Golf Practice Blog

By Sean Cochran
From PGATOUR.com

As we continue with our series on golf fitness exercises to improve your game it is time to discuss clubhead speed. Over the past couple of weeks we have been discussing tee shots and the benefits of golf fitness training for this aspect of your game.

An integral component of tee shots, especially those hit with your driver, is clubhead speed. Clubhead speed is essentially the rate of speed at which the club impacts the golf ball. The higher the rate of speed, the farther the golf ball will travel. So it only makes sense when hitting driver that clubhead speed becomes an integral component of the game.

Read the rest of Sean Cochran’s article about increasing clubhead speed at PGATOUR.com.

Click here to view the full line of golf fitness products at PracticeRange.com.

By RICK MARTINO
Scripps Howard News Service
Tuesday, September 04, 2007

One of the true learned skills of playing golf is the ability to read greens. Even for experienced players, this skill varies from course to course because there are many different types of grasses used on various green surfaces, and many outside factors that have an effect on the roll of the ball.

– 3. The line chosen for the putt.

Read the rest of this artice by Rick Martino at ScrippsNews.com.

For the best golf training aids to help you line up putts and read greens, visit PracticeRange.com!

By Mel Callender
San Marcos Daily Record Columnist

When should golf begin?

I believe a parent should introduce a child to all sports, allowing that child to play in a lot of different sports to see which game they enjoy the most. Should your child take an interest in golf, then there are various organizations that have programs that are geared to your child’s age. These programs can offer instruction, opportunities to play and compete with other players of their skill and age level.

Read the rest of this article by Mel Callender at The San Marcos Daily Record.

For the best golf training aids for your junior golf beginner, please visit PracticeRange.com!

As you get back to work this week, you keep going over and over in your mind what you did on the course this weekend and how you can work to either correct it, improve upon it, or perfect it! FindaLesson LPGA Pro Pamela Rogers provides an excellent Top Ten list of practice tips to keep you “putting for bird.”

Golf is a sport that requires a great amount of dedication and commitment. Just like every sport you have ever played, golf requires a lot of practice. In order for you to see improvement in your golf shots as well as lower scores, time must be spent in enhancing your skills. Being realistic to the amount of time that you are able to dedicate to your golf game, you must plan a practice session that will be compatible for you and your busy schedule.

As I tell all of my students, practice does NOT make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect. Whether you practice one hour or six hours a week on your golf game, if you are not practicing efficiently and effectively, you will not improve. I would like to offer you some excellent practice tips that have worked well for my students.

View Pamela’s Top Ten Practice Tips at FindaLesson.com.

We’ve also generated a list of golf training aid bestsellers for the month of July that should give you step in the right direction toward cleaning up the last few problems with your game.

Elaine: Regarding the clubhead being “open” or “closed” at the top of the swing: the grip would obviously have a big effect on this. But how about forearm rotation and whether the wrist is “cupped” or “flat” at the top? These also have an affect. If one follows Hogan and uses a lot of forearm rotation and a “cupped” wrist (with a weak grip), it would be impossible not to have the clubhead open at the top. This did work for Hogan, but he practiced a lot. Fred Couples uses a strong grip with a big wrist cup and massive shoulder turn, which keeps the club relatively square (but ruins his back).

It would seem to me that if one’s goal were to make the swing as simple as possible (with less to go wrong), then one would minimize the amount of forearm rotation and would have a flat wrist at the top. It would seem that this would necessitate a weaker grip than is usually advised to keep the clubhead from closing at the top and promoting a hook.

Isn’t this what Tiger Woods has done, working with Hank Haney?

Greg G.

Greg,
I totally agree with you, simple is always better.

Thanks,
Elaine

Elaine Crosby is a 19-year veteran of the LPGA Tour and a member of the Women’s Senior Golf Tour. If you have a question for Elaine, please email us.

I’m an eight to ten handicap. I tend to have shut clubface at the top of my backswing. This works well with my short irons, but it tends to get the better of me when I try to hit my long irons, causing me to have an uncontrollable hook.

One of the first things I look at with a new student is the face angle at the top of the swing. If I notice that their club is shut at the top, then I check their grip. More times than not, it’s too strong, meaning the left thumb is too far to the right on the shaft. Conversely, if someone has an open clubface they tend to have too weak a grip.

Our hands are the only connection to the club, so we need to be diligent to keep a good grip.

Elaine Crosby is a 19-year veteran of the LPGA Tour and a member of the Women’s Senior Golf Tour. If you have a question for Elaine, please email us.

