HOW GOLFTEC WORKS: OPINION… AND FACT
Before technology was invented – well, around 30 years ago at any rate – a golf lesson was one of the most respectable ways we had of wasting our money. You’d head to a windy field with your local pro, who’d watch you hit 10 balls before twisting you into a couple of new positions, pocketing your cash and disappearing.
Five weeks later, with no tangible progress made, you’d try the next pro. And he’d put you into two completely dierent positions before pocketing your cash and clearing o.
“Traditionally, golf instruction has always been opinion upon opinion,” says GOLFTEC Senior VP, Nick Clearwater. “OK, with the right coach and the right pupil at the right time, that opinion might have done some good. But ultimately, opinion-led coaching has left golfers unaware of what they do, unsure of what they need to do, and uncertain of how they need to get there. GOLFTEC’s objective is to improve the quality of teaching and learning by introducing technology that allows us to measure the swing… and give advice based on objective data.”
Since 1995, GOLFTEC’s team of coaches have pursued this goal through 3D motion capture technology. While early systems were packed with wires and sensors and tough to calibrate, their technology has evolved to modern optical motion capture, your swing videoed on two cameras – one behind to monitor plane and path, one in front to chart the swing’s arc and low point. The two 2D views are then synced to form a 3D ‘key point’, needed to create accurate 3D data. Thanks to a blend of Artificial Intelligence and some real intelligence – GOLFTEC employs three PhD biomechanists – 4,000 swing data points are captured and analysed to give every golfer a thorough, factual swing evaluation.
The 100,000 golfers who took part in GOLFTEC’s SwingTRU study all went through this process – and the results make a compelling case for how swing calibration and factual data-gathering can help us understand the key ingredients of a truly functioning golf swing.
Despite having 250 locations around the world, GOLFTEC are not yet active in Australia – though to access many of their cutting-edge technologies, check out Golftec.com.
But for now, Clearwater has a few words of advice. “These six swing aspects are, for me, the true fundamentals of the golf swing. People talk about grip, aim, stance and posture… but walk along the line at a PGA Tour event and you’ll see a massive dierence in all of them. They are not fundamentals; they are variables. But what all those players do is turn their shoulders around 90º hitting a 7-iron; they all tilt their shoulders close to 36º on the backswing.”
Clearwater also sees a theme in the six skill separators. “Better players move themselves around more in every dimension. Most beginners don’t move their thorax and shoulders at all; tour players create much larger ranges of movement, more rotation, more tilt. It’s a good thing to bear in mind as you work on these six motions.
“There is a narrative that the average amateur is not mobile or flexible enough to find some of these positions. I’d dispute that; I’ve never met a golfer who could not turn their shoulders through 90º. All golfers need is a good understanding of these movements… and a competent coach.”
So, is GOLFTEC saying that all we have to do is master these six movements and we’ll start striping it like a pro? Sadly not.
“Our study looks at the larger movements of the pelvis and thorax,” says Clearwater. “Its value is in helping people understand how elite players move, and to show the correlations of high and low-level golfers. It helps golfers make important, fundamental steps in developing eective motion.
But while golfers of all levels have the ability to be very consistent with these macro movements, it’s the smaller, more detailed motion of the elbows and wrists that causes the real problems with consistency. This is the next stage of development for the legions of amateurs looking to improve. By all means keep this in mind… but let’s get the body working properly first. If every golfer read the SwingTRU study and focused on these six elements, golf would be in a much better place.”
PEOPLE TALK ABOUT GRIP, AIM, STANCE AND POSTURE… BUT THEY ARE NOT FUNDAMENTALS; THEY ARE VARIABLES