• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.2011-2014
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to compare the modal parameters of a newly developed soft golf club prototype, which is designed to be lighter than regular golf clubs, with those of a regular commercial golf club. The modal tests were performed with two kinds of boundary conditions. The first condition was free-free condition and the second was fixed-free condition. An impact hammer and a Fast Fourier Transform analyzer were used to obtain modal data. From the results, it was found out that the modal characteristics of the soft golf club prototype were close to those of the regular golf club although the weight of the soft club was lighter. Therefore, the soft golf club is expected to be able to convey similar feel to the golfers even with lighter weight. This would enable elderly golfers to swing easily with the soft golf club with same skill which they acquired with regular golf clubs but with reduced load to their muscles.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.141-150
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to analyze the golf swing motion for a soft golf clubs and regular golf club. Soft golf is a newly developed recreational sports for all ages, including the elderly and the beginners of golf. To quantify the effect of using soft golf club, which much lighter club than regular clubs, a motion analysis has been performed using a 3D optoelectric motion tracking system that utilizes active infrared LEDs and near-infrared sensors. The subject performed swing motion using a regular golf club and a soft golf club in turn. The obtained motion capture data was used to build a 3D computer simulation model to obtain left wrist, elbow shoulder and lumbar joint force and torque using inverse and forward dynamics calculations. The joint force and torque during soft golf swing were lower than regular golf swing. The analysis gave better understanding of the effectiveness of the soft golf club.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.643-644
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to experimentally analyze swing motion with soft golf clubs and compare with that with normal golf clubs. Soft golf is newly devised recreational sport based on golf but focus on the playability for the elderly. The subject fur the experiment performed swing motion using a normal golf club and a soft golf club in turn. The swing motion of the subjects was tracked using an opto-electric three-dimensional motion analysis system. The results were compared against those obtained with a normal golf club. The range of motion was analyzed along with top head speed for two cases. It was found that higher club head speed could be achieved with reduced range of motion at lumbar joint using soft golf club when compared against the swing using regular club. The lower range of motion fur lumbar bending means reduced risk of injury at the joint. So, it is projected that we can reduce the risk of injury with soft golf while maintaining the club head speed.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.151-161
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• 2010

Soft Golf is a newly developed recreational sport in our research team aimed to become a safe and easy-to-learn sport for all ages. The advantage of Soft Golf stems from lighter weight of the club and much larger area of the sweet spot. The purpose of this study is to analyze ground reaction force(GRF) and joint angle during soft Golf club and regular golf club swing. The GRF of golf swing was recorded by 3-D motion analysis system and forceplate. The joint angle of golf swing was obtained from computer simulation model. The GRF and joint angle of golf swing are used to analysis of golf swing pattern. The pattern of GRF and joint angle during soft golf club swing was similar to that during regular golf club swing. This result means that soft golf club reduces the risk of injury and has an effect on similar entertainment of regular golf.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.903-906
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to analyze the muscular force of swing using the soft golf club in comparison with the muscular force of swing using normal golf club. The subject was normal adult (twenties) and performed swing motion using normal and soft golf club. And then we compared muscular power soft golf club with normal golf club of the subject. The muscular power of the subject was measured by MP 100(BIOPAC Systems, Inc.). For the analysis of muscular power of swing using soft golf club, we measured EMG(Electromyography) of the subject. The position of muscle was deltoid, latissimus dorsi, external oblique and rectus abdominis of the upper limbs and rectus femoris, biceps femoris, gastrocnemius and soleus of the lower limbs. The result of experiment, muscle pattern of swing using soft golf club was similar to pattern of swing using normal golf club and muscular power of subjects using the soft golf was smaller than normal golf.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.522-525
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to analyze the pattern of muscle usage during swing motion with a soft golf club in comparison with that with a normal golf club. The subjects were normal healthy young adults. The subjects performed swing motion using normal and soft golf clubs in turn. Then, we compared and analyzed the muscular activities for the two cases. The muscular activities of the subject was measured using MP100(BIOPAC Systems, Inc.). For the analysis of muscular activities, we measured EMG(Electromyography) of the subjects during swing motion. The muscles analyzed were deltoid, latissimus dorsi, external oblique, and rectus abdominis of the upper limbs and rectus femoris, biceps femoris, gastrocnemius, and soleus of the lower limbs. The result of the experiment showed that the pattern of muscle usage with soft golf club was similar to that with a normal golf club but the muscular activities with the soft golf was smaller than that with the normal golf club.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.2028-2031
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• 2005

This paper concerns stress distribution of the soft golf clubs using FEM. The identification of the stress distribution of the soft golf clubs used the finite element method using ABAQUS. The soft golf clubs which were designated is a new golf clubs to keep a good health for the elderly. To design the soft golf clubs, we concerns two main purpose ; First, our efforts concentrate to reduce the weight of the soft golf clubs. We considers the change of material and geometry of the golf club‘s head and shaft. Second, it is to increase the size and shape of 'sweet spot' of the soft golf club’s head face. To accomplish this purpose, we made the various type of the soft golf club's head. In this paper, we simulates putter models of the soft golf clubs. The pre-processing which generates the mesh of the model used HyperMesh with geometry data by CATIA ver 5.0 This paper compares the stress distribution of putter type which was loaded.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.744-749
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• 2007

Kinematic and kinetic analysis has been performed for Soft Golf swings utilizing realistic three dimensional computer simulations based on three dimensional motion tracking data. Soft Golf is a newly developed recreational sport in South Korea aimed to become a safe and easy-to-learn sport for all ages. The advantage of Soft Golf stems from lighter weight of the club and much larger area of the sweet spot. This paper tries to look into kinematic and kinetic aspects of soft golf swings compared to regular golf swing and find the advantages of lighter Soft Golf clubs. For this purpose, swing motions of older aged participants were captured and kinematic analysis was performed for various kinematic parameters such as club head velocity, joint angular velocity, and joint range of motions as a pilot study. Kinetic analysis was performed by applying kinematic data to computer simulation models constructed from anthropometric database and the measurements from the participants. The simulations were solved using multi-body dynamics solver. Firstly, the kinematic parameters such as joint angles were obtained by solving inverse dynamics problem based on motion tracking data. Secondly, the kinetic parameters such as joint torques were obtained by solving control dynamics problem of making joint torque to follow pre-defined joint angle data. The results showed that mechanical loadings to major joints were reduced with lighter Soft Golf club.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.227-233
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• 2010

This study analyzed performance according to kick point and stiffness of Soft-$golf^{TM}$ shaft. This research team developed soft-$golf^{TM}$ as a new fusion sports with similar motions with golf and it can be learned safely for all age groups in 2002. The head of Soft-$golf^{TM}$ club is made of zinc alloy and has a mesh or a grid structure, and shaft uses carbon graphite to reduce the total weight of the club. To improve carry distance and to assure consistency of a ball during Soft-$golf^{TM}$ swing, this study manufactured shaft with various kick points (low, middle and high) and stiffness (stiff, regular, lady, morelady) and analyzed a swing motion with characteristics of each shaft presented in a dynamic condition such as a ball's speed, a head's torsion angle and a ball's deviation with ProAnalyst program through a high-speed camera taking pictures using a swing machine robot system(Robo-7). From all of the results, this study determined an appropriate shaft of Soft-$golf^{TM}$.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.194.2-194.2
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• 2005