GOLF SWING ANALYSIS APPARATUS AND GOLF CLUB FITTING APPARATUS

• US 20150367174A1
• Filed: 06/18/2015
• Published: 12/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2014
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: Sumitomo Rubber Industries Limited
• Original Assignee: Dunlop Sports Co. Ltd. (Sumitomo Rubber Industries Limited), Sumitomo Rubber Industries Limited
• Inventors: UEDA, Masahiko, KATO, Masatoshi, OKAZAKI, Kousuke, NAGANO, Yuki
• Granted Patent: US 10,252,106 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/11 Measuring movement of the entire body or parts thereof, e.g. head or hand tremor, mobility of a limb for measuring pulse A61B5/02 ;A61B5/1038 takes precedence; motion detection to correct for motion artifacts in physiological signals A61B5/721
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6895 Sport equipment
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 24/0003 Analysing the course of a movement or motion sequences during an exercise or trainings sequence, e.g. swing for golf or tennis
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/23 Recognition of whole body movements, e.g. for sport training

Abstract

A golf swing analysis apparatus for analyzing a swing action of a golf club is provided. The golf swing analysis apparatus comprises an acquisition unit configured to acquire a measurement value obtained by measuring the swing action using a measurement device; a grip behavior derivation unit configured to derive a behavior of a grip of the golf club that occurs during the swing action, based on the measurement value; and a shoulder behavior derivation unit configured to derive a behavior of a pseudo shoulder of a golfer that occurs during the swing action, based on the behavior of the grip.

Claims

1. A golf swing analysis apparatus for analyzing a swing action of a golf club, comprising:

an acquisition unit configured to acquire a measurement value obtained by measuring the swing action using a measurement device;

a grip behavior derivation unit configured to derive a behavior of a grip of the golf club that occurs during the swing action, based on the measurement value; and

a shoulder behavior derivation unit configured to derive a behavior of a pseudo shoulder of a golfer that occurs during the swing action, based on the behavior of the grip.

2. The golf swing analysis apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the grip behavior derivation unit is configured to derive a grip velocity and a grip angular velocity, and

the shoulder behavior derivation unit is configured to calculate an angular velocity of an arm of the golfer, based on the grip velocity.

3. The golf swing analysis apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the shoulder behavior derivation unit is configured to derive the behavior of the pseudo shoulder, under an assumption that the grip circulates about the shoulder and the shoulder does not move during the swing action.

4. The golf swing analysis apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the grip behavior derivation unit is configured to derive the behavior of the grip in a global coordinate system, and transform the derived behavior of the grip into a behavior in a swing plane, and

the shoulder behavior derivation unit is configured to derive the behavior of the pseudo shoulder in the swing plane, based on the behavior of the grip in the swing plane.

5. The golf swing analysis apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the acquisition unit is configured to acquire the measurement value of the swing action measured by an acceleration sensor and an angular velocity sensor attached to the golf club that serve as the measurement device.

6. The golf swing analysis apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the acquisition unit is configured to further acquire the measurement value of the swing action measured by a geomagnetic sensor attached to the golf club that serves as the measurement device.

7. The golf swing analysis apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an index calculation unit configured to calculate at least one of a head speed, a torque exertion amount, an average torque, an average power and an energy exertion amount, as a swing index characterizing the swing action, based on the behavior of the grip and the behavior of the pseudo shoulder.

8. The golf swing analysis apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the index calculation unit is configured to calculate a value of a wrist-cock release timing that occurs during the swing action, the average power and/or the energy exertion amount, based on the behavior of the grip and the behavior of the pseudo shoulder, and calculate the head speed that occurs at a time of impact as the swing index, in accordance with a predetermined regression equation that uses the wrist-cock release timing, the average power and/or the energy exertion amount as explanatory variables.

9. A golf swing analysis method for analyzing a swing action of a golf club, comprising the steps of:

measuring the swing action using a measurement device;

deriving a behavior of a grip of the golf club that occurs during the swing action, based on a measurement value of the swing action; and

deriving a behavior of a pseudo shoulder of a golfer that occurs during the swing action, based on the behavior of the grip.

10. A golf club fitting apparatus comprising:

an acquisition unit configured to acquire a measurement value obtained by measuring a swing action taken with each of a plurality of golf clubs;

an index calculation unit configured to calculate a swing index, which is an index characterizing the swing action, for each of the golf clubs, based on the measurement value; and

an optimal index specification unit configured to specify an intersection point between a first regression line of the swing index in a constant region in which the swing index is roughly constant relative to a swingability index representing an ease of swinging the golf club and a second regression line of the swing index in a proportional region in which the swing index is roughly proportional to the swingability index, based on the swing indices calculated by the index calculation unit, and specify one of an optimal index, which is the swingability index at or near the intersection point, and an optimal index range.

11. The fitting apparatus according to claim 10,

wherein the acquisition unit is configured to acquire a first measurement value obtained by measuring the swing action of a golf club having an extremely small swingability index, and a second measurement value obtained by measuring the swing action of a golf club having an extremely large swingability index, and

the optimal index specification unit is configured to specify the first regression line, based on the swing index that is based on the first measurement value, and the second regression line, based on the swing index that is based on the second measurement value, or specify the first regression line, based on the swing index that is based on the second measurement value, and the second regression line, based on the swing index that is based on the first measurement value.

12. The fitting apparatus according to claim 10,

wherein the optimal index specification unit is configured to specify the first regression line as a straight line that has a zero slope and passes through a point corresponding to the swing index that is based on the measurement value from one golf club.

13. The fitting apparatus according to claim 10,

wherein the optimal index specification unit is configured to specify the second regression line, based on a regression equation of a slope of the second regression line that uses at least one of a wrist-cock release timing at a time of the swing action and a head speed at a time of impact as an explanatory variable.

14. The fitting apparatus according to claim 13,

wherein the optimal index specification unit is configured to specify the second regression line as a straight line that has the slope calculated based on the regression equation and passes through a point corresponding to the swing index that is based on the measurement value from one golf club.

15. The fitting apparatus according to claim 10,

wherein at least one of a weight of the golf club, a grip end moment of inertia and a moment of inertia about a shoulder of a golfer is included in the swingability index.

16. The fitting apparatus according to claim 10,

wherein at least one of a head speed, a torque exertion amount, an average torque, an average power and an energy exertion amount is included in the swing index.

17. The fitting apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising an optimal club specification unit configured to specify a golf club having a small swing moment of inertia and a large grip end moment of inertia, from among a plurality of golf clubs that match the optimal index or the optimal index range.

18. A golf club fitting method comprising the steps of:

measuring a swing action taken with each of a plurality of golf clubs using a measurement device;

calculating a swing index, which is an index characterizing the swing action, for each of the golf clubs, based on a measurement value of the swing action;

specifying a first regression line of the swing index in a constant region in which the swing index is roughly constant relative to a swingability index representing an ease of swinging the golf club, based on the calculated swing index;

specifying a second regression line of the swing index in a proportional region in which the swing index is roughly proportional to the swingability index, based on the calculated swing index; and

specifying an intersection point between the first regression line and the second regression line, and specifying one of an optimal index, which is the swingability index at or near the intersection point, and an optimal index range.

19. The method according to claim 18, further comprising the step of specifying a golf club having a small swing moment of inertia and a large grip end moment of inertia, from among a plurality of golf clubs that match the optimal index or the optimal index range.