Get Moving and Save Strokes
March 10, 2010
Whether you walk the course or ride a cart, a round of golf can leave the aerobically unfit golfer dragging by the late holes. Aerobic training improves lung capacity, circulation, and muscular endurance and leads to better performance and better overall health. The benefits of being aerobically fit aren’t limited to physical performance; studies have shown aerobic exercise to improve resistance to mental stress (a major plus for the golfer). A dedicated aerobic training plan will help you save stokes by allowing you to maintain peak physical and mental performance throughout the round.
Aerobic conditioning should be performed three to six days per week for at least 20 to 30 min at your target heart rate. Training at the proper intensity is the key to aerobic training. During exercise we physically stress our body and it is our body’s adaptation to that stress that makes us healthier. This is why a leisurely walk does not qualify for aerobic training; unless we push ourselves our training stimulus will not illicit a physiologic adaptation. Adaptations made by the heart and lungs in response to aerobic training allow them to work more efficiently by increasing their capacity to pump blood and utilize oxygen. This improved circlation and oxygenation allows the body to perform more work, at higher levels with less stress.
How Playing Short will Save You Strokes
March 8, 2010
It’s a pretty simple tip really, but it will help you to lower your scores.
What you should get out of this lesson is that short is usually better regarding approach shots, and I’m going to explain a few reasons why I believe this to be true.
Let’s set the scene. We’ll use the same example throughout. Let’s say that you usually hit your 8 iron around 150 yards, and you are 160 out. Now, most golfers would probably grab their 7 iron here, and think to themselves, “I’ll just take a little off this, and I’ll be right on the pin”.
Problem: Most recreational golfers don’t have the ability to add and take off power from their swings.
You should focus first, and foremost, on mastering one swing, including the tempo, speed, and power that it takes to perfect that one swing. Once you start trying to swing a little easier or a little harder, problems start to sneak into your round. You are trying to play for the pin and instead, you end up in the bunker on the right side of the green, and now you’ve just turned a par hole into a double bogey.
Approach Shots: What It Takes to Master Them
March 5, 2010
Basically, your approach shot is your shot onto the green. One of the things I like to say is this, “You know your game is improving when you start fixing more ball marks on the green”. To fix a ball mark on the green most likely means that you hit it on your approach, which is a good thing.
Here are a few tips to keep in mind, and then we’ll get to the heart of this article.
Aim for the middle of the green, not the flag. Pin placements and greens are getting tougher to stick all the time. Don’t be a “sucker” and go for a pin that you’ll most likely miss, which will leave you in a bunker or some other position to add strokes to your round.
Focus on alignment, not distance. That leads us into the main part of the article.
As you know, it’s not an easy task to master the approach shot, but there are some ways in which you can drastically improve the accuracy of the shot. Alignment is the key to improving your approach shots. Most golfers don’t practice their alignment too much on the practice range, but they should.
How to Maximize Your Distance by Hitting Triples Instead of Home Runs
March 3, 2010
This lesson is entitled, “How to Maximize your Distance by Hitting Triples instead of Home Runs” and it’s a great overall theory to build your entire swing around. Keep this in the back of your head at all times while you are on the course, and remind yourself of it before every shot. The result will be increased distance and straighter shots because you’ll be releasing your hands through the ball better.
Background Info:
Many recreational golfers struggle with slices, blocks, and inconsistency because they don’t know how to release their hands through the ball correctly. By “releasing your hands through the ball”, I am describing the act of maximizing your club head speed at the moment of impact, and eliminating the “outside-in” movement that creates a slice.
How You Will Benefit:
- You’ll learn an easy way of “getting your hands through the ball”
- You’ll be increasing the speed of the club head through the impact zone
- You will ensure that the club head is square at impact (which will drastically reduce any slice that you have) What To Do:
Step 1: Create the “X”
Staying Out of Trouble with Your Driver
February 28, 2010
So what is it that’s really causing problems with your driver? Is it a slice, a hook, or just flat-out inconsistency? Well the good news is that, regardless of what problem you are fighting, there are a few things to incorporate into your game that really will help you. If you’re the golfer that’s saying right now, “I’ve battled a slice for 25 years”, then this is not going to be the undisputed end of your problem. But you CAN reduce the slice or hook, which will help you score better. So here are some tips:
1. Swing Easy. Nothing can be better for your game than learning how to swing the club easier and more fluid. If you go to the range and concentrate ONLY on swinging easy, it will revolutionize your ability to position yourself for a good approach shot when you get onto the course. You will make more consistent impact with the ball, and it will reduce the amount of side-spin you naturally place on the ball because the club head won’t be traveling as fast or with as much force. Again, I know you’ve heard it before, but I ask you to concentrate on this for 1 week. And if you can’t physically practice it, visualize it at the office (visualization works great).
