August 27, 2008

Members | About Us | Site Map | Contact Us

• Animal Training
• Business Training
• Career Training
• Computer Training
• Personal Training
• Safety Training
• Sports Training
• Training Institutions

 

Goggles Aid Golfers

A university in Australia has developed a set of high tech training goggles to help golfers improve their game. The Aukland University of Technology's Golf Swing Clinic is now offering workshops at $200 per person that incorporate the goggles, along with other science and technological breakthroughs, in their training methods.

The Golf Goggle Training System allows golfers to view their movements from almost any angle as they rehearse their swing. Small TV screens in the goggles' lenses capture information from nearby cameras and display it for the golfer in realtime. This allows for instant correction of any problems associated with the player's posture or movement pattern and helps prevent the development of bad swing habits and game related injuries. 

The goggles were initially developed for Autralian rowing teams and allowed rowers to get an instant side-on view of their stroke. The on-the-water nature of rowing meant that in the past participants had to be videotaped using a handheld video camera in another boat or back on land. Rowers couldn\'t view footage of their stroke until they came ashore, and then they had to remember what they had seen the next time they were on the water.

Clara Soper, an AUT PhD student who developed the rowing goggles, received the prestigious New Investigator Award at the International Society of Biomechanics in Sports Symposium in Spain back in 2002. Since then the goggles have been used in training Olympic level rowers.

Currently the only way for golfers to test out the new technology is by taking part in AUT's Golf Swing Clinic, but researchers are hoping to create a commercially available set of goggles that would retail for about $1,500 per pair.

An alternative type of golfing goggles that uses night vision technology to project a grid onto the lenses and create a holographic path for the clubhead and ball to follow during putting are already commercially available for a retail price of about $60.

Comments