I’d go the route @CoryO suggests, find a good instructor online to review video of your swing. I think most will be good with just the video, but the pressure soles, when synced with swing video, could provide additional data and lead to better instruction.
I’ve never heard of these. I’d be interested to know what kind of reading you get on really bad shots.
If you don’t have a launch monitor of any kind, I’d recommend that assuming you spend time on the range. It was the number one thing that has helped me in my practice. You don’t need something super expensive if you are on a budget. Getting ball speed, clubhead speed, and carry distance (along with a notepad) can be really helpful.
1 Like
Obviously you should use them to train yourself in aimpoint! Figure out your usual stance, then stand on angles and see where your pressure moves…
There seems to be a ton of interesting data on where your weight should be in the swing, but I’m not anywhere close to competent enough to offer advice.
2 Likes
I actually own these - I was beta tester for the company.
I love them and the data they produce. However, there’s very little use for it.
When instructors started getting this pressure information, I watched as they made the same mistakes as they have done in all other areas - shooting for pretty, symmetry etc. Many instructors defaulted (and some still do) to trying to create a linear trace, which was actually detrimental.
When you look at the top pros, their traces can be messy as hell, but in a functional way - messy is not always bad, and pretty is not always good.
There are some commonalities though - in top pros,
- the pressure will shift into the back foot as they swing back,
- There will be a drop in. lead foot pressure before they reach the top of the swing - as they are transferring their mass towards the target. YES, they are transferring MASS forwards, but pressure moves BACK during this phase
- the pressure in the lead foot will tend to peak by around lead arm parallel in the downswing, or slightly after.
- It also tend to transition into the lead ball of the foot (this helps with rotation and dynamic balance).
Apart from that, most bets are off.
I’d start with gaining an understanding of the difference between mass, pressure and center of pressure. Luckily, I wrote an article for that a few years ago - https://www.adamyounggolf.com/golf-and-cop-what-is-it/
6 Likes
Great info, thx for chiming in!
1 Like
Deeply grateful for the information.
I’m nearly certain I had read or watched something from you already on the danger of looking for a “pretty” line with the pressure trace, so (happily) I had already be disabused of that idea.
I think the main thing that I’m looking for (like with a lot of tech) is the ability to tie “feels” to “measurables.” So right, now, I think I do a pretty good job getting my pressure to my lead foot at the right time. But there’s a (much greater than zero) chance that I’m wrong about that. Having a device that beeps when you get the pressure to 70% on the front foot (or whatever benchmark you want to set) is a way for me to say, “Oh, that’s what that’s supposed to feel like!”
I’m not expecting this to revolutionize my swing, but I love learning.
3 Likes
You’ll find some use. I didn’t want to make it seem as if there is no value - it’s just a small piece of a much bigger picture. You might end up chasing something in the trace that could make you worse, if it doesn’t fit in with the other match ups you have
1 Like
Same. I’m pretty shifty in my swing, so I feel like anything that told me I’m doing it “wrong” would totally mess me up.
1 Like
I’ve been thinking about this one quite a bit.
My tendency is for my weight to get hard into the heel of my lead foot, so that my toes spin out as I complete my swing. If I were to highlight current examples of footwork: mine would be more Bryson (footwork only, not length), rather than like JT or Bubba (jumping off their toes).
So Adam (or anyone else who knows): what do these different pressure patterns tend to produce?
It’s not a bad thing. The pressure shifts in transition towards the ball of the foot in most, but then goes quickly towards the heel, so it’s ok for the toes to spin out a bit.
So many ways of doing it, not one is necessarily right.
1 Like
Nope, definitely not thinking about one being right and then other wrong. I’m asking about tendencies/matchups: are there any swing tendencies that would typically accompany either of these
different pressure patterns?
OK, so I’ve had a little chance to play with the pressure-sensing insoles. My initial impressions of the insoles themselves is positive. Unlike others that I have read, I’ve had zero connection issues (using a Galaxy Note 10 Lite). The live feed of the pressure seems very accurate as I stand there moving around, seeing how the pressure mapping changes on screen.
I’ve also learned that I have a lot of room for improvement in my pressure shift:
This, I think, is among the cooler features of the software: it easily allows you to annotate and share a video of your swing with the pressure data. For those who use online/remote coaching, this seems like a huge plus.
3 Likes
That is pretty nifty. I guess it’s just one more tool to help put things into visual quantitative data to help work on something during practice.
1 Like
that’s pretty interesting - I know I’ve had some swaying issues in the past where I’d get stuck on my trail side in my swing. My “internal” fix seemed to be to feel like I was keeping my weight on my lead foot throughout the swing, when in reality I know there was no way that was actually happening. I wonder what you’d see if you experimented with the same feeling.
disclosure: I know nothing about pressure data!
2 Likes
Yeah, I’m definitely going to start experimenting. What I’m interested in right now is this question: is the pressure data improved by working on pressure data or as a side effect of working on something else? For instance, if I work on SuperSpeed (especially the step swings), it seems that that feel should help carry over into my normal swing. Or if I work with the PlaneMate on a better pivot move, that that would help as well.
It’ll be interesting to me to see (for me) which approach produces the more promising results.
1 Like
I admire your enduring desire to be a guinea pig. Share your results on here and see what happens!
1 Like
In all honesty: I want to get better at golf. But I might want to understand golf even more than I want to get better. I’ll leave the “actually being good at golf” to my son.
3 Likes
Cool video! Interesting to see the movement between the feet. Just my mostly uninformed opinion, I don’t think you ever want to get 100% on your back foot like you had there, makes it hard to transition enough weight forward.
1 Like
So I think I’ve learned something, but I’d love some feedback from others on this.
I’ve been working on the feel of shifting my weight to my front foot. What I’ve found is this: it is orders of magnitude easier to shift to my lead foot with a slightly closed stance. It is somewhat harder to do with a square stance, and (for me) nearly impossible to do so while retaining any kind of balance with an open stance.
Can you all test this and see if you find this same thing? I’m not saying you need to have the pressure insoles. And I’m not even talking about a full swing. Take a stance, turn and load into your trail foot, and then try to move your pressure to your lead foot with difference stances. Let me know if you also experience what I’ve described.
2 Likes