Archive for May, 2009
Array
Sunday, May 31st, 2009Cure Arthritis? Right!
Sunday, May 31st, 2009In order to allay our fears, the drug companies publish the results of their clinical tests. This double blind study proved that that lethal chemical reduced your swelling more than another, equally lethal chemical.
It’s time for a reality check. The drug companies will continue to pump out really expensive chemicals, ostensibly helpful. Our doctors will continue to serve up the concoctions fed to them by the drug companies. Unless we refuse to go along with this travesty. We don’t need a revolution. We don’t even need to take on our doctors or the drug companies. We only need to pool our resources and conduct our own quiet experiments.
Do they think they’re playing with babies? Yes. That’s exactly what they think. Arthritis is such a horrible, debilitating disease that we’ll try anything to reduce the symptoms. And that’s exactly what these awful drugs do. They reduce the symptoms, temporarily. As the symptoms creep back, your rheumatologist increases the drug or experiments with other lethal concoctions to reduce your swelling or pain. We’re told there’s NO cure for arthritis. We’re told that no one knows the cause. Really! More that thirty years ago we sent men to play golf on the moon. But we can’t pin point even one cause for this crippling disease?
Array
Sunday, May 31st, 2009In order to allay our fears, the drug companies publish the results of their clinical tests. This double blind study proved that that lethal chemical reduced your swelling more than another, equally lethal chemical.
It’s time for a reality check. The drug companies will continue to pump out really expensive chemicals, ostensibly helpful. Our doctors will continue to serve up the concoctions fed to them by the drug companies. Unless we refuse to go along with this travesty. We don’t need a revolution. We don’t even need to take on our doctors or the drug companies. We only need to pool our resources and conduct our own quiet experiments.
Do they think they’re playing with babies? Yes. That’s exactly what they think. Arthritis is such a horrible, debilitating disease that we’ll try anything to reduce the symptoms. And that’s exactly what these awful drugs do. They reduce the symptoms, temporarily. As the symptoms creep back, your rheumatologist increases the drug or experiments with other lethal concoctions to reduce your swelling or pain. We’re told there’s NO cure for arthritis. We’re told that no one knows the cause. Really! More that thirty years ago we sent men to play golf on the moon. But we can’t pin point even one cause for this crippling disease?
Custom Nike Xtreme Sport Carry II Custom Golf Bags
Sunday, May 31st, 2009The Fun of Playing Golf and Tips on Buying Golf Equipment
Sunday, May 31st, 2009
Golf Workouts Will Increase Your Golf Swing Speed and Distance
Saturday, May 30th, 2009What you are about to read… will change your golfing life forever! What are these three “secrets”? If you knew how would they effect your game?. These three “secrets” are what the worlds best players do. Every player MUST know these “secrets” if they are to have a powerful, repeating golf stroke.
With age comes a decline in both flexibility and strength. When the body declines, the swing goes right along with it. The result is a big loss in yardage, more mishits, and ballooning scores. The end result…frustration! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve played with and received phone calls from older golfers who are just about ready to quit the game.
As golfers you and I use the Inclined Plane to swing the club back up and end, down out and forward, up back and in making the Golf Stroke three dimensional.
YOU can improve your game dramatically by following the steps outlined above. Become the best player YOU can be and start winning those 4 way presses! If YOU really want to elevate your game, hit it farther, straighter, and nearer the hole then practice what I’ve shared with you.
In fact, most of your abdominal work should be rotational. Doing straight crunches won’t improve your driving distance. Doing rotational movements with added weight will. This is where I could go on and on, but I won’t overload you.
Secret #2: A Staright Plane Line
The problem with the majority of golfers is that they don’t know what to do. Oh their friends, well wishers at best, tell them that they are “bending their left arm”, “raising up through the shot”, “coming over the top” and host of other swing faults. But these are the same people that shoot the same scores you do! What could they possibly tell you that would improve your game?
The clubshaft, actually the sweetspot of the club, may travel to any other plane angle during the swing as long as it DOES NOT cross the base of the plane. Here is a simple way you can know if you are on plane or not. Whichever end of the club is nearest to the ground MUST also point at the base of the plane from horizon to horizon. If neither end is nearer then the clubshaft MUST be horizontal to the ground and parallel to the base of plane.
