Being tall an advantage?

[colin007]

On 8/8/2016 at 0:03 AM, natureboy said:

They also make more money, are happier on average, but get cancer more frequently.

Wait....is this true???? I mean, only one of those is true for me, but...fascinating!

 

On 8/8/2016 at 1:55 PM, natureboy said:

'Official' listing is 6'1", but I'll take your word for it. Can fanboy @colin007 confirm?

He was over at my place last night, we measured him on the door moulding. He's exactly 5'9" and 31/32nds.

[natureboy]

3 hours ago, colin007 said:

Wait....is this true???? I mean, only one of those is true for me, but...fascinating!

According to studies, yes. Hope it wasn't the cancer.

[ZappyAd]

18 hours ago, tdiii said:

I'm 6'6".  Say you're 5'10".  My eyes are 8" above the ground farther than are yours. Probably 9" farther than the ball than are yours.  Put another way, I'm 13% farther from the ball than are you -- so that I'm not hunched over. 

 

I think that given the human body is a very complicated thing with lots of inbuilt error correction and prediction capabilities just because the distance is 13% more doesn't mean the error will be anywhere near that order of magnitude too.  

I'm 6'4" but I would say the scale of my errors in golf due to height are probably almost all covered up by the errors in just being human , golf being hard and my level of talent.  If you ask me to pick up a golf ball from the green I'm not 10% worse at doing it than the guy I play with who is 5'9" even though I am further away from it.  My 'height induced error' in that task is probably not even measurable.  I may occasionally hit a bad one 'because I am tall' but generally I think I do ok out of having a bit of extra height.

 

[Lihu]

22 hours ago, boogielicious said:

Tall person, Michael Jordan crying because you think tall people are not coordinated. 

Umm, I wrote "In general. . .", obviously there are exceptions. Just watch the Olympic games. . .

 

19 hours ago, natureboy said:

You made Michael cry for not appreciating his amazing athleticism.

I didn't even know who was in the picture, and, yes, that's why he's exceptional. There just aren't that many Michael's out there.

Most of the time, smaller people are more coordinated than their larger and taller counterparts. That's why most gymnasts are shorter than average.

The only advantage of being tall is having a longer swing arc, but it doesn't automatically make you a better ball striker. It just means that the times you do make great contact with the ball, it just goes farther.

 

On 8/8/2016 at 5:43 PM, CyboNinja said:

So if we subtracted 2" from all the player's listed heights that would skew the average of all of them to exactly the national average male height. Interesting. 

Perhaps, it's possible that they measure their heights with shoes on like in the police photos?

I know that KJ is about 5'8" for real, and I was standing about 5 feet behind Gary Woodland and noticed that he is not 6'2". He looks a tad under 6' (if without shoes), but he's really strong. Maybe he was slouching, IDK. . .Keegan was really tall, and looked 6'4" ish (taller with shoes). One of my cousins is about 198cm and is about his height. . .

[boogielicious]

1 hour ago, Lihu said:

Umm, I wrote "In general. . .", obviously there are exceptions. Just watch the Olympic games. . .

 

I didn't even know who was in the picture, and, yes, that's why he's exceptional. There just aren't that many Michael's out there.

Most of the time, smaller people are more coordinated than their larger and taller counterparts. That's why most gymnasts are shorter than average.

The only advantage of being tall is having a longer swing arc, but it doesn't automatically make you a better ball striker. It just means that the times you do make great contact with the ball, it just goes farther.

 

Perhaps, it's possible that they measure their heights with shoes on like in the police photos?

I know that KJ is about 5'8" for real, and I was standing about 5 feet behind Gary Woodland and noticed that he is not 6'2". He looks a tad under 6' (if without shoes), but he's really strong. Maybe he was slouching, IDK. . .Keegan was really tall, and looked 6'4" ish (taller with shoes). One of my cousins is about 198cm and is about his height. . .

Ummm. Joke. Get it? Everyone else did.

[natureboy]

1 hour ago, Lihu said:

Umm, I wrote "In general. . .", obviously there are exceptions. Just watch the Olympic games. . .

Nope it's not a general rule. Got any supportive evidence (studies/statistics)?

