Instruction
How PGA Tour players use the ground: Trends from BodiTrak
Any time new technology makes its way onto the PGA Tour, it’s always interesting to take a step back and observe some of the general trends to see what we can learn from the new data it provides. One new piece of technology that is growing in popularity on professional tours is BodiTrak, which I co-developed. BodiTrak a pressure-sensing mat that helps athletes understand how they interact with the ground, which, of course, is great for the golf swing. As we continue to learn, the movement of a golfer’s center of pressure, or COP, is crucial to performance, and that’s exactly what BodiTrak measures.
The importance of pressure or weight shift isn’t a new concept at all, though. Hall of Fame instructor Jim McLean wrote an article for Golf Digest 25 years ago that discussed the importance of being able to load into your trail leg and explode onto your lead leg. McLean’s postulate from 1980 was resisted by some, but is now being confirmed — almost universally across the instruction community — with data from BodiTrak mats.
“Now with BodiTrak Pressure Mapping, even those most pessimistic doubters and anti-weight movement teachers have to concede that great ball strikers and all PGA Tour players load pressure into the trail foot in the backswing for a driver,” McLean says. “They then unload quickly back to the lead foot, and explode out of the ground through the impact interval.”
We’re only scratching the surface in terms of data collection on Tour, but I wanted to share a few of the most notable trends, as they might be relevant lessons for the average club golfer.
Tour players load and explode
The vast majority of Tour players load at least 80 percent of the pressure into their trail leg in their backswing and at least 80 percent into their lead leg at impact with their driver swing. Some golfers that BodiTrak has measured, like Jason Day, put as much as 95 percent of their pressure on their trail leg near the top of their backswing.
We know that Jason Day uses the ground to generate power, but now we see HOW with the trace from his BodiTrak mat. pic.twitter.com/Ik4bHHkjHI
— BodiTrak Sports (@boditraksports) August 25, 2015
This move requires tremendous physical ability, but it’s foundational to Tour-level distance and consistency. Titleist Performance Institute co-founder Dave Phillips analyzed how Day’s elite hip mobility and stability make this move possible. Many amateurs (and some professionals) don’t have the requisite physical capabilities to do this, while others have inefficient technique. McLean refers to the transition to the lead leg as the key move in the golf. Golfers who fail to do so invite a number of potentially harmful swing tendencies. As PGA Tour instructor John Tillery says, “I’m convinced that the overwhelming difference between amateurs and Tour players is how and when they shift their pressure.”
Most Tour players have a linear trace with short irons
As a general rule, we’ve found the golf club wants to follow a golfer’s pressure trace during the swing. Many instructors advocate a linear trace because it encourages a neutral club path from which golfers can either fade or draw the ball. There are exceptions, but if you review BodiTrak’s library of PGA Tour data, you’ll see that linear traces are extremely common in precision swings. Linear iron traces are often drastically different from dynamic traces seen in many powerful driver swings. The explosive speed of a Bubba Watson or J.B. Holmes results from tremendous ground reaction forces, evidenced by a center of pressure trace we often refer to as a “Z Trace.”
A look at the footwork of long hitters J.B. Holmes and Bubba Watson. #PGATOUR pic.twitter.com/tc1f71fqhr — PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 8, 2015
You may know PGA Tour instructor Scott Hamilton from the instruction videos he makes for GolfWRX. He does an excellent job of explaining the relationship between club path and ground mechanics in the video below.
Sometimes poor technique is to blame for a center of pressure that traces excessively to the ball of the lead foot, but it’s also often an indication of limited physical capacity, specifically in the posterior chain. PGA Tour instructor Mark Blackburn notes that this is especially common among junior golfers who lack stability in their lower body.
“Golfers who lack stability might see CoP trace excessively to toes of lead foot. Common among Jrs.” @BlackburnGolf pic.twitter.com/hD6wmQSa0D
— BodiTrak Sports (@boditraksports) October 29, 2015
Ground interaction is important in the short game
One of the most fascinating studies of ground mechanics has come from how PGA Tour players shift their pressure around the green. PGA Tour instructor Jake Thurm uses BodiTrak to assess how two-time champion Kevin Steelman distributes his pressure to ensure that the loft of the club is maximized. It’s a really interesting look into how data from BodiTrak can reflect corrections in posture throughout a swing. As Thurm says, “If your pressure is incorrect at setup, it will be corrected for throughout your motion.”
Popular online instructor Mark Crossfield, who also contributes to GolfWRX, compared pressure shift trends on different pitch shots, demonstrating how his center of pressure went into the toe of his trail foot and heel of his lead foot on a lob shot versus a lower, spinning chip that was hit with a more linear trace and more pressure into the lead foot at impact.
European Tour member Oliver Wilson also noted the importance in the timing and magnitude of his pressure shift in the bunker.
Pressure shift isn’t a new concept in golf. Instructors have been teaching pressure shift for years, but now, thanks to technologies like BodiTrak, we’re able to validate the concept with data and provide valuable biofeedback on the range for golfers.
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Instruction
Clement: Laid-off or perfect fade? Across-the-line or perfect draw?
Some call the image on the left laid off, but if you are hitting a fade, this could be a perfect backswing for it! Same for across the line for a draw! Stop racking your brain with perceived mistakes and simply match backswing to shot shape!
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Instruction
The Wedge Guy: The easiest-to-learn golf basic
My golf learning began with this simple fact – if you don’t have a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, it is practically impossible for your body to execute a fundamentally sound golf swing. I’m still a big believer that the golf swing is much easier to execute if you begin with the proper hold on the club.
As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.
The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.
Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply. Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:
Mis-aligned hands
By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.
The position of the grip in the upper/left hand
I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean. Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.
To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.
Too much lower (right) hand on the club
It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.
Gripping too tightly
Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.
So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.
More from the Wedge Guy
- The Wedge Guy: Golf mastery begins with your wedge game
- The Wedge Guy: Why golf is 20 times harder than brain surgery
- The Wedge Guy: Musings on the golf ball rollback
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Instruction
Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!
Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?
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Kill
May 19, 2016 at 3:27 pm
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JC
May 13, 2016 at 10:04 am
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Desmond
May 13, 2016 at 9:19 am
Appreciate the video, expecially Hamilton’s. We are given the preferred outcome – linear tracing – but like most instruction, there is no explanation of the body movement needed to produce that consistent outcome — that’s where lessons help. But does traditional instruction give you those movements, or is it more, if the feedback says you’re doing it right, without an explanation of the movement you must make through the swing. It’s more than feel 50-50 at the back — it’s what do you do to get 50-50 between toe and heel in the back with most of your pressure in the back foot? What is the feedback says you’re getting pressure, but you have a lousy swing, because that movement throws off other body movements? That’s my issue with instruction — it’s about the outcome with little as to the detail in getting there.
RG
May 12, 2016 at 11:09 pm
Top golfers transfer weight from hind foot to lead foot. Good weight transfer leads to more power and consistency in the golf swing. Got it. Glad we figured that out.