Again, apologies for my lame-looking quoting!
“I suppose. I've done it repeatedly. If your elbows stay in the same position, the triangle down to your hands maintains the same orientation, the wrists will maintain their positions as well.”
I’ll eat humble pie here and admit my example of simply bending your right arm is a poor one, because you can maintain that right wrist angle when performing that simple motion. But, as you quite rightly pointed out, that’s only possible when maintaining the angle between both forearms.
I hope we can find some common ground here and both agree on a couple of points with regards to your “5th Accumulator” concept as you see it.
- The “5th Accumulator” is the angle between the back of the right hand, and the right forearm.
- The “5th Accumulator” does not affect the left wrist angle.
If we can agree on that, then I hope we can agree that the “5th Accumulator” is effectively the right elbow moving away from the left elbow on the backswing (on whatever path), and then moving back towards it on the downswing (independent from the actual bending of the right arm, the First Accumulator).
(The right elbow moving away from the left elbow increases the angle between both forearms- the triangle you’d mentioned. This increasing angle will decrease the angle between the back of the right hand and the right forearm because we’re not changing the left wrist angle…)
To go off on a brief, but important tangent, the Power Package Assembly consists of a two-dimensional triangle made up of three lengths; the hands to the left shoulder, the left shoulder to the right shoulder, and the right shoulder to the hands. (So using the First Accumulator is simply decreasing the distance between the hands and the right shoulder- which of course also changes the angle between the left arm and chest, the Forth Accumulator).
Now, if we understand the above Triangle Assembly, we can see the positioning of the right elbow in relation to the distance from the left elbow (which I hope we agree is essentially what the “5th Accumulator” is) doesn’t, if used in isolation, have any consequence on the angles and length of this triangle. It’s not part of the two-dimensional triangle; it’s an extra point that hangs below it.
So if it's not an Accumulator what is it and why has it been overlooked in TGM?
You will find the answer in 7-3 and 10-3. The position of the right elbow, ergo the “5th Accumulator” angle, is defined as The Stroke, the third of the twenty-four components. Look at the pictures of the Punch, Pitch and Push Strokes. There’s your “5th Accumulator”.
“Okay, put your left hand on the club. Do nothing but fold your right wrist back and then "throw" it. The clubhead will move and you've generated power.”
Before I respond to this, I want to make sure we’re in agreement to the two points I’d made above about this “5th Accumulator”, namely;
- The “5th Accumulator” is the angle between the back of the right hand, and the right forearm.
- The “5th Accumulator” does not affect the left wrist angle.
If you don’t agree with the second point, ignore completely the previous explanation above. If the “5th Accumulator” is affecting the left wrist angle, then you’re suggesting this movement is simply arching the left wrist on the backswing, and bending it back to its in-line position on the downswing… but I don’t believe that’s what you’re advocating. (I’ll come to the left wrist bending after Impact in a moment- for now I’m concerned with everything prior to and including Impact).
Now, if I hold the club with both hands and “do nothing but fold my right wrist”, that has an affect on the left wrist. Anyone with a left grip that isn’t turned almost 90 degrees at address, with the back of the left hand facing skywards, would have their left wrist arch with the bending of the right wrist.
Of course, if the left wrist were turned 90 degrees at address, and you’d attempted to bend the right wrist (assuming your could even hold the club in such a way without having to turn your right wrist also), you’d be cocking the left wrist - the Second Accumulator.
There is a way to do as you suggest and only bend the right wrist without that having an affect on the left wrist, but as I’ve described above, that would involve having some right arm bend, and then simply moving the right elbow away from the left elbow.
Set your address up in that fashion and then use the “5th Accumulator”. The Power Package wouldn’t move in the slightest, and neither would the clubhead. You’d simply be stood there moving your right elbow on your bent right arm to and from the left elbow.
You’ve not moved the Lever Assemblies to an out-of-line position- you’ve not accumulated any power.
“Aha! Why do we need to maintain a flat left wrist after impact? We don't.”
I never said you did. You need to maintain a flat left wrist through impact. The point I was making was; if your “5th Accumulator” was about bending and straightening (the process of arching) the right wrist, then the left wrist would be arching on the backswing, and bending on the downswing. If it’s bending on the downswing, then it’s bending through impact.
Of course, none of this happens in the example pictures David posted because the left wrist angle remains stationary. And if the left wrist remains stationary, and the right wrist angle is changing… It’s because of the right elbow movement… and the right elbow movement isn’t an accumulator.
“The accumulators are not independent. It's difficult to load #1 without also loading #4 (and vice versa). Your grip will affect how much #2 and #3 contribute to each other.”
You’re spot on. But I wouldn’t say it’s “difficult” to load the First Accumulator without the Fourth, I’d say it’s impossible! Just as I’d described the two-dimensional Triangle Assembly above- you’re shortening the length between the hands and right shoulder (by bending the right arm), and this will cause the angle opposite (the angle between the left arm and the chest) to decrease. That angle is the Fourth Accumulator.
“You can call it flipping all you want. If it happens after impact I don't care.”
Neither do I, that’s why I wrote about the left wrist bending “on the downswing”, not “after Impact”.
“Flipping can increase power... if you time it properly. Yes, you read that right.”
As could bending the left arm at the elbow on the backswing and straightening it again on the downswing, or even shifting your weight to the back foot on the backswing and shifting it to the front foot on the downswing.
A lot of things can increase power if you time them properly- it doesn’t mean you should attempt to build that into your swing.
I’ll summarise again because it’s another long post ;)
Your “5th Accumulator” boils down to the left wrist’s involvement;
- If you believe the “5th Accumulator” affects the left wrist’s angle, then what you’re advocating is simply the arching of the left wrist when accumulating, and then the bending of the left wrist when releasing. That is to say consciously bending the left wrist through Impact (I’ve underlined the “ing” because you can be bending without yet having a bent wrist).
- If you believe the “5th Accumulator” doesn’t affect the left wrist angle, then it’s simply the position of the right elbow in reference to the left elbow on a bent right arm. If that’s the case, it’s called The Stroke, 7-3.
