“My coach tells me to keep my head down.”
It is probably the most common piece of advice in golf. It is also one of the least useful. When a player hits it fat or thin, the head is almost never to blame. The real culprit is the low point, and it can be measured in a single session.
That is the whole point of a swing assessment. We stop guessing. We measure what your club really does, and we work on the cause rather than the symptom.
Here is what I look at during a swing assessment in Marrakech, and in what order.
The radar corrects nothing. It tells you what to correct.
A TrackMan radar measures more than twenty values on every shot. Put in front of a player as they are, they are useless. The job is to find, among them, the two or three that explain what you see on the course.
I always start from the ball flight you see. Then I trace it back to the values that explain it, and I only work on those. The rest waits its turn.
1. Where the ball starts: the face
The start direction depends mainly on where the face points at impact. If your ball starts left, your face was pointing left. That is the first value I read, because it decides everything else.
2. Why it curves: the gap between face and path
Curvature does not come from the face alone. It comes from the gap between the face and the club path, which TrackMan calls face to path. That is what produces a slice or a hook.
Most players who slice try to close the face. They then send the ball even further left, and the curve gets bigger. The radar settles the question in a few shots. I explain this mechanism in the article Corriger son slice (in French).
3. How the club meets the ball: the low point
With an iron, good contact requires the club to reach the bottom of its arc after the ball. The radar measures the angle of attack and locates this low point. A player who hits it fat has a low point before the ball. Keeping the head down changes nothing.
That is the subject of the article Pourquoi vous grattez la balle (in French).
4. What you lose along the way: speed and strike
Club head speed tells you what your body produces. Ball speed tells you how much of it you transfer. The ratio between the two, the smash factor, measures the quality of your strike.
Many players look for distance by swinging harder. They would often gain more metres simply by hitting the centre of the face more often.
5. Your real distances
The assessment often ends with your carry distances, club by club. Most amateurs overestimate theirs, or have two clubs that send the ball the same distance. Knowing your real distances saves shots from the very next round, without changing anything in the swing.
Why the radar alone is not enough
TrackMan shows what the club does. It does not show what the body does to get it there. I have worked a lot on ground forces, notably with Mike Adams, and I kept one conviction from it: the club only follows the body. That is why my half-day assessment combines three instruments.
| Instrument | The question it answers |
|---|---|
| TrackMan radar | What does the club do at impact, and what does the ball do next? |
| Force plates | How do you use the ground to produce speed? |
| CAPTO sensor | How does your putter move, to a tenth of a degree? |
An out-to-in club path often comes from a poor weight transfer. Correcting the path without looking at the ground forces means treating the symptom. On the same player, I have measured up to thirty-five metres of difference depending on how he pushed into the ground. That is the subject of the article La force verticale (in French).
The key pointThe assessment does not give you twenty numbers. It gives you the two or three that matter for you, and what we do with them.
How the assessment works at G.Spot
The assessment lasts four hours, at G.Spot Golf Marrakech, on the Amizmiz road. We start with a few warm-up balls, then measure the long game with the radar, ground forces on the force plates and putting with the CAPTO sensor. Everything happens indoors, on a simulator, whatever the weather.
You leave with a written summary. It contains your starting values, two or three priorities and a drill for each one. At the next session, we measure the same values again. If the number has moved, the movement has changed.
The assessment is the ideal starting point before a series of lessons or a camp. I compare the formats in the article Golf Lessons in Marrakech.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a good level for a TrackMan assessment?
No. The radar is as useful to a 30 handicap player as to a professional. Only the priorities change.
How long does a swing assessment last?
Four hours, to measure the swing, ground forces and putting without rushing.
Should I bring my clubs?
Yes, if possible. We measure your game with your own equipment, and the assessment sometimes shows that a club does not suit you.
Can the assessment lead to a fitting?
Yes. If the measurement shows that your equipment is holding you back, we can compare several set-ups with the radar and the sensor. Testing is done with the Callaway and Odyssey ranges.
Want to know your two or three numbers?The full assessment measures your swing, your ground forces and your putting in half a day at G.Spot. You leave with a written summary and your work plan.
Alvin Pivaty is a PGA France Master Professional golf coach, certified TrackMan Master and CAPTO Expert. A former professional player, he coaches in Marrakech and works with elite amateur and professional golfers.
This article is also available en français.