A Force for the Future

aboutGolf’s new swing coaching software
 

 Revealing new swing analysis technology from golf's leading simulator company, in partnership with the European Tour's biomechanics initiave, is transforming the coaching exeprience for amateurs as well as leading tour stars. Dominic Pedler visited Urban Golf in London to see the latest about Golf System in aciton.

The steady rise in biomechanicalbased coaching across sports ranging from track and field to skiing, rowing - and increasingly golf - reflects the success in tailoring technique according to an individual’s physical capabilities.

 

We can all dream of the perfect swing but without the necessary flexibility, movement and power we’ll never achieve it.

 

And having seen success from leading experts with all levels of golfer, the European Tour itself is launching its own coaching initiative, European Tour Performance Institute, which is being be rolled out across their own portfolio of golf courses in the UK and continental Europe.

As JJ Rivet has proved in recent years, biomechanics combined with the new Balance Pro technology is proving a coaching revelation. At the simplest level it provides instant feedback to both coach and player on a variety of data including the relative weight between left and right feet (and also between heel and toe) from address through to follow-through. This immediately throws up faults, most obviously a reverse pivot, while helping the golfer to feel the correct weight transfer that is so fundamental to maximizing their distance potential.

 

 The latest Perform Pro software from aboutGolf provides instant feedback on weight transfer and the forces generated by a player throughout the golf swing.

All the relevant numbers are thrown up clearly as digital graphics in the programme, as we saw on Urban Golf’s giant 12ftx11ft screen. The software’s attention to detail is impressive: for example, sudden dips in the graph of weight shift in the downswing help to identify golfers with a tendency to lift up their body slightly before impact, thereby causing an inefficient loss of force (force which, frustratingly, the player had already generated). Indeed, it seems that ‘good’ and ‘bad’ golfers can be very effectively identified simply by differences in their weight transfer profiles.

 

“There are still new challenges in making the concept more interactive, allowing golfers to play each other online and letting them ‘compete’ in a digital version of a real tour event, complete with leaderboards, sights and sounds,” envisages Day.

With the Kensington, Smithfield and Soho branches now all offering the same standard of tracking, and aboutGolf technology transforming the instruction potential, Urban Golf look set to grow their 1,200-a month customer visits across the three venues. Not least as the British winter approaches….

For more information visit: www.urbangolf.co.uk, www.aboutgolf. com

 

Reproduced with kind permission of Golf International Magazine