Virtual reality reminds that feeling the swing is real deal

January 5, 2016 By

homepic1Interesting WSJ story that virtual reality can help people make change.

Reminds me of Virtually Perfect Golf in the early 2000s, which was a great idea developed by Don Wilson. (I did their PR.) He got the idea that if people could see and feel themselves make a great golf swing within a model, they would improve quickly.

The swing model was based on Canadian pro Ben Kern, the biz created a lot of excitement, and it soon sold franchises, and spawned a number of imitators. Unfortunately, the biz foundered.

However, I learned more about the importance of feel in the swing from VPG. Rather than think about movements in the swing, which is what most people do, you could feel them more acutely, which is ultimately an easier and better way to learn a physical game such as golf. Maybe VR will help golfers in the future, but for now we can rely on our good old sense of feel.

Filed Under: Blog, Coaching, Golf, Instruction, Performance Tagged With: , , ,
About Tim O'Connor

Tim O'Connor is a golf coach, an award-winning writer, and speaker. Tim takes a holistic approach, coaching golfers in the physical and mental aspects of golf. He co-hosts the Swing Thoughts podcast with Howard Glassman, and is the author of The Feeling of Greatness: The Moe Norman Story. He plays bass in CID—a Guelph punk band!

Comments

  1. Tom says
    February 10, 2016 at 7:23 pm

    Tim
    If you are still in contact with Don Wilson, could you forward my email address to him to contact me. We are high school class mates from Leaside.

    Thanks
    Tom Butt
    Tsb@msn.com