Golf Club Componets: Playing Golf The Lego Set Way
June 5, 2008
To understand how to buy golf club components, you first need to know how these parts work and what they are in the first place. So let’s begin in this way. If you know the parts already, treat this portion as a short review of Golf 101.
The Grip
The grip of the golf club is important because it is the extension of the golfer’s hands. According to the rules of golf, the grip has to be round, without obvious pockmarks which detract significantly from the roundness.
The Shaft
The shaft of the golf club connects the grip to the head and, like the grip, must also conform to accepted roundness rules. Most modern golf club shafts are made of either steel or a carbon-fiber and resin composite. Now it’s about time to explain the concept and the theory behind a golf club component. The operant word is assembly type. It’s like playing Lego set. So let’s say you want to fit your choice of shaft to the rest of the club components, you’ll be running into a vendor that sells a golf component kit. Now you’ve got to be careful about whom you trust in this business. It’s easy to ruin your investment. It can get scratched or worse, broken. It’s not a simple glue or Epoxy situation.
Try Developing Your Own Golf Style
June 4, 2008
Some golf beginners think that all they have to do is copy Ernie Els, Tiger Woods or whoever their favorite golfer might be and bam, immediate golf success!
I am sorry to say, it is just not that easy. If it were then everybody would be a lot better. This, as we see every time out on the course is not so much the case.
In reality, no two people ever really swing the same way. Since each of us has a unique body build, some more unique than others, we need to develop our own individual set of muscles. A golf swing method used by one golfer who has a different build and has developed his or her set of golf muscles, is probably not of much value to you. Golf is an individual sport. So, find a method of playing that produces results for you, and then go with it. You will enjoy your time out on the links much more.
While it is often a waste of time to try and copy someone else, coaching by a pro can help you find your swing by getting suggestions and tips on how to improve. Just make sure you hire someone who will work with what feels comfortable for you and your natural swing.
My Golf Disaster
June 3, 2008
Although I was never picked for sports teams as a kid, I always thought that golf would be far easier than all the others as it required very little physical exertion in regards to chasing a ball up and down a field for 90 minutes while opponents try to take the legs out from under you.
I mean, how difficult could it be? You stand still, look at the hole at the other end of the green, look at the ball and then hit it as hard as you can with a metal or wooden club. Even better, once you do, you don’t have to run as fast as you can to the hole. Instead you take a taxi in the form of a golf cart. How sweet is that!
I had a rude awakening one day when a friend of mine managed to talk me into playing a few rounds down at one of the local courses. For starters there were no golf carts, so we had to walk around all 18 holes. That wouldn’t have been so bad but for the fact there were no golf caddies on that day either so we had to carry the bags of clubs around too. Damn those things are heavy! Golf caddy’s do not get paid enough.
What Are the Best Exercises for the Golfer?
June 2, 2008
With all the talk about the players on tour getting stronger and more flexible, we hear a lot about exercising for golf from television commentators and read about it in the golf publications. But what exactly are the best exercises for the amateur golfer?
A great question that has a good answer, but before we give you the answer let us provide some background so the answer makes a little more sense to you. First of all, discussing the golf swing for the time being will get us rolling.
What exactly is the golf swing? The golf swing is an athletic movement that requires using of the entire body from "feet to fingertips" in order to complete the swing. Realize that the golf swing is not about the club, not just about your grip, or where your head is during the swing. The golf swing is a movement that requires your entire body to move through a sequence of movements with the correct timing. To perform the "athletic movement" of the golf swing requires the body to begin at address, move through the actual phases of the golf swing and complete it with the follow through. In order to perform this activity with efficiency and repetitively, the body must have certain physical parameters.
What Do the Core and the Golf Swing Have in Common Part II?
May 31, 2008
In part one of this article we discussed the core and its relation to the golf swing. A quick review of the information in article one will indicate a definitive connection between the "athletic movements" of a golf swing and the core section of the body. Prior to beginning this article let us take a brief moment to review information provided in the first article on this topic.
A quick review will indicate that the core is an anatomical region of the body. This region of the body consists of all the muscles, ligaments, tendons, and neural structures, located from the hips to the lower chest. This comprises all of the structures of: the hips, abdominals, low back, and obliques (side abdominals). In addition to describing the anatomical region of the core, part one of this article described the following: the relationship between the core and golf swing in the specific areas of range of motion, coordination, speed of motion, and balance. Part two of this article will discuss core flexibility, strength, endurance, and power. We will relate these three additional topics to the golf swing as we did in part one.