The golf swing is a rotational movement, with your body in golf posture. Slight flex of the knees and a bending forward at the hips. Since the golf swing is primarily rotational, wouldn’t it make sense to focus on rotational strength and flexibility? That is improving your turning ability related to range of motion and speed.
The information you are about to receive is not theory or conjecture but science. Ooooh, you say, this sounds complicated. Well it isn’t, it is simply the laws of force and motion that govern our entire lives and day to day living. Once you understand these simply laws your golf game will forever change…for the better!
Vijay Singh Does Golf Workouts
Either way…the proof is in the bag. The number one player in the world, Vijay Singh, does his golf workouts all the way through Sunday of each tournament. Does it look like it’s hurting his game? I don’t think so. Back in 1997, a young, very athletic golfer came on the professional scene and blew everyone away. I think you know who I’m talking about.
Annika Sorenstam Credits Her Golf Exercises
Because the golf stroke involves a golf club, a left arm, and a wrist in between, it is called a “lever system”. The left wrist acts as a “hinge pin” much like the old time “flail” used to beat wheat. This “hinge pin” can rotate, cock or uncock but NEVER Bends!
2. Core Based Exercises. Your body’s “core”, the area around your trunk and pelvis, is where your center of gravity is located. When you have good core stability, the muscles in your pelvis, lower back, hips and abdomen work in harmony. They provide support to your spine. The core is the power zone. It is where all movement begins. A well-developed core allows for improved force output, increased neuromuscular efficiency, and decreased incidence of overuse injuries. A weak core can make you susceptible to poor posture and injury.
You don’t have to accept that with age, your body declines. No way! You’ve got to fight it all the way! I’m dead serious. The ones who do, are the ones who are enjoying the game again and taking all the money in their foursome.
No, you need to add resistance to accomplish this. Take a weighted club and make golf swings. Now you’ll be making a bigger turn AND improving your power. Same thing with a medicine ball. Make turns back and through holding a 4 to 6 pound ball and you’ll see a BIG improvement.
How about the year Annika Sorenstam shot a 59 and totally dominated the LPGA? Do you know what she attributes it to? Golf workouts! She hired a trainer and got serious about her fitness. And look what happened? She hasn’t looked back since. She just recently came out with an instruction book and devoted a chapter to golf workouts.
Golf Workouts Will Transform Your Golf Swing
You only have two choices when it comes to the swing plane, you are either on or you’re off. There is no middle ground!
Tiger Woods Golf Workout Routine
Lag by definition means “trailing”. When the clubhead passes the hands coming into Impact there is no “lag”. Without “lag” the golf ball cannot be compressed, we cannot hit downward, and we have a tremendous power loss. Clubhead lag promotes a steady and even acceleration giving us a dependable way to control distance.
What is a golf workout anyways? Is there such a thing? You bet there is. The golf swing is an awkward movement that puts a tremendous amount of stress on the body. To prevent injury and improve swing speed and distance requires your body to be both strong and flexible specific to the swing.
For instance, if you took a club and placed it behind your neck, got in your golf posture and rotated back and forth; do you think that by itself would improve your range of motion or power?
What Is A Golf Workout
How about the senior tour? Now players are realizing they can still make good money, even after they’ve turned 50 and can’t really compete with the young guys anymore. With the money at stake, they too are all working out. This group of players both amateur and pro is the biggest demographic that needs it the most.
Golfers however routinely bend the left wrist causing the clubhead to reach the ball before the hands do. This causes a “quitting” motion, adds loft to the clubface, points the face to the left of target, makes the clubhead swing upward disrupting the downward motion that ALL good golf shots MUST have. Good players DELOFT the clubface at Impact. Poor players ADD loft to the clubface costing them distance, direction, and trajectory.
For example, a Driver striking a golf ball with a 2 degree “backward” leaning clubshaft at 100 mph with 9.5 degrees of loft produces a launch angle of 6.4 degrees and a carry distance of 230 yards.
1. Spinal Rotation. Every time you swing the golf club, you rotate around your spine. So, what does this have to do with power? Power is generated every time you stabilize your hips to make a full backswing with spinal rotation. Most golfers have heard of the X factor. This, of course, refers to the differential between the movement in your hips and your spine. Increase your spinal rotation and a new sense of power will be released.
