Golfbulldog - I find your description most helpful. I will describe it in my own words and you can decide whether I understand the backstroke action of the hitter/swinger correctly.
The hitter takes the club back from an impact fix alignment and rolls the left arm gradually through the backstroke to an endpoint where the right elbow "feels" fully bent and acts as checkrein to the backstroke action. During this backstroke action, he resists the "carry back" and therefore feels constant pressure at the PP3 point aft of the club. At the top of the backstroke, the back of the left hand is parallel to the inclined plane, and the right forearm is perpendicular to the left arm flying wedge (primary lever assembly). The right elbow is flying slightly and not near-vertical to the ground because it is perpendicular to the inclined plane eg. turned shoulder plane, or an inclined plane which is slightly flatter than the turned shoulder plane.
The swinger takes the club back from the adjusted address position, and allows the club to swivel during the takeaway so that the back of the left hand is already parallel to the inclined plane at the end-takeaway position. The swinger then continues to gradually rotate the left arm/torso to the end-backstroke position. However, the swinger also allows the clubshaft to rotate another 1/4 turn at the end of the backstroke so that the clubshaft falls against the PP3 point (which is slightly more under the clubshaft than behind the clubshaft). This extra 1/4 rotation means that the clubshaft is slightly flatter than a hitter's clubshaft at the top of the backstroke. The right forearm is positioned perpendicular to the clubshaft (secondary lever assembly rather than primary lever assembly) and because the clubshaft lies in a slightly flatter plane, that means that the right forearm must be slightly more vertical (compared to the hitter's right forearm position). The swinger's right forearm position is therefore more conducive to allowing the left arm to pull the grip end of the club down via a longitudinal path in a karate-chop action, while the hitter's right forearm is better positioned to push down on the PP1 point via a radial thrust action in a straight line towards the aiming point.
If my understanding is correct, then the right forearm should appear more vertical in swingers, and less vertical and more parallel to the bent-over spine in hitters. This difference in right forearm alignment should theoretically be demonstrable/discernible in still photos of golfers at the top of their backstroke.
Bagger - if my above description is correct, and you state the right forearm is perpendicular to the loading action, then surely the hitter must be loading against the left arm flying wedge (left arm + clubshaft), while the swinger is only loading against the secondary lever assembly (clubshaft). Please correct me if my understanding is incorrect.
rwh - you wrote-: "This is because the right forearm flying wedge should always be at right angles to the left arm flying wedge. This is going to look the same, Hitting or Swinging." If you are correct, then my understanding is still impaired because my description above doesn't comply with your assertion.
12piece bucket - Regarding those photos, when I look at Hogan's downswing action I can see his right elbow slide to a point in front of his right hip - like a pitch elbow, while the other golfer has his right elbow behind the right hip - like a punch elbow. Hogan also seems to have an extra 1/4 of rotation at the end-backswing, and that gets his clubshaft to become parallel to the ground and his PP3 point to lie under the shaft. Hogan's right forearm at the end-backswing is more vertical suggesting a swinger's loading action. Am I right or wrong?
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