2015 April

Your backswing involves your arms, hips and shoulders. You will love the distance with your new drives when you get the combination right. Many golfers have purchased GOLFSTR+ expecting that it would answer their prayers. In fact the backswing has 3 key components and GOLFSTR+ is the perfect guide to help you practice.  You need to change your old swing habits for longer and more consistent hits.

1. Take-away:  When you complete the takeaway with 2 straight arms to bring your shaft parallel to the ground, this forces your shoulders to rotate to about 70+ degrees from the target line. Shoulder rotation generates at least 25% to your distance. If you don’t have this flexibility you should be doing a gradual exercise program to allow for this stretch. Yoga is ideal but whatever you do, make the change gradually.

2. Straight Leading Arm: Keeping your leading arm straight through out your backswing will give you 2 benefits: A wide arc to  rotate your shoulders and hips and a consistent distance back to the ball at impact. Most professional golfer keep their leading arm straight and you should too.

3. Wrist Cock and Tucked Trailing Elbow: I received a great article from Golf-Info-Guide.com by Thomas Golf which inspired this blog today. Use your trailing hand to pull the shaft of your club into a 90 degree angle from your leading arm at the top of your swing.  Keeping your trailing elbow tucked close to your side (avoid the flying elbow), will automatically create lag on the right swing plane.

Holding this lag position to initiate the downswing is the only way to create a whipping action with your club head at the point of impact. It allows you to accelerate your club head at about 4 times faster than your arms at the bottom of your swing. You should hear a whooshing noise in your practice swing. Get it right and your distance will increase significantly (without swinging your arms any faster).

GOLFSTR+ is a great training air to help you learn Straight Arm and Lag in your backswing. Buy it TODAY on our website at www.golfstr.com

Adding lag in your backswing by opening your trailing hand FINGERS may be killing your swing. Two days after I played an amazing low round of golf, I returned with every expectation of a wonderful repeat performance. Unfortunately, the harder I tried the worst my drives, woods and hybrids got. For some reason, I was salvaging my game by hitting wonderful short iron shots. Why were the long clubs all spraying to the right and killing my game?

My flexibility, straight arm swing rotation and transition were allowing me to hit longer than I normally hit but my direction control was some how messed up.

Fortunately, after a few bad rounds of golf, I saw a swing control video by Martin Chuck (Revolution Golf Tips) where he was trying to demonstrate the importance of limiting the arm separation at the top of the back swing. His demonstration using a ball was NOT a good one because your arms must separate as the trailing elbow bends to pull the club into the lag position. When I saw this video, I realized that I was opening the grip of my trailing hand at the top of the backswing to create EXTRA LAG. This loose grip with my trailing hand was causing extra arm separation and creating TOO MUCH LAG.

I then recalled one of  Arnold Palmer SWING TIPS: For control of your club NEVER loosen your hands off the grip during the backswing.  [I never understood why until now.]  I had been keeping my leading arm straight through out the backswing but I was adding extra wrist cock by opening my fingers on my trailing hand. I never regained control of my grip with the trailing hand which left the club face open at impact.

My mind was forcing a greater lag and wrist hinge in order to get more distance with each of my longer clubs.  That was a big mistake. Don’t kill the benefit of lag in your backswing by loosening your hands and losing control of your club. You need a continuous grip on your club through impact. Your trailing hand needs to drive your club head through impact to finish your swing.  You need a square club face at impact.  A weak trailing hand grip at impact will allow an open face and your ball will spray to the right.

I’m glad I sorted this little change out. Paying attention to the right grip and right swing will only reinforce your mind and your game. When you swing correctly you will have more control and lower scores. To help practice every Swing in YOUR Game check out GOLFSTR+: www.golfstr.com

Golf is a game of perfection. Jordan Spieth was almost perfect during his amazing Masters victory. We all strive for this every time we play. In reality, the game is won by the golfer who makes the fewest mistakes but we don’t like to dwell on the negative so I have listed habits that will help your game.

 

We play this game to get outside, to be with friends, to get some exercise and to energize our minds away from work. Every swing of a club creates a good, bad or ugly result. If you want to enjoy this game why not focus on the “good” and let’s get rid of the “ugly”.

