Customer Reviews

The Physics of Golf

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I enthusiastically recommend this book to golfers with an interest in science/math/engineering, or scientists/mathematicians/engineers with an interest in golf. You should get Search for the Perfect Swing first. But once you have that out of the way, this book is an excellent addition to a golf library.

The biggest shortcomings of The Physics of Golf are (1) a lack of quality illustrations/pictures/graphics and (2) a rather terse treatment of the material. I feel that the author probably has enough research to go on for 4-500 pages but called it quits at a much more concise size. I'm all for concise, but not when it leaves me feeling some useful material was left out.

The book's major contribution is that it distinguishes clearly between style and fundamentals. It focuses the reader's attention on the downswing and demonstrates the simple moves required to ensure club head acceleration through to impact. By showing how these moves differ when the shaft is above and below the horizontal and how certain other moves destroy club head acceleration in these positions the reader will probably for the first time come away with the true fundamental moves in a golf swing. The most insightful book on golf I've ever read. If you can't handle equations read the chapters for the less mathematically gifted - all the gems are still there.

Only get this book if you love physics and want to analyze in detail mathematical models of golf swings and ball flight. This book is written by a physicist, and it shows. The author does an admirable job of analyzing the golf swing, but spends so much time describing how he built his models that the "so what" gets lost in the details. If you're looking to improve your golf game, other books will get you there with much less pain. For example Dave Pelz is also a physicist, and his book, "Putt Like the Pros" has very readable analyses and offers valuable and practical advice.

Great book! I have read everything out there and have tried to incorporate the writings of many teachers. Dr. Jorgensen, although a well-regarded physicist, writes like he prefers to be on the golf course. I find his theory, and practical implementation of the golf swing the best around.I wish he would write on the short game, putting, ect.

As a golf instructor with an educational background in Physics, I enjoyed going through the technical aspects of this book. I enjoyed Dr. Jorgenson's take on the game of golf and some of his personal experiences. He has analysed the various levers and moves and reduced everything to mathematical formulas so that presumably quantities could be inserted in the equations to see what effect differences for weight, speed, force, etc. would have on the outcome. As for the outcome everyone is looking for, he never answers the question that I'm sure everybody has, namely, "what do I need to change to get more distance".

This book was written before video and computational power was easily available. It is quite dated and it is also just not written that well. As a trained physicist myself, I was hoping for some clearer insights into the nature of the swing, but I think the book was just written too early, before it was really possible to analyze swings in real detail.

I am now 65. I received the "Physics of Golf" five years ago. I was so taken aback, I put it down for three years. Then I read it one page at a time, experimented with each paragraph, and have improved steadily ever since. Once, in my coordinated youth, I played to an eight. Then in my middle fifties I could not break one hundred if I counted all my shots and penalties. Golf became expensive...and I didn't even show up at the club...

Now after two years with Theodore P Jorgensen my game again is fun. I have shot a 37 for nine holes on a tought golf course from the tiger tees and yesterday parred nine holes in a row.

I have met "Doctor J" and if you do, as he suggests, each experiment and try each part of all the things covered, you will find yourself in golf heaven. It's like playing a "Country and Western" song backwayds and getting all you have lost back...but in addition you will understand why you lost it and how you can, now improve even more. As I grew older, the things I knew about golf that just are NOT true ended up distroying my weekends. Now, I play less, score better, (without even warming up), and go home with a positive attitude. That's a good day.

The Physics of Golf is one of the best books on sports ever written and Ted Jorgensen is Nebraska's best kept secret. Imagine reading a book on your favorite hobby and improving your skills. If you can read, you, too, will find you can hit the ball as well as Anika and certainly better than Tiger when he doesn't finish first...but you have to buy and read the book stopping to experiement often as you cover each fact. DON'T JUST READ IT. You will almost certainly fail...but you will understand physics and it's disciplines better; thus all won't be lost. This exact science "GOLF" needs such attention.

Give this book to the youth of your family, boys and girls alike, and watch them appreciate THE WORLD OF PHYSICS which explains so much about what we see, hear, experience and do. There is no better way to learn golf fundamentals than at the kitchen table...before you practice.

All the best to the wonderful customers, employees, and owners of Amazon who made this purchase possible. With the money I'm making on the golf cours I can now afford to support Amazon even even more. Dan Burke who was 18 and is now headed for single digits and is 65 years old going on 66. If you are in Cleveland, we may meet; and on the links, you may let me back up what I say.

This book is about learning and not teaching. BEFORE the first chapter, one is taught that the hands almost stop at the bottom of the perfect golf swing. It is also explained that many reject this thought "out of hand." To learn this you must practice what is then taught in the book. "The only way to learn", Jorgensen told me. That is "why Physics is experimentation"; the result being the search for perfection...only a search as golf readers feel perfection is impossible. Trying to practice and then improve this move, much less understanding it ... is the secret.