How Better Course Management Can Lower Your Golf Score
February 25, 2010
Whether you are just starting to learn golf, or you have been golfing for many years and you’re just looking to refine your game, this will provide a good direction of focus for this season.
If you want your score to drop by any significant amount, you should learn to hit your 150 yard club, and learn to hit it very well.
By “hitting your 150 yard club very well”, I mean being able to step up to the ball, and KNOW that you can hit any green that is 150 yards away. Every time, any condition, with no pressure.
You need to get to the point in your game where you can hit those 8 or 9 irons very consistently and accurately. Anyone can do this. Believe it or not, 150 yards is not very far away, and most greens these days are very big targets. The short irons should be the easiest club in your bag to hit. And if they aren’t the easiest clubs to hit, you should work on them until they are.
Once you master that shot, everything else is a simple adjustment. Your swing will be on, and you can simply add or take away a little club to adjust for varying distances.
Backspin Advice
February 23, 2010
Lately, I have received many requests for 2 things.
1. Advice on how to hit backspin (always a common request) 2. Advice on the short game in general.
Honestly, the first thing that you need to realize about creating backspin is that it’s a very tough shot to accomplish, let alone control.
The second thing that you should realize is that there are very few situations where this shot is actually needed.
In my opinion, the best shot to master is an approach shot that bounces once, and then stops on a dime. This shot is not easy to accomplish either, but is more realistic and much more effective in the vast majority of cases.
So I’ll get in to the basics of this shot now, but please realize that an entire book could be written on this subject, and it would still be very hard to incorporate into a recreational game.
Here are the basic conditions that must be met before the shot even occurs. If these factors are not in place, don’t try to create backspin.
Conditions must be completely dry - (the club face, and the ball included)
Getting Your Hands Through the Ball at Impact
February 20, 2010
Have you ever thought about what your hands and forearms are actually doing at the moment of impact? If not, please give this a try because it’s one of the most important parts of the swing. The Simple Golf Swing explains this move, and others, in much more detail.
Try to get into the impact position, like you are about to make solid contact with the ball. Now flip your trailing wrist like you were casting a fishing pole. This is referred to as a wrist break, and it’s not a move that you want to make in golf. So if you are trying to "flip" your hands through the ball at impact, this tip may help you understand the correct way to make this happen.
If you put a wrist watch on you’ll be able to visualize the correct moves to make. As your leading arm approaches impact the watch face should be getting close to pointing exactly down the target line, or to the flag. Now simply ROTATE the watch face so it’s pointed at the ground. With a club in your hands, you’ll see that this move makes your trailing wrist and forearm “flip” on top of your leading wrist and forearm.
The Cost/Benefit Analysis
February 18, 2010
There is a very useful method that many accountants use called “The cost/benefit analysis”. You may be familiar with it. The analysis is done to cut the company costs that do not provide a specific benefit. It’s done on all the different costs of the company, and then the accountants can then analyze which costs provide a lot of benefit, versus which costs provide little benefit. Then quite simply, the costs that provide little benefit are cut.
The golf swing is really quite complicated. The reason that I wrote “The Simple Golf Swing” was to get rid of all the unnecessary movements that end up causing many golfers trouble. To do this, I applied the cost/benefit method, but I did it in golf terms.
Just as an example, we’ll use the wrist cock. In analyzing the golf swing, I found that the wrist cock at the top of one’s backswing, produced great results for a few golfers. However, for the vast majority of golfers, it actually proved to cause MANY inconsistencies.
The Cure for a Fat Shot
February 15, 2010
This problem may be easier to fix than you think. You may not realize it, but your back shoulder may be dipping towards the ground. This move forces the club to hit the ground too early. Most of the time it happens when you are really trying to get into the ball. Imagine?You’re 200 yards out and you’ve chosen to hit the 4 iron. When you’ve got it in your head that you have to hit the ball hard to get it there, it’s natural tendency to start your downswing with the hips in an effort to “really get into the ball”. That may work in baseball, but not in golf.
I’d like to take you through what happens if you make that move in golf. First, get in the your setup position, now take your backswing and hold it at the top. Now move only your hips horizontally towards the target, and notice the way it forces your back shoulder to “dip”. If you’ve made that “dip” with your back shoulder, it’s over. You are going to hit behind the ball 90% of the time, and if you do make good contact, you’ll probably end up with a killer slice. Lateral movement is no good for the golf swing.