Secret #1: A Flat Left Wrist
They are SO frustrated at this rapid decline, that golf’s not fun anymore. But there is hope. The answer? Get your body moving just a little better. How? By participating in workouts for golf program that focuses on golf-specific strength AND flexibility. It’s amazing to see golfers in this age bracket dramatically improve their driving distance, accuracy and scores.
To my recollection, that’s the first women’s instruction book to include golf workouts. Working out to playing better golf isn’t just for the guys; Annika has proved that. Now more LPGA players are working out to try and catch her, just like the guys did with Tiger.
Secret #3: A Lagging Clubhead
What exactly is the swing plane? The plane is the angle of the clubshaft as it sets at address - period! It is NOT Hogans plane of glass as many would have you to believe. There are only three planes available;
Tiger took golf to another level. A real eye-opener for the veteran players who were hitting the 19th hole after every round…and the last thought on their mind was “exercise”. What a wake-up call to be totally dominated by a player who was only 20 years old at the time.
1. Horizontal - a wall
2. Vertical - the floor
3. Inclined somewhere in between
So anything involving twisting with resistance such as a medicine ball, a dumbbell, or even a weighted club would work. You need to have a resistance to take your body beyond where it normally goes.
I could spend dozens of pages describing what this entails, but for the sake of this concise article, let’s keep it simple.
Senior Golfers Now Do Golf Fitness Programs
Golf Is Rotational
Use A Weighted Golf Club
Look at any picture of your favorite player at Impact. The left arm and clubshaft are in ONE LINE! Never two lines. This means that the player is utilizing “lag”. When a ball is struck with “lag” it explodes off the clubface! Without this “lag” the sound turns into one of mush, a soft Impact instead of a driving Impact.
If you follow this outline, learn these three “Secrets” you will be hitting the ball with more compression than you ever thought possible.
By changing Impact to a 2 degree forward leaning clubshaft the player produces a launch angle of 10.4 degrees and a carry of 251 yards. A 21 YARD INCREASE WITHOUT buying a new Driver and simply having clubhead lag!
————————————————————
A 5 iron, for example, has approximately 8 degrees for “forward lean” when soled properly. At Impact with good players the “lean” is approximately 15 degrees. This turns the 5 iron into a 4 iron. Poor players reach Impact with a “backward” leaning clubshaft thereby ADDING loft and turning the 5 iron into a 6-7 iron!
————————————————————
Chuck Evans, G.S.E.D.
www.chuckevansgolf.com
chuck@chuckevansgolf.com
3 Sure Fire Ways to Generate More Power off the Tee
Saturday, May 30th, 2009With age comes a decline in both flexibility and strength. When the body declines, the swing goes right along with it. The result is a big loss in yardage, more mishits, and ballooning scores. The end result…frustration! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve played with and received phone calls from older golfers who are just about ready to quit the game.
As golfers you and I use the Inclined Plane to swing the club back up and end, down out and forward, up back and in making the Golf Stroke three dimensional.
YOU can improve your game dramatically by following the steps outlined above. Become the best player YOU can be and start winning those 4 way presses! If YOU really want to elevate your game, hit it farther, straighter, and nearer the hole then practice what I’ve shared with you.
In fact, most of your abdominal work should be rotational. Doing straight crunches won’t improve your driving distance. Doing rotational movements with added weight will. This is where I could go on and on, but I won’t overload you.
Secret #2: A Staright Plane Line
The problem with the majority of golfers is that they don’t know what to do. Oh their friends, well wishers at best, tell them that they are “bending their left arm”, “raising up through the shot”, “coming over the top” and host of other swing faults. But these are the same people that shoot the same scores you do! What could they possibly tell you that would improve your game?
The clubshaft, actually the sweetspot of the club, may travel to any other plane angle during the swing as long as it DOES NOT cross the base of the plane. Here is a simple way you can know if you are on plane or not. Whichever end of the club is nearest to the ground MUST also point at the base of the plane from horizon to horizon. If neither end is nearer then the clubshaft MUST be horizontal to the ground and parallel to the base of plane.
The golf swing is a rotational movement, with your body in golf posture. Slight flex of the knees and a bending forward at the hips. Since the golf swing is primarily rotational, wouldn’t it make sense to focus on rotational strength and flexibility? That is improving your turning ability related to range of motion and speed.
The information you are about to receive is not theory or conjecture but science. Ooooh, you say, this sounds complicated. Well it isn’t, it is simply the laws of force and motion that govern our entire lives and day to day living. Once you understand these simply laws your golf game will forever change…for the better!
