ModelGolf, LLC
ModelGolf, LLC is a sports technology company dedicated to optimizing performance in golf
through research and the application of scientific biomechanical principles.
Since 1982, it has collected the swing performances of the best PGA and LPGA Tour players. Using their
swings as the basis of excellence, ModelGolf has determined how the best play the game and combined this into a
single Model swing.
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Our Mission
ModelGolf’s mission is to deliver to the worldwide golf market,
scientifically-based golf instruction programs utilizing personalized computer
modeling to enhance understanding, improve performance and ultimately bring
enjoyment to our customers.
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The Importance of Mechanics
ModelGolf's philosophy of golf improvement is simple. Improve your
performance mechanics and you will improve your game.
The overwhelming majority of our students rank consistency as their number one goal
in playing the game of golf. What they often do not realize is that their performance
inconsistency is a result of consistently repeating errors in their swing mechanics.
We have filmed thousands of golf swings. Our students are often surprised to see that
their "best" swings (those that resulted in good shots) look identical to their
"worst" swings (those that produced their poor shots).
Good shots can result from poor swings because of last minute manipulation of the club
that successfully squares the clubface at impact. The problem is, these compensating
manipulations are impossible to perform precisely every time. The poorer a golfer's
swing mechanics, the more compensations that need to be made and the more inconsistent the shots.
The only way to become a consistently better golfer is to improve your swing mechanics.
To do this you first need a standard of excellence to compare yourself against and
thereby correctly identify your errors. The problem is that there are almost as many
opinions about this standard as there are golfers. How do you sort one from another?
We at ModelGolf believe the answer lies in science. Scientists deal in facts, not opinions.
We have used science to objectively measure the mechanics of the world's best golfers.
This fact-based research is unique in the game of golf and it offers you the best available
information for achieving lasting improvement in your game.
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The Scientific Foundation
The field of Biomechanics investigates the physics of how the body creates movement.
Biomechanics science is the foundation of ModelGolf's teaching programs.
For any given sports motion, running, jumping, throwing a ball etc., biomechanics
has shown there is a single best way to perform the action - a performance ideal.
Golf is perhaps the most analytically challenging sport of all. It embodies very complex
motions that require rigorous observation and research. ModelGolf is the first and only
golf improvement program to combine biomechanics research, statistical analysis and
computer technology to identify performance ideals for the game of golf. These
performance ideals encompass the full swing, the short game and putting and they
are all embodied in the ModelPro, a computer generated, biomechanically perfect
golfer (View Creating The ModelPro).
The ModelPro reflects the best performance characteristics of the world's best golfers.
As a foundation for golf instruction, he is unbeatable. The information contained in
the ModelPro is scientifically correct - it is based on fact not opinion.
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Why Golf Needs ModelGolf Science
Having the right information is essential for sustained improvement in any sports activity.
Golf is blessed with many professional instructors who excel in the capacity of how to teach.
However, in contrast to many other sports, there is so much contradictory opinion on what to
teach that the game of golf has essentially stagnated. Golf scores are no better today on
average than they were 20 years ago - despite huge titanium clubheads, oversized irons,
specially-designed balls that set distance records, and near perfect playing conditions
compared to years past. Even at the top level, today's tour players on average perform
little better than their counterparts of twenty years ago.
The story is very different in other sports where elite athletes have taken performance
levels to undreamed of heights. For example, US track and field athletes have enjoyed
dramatic performance gains while golf has barely advanced. In the early 1970's, track
and field was dominated by opinion-based coaching information. Since then, Biomechanics
research has been used to eliminate those opinions that were faulty and focus instead
on fact-based findings. As research and science began to guide the professional teaching
of athletics, a dramatic improvement in US track and field performance commenced with
US Olympic athletes regaining dominance and setting record after record in many individual events.
Other sports are now recognizing that real breakthroughs in performance are only possible
when expert teaching is combined with expert information. The combination of science-based
information and teaching expertise is being used today to evaluate and improve the performance
of Major League baseball players and NFL teams.
