Club Fitting
Ensuring players have suitable equipment to help their development and to support performance is an important part of the programme. Using ill-fitting clubs can cause a number of problems. But not just at the start, but it can cause issues later on in your golfing life.
If the club is a poor fit, then it will affect how you address the ball. If the initial stance is not correct, the dynamics of your swing will be affected. It makes it much more difficult to obtain the required positions during the swing without an incredible amount of manipulation. Inevitably, it will lead to inconsistency and poor performance. Club fitting is a 4-part process…
The Club Fitting Process
1. A discussion about your clubs
The process starts with an interview, so that we can ascertain the important information that we need. Firstly, we need to identify your ball-flight tendencies and any equipment specifications you may have. You’ll be asked what you like and dislike about your current set. We also need to know if you have any needs or preferences from your new equipment. These questions will continue throughout the fitting process. This ensures that your new clubs will be the best match for your swing, your physique and your requirements.
2. Initial Fitting
Next, we need to determine your initial club specifications based on your preferences, your needs and your ability. For the woods we’ll look at your general performance characteristics of different models, lofts and shafts. However, for iron fitting, your height and wrist-to-floor measurement are taken to calculate your lie angle and shaft length. Your hand dimensions are also taken in order to calculate your grip size. This part of the process provides us with a starting point for the fitting to progress from.
3. Dynamic Swing Testing
In order to fit your irons, we will ask you to hit some golf balls from an impact board. We add some special tape to the club head which leaves a mark when your club hits the board. This helps us to understand how your setup, posture and swing affect the clubhead’s position at the point of impact. The information on the tape allows us to adjust the clubs to arrive at your optimum lie angle.
We have a similar process for the woods, except the tape is applied to the face of the club. Once you have hit a few balls, we will be able to read the markings and measure your consistency. This helps us to determine the best shaft length.
4. Ball-Flight Analysis
We’ll then use a variety of different club variations and measure their performance using a Launch Monitor. By analysing the spin, launch angle, swing speed, distance and shot dispersion it allows us to fine tune the clubs.
Finally, we will combine the technical data and the ball flight observations with all the other information we have gathered. With this information we can make any final adjustments to the clubs, ensuring the player has the best fitting clubs.
Contact us today
If you would like to chat to us in person to learn more about the Junior Players Golf Academy, please get in touch.