The Golf Swing Emulator (GSE) is a sport specific and movement specific training machine. This is the cutting edge of golf strengthening and golf training systems. The GSE is the most versatile effective multifunctional golf training aid ever invented. Before you can really understand how this machine works so well you need to understand how brain learns the golf swing. There have been a lot of golf instructors that have tried to explain how they think this process works but these attempts have fallen short of reality.
To get a more precise understanding of how this really works click on HOW THE BRAIN LEARNS NEW MOVEMENT. Below are the main functions of the Golf Swing Emulator and explanations of how the machine achieves these functions.
The GSE is intentionally designed to force your body to EMULATE the most efficient downswing that can make to hit a ball with effortless power and consistency. When you are using the GSE, you are being forced to use the exact SAME muscles and the SAME sequence that the long ball hitters are using. The weight resistance forces the brain to send a lot more electrical impulses to all of the golf specific muscles that are used to swing a 10 ounce driver.
The GSE will not make your muscles larger, nor take away any range of motion. Even though there is a weight stack on the GSE, do not confuse it with working out in a gym. The equipment in a gym is designed to work on one or possibly two muscle groups at one time and the primary purpose of these kinds of equipment is to make your muscles larger. In order to enlarge the muscle, you must use a lot of weight and pump lots of oxygen and blood into the muscle fiber as you are contracting this one muscle group. This work out is strenuous and potentially dangerous if you do not warm up properly.
A work out on the GSE will force you to use over 80 different muscles in one second. The resistance that these muscles get from this work out forces the brain to send up to 75 times more electrical impulses to all of the golf muscles. After only one set on the GSE, the brain changes the amount of electricity that it sends to the golf muscles. Because you are using so many muscles to pull the swing arm down, the load or strain on any one muscle is very limited. The risk of straining and pulling a muscle is very limited because you are distributing the load over so many different muscles.
CORRECT DIRECTION OF RESISTANCE
When you swing a driver after performing the first set (15 repetitions) on the GSE, it will be the most unusual feeling you have ever had with a golf club. The club is so light it feels like it does not have a head on it. This sensation will go away in about twenty minutes, but the effects of the workout will linger much longer. One of the key components of the GSE that makes this happen is called Correct Direction of Resistance (CDR). When you swing a weighted club or object you are not experiencing the same kind of resistance nor are you using the same muscles that are using when you swing a golf club.
Gravity does not play much of a role in the resistance of a club when you are swinging it. When a golfer swings a club, the resistance encountered, or the opposing force, is always coming directly from behind the hands. Since the hands are constantly moving, the CDR is also moving with the hands during the down swing. When you are working out on the GSE, the CDR is always directly behind the hands. Therefore, when the golfer is training on the Emulator, they are using the exact muscles and combinations of muscles that they use when they swing a club.
The design of the swing arm and its components make it impossible for the golfer to swing off plane. You can adjust the machine for any plane for golfers that are 5' to 6' 6". Even a very strong golfer can not make the swing arm move on any plane other that the one that you adjust it to. The more that you are able to repeat a movement on the same plane with this type of resistance, the easier it is for the brain to learn this movement. There is no other swing trainer that forces your hands and arms to stay on one swing plane as well as the GSE.
The GSE also will immediately allow the golfer to feel the inside out path that all instructors talk about. It is not possible for the golfer to make the over the top move on this machine.
The GSE is the only swing trainer that forces the user to have a proper swing sequence while training. Many golfers are firing the right muscles, but at the wrong time. This can cause you to loose 30 to 50 yards on a drive and 10 or more yards on your irons. The GSE uses a 100 pound weight stack in conjunction with a unique shaped cam to force the golfer to use the proper muscles at the proper time. This is called the correct sequence. The start position on the GSE is at the top of the swing when your hands are above your head. The cam design creates 5 times more resistance at the top of the swing than it does at the bottom of the swing. This means that you must use the big muscles in the lower body and mid section to start the downswing. These muscles are 5 times stronger than other muscles in the swing like the arms and hands.
This sequence makes it impossible to cast or come over the top. As you pull the swing arm down toward the impact area the resistance gets 5 times easier. This prevents your hands and arm muscles from being too tight at the impact area allowing you to have a grip pressure soft enough to hold a bird. Training on the GSE forces your body to EMULATE the same level of resistance in the appropriate positions that you would encounter when hitting a ball with the maximum muscle contraction sequence.
