Archives for October, 2022

Great Tips to Sharpen your Game (Series #3, Tips 9-12)

This is the third in a series of blogs to help you simplify your knowledge of golf and hopefully improve your game. [These tips are distilled from an article published by Luke Kerr-Dineen for a GOLF franchise called “Play Smart”. These nuggets of knowledge will provide you with a quick reference to sharpen your games.]

9/ Randomize Your Practice: A study was performed in multiple sports to determine the best way to practice. (a) Block Practice, practicing one thing over and over again and (b) Random Practice, where you never do the same thing back-to-back. Randomized practice is by far the best where you hit different shots with different clubs and never the same shot twice in a row. It makes you think about each shot and make adjustments to get them right.

An iron swing and a driver swing are totally different. Vary your swing and your clubs to learn from each swing that you practice.

10/ When to Hit Driver (or NOT): So, you’re standing on the tee of a tight hole, wondering what to do. Should you play it safe? Or hit driver and hope for the best? DECADE Golf founder Scott Fawcett dived deep into the PGA Tour’s ShotLink data to find the answer. He says that to solve that problem, golfers need to answer two questions:
a. Are there less than 65 yards between penalty hazards?
b. Is the fairway less than 40 yards wide to the spot where your driver would land?

If you answered “yes” to either of these, then you should play it safe. Club down. If you answered “no” to either—or can carry your driver over the hazards—then pull the big stick and in Fawcett’s words, “Send it!”

11/ A speed-boosting concept: When it comes to hitting the ball far, more muscle mass certainly helps. But you can only get so far with brute strength. In order to maximize how efficiently you transfer your body’s strength into your swing, pros are using a concept that’s known as “over-speed-under-speed training.” It’s the concept that helped Matt Fitzpatrick boost his speed to win the 2022 US Open. Overspeed training is when you swing some-thing like the shaft of a club at very high speeds to increase your swing speed. Underspeed is the opposite: Swinging your weight loaded driver slower than your driver. Overspeed trains your muscles to be explosive and Underspeed improves your strength. Fact: You need to train both ways to hit booming drives.

12/ Change Up Your Breathing: An intriguing point of interest among pro golfers is learning how they use their breathing to play better golf. Nick Bolhuis, who works with Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth, among others, the vice president of performance programs at Neuropeak Pro, explains: Golfers perform their best in an optimal zone. “Sometimes that means taking slower, deeper breaths” (to reduce their heart rate when they are nervous). “Other times it means quicker, shallower breaths.” to speed up your heart rate and help you focus during those mid-round lulls.

Each of these tips will only work if you stick to the proven basics. Practice with GOLFSTR+ to swing with a straight leading arm, a flat leading wrist and shallow your downswing to LAUNCH your drives up, POWER your woods and hybrids flat through the fairway and BOTTOM the swing arc of your irons after impact. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

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Great Tips to Sharpen your Game (Series #2, Tips 5-8)

This is the second in a series of blogs to help you simplify your knowledge of golf and hopefully improve your game. [Includes abbreviated tips from an article published by Luke Kerr-Dineen for a GOLF franchise called “Play Smart”.] I have only distilled nuggets of knowledge from his article to provide you with a quick reference to sharpen your games.

5/ Understand the loft and spin relationship: A properly hit golf ball will create an undercut or reversing spin on every golf ball. [Not to be confused with side spins caused by the path of impact or the open or closed face of the club which cause a draw, fade, hook or slice.] Too much spin with a driver will rob you of distance. That’s why your driver has a very low loft and you typically gain height with the launch angle off a tee. (A topped ball is never desired as it creates an over-spin which will force your ball to dive down and along the ground.)

The more loft on your club, the more it’s going to spin the ball. That’s why your pitching wedge stops on a green much faster than lower lofted clubs. A little extra spin can help you hit the ball straighter off the tee or land softer on the green, but too much of it can send the ball ballooning up into the air. Less spin can help you hit the ball lower for more roll-out. The key is getting control over spin, which starts with a good club-fitting

6/ Adjust Your Tee Height: Changing tee height has a direct impact on the launch and spin of the ball off your driver and can be used to help you get more distance with a simple adjustment. A higher tee also creates the opportunity to hit the ball above the middle of the club face. These 2 factors increase launch angle and reduce spin, which, in turn, help optimize launch conditions for up to 25 yards more distance. So, if you’re struggling to keep up with your buddies off the tee, experiment with teeing the ball higher. You could pick up serious yards.

Half of your ball should be above the top edge of your driver to ensure that the center of your impact with your ball is above the center-line of your driver face.

7/ Practice Swinging in Slow Motion: Will Zalatoris said “Whenever I’m working on something, I rarely ever do it at full speed. My practice? A lot of slow-motion work. It’s something my dad really drilled into me growing up. It helps me with my body awareness and matching stuff up.” [Will’s recent successes may indicate that he is on to something.]

8/ A Slower Roll Makes A Bigger Hole: Gravity exerts its greatest effects when the ball is moving at its slowest, like when you’re putting. Thanks to a recent Trackman study, a putt entering the hole at 0.01 mph uses 100 per- cent of the hole’s size, meaning it’ll catch the lip and almost certainly fall into the cup. But as the ball rolls faster, the less likely that it will happen. A putt that’s traveling fast enough to end one and a half feet past the hole makes the effective size of the cup about 25 percent smaller. Firm and in, is not always the best way to putt those short puts. [Longer putts should be stroked with enough power to pass the hole by up to 18 inches to ensure that gravity and flaws in the green do not miss-direct your putt.]

