Golf is game of skill. Evaluating, developing, and refining. Before there was Trackman, SAM Putt Lab, 3D motion capture, and TPI/fitness emphasis, there were guys that coached and that's how they got results. Harvey Penick was a master at giving his guys visual cues to associate with a feel. He was one of the greats that could give you something that would stick. But he was Crenshaw and Kite everyday watching them practice. But his greatest attribute was he knew talent and how and when NOT to screw it up. I own almost every piece of technology there is and I find myself going back to old fashioned coaching. Evaluating what a student does best and focusing on what he needs to be an all around golfer. Not a club swinger. Those are two different endeavors entirely. For the most part the tour guys were good ball strikers before they were good golfers. They are freakishly talented and if you were to start fooling with their mechanics you better know damn well what your doing and where you're going. The best teachers know just how much to change if they change anything at all. Where do you think all these so called Tour averages came from? From extremely skill athletes that were for the most part born that way who have refined that skill from thousands of hours of practice. Not from launch monitors and motion capture. Technology is still so new we still don't have a world class player that was created from Trackman or Flightscope. The only technology Tiger Woods had during his run toward 12 majors was video. Maybe some primitive motion capture for eval purposes. But mostly video. I could be wrong but I don't think Nicklaus, Sneed, Watson, Hogan, Jones or any of the other great champions used much more than a mirror. Technology is something we have created to expedite the process. I think. The jury is still out IMO. It's seems like as teachers we have all this technology to legitimize us as professionals. I've had two back surgeries since 2000 and I'm a better player than Ive ever been. Not because a particular technology made me a better player but because it helped me understand what is really going on. If you use it that way I think it's a benefit for sure.
The technology helps me more than it does my players. If a player had a Trackman unit to work with everyday it would be awesome. But it's too cost prohibitive to hire a guy to coach you with it more than a couple of times a month. When you start chasing numbers you run this risk of losing your intuitive nature. That's what is killing Tiger right now. He's gotten away from playing golf and he's playing golf swing.
That's what scare me with a lot of the young kids that have access to technology. They figure that if a launch monitor says the tour average is this than my swing should be within certain ranges delineated by numbers and look like some tour model.. That's why in my opinion motion capture like AMM, Kvest and what GolfTEC does is merely fluff. It's OK to do an evaluation with a new student to show them " hey, your hips are only 15 degrees open at impact when the tour average is from 45 to 55. That's all fine and dandy, but how do you coach it? Also, just because 150 tour players have those ranges doesn't mean it's going to work for the average golfer. In fact, what the average golfer needs to work on is impact alignments.But what happens? They go to some teched out pro who immediately evals body positions and club data based on NUMBERS. So immediately you have students chasing numbers and not developing skills.
In other sports you played growing up you were evaluated on what lacks in your skill set. Then you were supervised or " coached up " on how to develop and refine those skill sets. Then you went through transfer training to integrate them into real time. How are you going to use those skills to become and better player, score lower, hit more free throws, bat for a higher average, make more tackles with proper technique? The coach didn't "teach" you on Monday and then say " see ya Friday night at 7:00. You're on your own until then" But that's what golf pro's have done for decades. Just because you have a $30k piece of technology or video with line drawing software doesn't mean it's any different. You still have to coach people just like any other sport. There ain't no magic bullets. I don't care how strong the technology is.
