Brian Manzella
Administrator
In the beginning there was rhythm and timing...
At some point Seymour Dunn drew planes, Percy Boomer turned in a barrel, Alex Morrison pointed his chin, Bobby Jones began a sentence with the word—thusly, Ernest Jones pulled out a penknife, Ben Hogan supinated on a pane of glass, Cochran and Stobbs free-wheeled, Dick Aultman reverse curled, Homer Kelley lagged and classified, Ben Doyle hit it with his pivot, Jimmy Ballard connected, Hank Haney flattened, David Leadbetter linked, Jim Hardy pulled a lawn mower cord, and Mac O'Grady leaned left.
But they were all searching for something they couldn't touch, and could only affect some of the time.
When Sony released the V-9 camcorder in late 1986, pros could stop the swing with a shutter of 1/1000th of a second. V1 and JC Video followed with programs to draw lines, and everyone did.
They didn't get any closer.
The Golftek (with a "k") machine measured the clubhead path in 2D, but no one could balance out in their heads the seeming contradictions from the line drawing, and a 2D machine. It was obviously closer yet, though.
I found a way to close in on it with my Manzella Matrix.
But it was like trying to level a christmas tree in the stand with your eyeballs.
The tree wasn't straight to start with, and the goofy stand made it worse.
A guess at best.
The answer had been lying there for quite a few years. In 1993 Theodore Jorgesen published The Physics of Golf, and in it introduced the D-Plane to the world.
It got about the same reception I did when I first taught at a PGA Tour event in 1991. A couple of people shook my hand and forgot about me just as quick.
And then there was Fredrik Tuxen.
Tuxen worked for Weibel Scientific, who NASA used to track the Space Shuttle through the atmosphere.
His Doppler ball and club measurement device called TrackMan, re-discovered Jorgensen's D-Plane.
And I was all over it from day one, popularizing the concept and talking about it all over the U.S.A.
First, James Leitz, a teacher/pal within an hour of my home purchased one and allowed and encouraged me to do some research on it. Then, two of my Manzella Academy Instructors, Chris Hamburger and Kevin Shields also bought the units and I taught on them at schools and with selected students.
But, just as Eric Clapton might be selling shoes for Clifford James back in Ripley, Surrey, England, unless he got his own guitar for his 13th birthday, I was never going to really know how good TrackMan was until I owned one and could fire it up for every lesson and every practice session.
Whoa.
It is better than even I thought.
It is the single biggest advancement in golf instruction ever, as well as golf practice ever.
Of course, even the best Les Paul in my hands—a drummer by trade—is useless.
There are way more "TrackMen" then men who know what to do with it.
But, I do.
Funny things happen with the device on the lesson tee...
I have become more of a guide, and less of a drill sergeant. About 35% less words come out of my mouth. I put my hands on the students 50% less.
Nobody looks at me like I am from outer space when they hit a pull hook and I tell them they swung too far to the right.
The machine tells them, and they listen.
When they do look unconvinced, Casio breaks the tie.
Golfers improve about 300% faster. Don't believe it?
I have hit about 1000 shots on it myself in a month, and Damon Lucas said he barely could recognize my swing at the PGA Show Demo Day.
Better. Smoother. Straighter.
I really feel sorry for the folks who were tied to a method than doesn't allow for "zeroing out" the path and the face.
It's funny to listen to them talk about "windows" and "tolerances" because Tuxen has shown how since you can't hit the ball in sweetspot all the time anyway, the adjustments to straightaway ball-flight that physics makes to a zeroed out stroke and an off center strike, is far more predictable than on any other path clubface combination.
The world has a lot of adjusting to do, with all the theories and methods and cults out there.
But thanks to TrackMan, it is all BS unless the numbers say otherwise.
At some point Seymour Dunn drew planes, Percy Boomer turned in a barrel, Alex Morrison pointed his chin, Bobby Jones began a sentence with the word—thusly, Ernest Jones pulled out a penknife, Ben Hogan supinated on a pane of glass, Cochran and Stobbs free-wheeled, Dick Aultman reverse curled, Homer Kelley lagged and classified, Ben Doyle hit it with his pivot, Jimmy Ballard connected, Hank Haney flattened, David Leadbetter linked, Jim Hardy pulled a lawn mower cord, and Mac O'Grady leaned left.
But they were all searching for something they couldn't touch, and could only affect some of the time.
When Sony released the V-9 camcorder in late 1986, pros could stop the swing with a shutter of 1/1000th of a second. V1 and JC Video followed with programs to draw lines, and everyone did.
They didn't get any closer.
The Golftek (with a "k") machine measured the clubhead path in 2D, but no one could balance out in their heads the seeming contradictions from the line drawing, and a 2D machine. It was obviously closer yet, though.
I found a way to close in on it with my Manzella Matrix.
But it was like trying to level a christmas tree in the stand with your eyeballs.
The tree wasn't straight to start with, and the goofy stand made it worse.
A guess at best.
The answer had been lying there for quite a few years. In 1993 Theodore Jorgesen published The Physics of Golf, and in it introduced the D-Plane to the world.
It got about the same reception I did when I first taught at a PGA Tour event in 1991. A couple of people shook my hand and forgot about me just as quick.
And then there was Fredrik Tuxen.
Tuxen worked for Weibel Scientific, who NASA used to track the Space Shuttle through the atmosphere.
His Doppler ball and club measurement device called TrackMan, re-discovered Jorgensen's D-Plane.
And I was all over it from day one, popularizing the concept and talking about it all over the U.S.A.
First, James Leitz, a teacher/pal within an hour of my home purchased one and allowed and encouraged me to do some research on it. Then, two of my Manzella Academy Instructors, Chris Hamburger and Kevin Shields also bought the units and I taught on them at schools and with selected students.
But, just as Eric Clapton might be selling shoes for Clifford James back in Ripley, Surrey, England, unless he got his own guitar for his 13th birthday, I was never going to really know how good TrackMan was until I owned one and could fire it up for every lesson and every practice session.
Whoa.
It is better than even I thought.
It is the single biggest advancement in golf instruction ever, as well as golf practice ever.
Of course, even the best Les Paul in my hands—a drummer by trade—is useless.
There are way more "TrackMen" then men who know what to do with it.
But, I do.
Zero that damn thing out, baby!
Hit up on you driver!
Never hit a practice ball without it!
Hit up on you driver!
Never hit a practice ball without it!
Funny things happen with the device on the lesson tee...
I have become more of a guide, and less of a drill sergeant. About 35% less words come out of my mouth. I put my hands on the students 50% less.
Nobody looks at me like I am from outer space when they hit a pull hook and I tell them they swung too far to the right.
The machine tells them, and they listen.
When they do look unconvinced, Casio breaks the tie.
Golfers improve about 300% faster. Don't believe it?
I have hit about 1000 shots on it myself in a month, and Damon Lucas said he barely could recognize my swing at the PGA Show Demo Day.
Better. Smoother. Straighter.
I really feel sorry for the folks who were tied to a method than doesn't allow for "zeroing out" the path and the face.
It's funny to listen to them talk about "windows" and "tolerances" because Tuxen has shown how since you can't hit the ball in sweetspot all the time anyway, the adjustments to straightaway ball-flight that physics makes to a zeroed out stroke and an off center strike, is far more predictable than on any other path clubface combination.
The world has a lot of adjusting to do, with all the theories and methods and cults out there.
But thanks to TrackMan, it is all BS unless the numbers say otherwise.