Vijay Singh Does Golf Workouts
Either way…the proof is in the bag. The number one player in the world, Vijay Singh, does his golf workouts all the way through Sunday of each tournament. Does it look like it’s hurting his game? I don’t think so. Back in 1997, a young, very athletic golfer came on the professional scene and blew everyone away. I think you know who I’m talking about.
Annika Sorenstam Credits Her Golf Exercises
Because the golf stroke involves a golf club, a left arm, and a wrist in between, it is called a “lever system”. The left wrist acts as a “hinge pin” much like the old time “flail” used to beat wheat. This “hinge pin” can rotate, cock or uncock but NEVER Bends!
2. Core Based Exercises. Your body’s “core”, the area around your trunk and pelvis, is where your center of gravity is located. When you have good core stability, the muscles in your pelvis, lower back, hips and abdomen work in harmony. They provide support to your spine. The core is the power zone. It is where all movement begins. A well-developed core allows for improved force output, increased neuromuscular efficiency, and decreased incidence of overuse injuries. A weak core can make you susceptible to poor posture and injury.
You don’t have to accept that with age, your body declines. No way! You’ve got to fight it all the way! I’m dead serious. The ones who do, are the ones who are enjoying the game again and taking all the money in their foursome.
No, you need to add resistance to accomplish this. Take a weighted club and make golf swings. Now you’ll be making a bigger turn AND improving your power. Same thing with a medicine ball. Make turns back and through holding a 4 to 6 pound ball and you’ll see a BIG improvement.
How about the year Annika Sorenstam shot a 59 and totally dominated the LPGA? Do you know what she attributes it to? Golf workouts! She hired a trainer and got serious about her fitness. And look what happened? She hasn’t looked back since. She just recently came out with an instruction book and devoted a chapter to golf workouts.
Golf Workouts Will Transform Your Golf Swing
You only have two choices when it comes to the swing plane, you are either on or you’re off. There is no middle ground!
Tiger Woods Golf Workout Routine
Lag by definition means “trailing”. When the clubhead passes the hands coming into Impact there is no “lag”. Without “lag” the golf ball cannot be compressed, we cannot hit downward, and we have a tremendous power loss. Clubhead lag promotes a steady and even acceleration giving us a dependable way to control distance.
What is a golf workout anyways? Is there such a thing? You bet there is. The golf swing is an awkward movement that puts a tremendous amount of stress on the body. To prevent injury and improve swing speed and distance requires your body to be both strong and flexible specific to the swing.
For instance, if you took a club and placed it behind your neck, got in your golf posture and rotated back and forth; do you think that by itself would improve your range of motion or power?
What Is A Golf Workout
How about the senior tour? Now players are realizing they can still make good money, even after they’ve turned 50 and can’t really compete with the young guys anymore. With the money at stake, they too are all working out. This group of players both amateur and pro is the biggest demographic that needs it the most.
Golfers however routinely bend the left wrist causing the clubhead to reach the ball before the hands do. This causes a “quitting” motion, adds loft to the clubface, points the face to the left of target, makes the clubhead swing upward disrupting the downward motion that ALL good golf shots MUST have. Good players DELOFT the clubface at Impact. Poor players ADD loft to the clubface costing them distance, direction, and trajectory.
For example, a Driver striking a golf ball with a 2 degree “backward” leaning clubshaft at 100 mph with 9.5 degrees of loft produces a launch angle of 6.4 degrees and a carry distance of 230 yards.
1. Spinal Rotation. Every time you swing the golf club, you rotate around your spine. So, what does this have to do with power? Power is generated every time you stabilize your hips to make a full backswing with spinal rotation. Most golfers have heard of the X factor. This, of course, refers to the differential between the movement in your hips and your spine. Increase your spinal rotation and a new sense of power will be released.
Secret #1: A Flat Left Wrist
They are SO frustrated at this rapid decline, that golf’s not fun anymore. But there is hope. The answer? Get your body moving just a little better. How? By participating in workouts for golf program that focuses on golf-specific strength AND flexibility. It’s amazing to see golfers in this age bracket dramatically improve their driving distance, accuracy and scores.
To my recollection, that’s the first women’s instruction book to include golf workouts. Working out to playing better golf isn’t just for the guys; Annika has proved that. Now more LPGA players are working out to try and catch her, just like the guys did with Tiger.
