IT'S GOOD FOR YOUR GAME

Radar technology improves swing instruction

James Leitz, a Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher, has produced an interesting video revealing a secret that is stopping you from learning correctly. Most instructors either don't know about this or refuse to do anything about it.

Golf teachers (including me) have taught incorrectly for years because they are fooled by both the 2-D medium of videotape and their eye. Enter TrackMan Teaching Principles, a clear explanation of what actually happens at impact.

“What we see on video is swing plane, but not clubhead path,” Leitz says. “We confuse plane direction with path direction.”

Leitz shows a golfer on video swinging an iron and a driver. The swing with the iron looks like it's over the top and cutting the ball, while the driver looks like it's too much inside out. But in both the examples, Leitz is monitoring the path with a radar device (TrackMan) that shows the path is perfect for a straight shot ― it's directly down the target line at impact.

Let's say your driver path is zero, i.e., looking at the target at impact, but the ball flies to the right and fades because the clubface is 2 degrees open. You want to get better, so you take a lesson.

The video your instructor takes of your swing shows a swing plane that's moving left, and your teacher is fooled into thinking you're cutting across the ball, so he tells you to swing more inside out. That changes the path, say, 5 degrees to the right. Now the face is closed to the path, so the ball starts slightly right and hooks into the left rough.

Next you're instructed to stop the hook by holding your forearms quiet, so you hold the face open 7 degrees and hit a push slice. So far, you've done everything the teacher has asked, but because he doesn't understand what's really happening at impact, you've hit a baby fade, a full-blown hook and a push.

By the end of the lesson, both of you are completely confused. Out of earshot, the teacher rationalizes that you are a poor student who can't do as instructed, while in actuality you're too good a student because you can implement the bad advice. Is it any wonder the average handicap hasn't changed much in 20 years?

Insider Takeaway: You can't take the big steps you need to improve without understanding TrackMan Teaching Principles, and the first one is, “Don't trust your eyes or the video.” You need to take lessons from someone who has a radar tracking system.

Author T.J. Tomasi is a teaching professional in

Port St. Lucie, Fla.

This swing looks over-the-top in the top photo, but Carl Pettersson’s ball flight is straight when his path and face are looking down the target line at impact in the bottom photo. Jim Furyk’s loopy swing looks just the opposite — way inside out, but he consistently returns the path and face directly down the target line. Videos of both swings, without the aid of radar tracking, would fool a teacher into making incorrect changes. “Fixing” these players by changing their path would ruin them.