WEBVTT

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in this golf smart insight we're gonna

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investigate alpha torque so I had a

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question posed to me actually a couple

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months ago but I've gotten around to

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kind of organizing my thoughts and

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wanted to share it now but I got a

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question a couple months ago about alpha

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torque right like there's there's these

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alpha graphs that are popping up on

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forums and blogs and they can be a

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little confusing so I thought I would do

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a video to help explain a what is alpha

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why is it significant B what would you

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expect to see just just kind of thinking

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through it logically and then see what

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are some of the controversies like why

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is this become kind of a big deal in in

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debate between a couple different camps

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so first let's define what is alpha so

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alpha classically has been defined as

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in-plane torque or in-plane a force so

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so I take my hula-hoop here we'll

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pretend that this is the functional

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swing plane anything that moves the club

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in the plane of motion is going to be

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alpha now it can be an alpha force where

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I'm kind of moving the whole shaft as a

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unit or it could be a torque where I'm

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creating some rotation but anything

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where I'm moving in the plane of motion

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is going to be alpha we can compare that

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to what they call beta which would be

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kind of slicing through the swing plane

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anything like this or a gamma which

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would be rotating within the swing plane

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so alpha is the in-plane movement now

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why is alpha special or why is it

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significant and why should we study it

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well one researcher has shown that the

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magnitude of alpha force during the

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downswing has a point nine four

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correlation with club head speed and

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club head speed has a huge correlation

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with ball speed so basically if you want

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to hit it further you have to apply more

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alpha torque now that by itself doesn't

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really give you a whole lot to go on but

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it does tell us that this is probably an

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interesting parameter that we should

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continue to study so then we know alphas

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in plane movement or at least that's how

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it's been classically defined what what

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should we expect to see

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well when we have all these changes and

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we have these three different planes of

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movement and rotation things can get a

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little complicated so let's use a linear

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example to try to explain and understand

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what we might expect to see looking at

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an alpha torque graph so instead of

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having torques we're just gonna have

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forces because we're gonna do a linear

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model here so what I'm going to do is

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I'm gonna pull this back and then I'm

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basically gonna pretend I was like

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throwing a javelin right so it's gonna

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go back and then go like this and I'm

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gonna try to do it with a little bit of

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speed okay we can see the similarities

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between a golf swing where I would pull

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it back and then try to create a bunch

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of speed and then have to slow it down

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so we can see how the model will work

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for this linear and then we can

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extrapolate what we can for the

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rotations all right so right now this

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thing is just hanging out in space and

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it's not gonna move unless I apply a

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force to it so I'm going to apply a

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negative force which would be in this

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backswing direction now if I just kept

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if I only applied this negative force

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this thing would move infinitely in that

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direction and it would basically run

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through walls and whatever I need to

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apply a positive torque or sorry a

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positive force in that direction in

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order to stop it from moving that way so

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I apply a force this way somewhere

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around here I shift and now I'm applying

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that a force in that direction to help

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slow it down I'm going to continue

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applying a force in that direction until

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I reach maximum and then now I'm going

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to be applying a force away in order to

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decelerate it so it would be negative

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positive positive positive negative

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something like that is what we would

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expect to see when we're looking at this

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alpha torque because basically what we

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would see with the golf swing is we

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should see a negative movement to help

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start the club moving then somewhere up

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around here I'm going to have to start

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applying a positive torque to prevent

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the club from continuing it's back

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swinging direction if I continue to

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apply a negative torque then the club

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would continue moving in that backswing

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direction and basically speed up as it

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approached the

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so I'm going to apply a positive to slow

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it down and then I'm going to keep

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applying positive until I get to around

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this waist height position and we'll

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talk about that in a second but I'm

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going to keep applying positive until I

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get to somewhere around here the club

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head speed and the positive movement of

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the club is going to continue all the

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way to impact and then it's going to

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basically go to zero at impact and then

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it's I'm now going to apply that

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negative torque to slow the club down

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safely as I make it my way into the

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finish that's what we would expect to

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see now why would we expect to see it go

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from positive to negative

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somewhere around chef parallel well what

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will happen is I get this club moving

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fast and somewhat aggressively and it

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gets to a point where I can no longer

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add speed to the system and me trying to

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add speed potentially could slow it down

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potentially could mess up my geometry

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affect my low point affect my

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consistency but the big thing is it

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could potentially cause me to put myself

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in a position where I might injure

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myself and for no added speed benefit

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the example that is frequently used is

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if I'm riding a bike downhill all right