Without these experiments, nothing is achieved anywhere. How many times have you failed to hit a perfect drive. Do you know what the club must do to have that result?

The desired intent of this book is to explain using four disciplines the desired result: By word, by drawings, by pictures, by math formulas, they explain the theorems developed by Isaac Newton and others...but his explanations are perhaps better than those of these great men.

EVEN YOU will understand ONE of these explanations, BUT only if you use your own hands, your own body, and your own time to experiment exactly as Jorgensen suggests.

The same is true of every self help book ever written. Only Frank Bettger guarantees FAILURE from a "cover to cover" read of his widely sold book: "How I raised myself from failure to success in selling". This has become the mother of all sales books...because enough readers have experimented with Bettger's concepts. Why, because Bettger gives you the exact words to use, which I have also found to be effective as have the many millions who to this day buy his book too. Bettger and Jorgensen understood fundamentals, such that anyone at any time can always improve. Do you want anything else?

One critic of Jorgensen's book stated that he didn't do enough on the short game. Why, I don't know but the Author, Ted, did tell us all why we fail at short shots. It's the knees and the centrifugal force applied to the head and shoulders by the club during the swing. If the knees are bent too much you'll top the ball and hit it thin. With straighter legs you hit it fat. Only those who have experimented with different degrees of flex understand. This flex is changes the force with the speed of the club and the weight of the club's head. Who ever thought the beginning flex of the knees to be that important on chips or pitches. So experiment with the FLEX and you'll win money. BUT DON"T EXPECT ANYONE TO BELIEVE YOU AS YOU EXPLAIN HOW TO DO IT...They are YOUR knees. They must do 'em, the 'speriments, too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is my desire to be nice with these reviews, but this book needs some major work. On p. 6 is the stroboscopic photo from which all the data are collected. It would be helpful if the light traces were labeled and explained more clearly. There appears to be tape at both the bottom of the handle and the end of the club. This little 12" is really critical and deserves better analysis. After all, the handle of the club is your only point of control over the clubhead. Then there are all those extraneous light traces for the elbows and who knows what else. Bottom line, the book is out of date relative to modern video and computer equipment. FYI, many years ago, my grad school mentor, the great University of Houston golf coach and mathematics professor, Dave Williams, published a similar analysis.

There are some obvious errors, at least to a kinesiologist. The major part of the analysis concerns the dynamics of the angle formed between the left forearm and the shaft. Figure 2.3, on page 9 and the supporting data tables in the appendix, show an angle that cannot exist in a normal human. The Scaphoid bone in the wrist limits the angle between the club and the forearm to no more than 90 degrees. This analysis if flawed. The reporting of this too large angle is a result of optical delusion existing between a 2D image and a 3D golf swing. This makes you wonder about the affect on the math.

The second major problem is the use of a two lever model to describe a two sided human swing motion. While it is true the right side does not act as a large power source (more of a stabilizer), none the less gravity and a small amount of muscle does contribute to he movement of the club. The muscles that add force are not in the arms. They are in the chest. I see not mention of the force coupling between the top hand and the bottom hand. As the end of the handle slows it's forward motion just prior to impact, the bottom hand continues to move forward. While, timing the swing so this "whipping" action increases clubhead speed, is difficult, it is not impossible. What may be needed is a better teaching model based on something closer to a seven lever model which more accurately describes what the human body is doing to the club.

As a compliment to the book, Dr. Jorgensen does correctly describe the kinetic link/summation of segmental velocities which

The Physics of Golf I my mind was a very good book, challenging at times, but still a good book. I learned a lot about golf that I didn't know before hand, like how much aerodynamics plays in the final product of the shot. Like if the number of dimples isn't just right, it could change the shot dramatically. Also, being an amateur golfer myself, I know what Jorgensen is talking about when he makes the reference to the double pendulum, because I have been coached to do that and that one could get more power out of the double pendulum method. The pendulum method is simple as Jorgensen states, that what must come up, must come down on the exact path that the golfer came down on, to, as Jorgensen puts it, more torque out of the swing.

One of the biggest flaws I think in this book is that the lack of quality to the illustrations. Most of the illustrations and graphs that the book has doesn't fully explain the detail that the author describes. Another flaw I found within this book was that the author had all this material about the golf swing but he didn't share most of it with his readers. He could have gone about 3-400 pages with all that material but I don't see why he didn't.

But with the negativity that goes with this book comes greater parts about the book that make it insightful and intelligent. Instead of the old fashioned way of saying "Well, this, this, this, and this is wrong with your swing" Jorgensen finds the hidden details written inside of a professionals swing. He tells you what makes a professional swing much greater than your own and what they do that makes them so great. Jorgensen also says in The Physics of Golf that the average tour pro can deliver up to 2 horsepower with just a swing of a club. I now realized this out of the golf course and now shooting much lower that before.

So if your looking for an insightful read that is both intelligent and insightful, get this book. I found it a little tough without a back round in physics, but rest assured I found this book very good

Christian