||||Welcome to Golf News Today

Do you want to transform your body? Do you want to transform your golf game? How do you go about finding the right golf fitness book for yourself? Most fitness books for golf are written to give you ready-made golf fitness programs, golf exercises, step-by-step instructions and illustrations can quickly transform your body and your golf game. So then the questions becomes: what are the components of a complete golf fitness book? What areas should a golf fitness book should cover? Basically, a golf fitness book should cover the following four topics: 1. Strength specific golf exercises 2. Flexibility 3. Aerobic conditioning or endurance training 4. Nutrition Keep in mind that all four of these topics should be specifically designed for a golfer and not for a person looking to just improve their general physical fitness. The healthy golf book you choose to improve your golf and fitness should offer multiple plans for different physical fitness levels. In addition, the book should have a golf fitness evaluation in the book to determine your current fitness level and ultimately decide on the starting point for your golf fitness program. Using this type of book, you are sure that the program or exercises you are using are right for you and the program will help your game not hurt it. If you are going to take the time to exercise, you want to make sure that you are helping your golf game as well and killing two birds with one stone. The main reason I hear from my students on why they put off beginning a golf training program is, they are not sure where to start and knowing they are in the right fitness program for them. Obviously I have a network of personal trainers that I can get them in touch with locally. For you, I would begin you quest to better golfing health by starting a walking program. Not matter yourcandition this is something that you can do and increase the time that you walk each week by 10-15%. A good golf fitness book should discuss the direct benefits of any exercise to a golf swing. Many people are motivated to use an exercise or an exercise program once they read and understand how it will benefit their game. Finally, a golf fitness book should have progressive golf fitness exercises and complete golf fitness programs. You should be able to logically see how these fitness exercises and golf programs to take you to your next level. Many exercise books offer general exercises that are not golf-specific and in turn, have no logical sense of format or progression. This will only leave you frustrated and not knowing where to start and if you do start a program unable to chart any progress. To find a golf fitness book that works for you, the next time you go to a bookstore or get online and do a search for golf fitness book or golf fitness books, make sure you thoroughly evaluate the explanation and chapters to reassure you are doing the right thing. Max Johnson of VGS Golf. Click for Golf Fitness Equipment. Click for more Golf Fitness Articles.

Chances are that you have battled with a slice at some point in your golfing days. To be completely direct with you, dealing with a slice really sucks. It hurts your golf game in many more ways than one.

Luckily, it’s fairly easy to fix. I cannot claim that this small tip will completely cure your slice, but there’s a good chance that it will, and I hope it does.

When you come into the impact zone, there are really only 2 factors that can determine the “shape” of ball flight.

1. The angle of the club face at impact.

2. The Path the club is taking at impact.

You’d agree, that’s really not that tough to understand. The tough part is explaining how to correct it, and keeping this e-mail short at the same time.

Anyway, here’s a few things your should concentrate on.

Try to keep your leading shoulder “down” on the ball through impact. This is called staying strong through impact. Lots of times the leading shoulder (left shoulder if right handed) flies up before impact. Now just for a minute, think about what that does to the club head when it’s in the impact zone.

Golf is all about thinking and analyzing your shots to get better. A huge part of this game is understanding “why” you’re getting a certain result, and the physics behind that result. Thinking through your golf swing will provide huge dividends if you’re willing to invest the time it takes.

Get up from the computer and actually go though the motions slowly. Let your leading shoulder fly up as you approach impact and you’ll actually be able feel and see the clubface coming from an outside-in path. That causes a slice every time.

So what can you do to correct it? Well, for starters, try to learn to keep your leading shoulder strong. Keep that shoulder “down” on the ball all the way through impact, even after the ball is gone and flying straight down the fairway. Here’s an illustration of what I’m talking about.

As you can see, the leading shoulder is still down. The triangle is still there. Most importantly, my body has NOT gotten ahead of my hands. This is a HUGE distinction. As you may notice, the left shoulder is actually higher than the right shoulder. So what do I mean when I say “leading shoulder down”?

You have to envision yourself from the back looking down on the ball. When I say “down”, I mean that the leading shoulder and chest are still facing the ball through impact.

So even though it may seem like the leading shoulder is higher than the trailing shoulder, it’s still facing the ball at impact. NOT TOWARDS THIRD BASE in comparison to the ball. That would mean that you have let the leading shoulder fly up.

Hand action is huge in this game. You must learn to release your hands correctly through the ball. Meaning that you release the hands while the leading shoulder is still “down”, or facing the ball.

