How Does Using The Right Golf Balls Affect Your Golf Swing Mechanics? - By: Scott Kowalski

Manufacturers have experimented with club designs for many years, enlarging the sweet spot and introducing perimeter weighting designed to lessen the twisting at impact and give the golfer more opportunity to hit from the center sweet spot.

For the most part these innovations have been reached through trial and error, using computer aided design systems. A dimensional diagram of different golf club design models does describe exactly how the club head rotates through impact and where the center of gravity is as the ball and club head meet.

Another computer model is that of the golf balls trajectory. Taking into consideration a variety of launch angle conditions,some of which may seem like petty issues but which are of major concern to the devoted golfer.

For instance, grass was traditionally thought to interfere with a golf balls launch and slow its release from the club head. What actually was found that when the grass comes between the golf ball and the club face, it is actually slippery enough to assist in the golf balls launch.

This wasn't originally thought of in aerodynamics. According to the laws of aerodynamics, a smooth surface provides the least amount of wind resistance. It stands to reason therefore, that a smooth-surfaced ball would fly faster and farther through the air than one with a rough surface. If this was true, golf balls would cost a dime a dozen.

However, with aerodynamic properties similar to the wing of an airplane, golf balls are perhaps the most complexive round shapes in sports today. A golf balls performance is largely determined by its dimple patterns, a feature that was developed through observation and has evolved over time.

Earliest golf balls were made of wood.Seeking a softer feel, the Scottish founders of the game stuffed leather pouches with boiled feathers. Hard rubber balls known as gutta-perchas came into the game about 1848.When players noticed that nicks and marks on the surface of the smooth balls caused them to fly farther, golf ball makers began to mold them with indented or raised surface patterns.

With the introduction of the wound golf ball at the turn of the century, a rubber core with elongated rubber bands wound around it with a balata cover. Dimples became a part of the construction process.

In the 1950s, the average number of dimples was 336. Today, golf balls can have as many as 500 dimples covering more than 70 percent of the surface. Dimple designs have become quite sophisticated, and dimple patterns are now complex geometric constructions.

Symmetry is a key element because it ensures that no matter how the golf ball is spinning, it will fly straight.Dimples are in essence one of man's attempts to manage air, and the golf ball is considered a triumph of design.

A golf ball with no dimples will travel 130 yards and behave much like a bullet, with a straight trajectory. A dimpled golf ball on the other hand, can travel at least 280 yards, rising through the air because of its lift.Dimple patterns work with the golf balls spinning motion to move the ball through the air. The backspin on the golf ball is determined by its construction and the club head angle (degree of loft), and is a crucial contributing factor to the golf balls trajectory or flight pattern.

Golf ball designers at Spalding, hit on the concept that one way to fit more dimples was to increase the surface area. Because the U.S.G.A. has a standard that golf balls can be no smaller than 1.68 inches in diameter but, no restriction on how large a golf ball can be, the solution was quite obvious.

Larger golf balls provide no advantage but, rather have greater air resistance. Beginners may get more distance from an oversize golf ball,and it's believed to be a breakthrough in design that manufacturers have created a larger golf ball that performs much the same way as the traditional ones.

The downswing and moment of impact were only part of the picture.Using a new testing system designed for Indoor Testing Range (ITR), the first of its kind at the U.S.G.A. Instead of using wind tunnels which wasn't very accurate they now can actually shoot the golf ball out of a pressurized air gun and control every aspect of the testing. Measurements of spin rates and velocity are much more accurately recorded. Those properties are practically an obsession with golf ball designers.

Computers can now actually determine the lift and drag properties, and predict how far a particular golf ball will travel on the fairways. By taking these measurements,it can now predict how the golf ball will fly under any variety of launching conditions.

We can stop the computer at any point and see where the golfers body is in relationship to where the golf club is. This helps to understand the forces involved: How fast does the club head accelerate? What's the torque on the golf club as the swing comes down through the impact area? It can then help to determine what will happen next if we change the variables, and work with the golfer to see how the adjustments feel.

The P.G.A. and several other golf instructor organizations have already inquired about using this technology to demonstrate to golfers exactly where in that six to seven second motion of their golf swing mechanics they're going wrong.

Correcting a golfers swing is not the intentions of the U.S.G.A. What business is it of the U.S.G.A. to teach people how to golf swing? The studies will help those in the field of sports medicine and injuries understand better what the body goes through in various activities, and what the forces of inertia results with regards to the joints and muscles.

They can then determine what parts of the body need to be exercised to avoid undue strain on the joints, or what should be done differently to prevent injuries from happening. Great news for sports medicine but, there's got to be some value to the designers struggling to fulfill the demands of the weekend golfers.

In the long run what this will lead to is customizing golf clubs for particular types of buyers and the particular skill levels of each golfer. Designers will use the mathematical computer models to design golf clubs for a specific type of golfer, by incorporating such factors as the golfers body type and movement. The buying public will be able to quickly match themselves to a new set of golf clubs.

Manufacturers admit that for all of their efforts, they're really in the business of selling hope.We sell the promise of performance. If there is something new we can bring out to the marketplace that instills more confidence, then it's worth the price. Customized golf equipment can help a golfer too play better, however, absolutely nothing is going to increase your distance, your club-head velocity, or anything else that requires skill and confidence.

Nevertheless, in the wake of the scientific revolution in golf, the U.S.G.A. has been inundated with requests for information from designers. With the new understanding of the golf balls and golf clubs that have been created by using the latest technology in engineering designs.

The golfer will eventually make their way onto the golf course with brand new state of the art golf equipment. However, the work is far from over with, and becoming overly excited about the new role of science in the world of golf still has a long way to master.

This game has been played for hundreds of years, and for hundreds of years golfers have sought out the perfect golf ball and the perfect golf club. If it hasn't been discovered by now, then it's probally not out there.

What it comes down to is the confidence level. If you bought a brand new golf club,and great scores happened because of buying it. This has happened to all of us in the past. You then start believing that it's going to help your golf swing to play better, and then your confidence level begins to soar because of the new golf ball or golf club.

Your now more focused and believing in this great new club you have, and what your going to be able to do with it. That your going to be able to shave off strokes by placing the golf ball in areas that you've never been there before. So your brain is now not interfering with what your body is actually doing, and you begin swinging and hitting the cover off the golf ball.

What a beautiful moment of pure ecstacy and it's golden. It's magical,absolute magical.Developing your own set of golf equipment is like searching for the Holy Grail. The right golf club or the perfect golf ball is just around the corner for you, and the anticipation of having it is so exciting.

About the Author

The article is all about golf ball and equipment designs. A little history lesson on the evolution of golf balls. Website:http://www.A-Zgolfswingmechanics.com Author:Scott E. Kowalski

Article Directory Source: http://www.articlerich.com/profile/Scott-Kowalski/66410

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