Instruction
Creating a top junior golfer with K-VEST and K-PLAYER
In the fall of 2014, a high school sophomore walked into my facility for a K-VEST evaluation session. He was referred by a K-VEST-certified fitness professional, Scott Prunier. Averaging in the low- to mid-70s in tournament competition, he had just won the New Hampshire State Junior title, but he was barely getting any attention from colleges around New England — never mind top Division I programs — because of his history playing in bigger regional and national events on tougher, longer courses. His ambition was to play college golf at the highest possible level, and he was willing to work hard to achieve this goal.
To give you some background, the young man (who must remain anonymous because of the rules of amateur status) was averaging 270 yards off the tee, was a slender 5-foot 10-inches tall, 160 pounds, and occasionally fought back pain. A couple of close friends had helped him reach that point in his golfing career by using videos to assist him with his swing and overall golf game, but he was stuck. He no longer knew what to do to improve his swing. To play at a higher level, he knew that he needed to gain more distance off the tee, add consistency with his irons and learn how to eliminate his back pain.
I suited him up in K-VEST and captured his swing. When I looked at the swing summary reports and the graphs of his kinematic sequence, I identified a few red flags that indicated why he was losing distance, had issues with iron consistency and had some back pain. First, at address, he would set up in C-Posture. Second, at the top of his backswing, his pelvis bend increased too much. Third, he had too much upper body rotation and upper body bend at the top of his backswing, which put him into a reverse spine angle, creating his occasional back pain. As a talented player, he found ways to compensate for these challenges in his swing. However, to achieve the level of golf at which he wanted to play, it was important we address these aspects of his swing right away.
After assessing his swing, I developed a program using the biofeedback function that’s a part of both K-VEST and K-PLAYER. As with all players who have more than one issue — and most do — I had to pick a starting point. As a rule, I work from setup through impact unless an area is screaming out for attention. In his case, I was concerned about the injury risk from the reverse spine angle, but I decided to work on posture first, as I thought that could also help change the reverse spine angle.
Where a player starts a swing has a lot to do with where the swing goes, in my experience, so I worked on his posture first, getting him more athletic and feeling engaged through his feet and lower body with a neutral spine. To do this, while suited up in the K-VEST, I set him in the exact posture I wanted him to learn and hit the “set live” button on the K-VEST to save it as our model going forward. We then worked for some time setting him up in this position. Our work process was first without a club, then with a club, and then hitting balls.
After he was comfortable in his new athletic posture, I trained his pelvis bend by building a program that helped us train his pelvis bend at setup, impact and the top. I used a number of variations and added difficulty as we went along. We followed the same work path as with the setup: no club, club and then hitting balls.
Watch the video below to learn more about how biofeedback works.
Once he had mastered his new pelvis mechanics, we addressed the upper body side bend with biofeedback, following the same workflow. The greatest value to him was using the biofeedback program I designed. He was quite pleased at how it enabled him to consistently execute perfect reps to more quickly develop a more efficient and powerful swing. He could see and feel the improvement as we worked, and that increased his motivation.
Our work experience was like that of many of my students with K-VEST and K-PLAYER. After the first lesson, when we captured his motion, we saw the efficiency and red flags that we had identified had already improved greatly. In one lesson, he had learned to swing without creating reverse spine angle at the top of his swing (eliminating the risk of back injury), and most importantly to him he was able to swing faster with more control. However, to really make the new move permanent and enable him to perform when under pressure in tournaments, he stayed dedicated with the training throughout the off-season. Session one was the “wow.” Then came the months of hard work. In my experience, the wow is not to be under-appreciated, as it provides inspiration for the hard work to come.
In order to feel prepared to have his best competitive season yet in 2015, he came to see me about once a week through the winter. We worked mostly in the supervised form of coaching. We always used the biofeedback in K-VEST and K-PLAYER to train him and then captured swings at least two times per month to make sure he was progressing. Since he is a very competitive and talented player, I wanted to be sure I was supervising him consistently.
Once he began his competitive season and he was traveling around the country, we would only meet once or twice per month to capture his swing with K-VEST to see if there were any red flags in his technique that we needed to improve quickly. Often, we were continuing to train what we worked on from our initial sessions, making sure he was not reverting to any of his previous poor swing patterns.