Secret #3: A Lagging Clubhead
What exactly is the swing plane? The plane is the angle of the clubshaft as it sets at address - period! It is NOT Hogans plane of glass as many would have you to believe. There are only three planes available;
Tiger took golf to another level. A real eye-opener for the veteran players who were hitting the 19th hole after every round…and the last thought on their mind was “exercise”. What a wake-up call to be totally dominated by a player who was only 20 years old at the time.
1. Horizontal - a wall
2. Vertical - the floor
3. Inclined somewhere in between
So anything involving twisting with resistance such as a medicine ball, a dumbbell, or even a weighted club would work. You need to have a resistance to take your body beyond where it normally goes.
I could spend dozens of pages describing what this entails, but for the sake of this concise article, let’s keep it simple.
Senior Golfers Now Do Golf Fitness Programs
Golf Is Rotational
Use A Weighted Golf Club
Look at any picture of your favorite player at Impact. The left arm and clubshaft are in ONE LINE! Never two lines. This means that the player is utilizing “lag”. When a ball is struck with “lag” it explodes off the clubface! Without this “lag” the sound turns into one of mush, a soft Impact instead of a driving Impact.
If you follow this outline, learn these three “Secrets” you will be hitting the ball with more compression than you ever thought possible.
By changing Impact to a 2 degree forward leaning clubshaft the player produces a launch angle of 10.4 degrees and a carry of 251 yards. A 21 YARD INCREASE WITHOUT buying a new Driver and simply having clubhead lag!
————————————————————
A 5 iron, for example, has approximately 8 degrees for “forward lean” when soled properly. At Impact with good players the “lean” is approximately 15 degrees. This turns the 5 iron into a 4 iron. Poor players reach Impact with a “backward” leaning clubshaft thereby ADDING loft and turning the 5 iron into a 6-7 iron!
3 Simple Golf Tips to Quickly Improve Your Distance
Saturday, May 30th, 2009As a golfer and coach, I’ve been thrilled to watch the U.S. Open golf championship this week. I love the game, and have been privileged to coach some great players, so this tournament holds a special attraction for me. As many of you know, this is one of the few world championships that is literally open to all comers. If you can play golf, you can enter. Entering, however, does not guarantee victory!
You will do 3 sets of 20 repetitions to get the full benefit of the exercise. Again, this is just ONE exercise of many that will strengthen your rotational muscles of your core.
Secondly, do it very, very well! And, that brings us back to hard work. Great golfers work incredibly hard. There’s an ad on TV that talks about Steve Elkington getting up before sunrise every single morning to hit 100 balls from the tee, 100 from the fairway, 100 from the sand, and 100 putts, before he goes to work “playing” golf! If the first rule for greatness is “follow your talents”, the second is, “become incredibly skilled”.
Start rotating side to side, only with your upper body. Try keeping your lower body as stable as possible.
For more and more of us, the challenge is to hone our skills and show up, play a practice round, and then we get two days to show our stuff. If we aren’t one of the best by Friday afternoon, we go home. No paycheck, no win, no glory! It’s a wonderfully free, individualistic and exciting world, but it can also be brutally honest and ruthlessly humbling.
Stretching on the course will keep your body nice and loose to make that FULL backswing, generating high clubhead speed and consistently LONG drives. There are just a few KEY stretches specific to your swing, that can keep your body relaxed for 18 holes.
Tip #3
All you do is get in your golf posture, with your arms hanging naturally in front of you. For a right-handed golfer, you would take your right hand underneath your left, so the back of both hands are touching each other.
Fortunately, golfers have taught me a few tricks to increase the chances of being around for the weekend, getting that paycheck and the glory, on Sunday afternoon!
To alleviate this pain and quickly improve your distance takes strength and stretching, specific to your body and your golf swing.
And that means we have to be at the top of our game all the time! That has never been necessary before. In the past, most people either worked on the farm or worked for a corporation where it was possible to have a bad month, or even a slow year, and still get by. Today, almost none of us have that luxury.
Since the simple golf swing is a turn back and a turn through, it is rotational in nature. Then why wouldn’t you do many exercises to improve your rotational strength and flexibility?
