Use ‘button’ to train swing

Would you become a guy or girl with a dragon tattoo if I could prove to you that it would really help your golf game? Well, it doesn't even have to be a dragon. Any tattoo will do as long as it vibrates. Here's how it could work:

Located throughout your body are tiny sensors that report to your brain what is going on in their district: what the joints are doing, what's happening in the stretch receptors in the muscles, how much force is being applied as you hold your golf posture, etc. Your brain needs this information to make a coordinated swing, and even though most of your proprioceptive adjustments are unconscious, you can train this sense directly through a specially designed technique I developed called "the button."

During your swing, so much information is flowing into your brain from your muscles and joints (kinesthetic clutter) that it is difficult to keep track of where any body part is at any given time. Your coach may tell you to focus on where your left arm is halfway down, or where your right knee is at the top, but it invariably gets lost in the clutter.

To help clear up the clutter, I'll tap a student on the target area with my hand or the butt of a golf club, and tell the student to track that area using the sensation that lingers after the tapping. It is the same type of trace that remains after being on a boat -- for a short time after you land, you still have your sea legs. Guided by this residual feel during the swing, the student can keep perfect track of the body part that needs to be trained.

While this low-tech button technique works pretty well, a high-tech version is coming from cell phone maker Nokia. The patent describes it as a magnetic tattoo that vibrates when stimulated by a cell phone or any synced broadcaster, such as a computer or tablet. And if you don't want a tattoo, a detachable device about the size of a fingernail is also available.

Although not designed for golf, the device could create a proprioceptive event, like my button, in the area you want to track, making it easier for you to implement the swing key you're working on.