If you are currently playing with the conventional swing method, it’s really easy to let your body get ahead of the ball. One of the many things you will learn in “The Simple Golf Swing” is how to avoid that trap.

Keep the leading shoulder down and let your arms and hands release through the ball and you will see the ball go farther and higher. This will take a while to get used to.

The key is to let your arms release through the ball, while your left shoulder is “Down” on the ball. To do this you will need to rotate your forearms correctly, and use your leading ELBOW (not shoulder) as a hinge. So another way to explain this movement would be that your hands are still moving towards the target, but your leading elbow has almost stopped.

Another one would be to initiate the downswing with your arms. I’m sure that’s the exact opposite of what you’ve heard before. Starting the downswing with the arms is a tough thing to do.

You want the ball to go the maximum possible distance. So subconsciously, many people have the problem of letting their body get way ahead of their hands. That’s the number one slice-producing move among golfers today. It’s probably the toughest one to fix, because when you’re at the top of your backswing, all you can think about is crushing the ball.

The golf swing itself is probably the most difficult and certainly
the most elusive action in all athletics.

Beyond question it is the most frustrating, and nowhere more so
than at this very point, where the club and the body make their
first moves down toward the ball.

The peak of frustration is reached here because, no matter what
has gone before it, this one move can make a greater difference
in the result of the swing and the shot than any other.

We can have a perfect grip, start back from the ball properly,
reach the top in faultless position and then ruin it all by the
next move we make.

Not only can the swing be ruined by this move, it is ruined
about 95 per cent of the time.

THE FATAL FLAWS – YOU NEED TO BE AWARE OF!

The deadly moves, the most fatal flaws, are these:

(1) Spinning the hips without moving the weight laterally,

(2) With this spinning motion turning the right shoulder
high toward the ball

(3) Trying to move the club head or slowing down the hands.

These moves bring quick disaster by causing two things.

1. They make us hit too soon and,

2. They make us hit from the outside in.

The first robs us of distance, the second of direction

–and what else do we want from a full shot?

Because we hit too soon, the drive that might have gone 250 yards
goes only 220.

Because we hit from the outside instead of from the inside,
the ball is pulled, and, if the face of the club is not square,
it will be hooked or sliced, or perhaps smothered or even shanked.

The best we can hope for is that we will slice it only a little
and that, after starting to the left, it will curve back into the
fairway.

EVEN IF WE ARE LUCKY!

Even if we are that lucky, we will know we have hit a weak and
sloppy shot.

These are the actions and these are the shots that we see on every
course in the country, and in bay after bay of every driving range.

It can truthfully be said that this is the natural way to hit a
golf ball — with the Sunday duffer spin.

It is also the principal reason that the scores of millions of
players remain so high.

These actions in this one area of the swing produce bad shots in
such astronomical volume that the short game, no matter how good
it is, can’t take up more than a little of the slack.

OUR PREDICTION…..

We will say without fear of contradiction that a player who makes
these moves and still gets around in 86 on a good day would cut
ten strokes from his score if he made the right moves.

Golf Tips Involving Golf Equipment

Blaming your moves, shots and swings for your golf mishits and mishaps? Well, no matter how much time and effort you have been spending over practicing your moves to perfect your game, you still won’t achieve your goal if you use unsuitable or defective types of golf equipment, will you?

Now is high time for you to consider the following golf tips that involve checking on your equipment’s quality.

If you plan to choose used golfclubs as beginner’s tools, scrutinizing before purchasing is a must. The clubheads, the shafts, and the grips are golfclub parts that should pass inspection first before landing a decent spot in your golf equipment cabinet. Another excellent golf tip that will get you through the game is making sure that the set of used golfclubs you’re eyeing have set consistency. It will also help a lot if you check first the price of new clubs vs. used.

A golf tip for a golfer that plans to regrip his clubs: Be cautious. This is because the grips are the only contact points one can access to affect the shot. Before carrying out the regripping, know the core grip of the club and your hands grip size. To determine your core size grip, measure the diameter of the butt of the shaft you’re going to re-grip. The shaft’s diameter should match the grip’s core diameter. In determining your hands grip, the available size grips are regular, mid-size, oversize and jumbo. Use only the best re-gripping materials that will provide optimum performance for your golf clubs.

