How Technology Can Improve Your Golf, Tennis

trained viewer to measure acceleration and force of all body parts at any given point in the action.

Ariel has studied hundreds of "cartoons" of golfers and tennis players and has some Interesting observations on both.

Golf

Club length - "Many beginning and middle-level golfers who want more distance make the mistake of going to longer clubs. That's the right solution, but longer club are harder to control. Therefore, if a goiter needs another Inch on his club length, he should set a half-inch on the club and add a halt-inch to his shoes. It's the same thing."

Club selection - "Computerization can tell a golfer what club to use at different distances. This process can be very accurate, to within 10 yards."

The swing - "Golfers should remember

to think of their arms like pendulums, like clubs. The average golfer puts too much elbow, wrist and arm effort into his swing. The effort should come from the legs, hips, trunk and shoulders. in that order. Put that sequence together smoothly and you've got it."

!utft "Every stroke must be the same ... get the nervous system used to the same sequence of motion ... move the least number of body parts as possible."

Shoes - "Our tests with shoes lead me to believe spiked golf shoes aren't very efficient. I think the golf shoe of the future will be a high-top sneaker type shoe, with a hard, waffled sole. And I see one day a golf shoe with variable height settings, adjustable with a key.

Tennis

Racquet design - "I believe racquets of the future will have shorter necks, for more control. The reason why tennis is so hard to learn is because you're trying to control a ball far from your body. That's why people learn racquetball so much more quickly; they're hitting closer to their body. In tennis, shorter-necked racquets won't make much difference to high-level players. But with 100 beginner and middle-level players we checked with shorter-necked racquets, they tended to have longer volleys."

Tennis elbow - "Tennis elbow is caused by lack of sufficient tendon, ligament and muscle development at the elbow. It simply can't stand the shock of hitting a tennis ball repeatedly. Football players don't get tennis elbow, and they

should because they hit the ball too hard and Incorrectly. Why no tennis elbow? They tend to be more muscled at the elbow. I experimented with University of Massachusetts players for three months. All had tennis elbow. They all quit playing three months and went on the same exercise routine with an exercise machine to build up their elbows. When they went back to play, no tennis elbow."

Shoes - "Most tennis movement, maybe 75 per cent, Is lateral. The shoes of the future will have a waffled and ridgelike sole, facilitating side-to-side motion, as well as sudden stops. 'Tennis toe' is caused by sliding the toe. It's pons?ble to build a shoe with an inflatable toe, similar to the air-bag concept."

Strings - "I haven't tested this as thoroughly as I want to, but I believe concave strings may be the best. Difficult, hard-toreach shots are more easily controlled with concave strings. They may also minimize chances of tennis elbow."

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It would be rushing things to say Gideon Ariel has lifted American coaches out of the Stone Age and set them down in the 21st Century. Or forced them to turn in their whistles for computerized video display terminals.

For one thing. he says, many of them prefer the Stone Age.

"You'd be surprised to know how many experienced coaches there are who just don't like to be told they've been doing something wrong for years," Ariel said.

"Take the shot put, for example. Computers show us the most effective way to put the -shot is to use a short glide across

the ring and a long arm stroke. That's how the East Europeans do it. American coached, generally speaking, coach a long glide and a short arm stroke.

"I compiled a complete report on the subject, containing indisputable evidence of this. It wasn't complicated or revolutionary. It was simply high school-level, Newtonian physics.

"You know what happened? A U.S. Olympic Committee coach took It from me, locked it up In his drawer and told me to my face he wasn't going to show It to anybody.•

THAT'S Gideon Arlel, the acerbic; 40year-old former Israeli Olympic team (he's a U.S. citizen now) discus thrower who started tinkering with computers and high-speed cameras 10 years ago.

Since then, he's seen things no fan, coach or athlete could see without highspeed photography.

"How can a coach teach, say, a javelin thrower how to release the javelin when he's never seen a release? The human eye can't see it - it occurs In a fraction of a second."

Few people on earth an see track and field like Arlel can. To the spectator in a stadium, few sights can rival the majesty of a javelin soaring 300 feet through the air.

But to Ariel, the true beauty of the moment lies in that unseen fraction of a second when the javelin leaves the hand, when the athlete brings eternal truths of physics to bear on the spear.

The applications of high-speed cameras and computers to sports Instruction are enormous, he believes. At his Coto Sport

Research Center, he says, athletes from throughout the world will be tested. Also:

• NFL placekickers will be filmed and computerized. "I will guarantee them 10 more yards," Ariel says.

• Early-teen athletes will have their bones measured and their reflexes tested; films will be made of them running, jumpIng and throwing; muscles strength will be measured on electronic weight-training machines; cardiovascular fitness will be tested, as will flexibility. Lastly, parents will be examined for genetic characteristics.

A FINAL REPORT will Indicate whether the youth's best chance of sports success will be as a cyclist. Or a swimmer. Or a football player. Or a tennis player. Or a discus thrower ...

For recreation, Ariel sometimes shifts his computers into reverse. That is, he feeds an unheard-of track and field achievement into the computer to see what kind of creature capable of such a feat emerges.

"One time I programmed a 275-foot discus throw. The specifications called for an extremely tall thrower with great speed. So you could say a Wilt Chamberlain-size athlete with 10.2 or 10.3 100-meter speed Is capable of 275 in the discus.

"Similarly, the attributes of a 350-foot javelin thrower call for a 6-5 or 6-6 man with sprint speed, lightning-like arm speed and a left leg so strong it could withstand blocking forces right to the point where they begin to break apart the bones."

IN HIS Coto de Caza condominium, Ariel, a big, beefy man, was leaping nimbly around his living room, demonstrating to a visitor the U.S. and East European shotput and hammer throw styles. He imi

tated a weight lifter snatching a barbell. Next he was stroking a kayak.

Then he sat down, swallowed a tall orange juice in three gulps, and talked.

"The last Olympics where athletes could win cold medals on sheer talent was 1964,' he said. "But those days are gone forever. But if we apply computer technology to athletic training, there is no limit to what we can achieve.

"Look at East Germany. How many peow pie, 17 million? Yet they won more medalg at the last Olympics than some continents" (Total medals for the top countries at t hi '76 Olympics: USSR 125, United States 94, East Germany 90).

"I know some claim the East Europeans use drugs. And they may be. But they're using technology, too. With the technological approach to training, the potential for improvement is far greater than it is with drugs.

"My point is, East Germany derided to go to the science-oriented route In athletics and look what happened. We stuck with our old ways. My hope is our lab here will start a revolution in sports training.

"It's not difficult to understand. It's not witchcraft. It's high school-level physics. No engineer would build a bridge without calculating all the stresses and forces involved. Coaches should consider the same things when training an athlete."

THE MIAMI HERALD March 1980