First, follow your talents! There has never been a time when it’s been easier, or more important, to do what you love and what you are designed to do! My grandfather was a wonderful, remarkable man, who spent most of his working years as a laborer in a lumber yard. In many ways, I like to think those years of humbling, difficult work added to his greatness. But most of us no longer have to do work we are not suited for. Some golfers are born with incredible talent, while others earn their game with extraordinary dedication and hard work. And some should consider doing something else.
One simple golf exercise is the Seated Twist with a dumbbell. It’s very easy and can be done with a 5 or 8 pound dumbbell.
Tip #2
There is no substitute for skill. In any profession, and in almost any situation, the top 20% will do well. If you know what you’re doing, if you show up, if you get the job done, (and if you have a great coach!), sooner or later you’ll win. If you don’t love what you do enough to practice and develop your skills, ask yourself, “What’s wrong?”
One stretch I’ll tell you is the backswing/shoulder stretch. It’s a very simple stretch that will maintain a full and fluid backswing.
Finally, super achievement involves the mystery we call “luck”. I think it’s important to say that out loud! Many motivational speakers focus only on their “secrets of success”, claiming they have the “law” of money or the “law” of success on their side. Well. This week, Payne Stewart has had talent, skill, patience, and tons of incredible luck! His ball goes in the rough, but sits up! He hits a wild shot into a tree, and it bounces into the fairway! At the same time, Colin Montgomery, who many rank as the best player in the world, hits a great shot that lands in the worst divot on the fairway. Go figure.
A Simple Warm-Up could be some arm circles, toe touches, squats with your club, and standing twists holding the club out in front of you chest high.
At the start of a new century, more and more of us are functioning like professional golfers. Very few of us will spend our careers as a “team player” for a large corporation. More and more of us will be “free agents”, competing from one contest to another, or contracting our services for the length of a project, to solve a problem, or for a limited period of time.
Any golf tips you hear to improve distance should somehow be directly or indirectly related to the physical side of the golf swing. I mean…don’t you think the swing puts a tremendous amount of pressure on your body, especially your lower back?
I am absolutely convinced that the road to greatness, wealth, and personal satisfaction lies in taking the path of least resistance. Follow your talents! Do what brings you joy! If you won the lottery, what would you do for fun? What are you passionate about? Do that.
Perform a dynamic warm-up prior to the first tee. Don’t ever skip it. It is more important than hitting balls before you play. How many times do you see a professional athlete go on the field and start playing? Never. That’s my point.
That’s it! Simple yet very effective to prepare your body for that LONG drive on the first tee.
So let’s get to these simple, yet valuable tips.
Now gently apply pressure from the back of your right hand against your left and pull your upper body all the way in your backswing and hold. Hold it for 15 seconds and repeat once more.
While sitting on the ground, grab a single dumbbell with both hands and hold it out in front of you.
The third component is patience. During this U.S. Open competition, two people have caught the imagination of the crowds, Payne Stewart and Matt Kuchar. Payne has been around the PGA Tour for years. He won the Open and started strong a few years ago, but has had 7 dry years of traveling the world, practicing and waiting for his time to come again. And, he’s done it all with a smile, a balance of cockiness and humility, and with patience. Now, “out of nowhere”, he leads the Open! Think about those years in motel rooms, of missing cuts, of catching airplanes and eating restaurant food. Whether he wins or not, Payne has made an extraordinary statement these past several years that has been punctuated with a huge exclamation point this week!
So the quick fixes (band aides) you hear in all the magazines and on the golf channel are short-term fixes. You won’t be able to consistently duplicate it until you improve your physical limitations.
The other name the crowds are chanting is, “Kuch!” for Matt Kuchar, the 20 year old amateur with the great smile. This kid has talent, skill, and while he’s too young to really know about patience, he has the wisdom to know about humility. He’s “just glad to be here!” Under the pressure, he missed some putts, but he’s learning and he keeps on smiling. Talent, skill, and the patience to learn. This kid will do well!
If you’re serious about your game, you will now!
Tip #1:
Now lean back putting tension on the abs. Your legs will be bent at a 90 degree angle in the knee, and together.
Improve your core strength and rotational speed. This one is done “off the course”, and can even be done in your home with minimal equipment. Now this is just one tip (exercise) of many you can do to dramatically explode your drives “on the course”.
This stretch should be done on almost every hole to get the most out of it.
