My chosen sport for my Observation and analysis portfolio is golf.

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AS Sport & Physical Education Practical

Observation & Analysis Portfolio

Introduction

        My chosen sport for my Observation and analysis portfolio is golf. When reviewing the game golf we can divide the games into 5 core skills as follows: -

  1. Driving
  2. Mid Irons
  3. Approach shoots (Pitching and Chipping)
  4. Putting
  5. Bunker Play

In my observation and analysis portfolio I will be looking at my strengths and weakness in my game based upon these 5 core skills. Each core skill will be divide up into even smaller and more detailed components for example: -

 

When looking at my current performance in golf I find easy to pick out my strengths and weakness, unlike most sports golf is very individual sport and you as the player can imminently tell strong points from the bad ones because as a golfer you can feel the shoots you play and known if it was a good or a bad shoot, unlike team spots where some times you find weakness you didn’t know about through thorough observation because they might be due to other players and environmental pressures which could affect your performance.  

At present I feel my major strengths according to the core skills in golf are as follows:-

  1. Driving
  2. Mid irons
  3. Putting

With driving being my strongest strength and putting probably being my weakest out of my personal strengths. In addition to this information this is only a very brief introduction into my strengths and weakness of the 5 core skills and just shows the general outline to my portfolio.

Section B/The Analysis process

                                Section B is the analytical process in which I will analyse my current performance level in the 5 core skills: -

  • Driving
  • Mid Irons
  • Approach shots
  • Putting
  • Bunker Play

And compare them to performers below and above my skill level.

        The structural model below shows the outline I will be following when analysing my own and other performers skills.

Analysing the Core skills

Driving

        When looking at the core skill driving you can break it down in to 10 sub skills, which combined together to make the core skill of driving. These 10 sub skills are as follows: -

  1. Early preparation before taking the shot
  2. Address
  3. Stance
  4. Alignment
  5. Control of club
  6. Back swing
  7. Down swing
  8. Balance/Timing
  9. Follow through/Recovery
  10. Result this includes how effective the shot was and if the shot was accurate

When analysing my performance in driving based on the 10 sub skills I am able to pick out certain strengths and weakness within the core skill and compare these to people below and above my performance level.

Weakness

Early preparation before driving

        My early preparation before taking my drive I would class as one of my weakness towards driving this is because I don’t always judge the weather conditions and how it could affect my drive, as where a professional will always spend a short time analysing the hole and the wind conditions etc.

Address and alignment

        When analysing my driving I feel that my address and alignment to the ball is my weakest part of the my driving this is because my driving can be inconsistent and off target now and then and this is due to my address to the ball. My feet position is not always 100% accurate, which has affect on my drive. When addressing the ball your feet alignment and you body position is a key factor because if you body and feet are facing in the different direction you want to drive your drive will be off target and you could end up in a sticky situation!

The reason for address and alignment being one of my weaknesses is that I seem to miss judge my feet angle, which affects the position of my shoulders. With my shoulders positioned incorrectly to where I should be aiming my drive then becomes of target. Furthermore when comparing                                                                                             my stance to a technical model for example Tiger Woods is that he always positions him self in the correct body position and his feet alignment is always very accurate and performs an out come of an accurate drive.

In addition the way to improve this weakness would be to practice my alignment of my feet by placing a golf club on the floor and putting my feet in line with the club and taking shoots. If you continually practice this it will improve how you line up with the ball and your body position, which will effectively improve the accuracy of your shoot.

           

Grip

        When I grip my driver I some times grip the club slight wrong, which cause this error to have and affect on my follow through. The error I some times seem to make is that when I grip the club is that I don’t bring my front two knuckles round enough with my bottom hand. This has effect on the accuracy of my shoot because by not bring my front two knuckles round enough on the club it cause my hand to slip slightly when making a connection with the ball, this cause the club face to open slightly on the driver making the ball slightly fade to the right. Although this error isn’t consistent when done can have quite a big impact on the shoot for example if their was a water feature slightly to the left and I griped the club wrong I might be in danger of landing in it.

        When looking at a technical model it would be very unlikely for them to make a small error like this because they always grip the club perfectly because their shoots are always very accurate and this is not the sort of error an professional is likely to make.

        Further more the only way to really improve this sort of error is to always concentrate and double check my grip on my driver because the handle on it is slightly wider than my other clubs and through lot’s of driving practice will erase this weakness.

 

Follow through/Recovery

My follow through/recovery of my driving I would class as a weakness of my driving. This is because as I follow through with the club whilst making connection with the ball my hand seems to slip on the club, which causes the clubface to open slightly causing an unintentional fade on the ball, this weakness is also due to my grip of the club. Through this happening it can often cause your shot to go off target and to be inaccurate. When comparing my follow through/recovery to a technical model for example Tiger Woods it is inevitable that when he follows through when making connection with the ball that his hand may slip or make a mistake because he is a very accurate player and his follow though is extremely precise. This is due to extreme practice where he is consistently improving the skill. The best way for me to improve this weakness would be though lots of practice of the core skill.

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Strengths

Control of club

        I would class my control of my driver as one of my strengths this is because I am able to control the club well through my swing and is one of my consistent clubs and performs good results most of the time. I am able to control the club well considering it’s length and I am able to produce very long drives with the club as well.

When looking at Terry for example who has a handicap of 36 I can tell that his control of the club is weak because he struggles with ...

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