A golf conditioning program should always be accompanied by a solid golf nutrition plan. In essence, what you eat determines how you play. So, which foods produce champions and which foods hinder play?
It goes without saying that proper nutrition is important for all of us. But, if you are serious about shaving valuable strokes off your scorecard, you need to make some tough decisions on seeing your diet through. If you travel for golf, or play in frequent tournaments, it is important not Continue Reading→
As the downswing begins an amazing sequence of events takes place. The energy accumulated in your torso muscles gradually release, your upper body follow the lead established by your lower body unwinding as your weight continues to shift from your right side to your left.
Impact must be allowed to happen in a free, flowing movement. Letting it happen without interruption or compensations. Rotating forward allowing your body and arms to swing through to the finish will deliver the club face square to the path without manipulation. As you follow through getting the rights side of the body out of the way your weight should be now more in your front foot with great balance.
With the mechanics comes tempo and timing. These two aspects introduce coordination, flow and consistency into every swing. Good timing refers to the order in which the mechanics occur and tempo is the speed at which the swing occurs. Building the proper sequence throughout the swing allows the entire movement to flow together. Controlling the tempo allows time to prepare for impact, deliver the club, and then disperse the energy of the swing during the follow-through.
Knowing the information is not the secret, committing to change and developing your skills using a variety of drills and exercises is the key. Not only will make it enjoyable to train and practice you will start to see improvements more quickly when you are practicing with purpose. Training aspects of your swing will develop those skills more quickly and you will retain them for longer periods. Not find it lose it. Skill acquisition and training environments are essential in the development of every player.
In every aspect of your golf swing it is vital for the body to rotate forward toward the target rather than back and away.
To encourage better forward rotation move into your set up set up position lift your heel of back foot so that only the toe of you shoe is lightly touching the ground. With the same leg, turn your knee so that the knee cap is pointing more towards the target. You should now be set up almost in your finish position with your lower body. Swing normally. During the swing the heel of your back foot should not touch the ground at any point, especially in the finish position. This will help create the sensation of the weight staying in the more centred in the backswing and allow you to rotate forward without thinking too much as you are already half way there.
Hit 5-7 shots in this set up and then test your rotation forward and balance by hitting a shot in your standard set up. You are trying to recreate the awareness of rotating forward and keeping your weight more centred and eliminating any back and away weight shift.
Have some swings at half speed with your hands apart. Swing the club head more like a baseball, tee ball swing on the horizontal to start with then move down to a more regular swing. When you are comfortable with the sensation of the hands apart tee the ball up and hit some shots (half speed only). Rotate forward into a balanced finish always.
By splitting your grip so that your hands are not touching it will make you rotate forward more with your body so that your arms and body will work together and are more coordinated. Any arm swings, pulling of the grip or flicking the club head to lift the ball off the ground will result in your hands getting crossed up and the club head passing your body. You will start to find a way to turn your body as the sensation of an all arms or wrist swing is off putting. Where the club head hits the ground will be very inconsistent, until you start to turn more freely.
Using any club, set up to the ball. Then turn your hips, chest and arms slightly so that you are now setting up to an imaginary ball opposite your right foot. Start your swing from here and finish normally. Because you have started further behind the ball your body must rotate further forward to get back to the ball. Be aware of how your body feels in its finish position, have you moved more into your left side? Hit 5-7 shots this way and then test it by hitting a shot from a standard set up and try and recreate the finish as if you were doing the drill.
Have you done it? I have. We have all done it at some point or another. Hitting a great tee shot quickly followed by a really poor second shot seemingly from nowhere. Completely out of the blue. It is extremely frustrating. What really is the challenge is to not do it too often. But why does it happen? Continue Reading→
Set a variety of shots and with some shafts or markers create a landing zone. A general rule of thumb for the size of the landing zone is that the square should be 10% of the length of the shot. i.e. 10 meter shot has a landing zone 1 meter square, 40 meter shot has a 4meter square etc.
Your aim is to get the ball to fly and land in the zone on the full. Continue Reading→
In the bunker, without a ball, set up into your set up position. Open the face of your club up until the face is nearly pointing to the sky or parallel to the ground. Scoop up some sand onto the club face. Continue Reading→
