Kinetic vest gives instructors insight to flawed golf swings

BROOMFIELD – Slip into a vest that talks to a computer, swing away, and then step over to the monitor and see what went wrong.

When it comes to golf instruction, can it get any more high tech than this?

This wireless vest is equipped with three sensors that are placed on the hip, shoulder and hand. The sensors measure and analyze a player’s positions during a swing. The software system captures every movement. It provides information to the golf instructor who can prescribe drills to correct a problem.

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The K-Vest System was designed by Michael Bentley, co-founder and chief technology officer of Bentley Kinetics Inc. It gives an instructor a view of the inner works of the golfer’s muscles and body, allowing analysis of the swing in 3-D rather than just in two dimensions like a traditional video analysis, he said.

This new technology is available at The Kinetic Golf Academy at the Omni Interlocken Golf Club. It opened in March and is one of three such academies in the country.
The Omni’s director of instruction for the past seven years, Michael Schlager, was instrumental in helping Bentley develop what they call the kinetic swing system. It’s based on about 15 years of researching the biomechanics of a golf swing. It works on the theory that with proper balance and timely weight transfer a golfer can have a mechanically correct swing that results in better golf.

Bentley formed a team that consisted of physicists, NASA engineers, sport optometrists, podiatrists, sport physiologists, bio-mechanists, athletic trainers, and strength and conditioning coaches to perfect the system.

Instructors take into account a player’s physical abilities and can provide drills that can improve posture, balance, swinging on the correct plane to square the club head at impact.

“These sensors transmit swing data to a nearby portable computer station where it is synchronized with high-speed video to create real-time 3-D animations and performance graphs of your swing,” Bentley explained.

The information about the swing gathered by the K-Vest can be downloaded and sent over the Internet along with lessons, analysis, swing data and drills to the golfer.

“Sometimes simple adjustments can result in dramatic improvements in the swing,” Schlager told a group of media types at a demonstration in June.

Schlager told the group that one of the main keys of the kinetic system is good posture at the address position with the weight of the body distributed vertically over the balls of one’s feet. Once a solid base is in place, other parts of the swing – the take away, back swing, down swing, impact and follow-through – will be easier to repeat as well as generate more power and distance.

“The golf swing, simply put, is a chain of events, cause and effect. Until now the golfer has only been exposed to the effects,” Schlager said. “This system provides me as an instructor with the explanation of the cause and effect. It also gives me the ability to prescribe a program that is simple and easy for any student to understand.”

Contact Doug Storum at 303-440-4950 or dstorum@bcbr.com.

Kinetic know-howK-Vest one-hour session: $150, measures deviations from ideal kinetic motion. Re-education of body’s movement’s and patterns.
K-Vest half-hour session: $70
K-Vest supervised practice session: $45
Corporate groups: $40 per person, covers full swing, short game and performance aspects of the kinetic swing system. Five-to-one student to instructor ratio.
Phone: 303-464-9000 ext. 8