Don’t worry, there’s still driving, approach, short game and putting, so this won’t be an article about my scratch golf ability yet.
But it is an article about how ultimately I’m improving my ball striking and my distance while at the same time reducing my back pain (that basically worried me sick and is the cause of me going crazy into golf rehab land and obsessing over it so I can help others too).
To explain this best, I’m going to pre-frame any of the following by telling you (and trying to simplify a complex sport) that the golf swing is nothing more than an energy transfer.
The energy transfer goes from the ground through your lower body, through the core to the upper body, out the arms, to the club and to the ball.
Ultimately, the flight, path, distance, and contact are all dictated by this energy transfer.
So, 2 years ago when I had got done playing an obscene amount of golf compared to my regular amount over a weekend with my brothers and I was brought to my knees by back pain. I went off the deep end to figure out why.
Some would even say it was a $7,000 to $15,000 deep end.
Yes, I took a course through Titleist to learn mechanics of the swing…I bought a “K-Vest” which is a $7000 dollar lunchbox of 4 tiny sensors that help analyze your swing in 3D. And then I took more courses and played more golf, etc.
BUT, first off…here was my biggest problem. The K-Vest reading that I had from October of 2 years ago (shortly after our annual fall outing) looked like this…
         K-Vest Reading circa October of 2016. Not overly pretty or efficient.
Don’t worry too much about the numbers other than they’re ideally going to go 1, 2, 3, 4 from left to right if the energy transfer is happening properly (all the best ball strikers in the world have that order).
So coupled with my self-assessment from my Titleist Performance Institute screen, I found some dysfunction with my lead (left) hip, weakness in my lead (left) glute, difficulty rotating my upper body separately from my lower body and vice versa, pain with pelvic tilting….do I need to go on?
I’ve worked on it since. As life and priorities have followed. And finally, 18 months later (yes, sorry folks, these things are processes) my K-Vest and energy transfer showed me this…like Christmas morning!
          KVest reading energy transfer circa May 2018.
Yes, that is a 1, 2, 3, 4.
Now what’s interesting about this is that my pain is gone which was ultimately the “why” behind I’ve gone off on a golf mechanics deep end.
However, I was over at my good friend Holtze’s golf shop a month back and I was hitting 7 iron 200+ without feeling like I was over swinging. I’d like to think I’m a strong guy but I wasn’t hitting 7 iron 200+ last year.
So…there is data, there is exercise, there is swing faults or characteristics, there is equipment, technology, and all other sorts of things to make this complex game even more complex.
But, I would strongly urge anyone to consider the more simplistic aspect of understanding where your energy transfer is and how that might be effecting your potential bodily pain, distance woes, accuracy woes, and contact.
Now, if only we had a way to fix the rest of my game 🙁
If you’re interested in a free taster of the K-Vest for your golf swing, then please send us an inquiry at eric@motusrx.com or call 920-540-2344. We’re happy to give you a sampling of how this may be affecting your swing and your enjoyment of the game.
Also, here is another video we shot discussing energy transfer and the #1 myth we hear to adding distance in your golf game…it goes well with what we discussed above.