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so I'm riding a bike downhill and I get

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to a point where the pedals are moving

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so fast that I can't pump any faster

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it's just already going in fact if my

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feet were actually clipped into the bike

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you can imagine getting to a point where

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my body is actually gonna slow down what

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the bike would be capable of doing on

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its own and that's pretty much what

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happens when I get to about shaft

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parallel is I'm going to more or less

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focus on just directing that energy I

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can't really add anything more with that

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trail hand so that's why we would expect

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to see a very similar pattern to this we

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would expect to see the club

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accelerating all the way until impact

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and then rapidly decelerating in fact

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the torque will be zero or really close

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to zero at impact to allow me to safely

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decelerate it in the back

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or in the follow-through so now what it

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what is the controversy with Alfa right

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well there's a number of researchers

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looking at it on dr. Kwan dr. McKenzie

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dr. Neil they're all kind of seeing a

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similar pattern to what I've just

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demonstrated here but then there's one

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commercial group Jacob's 3d and that one

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is being operated by golf pros and there

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they're showing some things that we

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would not typically expect to see with

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this alpha torque so that's where the

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question came up specifically there are

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two times where they're showing

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something differently and basically what

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this is leading guys like me to think is

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either they've changed the definition of

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alpha so they're measuring something

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different than alpha but calling it

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alpha and alpha already has this kind of

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established definition of in-plane

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movement so that's just a little

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confusing or they're they're calling it

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in-plane movement and they're just

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measuring it differently and they have

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to explain why well it would help if

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they would explain why they chose these

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differences since the pure mechanics

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don't match up with what they're saying

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for example there are two major times

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that I've seen graphs or Quivers or

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whatever that caused a little bit of

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confusion one would be at the top where

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they say that it should be applying a

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negative I should be applying a negative

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torque at the top of the swing and into

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the downswing and as I showed if I if I

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was truly applying a negative torque

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then it wouldn't be the end of the

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backswing because the club would

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continue moving in that direction

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the the other point in time is down near

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impact so basically what they are saying

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and what they've shown is that you can

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apply a positive alpha torque so in the

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direction of target after impact which

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basically doesn't make sense it's kind

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of like that downhill bike analogy where

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I get this thing to a point where I can

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no longer add speed and now you're

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telling me I can add even more and more

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speed it doesn't it doesn't quite match

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up with what should be

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happening with the mechanics and it

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would potentially put me in a position

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to injure myself in the follow-through

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so that ultimately brings me to my my

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conclusion for this video which is

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basically helping you see the thought

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process that you should have as a

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critical thinker in a golfer I don't

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think you should just rely exclusively

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on one person's opinion your goal should

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be to understand what's actually going

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on and how it applies to either you as

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the student or your students if you're a

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coach so in this particular example golf

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science can give us a lot of great

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information on how I'm pulling on the

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club just like 3d you know kinematic

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data can show us positions or velocities

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and things that are very very useful

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force plates can show me how my feet are

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working with the ground ball flight

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monitors can show me how the club and

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the ball are interacting all that is

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useful data but it they are all

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perspectives on the global whole which

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is a movement so understanding how the

00:09:56.640 --> 00:09:59.490
body moves and how it creates the golf

00:09:59.490 --> 00:10:01.050
swing will ultimately help you

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understand which of these you know new

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graphs or new pieces of information are

00:10:07.140 --> 00:10:08.610
going to be really helpful and which

00:10:08.610 --> 00:10:11.610
pieces may be really neat to know but

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not so practical on the range I'm not

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saying this is either of those I just

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want you to think about it from those

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perspectives so if you have a question

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about something that gets brought up in

00:10:21.990 --> 00:10:24.300
any of the blogs or forums on a golf

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science world and you'd like to have it

00:10:26.070 --> 00:10:29.010
clarified either research reach out so

00:10:29.010 --> 00:10:30.330
the researchers directly because they're

00:10:30.330 --> 00:10:32.760
they've been great at answering my

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questions or message me and I'll reach

00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:37.920
out to them and hopefully put together a

00:10:37.920 --> 00:10:40.650
video to help clarify what it is that's

00:10:40.650 --> 00:10:42.960
causing you problems if you want to

00:10:42.960 --> 00:10:45.360
understand our philosophies on the golf

00:10:45.360 --> 00:10:47.880
swing and the pieces that build them

00:10:47.880 --> 00:10:49.470
please check out our membership program

00:10:49.470 --> 00:10:52.380
at golf smart academy.com or follow us

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