WEBVTT

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In this golf smart insight,

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we're going to investigate alpha torque.

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So I had a question post to me actually a couple of months ago,

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but I've gotten around to kind of

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organizing my thoughts and wanted to share it now.

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But I got a question a couple of months ago about alpha torque, right?

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Like there's these alpha graphs that are popping up on forums and blogs,

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and they can be a little confusing.

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So I thought I would do a video to help explain A what is alpha,

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why is it significant? B what would you expect to see?

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Just kind of thinking through it logically and then see what are some of the

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controversies?

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Like why has this become kind of a big deal and debate between a couple of

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different camps?

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So first, let's define what is alpha.

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So alpha classically has been defined as in-plane torque or in-plane force.

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So if I take my hula hoop here,

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we'll pretend that this is the functional swing plane.

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Anything that moves the club in the plane of motion is going to be alpha.

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Now it can be an alpha force where I'm kind of moving the whole shaft as a unit

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,

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or it could be a torque where I'm creating some rotation.

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But anything where I'm moving in the plane of motion is going to be alpha.

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We can compare that to what they call beta,

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which would be kind of slicing through the swing plane,

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anything like this, or gamma, which would be rotating within the swing plane.

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So alpha is the in-plane movement.

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Now why is alpha special or why is it significant and why should we study it?

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Well, one researcher has shown that the magnitude of alpha force during the

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downswing

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has a 0.94 correlation with clubhead speed.

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And clubhead speed has a huge correlation with ball speed.

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So basically if you want to hit it further, you have to apply more alpha torque

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.

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Now that by itself doesn't really give you a whole lot to go on,

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but it does tell us that this is probably an interesting parameter

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that we should continue to study.

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So then we know alpha is in-plane movement or at least that's how it's been

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classically defined. What should we expect to see?

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Well, when we have all these changes and we have these three different planes

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of

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movement and rotation, things can get a little complicated.

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So let's use a linear example to try to explain and understand

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what we might expect to see looking at an alpha torque graph.

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So instead of having torques, we're just going to have forces

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because we're going to do a linear model here.

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So what I'm going to do is I'm going to pull this back and then I'm

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basically going to pretend I was like throwing a javelin, right?

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So it's going to go back and then go like this.

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And I'm going to try to do it with a little bit of speed.

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Okay, we can see the similarities between a golf swing,

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where I would pull it back and then try to create a bunch of speed and then

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have to slow it down. So we can see how the model

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will work for this linear and then we can extrapolate what we can for the

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rotations. All right, so right now this thing is

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just hanging out in space and it's not going to move unless I apply a force to

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it. So I'm going to apply a negative force,

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which would be in this backswing direction.

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Now if I just kept, if I only applied this negative force,

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this thing would move infinitely in that direction

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and it would basically run through walls and whatever.

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I need to apply a positive torque or sorry a positive force

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in that direction in order to stop it from moving that way.

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So I apply a force this way somewhere around here. I shift and now

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I'm applying that a force in that direction to help slow it down.

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I'm going to continue applying a force in that direction until I reach

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maximum and then now I'm going to be applying a force

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away in order to decelerate it. So it would be

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negative, positive, positive, positive, negative.

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Something like that is what we would expect to see

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when we're looking at this alpha torque because

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basically what we would see with the golf swing is we should see

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a negative movement to help start the club moving.

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Then somewhere up around here I'm going to have to start applying a

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positive torque to prevent the club from

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continuing its backswing direction. If I continued to apply a negative

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torque then the club would continue moving in that backswing direction and

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basically speed up as it approached the ground.

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So I'm going to apply a positive to slow it down and then I'm going to keep

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applying positive until I get to around this waist height position.

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We'll talk about that in a second but I'm going to keep applying positive

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until I get to somewhere around here. The club head speed and the positive

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movement of the club is going to continue all the way to impact and then

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it's going to basically go to zero at impact and then it's

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I'm now going to apply that negative torque to

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slow the club down safely as I make it my way into the finish.

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That's what we would expect to see. Now why would we expect to see it go from

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positive to negative somewhere around shaft parallel?

