You know what--I sort of wondered about that backswing of Tom Huckaby myself when I saw it--at least the first half of his backswing. The third photo above does look like the poster child of the definition of "laid off". But towards the top of the backswing it seems to get better--sort of. In that third photo his shaft is just about horizontal. Try and get that baby far more vertical at that point in your swing TomH and guess what you just might find you have a ton more energy towards the end of your rounds. Didn't anyone ever tell you if you get the shaft more veritical at that point in your backswing the club will feel a whole lot lighter? This only took me about a minute to type so at my present hourly rate you only owe me $16.66. I'll give you the "friend deal" though, so you only owe me $16.50. Forget about that and just buy me a couple of glasses of medium priced cabernet next time I see you!
TEP - see, I'm afraid to take lessons because having swung the club this way for oh, 33 years now, the horrors involved in changing just scare me. But that being said, your words above do make a heck of a lot of sense to me, and give me something to work on... It's funny but this is exactly what I have been working on, in recent times when I do get time to work on my game at all (which is nearly never), but I never heard the "club feels lighter" phrasing. Damn, this makes me want to get to a range...
So muchas gracias, mi amigo - and the Cab is on me next time we meet - and we shall make it high-end. Oh, you're hourly rate does merit only medium-grade, but the worth to me gets you in Opus One territory.
One more question though, which make take us into French Burgundies: in the 4th photo I do seem to have gotten it to vertical somehow... though I know the arms could sure as hell stand to be more away from the body... is this one at least starting toward getting the right idea? Or does it even matter, given that the circuitous route the club took to get to this point is problem enough in and of itself?