Golf Swing Instruction and Golf Club Fitting
For many golfers looking to improve their game, getting professional golf swing instruction appears to be the only option aside from simply practicing and playing more. Indeed getting quality golf swing instruction is definitely an excellent to improve your game, but an aspect that many people aren’t aware of is what is called a golf club fitting. While an investment in golf swing instruction involves making mechanical changes to your swing motion, a golf club fitting ensures that the equipment you are using is suited to the swing you already have. Having the wrong clubs may in fact be a big reason why your shots do what they do and not what you want them to do.
There are many definitions of what constitutes a custom club fitting or a custom fitting-session. Let me see if I can describe it this way.
Let’s say your car is pretty trashed out. At one level, you can hose your car with water and squirt off the worst of the dirt. That’s an improvement. Not great, but better than nothing. At the next level, you can get out the bucket and soap and give the car a good scrubbing. That’s even more of an improvement. Or you can pull out all stops and scrub it, rub it, wax it and detail it inside and out. Now you’re ready for show time. The point here is that each of the above can be described as getting the car washed.
Getting custom fitted for golf clubs is much the same. There are several levels, and all can (and have) been used to describe custom-fit clubs.
Level One: Hitting some shots with provided clubs at a driving range or retail store. This is a trial-and-error `Demo Day` approach not club fitting. You can be fitted with any club you want-as long as it’s one of theirs and they happen to have it in stock.
ZERO: Don’t bother to waste your money or your time. None of the above is considered a custom club fitting.
Level Two: This is `Demo Day` on vitamins. You hit several drivers while an electronic device called a launch monitor analyzes your swing. Assuming the 9$/hour sales person has a clue as to what the launch monitor is telling him, again, you can be fitted with any club you want- as long as it’s one of theirs already sitting on a rack. Another Level Two fitting is grabbing a club or three from a nifty `fitting cart` parked on the range. This is fine for measuring one or two fitting parameters, but not the 20 or so factors that a professional club maker can individually tailor for your swing.
POOR: Better than nothing, but not by much. Hit some shots at a driving range with provided clubs and evaluated for club length and grip size.
Level Three: Now we`re getting into what I consider to be a true custom fitting. It usually starts with you being interviewed concerning your past playing tendencies and desired improvements. You will then be manually measured for club length and electronically measured for swing speed. From this information, the club maker will present you with a variety of shafts, grips and heads that he feels are acceptable. Next, he will build a pilot club that you can test out, and alterations will be made from there. After this test period, needed changes will be noted and the final club built
GOOD: Probably a competent fitting. Electronically measured on a launch monitor, interviewed concerning past tendencies and desired improvements, offered a selection of heads, shafts, and grips – from more than one brand and from more than what was immediately available on site.
Level Four: This level would consist of everything mentioned in Level Three, plus a detailed analysis of your existing set and a careful analysis of the proposed set as it is being built. Attention is paid to matching shaft frequencies or club MOI, swing weights, loft and lie tweaking, grip build-ups, spine aligning, dead weight, balance point and so forth. This process, exclusive of the club building takes about 8 hours or so spread over multiple visits. This is the rubbed-out, waxed, and detailed version of our car wash.
EXCELLENT: You’d have to be a PGA Tour pro to do much better than this. Built a pilot club that could be tested, attention paid to the club composition of the set being built, to length, loft, and lie of the set, to MOI and swing weight of the set and to grip build-ups, spine aligning, dead weight, and balance point. The fitting process was spread out over multiple visits.
Getting some quality golf swing instruction is without question a good investment if you want to improve your golf game, but a professional golf club fitting is something that many golfers don't think about and could be the quickest and easiest way to improve your score.
Level 4 is the level of club fitting that is provided at Precision Golf Performance Center