Improve your swing

 

A new hi-tech training facility in Norway has been established to improve a golfer’s game.

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At the last count, there were 61 million golfers worldwide, and to improve their skills, the new centre will use video filming in order to study their balance and movement.

But that is not all, as Kristian Rathe, General Manager of the company, Initial Force AS, said, an optimal stroke deals with a lot more than just balance.

“We ‘take a step back’ and make the invisible visible, and focus on the forces leading to good balance,” he added.

Initial Force AS has developed a so-called force platform custom-made for golf training.

The company is located in the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) Innovation Centre at Gløshaugen in Trondheim, and cooperates closely with the university’s Programme in Human Movement Sciences.

The first prototype of the platform is currently being tested in NTNU’s movement analysis laboratory.

Force platforms

Force platforms have been used for testing in other sports such as ski jumping, javelin and shooting.

The system, named Swing Catalyst, consists of two main components working together: the force platform and video analysis software.

The golf player enters the platform – which can be individually adjusted – and strikes the ball.

The platform registers the golfers’ every movement, and a camera films the swing of the stroke.

It contains multiple load cells – points that register all forces involved between the feet and the ground.

It also registers the body’s rotating movement in detail: as the club is swung, the information is added to the video image as basic colour markings.

”What the platform registers is impossible to see with the naked eye and cannot be caught using only a video camera,” explained Steinar Bråten, former trainer for Norway’s national ski jumping team, and co-owner of the company.

“These details are important when creating the best starting point for the stroke. And if you manage to do a particularly good stroke, you can store this movement and try to recreate it.”

Initial Force cooperates with the product development company Mechatron on the design of the platform, to ensure industrial production suitability. 

They estimate the cost of the first version to NOK 200,000 (£16,700) and gradually decreasing to around NOK 100,000 (£8400).

Rathe does not think the price will scare people off in view of the fact that golf simulators used for entertainment cost between NOK 500,000 and 700,000 (£41 – 58,000).

The idea was first tested through the Take Off programme at NTNU’s Centre for Entrepreneurship.

The company has also received help with the commercialisation process from NTNU Technology Transfer AS.

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