Revealing What’s Hidden

Rotation is best viewed when looking directly along the axis of rotation. In golf, that means the camera is perpendicular to the plane of rotation. This is especially important if you are trying to make some measurements to assess or to track improvement of the golfer. Let's build on the example of the spinning wheel, this time assimilating it to the golfer's belt buckle. Watch the video below to see how measurements appear to change depending on camera angle.   

It becomes evident that accurately assessing shoulder turn or pelvis turn becomes very difficult with a face on view. Shoulder turn is difficult because, even though we may be able to see them, the camera is not perpendicular to the rotation of the shoulders. When that happens, the same actual amount of shoulder turn can appear to be either more or less rotation, depending on whether it occurs early or late in the backswing. Because the pelvis is in the middle of the body, it is even more difficult to view how much it is rotating. Assessing pelvis rotation by looking at how much the belt buckle moves across the screen will give a very inaccurate measurement, because the buckle is moving across the screen but also away from the camera in the backswing.

However, using the almost overhead view and adding body lines we can highlight the movement of the shoulders and the pelvis. This makes it much easier for the instructor and golfer to see how much rotation is occurring. Let's take a look: