Rinker’s Golf Tips May 18th Top 100 Teacher James Leitz. James Leitz is the only Top 100 Teacher and Top 100 Club Fitter in the country and goes around the world conducting seminars on Trackman and 3D Technology. I went to visit and work with him this weekend at Pinewood Country Club in Slidell, Louisiana where he has been the Head Pro for 32 years. We talked about a new 3D system that he is getting in a couple of weeks, Gears, which shoots at 360 fps, and measures body movement, club face angle, and impact point on the club face at a high level. We talked about the four ball flight laws which are actually five parameters on Trackman. 1) Speed of club head, 2) vector of force which is both club path and attach angle, 3) club face angle, and 4) point of impact on the club face. I asked him how he got into technology and teaching and he said that he wasn’t a very good teacher and helping people in the beginning, so that drove him, because he had a passion to help people get better at golf. He had a member that was an engineer and he said, never guess at what you can measure. In 1982 he purchased his first video camera for $2800 and he was able to start measuring some things in the swing. When Trackman came along, James had already put together a crude Trackman several years earlier except that it didn’t measure angle of attack nor was it as accurate at measuring the parameters. Trackman was originally used for club fitting but it is revolutionizing the way that we are teaching golf. Golfers need to know where they are at and then they can make the changes to adjust their geometry at impact. The only time the golf ball gets instruction is at impact. It’s very cool that James did a presentation to the Top 100 Teachers before he became one, and became a Top 100 Teacher because of what he taught and not who he taught. A lot of Top 100 Teachers made the list after one of their pupils won on the Tour.
We talked about how good players don’t need to know what they do or the ball flight laws until they break them, and then someone needs to help bring them back to the laws. Old players kept hitting balls until they “found it” and sometimes they lost confidence and time in the process. With the best players, it comes down to talent and if they can repeat their swings under pressure. Practice is important, but you have to be working on the right things to improve. Working real hard on the wrong things is not a recipe for success. James said that it’s good to get your stats on Trackman when you are hitting the ball well, so that when you get off, you can find your way back a lot quicker.
We had some calls and James said that with a slicer he would work on their club face first and get them pull hooking the ball. Then they will have the courage to swing more to the right for a right-handed golfer. With a good player or a hooker, he would work on their club path first. Ball position is not the same for every golfer with a 7-iron. Want to make sure the shaft has forward lean and has not passed the lead arm at impact. Average on the PGA Tour is 4.3 down with 10-12 degrees of forward shaft lean at impact with a 7-iron. We talked about how golf can be cruel and James said that we can go from the “Hunter” to the “Hunted.” Tour players have a sense of aggressiveness that stays with them throughout the round. James Leitz can be reached at the Pinewood Country Club in Slidell, LA and also at jamesleitz@pga.com. I highly recommend having James come and do a seminar. He’s a great teacher and even better person.