New Stats straight from the first TrackMan session

The TrackMan is finally up and running and it’s better than I had even imagined.

From my first session out there proved enlightening to both what I am currently doing as well as what I need to be working on. This tool adds to awareness and knowledge and is right at home with the tenants of Deliberate Practice (requiring expert feedback). It is perfect for improving the swing.

So far I have not had a chance to do a Combine, but did run through all of my clubs hitting each five times to get a general state of my swing. I have attached the PDF that breaks down each swing as well as charts the averages here:

Dan Plan 2012-12-14 Multi Group Report

Also, this is an image of the averages and below that is a similar chart for the PGA Tour averages:

There is a lot to work on, but now I know more about exactly what I need to work on. Swing speed is one aspect, as well as angle of attack and launch angle. Lots of juicy data here to start playing around with.

Now that I have the system up and running and found a nice covered spot at Trails End Driving Range (Going to avoid the rain and wait until a dry season to use it on Columbia Edgewater’s awesome grass range) my plan with TrackMan is to do a combine at least a couple of times a week as well as run through all of my clubs five times each for averages once every two weeks.

Trails End:

I think that this provides a better understanding to anyone interested in following about where my current swing stands. There is only so much that we can garner through the handicap system and this data has much more precise information in it as far as specifics go. I can now work on specific swing aspects and then see if they are actually producing results and how many hours of practice are needed to make a real change. This is awesome.

Heading to CECC now to work on some weaknesses I see in this data. Tomorrow I will do my first TrackMan Combine and will be posting the score on the landing page of thedanplan.com Also, I will post an updated spreadsheet of the TrackMan data twice a month of the stats page of this site: http://thedanplan.com/stats.php

Thoughts on this initial data?

16 Responses to "New Stats straight from the first TrackMan session"

Blake says:

December 15, 2012 at 11:55 am

Hi Dan,

All sounds great, but what’s the status on your vids? I really enjoyed watching those.
KzooMatt says:

December 15, 2012 at 12:21 pm

Seems like useful data. Also seems like a potential to fall into optimizing the wrong thing. Does improving TrackMan scores correlate to improved golf scores? Any concern that focusing on all of the range work won’t translate into on course results?
Tom says:

December 15, 2012 at 2:02 pm

Hi Dan,

Looks like you have a nice baseline to work from. Keep up the good work!
Elias says:

December 15, 2012 at 2:25 pm

Nice to see some hard data Keep up the good work and your stats will improve for sure!
batman1234 says:

December 15, 2012 at 3:09 pm

Ditch the 3h for a 2h?
Scott says:

December 15, 2012 at 4:19 pm

I know it was only 5 swings, so a bad swing or two can mess up the averages, but it looks like you have some gap issues from 6 iron – 3 wood.

It would also be interesting to see what the bottom 25% or so of the PGA Tour has for swing speed, as it would indicate the minimum needed to potentially be competitive.
Richard says:

December 15, 2012 at 4:49 pm

Looks like a good place to start. There are definitely some gap issues to work out – whether it be a change in swing or a change in club. It also looks like you could stand to hit up on the ball a bit more with your driver. I’m sure your coach will go over (or maybe has gone over) these issues with you. Definitely looks good as far as swing speed and spin rate goes.
Joachim says:

December 15, 2012 at 8:39 pm

Great baseline… but not so sure if you should emphasize on doing combines a couple of times every week. Better stick to a long term plan with the coach and use the Trackman as confirming milestones.

If you want to compare with the PGA Tour averages – good point by Scott to get the data from the lower part of the PGA and not the upper!

Though I do know its tons of statistics in the plan, and the Trackman fits perfectly into the project, then again you want to be golf player on the course with imagination and creativity, not a driving range robot?

Hence, one does not exclude the other… and for sure during winter season it is better to do the repetitions and grind a good swing. Especially related to the swingspeed (core-training!??)

Keep it up…

*might even head down to the range and do a combine and compare with your data during the stretch!*
Alan says:

December 15, 2012 at 9:08 pm

Dan, well impressed with your club head speed on the driver. I’m a 0 to 3 depending on the time of the year and my driver is only 97. Seems like your power is close. Keep your eye on the dispersion and that short game.
Very interesting stuff!!
dan says:

December 15, 2012 at 9:18 pm

Thanks Alan. Power-wise it’s getting a bit closer. Still have some growth to do, but it is a few hairs higher than last year which is good.

If I make it to Atlanta this Jan/Feb we shall have to tee it up.

How’s the game coming along this winter?
Chris says:

December 16, 2012 at 1:04 am

Hey Dan,

Great progress, just don´t fall into the trap of getting too technical and chasing the perfect swing. There is none. It´s about more than hitting a couple of lines on a video screen. It´s about hitting golf shots. The better you get as a player the less you should work on technique and the less you should use trackman. You need to hit golf shots. Don´t practice off mats. Hit off grass and ideally you want to have the ability to practice from tight lies, rough, uphill lies etc… Visualize holes on the range and then hit high draws, low fades and so on. That´s much more effective than repeating one motion over and over again. It´s ineffective because science has proven no two motions are ever exactly the same. You should completely stop working on technique if you can compress the ball, have enough power to play the course and have a predictable shot shape. Every swing changes you make after that will be cosmetic.
Toby says:

December 16, 2012 at 1:17 am

I have to agree with Blake. The videos were the most entertaining part of TDP. Please bring them back.

Toby
Charlie says:

December 16, 2012 at 5:09 am

1) I hope you’ll do a session with 10-20 swings per club, to smooth out the data.
2) Does TrackMan accumulate data so you wouldn’t need to do item 1) ?
3) Does TrackMan have the capacity to display the median rather than the mean? If you’re making only 5 swings, as you pointed out, the outliers can exert too great an influence on the data.
4) Does TrackMan show sidespin or curve? So can you tell whether your fade or draw is consistent from club to club?
5) What does your coach say about the data?
6) To me, the most interesting thing on the entire page is the fact that the max heights of the pro’s clubs are so similar. Regardless of club, the top of the trajectory is just about 90 feet.
dan says:

December 16, 2012 at 11:54 am

Charlie,

1. I definitely will and do swing more than five. I did five as a run through for K Anders Ericsson so he can get an idea of my current status and then will do a similar run through every two weeks for them to track progress.
2. It does accumulate data.
3. Not sure, I’ll look into that.
4. It does. I didn’t have it in this report, but in the big spreadsheet you get sidespin and a ton of other stats.
5. My coach is looking over this weekend and then we will chat about what the next steps are.
Thanks!!
thedanplan says:

December 19, 2012 at 12:23 am

I’d love to post more videos, but those are on hiatus for a while until there is a budget for them. I wish I had more to offer, but that’s basically where it is at right now. I hope to have some new ones in the new year and think that it will be doable. Glad you liked them. Thanks!
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