BALANCE AT SET UP, SCREENING, CORE STABLIZATION AND FOOTWORK.
I got to know Rory McIlroy at Blackwood Golf Centre where I worked as Teaching Professional. Rory, aged around 12, would come down to the range with his Dad, Gerry, in the winters to practice. Typically the weather was the usual for Northern Ireland with wind and rain whipping horizontally across the range; Gerry would stand patiently watching, not saying that much, letting the young man get on with his practice. It was on one of those evenings, down having a chat with Gerry when I realized just how good he was going to be. Rory was hitting a little lofted fairway wood out into the cold, blustery night air and as I chatted, I noticed that each and every shot was coming out of the clubface in the same way. Perfect strike, same trajectory and looking like the same distance until the floodlights failed to pick it up through the rain. Fast forward to 2009- me having to put my sunglasses on as Rory holed out from 3 feet to win the Dubai Desert Classic. The sight of a grown man standing with all his friends blubbering with tears running down his cheeks was one that I was keen to avoid but we were all in the same boat!!
As an instuctor, I would like to tell you of the two things that I like the most about what Rory does- one that you can teach and one that I am afraid is beyond the reaches of many of us-
If you look at the video of Rory, you will see how through the impact area, his pelvis unwinds with great speed (normal in an elite player) but Rory's actually brakes (decelerates) so hard that it stops and backs up a little. If you watch his belt buckle closely, you will see it. This powerful pattern transfers a huge amount of energy to Rory's chest (thorax) and then to the arms and so on to the club. Not many players have made this move but those who do have been unbelievabke players and extremely gifted ball-strikers.
Now for what we can all learn from. Next time you are watching Rory, take a look at his pre-shot routine. He gets up to the ball in a very no-nonsense way and then has a waggle or two whilst his eyes go back and forth to the target. Just before he starts, the club settles behind the ball. With the club set in position, Rory looks at the target one more time. His eyes go back to the ball and then he's away. This suggests to me that Rory has a wonderful connection to the target, to where he wants the ball to go, maybe more so than some of his fellow players but much more than for most of us. If you can connect with the target like this, then you are definitely going to play the game better- fact.
rorymcilroy5.MOV (4.85 mb)
When we capture a swing using our Advanced Motion Measurement 3D system, we receive all manner of information about how the body has performed throughout the process of swinging the golf club. We also receive a cool robotic 3D image which can be used for more visually orientated instruction. We have a huge amount of swing data from PGA Tour Professionals which has been gathered by our colleagues at the Titleist Performance Institute in Oceanside, San Diego. They have been leaders in this field and also designed the software which helps us to interpret the information. If a video is an xray for the swing which helps us to see correct form and rhythm, a 3D motion capture is more like an MRI where differing segments of the body are isolated and their performances and relationships with one another can be viewed in detail. Below are two examples of one of the graphs generated from a 3D motion capture known as the kinematic sequence-
This is where things get really interesting. When we say that Ernie Els and Jim Furyk have the same basic pattern to their swings, most people say we're nuts but they do! All of the very best ball-strikers in the world transfer energy to the ball in a very similar sequence and we now have definitive proof of this using the technology mentioned. We always said that pros look the same at impact and these graphs show us why. The basics are as follows-
The graph is a timeline running from Adr (address), Top (top of backswing), Imp (impact) and Fin (finish).
The lines running through the graphs are red (pelvis), green (thorax), blue (lead arm) and brown (golf club).
The zero line represents the point at which the measured parts are moving backwards (negative- backswing) or forwards (positive- throughswing).
The x axis is time (seconds) and y axis represents rotational speed in degrees per second .
All of the best players in the world share a similar downswing sequence from just short of where the club changes direction to the point at which the ball is struck. The pelvis begins the downswing followed by the thorax, lead arm and then golf club. As these segments accelerate, the first to slow down or decelerate is the pelvis followed by the thorax, lead arm and then club. Throughout this acceleration/deceleration process, each segment is transferring energy to the following one and this helps explain why elite players manage to create such effortless looking yet powerful swings. If a player sequences in the right order, he or she will hit the ball straight and rapid accelerations upward indicate a player who is capable of creating power. As we study all manner of students under 3D conditions, it becomes easy to see why they struggle with distance or direction. These swing "signatures" certainly hold the key in helping us to help you become more efficient strikers of the golf ball.
Incidentally, Ernie's swing is the top graph and Jim's the bottom one.
