In The Club House ❰ continued from page 38
Fitter, Gaylord Rhodes Who Is Also The General Manager At Wild Horse GC In Davis, CA. “Wanted to Thank Jim for the following article. As a Master HG Fitter like Jim I have been teaching and fitting students for 20 years. Having tried the tech stuff as early as 1990 I can attest to the fact that video analysis is the least effective way to teach golf. Comparing a student to anyone(especially a pro) is a process that leads to a very frustrating learning experience as the student tries to compare their swing positions to those of professionals . Their are no positions in a motion, there is simply a best balanced motion that each student should strive to learn as they continue to work on improving their impact positon... (the moment of truth in golf ). Balance and proper impact are the two fundamentals that all great players share and should be the focus for all golfers trying to improve their swings. Feedback is fundamental to learning. Each student has a unique motion and helping them achieve their best balanced motion is the key to helping them play their best. Without the proper equipment balance is always compromised as the student attempts to make the club work at the expense of their overall motion. The big-
gest factor that most students struggle with is getting proper feed back as they learn. If the clubs they are using don’t reward their attempt to improve their swing motion they end up compensating their swing to make the club work (example: in an attempt to cure their slice they buy a driver that is designed to hook and the struggles and compensations continue.) Fitting each student with proper loft, shafts, lengths, lie angles etc. is fundamental to helping them achieve their best balanced motion, improving their understanding of impact and ultimately their enjoyment of the game.. Fairways and greens, —Gaylord. Pursuing Perfection I had the opportunity to sit and watch the Memorial Tournament a couple of Saturdays ago. Just my luck, there was a weather delay and play had been suspended. Jack Nicklaus was in the tower with Jim Nantz and Nick Faldo. There was some dead air to fill and as they talked about things other than the play on the course, two comments really hit me. Nantz was talking about all the swing analysis technology available to the modern players. Jack responded that this would have driven him and the rest of the players in his day pretty crazy. He indicated that each guy had his own method of setting up
WWW.GOLFTODAYMAGAZINE.COM
and making a swing. He also pointed out that everyone was pretty much in the same place through impact even though they arrived there in decidedly different ways. Then Nick chimed in. He said that Tour Players are bad swing models. They have great hands and hit a lot of golf balls. Amateurs shouldn’t be trying to copy what they see them do. This seems brutally honest and it certainly does not support the use of swing technology, at least in the manner in which it is commonly used. Lines are drawn on the screen showing the positions Tiger, or Phil, or Justin, or whoever are getting into. Then there is a comparison between those positions and what the student is doing. The underlying message is: If you achieve these positions, you will achieve their results. In most cases, nothing could be farther from the truth. It seems to me that a more effective method would be building on the strengths of your students by rewarding them for their strongest swings. That would be their strongest swing, not Graeme McDowell’s! Jim Hofmeister, HG Master Golf Clubfitter. Find out more about Henry-Griffitts Golf Clubs by loging on to: www.henrygriffits.com. Grab A Copy Of The All New Golf Today Magazine At Golf Courses Across
California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Washington and Oregon. When you pick up a copy, you will immediately notice that the new Golf Today Magazine carries more weight. Not only weight with the new heavier and brighter paper, but weight in the content. Weight in the distribution. Weight in the longevity. But Wait! Here’s more… Bob Koczor, Publisher, Editor and Owner of Golf Today Magazine is celebrating his 24 years of continuous monthly publication in September. In my 18 years with Bob, I’ve not seen a Regional Golf Magazine that even comes close. Kudos, Bob! Pretty amazing stuff and looking forward to sharing the big one, your 25th next September. n
I’m outta’ here!
GOLF TODAY • August/September 2010
39