The golf kinematic sequence

This past weekend I learned a lot about the golfers body, swing mechanics and how the impact zone affects ball flight. I spent three days in Seattle attending a two-day Titleist TPI seminar and a TrackMan University class and had my mind expanded in a lot of ways. Both of these classes are on the cutting edge of golf thought and are very worthy of attendance if ever in your area.

Sitting here trying to figure out how to craft a blog about the entire trip is a bit daunting. It’s like trying to sum up all of the original Star Wars movies in a paragraph. You can do it, but it does a grave injustice to the body of work.

Where does one start when they just returned from 8 hours of intensive TrackMan data analysis and covering a 225 page Titleist fitness manual? I thought about this for a long time and decided that the kinematic sequence was an appropriate starting point. After all, perfecting that is one of the biggest differences between me, you* and Ernie Els. *(ok, well, I know you read this Tiger and Kuchar, and when I say “you” I am not directly referring to you guys in particular, rather the non-touring pros out there like myself.)

So today we break the ice a bit and talk about the kinematic sequence. What is the kinematic sequence? I am sure there are a lot of ways to describe and define this concept, but how I see it the kinematic sequence is the flow of power throughout the swing from the backswing to transition to follow through. It is the order in which you fire your body. For a visual, check out this graph:

AMMkinematicsequencegraphb

The colors at the bottom are the knowledge nuggets. Your body is separated into different parts in any type of swinging, throwing, kicking or punching movement and how you time the release of these is crucial to how you deliver the blow.

I am about 99 percent certain that this is a graph of Ernie Els swing. You can see that it’s nearly perfect in transition and the applied force. Whoever this is can truly optimize their contact.

The swing starts with the backswing at the 0 point on the chart. When you take the club back the numbers cross below the line into the negative zone as you wind up your body like a spring. Then, at the transition point, or top of the swing all movement comes to a stop and the downswing is on the verge of happening. If you were able to zoom in at that point you can see that all body parts don’t necessarily start moving at the exact same time. A lot of golfers differ at this point, but one general finding is that the better golfers start in this order: Pelvis, Thorax, Arm and then club. The timing can be slightly different and there are a few who start all together, but in general that order builds the most efficient power.

From that point, the next important aspect is stopping. Apparently, the faster you can stop moving correlates with the faster you can move in the first place. If you look at this chart, the pelvis shot out of the gate first and came to a peak of energy first as well as slowed down the quickest. The same is true with the other body parts, having the club reach maximum speed last and slow down a hair after everything else. The entire downswing happens in less than a second, so these time differences are very minute.

I find it important to understand this concept. It is not something that you can literally think about during the swing as these cues happen in milliseconds, but the more you know the more you can work on and the better you can get. That thought was why I attended these conferences in the first place: a hunger for improving is being fed by knowledge of the body and game.

It all boils down to mechanics. Your body is a coil and when wound up you don’t want to let the whole thing come undone by springing your hands or arms first, you want to keep that potential energy stored as long as possible to really whip that club head through the ball.

I better understood how to use this information while out on the course yesterday. After hitting an askew tee shot I thought about how I was winding up and releasing my energy and realized that I wasn’t coiled around my spine and when I went to swing the energy from my pelvis wasn’t translating in my shoulders/arms correctly and that was causing the club to push out away from my body. It was a text book example of inefficiency. After that moment I didn’t do it correctly every time, but when I coiled and unleashed well I was striking the ball much better. The force applied to the ball was increasing and in turn so were my distances with tee shots.

The next step to this is understanding how delivering the club to the ball influences ball flight and directionality, but that will have to wait until another day as I need to do a bit more homework myself before reporting on the TrackMan class. Lots of fun stuff to come!

This blog brought to you by Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, for without this work kickstarting the modern period of mechanics none of this would be possible.

8 Responses to "The golf kinematic sequence"

Narmno says:

May 25, 2013 at 12:58 pm

Rory’s hips rotate backwards at a fairly high rotational velocity right before impact.
Richard Chen says:

May 26, 2013 at 8:43 am

The Setup is one of the most significant parts of the swing, as the Setup can solve and improve many aspects of the swing like accuracy, and distance when perfected. The Setup includes the grip, the positions of the feet, stance, stance distance from the ball, ball position, positions of the arms and shoulders, position of the hands, position of the top end of the club, head position, balance, alignment, and aiming. While the Setup is basically static, it can incorporate some optional slight movements like waggling, and slight rocking of parts of the body during Setup. Because the setup is basically static, it is easier to make improvements to the setup to gain improvements in the swing.

The importance of the setup phase of the swing is that it can significantly influence the characteristic of the subsequent backswing and downswing phases of the swing in terms of accuracy, as well as power and distance.

