I've got to share this one with you. David, Director, Occupational Health & Safety at a hospital in Australia, asked this very straight forward question.
“Can you clarify for me what parts of you and the club are not supposed to go behind the toe line and the exact location of the toe line? Is it the club and hands that don't go past the toe line?”
David,
Before I answer your question about what parts of you and the club are not suppose to go behind the toe line, I will first answer your second question asking the exact location of the toe line, as that is the reference point for the first part of your question.
The toe line is a line drawn from toe to toe. Another description is the line created when laying a club or stick across and touching both toes in the setup position. Since the PPGS advocates a square setup. That means the stance, determined by the toe line, is parallel left of the aiming line. The toe line is significant in the PPGS setup and swing because it establishes the outside boundary of the Sacred Burial Ground (SBG), which is all the area behind the toe line for both the backswing and forward upswing. For better visualization purposes I call or describe the SBG as a box or a half circle, from the toe line to well behind the body. The 'Surgism', as pertains to the PPGS is, “You may stand in the SBG, but if you swing in it, You're DEAD!”
Now, back to answering your question about what parts of you and the club are not suppose to go behind the toe line. The concept of the PPG vertical swing is that after the cluhead is lifted into the catcher's mitt, toe up, the torso continues turning until the left arm reaches and covers the toe line. From there, the there is no more torso turning and it is all lifting of the arms to lift the club up to the 12:00 o'clock and light 3/4 vertical position. I call this lifting up, standing the club up. The key here is that when you stand the club up in the backswing and forward swing, the butt of the club will point at the toe line. Most rotational instruction wants the butt of the club pointing at the aiming line. This means the club shaft is well below 11 :00 o'clock and closer to 10:00 o'clock, and the club is now in a really laid off position and is feeling quite heavy. The butt pointing at the toe line is proof the club shaft is straight up to 12:00 o'clock and light.
Because the club is stood up to 12:00 o'clock and light, a good check point is that at the top of the backswing, you can slightly open both hands and the club will slide smoothly and speedily straight down, until the clubhead smashes into your right thumb and forefinger to stop it. Since the PPGS has acceptable parameters of the swing, if the club angles to 11:00 o'clock at the top of the backswing, it will still slide down the open hands. But because it is leaning a little back (laid off) into the SBG, it will not slide smoothly straight down as it did from 12:00 o'clock. The acceptable parameter of less than 12:00 o'clock vertical is defined as OK, as long as the club can slide down the open hands to at least half way down the shaft. If it slides to the right hand, barely off the grip, the backswing shaft angle is too laid off and heavy to be within acceptable PPGS vertical parameters.
The point here is 12:00 o'clock is the prime time. 11:00 o'clock still is within acceptable parameters, but the fact that when you open the hands and the club slides down slowly and angled backwards in the SBG is proof that straight up and down and light is better. That way, it is 100 percent in harmony with gravity and the anatomical design of the arms swinging straight up and down. It is proof that you want to work on standing the club up to the 12:00 o'clock, light position. Remember the Surgism, “Light is right and adds more might, with less of a fight.”
Try the 'Butt Drill.' You stand up with your butt touching the wall. The point of the drill is to make the limited turn. Once the left arm and shaft are over the toe line, lift and stand the club up, with the clubhead never touching the wall. Do this and you have mastered the vertical swing of standing the club up to 12:00 o'clock. Naturally, you must learn to do this with all the clubs, right up to the driver.
The last point I need to answer is you ask what parts of you and the club are not suppose to go behind the toe line. In the backswing, the left arm and shaft stay over the toe line and never enter the SBG. The right arm and shoulder will be into the SBG as much as they are right of your left arm. In the transition, when the bump causes the spine to tilt a little backward (the secondary spine angle tilt as Dr. Ned calls it), this causes the shaft to also get pulled backwards into the SBG. The primary purpose of your right hand and arm at this point is to work to oppose this force and to keep the club as vertical as possible. (Note: at this point in my transition and through to impact, my mind's eye sees and feels like I still have the shaft straight up to 12;00 o'clock. I know it is laid off a little, but I also know I have to see and feel it as straight up, like I am swinging like a Ferris wheel, to fight the forces trying to pull it downward and more laid off. If that happens, the shaft is so laid off that it can get caught behind me, or trapped as the term is, like a number of PGA Tour players who have this malady. You can hit big block shots to the right or over flip it and hit pulls and duck hooks.) The answer is simply, work real hard to keep the shaft vertical, especially in the transition to impact.
After impact into the follow through to finish, the club swinging into the forward mitt, with the toe rotating to toe up, will want to keep rotating which, if it rotates past toe up, will cause the shaft to start laying off and move inside and deep and behind the toe line. Again here, like the transition, you have to stop the rotation, primarily with your right hand and forearm, and make the shaft go as straight up and over the left shoulder as physically possible. In the T-Finish position, with the torso facing and square to the target, the right upper arm will be over the toe line, and the rest of the right arm and body will be behind or inside of it. As pertains to the SBG definition of not swinging in the SBG or you're dead, the swing is over, so the T-finish can and must be in what is considered the SBG. Maybe we'll say it is just outside the front gate and therefor not in it at this point of the finish. The transition and forward swing, where you have to work to keep and/or make the club stay as vertical as you can, is work and must be done to keep it vertical, which keeps the club close to on the aiming line for the on-on and on principle of impact to hit the ball relatively straight. This is why I have the Surgism about swinging the club: “I must swing the club, the club does NOT swing me.” We make the club do what has to be done to hit it relatively straight, and that is to swing it vertical, in harmony with Gravity and our anatomical design.
This explanation got a lot more detailed and lengthy than I originally planned. But as I got going I felt I needed to get more detailed. This vertical and light issue of swinging the club is a critical and vital point of the PPGS and needed to be more detailed and enlightening to clarify all the points and positions. Forgive me, David.
The Surge!