As the age of video for golf instruction comes to a close, it’s an exciting time to be a golf instructor. While video will always have its place and time during a golf lesson, the new technology takes all the guesswork out of what is happening during the golf swing.

For years, instructors taught by either watching a golf swing on video, or watching a student’s patterns of golf shots. Many of us taught by studying the ball-flight tendencies produced by the golfer, and worked to make the necessary changes to improve them. Other teachers would build a player’s golf swing by modeling it after a Tour-caliber player on video or in pictures.

Obviously, a lot of success was had doing it both ways. The Tour players in the old days didn’t have the benefit of video, so they worked on their ball flights and the swing theories of their time. When hi-speed cameras came along, it was easy to break down swings frame by frame and try to copy what top players did. The problem for a lot of players was that they didn’t know what they were seeing, and what was causing it, and they would hit inconsistent and frustrating shots. Now, with the advances in technology, numbers and fixes are at our fingertips immediately.

Through the years, we’ve seen “beautiful” swings like Snead, Hogan, Woods, and Scott. We’ve also seen swings that we would never try to teach or copy, like Furyk, Trevino, and Daly. The latter players worked on “functional” swings that produced repeatable shots. They were fortunate to find the combination of swing components that affected their ball flight without a “perfect” swing.

I see players standing on the range, recording their swings and studying them intently, and I wonder sometimes what they are looking for. It’s usually a point in the backswing, or at the top of their swing, or at some point in the downswing. Very rarely is it at the moment of impact. They can’t measure impact on their phone. Successful impact is a combination of a lot of things. For a great shot, the combination of things that have to go into it include, none of which are visible on video:

Swing path
Clubface Angle
Sweet Spot Impact
Angle of Attack
Swing Speed
Ball Speed
Dynamic Loft
Spin Loft

The old saying “the camera never lies” isn’t true in golf. What is visible in video are certain body movements and certain club positions. The true components for a golf club working properly are measurable in the TrackMan and FlightScope monitor, which I use. Why would you guess, when we can measure it to the degree?

For more information, I suggest you watch James Leitz’s “Video vs. Radar” on the Trackman website by clicking the link below.

James Leitz – Video vs. Radar