Golf Swing Lesson #1 Keep Your Head Still!

Any great golfer will tell you the importance of keeping your head still throughout the swing. Teachers tell you, books tell you and videos tell you, and yet still one of the most common faults amongst golfers is head movement. Moving your head too much causes many problems, thinning the ball, topped shots, shanked shots and more are all caused partly by simply moving your head through the swing.

You see if you move your head then this pulls your whole body out of it\’s correct posture and stance, this in turn causes your arms and your club to come off of their correct path. When golfers are told to keep their head still in the swing, they tend to think that they have to keep their head rigidly still and this doesn\’t feel natural, so understandably this puts them off the idea, but what golfers are referring to when they say \’keep your head still\’ is really \’keep your head steadied\’.

You see the golf swing is centered around rotating the body and arms back and through so obviously your head isn\’t going to remain perfectly still, it\’s going to pivot a little.

The golf swing should be relaxed so first of all take a look at your posture at address. When viewed in profile your spine and the clubs shaft should create a 90 degree angle, your head should be titled at the same angle as your spine.

In the swing you focus on rotating your body, shoulders and arms around your spinal axis, whilst your spine stays in relatively the same position. The same should be true of your head, I want you to think of your head as an extension of your spine, let your arms and body swing around it, if you do this you will eliminate a lot of problems.

Golf Swing Lesson #2 Don\’t bend your right arm prematurely

The arms play an important role through the swing, they control movement of the club and the position of the clubface through the swing.

Now most golfers know that as you bring the club back, your left arm remains straight, whilst your right arm bends, but it\’s really important that you don\’t bend your right elbow until after the mid point of the backswing, nearer the top of the backswing, this will help to ensure that you get a nice wide arc on the backswing.

So as you bring the club back, the left arm should remain relatively straight throughout the entire backswing but the right arm remains straight until the mid point of the backswing. Then at this point your right elbow begins to bend until it forms a 90 degree angle at the top of the backswing, the elbow should point down towards the floor.

The left arm must remain straight as you bring the club back.

Golf Swing Lesson #3 Don\’t let your upper body dominate

A lot of golfers have a tendency to allow their upper body to become too dominant in their swing. Now obviously your upper body plays an important role in the swing but when you let your arms become too dominant you\’re going to encounter problems in your swing.

If you start the golf swing with your arms then the club is going to get further back than your body on the backswing. The arms will end up swinging too far back behind you and therefore you end up in the completely wrong position at the top of the backswing. This leads to slices and hooks.

In order to avoid this problem you really need to get the correct rotation of the body through the swing. So at address your hips and shoulders are parallel. A good backswing should start by rotating the body and moving your arms back in a nice smooth \”one-piece\” takeaway.

On the backswing the hips complete their rotation before your shoulders. The shoulders continue to rotate until your back is facing your target. The downswing begins by rotating the hips and body towards your target and pushing your weight onto your front foot, back towards your target. The shoulders, arms and hands are then put into action.

This rotation continues back through until impact, continue the follow through until your belly button is facing your target.

Practice…

Follow these golf swing lessons and really put them into action in your game. Get out on the course, practice and have fun.

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In general the use of a caddy is limited, due to availability and affordability, to the professional golfer and members of high end country clubs. The rest of us are left to haul our heavy bags around on tired shoulders or perhaps drag around a pull cart. Wouldn’t it be great to have someone to carry the bag and we could just relax and enjoy a nice walk around the links?  Well, the bad news is that the human caddy has all but disappeared, but the good news is the availability of the electric golf caddy.

An electric golf caddy is essentially a golf pull cart with an electric motor. The electric caddy can’t give you a yardage or help read the break on a  putt, but then again it won’t pull the wrong club for you either. What it will do is allow you to relax more and have more energy to focus on your golf game. An electric golf caddy can make golf more fun.

Yes, I have heard of riding carts,  but those who walk know it is a better and purer  way to play golf. Many golfers would prefer to walk the course but don’t enjoy  carrying a heavy golf bag. For these golfers the electric golf caddy is  the perfect solution.