Key in training these high-level players in a competitive season is to not have them feeling as if they must change their motion under the pressure of competition, which leads to poor performance. So, during competitive season, it was most important to help him manage his already-improved swing. In the offseason, we could attack the changes we wanted to make in a more intensive manner. This is a pattern we have stuck to ever since. We make changes in the offseason and maintain and build on that progress during the competitive season.
In the summer of 2015, he finished third in the Southern Junior Amateur Championship at Olde Stone Golf Club in Kansas. After this event, his phone started to ring, calls coming from schools such as Wake Forest, North Carolina, Clemson and Virginia. His game had really improved. He hit a few drives over 300 yards, showing an improvement of more than 30 yards from the year before in this event, and he did so while under the pressure of playing in front of the coaches of these programs who could evaluate his new swing.
In the fall of 2015, my student received an early scholarship offer from Wake Forest, currently the No. 12-ranked team in the country and accepted it. In the summer of 2016, he was a quarterfinalist in the U.S. Junior Amateur and is now the No. 16-ranked junior golfer in the world according to Golfweek. He is currently a senior in high school and will attend Wake Forest in the fall.
As a coach, I can say that using K-VEST and K-PLAYER with my student immensely accelerated our improvement process toward achieving his goals. We were never guessing how to improve; instead, we had designed our program to maximize his swing efficiency and he put in the effort. The ability for him to know he was making perfect practice reps every session and being able to capture swings to validate our program’s success, tracking his progress from start to finish, gave us great confidence that he was continuing to improve as a player.
I have found that the use of K-VEST and K-PLAYER in different ways during the on- and off-seasons has added great value to how he and all my players train and play. We use it to make big changes in the offseason and to maintain those changes during the competitive season. And when anything is starting to slide, we return to the setup first, using a setup we saved by “setting live” in biofeedback on a day when a player was swinging really well and confidently.
I am proud of the progress my student has made and look forward to being a part of his journey as he continues to grow as a golfer.
There may be no more painful affliction in golf than the “yips” – those uncontrollable and maddening little nervous twitches that prevent you from making a decent stroke on short putts. If you’ve never had them, consider yourself very fortunate (or possibly just very young). But I can assure you that when your most treacherous and feared golf shot is not the 195 yard approach over water with a quartering headwind…not the extra tight fairway with water left and sand right…not the soft bunker shot to a downhill pin with water on the other side…No, when your most feared shot is the remaining 2- 4-foot putt after hitting a great approach, recovery or lag putt, it makes the game almost painful.
And I’ve been fighting the yips (again) for a while now. It’s a recurring nightmare that has haunted me most of my adult life. I even had the yips when I was in my 20s, but I’ve beat them into submission off and on most of my adult life. But just recently, that nasty virus came to life once again. My lag putting has been very good, but when I get over one of those “you should make this” length putts, the entire nervous system seems to go haywire. I make great practice strokes, and then the most pitiful short-stroke or jab at the ball you can imagine. Sheesh.
But I’m a traditionalist, and do not look toward the long putter, belly putter, cross-hand, claw or other variation as the solution. My approach is to beat those damn yips into submission some other way. Here’s what I’m doing that is working pretty well, and I offer it to all of you who might have a similar affliction on the greens.
When you are over a short putt, forget the practice strokes…you want your natural eye-hand coordination to be unhindered by mechanics. Address your putt and take a good look at the hole, and back to the putter to ensure good alignment. Lighten your right hand grip on the putter and make sure that only the fingertips are in contact with the grip, to prevent you from getting to tight.
Then, take a long, long look at the hole to fill your entire mind and senses with the target. When you bring your head/eyes back to the ball, try to make a smooth, immediate move right into your backstroke — not even a second pause — and then let your hands and putter track right back together right back to where you were looking — the HOLE! Seeing the putter make contact with the ball, preferably even the forward edge of the ball – the side near the hole.
For me, this is working, but I am asking all of you to chime in with your own “home remedies” for the most aggravating and senseless of all golf maladies. It never hurts to have more to fall back on!
Over the last couple of decades, golf has become much more science-based. We measure swing speed, smash factor, angle of attack, strokes gained, and many other metrics that can really help golfers improve. But I often wonder if the advancement of golf’s “hard” sciences comes at the expense of the “soft” sciences.
Take, for example, golf instruction. Good golf instruction requires understanding swing mechanics and ball flight. But let’s take that as a given for PGA instructors. The other factors that make an instructor effective can be evaluated by social science, rather than launch monitors.