Many beginning, and even more experienced average golfers have very different looking setups than the top pros. If their setups look more like the top pros, their accuracy and power can make quick improvements. Big improvements can happen in minutes by improving setups, when the setups are very poor. Because the setup is basically static, it is easier to see setup problems, and it is easier to make improvements that are static during the setup.

The setup effects the dynamics of the swing. Many golfers stick their arms too far out during setup in instinctive attempts to create bigger swing arcs in order to try to get more clubhead speed and distance. Some beginners also stick their arms way out to form a more straight line between the arms and the club shaft, so as to make it easier to make contact with the ball. Since most golfers do not study the physics law of the conservation of angular momentum, they do not realize that sticking their arms out away from their bodies during setup and during the downswing tends to slow their downswings, as arms sticking too far out from the body create more rotational inertia that slows down the downswing, resulting in lost of distance.

Forming too straight a line between the arms, and the club shaft during setup also tends to decrease clubhead speed generation from leading arm rotating to square during the final release phase of the downswing just before impact. This can be seen by considering how the wheel and axle of cars, and of bicycles are designed. The axle and wheel are set perpendicular with an angle of 90 degrees. For example, the axle and one spoke of the bicycle wheel form a right angle. When the axle rotates, the tip of the spoke at the rim of the bicycle wheel moves a great distance. Now imagine pulling the tip of the bicycle spoke from the rim, and bend the spoke so that it is in line with the wheel axle. When the axle is turned, the tip of the straightened out spoke does not move, other than just rotating in place with the axle. Thus, forming too straight a line between the arms and driver club during setup tends to decrease clubhead speed generation from leading arm rotation during the final release phase of the driver downswing.

Aiming toward the target and alignment are part of the setup. Various visualization methods can be utilized to increase accuracy by improve aiming and alignment. Unlike baseball pitchers who can keep their eyes on the catcher mitts as aiming targets during the pitch, golfers have to keep their eyes on the ball rather than the ultimate target where the ball is to go. Various target visualization methods can be used during setup and the swing to better the aim and alignment.

A good setup increases accuracy as well as distance.
Charlie says:

May 26, 2013 at 10:14 am

Richard,

For what it’s worth, I think your use of Dan’s site to promote your thoughts on the golf swing is inconsiderate. I hope you are grateful that he has shown great respect and restraint towards your postings.

As an avid supporter of Dan, I wish that you would show him comparable respect by not attempting to leverage his popularity for your own benefit. If Dan’s current post concerned the set-up of the swing, your thoughts might be pertinent. Instead, they appear to be both self-centered and self-serving.

Have you considered the possibility that your repeated postings may actually alienate readers of Dan’s site?

I apologize to Dan for posting a comment unrelated to kinematics of the swing, but this time I feel it is appropriate.
Richard Chen says:

May 26, 2013 at 11:51 am

It may not clear enough in my last post, that kinematics and dynamics of the downswing can be influenced by the setup for good and for bad. For example, clubhead speed, and ball distance are not solely dependent on downswing kinematics alone, as when the setup stance is too far from the ball, the arms will swing too far out from the body, and this will waste power during the downswing to swing the outstretched arms. Connection of the leading arm will also be decreased if the arms are set too far away from the body. Good kinematics cannot defy the laws of physics to fully make up for any inefficiencies created during setup.

Visualization to increase aiming and accuracy of direction during setup adds to those contributed by good kinematics during the downswing. For example, good kinematic sequencing during the downswing helps to greatly prevent coming over the top to result in slicing, but both Nicklaus and Nelson talk about visualization of targeting points in front of the ball during setup to further increase accuracy of direction. Good kinematics will increase accuracy, but it cannot be considered to be the whole thing.

In another words, the benefits of good kinematics can be maximized when the setups are good, while the benefits of good kinematics can be decreased by poor setups. Will not good kinematics during the downswing preceded by good setups produce better accuracy and distance than those by good kinematics preceded by only poor setups?
melissa and kenny says:

May 26, 2013 at 11:53 am

i usually just dont read them maybe others do the same
imran says:

June 2, 2013 at 6:57 pm

I have learnt many things about golf . Thanks
Imran says:

June 2, 2013 at 6:59 pm

I have learnt many things about golf. Thank you very much.
Clay Ballard says:

June 17, 2013 at 6:52 pm

How did your acceleration profile look? Do you have an impact bag? There are some great drills you can do to help you decelerate with the bag. I had a student pick up 20 yards the other day in a few minutes working on deceleration with the bag. If you would like, I would be more than happy to show you a few of the drills. Always happy to help out with the Dan Plan!! Good luck this week!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply