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).
Swimming Pools
February 28, 2010
Swimming Pools
by: Jeff Lakie
Summer is a welcome treat, especially if you live anywhere that gets a lot snow over the winter! So when summer arrives, getting the pool open and ready is probably your highest priority, and your family and friends are likely already lined up with their swimsuits on!
Starting your pool up for the season
When starting up the pool for the first time in the season, you’ll need to drain any water in the pool along with any antifreeze you used to keep the equipment free of ice. Then you can refill it, adding the chemicals necessary to continue keeping it clean for the summer.
Keeping your pool clean throughout the season
Throughout the swimming season you should be brushing the sides of your pool to loosen debris that collects there, you should be reversing your pumping system to help clean out any build up, and you should be vacuuming the water and skimming the surface. This will keep your pool in tip top shape through out the season and it will make your pool an enjoyable place to be near.
Preparing your pool for winter
My Core Strength Is Just Fine Thank You, But My Golf Swing Needs Help!
February 27, 2010
My Core Strength Is Just Fine Thank You, But My Golf Swing Needs Help!
by: Sean Cochran
Some of us may have an idea about what core training entails. Swing coaches and trainers talk about it in relation to the swing, but what actually is the core?
When the question is asked, “What is the core?” The most common answer is, “Your abdominals.” The core can be defined as the region of the body that incorporates the hips, abdominals, obliques, and lower back.
The definition of the core indicates that it is an anatomical region of the body. The top of your chest to your hips is the easiest way to think about the core region. This part of the body includes numerous muscles in each of these defined regions. Think about all those little back muscles that your doctor speaks about when you are injured. Those muscles are part of the core. When you see those infomercials for the “latest and greatest” abdominal machine, those machines are supposedly going to give you that “six pack.” The muscles of the “six pack” are part of your core. These two regions of the body are the easy parts of the core to understand, but what about the other parts?
The Absolute Best Way to Strengthen Your Core for the Golf Swing
February 26, 2010
The Absolute Best Way to Strengthen Your Core for the Golf Swing
by: Sean Cochran
Different types of core exercises exist. Many of you are probably familiar with an exercise such as the sit-up, which is a great exercise that can be utilized to train the core. If you have read any of our other articles, you are well aware of what the word core means, and its relation to the golf swing. Let us do a quick review for your benefit, and introduce the types of core exercises to perform for your golf swing.
The core is an anatomical region of the body. It can generally be defined as the part of your body between the hips and chest. It in encompasses many muscles groups on the front, side, and backside of the body. In general the core consists of the muscles that make up your; abdominals, lower back, obliques, and hips.
The core region is important to the golf swing for many reasons. The core is essentially called the “engine” of the body. It is the area that “drives” the body for most any human movement, including your golf swing. It is primarily responsible for the capacities of: balance, stability, and power development within the body. For these capacities to occur efficiently it is necessary to train the core for improved performances.
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.
Why Do Injuries Occur In Golf?
February 24, 2010
Why Do Injuries Occur In Golf?
by: Sean Cochran
Injuries occur in all athletic events quite frequently, certain sports more so than others. Golf is no different than any other sport. The severity of injuries in golf usually are not as severe as in other sports. The scenario of a 300 lb. defensive lineman slamming into the side of your knee tearing every possible ligament structure in the knee will never happen in the sport of golf. An interesting visual if you combined the sports of football and golf onto the same playing field, but inappropriate for this paper.
There are two types of injuries classified by professionals in the fields of athletic training and sports medicine. The two types of injuries are: 1) acute and 2) chronic. The above example of the football player is classified as an acute injury. An acute injury can be defined as the trauma in the body occurring immediately after the injury. Refer to the football player example above for a reminder. (For us older golfers, remember Joe Theisman of the Redskins and Lawrence Taylor’s leg breaking tackle? Acute injury.) Relating an acute injury to golf is a little more difficult. Probably the easiest, and maybe most the common, acute injury in golf, occurs while swinging and you hit a rock or something that creates an injury to your wrist. That would be the best example in the sport of golf of an acute injury. Overall, acute injuries tend to be rare in golf because contact by the body with external forces is rare.
Why Online Poker Websites are a Safe Way to Play Poker
February 23, 2010
Why Online Poker Websites are a Safe Way to Play Poker
by: Jeff Dragt
Frequently, whenever anybody thinks about the idea of making a purchase online or transmitting their credit card information via the internet, they may tend to wonder about the safety aspect surrounding these types of internet transactions. The same kind of worry rings true for those individuals that are interested in entertaining themselves by utilizing online poker websites as a gaming establishment alternative. They may tend to ask themselves whether or not this is a safe thing to be doing or if they may be jeopardizing things such as their bank account and overall financial safety by doing so. Another way in which a prospective online poker player may question safety and legitimacy aspects of an online poker website is with regard to collusion among some of its online poker players. However, it may help you to rest a bit easier after reading the following text and learning about the different ways in which safety concerns are being addressed with regard to gaming websites such as online poker websites.
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)
Increasing FlexibilityNot Stretching Is The Fastest Way To A Better Golf Swing
February 22, 2010
Increasing FlexibilityNot Stretching Is The Fastest Way To A Better Golf Swing
by: Sean Cochran
Flexibility is quite often a misunderstood principle, but most of us know it is important to golf. Before we discuss flexibility and its relevance to golf we need to start with: “What in the #$%#%$#% is flexibility anyways?”
It is a simple question yet one that is not easy to answer. I imagine that most of you come up with some definition that is something to the effect of “Flexibility is stretching, right?” That answer is partially correct. Flexibility training incorporates stretching techniques. However, it is NOT limited to traditional stretching, and the two terms cannot be used interchangeably.
We Should Talk About What Flexibility Means
The Three Requirements of Good Golf - Lesson 3
February 21, 2010
The Three Requirements of Good Golf - Lesson 3
by: Alan Walker
Lesson 3
Now back to our story of D.M.
Once he learned how to position and direct the club on the backswing, and once he began to keep the club in that same true position throughout the swing, his scores began to improve. As a matter of record, six months after his first lesson from me he won a tournament at Bel-Air by shooting a score of 66, four under par for 18 holes. One year after he had his first lesson his handicap had been lowered from 13 to 3.
In one week of play he scored a hole in one in addition to scoring a 2 on a 390-yard hole, and another 2 on a 410-yard hole. To do this, the ball must have been flying true and straight off his clubs.
An interesting sequel to the D.M. story is that ten years after the above-mentioned instruction, he was playing with a 4 handicap, and in a tournament in which there were over 300 entries he turned in the low qualifying score of 67.