When you swing a driver, the brain is giving the muscles that you are using enough electricity to make that 10 or 11 ounces move. It does not matter how hard you swing the driver because that 10 ounces only represents a fixed amount of resistance to the brain. When you work out on the GSE with 40 pounds you are FORCING the brain to send a much higher level of electricity to all of the correct muscles and not just the ones that you were using before to swing the driver. This additional level of electricity to the correct muscles is what makes the motor memory switch come on because now you have forced the brain to recognize and use a much higher level of electrical impulses. Once the switch is on, everything that you are doing, including your form and sequence, is being learned and stored in motor memory while using the GSE.
B. CHANGING YOUR HAND'S START POSITION
If you want to change where your hands start the downswing, this is the best training aid in the world. There are training aids that attempt to do this, but, without weight resistance, these devices are a poor substitute for the GSE. The ability to know where your hands are at the top of the swing without seeing them is called proprioception. This is not motor memory. This is position memory. If you do not have the neural network in you brain to move your hands to another position, this will be very difficult to learn. If you have a hand position at the top of the swing that is parallel to your shoulders and you set the GSE up to create a hand position that is 6 inches above your normal position and you perform 15 repetitions, your hands will usually go to the new hand position.
It will be a confusing feeling because you have changed where your hands normally go. A part of your brain is making you feel uncomfortable because you have made this change. This is normal. The brain does not just store and retrieve information, it also protects stored information. This applies to motor memory and position memory. The way in which the brain protects stored information makes you feel uncomfortable when you change something. From the brain's perspective, it is not efficient for you to change something that has already been stored and learn something new. However, with enough repetitions, this will become a second nature.
C. LEARNING THROUGH FEEL
If you have or plan to start playing golf later in life, you are throwing your money away on lessons. This is because you can't get your body to do what the instructor is asking you to do. At this stage in your life, you do not have the brain wiring necessary to make certain movements. When you are a kid the brain creates this brain wiring just from playing. Each time that you swing the club synapses and dendrites in your brain are attracted to each other and you create a neural bridge to get electrical impulses and brain chemicals from one point to another. The brain even uses a synthesizer to help to fire more appropriate muscles for the task. As you get older it is more difficult to learn any motor skill because the synthesizer is not there anymore and you are not getting the same assistance from the brain that you had as a teenager.
This is why the instructor may be able to explain a move to you and you understand what he is saying but you can not get your body to do what you want it to do. The resistance encountered while using the Emulator not only strengthens your golf specific muscles, it also accelerates motor memory learning. This makes it easier for you to store and retrieve the things that you or a golf instructor want to be in your swing. Just understanding what the instructor is saying is not enough to allow your body to perform a movement. Until you FEEL what he is talking about, your brain has a hard time learning and storing this information. For golfers that are older than 40, the GSE is the missing link between what your instructor is telling you and what you can get your body to do.
After only one set on the GSE, you will start to get the FEEL of what your body should be doing. The wiring that you were missing as a teenager is available to you now. The resistance from the work out forces the brain to create the necessary links in the brain to perform movements that you have been having problems with.
From using the GSE you will FEEL
1. The plane the instructor has been trying you to swing on
2. The inside out path everyone talks about
3. The sequence that you see pro golfers use
4. The hand position at the top you have been trying to get on your own
5. The connectivity of tightening up all the slack between your joints
D. HOW MOTOR MEMORY HELPS WITH CONSISTENCY AND HOW TO CREATE A THOUGHTLESS SWING
The struggle between the thinking and motor memory parts of the brain makes the club go to different places. This is the biggest cause for not being able to make the same shot twice. You only have to miss the sweet spot on the club about 3/8 of an inch to loose direction and distance. You can use the GSE to store in motor memory the swing that you want and stop thinking about mechanics during the swing. This will make the swing more consistent and the balls will also go longer. The overall effect from using the GSE is that you will create the tools to have a thoughtless swing, which produces more confidence in your swing and a more consistent outcome.
Most golfers over 40 are not in the same physical condition as other athletes. These golfers know that working out in a gym has more potential to eliminate a certain amount of range of motion than it has to help their game. To avoid potentially damaging their game, they usually choose to not work out. When you do not train your golf specific muscles and then go out and play 18 holes, these muscles have a lot of demands put on them. Because they are not conditioned for the amount of use demanded of them, they will start to fatigue after about 12 or 13 holes. When these golf specific muscles fatigue the golfer will start to loose distance.