We have devised a Short Game Skills Test here at BHSG to get to the root of any underlying deficiencies in student's short games. The basics of the test are that there are twenty shots to twenty different locations around the green. The students hits two balls from each of the twenty spots and we measure how far each one of the shots is from the hole in inches using a meter wheel. The longest shot is fifty-five yards and the shortest is around 5 yards and players can use whichever club they want. There are some sloping lies, rough and bunker shots to contend with and there are no practice shots or re-takes because your short game is your short game!! If a player misses the green, we add four hundred inches onto the total score and if a player holes a shot, we subtract four hundred inches from the total.
Now for the cool info. We have had around a thirty players take the test so far- Wallace Booth has had the best score with 2,685 points. When you take this total, divide by forty and by twelve you get the average distance which Wallace was from the hole on each of his shots- 5 feet and 6 inches. Wallace plays from a handicap of plus 4.
The average of the other players who’s handicaps range from 8-14 is 7,258 points. I make the same calculations and the average distance which these other players were away from the hole is 15 feet and 1 inch. The common sense about the skills test and how we then can help to make players better is glaringly obvious; in doing so, we can knock shots off their games.
Short Game Skills Test League Table and Average Distances from the hole.
1. Wallace Booth 2685 (5"5)
2. Mads Vibe-Hastrup 3109 (6"4)
3. Johan Edfors 4343 (9"0)
4. Stephen Reid 4500 (9"3)
5. Khalid Yousuf 4534 (9"4)
6. Ferdinand Mueck 4942 (10"2)
7. Scott Kerrins 5422 (11"2)
8= PeterBoland 5996 (12"4)
8= David Sykes 5996 (12"4)
9. Faruk Roked 7138 (14"8)
10. Irving Underwood 7148 (14"9)
The best putters in the world stick to their style of putters throughout their careers and I believe that this is something that we can all learn from. When I think of the best putters in the world I think of Ben Crenshaw, Brad Faxon and Tiger Woods. Ben Crenshaw used a simple Wilson blade throughout his career, Brad Faxon a Ping Zing design and Tiger had basically used a Ping Anser design all of his life. These players have, I am sure, had days when they have not putted all that well but they have not questioned their abilities as good putters or their trusted equipment. If you look at players who have struggled with their games on the greens, you see that they are using different putters all the time. Now as a coach, I know that it is important to look for ways to get better, but in my opinion, changing equipment constantly is not the right answer. On the greens it is vital to use something tried and trusted and stick to your guns. Butch uses a Bullseye style of putter and has done all of his life and I have heard a good few stories of him winning some ‘friendly’ competitions against his more famous students in Vegas!!
A lot has been said and written about the importance of maintaining a stable core and lower half when making a full swing. In my experience, one of the reasons why players fail to maintain stability is weakness in their core which is magnified when there is a large amount of nervous energy in their bodies.
As anyone who has had problems with their pitching and chipping can tell you, nerves can get in the way very quickly!! If you suffer from problems with your chipping and pitching, ensure that you have a stable and supported lower body from the beginning to the end of the swing and you will find that the precision with which you can strike the ball will go up resulting in the nervous energy going down.
Get this feeling by gripping the legs to the floor at address and engaging your abdominal muscles and glutes. Keep your forearms and hands soft and begin your practice with short chip and run shots. Build to more advanced chips with a sandwedge maintaining the same stability in the lower half. If you can build to 40-50 yard pitch shots with the feet a little wider but solid and on the floor throughout to your finish, your short game will be on the right track.
I first met Lee Westwood in 2005 when he and Darren Clarke came to The Montgomerie to practice prior to heading to Qatar for the Qatar Masters. It was a treat to have two of the finest players in the world at our facility and find out more about what they were working on. At that time Lee was playing quite well but his body was a very different shape to what we see now.
Fast forwarding to 2009, Lee has been with us at the golf school practicing and opitimizes the modern golfing athlete as you can see from some of Claude’s great high def images. I asked him what drove him to work on his fitness so hard and his answer went something like this-
I had been to see the best coaches in the world and they were all basically telling me the same thing- I was losing posture in the downswing. Now I was also aware that at points in my career, I had been one of the best golfers in the world so I knew that I had the ability and coordination to achieve technical results. My conclusion was that if all of these people were saying the same thing and I was trying to do it but couldn’t, something else must have been in the way. The answer lay in my body and through work with Dr. Steve McGregor I was able to identify the areas which were letting me down in my swing, strengthen them and then work on the areas as mentioned only this time, I was able to see results.
This story confirms what we here at BHSG know about the link between the body and the swing and through our knowledge and technology, we will be able to identify whether your body is to blame for an annoying swing fault. Sometime it is not the answer, but in Lee’s case it was.