I didn’t play any sports growing up and my kids are in it now. I hear a lot of talk about “following through” and “follow through”. Throwing a baseball, shooting a basketball, golf swing, hockey, swinging a bat.
In these cases the ball / item has already left or has been hit so why is follow through important? Does it have an effect on the initial release / impact?
In: Physics
If you wondered why a novice trying to hammer a nail takes longer than a builder, or bends the nail and just struggles, it’s because they don’t follow through
A novice aims for the head of the nail and when they swing they pull back on the hammer to stop the swing, this means less power is transferred from hammer to nail and because the hammer is pull back just as it hits the head of the nail the direction of the force may not be straight down and through causing the nail to bend
A professional aims for the head of the nail also lining up the angle of the nail and hammer face so it will be straight
Swinging the hammer and driving it through the nail (follow through) the only thing the decelerates the hammer is the resistance of the nail in the wood
It takes me no more than 3 strikes to drive a 90mm (4inch?) nail by hand can usually do it in 2 not including starting the nail
I’ve seen people try drive 30mm (just over 1 inch) nails
Taking about 15 swings because they decelerate before impact and constantly pushing the nail over because stopping your swing changes how the force is applied to the nail by the hammer
The ball by the club
The ball by your hand
The other dudes face by your glove
Drive through for accuracy and power don’t stop short
Also fatigues less when you don’t try stop your swing/punch/throw technique is king
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