When the golfer starts to loose distance they will swing harder to try and make up for this lost distance. This causes the accuracy of their shots go down rapidly. When you use the GSE, the golf specific muscles are over-trained for the amount of demand that they encounter while playing. The result is that you will eventually gain enough endurance to play 36 holes with much less fatigue that you previously encountered from playing just 13. If you don't train all of your golf specific muscles, you cannot expect them to perform to their capacity. The work out on the GSE will also work out muscles that you have never trained before. This is going to allow you the energy level necessary to hit the ball as hard as you want all day long and turn the GSE into an endurance trainer.
Most golfers are not flexible enough to get the club back as far in their take away as they would like. As we get older, we loose range of motion and flexibility. The GSE will slowly pull the golfer’s hands back to this desired take away position on each repetition. This is a position that you may not be able to get to on your own. The GSE creates a stretch in the golf swing muscles before firing. Stretching a muscle before you fire it also helps to develop more strength. The effect of this stretching is immediate.
After the first work out most golfers will notice that their hands are going higher than they were before the work out. When you get your hands up higher in the take away, you have to use larger and stronger muscles to swing the club. As a result of the increased flexibility between the hips and the shoulders, the golfer will be able to obtain a better coil. This increase in flexibility allows you to get your hands high in the take away without using your hips so much. This simplifies the swing mechanics and makes the swing more energy efficient.
The GSE can be used to cure a hook or slice in one minute. The work out only uses a half swing at the bottom of the swing and it is much easier to perform than a full swing. A hook or slice is caused by the club face being closed or opened at impact. Because the GSE changes what the brain knows about the swing, we can use it to change the angle of the club face at impact. After one set on the GSE, about 90% of all golfers will see an immediate improvement in hitting the ball straighter.
Another cause of the club face being open at impact is because the golfer is coming over the top. Even in this half swing, the golfer will feel the club handle moving on an inside-out path and will not be able to move the club from outside-in. Teaching aids that have rubber bands or springs as resistance do not mimic the body's natural range of resistance and the effect of strengthening is not as profound as the GSE. As a result, any motor memory storage is negligible.
8. PREHABILITATES ALL GOLF MUSCLES AND ELIMINATES GOLF RELATED INJURIES
The word pre-habilitate means to strengthen and condition muscles and connective tissue so they are less likely to be injured. Golf related injuries are diminished by about 85% from using the GSE. One of the most common golf injuries happens to the lower back. When you are using the GSE, you are taking the load off the vertebrae and strengthening the lower back muscles at the same time. As you are pulling the swing arm down, you are decompressing the vertebrae and stretching the spine out. This is the same effect as hanging upside down or climbing a rope.
As you rotate your hips forward while using the GSE, you are strengthening the core muscles around your midsection and those internally around your spine, while making these muscles denser at the same time. As a result of strengthening these internal and supporting muscles, you will probably gain from 1/2 to one inch of height from using the GSE after about three months. Another effect from these muscles getting worked out is that the surrounding waist muscles become tighter, resulting in a thinner waistline.
Motor memory facilitation does not require that you work your muscles as hard as you would if you were doing a conventional work out with free weights. If you were to go to a gym and do a free weight work out that uses all the muscles in the golf swing, it would take you eight hours just to perform one set for all of these muscles. The GSE works out all these golf specific muscles each time you pull the swing arm down. It takes less than 60 seconds to perform one set of 15 repetitions on the GSE. The daily recommended work out is to perform four sets of 15 repetitions with the full swing and four sets of 15 repetitions for the half swing work out.
10. LENGTH OF TIME IT TAKES TO FEEL THE EFFECT OF THE GSE
The GSE does not make your muscles larger. It simply changes the amount of electricity that the brain gives the muscles. It only takes 60 seconds to change this in the brain and the workout is relatively easy. You will not break a sweat or even breathe hard.
The first thing that you will notice is usually the weakest part of your golf swing. The workout on the GSE highlights this weakness. If you are using a muscle in your golf swing that you should not be using it will become proportionately overworked on the GSE and you will notice it immediately. Even if you are a good golfer you will experience the same thing. This turns the GSE into an analysis machine that will detect imperfections in a golf swing that the golfer or the instructor may not be able to detect on their own.
There is no effect on the take a way because you do not use the same muscles on the GSE that you use for the take away. When you are using the GSE you are always using the downswing muscles even as you allow the machine to pull your hands backwards to the top of the swing. As you allow the swing arm to move backwards from the impact position, you must allow your hands and arms to go back in the opposite sequence that you use to swing a club.
If you perform four sets on the GSE, the effect will last between 10 and 14 days. After this, the brain will seek to go back to where it's previous level of muscular impulses was before the GSE work out.