For Tip #8 try practicing with GOLFSTR+ to lock your leading wrist flat when you are putting. We also suggest that you stare at your ball location as you complete your swing (DON’T follow the ball with your eyes). For short and downhill putts, choose your line on the high side of the hole and putt with enough speed to reach the hole and die into the hole. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

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Great Tips to Sharpen your Game

For our next few blogs, I am sharing a series of 30 tips that will help you simplify your knowledge of golf and hopefully improve your game. I found these tips in an article published by Luke Kerr-Dineen for a GOLF franchise called “Play Smart”. I have only distilled nuggets of knowledge from his article to provide you with a quick reference to sharpen your games.

1/ Avoid Doubles Bogeys: I love this line “The difference between the lowest handicap golfers and the rest of us isn’t the quantity of good shots. It’s what happens after the bad ones.” We all have bad shots in every round, but you need to avoid a succession of poor shots. Clear your brain and get back in the game with a great recovery shot to avoid a double or triple bogey.

In a recent study by Sherman (The Four Foundations of Golf) golfers with a handicap of 2, average 1 double bogey/round and 2 birdies/round. Golfers with a handicap of 20 average 5.5 double bogeys and only .2 birdies/round. So, focus on great recovery shots and not on trying to birdie every hole.

2/ Stretch to Improve Your Speed: We are all aware that you need to activate your muscles before any sport. To generate more power in your golf swing you need to load up your muscles or coil them up like a spring before you release that power. One of GOLF Top 100 Teachers, Chris Como, says: “Stretching your arms wide away from you on the backswing sets up a ‘rubber-band effect’ in your muscles, which allows them to contract forcefully and send the club whipping through impact with extra speed.” If you fail to feel this stretch, you’re leaving yards on the table. After you warm up your body with body stretching make sure that you hold your shoulders, arms and wrists in the same wide stretch that you want to achieve in your backswing.

Warmup the rotation in your backswing. Use your trailing arm to hold the stretch on your straight leading arm. Your hips, arms and wrists should feel this stretch in every swing too.

3/ Swing a driver you can handle: Most recreational golfers swing their driver under 90 mph. We are all looking for more distance and control off the tee. So Luke recommends changing to a lighter club with a lighter shaft and club head to stay in better balance so that you can swing faster. He suggests trying the XXIO: “The use of lightweight and strong materials creates a distinct advantage and can help you get the most off the tee.”

NOTE: I have tried an XXIO driver and loved the feel and control but also know that you can generate a lot more momentum or whipping action when you use a heavier club head (like a sling-shot). That’s exactly why golf retail outlets sell lead tape which can be added to the head of golf clubs. I’m just making this comment to suggest that you may want to gradually test the addition of lead tape on your existing clubs before your make any expensive changes.

4/ Aim close, not far: Our eyes are designed to look straight ahead and level. Looking at a target in the distance while standing in your address posture tilts your eyes and can often make you feel like you’re aiming too far left. It’s called the “Parallax Effect”. A study that found golfers hit the ball straighter and farther when they use a spot about two feet in front of the ball and directly in line with their intended destination. Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus have used this method and you should too. So, aim close, not far.

Tip number 2 (above) shows an exercise to stretch and load your straight leading arm and body for more power. You can also use GOLFSTR+ as a training aid to remind you to keep your leading arm straight in your backswing while you play. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Watch for the next set of TIPS in your GOLFSTR Swing Tips Blog next Thursday morning.

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Lineup is Key for Controlled Iron Shots

Two of the recent blogs by Danny Maude reminded me why if is so difficult to control the direction and distance for every iron shot. Slope of the ground (side to side or back to front) your weight shift and your swing arc can change your impact point with every different length of iron. You need to adjust your stance, grip and lineup to execute perfect shots up your target line.

Inconsistencies are exactly the reason why mid-handicap golfers need to take a full practice swing before each hit. You need to pay attention to the direction of the club face and the point of impact with respect to the ball position. You have to visualize where your club face will RELEASE your ball. Of course, it’s so much easier to understand your errors when you see the divot after you hit each shot.

Eliminating Angles for Your Irons in Your Setup
Your iron shaft should be setup perpendicular from where your ball is resting. DON’T SETUP WITH A FORWARD SHAFT LEAN. Your wedge shots should be lined up in the center of your stance so your shaft should be pointing at your belt buckle. The ball position for your 6-iron is forward of the center of your stance so the shaft of your club should still be square to the ground but pointing slightly forward of your belt buckle (as below).

Irons should be pointing perpendicular from the ground. This 6 -iron shaft is pointing just forward of the belt buckle. [Golf Digest Middle East]

Setup with the Face Square
You can add draw or fade with the direction of you swing. You can also add hook or slice with a closed or open face, respectively, so setup with the face of your club square to your target line to understand the impact of a square setup. Every iron is swung in an arc so you need to focus on creating a consistent impact with your club face square and also keeping the impact point of your swing path in line with your target line. Making a complete swing allows you to return your club to square at the bottom of your swing.

Make a Practice Swing Before Every Shot
I rarely see a mid-handicap golfer take a practice swing that duplicates the swing speed and tempo of their actual shot. Each club length will change the outcome of your shots. Inconsistencies in your swing will show up during your practice swing. Just do it!

Learn from Your Ball Flight
Great golfers learn from their mistakes so that they can improve their next shot. Ground slope, ball position (forward or back), club face open or closed and swing direction (over the top or inside to out) will all change the direction of your shot. Diagnose the flight of every shot that you make. If you don’t understand why your shots are not hitting their mark, take some lessons with a professional.

Ultimately you need a “feel” for your swing and the shot that you are trying to make. Make a practice swing and then execute that exact shot. Once you understand what causes your ball flight, focus on your setup and practice with GOLFSTR+ to eliminate elbow and wrist bending which are adding dangerous angles to every swing. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Thought for the Day: No matter how badly you are playing, it’s always possible to get worse.

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