If coordination were 'in general' higher in shorter people then batting average in the Major Leagues would correlate with height. It doesn't (see earlier post).

There may be some less coordinated really big men who make it to the NBA who may 'seem' to prove your point, but around 7' the NBA is drawing from a much smaller pool of potential physical talent so 'average' seems 'less coordinated' compared to the extremely coordinated/athletic average NBA player drawn from a much larger population. LeBron is not uncoordinated or slow.

1 hour ago, Lihu said:

I didn't even know who was in the picture.

You did it again.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB835889526779574000

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/14470482/michael-jordan-jordan-stays-atop-harris-poll-ahead-babe-ruth-muhamad-ali

 

1 hour ago, Lihu said:

Most of the time, smaller people are more coordinated than their larger and taller counterparts. That's why most gymnasts are shorter than average.

Essentially, what you're perceiving with gymnasts is the advantage of power-to-weight ratio and a smaller overall body length in order to more easily complete the twists and turns required to score points. On a device like the rings or pommel horse, gravity applies effectively more torque on a longer limb increasing the energy cost of holding a position. Also the apparatus matters. The balance beam is relatively wider for a shorter person with small feet. The uneven bars have a spacing that favors shorter limbs. The size of the floor area gives a shorter gymnast more effective 'body lengths' to do tumbles. https://www.quora.com/Why-are-many-male-artistic-gymnasts-typically-short

There is no study I am aware of that demonstrates that on average tall people are less coordinated than shorter people. Some exceptions tend to disprove your perceived 'rule': If taller ballerinas were 'on average' less coordinated, their 'outliers' would likely be crowded out / outcompeted by the shorter ones such that there shouldn't be any excpetions 'making it'. https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/taller-ballerinas-reach-new-heights/2014/09/25/6e569b4e-4292-11e4-8042-

1 hour ago, Lihu said:

The only advantage of being tall is having a longer swing arc, but it doesn't automatically make you a better ball striker. It just means that the times you do make great contact with the ball, it just goes farther.

No. If you have an average build you will also be stronger if you are taller.

No one is saying that being tall is an advantage to hitting the ball well & no one is saying that isn't hugely important in golf.

The point is that on average a taller person has an advantage in producing club head speed, which matters significantly to becoming a low HCP golfer. To realize this potential benefit, they need to have enough coordination and put in sufficient practice to improve their impact conditions. Any possibly (IMO non-existent) disadvantage in coordination from height is minute enough to not be consequential.

Edited August 11, 2016 by natureboy

[CyboNinja]

http://www.golfchannel.com/media/tall-order-trouble-bigger-golfers-face-course/

[colin007]

17 hours ago, natureboy said:

According to studies, yes. Hope it wasn't the cancer.

Yeah, off topic but I had Non Hodgkin Lymphoma about 8 years ago. I'm definitely not happy nor do I make that much money, lol!

I would say that a tall person who can perform a skill as well (in terms of precision) as a shorter person is perhaps  more coordinated than that shorter person. Kinda like how hitting a 300 yd drive still in the fairway requires more precision than a 200 yd one in the fairway.

[natureboy]

4 hours ago, colin007 said:

Yeah, off topic but I had Non Hodgkin Lymphoma about 8 years ago. I'm definitely not happy nor do I make that much money, lol!

I would say that a tall person who can perform a skill as well (in terms of precision) as a shorter person is perhaps  more coordinated than that shorter person. Kinda like how hitting a 300 yd drive still in the fairway requires more precision than a 200 yd one in the fairway.

Sorry to hear that. Treatment must have sucked.

I agree with you assessment. Maybe this is where some taller folks may think they don't hit it so well - self assessing based on Fwy% rather than degrees offline which accounts for the wider dispersion at a longer distance. I'd agree that coordination and whatever else goes with the pro's consistency and accuracy is more important in golf than height (vs extreme height > coordination in basketball). If you have a good portion of both, you have an real edge at getting good at golf.

Edited August 12, 2016 by natureboy

[Ernest Jones]

I've heard that being tall was a big advantage, but I've only heard that from short little dudes that suck at golf.

