Chapter 3, Part 2: Finding the Dominant Zone & Grip Style (WEB 4)
Copyright, Wright Balance® 2024
Measurements to determine the Dominant Core Zone, the Dominant Subregion and the grip style that fits that Subregion.
The following is a video of Part 2 Zoom education session.
In Part 2 of Chapter 3 we determine the Dominant Core Zone, the Dominant Core Subregion and the grip style that fits the subregion.
What you will need while reading Part 2 of Chapter 3:
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Tape (3M medical tape is ideal)
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A bar and bungee
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REMOVE any rings on your fingers or toes. Yes, toes & fingers.
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The vinyl strip with the 15 subregions
Tape: You will be using small pieces of tape on your fingers. I suggest 3M tape as it is easy to apply and remove.
Bar and Bungee: The bar and bungee is used to test pelvic rotation in planes of motion. The bar MUST be set properly across your pelvis so that it rest flat and always below your belt buckle by at least 2 or 3 inches or more.
Remove any Rings on your hands or toes. A ring that fits snug enough will have the same impact as tape on your fingers eliminating your ability to test for Dominant Core Zone. This also applies to a toe rings.
Bar & Bungee
The bar and bungee is used to test pelvic rotation in planes of motion. The bar MUST be set properly across your pelvis so that it rest flat and always below your belt buckle by at least 2 or 3 inches or more.
Note: If you don't have a bar and bungee, you can make one using a 24 inch flat strap and a broom stick (minus the broom) or a 3/4 inch x 3 feet dowel pole.
Question
True or False
The Bar and Bungee must be above your belt line to "read" pelvic rotation accurately
Answer
FALSE The bar and bungee must be well below your belt line and flat on your pelvis to get an accurate measurement.
Fists Drop
In lieu of a bar and bungee, you can use the following simple test to determine if you have pelvic rotation. However, you must be completely relaxed to use this test. Please view the video and I will describe in more detail below how to do this test.
To do the "fists" test please do the following: As noted, REMOVE any Rings on your FINGERS & TOES
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Your elbows must rest on your rib cage and not move as you raise and lower your arms
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Finger lengths and hand sizes are different so your primary measurement is a comparison of your gently clinched fists
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You must be completely relaxed to test pelvic rotation using the "Fists Drop"
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Stand tall, place your elbows on your ribcage, make a fist with each hand. Raise your hands slowly, take 2 deep breaths inhaling slowly through nose and exhaling through your nose **KEEPING YOUR ELBOWS ON YOUR RIBCAGE AS YOU DO **
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Note tension in your shoulders and relax. Drop your shoulders with each exhalation
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As you exhale the third time, KEEPING YOUR ELBOWS ON YOUR RIBCAGE, relax and let your fists drop
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Lean back slightly and compare the height of your fists
The lowest fist as you lean back indicates the direction of the rotation of your pelvis. This is a measure of the Axial, Transverse or Rotational plane. Each of those names refer to the same plane of motion. This plane of motion is recruited from the ground for power in all golf swings.
You will be using this test in multiple situation. I would suggest you begin doing this test upon awakening in the AM, again before going to bed at night and following any long activity from sitting to walking.
Propagation of Force
You are going to observe changes in pelvic rotation when tape is applied around the nail of any finger (not thumb) on one hand and when pressure is applied to a position on the finger of an opposite hand. You and or your student will ask: Why? If you scroll to the bottom of this section, I have added a summary of the process of "Propagation of Force." Following that summary is a link to a Chapter on Propagation of Force that details the majority of research on this phenomena to date.
How to Determine the Dominant Core Zone & Dominant Subregion
This video provides an overview of 5 ways to determine the Dominant Core Zone and Dominant Subregion.
The following video is an actual assessment of the Dominant Core Zone and Dominant Subregion. As you can tell viewing the video, it took less than 5 minutes to complete the evaluation. In under 5 minutes you can tell how your student should set their posture and their sequencing of Motion.
This short video shows the power test again in demonstrating to your students the impact of having the correct Zone as determined by the Power Spots.
NOTE: Before doing the test demonstrated in the following video, be certain to ask your student if they have any neck shoulder, arm, wrists or back issues. Show them where you will stand and gently demonstrate how you will test power.
Hips and Shoulders Height
After letting your "fists drop", stay relaxed. Keeping your elbows on your chest wall, raise your fists to a vertical position. Be certain your elbows don't come off your chest wall and let your arms rise slowly. Stop when your forearms are vertical. Note if one fist is higher than the other.
Note: You are observing how level your shoulders and hips are relative to the ground. If your trail hand is higher than your lead hand, your trail hip will be higher at address. This is a measure of the Coronal or Frontal Plane. Any movement parallel to this "tilting" left to right as, is on the Coronal or Frontal plane.
NOTE: The Wright Balance® Express, when completed in 5 subregions of the same Zone, will level your hips and shoulders and eliminate pelvic rotation in all stance widths and in all planes of motion.
Question
Which of the following illustrations shows the Middle Core Power Spot?
A. 
B. 
C. 
Answer
B. Black (the crease of the first knuckle up from the palm is the Middle Core Power Spot) You will learn that if the butt of the club does not cross the correct power spot (the Player's Dominant Zone) that the downswing path will not be square to the target line.
Question
Assume you are a Posterior Zone / Lower Core Player. Which Power Spot will square your hips when pressure is applied IF you have tape around a fingernail of the opposite hand?
A.
B.
C.
Answer
C. The second pad up from the palm (BLUE)
Question
>When you are testing your student and you determine that their Anterior Zone (Upper Core) is their dominant region, once tape is applied to their Upper Core Power Spot, they stand tall and add slight knee flex, which of the following represents their balance in both feet?
A. 
B. 
C. 
