Nick Faldo On Overtinkering and Why Young Players Are Excelling

[mvmac]

Do you agree with Faldo on why young players are ready to win early in their careers? 

http://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2015/11/18/faldo-on-overtinkering-why-young-players-are-excelling.html

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In a lengthy chat reported by Reuters' Tony Jimenez (who dutifully plugged the six-time major winner's six new wines), Faldo sounds horrified by Spieth's off-season plan to gain yardage. But it's his take on the role of technology via things likeTrackman and the application of biomechanics that may explain why we are seeing so many complete, ready-for-prime-time players under 25:

"Now you have what I call the appliance of science. You have machines to tell your swing path, club-face angle, ball flights after one shot -- that's fantastic.

"I wish I would have had that rather than hit a million balls and then go, 'Oh, I wonder how this feels?," added Faldo with a giggle.

Europe's 2008 Ryder Cup captain also said golfers were much more powerful nowadays.

"The physical side has been taken to a new level. They've really done a good job in dispelling the thought that it's an old man's sport," said Faldo.

"These guys now are unbelievably strong. We have more than a dozen doctors travelling on tour with degrees in biomechanics ... they know exactly how to build a golfer and that's fantastic.

"This is all factual information, it's not a guess. It's been around for years now and kids at 15 get this knowledge for five years and bang, that's why they can come out at 20 and be impressive golfers."

 

[boogielicious]

20 minutes ago, mvmac said:

Do you agree with Faldo on why young players are ready to win early in their careers? 

http://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2015/11/18/faldo-on-overtinkering-why-young-players-are-excelling.html

 

Faldo makes very good points. The proper fitness and better instruction methods are definitely showing up with these young players. 

[nevets88]

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"These guys now are unbelievably strong. We have more than a dozen doctors travelling on tour with degrees in biomechanics ... they know exactly how to build a golfer and that's fantastic.

Just an example of some of the new guys: Justin Thomas, Emiliano Grillo, Matthew Fitzpatrick - these guys don't shout out unbelievably strong, in the traditional sense to me. Maybe they have whatever it is that makes a body prime for golf. Explosiveness, flexibility.

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"Kids who used to be surfing dudes are now talking golf, that's the important thing," said Faldo. "I've been travelling the world and everybody's now talking golf.

https://sports.yahoo.com/news/golf-dont-over-tinker-faldos-message-spieth-080001338--golf.html

I think it's more a combo of bigger athletic pool being drawn from (I didn't know like, surfing, was like, a huge pool, like, to draw from, dude) , better teaching technique, better "farm" system, better fitness. The strong thing is important, but not commensurate to the degree he's implying.

Over tinker. Sounds like an oxymoron to me. Wouldn't overhaul be a better word?

 

[allenc]

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Luke Donald, Paula Creamer, the list goes on and on for short/medium hitters that really regressed by trying to get longer. Agree with Faldo from that standpoint.

This reminds me of a piece I read on Annika Sorenstam who spent the early 2000s working solely on her distance and increased 20 yards from 2000-2003.  In her case that work went hand in hand with a resurgence to her career and may have helped elevate her from merely top female golfer to GOAT.  A decent counter example I think to the above comment to the article.

[RFKFREAK]

I think it's a combo of technology and the pool becoming bigger than ever since most of these kids that are coming up now became golfers during the Tiger Woods era when the game exploded..

[mvmac]

2 hours ago, nevets88 said:

Over tinker. Sounds like an oxymoron to me. Wouldn't overhaul be a better word?

I actually think tinker is a good word for it. Spieth is going to "rebuild" his swing, he's "tinkering" with adding more length to his game.

1 hour ago, allenc said:

This reminds me of a piece I read on Annika Sorenstam who spent the early 2000s working solely on her distance and increased 20 yards from 2000-2003.  In her case that work went hand in hand with a resurgence to her career and may have helped elevate her from merely top female golfer to GOAT.  A decent counter example I think to the above comment to the article.

It's more and more of a bomber's game and we all know how important length is to scoring. If you're a guy like Donald and you're playing with the younger guys that are hitting it 30-40 yards past you, you're going to take notice and consider a few things. I also don't think seeking length was Donald's downfall, even when he was #1 in the world he "got away" with a lot of bad driving, short and crooked. Long term it's not something you can hide from.

[nevets88]

Curious as to what percentage of juniors who had Division I aspirations vs all juniors in 2010 were regularly using radar like Trackman and Flightscope versus today.

20% (2010) vs 75% (today) - D I

10% (2010) vs 50% (today) - All

Just a guess, probably totally off.

[mvmac]

9 minutes ago, nevets88 said:

Curious as to what percentage of juniors who had Division I aspirations vs all juniors in 2010 were regularly using radar like Trackman and Flightscope versus today.

20% (2010) vs 75% (today) - D I

10% (2010) vs 50% (today) - All

Just a guess, probably totally off.

I think the number would have been very small in 2010, wasn't even that popular on tour then. 

[nevets88]

1 minute ago, mvmac said:

I think the number would have been very small in 2010, wasn't even that popular on tour then. 

Ah, what do you think it is currently?

[Wansteadimp]

3 hours ago, nevets88 said:

Just an example of some of the new guys: Justin Thomas, Emiliano Grillo, Matthew Fitzpatrick - these guys don't shout out unbelievably strong, in the traditional sense to me. Maybe they have whatever it is that makes a body prime for golf. Explosiveness, flexibility.

https://sports.yahoo.com/news/golf-dont-over-tinker-faldos-message-spieth-080001338--golf.html

I think it's more a combo of bigger athletic pool being drawn from (I didn't know like, surfing, was like, a huge pool, like, to draw from, dude) , better teaching technique, better "farm" system, better fitness. The strong thing is important, but not commensurate to the degree he's implying.

Over tinker. Sounds like an oxymoron to me. Wouldn't overhaul be a better word?

 

Having seen Fitzpatrick at the British Masters a few weeks ago, its obvious he has spent a lot of time in the gym since his amateur days. His shoulders and upper back had got noticeably more bulked up, nowhere near a body builder but bigger and more defined than he was before.

[iacas]

7 hours ago, allenc said:

This reminds me of a piece I read on Annika Sorenstam who spent the early 2000s working solely on her distance and increased 20 yards from 2000-2003.  In her case that work went hand in hand with a resurgence to her career and may have helped elevate her from merely top female golfer to GOAT.  A decent counter example I think to the above comment to the article.

Interesting. I have another theory, but perhaps in the end, it's really the combination of both, particularly given what we know about how distance is important: during the same time frame, she worked quite a bit with Tiger Woods. He taught her a lot of short game shots, and probably also juiced up her competitive drive a bit, too.

Distance is more important in a lot of ways than the short game, though, so… I give more credence to your theory than the one I am now ditching.

[tristanhilton85]

I think that Faldo makes a lot of good points. The fact that all of this information is readily available makes it easier to figure out what is going on and to make the necessary adjustments.

[mvmac]

7 hours ago, nevets88 said:

Ah, what do you think it is currently?

Not sure but I'd guess it's much lower than it is on tour. I'm pretty sure a lot of the top colleges have radars but not sure if they use it on a regular basis.