Boomer's Logic
* Boomer taught a swing with an active lower body and a passive upper body. Power comes from the feet and legs and is transmitted through the hips to power and control the swing.
* There is a 'force-center'(usually in the pit of the back just above the hips), located where the rotational power generated by the lower body applies its force to the upper body.
* It is possible to feel the force-center reacting to movement of the clubhead.
* If you can feel the clubhead in the force center, your swing is 'connected' (the clubhead is connected to the force center).
* You can break the 'connection' by making swing faults (grip too loose, overswinging etc.).
That is a very brief explanation of connection, and I hope it made sense. Explaining it in a more thorough way would possibly be more confusing.
Later the idea was simplified by teachers like Jimmy Ballard to 'connection' meaning having the arms controlled by the movement of the torso, which in effect is a useful way to clarify things. Ballard's style has no force-center, but a very practical symbolic 'center' low on the sternum which applies no force but represents the center of the upper body mass.
Ballard's idea of 'connection' might have crossed over from baseball, as his mentor, Sam Byrd, had been a successful baseball player before becoming a professional golfer.
Testing For Connection
Here is an exercise from Boomer to try to identify the force center and connect the clubhead to it:
"Now take a mashie and do very short swings to and fro with it. Soon you will begin to detect the center which you will feel controls both the setting up of power and the guiding of the club. Do not break the wrists or lift the clubhead during the experiment. The hands do nothing but keep the club straight out in front of you; let the arms feel supple and yet pushed down as the clubhead is down, while all the time you are moving to and fro from the legs. You begin to feel connected right through, from legs to center and from center to clubhead." - On Learning Golf p. 139-140
Ballard has a simpler test. Place a handkerchief under your left arm and hit some balls with a short or medium length iron. If the handkerchief stays, you're connected; if the handkerchief drops, you're not. - How To Perfect Your Golf Swing, p.59-60.
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* On Learning Golf by Percy Boomer published by Alfred A Knopf, 1946.
* How To Perfect Your Golf Swing Using 'Connection' And The Seven Common Denominators by Jimmy Ballard published by Golf Digest, 1981.
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A related article: Percy Boomer's Connection Voodoo
