Golf Clothes Blog | GolfTec Swing Analysis Review

I realize that if I want to get really good at golf I'm going to need a little help. Well, last week I went out and got some. Groupon had a sale late last year for a 30 minute swing analysis from GolfTec for a great price. I bought three of them. One for me, one for my brother-in-law, and one for my father-in-law. Last week we finally cashed them in.

And I can honestly tell you I learned more in 30 minutes watching my swing on video than I'd learned the past 4 years trying to "feel" the right thing to do.

When I was living back in Kansas I used to play with some really good golfers. Two of them were former college golfers, one was the superintendent of the course, and one had been working at the course (and on his game) for upwards of 30 years. Needless to say they could play. Whenever I'd ask them for tips on my game they'd always tell me "you aren't getting your body into it. You're all arms." I kind of understood what they said, but not really. I couldn't really "get" what that meant. So I kept on trekking through golf season after golf season trying to get better but not really getting there.

The GolfTec golf swing analysis (and the pro that was there) opened my eyes in ten minutes to what my problems were. That's not saying that I can fix them right away, but I definitely have a better understanding of where my flaws are and how to fix them.

The golf swing analysis is pretty straight forward. You get a six iron (for me it was the new Taylormade Tour Preferred MB six iron, a fabulous club) and start hitting balls in the indoor range they have set up. Once you're warm, you put on this belt and this shoulder strap thing that have sensors in it. They take a base measure with you just standing there and then you just start hitting balls. Two cameras, one facing ahead and one from the side (facing out toward where you are hitting the ball) record all the action and generate a bunch of statistics.

After you hit a few you go look at the results and see where you are messing up. The great thing about it is they measure you off the averages for the pros. Things like hip turn, shoulder turn, club head speed, hip flex (through the ball) and smash factor. Once you see where your flaws are you get up and try to tweak it a little to help your weak spots.

Like I said, for me the weakness was through the ball. If you know what "casting" is and can picture it (think of casting a fishing rod) that's what I do big time. As I'm coming down to the ball I unhinge my wrists too early, preventing my legs or shoulders from generating any power in the golf swing. The result is that I hit the ball fairly consistent but am prone to chunking it and hitting weak fades. The key to fixing it is to get my hips out in front, hold the wrist cock as long as possible, and allow my shoulders to move the club through the ball instead of my hands. Think baseball player. Watch them in slow motion and you'll see that the bat is really on their hip almost the whole way through the swing.

For golfers, this actions occurs in much the same way. And oh yeah, one more thing, the golf pro picks out a couple of golfers with your frame or mechanics to show you what he means. In the videos of the pros (I think Els and Appleby were mine) you can see that the wrist cock lasts until their hands are literally over the ball. Once their hands get there they start moving through the ball with their shoulders, which pushes their hands over the ball. It's really a fascinating thing to watch.

At the end of the session they print out a picture of you next to the pro showing your biggest swing flaw and how to do it right. We asked, and they gave us a couple of drills to do to work on our weaknesses. It was really a fantastic experience.

Now it's time to hit the driving range and work on those problem areas. I've got a feeling it's going to totally jack up my swing for a time, but if I can figure it out, it's going to make a huge difference in consistency and distance, both of which I like.

And just to let you know, the drill the guy recommended is just to take half swings, get your wrists cocked, and then practice getting through the ball with your shoulders and hips instead of your hands. He admitted its going to be ugly at first but that I should get the hang of it.

Finally, I'm going to leave you with this. At the conclusion of our session the pro looked at the three of us and basically said this: "you've got a decision to make about how good you want to be. If you are content with shooting in the 70s but not hitting it far or as good as you could (my brother-in-law) fine. If you are okay with just getting a little bit better over time, fine. But if you want to get really good, you've got to make a commitment and change some things up."

I'm more of a commitment guy than a coast guy. So I'm going to go for it.

What's your biggest swing flaw? Ever try out a swing analysis center to see what is going on? What were the results? Are you working to get better?