December 6, 2024 – Every time Dr Robert Neal, CEO at Golf BioDynamics Inc., stops by the Club de Golf Barcelona, his visit becomes one of the most special moments of the year for the Barcelona Golf Academy of Carlos Vivas, both for the coaches and the pupils.

Having a pioneer and world erudite in golf biomechanics visiting Spain makes the junior players want to get close to him to check their swing. The golf coaches are there too, ready to increase their knowledge about swing analysis, and learn to interpret the valuable, precise data extracted from his advanced 3D analysis software and reporting system, always one step ahead in terms of technology.

In fact, this year professional players like Cameron Davis (PGA Tour), Grace Kim (LPGA Tour) or Thomas Rosenmüller (who won at Korn Ferry Tour and now has his PGA Tour card) have visited him to improve their performance.

And every time Dr Robert Neal comes to Barcelona, MyGolfWay is alert to have the privilege to interview him, as he kindly agrees to provide us with updates of the innovations and progression of his precious technology, as his expertise spreads little by little worldwide. 

MYGOLFWAY: Looking back, how many years have you been on the 3D Golf BioDynamics adventure?

Dr ROBERT NEAL: I first started getting into 3D biomechanics in 1982. And at the end of ‘82, beginning of 83, is the first three-dimensional analysis that I did. From 82 to 2024, that’s 42 years.

MYGOLFWAY: Did you imagine that you’d get this far?

Dr ROBERT NEAL: No, I mean, you just couldn’t imagine what would be possible in my lifetime. In those days, you would film, you would get the film back in a week, then you would digitize by hand. And so it took many hours just to get the initial data. Then you had to run it through a computer and do the analytics. And now it’s just done in real time.

Now you capture the data in real time and you create an avatar. And all the analytics are just there. It’s incredible. That’s due to changes in the sensor technology, and computing power has just been exponential in its growth. Then we used a computer that was the size of a decent-sized kitchen. Now you have more power in your phone than that computer had.

So it’s incredible what you can do. It wasn’t possible to imagine that. Also, at that time in my life, I didn’t imagine that I would work in golf full-time either. I was on a track to becoming an academic and working in a university. And so it’s been a very nice second career, going into golf and working full-time in golf.

MYGOLFWAY: What is your route through Europe this time? Is it like previous years or is there something new? 

Dr ROBERT NEAL: It’s a somewhat similar route to previous years, but I started in Switzerland, did a few days there, then went to Italy where I worked in a national camp for the Swiss, developing talented players and the national team. Then to Germany, kind of similar, working with their national girls’ team. Then here with Barcelona Golf Academy and a bit of coach education, coupled with some work with his junior players. Then I’ll go after that back to Switzerland to work with some junior players in our program development. Then back to Orlando where I am based.

 

MYGOLFWAY: What do you like more, working with young golfers or with adults, and why?

Dr ROBERT NEAL: That’s really hard question… Probably with young golfers. I think there’s more for me to add to their skill set and experience because of the work that I’ve done over the years.

I do like working with adults. My least favorite actually is working with Tour players. They all think they’re very special and that we should be at their beck and call and that sort of thing. So it’s challenging.

Also, if you’re suggesting changes to be made to a Tour player’s swing or game, you better be very, very confident that it’s going to make them better because that’s their professional career.

MYGOLFWAY: But probably you’ve been in the process of a young player becoming a Tour player.

Dr ROBERT NEAL: Yeah, that’s right. That’s the part that’s probably the most rewarding. You work with young people, they get better in golf, and you keep giving them more information, fine-tuning it, getting their swings and short games to a point where they can first make an impression at a national-level tournament and then maybe international amateur tournaments, and ultimately the very best go on and play professionally. And that’s a nice situation when you can follow them over multiple years.

MYGOLFWAY: Is this what gives you more satisfaction in your job?

Dr ROBERT NEAL: I think so, yeah. It’s just seeing the development. I would say the majority of adults with whom I work, just don’t have the time to dedicate to the training. They’ve got too many other things that they need to attend to. And so they get better, but they don’t get better as rapidly or maybe as much as they would hope. And they don’t necessarily want to be professionals, no.