Another golf tip or advice is that using ill-fitted clubs will be an obstacle to your golf playing success. A golfer must consider his or her body type in choosing the best-fitting equipment to support and deliver his backswings efficiently. Too steep angles in carrying out backswings may be avoided if one selects the perfect fitting equipment available.

Custom golfclub fitting makes a better option than just buying new golf clubs. Getting custom fitting golfclubs is a golf tip that translates to a very worthy investment. The uniqueness of each person is attributed to the need of this way of buying new golf clubs. A custom fitting produces golfclubs that specifically suit the height, strength, swing characteristics and clubhead speed of the golfer.

The type of club shaft also helps in predicting whether you’ll do good in a game or you won’t. There’s a choice between a steel club shaft and a graphite-made club shaft. This golf tip aims to make you realize which type of golfclub shaft will benefit your game. Observations tell that the steel club shafts are more preferred by professional golfers while graphite shafts become more popular with women, senior players and beginners. Steel shafts are less expensive than graphite shafts though.

One more golf tip that could help you is that the golf clubs that must be the main content of your bag must suit your skill level. Since various skill levels need various golf clubs, it won’t be wise to just use or bring a golf club that is just lying around. And, don’t ever forget about the maximum golfclub load your bag is allowed to hold. You can only bring 14 golf clubs in your bag. No more. No less. Aside from your skill level contemplation, your mastery of a certain golfclub and your being comfortable with using it must also be put into consideration in deciding which golfclub to hit.

A good combination of the right moves and good choice of equipment will better arm you to become the best golfer you could ever be.

It might well be useful to take a general look at the
top of the backswing.

As this is an area of much confusion.

REMEMBER: THERE IS NO ABSOLUTE TOP!

Yes there is no absolute top, in the sense that
everything which has been moving in one upward and
backward direction reaches its limit at the same
time and starts forward and down together.

All the parts of the swinging system — the club, hands,
arms, body, and legs do not reach their backward limits
at the same time.

They reach them in a steady progression, from the ground up.

The knees get there first, followed by the hips, then
the shoulders, the arms, the hands, and finally the
club head.

There is quite a time gap, too, between the extension
limits of the first three parts and the last three.

There is a similar lag in the time they start down, too.

TOP PRO SWINGS :

Swings of the top professionals vary somewhat, of course,
but sequence pictures never fail to show that the knees,
hips, and shoulders reach the end of their backward
movements well before the arms, hands, and club head.

The same pictures invariably show the knees and hips
moving into the downswing before the upper part of
the body.

How to strike the driving shot in your Golf round with a three wood:

Its a very powerful shot that, when carried out correctly, is a great alternative to the driver if Big Bertha is playing up. More importantly however, Tiger, more often than not, finds the centre of the fairway with a three wood because it promotes further accuracy.

You will feel more in command and the ball trajectory that the shot generates is both piercing and ensures run on the fairway. In fact, there are many reasons to have this shot in your armoury. The little changes to your stance and swing it requires are well worth developing as follows:

Tee the ball up low and aiming a little left of the target – push the tee down low, take your 3 wood and place the golf ball in the middle of your stance with your weight a little more on your target side. In addition you need to aim left as the ball position makes the club collect the ball a little sooner, so the club-face will be to some extent open.

Hold the Grip further down the handle – this will give you much more control over the golf swing, but do not forget to keep your grip firm but not tight, at say number five on a scale of ten where ten is very strong.

Reduce the tension in your arms and hands to get the effect of a nice fluid golf swing. Do not forget to remember not to tense up, not only on this shot but on every golf shot.

Keep your Weight in the middle of your stance – your weight should stay in the middle in the backswing. Do not move it onto your back foot. Limiting your weight shift will allow you to stay over of the ball, fully squeezing it when it comes to impact.

This set up will provide a steeper direction of attack to create that lower, more powerful flight which we are trying to acquire.

Rediscover your club angle – at impact, the shaft of your club needs to rediscover the forward angle it had at address. Create this by keeping the hands a touch in front of the club-head as you hit the ball. This keeps the loft off the club-head, sending the golf ball on a lower more penetrating ball flight.

Shorten the follow through – holding back your follow through is a natural situation to get into when playing this kind of shot. This is because you are not allowing the club to fully release, caused by the club angle you used to get the lower trajectory flight.

Although you might not get the same yardage as a flawless hit with your Big Bertha, but this type of shot will only be a few metres behind. Importantly you will hit the short grass far more often and in nice shape to go for the pin with your next stroke.

Try this on the driving range first and build up your confidence with this shot; you will be amazed how successful it is.

