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By Dr. Matthew M. Rosman, GSEE
Director, The Golfing Machine Division of Biomechanics and Sports Science
Information goals for this series:
• Providing a foundation for learning of selected key human body structures and regions with the goal of orientation and understanding of the function of these designated structures.
• Defining the technique and performance relationship between the highlighted human body area and its purposeful biomechanical operation in the performance of the golf motion.
• Providing the reader with a Golfing Machine-BIA™ Fusion connection for optimal scholastic and practical education assimilation and application.
In this article series key areas of the human body will be highlighted, explored, and dissected to identify basic function as well as the role played in the choreography of motion for golf activity.
In Part 2, the axial and appendicular skeleton components were identified. In addition, the concept of key skeletal hubs was also introduced. A hub and its designated “anchor” position of reference may be optimally aligned or may be sub-optimal in some manner due to deformity of position resulting from aberrant postural stresses, degenerative degradation, a lack of educated awareness regarding the strategic alignment of that key anchor landmark of that specific hub, and so, on.
Therefore, a golfer’s “normative” biomechanical structurally compensated alignments for everyday activities of daily living might be optimal outside of golf activities but suboptimal for golf participation and performance. For example, a school bus driver or a toll booth employee develop a structural compensation to the biomechanical system that is best adapted to the most dominant and redundant activities of daily living. The various alterations and deformities present in the postural presentation exist to accommodate the conditions and circumstances associated with the employment tasks and environmental circumstances.
This is the dilemma facing both the teaching professional and the golfer either in a lesson relationship or a post lesson practice and entrainment activity. If the golfer’s structural system is in an adaptive biomechanical alignment to optimize functional daily living necessities then how does the golfer develop awareness of the alternate alignment optimization to the biomechanical system required for all golf related activities? And, are there benefits for daily living activities to alignment alterations made to the biomechanical system for golf that can be transferred to a more optimized structural framework for non-golf activities of daily living? How does this relate to hubs?
The answer to the aforementioned questions is an affirmative yes! Often, the infusion of awareness to the spatial relationship of structural presentation and the monitoring of the efficiency of motion for golf participation (with more optimized biomechanical alignments) creates a behavioral transformation that becomes part of every activity of daily living beyond golf. The cause and effect learning curve provided by enhanced freedom of movement and fluidity of a dynamically vibrant biomechanical system through self awareness and active monitoring is an endless self-motivator for the individual.
There are many moving parts in the biomechanical system. Since the golfer under motion functions in a rapid and short period of engagement it becomes necessary to identify key and strategic anchor landmarks that are the foundation for specific chains of action with-in the stroke pattern’s entire pose choreography sequence. Once these anchor landmarks are identified the alignment optimization of that specific hub for performance enhancement can commence. It is the optimization of the alignment of that hub or anchor landmark which is key to the integrity, fluidity, and efficiency of the entire chain from which the specific hub has jurisdiction over.
To repeat, a hub, or anchor landmark is the foundation for function of the entire chain that it has jurisdiction and influence over!
The education and background of the specific golf professional must include a comprehensive understanding of how to apply the constructs of “clinical” biomechanics into the entire lesson portfolio of the golfer. The stream of interaction will then actively engage the golfer into a continuum of partnership with the teaching professional for maximum performance enhancement during the lesson as well as during isolated practice periods in between lessons.
Here is an introductory list of some key anchor landmarks with-in the biomechanical system that requires alignment optimization for golf participation:
• The Feet
• The Pelvic Complex
• The Scapulae
• The Head
What about the hands? The answer is of course that the hands are integral and could be considered as anchor landmarks or a hub about which key operations for golf performance operate. The difference is that while each hand performs vital functions for golf operation the unique hand to hand coupling and combined unification with the golf club is an engineered hub or an assembled hub.
The complexity of the hand to hand relationship and “hands to club” relationship will be the subject of another article series. In addition, the goal of this series and current article is to examine the anatomical anchor landmarks as a vital base of operations for its linkage of influence and cascade of chain of action by which poses are constructed as required for lawful golf participation.
So, the four references above serve very well for educational as well as illustrative purposes with respect to defining anchor landmarks and hubs of operation. As an example, each foot in contact with the base of support provide the mechanism for grounding; the source of the harnessing of the external forces required to exert pressure to ignite the cascade of closed chain function upward and away from the ground by which the pivot mechanism so vital in the golf stroke is conducted. How the feet are connected with the ground serving as the base for the formation of the alignments for golf participation matters a great deal.
Thus, the feet are anchor landmarks or a hub of biomechanical importance because the quality by which the feet are grounded and the health and viability of the structural integrity of each foot will positively or negatively contribute to the vitality, fluidity, and harmony of the chain of action coordination of the lower extremity’s closed chain operation.
To experience the anchor landmark importance of the feet, simply recall your stability when trying to walk on a very slick floor or an icy wintry sidewalk. Recall the difference in stability of the base of support in the fairway in comparison with a rather steep side hill lie. Or, stand (with extreme and great care)* assuming your golf address position with feet flat and make some stroke motions, and then repeat while lifting either your right foot or left foot off the ground standing on one leg.
Finally, (with extreme and great care)* assume your golf address position and make some golf stroke motions and allow your feet to “roll” as if they were the curved bases of a rocking chair so that as you swing there is excessive rolling of the bottoms of your shoes in a back and forth motion.
What did you experience? Hopefully, these examples will illuminate how an anchor landmark or hub of operation functions and influences positively or adversely the chain of action of operation along the entire linkage of influence of that biomechanical mechanism. In the example of the feet the action is closed chain.
In BIA™ 101 Part 4, we will continue to explore the subject of hubs listed above and their function and responsibility in their linkage of influence or jurisdiction as it relates golf participation.
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*Please perform only if physically able and in an environment that permits the maximal amount of safety and protection from falling and injury. Use caution and have a friend or companion available to protect you from any instability.