Lately it seems as though a lot of schools are re-tooling their physical education programs to make them more inclusive for children of all body-types and skill levels… cutting competitive sports play and incorporating more static and low-impact excercises and stretching.  However, with America’s childhood obesity on the rise (more than doubling since the 1970s), instead of stretching and walking with no purpose, golf should be the activity that “chips in” to fill the void.

Though golf can be as competitive of a sport as any other, at a young age it may just be better to teach children that golf can perhaps be best enjoyed when you focus on surpassing your own personal best.  Taking this line of reasoning, golf could very well be the best physical education class subject that a school could adopt.  The benefits of golf for young people are too numerous to list here, a good start at the top three being walking, weight training and hand-eye coordination.  Couple this with the fact that golf is practically a life-time activity and you get a school program that has the greatest return on any investment a school can put into it.

Leave it to the birthplace of golf to make the first solid move…a primary school in the United Kingdom has figured out the benefits of organized golf instruction at all levels. By partnering with several UK golf foundations and associations, the Midlothian Public School in Scotland is in the process of implementing it… and is going the extra mile at that.

Read the following article from MidlothianToday.co.uk to learn more.

The American golf training aid industry is already answering the call for bolstering junior golf.  The PracticeRange.com top three training aids for the first quarter of 2007 include The Swing Builder (available in three levels of resistance), the Junior Impact Ball and the Izzo Chip Pocket Golf Net.  Additionally we have seen a dramatic increase in the amount of school purchase orders in this first quarter.  Hopefully this is a good sign that solid golf instruction in American schools’ physical education classes is on the horizon and getting closer.

One of my best friends is a St. Louis Cardinals fan, and being a Braves fan myself, we’ve had our share of arguments.  What we can always agree on… as I’m sure many baseball fans can… is you always looked forward to Ozzie Smith taking the field.  If you’re part of my generation, as you watched Ozzie take his last flip while running onto the field, subconsciously you knew that it would be one of the defining moments when you felt your childhood start to transition into adulthood.

For many people, whether athletes or not, who take up golf later in life… most often as they transition into retirement… wonder if they are getting in over their head.  In a recent article for The State Journal-Register, staff writer Hal Pilger delves into Ozzie’s transition from Cardinal shortstop to 8-Handicap golfer.

“…it’s not as simple a game as the pros make it look,” [Ozzie] said.  “You would think that having played baseball as long as I did, swinging at balls moving all the time, that this game here would be something that you would be able to figure out pretty easily.  But it’s been just the opposite, actually.”

Not only does Pilger delve into the outlet Ozzie is finding for his athletic talents, but also how he is pushing himself into many new endeavors as he settles into his second decade of retirement, helping us all to realize that with hard work and determination, one can accomplish anything he puts his mind to.

If you are in the process of transitioning into golf, there are many tools and training aids to ease the process. Visit http://www.practicerange.com/golf-books.aspx to find the right guide for your game.

In his syndicated golf blog, Kiel Christianson brings to light an interesting study regarding sleep and it’s relation to how a golfer (with good practice habits) can improve their golf game through sleep.

Click here to read the full article by Kiel Christianson.

Philadelphia, PA (PRWeb) March 6, 2007 — MIT’s second annual Better Golf through Technology Conference features David Ostrow, CEO of Body Balance for Performance. Ostrow will present research on the correlation between body movement and golf swing.

The study presented by Ostrow scientifically explores whether golf swing flaws are linked to improper body conditioning. The goal of Body Balance’s research is to develop new training methods that improve golf swing performance and prevent sport related injuries.

“We are proud to be a part of the Better Golf through Technology Conference,” said Ostrow. “We hope that our research will give the golf industry a better understanding of how the body’s limitations can affect the golf swing, leading to new golf training techniques.”

Data for the golf swing study has been gathered at Body Balance for Performance centers across the country through a variety of technologies, such as digital video capture and computer analysis of professional golfers in action. Body Balance for Performance will continue this research throughout 2007 to create a sample size large enough to draw accurate conclusions.

The MIT Better Golf through Technology Conference draws golf training professionals, golf technology innovators, researchers and golf equipment manufacturers together to discuss the latest golf technology and emerging golf fitness trends. This year’s conference will run from March 29 through March 30, featuring researchers from leading academic institutions as well as golf fitness experts. Participants will discuss the role of technology in the future of golf and compare scientific and instructional insights.

For over twenty years Body Balance for Performance has assisted with clinical research on proper physical conditioning for improved performance and minimized injuries of the world’s leading golfers. Their research led to the development of a golf fitness training and therapeutic treatment program that has aided golfers at every level of the game. With forty centers operating in the U.S. and Canada, Body Balance continues to develop new golf technology and conditioning techniques to promote health and excellence in the game of golf.