Three-Dimensional Motion Analysis and Inverse Dynamic Modelling of the Human Golf Swing

The ideal of the golf sport industry is the unique matching of golf player and golf club, thereby providing an optimized golf club design based on the player’s skill and ability. A review of available literature showed a clear lack of an accurate tool to analyze a player’s golf swing. This paper presents a methodology to analyze human golf swing kinematics and to derive biomechanical loading in the human arm, as well as loads in the golf club, from 3D motion tracking measurements of the player’s golf swing. Three-dimensional motion tracking data of a player’s golf swing have been analyzed and transformed into rotation data of the joints of the human arm. The calculated rotations of the arm joints have been prescribed to a numerical human golf swing model. The accuracy of the golf swing model was verified by comparison with the experimental golf club shaft bending strains along the golf club shaft.