Increase Golf Swing Speed Easily
May 30, 2008
Golf swing speed is an elusive term for most amateur golfers. We’ve all heard of it and know it relates somehow to longer drives, but how can we increase golf swing speed quickly and effectively?
Do you think it’s swing harder? Have you tried that approach? What happened? I can take a wild guess. The ball didn’t go anywhere! You were so tense that your golf swing speed was actually much slower.
That’s not what you want!
So how do you achieve the ever-elusive higher golf swing speed?
It starts with your engine. Your core. The center of your machine. The stronger and more flexible you get your core, the faster the arms, hands and club will come through without swinging harder. Resulting in longer and much straighter drives.
Just take a look at the main movement in the golf swing!
It’s rotational!
In ALL sports movement?what dictates the power? One guess. It’s your core. That’s why athletes spend so much time throwing weighted medicine balls, pulling weighted cables and doing tons of twisting exercises with resistance.
A Golf Fitness Coach Equals Great Golf
May 28, 2008
Golf fitness coach. Have you ever considered one?and if so, what exactly were you looking for? There are many ‘general fitness’ trainers trying to get a piece of the golf fitness and training market that seems to be rapidly gaining exposure both on the television and in print thanks to Tiger, Vijay and Annika.
But the first thing you need to consider when looking into hiring a golf fitness coach or program is the trainers experience in golf.
Yes?that is high on the list of requirements. Does he/she know golf? Do they know the biomechanics of the golf swing? How about muscle function during the golf swing?
An easy test is during the initial interview or if you’re researching it online is to either ask very golf specific swing technique questions; or take a look at the information on the website. You’ll find out real quick if this person or program can help your golf swing, game and health.
A golf fitness coach or program should incorporate strength, flexibility, endurance, body awareness, balance, stability and even a nutrition component.
Golf Tips ? Tips to Improve Your Putting
May 27, 2008
If you are seriously considering lowering your scores, then you must take your putting seriously, as roughly half the strokes you play in a round of golf are likely to be on the putting green. However good you are at driving, pitching and chipping, if your putting is not up to standard, you will never make the next level. My Dad told me the famous quote when I was probably about 12 or 13, ‘Drive for show putt for dough’, this says it all! That is why it is quite incredible that putting is not often concentrated on.
Tips for setup:
First of all I’d just like to say that there is no one correct putting grip/posture/stroke, there are wide variations, so if your technique is different, don’t worry, some of the top golfers have very different putting actions e.g. Bernhard Langer, Ben Crenshaw and Tom Watson all have very different techniques. These are basic tips that can be applied to most techniques to help improve your game.
An ideal putting stroke should strike the ball on the up, to do this the ball should be placed opposite the inside of the left heal (for a right hander), this results in the ball being hit on the up and top spin is generated.
Golf Core Exercises For More Power
May 25, 2008
Golf core exercises. You hear that phrase quite often on the television by the commentators referring to the area a lot of the touring pros focus on to improve their power output and prevent low back injuries.
Vijay Singh for example uses weighted medicine balls to work his golf core muscles throughout the whole week of the tournament. In fact his caddie is his rainier. How convenient! The best of both worlds!
But hearing the phrase golf core exercises and knowing what your core is are two different things entirely. As a fitness professional it’s easy for me to throw out that phrase often to impress would-be clients or customers to my golf fitness training products.
But that’s not the case. Understanding what your core is and how it plays a critical role in producing maximum power; injury prevention and even stability is very important. Once you know?you’ll soon realize this may be your missing link to a great game.
This area (core) starts roughly at your belly button and goes up to the bottom of your sternum. It is the engine of your body and awareness of your core affects golf the most. Think of it as the link in the chain that needs to be the strongest, not the weakest.
What Do Trees Have to Do With Golf?
May 24, 2008
On our way back from a recent round of golf, Fritz and I were discussing the way most golfers evaluate golf courses. We’ve had this discussion before, and it inevitably gets around to my heartfelt conviction that trees do not enhance the “golfing experience”.
Most golfers in North America assume that golf is not golf without tree-lined fairways. If I am not mistaken, this is a bias created by a century of golf course design compliments of a relatively small number of trend-setting designers. In Canada, Stanley Thompson was the main man. His course designs can be found across the country, and inevitably they feature lush green (soft) fairways lined with majestic trees.
Of course there are many reasons for this, both practical and esthetic. For starters, eastern North America has lots of trees, and just as important, it is impossible to replicate the sandy turf of Scotland or Ireland in other parts of the world that do not share the same climate.
Nevertheless it struck me as a bit odd when on a recent trip to Saskatchewan we found the same type of fairways in that relatively dry prairie climate as we have here in our much more humid environment in southern Ontario.
