Tag: golf

Biomechanist Jean Jacques Rivet Joins aboutGolf

If you want to improve your performance in any sport, you go to the expert to help you what you’re doing wrong and how to correct it. For golf this means working on swing optimization, and this week aboutGolf announced that Jean Jacques Rivet has joined their team as a new partner.

Rivet is a renowned sportsman, as well as a professional engineer, who has worked on the advancement of biomechanics and body motion. His company, BiomecaSwing has worked with golfers to attain a new level of game performance by applying a proven scientific approach. Rivet will serve as a consultant to aboutGolf in its ongoing product development, including its performance products such as the aG Balance, aG Flix and future TechCentric suite of products. Continue reading Biomechanist Jean Jacques Rivet Joins aboutGolf

Miura Looks to Make Grind Permanent and Iron Things Out

In ancient to medieval times Japan was famous for the craftsmanship that went into making its famous “samurai swords” and this level of skill and craftsmanship is alive and well today, but for those hitting the greens not to do battle but to play a round of golf.

After receiving rave reviews for its Yoshitaka Grind wedges and C-Grind wedges and positive response during a soft launch of the products last year, Japanese golf-club maker Miura Golf will make these part of its Series 1957 special edition product line. The two new wedges models will join four iron models. The Yoshitaka is the result of its namesake, master craftsman Yoshitaka Miura. He trained under this father, and company founder Katsuhiro Miura at the family’s forging facility in Himeji, Japan.

The new mild-steel wedges are crafted through the company’s famous Precision Forging Finish process that ensures the clubs are consistent in terms of impact and feel. The Yoshitaka (also known as the Y-Grind) wedge will be available in lofts of 49, 51 and 53, while a 60-degree model will eventually be offered. The wedges, which only be available for right-handed, will feature W nickel (satin) chrome/black finish and will come with a stiff-flex steel shaft and Velvet Full Cord grip. The “Y” on the wedge’s sole not only represents Yoshitaka’s mark – much the way the sword makers of old would sign a blade – but it also signifies the special and limited production of the wedge. Continue reading Miura Looks to Make Grind Permanent and Iron Things Out

Vibrant Colors Gets the Shaft

The technology of golf club design has evolved greatly since the first Scotsman took to the greens, but while the course regularly changes color with the seasons, the same can’t be said about those clubs, which pretty much all look alike. This is especially true ever since the advent of metal shafts, where you’ve been able to get your choice of chrome or plain metallic finishes. Those looking for a particular flare might as well find themselves in the bunker or water hazard, because about the only customizable aspect of clubs has been to put new grips.

But Vibrant Golf’s line of VibraCoat technology could very well change the traditional steel shaft by offering seemingly endless color combinations and finishes. The company offers opaque, gloss, flat, metallic and translucent finishes, all built around a durable polymer coating that will look good, but just as important will also protect the steel shaft from harsh weather conditions. Players can thus admire their stylish looking clubs while out on the fairway, and know that the metal is also well protected from the elements.

The clubs with VibraCoat are permitted under the rules of golf, while the addition of the coating has virtually no effect on the weight or swing. According to the company it can be applied to any steel shaft regardless of taper or stepping. The best part is that you know even if you can’t always get into the swing of things, your clubs will good trying.

Vibrant Golf Official Site

Zoom Boom Golf Club Swings Into Action

Inventor and self-professed “golf nut” Lance McWilliams is looking to change the game. He’s in the swing of things with a newly launched training aid, the Zoom Boom. The 44-year-old Fort Worth native had already gone from average golfer to the creator of the 15 Minute Golf instructional system, and now he’s looking to truly revolutionize the way golfers make their swings. To this end he actually studied not just the way the game is played but also the players too, and found that it might not be the golf clubs that are what is at question, but rather the way they’re used that really needed to change.

In an article for The Fort Worth Business Press, McWilliams explains, “I studied all the greats and then I’d go the driving range and study the not-so-greats. I tried to figure out what makes this golfer different from that golfer.” It was seeing the so-called “not-so-greats” that was the epiphany for the erstwhile marketer turned designer. He saw that many golfers failed to stay on plane and finish their swing in a balanced position. Continue reading Zoom Boom Golf Club Swings Into Action

Hit 18 Holes Without Actually Going Outside

With the aboutGolf simulator you won't have to search for lost balls in the woods

People pay good money to join a golf club, and even more money to travel to some of the world’s most scenic courses – but despite this fact there are times when you just can’t get outside for a round of golf. One way to avoid the weather and still get in a full 18 holes is to take advantage of the latest indoor golf simulator technology. And we’re not talking about a simple putting green in the corner or even golf on the Nintendo Wii, because while the video game experience is good, it isn’t quite like the real deal. For that you’ll have to turn to companies such as aboutGolf, which recently announced that it was the “secret weapon” in Canada’s University of Waterloo recent season.

The technology was utilized by the University of Waterloo’s engineering school, which took it to a new level with UW golf equipment and biomechanics researchers. This included studies of the technology, where engineering students used the aboutGolf PGA TOUR Simulator with new shaft and clubhead deisgns, as well as biomechanic modeling, motion capture, and golf ball simulation and optimization. This collaboration allowed UW’s men’s and women’s golf teams as part of their training for the 2010 season. Continue reading Hit 18 Holes Without Actually Going Outside

The Perfect Swing Through Motion-Sensing

If you’re looking to get the perfect swing you can spend more time on the driving range, video tape yourself to watch your form and get a golf pro to help you. Or you can fly over to Las Vegas or Dubai and hit the Butch Harmon School of Golf, where this golf expert is using technology from the Titleist Performance Institute.

The heart of this technology is TPI 3D, technology that has been long used in the video game industry and for movie animation. Now its being strapped onto golfers, where it can be used to study the biomechanics of a golf swing, and instead of just having the couch eyeball you, or going to a video tape, every intricate detail of a golf swing can be quickly examined and studied.

So while it might not turn you into a Tiger Woods (which given his “problems” is probably a good thing), but this technology might help you out on the course.

Via The National

The Butch Harmon School of Golf, Las Vegas
The Butch Harmon School of Golf, Dubai

Titleist Performance Institute: TPI 3D

Video Enhancing Tiger’s Strokes

SportsMEDIA Technology Corporation, the company that draws the virtual yellow line on the football field in TV broadcasts of games, just made it to the green with a multi-year deal with the Golf Channel to enhance broadcasts of its PGA Tour and LPGA tour coverage. This mean when a pro-golfer lines up his shot, the SMART Virtual Putting Line will draw a line to show the optimum putting line. It will use AimPoint’s positioning data system to measure the slope and grain of the putting surface to rate the difficulty. The optimum putting line will show where the ball must travel to make a successful putt.

See the action this week on the Golf Channel’s broadcast of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. You can decide whether the addition enhances the broadcast when the Golf Channel puts it on the line with SportsMedia Technology.