it on the grong and you have your plane line going on to infinity... works well indoors ( outdoors only at dusk/night) but you can trace this line with your dowel or your pp3 with club in hand ... ( some may get worried about reflections from chrome clubhead but in reality you will do know harm!)

[Yoda]

Just curious who first started using dowels for golf instruction. Also do many of you golfers spend a lot of time with dowels to practice and learn versus working with a actual club?

Dave

The original 'Dowel Magic' came through my personal training with Homer Kelley. I later learned a 'variation on the theme' from PGA Master Teacher Paul Bertholy. These two served as the inspiration for my own methods and their 'vigorish.'

I've got a post out there somewhere detailing Homer's applications in the Short Course (introductory training) and the Normal Course (Authorized Instructor training). If someone would find it and provide the link, I'd appreciate it.

Lately, my ideal 'kit' has evolved to two dowels (to illustrate Flying Wedge alignments) and three reflective markers (for Plane Line, Stance Line and Target Line alignments). The dowels are thicker -- more like the clubshaft -- and the markers don't warp (or break when hit as 'dead aim' targets). Each makes 'invisible' lines visible.

Lines of Body, Arms and Hands relationships.

Lines of Power Package Delivery.

Lines of Lag Pressure Thrust.

Personally, I would find it difficult to teach without these aids.

When headed to a PGA TOUR event, I travel light, so my first stop from the airport is the nearest Home Depot or Lowes. There I replenish my inventory of dowels and markers.

I have yet to take any home.