[natureboy]

41 minutes ago, Ernest Jones said:

I've heard that being tall was a big advantage, but I've only heard that from short little dudes that suck at golf.

Be careful, us short people are as vulnerable as a tomato or peach. 

Edited August 12, 2016 by natureboy

[PJCdude]

On June 11, 2014 at 1:03 PM, Hardballs said:

Good point! It's funny as I always considered myself quite short, (5'8.5") yet when I see others the same size, they don't look so short! Must be the eye level to top of head distance we don't see on ourselves! Anyway I digress, tall people do have an advantage so I want an extra 3 adding to my hc when I play someone 6' or over!

You must consider yourself short if you had to include the .5 lol. I'm 5'8 and like 3/4". I just go with 5'9".

[onthehunt526]

On 6/11/2014 at 1:03 PM, Hardballs said:

Good point! It's funny as I always considered myself quite short, (5'8.5") yet when I see others the same size, they don't look so short! Must be the eye level to top of head distance we don't see on ourselves! Anyway I digress, tall people do have an advantage so I want an extra 3 adding to my hc when I play someone 6' or over!

So you'd want about 8 extra strokes when you play with me? I'm 6’5 1/2"... Posture is something I definitely struggle with.

[colin007]

On 8/12/2016 at 0:04 AM, onthehunt526 said:

So you'd want about 8 extra strokes when you play with me? I'm 6’5 1/2"... Posture is something I definitely struggle with.

Wait...What?? Not sure if serious...

[onthehunt526]

On 6/11/2014 at 1:03 PM, Hardballs said:

 

 

5 hours ago, colin007 said:

Wait...What?? Not sure if serious...

I am 6'5 1/2" (with street shoes on). I tend to slouch a lot. I have issues staying down sometimes on my shots.

It can be an advantage but it hinders me more than it helps me right now.

[colin007]

1 hour ago, onthehunt526 said:

 

I am 6'5 1/2" (with street shoes on). I tend to slouch a lot. I have issues staying down sometimes on my shots.

It can be an advantage but it hinders me more than it helps me right now.

Oh ok, must be the slouching. I'm 6'4" and I thought I was a little taller than you when we meet.

[Lihu]

On 8/11/2016 at 8:54 AM, natureboy said:

Nope it's not a general rule. Got any supportive evidence (studies/statistics)?

No not a rule, just an observation, but obviously not just mine. . .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Height_in_sports

Quote

Advantages for below average height include:^[1]

• Faster reaction times (shorter neural networks)
• Greater strength to weight ratio
• Faster limb acceleration
• Greater endurance
• Greater power to weight ratio
• Faster rotational capability
• Greater agility
• Greater balance and lower centre of gravity
• Lower risk of heat exhaustion

Advantages for above average height include:^[1]

• Greater absolute strength
• Greater work capacity (force multiplied by distance)
• Greater work per unit of time (Power)
• Longer reach
• Greater visibility
• Lower resting metabolic rate
• Lower heart rate
• Less likely to become dehydrated
• Greater speed and power due to mechanical advantage

 

 

Quote

The point is that on average a taller person has an advantage in producing club head speed, which matters significantly to becoming a low HCP golfer. To realize this potential benefit, they need to have enough coordination and put in sufficient practice to improve their impact conditions. Any possibly (IMO non-existent) disadvantage in coordination from height is minute enough to not be consequential.

Also just an observation. The fastest swing ever is possessed by a person who is 5'11" (Jamie S.), and the average height of a PGA tour player is 5'11". If taller people are at a distinct advantage, the average height would be like 6'4".

So, I'm not confident that we can conclude that being taller is a distinct and absolute advantage in golf.

 

On 8/11/2016 at 1:36 PM, colin007 said:

I would say that a tall person who can perform a skill as well (in terms of precision) as a shorter person is perhaps  more coordinated than that shorter person. Kinda like how hitting a 300 yd drive still in the fairway requires more precision than a 200 yd one in the fairway.

Agree, that's why it's more rare to find tall and highly coordinated athletes. At least from what I've observed. . .

[GlennInBama]

I'm 6'3" and it looks like the ball is 200 feet away sometimes, lol.