Archive for November, 2009

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Learning Motor Skills

November 30th, 2009
I’ve read multiple articles in the last couple months talking about how to best learn and retain a motor skill. The information has been very surprising and informative. As with a lot of things, it smacks in the face of tradition.

Luckily, I have been somewhat correct in my beliefs of how this is best done and it relies mainly on the student, not the teacher. The good teachers have a dual concern of teaching the skill and teaching some people how to learn a motor skill. There is also quite a divide between the best way to learn a motor skill and retaining a motor skill.

In learning a motor skill, the critical component is the interpreting of information from the teacher. Has the feeling or shape of the position been correctly interpreted. Only when the student can show two different positions (one original, one new) do we know the information has been passed on. The ole “Did I do it there?” is the question of a student that hasn’t made that connection.

In retaining a motor skill, the duty falls solely on the student. The student must convert the feelings of a new position into their own meaning. This is not done by drills. Drills are for learning a position. To give you an example. A student is learning multiplication of two digit numbers. The teacher shows the student how to mulitply 15 and 36. After the student has figured out the answer, 5 minutes later the teacher asks the student to multiply 15 and 36 again(this is the drill). Eventually, the student automatically knows the answer and has lost all sense of how to multiply 2 digit numbers. Their brain has basically shut off the process because it knows the answer. In order for the student to retain this skill, they must be asked to do something different with it all the time to reinforce the process.  There is also a growing amount of evidence that running through the motion very slowly many times decreases the amount of time to create retention.

It is for this reason, that I ask someone to ignore the ball flight. If the ball flight is good, they forget the process. If they have truly learned a new skill, they will be able to show the teacher bothmoves (old and new) and explain in their own words how they feel different.

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Posted in Practicing, Teaching Techniques

D-Plane?

November 29th, 2009

Let’s go back in time and talk to some golfers that are playing golf in the 1930′s and 40′s.  Let’s ask them what makes the ball curve.  What kind of answers to you think we would hear?  No internet, no d-plane talk and no high speed video or trackman.  What would they say?

Let’s think of some advances that might give us a clue.  In the late 1800′s, there was a change starting to take place from long nosed wooden heads to smaller and thicker wooden heads.  A new kind of driver was created that has a curved shape face.  Why in the world would they put a curve in the driver face that points away from the target vs. one that was curved to point the edges toward the middle.  This curve, or bulge, would lead to clubs name as a bulger.

They had noticed that shots struck on the ends of the club put a spin on the ball.  Toe shots added hook spin and heel shots added fade spin.  This spin was enough that it would curve a ball significantly away from the target even if the face was square.  By putting a slight curve in the face, so the toe pointed right of target and the heel pointed left of target, they found that the ball would end up closer to the target.Gear 6

They did this because they saw the ball would start farther right before the hook spin from a toe hit brought it back.  The ball started farther right becuase of the shape of the face.  Over 100 hundres years ago they figured out that the shape of the face controlled it’s initial direction. 

I think most golfers of the 30′s and 40′s era would say face first.  90% of the people I asked that know nothing about golf think that the face shape would control it.  I remember arguing at my PGA Checkpoint. I noticed when trying to curve the ball around the tree that I couldn’t aim the face behind the tree. I kept hitting the tree.

Is the d-plane earth shattering? No way.  It only helps with understanding what causes what.

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Posted in D Plane

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Flightscope for Sale!-Has Been Sold

November 27th, 2009

FlightScope-KuduFor anyone interested, I know of a Flightscope Kudo for sale that was purchased in April.  It is still in immaculate condition and it has as asking price of $6500.00US.  Please contact me if you are interested and I will put you in contact it with its owner.

john@johngrahamgolf.com

Please disregard the above post. The unit as been sold.

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Posted in Trackman

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Trackman-For Serious Teachers

November 25th, 2009
Trackman

Trackman

What does Trackman have that other ball flight monitors don’t?  First, they have accuracy. Second, they have tour presence. Third, they have the most measured club delivery parameters. 

It is also a fantastic piece of equipment for fitting and gapping.  It’s real time flight and spin data allow experienced club fitters to tweak your club choice to find the best piece of equipment for your swing.  The gapping feature is critical for checking if your clubs have appropriate spacing in the distance they fly and it can help explain when it is time for a hybrid or fairway wood.

This machine has confirmed the d plane formulas presented by Theo Jorgenson in his book the Physics of Golf.  It states how he ball will start it’s flight as well as some other items.  It has helped teachers understand how off center hits effect ball flight on drivers and irons.

Trackman allows the tacher to remove guesswork and be able to answer the question, “What happened there?”  At real speed, it is very difficult for a teacher to know what is occuring at the ball with respect to the club’s path and it’s face angle.  It also shows the teacher how changes are effecting the players path and face.  This gives the teacher and the player a greater understanding of how things work instead of relying on how they look.

For me, trackman is just too powerful to ignore.  It will teach the teacher and help the teacher help the player.  It is for serious teachers.

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Posted in Trackman

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AimPoint Green Reading – Grain

November 24th, 2009

In this write up, I will talk about grain.  I will show some pictures of what to look for and provide a chart for adjustments.  Let’s start with the adjustment. 

The table below shows the maximum aim adjustment to make (in inches) on very grainy greens running an average of stimp 10 with a 2% slope:

Ajustment for Grain

Ajustment for Grain

 

The biggest adjustment needs to made in speed control.  The grainiest greens can convert a putt with a stimp of 10 to act like it was an 8.5.

You can also see from the above chart that downhill putts have a greater influence than uphill putts.

How do you know when you are dealing with a grain situation.  It is almost exclusively a bermuda grass situation and it can change direction very abruptly.  It’s common that it will change direction when going over a crown.  This is due to the movement of water.  Water flow plays a very large part in the direction of grain.  Here are a couple pics to help:

Image

This next picture is the same green but enhanced.

Image

You can see from the above pictures how clearly the grain changes direction at the top of the crown.  Light color one direction and dark color is the opposite direction.

Pay attention to the speed and you’ll have an easier time dealing with the grain.  Pictures provided from the AimPoint Forum.

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Posted in AimPoint

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