Foot Insole Pressure Distribution during the Golf Swing in Professionals and Amateur Players

There are numerous articles that study the ground reaction forces during the golf swing, among which only a few analyze the pressure pattern distributed on the entire surface of the foot. The current study compares the pressure patterns on the foot insoles of fifty-five golfers, from three different performance levels, playing swings with driver and 5-iron clubs in the driving range. Five swings were selected for each club. During each swing, ultra-thin insole sensors (4 sensors/cm^2) measure foot pressure at the frequency of 100 Hz. To perform statistical analysis, insole sensors are clustered to form seven areas, with the normalized pressure of each area being our dependent variable. A video camera was used to label the five key instants of the swing. Statistical analysis demonstrates a significant difference between the pressure distribution pattern of the left and right feet for both driver and 5-iron. However, the pressure distribution pattern remains almost the same when switching the club type from 5-iron to driver. We have also observed that there are significant differences between the pattern of professionals and players with medium and high handicap. The obtained pattern agrees with the principle of weight transfer with a different behavior between the medial and lateral areas of the foot.

Biomechanical Correlation Between Trunk and Foot Kinematics During Golf Swing Movement Before and After Fatigue

BackgroundKinematic chain of whole body is important during golf swing. Moreover, it was suggested that kinematics of golf swing was affected by fatigue. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the golf swing before and after fatigue of trunk muscles, and to assess the effect of the fatigue on kinematics of trunk as well as lower extremity. A total of 11 healthy adults participated in the current study. Golf swing motion in each subject was measured with a 7-iron on a grass plate using motion capture system. Three-dimensional kinematics of trunk and lower extremity on the lead side were evaluated.ResultsSagittal trunk instability was observed after fatigue. Regarding the kinematic chain, range of motion of trunk rotation (r = -0.76, p < 0.01) and knee rotation (r = 0.82, p < 0.01) were significantly correlated with the hindfoot rotation before the fatigue task. However, after the fatigue task, the hindfoot rotation was significantly correlated only with the knee rotation (r = 0.76, p <0.01). ConclusionsAs fatigue of trunk muscles will alter swing movement and kinematic chain, trunk muscle training can be one of key strategies to maintain swing performance. Trial registrationOur study was registered to UMIN (No. 000037037, date; 01/07/2019).