If you are a recreational golfer looking for a golf instructor, here are my top three points to consider.
1. Cultural mindset
What is “cultural mindset? To social scientists, it means whether a culture of genius or a culture of learning exists. In a golf instruction context, that may mean whether the teacher communicates a message that golf ability is something innate (you either have it or you don’t), or whether golf ability is something that can be learned. You want the latter!
It may sound obvious to suggest that you find a golf instructor who thinks you can improve, but my research suggests that it isn’t a given. In a large sample study of golf instructors, I found that when it came to recreational golfers, there was a wide range of belief systems. Some instructors strongly believed recreational golfers could improve through lessons. while others strongly believed they could not. And those beliefs manifested in the instructor’s feedback given to a student and the culture created for players.
2. Coping and self-modeling can beat role-modeling
Swing analysis technology is often preloaded with swings of PGA and LPGA Tour players. The swings of elite players are intended to be used for comparative purposes with golfers taking lessons. What social science tells us is that for novice and non-expert golfers, comparing swings to tour professionals can have the opposite effect of that intended. If you fit into the novice or non-expert category of golfer, you will learn more and be more motivated to change if you see yourself making a ‘better’ swing (self-modeling) or seeing your swing compared to a similar other (a coping model). Stay away from instructors who want to compare your swing with that of a tour player.
3. Learning theory basics
It is not a sexy selling point, but learning is a process, and that process is incremental – particularly for recreational adult players. Social science helps us understand this element of golf instruction. A good instructor will take learning slowly. He or she will give you just about enough information that challenges you, but is still manageable. The artful instructor will take time to decide what that one or two learning points are before jumping in to make full-scale swing changes. If the instructor moves too fast, you will probably leave the lesson with an arm’s length of swing thoughts and not really know which to focus on.
As an instructor, I develop a priority list of changes I want to make in a player’s technique. We then patiently and gradually work through that list. Beware of instructors who give you more than you can chew.
So if you are in the market for golf instruction, I encourage you to look beyond the X’s and O’s to find the right match!
Most pros take months, even years, to win their first tournament. Lottie Woad needed exactly four days.
The 21-year-old from Surrey shot 21-under 267 at Dundonald Links to win the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open by three shots — in her very first event as a professional. She’s only the third player in LPGA history to accomplish this feat, joining Rose Zhang (2023) and Beverly Hanson (1951).
But here’s what caught my attention as a coach: Woad didn’t win through miraculous putting or bombing 300-yard drives. She won through relentless precision and unshakeable composure. After watching her performance unfold, I’m convinced every golfer — from weekend warriors to scratch players — can steal pages from her playbook.
Precision Beats Power (And It’s Not Even Close)
Forget the driving contests. Woad proved that finding greens matters more than finding distance.
What Woad did:
• Hit it straight, hit it solid, give yourself chances
• Aimed for the fat parts of greens instead of chasing pins
• Let her putting do the talking after hitting safe targets
• As she said, “Everyone was chasing me today, and managed to maintain the lead and played really nicely down the stretch and hit a lot of good shots”
Why most golfers mess this up:
• They see a pin tucked behind a bunker and grab one more club to “go right at it”
• Distance becomes more important than accuracy
• They try to be heroic instead of smart
ACTION ITEM: For your next 10 rounds, aim for the center of every green regardless of pin position. Track your greens in regulation and watch your scores drop before your swing changes.
The Putter That Stayed Cool Under Fire
Woad started the final round two shots clear and immediately applied pressure with birdies at the 2nd and 3rd holes. When South Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim mounted a charge and reached 20-under with a birdie at the 14th, Woad didn’t panic.
How she responded to pressure:
• Fired back with consecutive birdies at the 13th and 14th
• Watched Kim stumble with back-to-back bogeys
• Capped it with her fifth birdie of the day at the par-5 18th
• Stayed patient when others pressed, pressed when others cracked
What amateurs do wrong:
• Get conservative when they should be aggressive
• Try to force magic when steady play would win
• Panic when someone else makes a move
ACTION ITEM: Practice your 3-6 foot putts for 15 minutes after every range session. Woad’s putting wasn’t spectacular—it was reliable. Make the putts you should make.
Course Management 101: Play Your Game, Not the Course’s Game
Woad admitted she couldn’t see many scoreboards during the final round, but it didn’t matter. She stuck to her game plan regardless of what others were doing.
