* Quite so. It is very hard, because the feeling which should be the central feature of good golf action is not wrist action, but hand and finger action.

Figs. 39 and 40. - Two other movements of the wrist joint.

V

Messrs. Weir and Co. appear to proceed on ' two reasonable hypotheses. The first is that it is almost inconceivable that such accomplished players as Messrs. Braid and Co. can be wrong in their feeling for the shot. The second is that it is almost inconceivable that such erudite anatomists as Messrs. Hare and Co. can be wrong in their analysis of the shot. What, then, is the explanation of these seemingly contradictory propositions? If A is right in what he says, and B is right in what he does, B must, all unconsciously, achieve what A says; and may not B's method be the best practical way of producing the effect noted and defined by A? After all, the only thing B really has in view is to hit a good shot. After making many good shots and many bad ones, he becomes conscious of certain differences of feeling as between the good shots and the bad ones. It seems to him that when he is hitting good shots he is using his wrists freely, and that when he is hitting bad shots he is failing to use his wrists freely. That is enough for B. And nothing that A can demonstrate will affect him.

But there is C to consider. Is C to follow B and think of his wrists, whilst admitting that the essential action is forearm action as stated by A? Or can C be given some surer guide to success? Is it certain that Messrs. Hare and Co. are entirely correct in their theory that the action is purely forearm action? Or may it be that the wrist-joint plays a real part in the movement? In other words, may there be something in the wrist theory even from the anatomical point of view?

In order to answer this question, one must first determine whether the much-discussed action of the wrist is entirely forearm action, entirely wrist action, or both forearm and wrist action; and one must also determine whether the action, whatsoever it may be, is an initiatory or merely a resultant action, whether it is a cause or an effect.

Fig. 41. - Action of right wrist beginning up-swing.

Fig. 42. - The right wrist has bent as far as it will go.

Fig. 43. - Straight position of right wrist in follow through.

VI

The wrist joint in itself is capable of four different movements, and four only. These are shown in Figs. 36, 37, 39, and 40.

With a view to determining to what extent, if any, these movements take place in the course of the golf swing, the reader is invited to take hold of a club in each hand successively, and then in both hands together, and to make the complete swing, slowly observing the wrists all the time.

He will observe the following points:

Right Hand

Upswing: (a) The wrist-joint moves as shown in Fig. 41, and is extended to the full by the time the arm has reached the position shown in Fig. 42 ("extension" is complete *).

* This movement is accompanied by a slight responsive turning of the forearm.

(b) The remainder of the upward movement is achieved mainly by the arm, but at the last moment the wrist-joint gives, allowing the hand to incline towards the shoulder (abduction), and at the same time the fingers give.

Down-swing: The movements involved in the up-swing are reversed.

Follow-through: There is no movement of the right wrist-joint after the club-head has passed the ball, except for the almost negligible abduction of that joint at the end of the swing; what happens is that the forearm turns

(Fig. 43).

Left Hand

Upswing and down-swing: There is no movement of the wrist-joint except for the almost negligible abduction of that joint. The forearm turns (Fig. 21).

Follow-through: The wrist-joint bends, as shown in Fig. 44.

Both Hands

To recapitulate (ignoring for practical purposes the feeble movements called abduction and adduction):

1. From Address to Impact: First part of upswing and last part of down-swing: a vigorous movement of the right wrist-joint ("extension"); no movement of the left wrist-joint, but a turning movement of left hand and forearm.*

2. From Impact to Finish. - First part of follow-through: a vigorous movement of the left wrist-joint ("extension"); no movement of the right wrist-joint, but a turning movement of the right hand and forearm.

* The beginner often finds difficulty in moving his hands in the correct manner at the beginning of the upswing. He is prone either to bend outward the left wrist-joint (flexion), as in Fig. 19, or to go to the opposite extreme and overturn the left hand, as in Fig. 20, loosely known as overturning the wrist.

He can, however, always arrive at the proper movement of the hands by noting the position which the left hand will automatically take if it is allowed to accommodate itself to the extension of the right wrist-joint (see Fig. 21).

He should not, of course, allow his left hand to be passive when he is making the up-swing of an actual shot; the left hand should be at least as active as the right, but the complete extension of the right wrist-joint will always give the true position of both hands and arms, and consequently the true course of the club-head.

3. The movement technically called flexion (Fig. 19) does not take place at any part of the swing.

VII

In these circumstances the writer puts forward the following propositions:

1. The expression "the turning of the wrists' {vide Messrs. Braid and Co.) is misleading. In so far as the wrist turns, it turns en bloc with the forearm, as maintained by Messrs. Hare and Co.; the movement is really a hand and forearm movement.

2. Though the "turning of the wrists "is a misleading expression, the wrist-joints do play a vital part in the swing, Messrs. Hare and Co. notwithstanding; and when Braid says, "the first movement must come from the wrists," he is not so far from the truth as Mr. Hare suggests. At all events, an essential and a pronounced part of that movement does come from the extension of the right wrist-joint.

3. As regards the whip-like snap which occurs at the moment of impact in a well-hit shot, the popular view that the snap is produced by a "wrist flick," though not quite correct, is preferable to Mr. Hare's "incipient pronation of the right hand."

4. Mr. Hare's statement that the movement is "a pure forearm action which takes command of the wrist and hand together" is unsound in theory, and full of trouble if followed in practice.

5. Mr. Weir concedes too much to Messrs. Hare and Co. as theorists, and too much to Messrs. Braid and Co. as practical teachers. It has been shown that the right wrist-joint before impact, and the left wrist-joint after impact, do play a most important part in the movement, quite distinct from the turning or twisting of the forearm. But it is to be noted that this movement of the wrist-joint should not be produced by executing the movement as a thing in itself. In the golf swing it is not an initiating movement at all; it is a responsive and contributory movement. The golfer holds the club in his hands, largely in his ringers. Everything that he does with his club is done by means of the hands and fingers. The "feel" of the club, and the power to use the club, come to him through the hands and fingers. "Touch" is entirely a matter of hands and fingers. If the hands are used without finger work, the swing is the clumsy, lumbering movement known as the dead-hand swing. Vitality goes into the swing at the fingers. It is communicated by their controlled extension and contraction (see Figs. 42, 45, 46, and 47). The wrist is a remoter and duller part of the mechanism than even the dead-hand. The player may bring the most practised concentration to bear on the working of the wrists without ever realizing what finger action means, and the fact that, in spite of this concentration on the wrists, many players are so apt at hitting a ball that they also develop perfect finger action is not a good argument for concentrating on the wrists. The average player will doubtless suffer less if he thinks of his wrists than if he thinks of his forearms or his biceps, or his shoulders, or his hips, or his feet; but in nine cases out of ten he will suffer; for though he is nearer to the truth than he might be, he is further from it than he need be. If the rules of golf made it necessary to strap the club to the wrists and not to hold it in the hands, it would doubtless be a good plan to think of using the wrists. But as the golfer does as a fact take hold of the club in his hands and fingers, the writer cannot for the life of him see why he should not try to hit with them.

Fig. 47.-Compare with Fig. 46 where the finders have not "given.