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Author: RickHendershot | Total views: 16 Comments: 0
Word Count: 1056 Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 7:41 PM

The Golf Simulator and the First Level of Golf Awareness

A big part of getting better at golf is realizing how bad you really are. Reaching the first level of golf awareness requires that you realize you are probably not the best observer of your own swing.

First of all you're not sure what to look for. Second, you're not in much of a position to look for it. And third, it is very difficult to be objective about your own swing. You know what you want your swing to look like. You have some idea of what you're feeling as you swing. But these things tend to cloud your judgment and alter your perceptions.

So you ask a golfing buddy to watch you take a few cuts at the ball. Unfortunately he's not really all that interested, and he knows even less about the golf swing than you do. Chances are he himself has not even reached the first level of golf awareness.

Until a person reaches the first level of golf awareness he really has no idea what to look for. You can tell by his comments that he's got some pet theories that are like a lens he is looking through as he watches your swing: "You're lifting your head" or "You're not keeping your arm straight" or "You're not shifting your weight properly" or "You're not finishing your swing." These are just cliches - the same cliches you've heard a thousand times. Now you know why golfers say "Don't ask a fellow golfer for advice, and don't offer it either!"

The next logical step is to ask a golf instructor. This is probably what you should have done right at the beginning, but you had concerns. Like many golfers you were inhibited by your own ignorance. You were afraid to ask questions because you weren't sure what questions to ask, and you didn't want to be bulldozed into making changes to your swing that you didn't understand.

There was also the trust factor. You've heard stories, and you know that putting yourself in the hands of a golf pro is a leap of faith. There are good ones and not so good ones, and you're afraid you may be given advice that will make you worse rather than better. You're afraid that once you're in the clutches of a golf pro with a big ego you'll be coerced into a complete swing makeover that will screw up the little bit of progress you've achieved with your precious golf swing.

Even if you are inhibited by the thought of consulting a golf instructor, you should be open to some of the techniques they use. And one of the techniques many instructors use to great advantage is videotape. Whether it is done by an instructor or not, videotaping your swing can show you what you really look like. And that has to be a good thing.

Unfortunately not all videos are created equal. First, to be helpful a video must be of high enough quality that it can be slowed down and looked at frame by frame. Watching a blurry video image is next to useless for analyzing your swing.

Second it should be taken from at least two different angles so you can get the information about your swing that is going to be helpful. You want to know things like your stance at setup, how your weight is distributed throughout your swing, how much your head moves as you swing, and so on. So you need a head-on view with the camera facing directly at you, perpendicular to your intended line of flight.

But even more important you want to know how you are taking the club back on your back swing, where the club is located at the top of your swing, and its path coming down and through the ball. Video can show all of these things when it is set up correctly. To see these things you'll need a view from behind, looking down the intended line of flight.

Unfortunately video has its limitations. The most important part of your swing is the split second before, during and after the point where your club strikes the ball. What happens in this "impact zone" is the "moment of truth" in every golfer's swing. But unfortunately, unless it is of extremely high quality, videotape is not going to tell you much about what happens in the impact zone. Things just happen too quickly and normal videotape is simply not able to record the subtle movements and angles you need in order to make an objective evaluation.

One of the best tools for capturing this information is a golf simulator. A golf simulator is both a type of video game and a swing analyzer. You may have seen one at a major golf equipment store, or at one of those indoor golf facilities where you pretend to play a game of golf on a course like Pebble Beach or St. Andrews.

While it is certainly interesting and enjoyable to play these "virtual" courses, from the swing improvement point of view the real value of a golf simulator is that it tells you how your swing is working through the impact zone. You strike a real ball with real clubs off a special mat with embedded sensors that are able to tell you several important things it is almost impossible to know any other way.

These sensors pick up things such as club head speed, swing path angle as it approaches the ball, and club face angle at the point of impact. These are three of the most important factors that determine how far and in what direction the ball will fly when it is struck by the club. Once you know these things about your swing through the impact zone, you can start to make changes to your swing that will result in real improvement.

If you are serious about improving your golf swing there is little doubt that analyzing your swing is the best place to start. And there is no more effective way to get an accurate and helpful analysis of your point of impact than with a golf simulator.

About the Author

Using a golf simulator is a great way to get past the first level of golf awareness. The OptiShot golf simulator from Dancin' Dogg Golf gives you everything you need to improve your game. Play golf in your home on some of the best golf courses in the world.