Until today, the one piece of golf technology that we really hadn’t been exposed to at the Golf Academy is the motion-capture system known as K-Vest. Since 2002, the New Hampshire-based company has dominated the world of swing capture, range of motion, and biofeedback to the point that it’s become an industry leader in human motion learning.
There are three learning types: visual (seeing – 65% of the population), auditory (hearing – 20% of the population), and kinesthetic (tactile – 15% of the population), and K-Vest has found a way to incorporate them all, which is why it’s changing the way we human beings learn through motion.
And that brings us to Efren Nava. When he graduated from the Academy in December of 2014, teaching the golf swing using K-Vest was probably the last thing he thought he’d be doing.
But now, Efren and two other GAA grads are running the show over at Greenfield Lakes Golf Club in Gilbert. Efren is a Certified Club Builder, a Master Club Fitter, and now a Certified K-Vest Instructor who graciously offered to demonstrate to our Advanced Teaching class how the system works. It costs the instructor $4,000-5,000 just to get started.
K-Vest has input, analyzed, and tracked the swing data of more than 150 Tour players, and the results have been nothing short of extraordinary! According to that swing data, the best golfers in the world all swing within certain parameters and have commonalities in the way they position of their torso and pelvis. Those parameters, or ranges, make for the most consistent and efficient golf swing.
At its very core, the golf swing is basically three movements: pelvic tilt, side bend, and rotation. To track this data, K-Vest places sensors just above’s the player’s tailbone, one at the middle of the player’s back, and one on the player’s lead hand. The sensors measure address position, the top of the swing, and impact.
K-Vest makes coaching more effective and maximizes performance because it allow a golf instructor like Efren to get a player to swing the club in the most efficient possible manner. When a player reaches the desired swing position, s/he receives visual feedback via the monitory while music simultaneously provides positive reinforcement. That way the player can “feel” the proper position. Biofeedback training programs can be fully customized to match the player’s style and physical ability.
Consistent results and the kinematic sequence make for the most efficient golf swing. The swing starts with the hands before moving to the shoulders and the hips on the backswing before transitioning to the downswing when the body unwinds in reverse. The lower body leads, while the shoulders and finally the hands follow.
K-Vest provides golf-specific biofeedback in the following six categories:
1. Alignment at address – pelvis turn, upper body turn
2. Posture at address – pelvis bend, upper body bend
3. Pelvis position at top – pelvis turn, pelvis side bend
4. Pelvis and upper body turn – pelvis turn, upper body turn
5. Pelvis movement – pelvis bend, pelvis side bend
6. Upper body movement – upper body bend, upper body side bend
According to Efren, we all have our own swings, swing flaws, and compensations. The last thing you want to do is fix a swing compensation with another compensation. K-Vest helps you get to the root of the swing fault – and quickly.
Efren says 80% of all of the golfers he’s seen are too upright on their backswing. If you’re more efficient, you’re going to get better, and when a golfer swings the club in the most efficient way possible, lower scores can’t help but follow.
Compelling reading on this fascinating piece of performance-assistance technology. Although positive results of 150 Tour players is intriguing, the skeptic in me would like to see independent validation data before I get too excited. I’ll dig around.
Besides the informative nature of your blog, Dan, it’s also a great time-saver. As an adjunct professor teaching at various institutions, I rarely get the privilege of sitting in on my colleagues’ classes. Your well-written blog allows me the opportunity to get that inside look at GAA course offerings. I’m hooked — thank you!