The relevance of coordination at the golf swing performance of junior players

Abstract

The golf swing is a skill which could be classified as a high velocity hitting where the main goal is that the head of the golf club reaches its maximum velocity at impact time. The aim of this study was to find the movement pattern of the golf swing in order to apply this pattern to improve their performance. Twelve golf swings executed by four young players were biomechanically analyzed. Automatic capture with Vicon Oxford Metrics © was used. The analysis of the maximum angular velocity sequence during the downswing showed, that depending on the gender, they described different timing. The angular velocity sequences had the same order, being first the hip turn, secondly the shoulder turn y finally the golf club head acceleration. It was found discriminant function for each gender group which could predict whether the golf swing was “good” or “bad” considering the club head speed as performance criteria. This separation at the timing of the key events could be the reason why that explains men reached more velocity at the head club near impact time than women. Key Words: Biomechanics, hitting, swing, golf, pattern, performance.