 

1. Arrive early. Relax Your Mind. Stretch your body. Hit some practice balls. Putt to get a feel for the green speed. Manage your food and water intake.

2. Positive Mental Attitude: Focus on each swing and what you want to achieve on each shot in your mind.

3. Duplicate your Practice Swing: For any swing you should learn from your practice swing. Make a perfect swing with a follow-through that ends in balance. Then repeat it with your golf ball.

4. Anyone can hit a second attempt: Play a round of golf where you have the option to use a second ball for every shot and use the best ball. Doing this will build confidence that you can make the shot so do it right the first time.

5. Pick a point where you want your ball to land and then choose the right club and swing to get it there.

6. Start your down swing with your hips on every shot (except your putter). Bottom out your irons after the ball. Focus on this to get your body through the swing and your belt buckle facing your target.

7. Take control after a poor shot. Don’t let your mind take over. Forget about making miracle shots. Stay in control and swing for the shot that you know you can make.

8. Consistency for the perfect swing is all that matters in golf so limit your maximum swing speed to 80% to keep your swing under control. You are not a professional golfer so make a point of watching LPGA tournaments where the ladies crush it with an effortless swing [better than most weekend warriors].

9. Challenge yourself to hit more fairways & greens in regulation. On your score card for each hole, place a dot in the upper left for fairways hit off the tee and a dot in the upper right for greens in regulation. Make it a goal to increase these numbers in every round you play. [Tracking your putts is another good way to drop your score.]  Play these personal games during every round of golf to keep your mind focused.

10. GOLF is a game of preparation and focus. Practice with a training aid like GOLFSTR+ to eliminate faults in your swing. Build muscle memory to eliminate your bent leading elbow and your cupped or bowed wrist. Limit your lag in chipping and control your lag for power, distance and consistency in your drives and fairway shots. CLICK HERE to check out GOLFSTR+.

GOLFSTR+ is the perfect solution for Tiger’s “Chip Yips”.

Successful pros hit about 14 out of 18 greens in regulation on every round. With Tiger’s attempt to hit longer drives he’s hitting fewer fairways and fewer greens in regulation. This is adding a lot of pressure on his chipping perfection. In the last 6 tournaments that Tiger entered (before the 2015 Masters) he was 33 strokes over par.

Unfortunately the more pressure you put on yourself the greater the chance you will miss-hit your chips.  Lydia Ko at 17 just tied the LPGA record at 29 rounds in a row under par.  She has no nerves.  She does not understand pressure.   The yips are definitely caused by pressure.   We have 2 suggestions for Tiger & every recreational player in the world.

1/ BUILD CONFIDENCE in your chipping two ways with  GOLFSTR+.   [GOLFSTR: sounds like Golf-Stir]

a. Limited Lag on your Trailing Wrist: GOLFSTR+ is shaped to limit your lag in your chipping backswing.  Get to the right position as you shift your body forward through impact. Take sufficient backswing to let the momentum of your club do all the work in your forward swing. [Don’t rush the downswing to avoid fat chips.]
b. Flat Leading Wrist: Place GOLFSTR+ on your leading wrist to learn to keep it straight in the follow-through. GOLFSTR+ locks your leading wrist flat. Seeing the result when you practice with GOLFSTR+ will give you more confidence when you play without it.

2/ ELIMINATE BAD THOUGHTS: Think the word “ONE” in your back swing and “Two” in your forward swing as you make your PERFECT PRACTICE SWING. Get the cadence right.  Make sure that you use enough backswing to let the momentum of your club head take your ball to your target landing point. Then step up to your ball and duplicate the exact same swing as you say “ONE, TWO” in your mind.

We are hoping that Tiger is secretly practicing with GOLFSTR+. Pay attention to Tiger’s perfect chips at the 2015 Masters this week. We hope his drives, approach shots and pitches are also on track.  Of course he should be using GOLFSTR+ to practice for Every Swing in His Game.

PGA Trainers are telling us that their students are having great success improving their chipping by training their students with GOLFSTR+. CHECK OUT all the uses for GOLFSTR+ in this quickie video 

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Buy this training aid on our website today by CLICKING: www.golfstr.com