I’ve just showed you 3 quick and easy golf tips to dramatically increase your distance. Now go out and make it happen
Three Secrets of A Consistent Golf Stroke
Saturday, May 30th, 2009I’m sure by now you’ve heard most of the professional players; both men and women actively participate in golf workouts. It’s no secret. But why then do most amateur golfers ignore this? Is it because it seems like work? Or, does the thought of actually breaking a sweat get you tired already?
With age comes a decline in both flexibility and strength. When the body declines, the swing goes right along with it. The result is a big loss in yardage, more mishits, and ballooning scores. The end result…frustration! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve played with and received phone calls from older golfers who are just about ready to quit the game.
As golfers you and I use the Inclined Plane to swing the club back up and end, down out and forward, up back and in making the Golf Stroke three dimensional.
YOU can improve your game dramatically by following the steps outlined above. Become the best player YOU can be and start winning those 4 way presses! If YOU really want to elevate your game, hit it farther, straighter, and nearer the hole then practice what I’ve shared with you.
In fact, most of your abdominal work should be rotational. Doing straight crunches won’t improve your driving distance. Doing rotational movements with added weight will. This is where I could go on and on, but I won’t overload you.
Secret #2: A Staright Plane Line
The problem with the majority of golfers is that they don’t know what to do. Oh their friends, well wishers at best, tell them that they are “bending their left arm”, “raising up through the shot”, “coming over the top” and host of other swing faults. But these are the same people that shoot the same scores you do! What could they possibly tell you that would improve your game?
The clubshaft, actually the sweetspot of the club, may travel to any other plane angle during the swing as long as it DOES NOT cross the base of the plane. Here is a simple way you can know if you are on plane or not. Whichever end of the club is nearest to the ground MUST also point at the base of the plane from horizon to horizon. If neither end is nearer then the clubshaft MUST be horizontal to the ground and parallel to the base of plane.
The golf swing is a rotational movement, with your body in golf posture. Slight flex of the knees and a bending forward at the hips. Since the golf swing is primarily rotational, wouldn’t it make sense to focus on rotational strength and flexibility? That is improving your turning ability related to range of motion and speed.
The information you are about to receive is not theory or conjecture but science. Ooooh, you say, this sounds complicated. Well it isn’t, it is simply the laws of force and motion that govern our entire lives and day to day living. Once you understand these simply laws your golf game will forever change…for the better!
Vijay Singh Does Golf Workouts
Either way…the proof is in the bag. The number one player in the world, Vijay Singh, does his golf workouts all the way through Sunday of each tournament. Does it look like it’s hurting his game? I don’t think so. Back in 1997, a young, very athletic golfer came on the professional scene and blew everyone away. I think you know who I’m talking about.
Annika Sorenstam Credits Her Golf Exercises
Because the golf stroke involves a golf club, a left arm, and a wrist in between, it is called a “lever system”. The left wrist acts as a “hinge pin” much like the old time “flail” used to beat wheat. This “hinge pin” can rotate, cock or uncock but NEVER Bends!
2. Core Based Exercises. Your body’s “core”, the area around your trunk and pelvis, is where your center of gravity is located. When you have good core stability, the muscles in your pelvis, lower back, hips and abdomen work in harmony. They provide support to your spine. The core is the power zone. It is where all movement begins. A well-developed core allows for improved force output, increased neuromuscular efficiency, and decreased incidence of overuse injuries. A weak core can make you susceptible to poor posture and injury.
You don’t have to accept that with age, your body declines. No way! You’ve got to fight it all the way! I’m dead serious. The ones who do, are the ones who are enjoying the game again and taking all the money in their foursome.
No, you need to add resistance to accomplish this. Take a weighted club and make golf swings. Now you’ll be making a bigger turn AND improving your power. Same thing with a medicine ball. Make turns back and through holding a 4 to 6 pound ball and you’ll see a BIG improvement.
How about the year Annika Sorenstam shot a 59 and totally dominated the LPGA? Do you know what she attributes it to? Golf workouts! She hired a trainer and got serious about her fitness. And look what happened? She hasn’t looked back since. She just recently came out with an instruction book and devoted a chapter to golf workouts.
Golf Workouts Will Transform Your Golf Swing
You only have two choices when it comes to the swing plane, you are either on or you’re off. There is no middle ground!
