You often see professionals swing to the top of their backswing then stop and examine “The Top”!! What are they looking for? Well, three things you should be able to find in that condition are as follows. You should find that your shoulders have turned 90 degrees from the setup condition. . You should find…
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PART III: Check Positions with a Mirror Continued from blog entry – “The New Season . . . PART II” . One of the simplest yet most valuable training aids for the golfer is a mirror. Watching yourself make a full swing in front of a mirror can be a little dicey, although it can…
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The principal of balance is, I feel, extremely overlooked–almost ignored. With a hitting surface (the clubface) as small as it is in golf, as compared to tennis, and with the amount of speed we create in our swings, the ability to make centerface contact is directly linked and vital to the player’s ability to balance…
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PART II: Swing a Fan, Weighted Club Continued from blog entry – “The New Season . . . PART I” . One of the best ways to prevent muscle atrophy over the winter is to swing a Weighted Club and a Swing Fan at least three times a week on alternate days. Start easily with…
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PART I If you’re a snowbound Northerner, the best way to get in shape for golf in the spring is to stay in shape for golf all winter long. The problem with most amateur golfers is that they put their bodies in the closet along with their clubs and forget about both for three or…
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“The eyes have it.” “Feel is real.” When you eliminate the sense of sight, your other senses are elevated quickly, especially the sense of balance. I’ll have my students go into a dark room (totally dark/black) and make a lot of full motions. They become very aware of their inability to balance themselves and, in…
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The definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. Golfers play golf 20-30 years, looking for the answer in the form of new equipment or a quick fix from their golfing buddy. The fact is, if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you…
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Players tend to over-think sand play. At your first opportunity get yourself into a practice bunker and simply try to splash out some sand leaving long, level displacements of sand. You don’t want to leave deep gouges of sand as you also don’t want to NOT contact any sand. . I feel sand play, like…
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The buried lie in a bunker gives most club players fits of terror. That’s not necessary–simple understanding can cure your ills! When your ball is buried in a “fried egg situation,” don’t open the blade, simply square it up, use the leading edge of the club as a digging device. Place the back edge of…
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The body we live in has so much to do with the way we swing our clubs as individuals. In general, the adult males we see could use help in flexibility and range of motion. So we suggest they get on a stretching program ASAP!! This will help them create speed in their swings through…
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The “Punch Shot” is one that must be in your bag for windy days or those low-hanging tree limbs. One mistake I see most amateurs make here is taking way too little loft, hoping that’s all they need to do, then actually driving the ball into the turf, never getting the ball airborne or getting…
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If, this season, a student came to me and said, “Tell me, bottom line, how to improve,” I would tell that person all of your instructional timer this season (that is, time with a coach), as well as all your practice time, would be pitching, chipping, sand play, and putting for one solid season. I…
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Chipping the ball around the perimeter of the green is an overlooked art form and certainly an under-practiced area of the game. Fundamentally, aside from mechanical technique, I ask my students to focus not on the eventual target, The Hole, but on practicing making the ball land at a given point. I call this point…
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SETUP HELP might do the most good the fastest. Amateurs in general come to their instructor with so many aspects of their setup fundamentally unsound, they are in fact finished before they start. Poor posture, alignment, ball position, grip, and tension levels all lend to major malfunctions during the motion. I’ve never had a student…
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Many amateurs are scared to death during short putts of around 3 feet or less. A big part of this is expectation. You expect to make a 3-foot putt!! But ask these same amateurs when the last time they practiced 3-foot putts and they reply that it is boring or 3-footers are “no problem”!! No…
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Have you ever developed a case of those deadly shanks? Couldn’t shake them? No problem. First, understand that shanks are caused by the ball contacting the hosel or extreme inside of the clubface with a severe out-to-in swing path. Let’s reverse that trend. First, position the ball on the tee of the club . Second,…
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When amateurs play trouble shots, whatever the type–from the trees, out of a bunker, etc. –the mistakes I see them making which lead to a loss of multiple shots are: Simply not playing the odds, trying to pull off the one in a million shot–DON’T!! Remember how you got there in the first place, because…
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Most golfers never learn to control their golfball because they never fully understand or feel where their clubface is during the swing or what it does. You will, I am sure, agree that control of the clubface is vital to ball control. I have my students work with an impact bag, a very simple teaching…
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Oftentimes, we will find ourselves “behind” an obstacle like a tree, unable to go over it. We are in need of a shot that will purposely curve around the tree. The process is really very simple. All you do is: Aim the clubface directly where you want the ball to finish, then aim your body…
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Coaching Comments: Big numbers (Double bogies and above are caused by the following things) 1- A poor shot being hit by a player then taking an ill advised chance at a risky recovery. You didn’t get in this position because you are in control of your ball, what makes you think you can tread a…
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