CLEVELAND SPEED BOAT DRIVER?
No what you are looking at below will most likely NOT be the next Cleveland driver released. So what is this then?
Well…often times when golf companies are looking for inspiration on future golf club designs…they might hire outside designers to come up with multiple concepts (or what they call: ideations) to hopefully help spark some new ideas. This is most likely one of many they were looking at. You might be surprised how often this happens. MyGolfSpy readers often send in emails asking which comes first in golf club design “form or function”. Well it is a mix of both. Generally engineers will develop a technology and then a team tries to build a eye pleasing design around that technology. But there have been just as many cases where looks started the design and the technology followed.
I spoke to the designer of these drawings and asked him what Cleveland was looking for when they approached him about doing some ideations for them. He expressed that he was extremely happy to hear that they gave him free reign with the concepts he would be designing. He approached the design from an aerodynamic standpoint…which he based around a “speed boat” type theme. So will the “Cleveland Speed Boat Driver” ever hit golf shops across the country? Well hard to say…but I think the images give you an interesting insight into how the design process can start.
SWING TRAIL L.E.D.?
So…what the hell is that swing trail l.e.d. thing all about? Well don’t know if you have ever seen any of the training aids that have an l.e.d. light in them. But this one was based on a similar principle but took it to the next level. Basically you would be able to see your exact swing plane and swing path while swinging. This data could also be downloaded and viewed via a computer hook-up to help analyze your swing.
Jerry Foley
13 years ago
I am also intrigued by the L.E.D. idea and not to be a naysayer but wonder how an L.E.D. light could possibly be transmitted to a computer for analysis? A light is just that, a light. It could be “observed” as you swing but at some critical points in your swing you would be unable to view, i.e. top of swing. It “could” be instructive if you practice swung while looking in a mirror. But to get the “tracer effect” you would need to swing at a speed high enough to “leave” a light trail and thus how would you know if the face angle were correct (open/closed) at any point in the swing? Much of the golf swing is “compensating” as you swing. The pro’s do it all the time. Compensating is making mid-swing corrections that the brain directs since it detects minor swing faults. These ever changing body movements confuse the golfer and erratic results ensue. It is only through cognitive processing with correct positioning of swingplane and clubface squareness that a ball goes straight. Pro’s know where the swing path is supposed to be as well as the clubface. The rest of us guess but occasionally guees right.
Sliq
13 years ago
http://www.toxel.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/lightwriting02.jpg
I’m not entirely sure how to do it, but I know there is a way to capture the complete path of your swing in a light trail. I’ve seen a lot of artists doing similar things with cameras and video camera, so I think it’s plausible.
Jerry Foley
13 years ago
Sliq- My company is working on a golf device that is completely portable to the golf course and will give the golfer realtime knowledge of “where” his swing path and club face attitude are. This is no small feat and is rather complicated to explain. I like your intuition and would like to discuss offline with you. Please contact me at [email protected]. We have a private website with animations of how our device works but we would need a signed non-disclosure from you. Our approach is quite different than post-swing data analysis that everyone does. The led light idea is very simple and could be beneficial to some but doesn’t answer several problems golfers need to fix, i.e. “where is my swing path ‘supposed’ to be?” now that I can see ‘where’ it is. And “how do I go about fixing that swing path problem?”. We do not take the approach that there is only “1-way” to swing. No two golfers have or should have the same swing path. Our device can be programmed to any swing type, from Furyk to Garcia to Nicklaus to Woods to Stricker. Anyone is welcome to communicate under non-disclosure with me. We are looking for a few good golf minds to pick our idea apart not praise it. Feel free to email me.