Rodrigo Barahona, 18, is one of the top golfers at the IMG Academy, which schools and develops promising young athletes on its superb campus in Florida. The next stage of his golfing journey will see him play golf for George Washington University. "I want to be a beast when I get to college." he says. "Clippd just fits so well with my game."
“I’ll be in class and I’ll find myself just going through Clippd,” admits Rodrigo Barahona, an 18-year-old prospect who grew up in Mexico but is now based in the United States at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. A world-renowned sports, performance and educational institution established in 1978, IMG Academy is a haven for talented young athletes who are looking to develop and become the best possible version of themselves.
It was only five years ago that Rodrigo’s golf started to show serious potential and that’s when, without previously visiting the institution, he decided IMG Academy was the best fit for him. He started playing golf almost by accident. His father bought a house on a golf course and decided to take up the game, encouraging his son, who was six at the time, to join him.
“I didn’t really like golf at the time, it was just something I’d tag along with,” Rodrigo admits. However, around the age of 12 or 13 he started getting really good and he's now happy to state that golf has become his “passion”. Rodrigo has been using Clippd for five months and is totally committed to inputting his on- and off-course stats as well as the full range of his golf-related activities.“It’s been a total game changer” he says of the platform.
A snapshot of Rodrigo's Activities feed on Clippd.
His Activities feed reflects how much he's using Clippd. It includes everything from yoga, which forms part of his daily routine at the academy, to wedge ladder practice drills and notes from meetings with his coach. By using Clippd as his personal golfing journal, he is able to view his golf life in one place and reflect upon the outcomes from all the things he’s doing to improve. The light bulb moment came, he reveals, when we introduced the ability to add off-course activities: "I thought, I'm going to upload my entire golfing day to Clippd."Rodrigo pays close attention to his trends and the opportunities to improve that Clippd highlights. “Two months ago my Player Quality for putting was around 116 but it’s dropped to around 99.” Through Clippd, he was able to identify that he’d been spending more time on the range than the putting green and he has now adjusted his practice accordingly. Part of that practice adjustment was to include some of the putting drills in the Clippd Micro Capture App within Clippd. “It’s not only fun to do the drills and tests, it also measures how successful that practice was!”.
Clippd's insights now dictate what Rodrigo practices, too. After looking at his student’s What To Work On dashboard, Robbie Sherwin, a coach at IMG, noticed Rodrigo's ARG (Around The Green) play needed work. “It saves time for both of us,” Rodrigo says.
Left: Rodrigo practicing his short game. Right: Tracking the ball.
That point is particularly pertinent when you consider Rodrigo’s daily schedule, which includes a gym workout, yoga and three hours of golf before midday; the rest of his day is devoted to study. “As student athletes, we don’t have all the time in the world and it’s helping me to make my practice time very efficient,” he says. Clippd isn't the first performance platform that Rodrigo has used and his initial reaction to trying it out was not altogether positive, chiefly because his previous experience of data capture had "not provided much, if any feedback". By contrast, he says he loves how Clippd presents the insights in a visual way that's immediate and intuitive.
“My focus and motivation have increased so much, which
is all feeding into my scoring”
It's not only the different components of his game that Rodrigo is improving by using Clippd. His mental game is also getting stronger. “My focus and motivation have increased so much, which is all feeding into my scoring,” he explains. He explains that a lot of this is because he trusts what Clippd is telling him.is all feeding into my scoring”
Rodrigo's game has been trending upward since he started using Clippd
After finishing at IMG Academy Rodrigo will be heading to George Washington University where he will be a starter on the golf team. "I'd like to be playing every tournament on the schedule but I was raised with balance in life being very important," he explains. This is just as well given he’ll likely be majoring in Business and Finance.
In the meantime, he'll continue using Clippd to ensure his game is in the best possible shape to begin the next chapter in his golf career. "I want to be a beast when I get to college." he says. "Clippd just fits so well with my game." And after college? "The PGA Tour," he replies without hesitation. Don't bet against him.
Last edited by Josh; 20-05-22 at 13:59.
