Do you really want to see your golf swing on video?

Golfers who seek to better their game have a number of options available to them, from lessons using video to private instruction on the course. But what is the best way to learn to improve golf swings and ball flight? The answer depends on who is asked.

?There’s no doubt (using video in lessons) is a better way to learn,? said Mike Clinton, senior vice president and co-founder, GolfTEC. ?Any program worth it’s salt is using it.?

To help golfers identify correct positioning with their golf swing, GolfTEC uses biofeedback through sensors placed on a student’s shoulders and hips. Computer-generated parameters derived from professional golfer swings beep at students to let them know when they are off-track. GolfTEC also videotapes each session and makes the recorded lessons available to students via the Internet.

?There are a number of different ways to learn. There are visual learners. There are those who learn by feel and those who learn through auditory,? Clinton said. About 70 percent of people learn through visual cues, he added, so it makes sense to teach using video because it lets people see for themselves how to improve.

?A golf swing happens in a second. For the human eye to catch all of it is not possible,? Clinton said. ?Especially with really good players, it’s even more difficult. (By using video), we can look the swing and dissect what happens.?

At GolfTEC, the initial hour-long evaluation costs $150. But if customers purchase a package of half-hour lessons, the price is reduced to $95. Five half-hour video sessions cost $300, while 10 half-hour sessions are $550. Other package prices are available for 15 and 25 half-hour lessons as well.

Bogart Golf, which relies on digital photography used in an indoor facility to tape golfers’ swings, offers a free introductory evaluation, with subsequent lessons ranging from $140 to $475. Students also can sign up for a membership, ranging from $50 to $70, which allows them to visit and photograph their swings as many times as they desire.

?After a lesson in the traditional sense, a golfer would go out to the range to try out what they have learned but by then they have lost the feedback,? said Jeremy Moreno, Bogart Golf co-founder and teaching professional, in Broomfield. ?A (correct) golf swing requires muscle memory, and it takes correct repetition.?

Under their instruction, he has seen golfers reduce their handicap from 24 to 12. ?Every student improves,? he added. ?We guarantee improvement.?

Yet despite the purported benefits of using video, some instructors choose not to utilize the technology. Vance Pollock, head golf instructor, Flatirons Golf Course, is one example.

?Video doesn’t have any bearing on what you’re going to teach,? said Pollock, who has taught golf for 15 years. ?We think our time is better spent with a student, out hitting balls. This is better than looking at tapes.?

At Flatirons Golf Course, individual lessons cost $35 for one half-hour, while three one-hour group lessons cost $65 for Boulder residents. Through instruction, Pollock said, ?We’re trying to improve the way the golf ball flies. With a video, you don’t see how the golf ball flies. You’re just looking at the swings.?

Still, other area locations use a combination of both teaching techniques. At Twin Peaks Golf Course in Longmont, lessons are offered with and without video. The cost for a 45-minute lesson without video or a 30-minute session with video is $40. Four lessons of either format are $140.

Kit James Sutorius Jr., PGA pro, said he typically teaches beginners without video because there tends to be so much wrong with their swings that taping them isn’t beneficial. However, for the more advanced golfer, ?Video is the only way to do it.?

?We take a laptop out to the course and a camera, then compare their swing to PGA professional swings,? Sutorius said. ?This is more for players who are well-adapted to the game, who don’t need as much time.?

Meanwhile, the Nike Golf Learning Center, located at the Thorncreek, Park Hill and Applewood golf courses, offers programs that progressively use more video as the player improves. The group lesson for beginners, for example, lasts six hours and is broken into four one-and-a-half hour sessions. Of the four lessons, the third session is the only one that involves video analysis. As the player advances, more video analysis is used.

?I have not met anyone who didn’t like (video analysis),? said Jamie Jacobson, LPGA pro, Applewood.

But she also added that the improvement each golfer experiences from using it depends on how much they practice. ?We had one player who shot 90 to 100 for 18 holes, then went through (the beginner program), followed by private lessons and he is now in the low 80s,? Jacobson said. Group lessons at the Nike Golf Learning Centers range from $159 to $179.

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