Answer
B. The Anterior Zone Upper Core player will always be on the balls of their feet in exactly the same place in both feet when they are in balance. The positions of balance in the left and right feet create a straight line when observed on a balance plate.
Question
True or False
I ask my student to remove all rings on their hands and toes b.ecause the pressure on the various Power Spots will mask the results as I attempt to determine the Dominant Core Zone
Answer
True
Question
True or False
I have placed tape on the fingernail of one hand and determined my student is a Interior Zone/ Middle Core Dominant Player. I place tape on the Middle Core Power Spot of the hand that has no tape. My student will be square only in a 16 inch range.
Answer
False As long as your student has tape on the fingernail of one hand and the Middle Core Power Spot of the other, they will be square in all stance widths and their hands will hang the same in all stance widths. I should also note that taping each hand as described here will last long enough for you to determine dominant Core Zone. However, we have not determined how long during practice or play the hips will remain square.
Question
Once you determine the Dominant Core Zone how do you know what grip should be used, Butterfly or Complimentary?
Answer
Before gripping a club, bring your lead hand up with a flat left wrist. It will be the same as your Carrying Angle. As shown in the illustration below, bring your trail hand up with an opposing palm.
Test your ability to rotate your shoulders back and through.
If you are able to rotate back and through 90 degrees or more, it is likely that you need a complementary grip.
However, you should always check the downswing path to determine if that is the grip that will return the hips to parallel and keep the trail hip lower to level through the downswing. The testing of ability to rotate will sometimes give you a false positive.
The downswing path test will not lie.
Question
**How do you find the Dominant Core Subregion? **
Answer
Assuming you know the Dominant Core Zone, remove tape from one hand and note that the player's hips rotate the more they relax and breathe. Assume their Anterior Zone / Upper Core is their Dominant Zone. Using only the 5 Anterior Zone Stance widths, have them start at Zero and Red 1 on the vinyl strip. Their hips will only be square on one of the 5 Red subregions without the tape on both hands.
Check their hip line to see if it has returned to square. If you have a bar and bungee, it is a simple test. If not, use the fists drop, arm swing and/ or check the protrusion of the knees to see when they appear even. To get an accurate assessment, your student must be relaxed. I would encourage you to have them take 3 deep breaths with relaxation of the shoulders through their entire body with each breath.
Question
What is being tested in this illustration?
Answer
You are observing how level your hips and shoulders are. When your fists are exactly the same in this position, your hips and shoulders are level. When one fist is lower than the other, one shoulder is lower and or one hip is higher.
Propagation of Force
This is a summary of some of the theories of Propagation of Force. There are multiple possible reasons the small "Power Spots" on the fingers and toes create musculoskeletal changes that lead to body symmetry when isometric pressure is applied. These reasons range from changes in Fascia to Mechanotransduction, Tensegrity and Biotensegrity. As a concept, Biotensegrity is a complete shift from the common belief that the bones in the human body are load-bearing structures that work like the framing of a house.
Mechanotransduction Research from the Wyss Institute at Harvard Medical
We are quantum beings. The same laws of physics that apply to the universe apply to our bodies as well. There are biophysicists (for example, Nobel Laureate, Roger Penrose) now who are exploring our consciousness in the Quantum Mechanical realm of a new discipline, Quantum Biology. There are many branches of Quantum Biology.
When it comes down to it, nobody understands quantum mechanics. This has been the case since the days of Einstein and subsequently Richard Feynman, etc. Einstein referred to the observable changes in the Universe of bi-location as "spooky action at a distance". Our science is on the verge of moving us into quantum computing without fully understanding quantum mechanics.
The following is a "speculation" of WHY these changes occur in the body with the Wright Balance® 4-Way Express and then the subsequent application of mild pressure for fitness and performance.
It “appears” that the Power Spots on the fingers are a "macrocosm" of work done by researchers from Harvard Medical at the cellular level. It is believed that the Power Spot application of pressure propagates through the Core to create changes in balance, depending on the location of the focal point of force and the Core Zone that is being recruited.
In 2005, in the referenced article below, researchers from the Wyss Institute at Harvard Medical described "Action at a Distance" where the long-distance propagation of force was demonstrated at the cellular level when pressure was applied to a focal point on the cell. This propagation of force was observed and measured at points throughout the cytoskeleton. "Action at a distance" is well understood in biophysics and quantum mechanics. However, the precise mechanisms of “Action at a Distance” is a still a mystery to scientist in all disciplines.
If you search the following title via "GOOGLE" or similar search engine, you will see an article by Ning Wang, et al.
Long-distance Propagation of Forces in a Cell
In 2014 Donald E. Ingber, Ning Wang, and Dimitrije Stamenović wrote the following article on mechanotransduction, another reference to propagation of force at the cellular level.
Tensegrity, Cellular Biophysics, and the Mechanics of Living Systems This article can be found at the following link.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4112545/
This article summarizes a discipline of Cellular Biophysics as related to tensegrity and a process of propagation of force in what is referred to as “Mechanotransduction”.
I initially tested "focal points" by Core Zone using "power spots" on the fingers with 40 plus subjects. The "power spots" were discovered while exploring the symmetry created when pressure was applied to these 3 places on the fingers 12 years ago. We have had 1000s of students and professionals experience these same changes observed in the original research. This research has been documented in multiple videos and EBooks since. These discoveries are easily replicated. Proof of concept is easy to demonstrate pre and post changes via the Planes of Motion.
For a more detailed overview of the Propagation of Force, the following link is to a Chapter I wrote. This chapter provides an overview of all of the possible explanations of how tape on fingers translates to a square hip line.
https://instructions.wrightbalance.com/how-power-spots-create-propagation-of-force/
August 26, 2024
David F. Wright, Ph.D., PGA