A good motorized golf cart will easily go for an 18 hole round and handle most any hills. Less expensive models must be steered, but many carts can be directed by way of a remote control.

So, if you love to walk your round of golf but don’t want to be weighed down, look into getting an electric golf caddy.

P.S.  You never have to tip an electric golf caddy.

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Adjustments to your stance or swing that result in better ball contact will pay immediate dividends. The difference between sweet spot contact and contact out on the perimeter can easily add 20 to 30 yards or more to your tee shot.
In summary, If your ball striking is not as crisp and consistent as you would like it to be, you may wish to give Golfdust a try.

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The Plane Truth for Golfers is a great book by Jim Hardy which presents some thought provoking ideas about the golf swing. His central concept is that there are two distinct types of golf swings; the one plane swing and the two plane swing. It is essential to determine which type of swing you have, and then learn to set up and practice accordingly.

The Plane Truth :  Book Description

Voted one of “America’s 50 Greatest Teachers” by Golf Digest and ranked in the “Top 100 Teachers” list of Golf magazine, Jim Hardy is a veritable scholar of swing. He’s been fixing the swings of professional and amateur golfers since 1977, and in The Plane Truth for Golfers , he makes his groundbreaking concepts available to you for the first time. Hardy’s revolutionary approach is simple: There are two sets of fundamentals to the swing, not one.

There is the one-plane swing, for more athletic players, and the two-plane swing, suitable for players of all abilities. Understanding these concepts is crucial to your improvement, and Hardy breaks them down into easy-to-follow steps, complete with dozens of photographs.

Voted one of “America’s 50 Greatest Teachers” by GolfDigest and ranked among the “Top 100 Teachers” list by Golf magazine, Jim Hardy has been fixing the swings of professional and amateur golfers since 1977. In The Plane Truth for Golfers,  he makes his groundbreaking concepts available to you for the first time.

In this easy-to-follow handbook, complete with dozens of instructional photographs, Hardy breaks down the two methods into simple steps you’re sure to learn in no time. Once you get a grip on Hardy’s plan, you’ll be able to:

* Determine whether you’re a one-plane or two-plane swinger and how to avoid the dangerous mixture of having elements of both in your swing

* Step into the proper starting position for both swings

* Understand the real truth about the backswing

* Master a whole new technique for the downswing and defeat the competition

* PLUS: You’ll also get plenty of exercises and drills to help you perfect the proper on-plane movements and correct common faults
Like no other how-to book, The Plane Truth for Golfers, exposes the flaws of current golf instruction and reveals the secret to playing good golf.

From the Back Cover
“Jim Hardy is the most knowledgeable teacher in golf. No other instructor has his understanding of golf swing techniques and what makes them work. Any golfer, regardless of ability, who has the opportunity to listen and work with Jim will benefit and improve.”
–Peter Jacobsen, Champions Tour player and winner of seven PGA Tour championships

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The yips? Well, this may be a little overly dramatic, but having the yips is definitely not an enjoyable thing. According to a Mayo Clinic study, more than one third of all golfers may be affected and a case of the yips will add almost 5 strokes to an 18 hole score. Besides ruining many an amateurs’ pleasure in the game of golf, the yips have even driven pro golfers from their profession and source of income. So what is this dreaded affliction?

The yips are simply the inability to execute a smooth stroke, most commonly the short putt. We are not talking about garden variety “choking” which can affect any of us any time we are feeling too much pressure, for whatever reason, and fail to deliver our best stroke. No, the yips are an involuntary and uncontrollable twitch or jerk which occurs repeatedly on shorter putts, usually of five to six feet or less. This is not to say that the yippers’ mental state has no bearing on the problem, because the yips, while they may come and go, are more prevalent during competitive play.

