In my ongoing pursuit to drop my handicap I’ve been utilising all of the awesome teaching facilities that we have here at Peter Field Golf Shop. If you’ve not read my previous blog about my last session with Lewis, then check it out here to read about the continuation of my journey on tech.
It doesn’t always go to plan… While the past summer was blazingly hot I was unfortunately spending most of it laid low with COVID and back issues. As you can imagine, coming back to swinging a golf club felt rather alien after a 2 and a bit month lay off so as opposed to thrashing about with no success, I sent out an SOS to Lewis and we had a look at what’s been going on.
As most golfers will find, after not practising for a significant period I had found my old, bad habits creeping back in. While my weight transfer is actually looking good, I had returned to the out to in club path, resulting in a powerful, if uncontrolled, pull. Lewis suggested using our 3D system, K-Motion, to find some confirmation of what we thought we saw in my movement patterns. The way that the system works is by tracking 4 key points:
-The hips
-The chest
-The lead arm
-The lead wrist
This then tracks the sequence in which you move and displays it in graph form. It allowed us to view the timing at which each body part was moving and confirmed what we had seen previously. I move my hips well, with them moving early, but my upper body then moves as one piece instead of patiently and in sequence, which is the primary cause of my over-the-top motion. To this end, Lewis showed me K-Motion data from other students who moved really well in comparison, along with video to show where I need to get into each position. The conclusion we drew was that I needed to be more patient with my hands and club to get the club behind me for longer in order to come more from the inside.
To achieve this, I am now hitting shot after shot on the range at half speed. While not particularly exciting it is helping me see the ball draw off of a right start line. Practising at this speed makes it a lot easier for me to drop my hands behind my body and create proper separation in the way that my chest and arms move, which has drastically improved my path. This is where the K-Motion system has been truly valuable in showing how the timing of my movements can change the way that the ball moves. Using it in conjunction with GC-Quad and Swing Catalyst pressure plates has given us so much information to inform the best way to make positive changes. If you’re interested in seeing what all of this looks like in practise then click HERE to watch a video recap of our session!