In the game of golf, ModelGolf is alone in developing and using this revolutionary
approach to instruction. At ModelGolf Facilities, our scientific information combined
with expert teaching has helped thousands of students of all skill levels improve their
understanding and performance of golf. (View Twenty Years Experience
in Golf Improvement). And now, with the advent of the internet, ModelGolf is
bringing this unique methodology and experience to the global golf market.
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The ModelPro was created through scientific analysis of the
expert performances of the world's top golfers.
For over twenty years, ModelGolf has filmed and studied the movements of
the majority of the best golfers in the world at our research laboratory. We've analyzed the
performances of more than 120 PGA and LPGA Tour Professionals, including Jack Nicklaus,
Davis Love III, Jesper Parnevik, Mark O'Meara, Jim Furyk, Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Betsy King, Brandie Burton
and many others. We've filmed and analyzed these great players swinging every club in
their bag, including short game and putting. The ModelPro is the result of this research effort.
The ModelPro is much more than a simple average of these elite golfers. Rather,
we have used statistics to isolate the best of their common characteristics while
rejecting their individual weaknesses.
This frame-by-frame analysis of thousands
of feet of film has produced a ModelPro who not only has a biomechanically perfect
game but also the perfect balance of strength, flexibility and coordination.
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Dr. Ralph Mann, a former Olympic hurdler and world record holder who holds
a Ph.D. in Biomechanics, created the ModelPro.
Dr. Mann became interested in biomechanics science 30 years ago as a means to improve his competitive
ability in the arena of world class athletics. Looking for even the slightest edge to improve his
performance in the 400-meter hurdles, he meticulously analyzed film of the world's best hurdlers -
and found a way to incorporate what they were doing into his performance.
As a result, he won three NCAA championships, seven National championships, the US Olympic trials, as
well as setting the world record. In the 1972 Olympics, Ralph Mann was the slowest sprinter in the field -
but his hurdling technique enabled him to win the silver medal.
By 1980, armed with a Ph.D. in Biomechanics and using an advanced computerized teaching system,
Dr. Mann began turning out US Olympic track and field stars. Since 1980, Dr. Mann's computer models
have been used to train virtually all US Olympic hurdlers and sprinters. Athletes trained using his
technology currently hold more than half of the world records in these events. Now his innovative
system is being used in Major League Baseball and NFL training camps. In 1983, Dr. Mann founded
CompuSport International, the forerunner of ModelGolf, and turned his attention - and his
technology - toward improving the game of golf.
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Customizing The ModelPro to Your Body
The ModelPro can be adapted to fit any body type.
In developing the ModelPro, our scientists identified considerable adaptations
among professional swings due not only to body height and width, but also to
seemingly minor differences such as arm and leg length, the ratio between the
length of the upper and lower body, and shoulder and hip width.
While the ModelPro has the perfect body for golf, our research on the
impact of body build on expert motion has enabled us to adapt and optimize
the ModelPro to any individual body type. This means that your individual
Model represents the best information on how you can perform the game of
golf given your specific body dimensions.
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How Technology Accelerates Learning
ModelGolf employs a patented Model overlay technology that greatly accelerates the ability of our students to understand the game of golf and improve their performance.
The ModelPro is both a solid, three dimensional figure and a two dimensional stick figure
that corresponds to a person's main skeletal structure. The three dimensional figure is used by
our online distance learning program to illustrate your swing challenges so you can better understand
how to improve your swing. For ModelGolf Members who take a video lesson at one of our certified
ModelGolf Teaching Centers or
submit a video for analysis, we use the two dimensional stick figure
overlayed on the student's actual body allowing a clear visual performance comparison from Setup to Follow Through.
Both the three dimensional comparison Model and two dimensional Model Overlay techniques are employed from
two different views of the student's swing; face on and down the target line.
ModelGolf's animated overlay technology makes it very easy for the student to see and understand
how his performance deviates from his model performance. At the same time, with these unambiguous
images of performance ideal and student error, it is much easier for the teaching professional
to communicate effectively his recommendations for a student's improvement. As a result,
ModelGolf's overlay
technology promotes a fast learning curve.
