Golf whiz invents swing-fix device
Imagine slicing your golf ball into the water and being able to immediately analyze what went wrong with your swing — and correct it — before you tee up again.
That’s the vision of Terry Hashimoto, one of the most successful golfers to come out of Manitoba, who has pioneered the development of a high-tech clip that fits onto the shaft of your clubs — from driver to putter — and captures the trajectory and acceleration of your swing, the flex of the shaft and the openness of the club face, and sends it to your smartphone.
The 10-gram clip contains three accelerometers and three miniature gyroscopes that capture 1,000 images of your swing per second. Using your fingers, you can get a 360-degree view of your drive, chip or putt on your wireless mere seconds later. Colour codes identify where the club head reaches its top speed, which can indicate flaws such as jerking the club back too quickly or trying to hit the ball farther than John Daly ever imagined.
“It’s not about the bad shots, you want to know what you did on your good shots,” Hashimoto said.
The idea, for which Hashimoto has applied for a patent, uses what he calls ICU technology in the lightweight clip and UCiT replay programming on a smartphone.
The technology, which also allows you to compare your most recent swing to previous ones stored on your phone and even to the swings of PGA Tour players, has been put into action by Gord Parke and Adam Tsouras, the chief technical officer and graphic designer of TGH Golf Designs, respectively. Their research has been sponsored by Memphis-based True Temper, the world’s leading manufacturer of golf club shafts.
In addition to helping golfers tweak (or overhaul) their games, Hashimoto said retailers will also be able to use the technology to determine what sorts of clubs are ideal for an individual golfer’s game.
Chad Hall, director of product marketing and global tour operations for True Temper, described it as a “very clever” technology and he’s anxiously awaiting a prototype from Hashimoto so the company can begin to estimate its full potential.
“There’s a high level of excitement on our part right now to drive it toward being a commercial product,” he said.
Hall said it would be “really valuable” in being able to give a shaft recommendation to golfers immediately after they had provided a swing demonstration.
“There’s also an opportunity to be able to walk up to a tour player and say, ‘let’s do this real quick.’ (The information they’d receive) would give them the confidence that they’re playing with the correct shaft or if we made a little tweak, they’d be even more fine-tuned than they are right now,” he said.
Hashimoto said he believes the technology could even be used during tournament play because it has no moving parts but that decision will ultimately be made by the sport’s governing bodies.
“It could definitely be used for TV broadcasts,” he said.
Hashimoto said the technology also has applications in other sports, such as baseball swings and tennis serves, and he’d also like to see it used in researching concussions by putting it in hockey and football helmets to measure the G-force at impact.
Hashimoto said he has been working on the concept on and off for the last 11 years but it’s only recently that wireless devices have been able to handle the amount of data produced.
If you thought golf had gone high-tech when the first Big Bertha driver hit the market, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
TGH Golf Designs has developed a technology that can capture a complete picture of your swing and send it to your smartphone seconds after you’re finished your follow-through. A lightweight clip attaches to your club and its three accelerometers measure the position of the club as you swing and three miniature gyroscopes measure the rotation rate of the club.
e U.S.”
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/columnists/a-lefty-eh-87610887.html
Property Tax Assessments to be Mailed Soon
Air Quality’s One Hour Manitoba
www.glendalegolfs.com
Related Websites - Golf Club Reviews Model - Nike SasQuatch Sumo 460 In 2006, the Nike SasQuatch Sumo won the Golf Digest magazine's Editor's Choice award, providing that it would be difficult for this driver to be improved upon. What made the original Nike SasQuatch Sumo so great is what makes the new Nike SasQuatch Sumo......
- How to Hit a Flop Shot If you have ever come up to short or too long on your approach to the green, it’s time to master the art of the flop shot. This is a shot that eludes many golfers, but once you’ve got it down, you will notice that your overall accuracy improves and......
- Practice Your Shot Golf is absolutely a game of nerves, requiring concentration at all times because each and every stroke is going to require quite a bit of focus and attention if you want to drive the best possible results. If you follow these basic golf tips and tricks you will be able......