Indy Golf Coach

I started to write a post on my StrengthCoach.com website explaining my response to a thread about Tabata intervals.  I probably was a little short with my answer because I thought the question was phrased poorly and loaded with assumptions. The writer took offense and responded “I’m just trying to learn”.

I went on to explain to him that the intelligent people in our industry are fighting a war of sorts.  Because we are constantly battling misinformation, half-truths, lies and out right stupidity we can often come across as impatient. The enemy has many names, Crossfit, P90X, Insanity, Bar Method, Tracey Anderson and so many others. A new enemy constantly appears on the horizon and they all have the same theme. The enemies simply ignore science and empirical evidence and replace it with marketing. They ignore common sense and replace it with marketing. They prey on the uniformed.

Our job as fitness professionals, personal trainers or strength and conditioning coaches is to continually try to keep the pendulum in the center and use our common sense. One of my favorite quotes comes from Benjamin Franklin is:

“common sense is not very common”

This can be combined with another great quote:

” a little knowledge is dangerous”

We exist in a fitness world overpopulated by people with a little knowledge and too little common sense. The resultant combination of a little knowledge and a lack of common sense is the foolish programming that we are forced to battle against. What the smart people do in this industry is make the client feel and look better while at the same time keeping the client healthy and safe. Is that too much to ask?

The only thing that makes me feel better is that we are succeeding. Our business at Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning has nearly doubled in 4 years. This is due to a great program and a great staff that delivers consistent, reproducible results. Microgyms ( think opposite of the Big Box, lots of equipment, no instruction) are thriving all over America. Keep it up, don’t sell out. Don’t throw up a Crossfit sign or any other sign for its marketing value. Continue to deliver great programming and great results.

To your success,

Mike Boyle

By Tracy Chapman, TPI Golf Fitness Specialist

The ideal golf swing results from controlled, balanced rotation of the upper body over a fairly stable base of support or lower body.  Your feet provide the connection to the ground while the knees and hips create the stability for upper body motion.

One of the “keys” to maximizing lower body efficiency is to put the lower body in a position where it can be successful.  The low back is not designed for repetitive rotational strain and therefore the knee and hip joints are important in controlling motion of the spine over the the lower body.

Lower Body Efficiency is dependent on:

• Achieving a good address posture with a proper hip hinge and knee flex.
• The availability of strength, flexibility and endurance throughout the musculature of the lower body.
• Coordination of the lower body focusing on kinesthetic awareness at the hips, knees and foot complex.
• Stability and controlled motion of the lumbar spine / low back.
• The quality of motion over a stable base of support / dynamic balance.

If you have read the Golf Digest (October, 2011), I believe those of you who understand and use the DBS may have some questions or concerns about the crucial issue of balance and, in anticipation of that, I want to present the following ideas.  Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

David Leadbetter authored the article, “Use Your Feet to Hit It Further.”  He discusses how to achieve a balanced swing but illustrates his points with graphs from technology that focused on pressures in the feet. This is SIGNIFICANTLY different than the updated, advanced information generated by the Dynamic Balance System-DBS.

Why is this important?

As he refers to “balance,” the emphasis is “focusing on how your ‘weight shift’ through the feet.”

• ·       By definition and how we should refer to “balance,”– “Balance is the ability to control one’s Center-of-Gravity (COG) over the base of support.”

• ·       The Center of Gravity of the body (even bending forward with the club) is located within the pelvis and therefore this is THE area that needs to be controlled. Movement of the core is sensed or “felt” in the feet.      The power center of the swing is the golfer’s core as confirmed by TPI.

• ·    Platforms that look at foot pressure readings display center-of-pressure (COP) also called center-of-force (COF) graphs. While this may be of interest, it does not show the movement of the golfer’s power center.  Because of these differences, I have suggested comparisons of graph results, but have found little interest in the approached companies.

This article says they are illustrating COG movement but this methodology requires additional information, such as height input to accomplish this readout. The DBS identifies COG using computer algorithms developed for NASA. (http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/spinoff1996/29.html)

The Dynamic Balance System-DBS measures the deviation of the COG from a known center position on the force platform, with patented microphone use for specifically identifying the very important variable of body position at ball contact!

The use of the foot pressure graphs in this article caught me by surprise as the DBS is in use at Mr. Leadbetter’s facility at Champions Gate, FL.

“We use the Dynamic Balance System as an evaluative tool to begin the vast majority of lessons – we can look at the set up before going into other areas such as swing plane.  

The DBS illustrates information the naked eye or 2D video cannot see. By simply talking about the center-of-gravity, it gives us
a great way to help change body motion and swing plane without having to overwhelm the student with too much theory and
information.”  Tim Vickers, Leadbetter Academy, Champions Gate, FL

Differences in the Testing Results of the DBS from points in the article:

1.    Using the COP system, Leadbetter instructs “at the top (of the backswing), your weight should be fully transferred to your back heel.”  The DBS demonstrates that better players, on average, transfer 68-74% of their weight to the backswing side.

2.     Next, the article says, “As you swing back…settle into the heel.”  The DBS demonstrates that stability on the right leg (of a right handed golfer) should be mid-arch or just slightly heelward.  Without the Balance Zone, players can shift too deeply into the heel based on these directions.

3.     Most importantly, DBS graphs from tour players and competitive teaching pros (attached) show the body position at ball contact (X) to be in a stronger, more balance position over the left side than in the forward position emphasized in the article.  Studies performed on the DBS demonstrate that lower handicap players consistently obtain the same position of weight transfer at ball contact with each club.  This fact is emphasized during instruction, club-fitting and specific exercise performance.

ALL FORCE PLATFORM SYSTEMS DO NOT GIVE THE SAME INFORMATION

It was suggested that Mr. Leadbetter may have chosen to use the older COF graphs because he felt the DBS data might be hard to understand by the Golf Digest readers.  It has been my experience, that most golfers appreciate and readily understand the specific, verified feedback.  Difficulty in reading the DBS graphs has never been a complaint by our users and, to that point, Laird Small, PGA Master Professional at Pebble Beach said:

“The DBS shows our students the movement of their body and balance during the swing, without being too technical….They get it!”

   See the entire quote at www.sportsbalance.com/who-is-using it  

I hope this information is helpful.  

Tracy