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Combining Science with Quality Instruction
Our scientific findings on the ModelPro have been combined with the expert
teaching methodologies of highly respected PGA, LPGA or USGTF Instructors to create the best
teaching program in the world.
The original program was developed by the scientist who created the ModelPro,
Dr. Ralph Mann the founder of ModelGolf, and the PGA Instructor, Fred Griffin
who is the Director of Golf at The Grand Cypress Academy of Golf and one of
Golf Magazine's top 50 instructors.
This teaching program, which is now available on ModelGolf.com, has been
continually updated and improved over the past twenty years. Improvements
have come from new scientific research on how Touring Pros practice and
improve and from our experience in teaching tens of thousands of ModelGolf
academy students how to best achieve their ModelPro performance. In addition,
new ideas on instruction and drills have been developed by other ModelGolf
certified instructors.
Not only have our instructors played a key role in developing the
ModelGolf Personal Improvement Program (PIP) but also all our instructors are
trained in the same methodologies. Therefore, whether you visit one of
our academies or visit ModelGolf.com, you will receive the same, fact-based
information regarding your swing and how to make it better. We guarantee it. |
Twenty Years Experience in Golf Improvement
ModelGolf Facilities have been helping golfers improve their game since
the mid 1980's. We have given ModelGolf lessons to over forty thousand
students, including Touring and Teaching Pros, celebrities and amateurs of all skill levels.
This extensive experience in teaching the ModelPro mechanics has been
invaluable in helping us refine and improve our how to teach capabilities
and thereby achieve maximum leverage of our scientifically based what to teach expertise.
The list of professional golfers who have taken ModelGolf lessons includes Davis Love III,
Seve Ballesteros, Greg Norman, Tom Kite, Jack Nicklaus, Beth Daniel and many more. Here's what
some of the pros had to say about their experience:
"Using the ModelGolf system to evaluate my swing has been an experience
I have found very helpful."
Ben Crenshaw, PGA Tour Professional
"My father and I spent many productive hours working with the information
provided by Dr. Mann. I'm glad that golfers of all levels will now be able
to benefit from this work. I found real value in the ModelGolf experience.
I could see my swing against my model, know what to work on, then go to
the practice tee and do it."
Davis Love III, PGA Tour Professional
"ModelGolf has been an experience I have found more than helpful several
times in my professional playing career."
Brad Faxon, PGA Tour Professional
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ModelGolf Products
ModelGolf’s entire product line incorporates the same fact-based standard for golf
instruction delivered using the ModelPro and the ModelOverlay.
This standard is available to you through multiple products including:
- Internet-based Personal Improvement Program (PIP)
- "Swing Like a Pro" Book
- Fundamentals of a Model Swing CD-ROM
- SwingMaker Screen Saver
- ModelGolf Setup Template
In addition, ModelGolf has a custom club fitting service based on the ModelPro
available to Members in the Equipment section of the Member Site.
The Personal Improvement Program (PIP) is the centerpiece of the ModelGolf brand.
Your Program gives you information, analysis,
recommendations, and tools for improving your performance - customized to your
specific physical characteristics, skills and objectives. The
Program is organic, constantly evolving with the your golf game and
continuously improving. We track and analyze the results of all Members and
utilize the results of this research to provide you with the best information to
help you correct your specific swing errors. Your PIP is
designed to enable you to achieve and maintain long-term swing improvement for a
lifetime of more consistent play and enjoyable golf.
Personal instruction is provided at ModelGolf certified Teaching Centers featuring
our revolutionary Computer Teaching System (CTS) that enables golf instructors to
give lessons on-site using the ModelOverlay. The CTS is connected to the ModelGolf
web site, which stores student information including your Model Swing,
video-recorded swings and lesson history. ModelGolf Members are able to
schedule lessons and access their video analysis, together with instructor
comments, tutorials and drills through the ModelGolf website.
For more information about ModelGolf’s revolutionary science-based golf training
program take our Guest Tour.
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