Her mental approach:
• Focused on her process, not the competition
• Drew on past pressure situations (Augusta National Women’s Amateur win)
• As she said, “That was the biggest tournament I played in at the time and was kind of my big win. So definitely felt the pressure of it more there, and I felt like all those experiences helped me with this”
Her physical execution:
• 270-yard drives (nothing flashy)
• Methodical iron play
• Steady putting
• Everything effective, nothing spectacular
ACTION ITEM: Create a yardage book for your home course. Know your distances to every pin, every hazard, every landing area. Stick to your plan no matter what your playing partners are doing.
Mental Toughness Isn’t Born, It’s Built
The most impressive part of Woad’s win? She genuinely didn’t expect it: “I definitely wasn’t expecting to win my first event as a pro, but I knew I was playing well, and I was hoping to contend.”
Her winning mindset:
• Didn’t put winning pressure on herself
• Focused on playing well and contending
• Made winning a byproduct of a good process
• Built confidence through recent experiences:
- Won the Women’s Irish Open as an amateur
- Missed a playoff by one shot at the Evian Championship
- Each experience prepared her for the next
What this means for you:
• Stop trying to shoot career rounds every time you tee up
• Focus on executing your pre-shot routine
• Commit to every shot
• Stay present in the moment
ACTION ITEM: Before each round, set process goals instead of score goals. Example: “I will take three practice swings before every shot” or “I will pick a specific target for every shot.” Let your score be the result, not the focus.
The Real Lesson
Woad collected $300,000 for her first professional victory, but the real prize was proving that fundamentals still work at golf’s highest level. She didn’t reinvent the game — she simply executed the basics better than everyone else that week.
The fundamentals that won:
• Hit more fairways
• Find more greens
• Make the putts you should make
• Stay patient under pressure
That’s something every golfer can do, regardless of handicap. Lottie Woad just showed us it’s still the winning formula.
FINAL ACTION ITEM: Pick one of the four action items above and commit to it for the next month. Master one fundamental before moving to the next. That’s how champions are built.
PGA Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer. You can check out his writing work and learn more about him by visiting BEAGOLFER.golf and OneMoreRollGolf.com. Also, check out “The Starter” on RG.org each Monday.
Editor’s note: Brendon shares his nearly 30 years of experience in the game with GolfWRX readers through his ongoing tip series. He looks forward to providing valuable insights and advice to help golfers improve their game. Stay tuned for more Tips!
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PineStreetGolf
Dec 30, 2016 at 9:31 am
This is a ridiculous article for a number of reasons.
First, you didn’t isolate any variables. You have no idea if it was the “K-VEST” (TM) or the fact that he took lessons for a long time and worked intently on his game at an age where the brain is looking to form strong athletic connections.
Seciond, he grew from 16 to 17. In a lot of healthy adult males its a pretty good chance kids grow a ton from 16 to 17. You have no idea if it was your genius teaching methods or if he just got more co-ordinated from exiting puberty.
Third, you mentioned not a whiff of physical training. If its your claim that your going to add 30 yards to a male 16 year old golfer with zero excercising or working out, so be it, but that seems inefficient and silly.
Good luck going forward using kids you teach to move this nonsense product. You might have something with the K Vest and you might not but a really good player improving over the course of a year of hard work while he happens to wear one “proves” nothing.
Lets see the article where the “K-VEST” adds 30 yards to the 35 year old guy whose 50 pounds overweight and practices once a week. Anybody can help the lithe 16 year old who can work all day and is getting stronger with every day.
Give me a break.
KNT
Dec 28, 2016 at 7:46 pm
Careful looking for distance.
NFX
Jan 4, 2017 at 12:07 pm
Why careful looking for distance? Improve clubhead speed via speed training and then operate submax of that speed. Holy grail of improvement
Mike
Dec 27, 2016 at 8:45 pm
Forgive me but I’m a bit confused, was it you that “created” the “elite junior”, or was it the K Vest machine?
MATTHEW SIPE
Dec 27, 2016 at 9:45 am
I think you meant Olde Stone Golf Club in Kentucky**
RoastBeefWrxx
Dec 26, 2016 at 10:55 pm
Wonder how many didn’t get this far. I would love to read that article. I’m sure it wouldn’t be the instructors fault.
MP
Dec 26, 2016 at 10:24 pm
College golf is extremely overrated. Jordan Spieth, Beau Hossler, and countless others.
