Professional Golf Instruction a paper for the seminar on Scientific and Medical Perspectives in Golf

1
Professional Golf Instructiona paper for the
seminar onScientific and Medical Perspectives in
Golf

• Paper presented
• by
• Arthur C T Wong

2
Three Parts of the Presentation

• Motor Learning Theory
• Fundamentals of Golf Swing
• Components of Golf Swing

3
Verbal-cognitive stage

• jerky and fragmented
• self-talks dominate
• improvement rapid
• attention demands are high

4
Motor stage

• motor program begins
• consistency increases rapidly
• self-talks decrease
• improvement gain slow down

5
Autonomous Stage

• highly proficient
• attention demands greatly reduced
• movements become automatic
• emphasis on stylistic and strategic performance

6
Instruction Guidelines

• verbal instruction should be simple and straight
  forward
• distribute verbal instruction and be progressive
• cognitive explanation is minimally useful

7
Demonstration Guidelines

• supplement instructions with demonstrations
• cue important points to learners attention
• suggest what to and what not to observe
• alternate practice with demonstrations

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To Tell or Not To Tell

• KR and KP are important feedback
• too frequent feedback interfere learning
• let learner explore and errs
• detailed scientific information is not helpful
  initially

9
Demonstrations

• most people, kids in particular, Do this with
  demonstration is most helpful
• model examples help but limit learning
• use expert-peers demonstrations

10
Guidance or Aids

• it helps sometimes
• it may depress learning
• ignores individual differences and limit other
  possibilities
• when used, apply fading-technique

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Arnold Palmer once said

• Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly
  complicated. It satisfies the soul and frustrates
  the intellect. It is at the same time rewarding
  and maddening- it is without doubt the greatest
  game mankind has ever invented.

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Five variables for effective swing

• Clubhead speed (CS) (OH1)
• Clubhead path (CP) (OH2 3)
• Clubhead face (CF) (OH4-7)
• Angle of Approach (AA) (OH8)
• Centeredness of contact

13
The Grip

• the last three fingers of each hand matter (OH9)
• allow one to one and a half knuckles to be
  seen(OH10)
• strong grip hook and weak grip slice(OH11-12)

14
Aiming/Aligning

• adopt a consistent approach
• make use of divot or loose impediment to align
  the target
• use your club head to align

15
Setup

• use the foot flare experiment
• lean forward weight on ball of feet and then
  kneel down slightly
• let the hands hang comfortably and naturally in
  front

16
Plane of Swing

• target hand and arm above shoulder (in plane)
• non-target hands elbow pointing the ground

17
The Width of the Arc

• the wider the arc, the farther the ball
• both hands extended but not stiff (OH13)
• Y tends to slice and reverted K tends to draw
  (OH13-14)

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The Length of the Arc

• the backswing
• less backswing with shorter clubs
• more backswing with longer clubs (OH15)
• point the club towards the target at top of
  backswing

19
Target hand and wrist position

• target hand kept straight but not stiff
• wrist of target hand square (no concave/convex)
  (OH16)

20
Levers

• target hand and club is lever one
• cocking at wrist is lever two
• bending of both hands are the third (undesired
  lever) (OH17)

21
Timing

• send away slow and low
• take up only after the club passes the non-target
  leg
• cock during take-up
• down swing with target leg, hip, shoulders and
  then the arms

22
Release

• release (uncock) only when or after target hand
  has passed the non-target leg
• non-target hand cross over during the throw-away
  (upswing after impact)

23
Balance

• let the swing leads the post impact movement
• remember the buckle or the belly movement

24
Final tips

• initiates the backswing with the elbow of the
  target hand
• move low and slow in one piece
• do not take-up/upswing until the club has passed
  the non-target leg
• dont think of killing the ball just swing nice
  and easy!