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Well what'll happen is I get this club moving

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fast and somewhat aggressively and it gets to a point where I can no longer

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add speed to the system and me trying to add speed

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potentially could slow it down. Potentially could mess up my geometry,

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affect my low point, affect my consistency but the big

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thing is it could potentially cause me to

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put myself in a position where I might injure myself and for no added speed

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benefit. The example that is frequently used is if I'm

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riding a bike downhill right so I'm riding a bike downhill

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and I get to a point where the pedals are moving so fast that I can't pump

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any faster is just already going. In fact if my feet were actually clipped

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into the bike you you can imagine getting to a point where my body is

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actually going to slow down what the bike would be capable of doing on its own

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and that's pretty much what happens when I get to about shaft parallel

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is I'm going to more or less focus on just

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directing that energy. I can't really add anything more

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with that trailhand. So that's why we would expect to see a very

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similar pattern to this. We would expect to see

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the club accelerating all the way until impact and then

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rapidly decelerating. In fact the torque will be zero

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or really close to zero at impact to allow me to

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safely decelerate it in the backswing or in the

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follow through. So now what is the controversy

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with alpha right? Well there's a number of researchers looking at it

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Dr. Kwan, Dr. Mackenzie, Dr. Neil. They're all kind of seeing a similar pattern

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to

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what I've just demonstrated here but then there's

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one commercial group, Jacob's 3D, and that one is being

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operated by golf pros and they're showing some things that we would

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not typically expect to see with this alpha torque.

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So that's where the question came up. Specifically

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there are two times where they're showing something differently

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and basically what this is leading guys like me to think is

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either they've changed the definition of alpha so they're measuring

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something different than alpha but calling it alpha

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and alpha already has this kind of established definition of

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in-plane movement. So that's just a little confusing

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or they're calling it in-plane movement and they're just measuring it

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differently and they have to explain why

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well it would help if they would explain why they chose these differences

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since the pure mechanics don't match up with what they're saying.

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For example there are two major times that I've seen graphs or

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quivers or whatever that cause a little bit of confusion.

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One would be at the top where they say that it should be applying a

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negative, I should be applying a negative torque

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at the top of the swing and into the downswing and as I showed

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if I was truly applying a negative torque then it wouldn't be the end of the

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backswing because the club would continue moving

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in that direction. The other point in time is down near

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impact so basically what they are saying and what they've shown is that

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you can apply positive alpha torque so in the direction of target

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after impact which basically doesn't make sense it's kind of like that

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downhill bike analogy where I get this thing to a point where I can no

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longer add speed and now you're telling me I can add even more and

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more speed. It doesn't quite match up with what

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should be happening with the mechanics and it would potentially put me in a

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position to injure myself in the follow through.

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So that ultimately brings me to my conclusion for this video which is

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basically helping you see the thought process that you should have as a

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critical thinker and a golfer. I don't think you should just rely

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exclusively on one person's opinion. Your goal should be to

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understand what's actually going on and how it applies to either you as

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the student or your students if you're a coach.

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So in this particular example golf science can give us a lot of great

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information on how I'm pulling on the club.

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Just like 3D you know kinematic data can show us

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positions or velocities and things that are very very useful.

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Force plates can show me how my feet are working with the ground.

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Ball flight monitors can show me how the club and the ball are

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interacting. All that is useful data but they are all

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perspectives on the global hole which is a movement.

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So understanding how the body moves and how it creates the

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the golf swing will ultimately help you understand

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which of these you know new graphs or new pieces of information are going to be

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really helpful and which pieces may be really neat to know but

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not so practical on the range. I'm not saying this is either of those.

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I just want you to think about it from those perspectives.

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So if you have a question about something that gets brought up in

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any of the blogs or forums or the golf science world and you'd like to have

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it clarified either reach out to the researchers

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directly because they've been great at answering my questions

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or message me and I'll reach out to them and hopefully put together a video to

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help clarify what it is that's causing you problems.

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If you want to understand our philosophies on the golf swing and the

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the pieces that build them please check out our membership program at

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