So what then is the cause of these yips? One possible cause is a neurological glitch called focal dystonia, which essentially is an involuntary contraction of the muscles used in the putting stroke. As Charles Adler, M.D., who is a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic has said, “In many golfers, the yips may be a task-specific disorder in which the act of putting or swinging the golf club may cause a twitch or shake that disrupts the movement”. The Mayo Clinic study did identify differences between golfers with the yips and their un-afflicted fellow players. Golfers suffering from the yips experience higher rates of muscle activity in the wrists and forearms, in addition to more activity in the left brain. Additionally, yippers tend to have faster heart rates while putting and a greater grip force.

While it seems obvious that an over thinking, tense muscled, heart pounding, grip choking putter might not perform optimally, it begs the question of whether yips are a mental or physical phenomena. This appears to be a mind-body version of the chicken-egg type question of which comes first. Obviously muscular or nervous system irregularities could lead to bad putting just as bad putting could trigger anxiety and nerves. It seems the two cannot be separated and for the golfer, this question is of relative unimportance. The vital question is, what can be done about the yips.

Well, the good news is that yips can be, if not cured, then at least circumvented. From a physical standpoint, the most important and easiest thing to do may be to change your putting grip. Changing to a “saw” or “Claw” grip takes the dominant wrist out of the equation and by itself can cure the problem. Witness the revival of famous yipper Mark O’Meara after he changed to the saw grip. Watch the pros on television any week and see the variety of grips they use in an effort to avoid short putt difficulties. Another option is the long putter, used by V J Singh and others, which relieves some putting muscle tension by employing a pendulum motion.

Finally, relaxation and a positive outlook are extremely important in good putting. You must believe you are going to make your short putts, yet not be so attached to the outcome that you tighten up just thinking about it. After all, unless you are putting to win the Open, it’s just a game. So have no fear, because with some changes, the yips can disappear.

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Golf ball technology took a big leap forward with the development of the feather ball in the early 1600’s. The feathery, as it was known, was a handmade ball consisting of a hide stuffed with goose or other feathers. These feathers were boiled to soften them, stuffed into a leather casing, and then stitched shut. Finally, the ball was pounded into roundness and coated with a white paint-like substance and allowed to harden.

The feathery differed from its predecessor, the wooden golf ball, in a couple of major ways. First, it played vastly longer with drives of 200 yards being possible. The second big change was in the price of a ball. The feathery, due to its handcrafted nature, cost many times the price of the wooden ball. In fact, a feathery could cost as much as a club! The economics of the ball, combined with the fact that it became unplayable when wet, made it a less than ideal standard for a golf ball. Nevertheless, without a better alternative, the feathery golf ball lasted 100’s of years.

The gutta percha ball was introduced in 1848 and its vastly lower price did much to increase golf’s popularity. Made from the gum of a Malaysian tree, the “gutty” was at first hand formed and eventually produced in molds which allowed for the formation of a surface pattern. These patterns greatly enhanced the play of the ball, allowing it to fly straighter when hit. Unfortunately, the gutta percha golf ball had a tendency to break up in flight, forcing the player to locate the largest piece, from which spot the next shot was played.

The reign of the gutta percha ball was short lived, however. The early 1900’s saw the invention of the rubber golf ball, which consisted of a rubber core wrapped with elastic bands. A gutta percha cover was then applied. Balata soon replaced gutta percha as the cover of choice.

The rubber golf ball was not immediately accepted but when Sandy Herd, in the 1902 Open, defeated some of the worlds best players using this new golf ball, its popularity increased greatly. Soon the ball was being mass produced and its increased affordability, combined with greater distance off the tee, insured its adoption as the standard golf ball.

The next 20 years saw a tremendous amount of improvement with the golf ball as manufacturers tried different cores, wrappings, and coverings. Dimple patterning was introduced and various patterns were experimented with in an attempt to refine the golf ball’s aerodynamic properties.

In 1921 golf’s ruling bodies set standards for the size and weight of the ball, and with minor changes these remain the guidelines for the modern golf ball.

Today, of course, you can tailor your choice of golf ball to your own level of play and preference as to feel, control, spin, or distance and indeed this subject is worthy of its own article. Suffice it to say that the today’s golfer has much to appreciate in the modern golf ball



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