Is the weighted "Swing Ring" bad?

[Tayysauce]

I've heard that the weighted red rings that you can buy to warm up with can actually harm your swing. Does anyone know if this true? If it is, what's the science behind how it harms ones swing?

I bought one last year and used it for a few days but then it started collecting dust after people told me they were harmful.

[kpaulhus]

this sounds like one of those weighted doughnut looking things that baseball players use on their bats, correct? I would think it is nothing different than a weighted club??

[Tayysauce]

  kpaulhus said:

this sounds like one of those weighted doughnut looking things that baseball players use on their bats, correct? I would think it is nothing different than a weighted club??

Yeah the ones that slide down to the bottom of your club

[JML22]

there's no reason to have one of those since the ball is stationary

[WUTiger]

Using Swing Ring to warm up would be an example of "purposeful movement," or active dynamic (AD) warm-up. PM / AD is a sports warm-up activity which mirrors moves you make during the event.

Key idea would be to swing slowly and smoothly to loosen up your shoulder and arm muscles.

If you know an athletic trainer, see if he can get you a copy of this report from the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research : "Acute Effects of Passive Static Stretching During Warm-up on Driver Clubhead Speed... etc." Author is Jeffrey G. Gergley, and it is in the May 2009 issue, pp. 863-867.

Gergley found that golfers who did an AD workout with a Medicus driver - similar to Swing Ring? - had better accuracy on test shots than golfers* who did a total body passive static stretching (SS) workout.

*Golfers in study had 5 HDCP or less and were in early 20s as far as age. Not sure the results would generalize to the over-40 crowd, regardless of conditioning.*

Caution on Swing Ring: A pro told me to use ringt only on drivers, because the jumbo driver can catch and support the ring better than irons; putting the ring on irons might cause stress which could loosen the clubhead.

[doof_dizzler]

Why don't you ask your pro you take lessons from...

[Tayysauce]

  doof_dizzler said:

Why don't you ask your pro you take lessons from...

Because not everyone takes lessons.

[Tayysauce]

  WUTiger said:

Gergley found that golfers who did

Really? I've always heard and believed that the swing ring would lower accuracy because it causes you to increase your clubhead speed, which would result in less chances of "center of the face contact" and would cause you to spray shots more often.

[WUTiger]

  None said:

Originally Posted by WUTiger Gergley found that golfers who did an AD workout with a Medicus driver - similar to Swing Ring? - had better accuracy on test shots than golfers* who did a total body passive static stretching (SS)

  Tayysauce said:

Really? I've always heard and believed that the swing ring would lower accuracy because it causes you to increase your clubhead speed, which would result in less chances of "center of the face contact" and would cause you to spray shots more often.

IMO, it depends on whether you use or mis-use the Swing Ring. As I understand it, you use the ringed driver

to swing slowly, smoothly and fully - with a proper golf grip - to loosen the upper-body muscles. Someone swinging it hard might end up with uncontrolled clubhead speed. BAck to group Medicus: This group had more accurate shots than the SS group because Medicus used purposeful movements - simulating the golf swing - towarm up. The SS group used a gymnastics-types stretchout which overstretched their tendons, which allowed wobbles to creep into their swing motion. Tay, it would be nice if an athletic trainer read this thread and gave us some details. I'm not sure how well I'm explaining things. A related issue is strength vs. power. Check out Titleist Performance Institute for details. http://www.mytpi.com/mytpi05/Fitness/category.asp?id=71

[bakalao1]

A weighted club will make you lose swing speed:

[RCF]

I don't see how it could hurt as an alternative to swing with two clubs to warm up. I have the SKLZ weighted club and it's a great help.

[iacas]

  RCF said:

I don't see how it could hurt as an alternative to swing with two clubs to warm up. I have the SKLZ weighted club and it's a great help.

Did you watch the video?

  bakalao1 said:

A weighted club will make you lose swing speed

Yeah I was hoping someone would include that video. I think you can use weighted clubs to stretch, but there are also better ways to stretch, too, so I don't like the thought of using weighted clubs at all, ever.

P.S. Anyone else think that video's almost an anti-advertisement for Titleist driver forgiveness?

[jamo]

  iacas said:

Did you watch the video?

I watched that show when it came out on TV, it wasn't a perfect experiment, because they had him do everything in one session, but it was a pretty good explanation.

I've linked to this before, but Andrew Rice makes a really good argument here. As for the anti-Titleist, i didn't notice anything about Titleist, but i did listen to it with the volume. A note on Sports Science: I think ESPN bought them, because i see that John Brienkus guy on ESPN occasionally. I guess they'll likely get more funding this way.

[upah]

Lol. 30 yards for a few millimeters? ouch...

[RCF]

  iacas said:

Did you watch the video?

I'm not qualifed to comment on the video. I do know that warming up the the weighted club definitely helps as compared to warming up with a single club. Most likely, the weighted club reduces the warm up time. The video does make sense to me in that my primary problem

is swinging too fast.

[WUTiger]

  iacas said:

Yeah I was hoping someone would include that video. I think you can use weighted clubs to stretch, but there are also better ways to stretch, too, so I don't like the thought of using weighted clubs at all, ever.

One way the TPI tests don't mesh with the Gergley

Strength & Conditioning experiment:

  None said:

From my earlier post... Gergley found that golfers who did an AD workout with a Medicus driver - similar to Swing Ring? - had better accuracy on test shots than golfers* who did a total body passive static stretching (SS) workout. {NOTE: AD = active dynamic}

The Medicus - as would be a ringed Driver - is a single club. I fear the two-club warmup might create some of the tendon wobble, overstretching the hand tendons and causing wobble to creep into the swing. Gergley suggested that the Static Stretch group got

too loose , in ways which harm golf swing efficiency. Now, the video does give me concerns about the Swing Ring warmup. It would be nice if Gergley and TPI combine resources and did a broader experiment to explain the too loose vs. slow twitch activation error sources. I'm interested in this, because I got abdominal surgery on Thursday, and I want to recondition myself for a dedicated golf season this upcoming year. I just want to make sure I'm "doing things right" when I get ready. Also, a related area is the strength vs. power aspects of the golf swing. TPI's website talks about this a lot. As for muscle twitch (highlighted in the video), the runners tell me that sprinters have predominantly fast twitch muscle, whereas as marathoners have predominantly slow-twitch muscle. Unfortuntely, getting an assessment to find your net fast-slow muscle ratio evidently costs lots of money. But, I'm not sure how much fast-slow ratio matters in a golf swing.

[RCF]

The conclusions stated in the video are not based on experical research; one test with one golfer. What about another golfer or the same golfer on a different day. I don't remember the name of the author, but I agree with the expression that "golf is the most cerebal of all sports." There are so many variables in a golf swing. Perhaps golf is more art than science.

[iacas]

  RCF said:

The conclusions stated in the video are not based on experical research; one test with one golfer. What about another golfer or the same golfer on a different day. I don't remember the name of the author, but I agree with the expression that "golf is the most cerebal of all sports." There are so many variables in a golf swing. Perhaps golf is more art than science.

Since we're playing the hypothetical game, isn't it more likely that the results hint at a general truth rather than the opposite? He even said the club "felt" lighter and that he "felt" like he was swinging faster.

I've seen other studies that talk about not using weighted clubs, and common sense tells me what the scientist in the video told me: it works more on your slower muscles than your fast ones. I think there's no real place for "perhaps golf is more art than science." It's a rhetorical statement at best. It's not like we can argue about what % it is of either.