Changes in Club Head Trajectory and Planarity Throughout the Golf Swing

Morrison, Andrew; McGrath, Denise; Wallace, Eric

Abstract

This paper investigates the planarity and changes in club head trajectory throughout the golf swing. Four male, highly skilled golfers were captured hitting 40 shots using an optical motion capture system. Planes were fitted to four phases of the golf swing for comparison across the 40 shots in each player. While trajectory variability was seen to increase from takeaway to the top of the backswing, it then decreased again leading up to impact. The correlation between the delivery horizontal plane angle and the other planes decreased the further back through the swing the plane was situated. This finding suggests that although changes to the club head trajectory in the early part of the swing may have an effect in delivery to the ball, this effect is stronger the further through the swing the change is made. This paper describes the use of a novel method for quantifying changes in club head trajectory through the golf swing.

Citation

Morrison, A., McGrath, D., & Wallace, E. (2014, July). Changes in Club Head Trajectory and Planarity Throughout the Golf Swing. Presented at The Engineering of Sport 10. Conference of the International Sports Engineering Association 2014, Sheffield, UK

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: The Engineering of Sport 10. Conference of the International Sports Engineering Association 2014
• Start Date: Jul 14, 2014
• End Date: Jul 17, 2014
• Acceptance Date: Apr 1, 2014
• Online Publication Date: Jun 19, 2014
• Publication Date: 2014
• Deposit Date: Jan 25, 2017
• Journal: Procedia Engineering
• Print ISSN: 1877-7058
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 72
• Pages: 144-149
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2014.06.083
• Keywords: Golf swing; biomechanics; swing plane; variability
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/464333