A special on-site report from Kiran Kanwar at 2016 PGA Trade Show, Orlando.

The PGA Show 2016 Sights and Sounds – Through the Looking Glass of Science

With as much action and color as it always has, the PGA Show is a great, not-to-be-missed event for any golf aficionado. Flashing lights, music and the hub-bub of 40,000 golf-mad humans in a large hall is a golf-lover’s dream.

So, what’s the best way to see everything in a short time? Look through the “Buyer’s Guide and Catalog” and select the interesting products. The ones this columnist was interested were, naturally, any that sounded scientific in their rationale. This included the teaching aids, and some other miscellaneous products.

The future of both golf research and golf teaching is not going to be in large laboratories with big, complex cameras which need careful calibration and a lot of data reduction and analysis. It is sure to advance to the level of small golfer and club-based sensors, which can, cheaply yet accurately pick up motion through sensors which can pick up acceleration, orientation, pressure, electrical body currents and so much more. This will enable true research to take place in the field, in realistic situations.

The most visible such product, which must have an amazing marketing team, was the BodiTrak. A portable wire-free pressure mat, it can read foot pressure traces to give a golfer and golf instructor simple foot-patterns throughout the swing, and the club’s path inevitably mimics the foot-pattern.

One that appealed the most, personally, was Coach Labs’ DuoTrac. Making a soft launch, the product consists of four sensors (with three dimensional capability and built-in accelerometer, gyproscope and magnetometer) and a mobile app. Two sensors fit on the hip joints, one on top of the club’s grip, and one just above the clubhead’s hosel. It gives feedback on many useful club and body parameters, and has a four-for-one price structure.

Nutraplex has been developed by a young man who had a life-changing experience which required him to follow a specific nutrition plan. It consists of really good-tasting nutrition-bars-with-a-difference. They all have date base with chia seeds thrown in for the “good fats”, and then a lot of extruded fruit juices.

Anytime a Stanford University engineering alumnus is in charge of developing a product it get’s my attention. Ikkos is a black box with an iphone fitted at one end and a strap to fix it to the eyes on the other. One watches a model golf swing 30 times and then wears a pair of black glasses, keeping the eyes open. The human brain has the neuro-plasticity to subconsciously remember the movement patterns seen in this condition and replicate them.

Tsunami Bar Sports is also a company with highly qualified scientists who have developed amazing exercise equipment. None of the junk that bulks up golfers. All the gadgets, from a bench press bar to dumbells to a latissimus dorsi stretching roller and much more have to be held via flexible bars so as not to strain muscles. The latissimus dorsi stretch tool is mounted on casters so that even at the end of a typical range of motion some more movement can be extracted at the hands and wrists which hold the gadget.

Watch out for more fun yet scientifically meaningful products over the next few days. Also, watch out for detailed reports of Leadbetter’s A Swing, The Open Forum 4 and much more.

•   Developer of The Minimalist Golf Swing System -100% scientific, simple and specific
•   BS (physics, math); MS (sports science, nutrition); PhD (biomechanics – student)
•   Class A Member: the LPGA, The PGA (GB&I), The NGA of India, The PGA of India