MYGOLFWAY: Do you have players that don’t understand the technology?  

Dr ROBERT NEAL: Of course, you have players like that. The skill is actually to give them the information in a way that they can understand it. Not just bombard them with numbers or graphs or saying that you have to do this and you must do that. Just put it in a way that allows them to comprehend it and then progress from there. 

MYGOLFWAY: In general, how is your technology used the most? To help players to correct their swing based on a recommended training? Or to help players to fine-tune their swings on the driving range, just before a tournament? 

Dr ROBERT NEAL: Mostly the developmental stages. I don’t think it’s really very beneficial to be using the technology on the range prior to an event. I mean you can do that sort of thing, but the best use is away from tournament play, always working back to what the gold standard is for that player. And then, I think there are some interesting things happening in the technology.

One is that there’s this big push with AI and cameras and phones to try to get rid of markers or sensors on the body. I’m involved in a project with a group of very smart people from Iceland and we’re developing a markerless system so you can just walk into a sort of simulator and hit some shots and it will automatically do the 3D without you having to put sensors on or things like that. But to achieve it, there is still a lot of work to be done.

I think that the best-case scenario will be kind of a hybrid, where you use the wireless technology like Carlos has in his academy, and do real-time feedback but maybe doing the full analytics without any sensors on. So, analytics comes first, with biofeedback training to change movement patterns and make sure that people are getting a good feel for what they need to do. 

MYGOLFWAY: So, you think that the 3D Golf BioDynamics is not going to replace the launch monitors at the driving range of the tournaments?

Dr ROBERT NEAL: No, no, it’s not going to, no. Definitely not.

MYGOLFWAY: Do you think there is still room for improvement in your technology?

Dr ROBERT NEAL: Yeah, there’s always room for the improvement. I mean, I could invest more money in making the avatar look a little more human-like but to me that’s not the most important thing. The most important thing is the underlying metrics and understanding how best to change the way people swing and give them the feedback, the information. It will continue to improve because computing will get faster and so you can do more things.

We’re already coupled with launch monitors, so that’s a good thing. And I think in the next few years I’ll probably integrate force plates so that we know how people are pushing on the ground during the swing and that gives you additional insight. Like an extension of a type of BodiTrack mat that measures pressure, actually the forces under each foot and then the rotations, how you’re twisting on the ground and things like that.

MYGOLFWAY: And especially this year, are you presenting something new in the technology?

Dr ROBERT NEAL: Nothing new in the technology. I would say that nothing particularly new in the last 12 months other than improvements in the way I deliver the information back to people, and making golf coaches very aware of how important dynamic loft is.

I don’t think people have really cottoned on to the fact that, the amount of loft that you hit the golf ball with is crucial to not just how far it goes but how much it spins and things like that. I continue to make updates in the software, adding bits and pieces but more from an analytic perspective and to help golf coaches understand what’s going on.

MYGOLFWAY: And are you introducing Artificial Intelligence in the system?

Dr ROBERT NEAL: Not in software but in the markerless one we are. We’re using neural networks, machine learning, machine vision, all of those sorts of things that are AI-based to really track the movement of a human body swinging a golf club without having any sensors or markers on. It’s a very challenging question.

MYGOLFWAY: Finally, how do you see the team of coaches in Barcelona Golf Academy working with your technology?

Dr ROBERT NEAL: I think they’re a really good example of how you can use the technology to help guide the development of players. Carlos Vivas has been tremendous in making sure that his coaches know how to use it, so that they get continual measurement and testing of players as they go along. And that’s just such an important part of learning. You have to test yourself because you don’t know if you’ve learned until you test yourself.

MYGOLFWAY: And then the junior players, they’re excited about having their swing analysed, right?

Dr ROBERT NEAL: Yes, it’s just become part of and parcel of developing a good golf swing these days. Almost every player in my tour to Swiss, Germany and Spain had been on 3D before and, if not, they ask me for it. So, they actually really like it.

So, they are understanding that just like you would go and train in the gym if you wanted to be an athlete for sprinting, you do 3D in golf because your technique is really critical to your success.