Exclusive by Kiran Kanwar.
Today’s snippets are of the ‘what sense does it make’ variety.
One always imagined it was the shepherds that started playing golf in the wilds of Scotland, but perhaps they were sheep! And the sheep mentality continues, with one player copying another, one coach teaching something another does.
Do they use any scientific justification or rationale for what is done? Unlikely, for two reasons – firstly existing biomechanics research is only able to tell us ‘what is’, not ‘how to’, and secondly because merely visiting a few professors who study the golf swing does not give a golfer or coach enough to convert to reliable, repeating motion.
This lack of exhaustive scientific knowledge (not just biomechanics, but all the sports sciences) is hurting the players who typically rely on their various coaches for every movement they make. The lack of consistency and excess of injury on the major Tours is the result.
Why do so many players these days have a straight right arm extending stiffly past impact and across the body in the wedge follow through? Players such as Zach Johnson or Adam Scott?
Why do so many of them (Billy Horschel and Jordan Spieth to name two) raise the trail shoulder stiffly then stand up early in the downswing to ‘finish’? They do not know the “cosine of force” rule (a newly minted word to describe an old concept in physics), which is simply a way of saying that as you pull your arms across the body instead of letting the club move from in to out as it passes the ball, you only put a fraction of what you intend to, into the ball. The rest goes into the air surrounding the ball or into the green earth around it! Then they toss their hands up in amazement when the short chip or pitch shot is fat!
An Interview with a Journeyman Coach
A journeyman player is one who grinds it out week in and week out without becoming one of the outstanding stars of his tour. A journeyman coach, here, is merely a rare coach who travels the Tour with his boss. Throughout the year.
Of course it must be fun if said coach is also the brother-in-law of the player, as is Brad Malone.
Masters champion Adam Scott and his coach Brad Malone.
“Do you use any of the mental or physical sciences in your coaching?”
“A mixture of everything – understanding their psychology and where they’re coming from and how they best learn, and then applying that to their golf swing,” said Malone. “If somebody is quite analytical and likes to know the ins and outs of how things work I’d use Trackman or video cameras. Other people get confused, then I might use conversation as in feel. Adam (Scott) is much more feel oriented. Sometimes we use still images of set-up positions. He gets too focused on what the golf swinglooks like if we use too much video. We work a lot on rhythm and flow and keeping the instincts of the athlete high, rather than getting too bogged down with technique.”
Does he use any mental techniques? He likes to build confidence in the practice techniques. As regards golf research and whether he keeps abreast of it? He feels the idea is to use information and not try to produce a perfect individual. So the level players are at, are they biomechanically perfect? No. But do they do what they do well? Yes. He believes a coach should make sure any changes made do not undo where top players are already at, and start on a slow path rather than rebuilding. Golf biomechanics is perhaps more useful for a junior than a seasoned player who already has the basics in place, he feels.
One might conclude from the interview with Brad Malone that he does not use the more radical ideas one hears of in golf these days. However, thinking that one should not tinker with a leading player is perhaps to reduce him to the same level of inconsistency as everyone else in the field. The crying need of the hour is lateral thinking and using a golf swing which does not have a lengthy learning curve and is considerate of the design of the human body. What does that mean?
Well, for instance, Patrick Reed might benefit from a unique solution as he has a rounded spine (kyphotic) and thus shoulder internal rotation (trail elbow points backwards). Zach Johnson too has a rounded middle spine as he addresses the ball. This shoulder position means he will always hit over-the-top to some degree or always have to find ways during the downswing to re-route that shoulder and the entire trunk. This is all well and good when a player is relaxed and fresh. If he is stressed or fatigued, when poor timing is physiologically unavoidable, he will either have timing or directional or both issues.