4Right
Dec 26, 2016 at 10:18 pm
If this young man is playing at the level he was as a soph in high school, in my opinion he just needs to mature, get stronger, and short game practice for life.
GolfMan
Dec 26, 2016 at 10:20 pm
Congrats to this young man, but I agree with 4Right. Some kids just need to mature. Everyone’s always looking for the holy grail. Be careful!
Prime21
Dec 27, 2016 at 11:38 am
If left unchecked, this boy would have been out of golf in 5 years. It is not normal for a 16 year old to have back pain & if he or she does, the cause needs to be identified immediately. In this case, him maturing & getting stronger would have put more stress on the back as his flexibility & range of motion would most likely diminish with time. The whole point of the article is that even though he was already a great player, the young man knew his swing was inefficient, & even worse causing unnecessary stress on his body. Through technology, the issues were identified & through hard work & persistence, his swing became more powerful, efficient & repeatable. MOST importantly, an inevitable injury was removed from the equation. The instructor did not give this young man his natural talent, nor his work ethic, he simply gave him a key to unlock his OWN desire to be the best version of himself he could be.
Natural ability and maturity alone will not solve every issue a golfer will face along the way, NOR will technology. But, when one has a complete understanding of the issues they face and a blueprint on how to overcome them, they can remove any limitation(s) that currently exist.
Congrats to Brendon on achieving his goals & to Patrick for helping him on his journey!
SoCal
Dec 27, 2016 at 11:14 pm
Fortune Teller! You’re amazing!
MotionDynamics
Dec 27, 2016 at 11:26 pm
Sometimes being young is the reason for an inadequate move in any sport, junior golf is no exception. Equilateral strength is key in making balanced and powerful swings. As a PT I see this regularly. This would be discovered with strength and motor development assessment.
IMO
Dec 26, 2016 at 2:43 pm
This young lad is swinging someone else’s perceived swing. Not his own.
JackN
Dec 26, 2016 at 2:41 pm
What a about talent, and all the ones that learned to play without all this “technology”. We do t play golf on a simulator connected to all this. Way over blown!!!
Jalan
Dec 26, 2016 at 6:53 pm
The kid already demonstrated he has talent. However, to improve on what he has often requires supervision and training or tutelage. As and example: suppose your kid is smart and does well in school. Are you suggesting he doesn’t need any help, or wouldn’t benefit from a tutor who could show him better ways to apply his intelligence?
You should like the kind of person who just likes to piss on anything that might make someone like Brandon a better player.
Par3
Dec 26, 2016 at 10:10 pm
The comment doesn’t seem like he’s p’s on anyone. I’m thinking he’s between talent which is homegrown, and someone’s else’s. And you sir just to put you in your place, there have been many prodigies blown up by high level coaches. Remember Ty Tryon!!!
4Right
Dec 26, 2016 at 10:12 pm
Agreed!!!
Jalan
Jan 22, 2017 at 11:09 am
Actually, I think that is exactly what the poster did! He’s essentially saying using modern technology is the wrong way to teach. Yet, this very technology showed the student the moves he was making at the were causing issues with his back issues
“After the first lesson, when we captured his motion, we saw the efficiency and red flags that we had identified had already improved greatly. In one lesson, he had learned to swing without creating reverse spine angle at the top of his swing (eliminating the risk of back injury), and most importantly to him he was able to swing faster with more control.”
it’s obvious the kind has talent. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t likely be able to overcome his swing flaws. But, to overcome them, he needed the technology help him understand them.
Your issue isn’t with my argument, it’s with my choice of language. if there was a way to edit my initial post, I would, just so people aren’t distracted by it.
As to Ty Tryon: He had talent. He apparently didn’t have the mental game, or enough skill to manage the talent he had. You blame coaches for the failure of students. Maybe the student was the problem.
Prime21
Dec 27, 2016 at 10:57 am
Well said!
MotionDynamics
Dec 26, 2016 at 1:04 pm
The video shown along with the article show a student pushing his hands away from his body, almost lifting his arms from his chest. Is that something you would recommend?
4right
Dec 26, 2016 at 12:55 pm
Just one question, how much was invested, not only in money but time practicing? Thank you very much…
Looper
Dec 26, 2016 at 1:06 pm
Great question, also what would be the baseline on juniors that you would even recommend this type of training?