BACKGROUND
One night in January 2007, while practicing golf at a local driving range in El Segundo, Art Maffei, then a recently retired senior rocket scientist’, and 41 year Pacific Palisades resident very unexpectedly began a new career as a freshman ‘golf scientist’. After practicing for over an hour, he finally admitted to himself that he was getting worse, not better. It was obviously clear that this self-instruction was only improving the consistency of his ERRORS, but not the consistency and accuracy of his SHOTS. He needed to take golf lessons, not from himself, but from a professional.
Fortunately, just two practice booths to his left a teaching pro was giving a lesson to a student who was hitting the golf ball just the way Art dreamed of hitting it. So, following that lesson, Art asked the pro about the possibility of taking lessons starting the next week. After a short discussion and demonstration by the pro, Art was quite sure his unique approach of a kinesiology-based, body-integrated method had merit. However, he agreed to the proposed lesson package that was offered only with the condition that this unique approach could be proven to have scientific validity, which then became Art’s responsibility in this new, now, joint learning project.
Unfortunately, an initial, but extensive literature search of over 500 documents online didn’t reveal any conventional golf studies that had integrated the internal and external pieces together in any single research publication. However, using similarities of rocket science with golf science, the internet did provide the necessary detailed golf related and medical research documents to allow putting the pieces together in this first-order integrated, analytical effort.
As Art’s family and many friends in Pacific Palisades can certainly attest, during the 4 lessons and several years that followed this new golf scientist/student worked almost 24/7 to better understand the complicated aspects of a totally integrated golf swing. This integrated analysis required that the in-depth knowledge of the body, and how it moves internally be combined with the physics of the external parts, the arms, hands, the golf club, the golf ball and even the forces on the ground.
The only remaining question was, “could rocket science experience really apply to an integrated golf swing analysis?” Fortunately, there were some very significant similarities such as the fact that in both rockets and the golf swing there are multiple stages that must act sequentially, and in the proper order, i.e. the booster or first stage lifts the second stage, which lifts the third stage etc. All this sequential activity increases the velocity of the rocket. Similarly, in golf, the velocity of the golf club head is increased by the sequential actions of the hips, the shoulders, the arms and finally, the hands. Another similarity of rocket and golf science was the critical need to maintain dynamic balance and stability while using incredibly accurate guidance and control systems for all stages of the rocket and during all stages of the golf swing. But, probably the most important and significant similarity for a complete scientific understanding of any integrated system, was the need to systematically include, integrate and analyze all the pieces involved, that is, for golf, the internal and external body elements, the club and even the golf ball.
In summary, over the past several years, the use of rocket-science proven analyses, and the actual performance of Art and many other golfers of varying capabilities, has provided a clear understanding and demonstration of the improved efficiency of this fully integrated process now called BODIGOLF (Body Optimized and Dynamically Integrated Golf). The overall conclusions to date, are that the body, properly set up before the swing, and allowed to perform without any further to-do instructions, will consistently produce efficient, accurate and powerful shots with less trauma to the back, the major source of golf related injuries.
THE HISTORY OF BODIGOLF
In 2007 Art spent majority of his time gathering applicable scientific reports, contacting the authors, forming the preliminary integrated analytical approach and briefing folks from Golf Digest and the golf industry with the initial but very encouraging analytical and experimental test results.
Early in 2008, based on the integrated analyses and scientific approach, the first major independent test was conducted at the Titleist Performance Institute in Oceanside California, an internationally recognized golf test facility used by most of the touring golf professionals. The Kinematic Sequence test utilized at TPI, is now considered the gold standard of the golf industry. It consists of analyzing over 400 parameters measured 240 times per second during the approximate 2 seconds of a single set up and swing. The BODIGOLF performance results met and in some extremely important parameters, exceeded the performance standards established for professional and elite golfers.
To significantly increase the testing activities during 2009, a variety of tests were conducted at Golf Excellence International, a high-tech golf teaching, testing and training company. At that time, GEI recently relocated from facilities in Santa Fe Springs and La Habra to the Manhattan Beach Marriott Golf Course. The BODIGOLF processes were introduced to and studied further by members of several Australian Sports Institutes.
During 2010, BODIGOLF was introduced and further tested at The Golf Academy of America and The National University Golf Academy in Carlsbad, CA. Medical research discussions and tests related to golf injuries, originally conducted at the Centinela Biomechanical Labs, were expanded and conducted at The Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. The first phase of testing which included 11 subjects has been completed. A second phase has been proposed to further study the possible reductions in injury potential from swing style changes.
In 2011, the program was expanded to include testing of PGA professionals using both TrackMan and FlightScope radar launch monitors to better understand the details of the critical swing and launch parameters at the elite level. Positive results were experienced in all cases with unexpected increases in distance of 10%, and decreases in scatter or dispersion of up to 50%.
At the end of 2011 and into 2012, the BODIGOLF scientific principles, analyses and test results were presented to the swing coaches of 4 golfers on the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) Tour for their consideration and assessment of a better scientific understanding and potential use in any future swing changes for their players.
In 2013, BODIGOLF expanded and intensified the exposure of these dynamic balance principles to golf professionals and the manufacturers of golf testing and diagnostic equipment/devices to further capitalize on the rapidly increasing availability and use by golfers worldwide. Also, a presentation and demonstration was made to a group of Southern California PGA Professionals for their comments regarding the potential educational benefits at both the PGA Instructor and student levels.
During 2014, The scientific details of dynamic balance and stability control of just the lower body were expanded, refined and applied to all the rotating elements of the golfer’s body. Testing indicated that better dynamic balance of the upper body, shoulders and arms provided further performance improvements, which were then presented to several PGA teachers and players including Al Geiberger, Mr. 59 who after playing in the Masters Par 3 said, “Tell Art I felt like I did when I shot 59.” To be able to better communicate the characteristics and attributes of this science based approach, a video was also produced where the theme of “what science suggests” was discussed with a recognized Southern California PGA teaching professional.
Early in 2015, a briefing was presented to the Southern California PGA entitled “A Rocket Scientists Discoveries for Golf Improvement and Mastery.” In a subsequent SCPGA Teaching Summit, an opportunity to demonstrate better dynamic stability to a Callaway Long Drive Team Member resulted in improvement in distance and accuracy at exceptionally high club head and ball velocities. For the remainder of 2015, Art increased his efforts to encourage organized golf associations and independent university and commercial laboratories to test better dynamic balance principles and techniques, and the initial efforts necessary to document the BODIGOLF process for formal publication.
Plans for 2017 now include the expansion of the previous efforts to better understand how back injury occurs, and how to reduce injury potential from a better dynamically balanced swing. Emphasis will be focused on the lower back. Testing will include direct interaction with several elite players on the PGA Tour and their support staffs. This resumption of effort is the result of very favorable results on an injured elite golfer, who resumed competition without any pain as a result of a better dynamic balance.
As a result, and based on the positive evidence from these last several years of analytical and test activities, it is becoming very clear that the BODIGOLF scientific approach has significant potential to improve the enjoyment, longevity, and performance of millions of recreational, amateur, and professional golfers, worldwide.
To encourage further research from third parties, the details of these efforts and findings will continue to be discussed and shared with leading golf magazines, professional teachers, academics, biomechanical scientists, and medical test laboratories involved in golf-related research.