Nick Faldo Proves You can be Good AND Oblivious

[FHopper]

tigerwoodsonline.ea.com

On the new beta site for the TW online version they have a ball you flick to fade or draw. You flick left to fade and flick right to draw. That sentence makes sense until you change two words. You flick left to go right and you flick right to go left. It was a strong graphical reminder of the swing path's effect.

[iacas]

On the new beta site for the TW online version they have a ball you flick to fade or draw. You flick left to fade and flick right to draw. That sentence makes sense until you change two words. You flick left to go right and you flick right to go left. It was a strong graphical reminder of the swing path's effect.

What does a game have to do with anything? I could make a game where you punch baby seals in the face to make the ball draw - it doesn't make it reality.

(For righties) Science tells us to fade a ball at a target you aim the clubface left and swing further to the left. Vice versa for a draw.

[FHopper]

What does a game have to do with anything? I could make a game where you punch baby seals in the face to make the ball draw - it doesn't make it reality.

Which is what the TW game interface shows so well. ... and if you don't aim left with that fade it is a banana ball, I think you will like the way the interface reinforces what you have been saying. EA understands what Sir Nick doesn't.

( BTW bet you can't break 90 at Pebble on it. Go ahead, we'll wait. )

[Zeph]

That you align the body left and right has been the standard forever, and it's what you must do. The difference of today and before is that we know that the clubface needs to be somewhere between the body alignment and target, not directly at the target.

[Shanks A Million]

What does a game have to do with anything? I could make a game where you punch baby seals in the face to make the ball draw.

Yeah, I'd play that.

[nevets88]

You would think... I hear PGA pros (the ones that teach) are slowly coming around to the new understanding of ball flight laws. But it's still taking quite awhile...

The new understanding of ball flight laws - what are they?. Is there someplace I can read about them? Thanks.

[Zeph]

The new understanding of ball flight laws - what are they?. Is there someplace I can read about them? Thanks.

You can read it here:

The definitive Club Face Angle Swing Path on Ball Flight Thread On a side-note, has TST written an article on this subject?

[iacas]

On a side-note, has TST written an article on this subject?

Nope. It'd be awfully short, don't you think?

[Zeph]

I did not mean the oblivious Faldo, heh. Was thinking more about the ball flight findings of Trackman.

Elaborating the importance of this knowledge. One thing is the fade/draw, another is, like I've mentioned before, the importance of analysing a ball flight to determine what really happened.
Also, since this is relatively new material to the world of golf, which also happens to contradict the way things has been taught, spreading the word does not sound too far fetched.

Like the recurrent slicing problem. Some say the clubface was open, Trackman says the swingpath was out-to-in.

[iacas]

I did not mean the oblivious Faldo, heh. Was thinking more about the ball flight findings of Trackman.

Yeah, I know.

Maybe a The Numbers Game article. Or something... I still think it'd be short. You can sum it up in one sentence. But yeah, maybe. Sometime. Remind me in two weeks if we haven't published something by then.

[zeg]

Yeah, I know.

It seems like there'd be more to say than just "swing like this." It's obvious that the data are contradicting decades of "common wisdom," and there must be a reason that the wisdom became common. Someone alluded above (in this thread I believe) that setting up open can lead your mind to decide to close the face a bit for you, and vice versa. There's a non-trivial mental aspect, as there is to everything in golf, and there might be some space to explore that.

Far beyond the scope of a TST article, I wonder if one could study the effect of following various pieces of advice on novice or moderately experienced golfers. For example, does setting up and using swing thoughts à la Faldo lead someone to "accidentally" do the right thing? How does that compare to giving the correct advice based on the actual swing path needed? This would require a fair effort, but doesn't seem impossible to study with sufficient resources, and I think could be enlightening. Anyone know any sports psychologist grad students looking for a project?