Artifical Intellegence is a fascinating subject, and one that's quickly seeping into industries all over the planet.
Including the golf industry.
It's still early in the process — there'll be plenty more breakthroughs to come — but there's already lots of progress being made, and it's a topic we tackle in a little more detail in this week's special AI-themed episode of the Golf IQ podcast, which you can listen to below.
As Jeehae Lee, the CEO of Sportsbox AI and the guest on the podcast explains, one of the key ways AI is helping players and coaches helping them quickly measure and identify, issues within the golf swing.
To show you how, and why AI can be a force for good in your game (and what you can learn from it), I put my own swing under the microscope using Sportsbox AI.
1. Moving off the ball is good (to a point)
Most golfers have heard, by this point, that getting to your trail side is important. That's where the power is. But they often overlook that the weight shift happens a lot earlier that most golfers thing.
Most pros max out their weight shift by the time the club gets to parrell to the ground on the takeaway. At that point, golfers begin shifting back to their left side through a process coaches call re-centering.
It's hard for the naked eye to pick up on, but Sportsbox' AI can clock this via its "pelvis sway" metric." Most shift a couple of inches off the ball by this point, before moving back.
2. Getting to your left side is sneaky difficult
And it's because of that recentering, pros get really far into their left side on the downswing. Using Rory again as an example, an AI-generated model of his swing measured him as going from...
- Two inches away from the target on the takeaway.
- Back to zero—or center—at the top of the backswing.
- And then five inches towards the target at impact.
I found I really struggled making this big a shift, which I probably wouldn't have realized without AI's help.
3. Don't let your rotation stall
One thing the AI picked up on pretty instantly was that my body rotation stalls through the ball. Notice how my "chest turn" in the position below is displayed in yellow, which means below average.
I realized that's because I tend to get my arms stuck behind me on the downswing, and swing too far from in-to-out. My rotation stalls because my arms need to catch up, which causes my frustration and the occasional big block or hook. It does provide a good thought thought: Keep the chest moving!
Anyway, all interesting insights with the help of an AI. Once again, you can watch (or listen) to the full episode on AI below...