Tiger Woods Golf Workout Routine
Lag by definition means “trailing”. When the clubhead passes the hands coming into Impact there is no “lag”. Without “lag” the golf ball cannot be compressed, we cannot hit downward, and we have a tremendous power loss. Clubhead lag promotes a steady and even acceleration giving us a dependable way to control distance.
What is a golf workout anyways? Is there such a thing? You bet there is. The golf swing is an awkward movement that puts a tremendous amount of stress on the body. To prevent injury and improve swing speed and distance requires your body to be both strong and flexible specific to the swing.
For instance, if you took a club and placed it behind your neck, got in your golf posture and rotated back and forth; do you think that by itself would improve your range of motion or power?
What Is A Golf Workout
How about the senior tour? Now players are realizing they can still make good money, even after they’ve turned 50 and can’t really compete with the young guys anymore. With the money at stake, they too are all working out. This group of players both amateur and pro is the biggest demographic that needs it the most.
Golfers however routinely bend the left wrist causing the clubhead to reach the ball before the hands do. This causes a “quitting” motion, adds loft to the clubface, points the face to the left of target, makes the clubhead swing upward disrupting the downward motion that ALL good golf shots MUST have. Good players DELOFT the clubface at Impact. Poor players ADD loft to the clubface costing them distance, direction, and trajectory.
For example, a Driver striking a golf ball with a 2 degree “backward” leaning clubshaft at 100 mph with 9.5 degrees of loft produces a launch angle of 6.4 degrees and a carry distance of 230 yards.
1. Spinal Rotation. Every time you swing the golf club, you rotate around your spine. So, what does this have to do with power? Power is generated every time you stabilize your hips to make a full backswing with spinal rotation. Most golfers have heard of the X factor. This, of course, refers to the differential between the movement in your hips and your spine. Increase your spinal rotation and a new sense of power will be released.
Secret #1: A Flat Left Wrist
They are SO frustrated at this rapid decline, that golf’s not fun anymore. But there is hope. The answer? Get your body moving just a little better. How? By participating in workouts for golf program that focuses on golf-specific strength AND flexibility. It’s amazing to see golfers in this age bracket dramatically improve their driving distance, accuracy and scores.
To my recollection, that’s the first women’s instruction book to include golf workouts. Working out to playing better golf isn’t just for the guys; Annika has proved that. Now more LPGA players are working out to try and catch her, just like the guys did with Tiger.
Secret #3: A Lagging Clubhead
What exactly is the swing plane? The plane is the angle of the clubshaft as it sets at address - period! It is NOT Hogans plane of glass as many would have you to believe. There are only three planes available;
Tiger took golf to another level. A real eye-opener for the veteran players who were hitting the 19th hole after every round…and the last thought on their mind was “exercise”. What a wake-up call to be totally dominated by a player who was only 20 years old at the time.
1. Horizontal - a wall
2. Vertical - the floor
3. Inclined somewhere in between
So anything involving twisting with resistance such as a medicine ball, a dumbbell, or even a weighted club would work. You need to have a resistance to take your body beyond where it normally goes.
I could spend dozens of pages describing what this entails, but for the sake of this concise article, let’s keep it simple.
Senior Golfers Now Do Golf Fitness Programs
Golf Is Rotational
Use A Weighted Golf Club
Look at any picture of your favorite player at Impact. The left arm and clubshaft are in ONE LINE! Never two lines. This means that the player is utilizing “lag”. When a ball is struck with “lag” it explodes off the clubface! Without this “lag” the sound turns into one of mush, a soft Impact instead of a driving Impact.
If you follow this outline, learn these three “Secrets” you will be hitting the ball with more compression than you ever thought possible.
By changing Impact to a 2 degree forward leaning clubshaft the player produces a launch angle of 10.4 degrees and a carry of 251 yards. A 21 YARD INCREASE WITHOUT buying a new Driver and simply having clubhead lag!
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A 5 iron, for example, has approximately 8 degrees for “forward lean” when soled properly. At Impact with good players the “lean” is approximately 15 degrees. This turns the 5 iron into a 4 iron. Poor players reach Impact with a “backward” leaning clubshaft thereby ADDING loft and turning the 5 iron into a 6-7 iron!
I hope I’ve convinced you to take a real serious look at what all the other successful professional players are doing to stay at the top of their game. Doing golf workouts can and will dramatically change your game forever. Now get out there and get it started. No procrastinating. Do it right now!
