Why small setup errors ruthlessly destroy swing precision
"It is a difficult game in that total perfection is virtually unattainable because the Golf Stroke is fantastically complex demanding of mechanical precision — whether consciously or subconsciously applied ruthlessly deviates with every slightest stretching of tolerances during application."
— Homer Kelley, The Golfing Machine (p. 17)
The golf stroke is a deterministic mechanical system: within a given cognate configuration, small deviations propagate ruthlessly through the kinematic chain.
Tighter Golf recognizes that multiple cognates exist—different address positions that produce the same impact interval. The dynamics (transformation path) between address and impact can vary, as long as the three pillars are satisfied: Constraint, Balance, and Alignment. A player with limited hip flexibility but exceptional shoulder rotation occupies a different cognate than a player with mobile hips but restricted thoracic turn. Their address positions differ, their dynamics differ, their "feel" differs—but both deliver identical impact geometry.
This diversity of valid solutions doesn't eliminate sensitivity to error—it intensifies it. Each cognate configuration has its own precise geometric requirements. Violate the constraints of YOUR cognate, and the deviation cascades through YOUR kinematic chain, forcing compensations that destroy the very geometry the cognate was designed to preserve.
Within any cognate configuration, system elements are mechanically coupled. Each segment's motion depends on the position and velocity of connected segments. When one element deviates from its constrained path within your cognate, all downstream elements must accommodate that deviation.
The golf swing operates as a spatial linkage bounded by universal conditions: a stationary base of support and three stationary points where hand velocity equals zero. However, the transformation path between address and impact is cognate-specific. Your anatomy determines which cognate you occupy. Your setup geometry determines whether you've satisfied Constraint, Balance, and Alignment within that cognate. And violations of any pillar propagate regardless of which cognate you're in.
Consider a premature trailing heel lift:
The Cascade:
Each compensatory adjustment introduces new deviation. The system cascades toward instability or requires additional compensations to reach the Finish boundary condition. What began as a single constraint violation—voluntary heel lift instead of rotation-driven heel pull—propagates through spinal orientation, balance state, rotational axis, and ultimately club path.
This sensitivity to constraint adherence is inherent in all deterministic linkage systems. Multiple cognates can reach the same impact interval—but each requires different address geometry and dynamics, and each demands that all three pillars be satisfied.
The existence of cognates doesn't reduce the requirement for precision—it multiplies it. A player with long arms relative to torso length cannot use the address geometry of someone with short arms and a long torso. A player with restricted ankle mobility cannot copy the dynamics of someone with exceptional ankle flexion. Each cognate has its own specific requirements for satisfying Constraint, Balance, and Alignment. Attempting to force your anatomy into someone else's cognate guarantees cascading deviation, because you're violating the requirements of both cognates simultaneously.
The golf stroke's fixed base and stationary point boundary conditions create a narrow solution space for each cognate. Balance—keeping the Line of Gravity within the base of support—is an additional constraint that must be satisfied. Deviations that exceed mechanical tolerance for either constraint or balance force the system off its deterministic path. Complexity emerges from tight coupling; precision is demanded because tolerances are narrow.
The practical implication is profound: precision at address isn't about copying someone else's positions—it's about satisfying the constraints of YOUR cognate.
Traditional instruction shows you what Tour players look like at address and impact, then tells you to copy those positions. But Tour players occupy cognates appropriate for their anatomy. Forcing your body into their setup geometry violates the constraints of both their cognate and yours. The result is cascading deviation from the first moment of the stroke.
Multiple cognates can produce the same impact interval—but only if each cognate satisfies Constraint, Balance, and Alignment. It means you must identify which cognate your anatomy naturally occupies, then satisfy that cognate's specific requirements with precision. Different address, different dynamics, same impact—but only if you honor all three pillars your cognate requires.
This is why traditional instruction—focused on copying positions from elite players with different anatomies—produces inconsistent results. It forces golfers to violate their natural cognate constraints, guaranteeing cascading deviation and requiring compensations throughout the motion.
The five-bar constraint system identifies which cognate your anatomy occupies, then establishes the precise initial conditions that cognate requires—eliminating cascading deviation by building from geometry, not mimicry.
Understanding cascading deviation is one thing. Identifying which cognate your anatomy occupies is another.
The Tighter Golf system doesn't teach you to copy elite players. It reveals which cognate configuration your specific anatomy naturally satisfies—then shows you how to satisfy the three pillars (Constraint, Balance, Alignment) within that cognate. Different anatomies, different address positions, different dynamics—but all capable of identical impact geometry when all three pillars are honored.
Start with the Five-Bar Concept
See also: The Cognate Theorem — Why different address positions produce identical impact intervals