After the Demo Day on Wednesday, about 200 instructors got together for an Open Forum discussing golf instruction at Metrowest. This was being hosted by Nick Chertock (Golf Progress) and Chris Como (ChrisComoGolf.com).
This didn't go that well as the scope was too wide and you had too many instructors that showed up with interests in differing things. Some wanted to talk about Trackman, some wanted to talk about biomechanics, some wanted to talk about TGM, others wanted to talk about very basic teaching principles like drills and shooting the camera.
In the crowd were people like Rob Neal, Ben Shear, Joe Curtis, Mario Bevilacqua, John Dochety, David Graham, Lynn Blake, Joe Mayo, Brian Manzella, Fredrik Tuxen, Mike Adams, Mike McManus, Sasho MacKenzie, etc.
I don't want to discourage Chris Como and Nick Chertock from doing it again, particularly since this was the first time attempting this. I believe they can come up with a better plan and if they have one, I will attend it next year.
Thursday night was the Tweet Up 3.0, which had another great turnout with many of the same people that attended the Open Forum the previous night. However, Tour Striker inventor Martin Chuck was there. The Tour Striker was not at this year's demo day, but Martin told me they would be there next year they just wanted to take a year off and observe the show from the outside. There was also people like TJ Yeaton, Nick Starchuk, Wayne Yamaguchi, Sara Dickson, AimPoint founder Mark Sweeney, Rob McGill and many others there. I had a great time discussing the game, golf instruction, equipment and 2012 Pro Golf Synopsis.
Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted all of my pictures and videos from the Saturday show. This was my first time attending the Saturday show and it has a completely different feel to it as so many people in the industry leave on Saturday. Overall, the show was a bit disappointing as there was a noticeable lack of innovation and differentiation in products. The big thing in equipment now is utility irons. But, everybody has these utility irons and it's hard to differentiate itself. To make matters worse, Titleist didn't have their Utility iron on display. I had been told by some who have hit it that it's a great club. Too bad we couldn't get to see it.
I was impressed with the new UST Mamiya Recoil shafts.
The recoil shafts are a carbon fiber shaft much along the lines of Aerotech's Steel Fiber shafts. However, the UST Mamiya Recoil shafts have weights as light as 68 grams and as heavy as 125 grams. They almost look like a stepless steel shaft at first with the silver paint. The butt section is designed to be be thinner so the butt section is not too stiff. They have 3 different models, from the 600, 800 and Prototype series. I think I may try one out this year.
As I mentioned at the Demo Day, the Edel irons were fantastic:
The Edel irons have numerous customiziation options from the offset, top line, bounce angle, toe design, etc. What's interesting about the Edel irons is that they can make the head weight for each iron to your exact specifications. If you're into MOI matching like I am, you get a better headweight without having to use lead tape.
I thought the new ES12 ball and clubhead monitor was pretty neat for $250.
Lastly, I was quite impressed with what the Swing Catalyst has to offer. Here's the integration model which incorporates launch monitor and force plates into swing instruction and analysis.
Hopefully come 2014 we'll see some more advances in equipment. Otherwise, it was another great experience.
3JACK
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