The forward press is simply a device that gets us from the
passive into the active stage smoothly, without a jerk.

Standing in a stationary position, even for a few seconds,
is tiring.

THE TRUTH IS ….

We don’t pass easily from a stationary position into
a big move.

The trick in golf is to go from the stationary position of
address to the big movement of the backswing without a
jerky effort.

UNDERSTANDING THE FORWARD PRESS

The forward press provides this transition. It is the little
move that leads into the big one.

It can be done in several ways, with the right knee, with
the hips, with the hands, with a turn of the hips.

THE LATERAL MOVEMENT OF THE HIPS

We want a lateral movement of the hips, no turn. It is a
slight pushing of the hips to the left, laterally, about an
inch or two.

This press is in the opposite direction from the big move.

But as the hips come back from their little pushing motion,
they keep right on sliding and go into a lateral turning
motion to the right–the beginning of the backswing–and
we are off.

This makes for the smoothest transition of all.

This is one of the most feared shots in all of golf by the amateur.
Why? Because it looks so intimidating when you can barely see
you ball, but it doesn’t need to be that way. You will be hitting
great shots and impressing your friends when you follow these steps!

Let’s say that you just don’t have a “fried egg” (where 50% of
the ball is buried) but only the very top of the ball is visible.
What do you do? Follow these steps and you’ll be able to hit
any lie that you have in a bunker.
Here’s what you do:

1. Choke down on the golf club, about in the same position
as a normal bunker shot (1-2 inches from the bottom of the grip).
2. Take your normal stance, however open it up a little bit.

3. The majority of your weight should be on your front foot .

4. Close your clubface and press your hands forward just a
little (this will ensure you to drive the ball out of the sand).

5. Keep your lower body still! This is so important, especially
in this shot!

6. Just like a normal bunker shot take a steep backswing so
that the butt of the club is pointed at the ball. *Remember that
your left arm is going to lead this shot and will be completely
parallel with the ground. Your right elbow is in the locked position.

7. When you start your downswing do not shift your weight – keep
the majority of your weight on your front foot.

8. So once you’ve started your steep downswing hit about 2 inches
behind the ball. This is very important because if you try and hit the
ball first you’ll just drive it back into the sand. By hitting 2 inches
behind the sand will actually lift the ball out your clubface really
doesn’t even touch the golf ball. *Remember it’s very important to
keep your clubface closed so that is can drive the ball out!

9. Remember to swing through the sand and not stop once you’ve
hit the sand.
10. Keep your angle steep throughout the shot.

Drill:

At the practice bunker stomp a few balls almost completely
submerged (make sure you can only see a little of the ball.
This will give you so much confidence because this only happens
in a small percentage of sand play. Focus on keeping your club
face closed throughout your swing….I can’t stress this enough!
Putting it all together in the bunker:

Normal bunker shot: square to slightly open clubface, evenly
balanced weight or weight on back foot, steep/vertical backswing
(lead with your left arm and keep your right elbow “locked” to its side),
keep your entire lower body still – no weight shifting until you hit the sand.

Buried lie in bunker: slightly closed clubface, forward press your
hand a little, majority of your weight on your front foot, steep/vertical
backswing (lead with your left arm and keep your right elbow “locked”
to its side), keep your entire lower body still

Slicers have generally been taught to have a stronger grip (i.e. the left hand moves slightly further to the left side of the shaft) to encourage them to rotate the clubface closed through impact. But in some cases this isn’t the best way to go as some will learn to hold the face even more open and thus make their problem slice even worse!

Often a more neutral or weaker grip (i.e. where the left hand is rotated more to the left of the shaft, so that the thumb runs only very slightly down the left side of the shaft) will work better as the slicer ends up having to rotate the face closed himself.

In the long term, this will help create a draw shape in combination with a few simple swing tips when trying to rid their game of the dreaded slice. Now of course as well as the Grip, another common fault which slicers come up against concerns the stance.

You need to double check the alignment of your feet. Clearly they must be square to the target line, but slicers have a tendency to have an open stance. An open stance occurs when the left foot is a couple of inches or more back from the square line.

This has the effect of creating an out to in swing, which means that on the backswing the club travels back outside of the ball and then comes in across the body on the downswing, cutting across the ball. This results in slicing action across the ball from out to in, thereby imparting sidespin which causes the ball to start off left and then finishes way right of the target line.

To cure this fault, take your stance and place a club along the toes of your feet. Now stand back and check to see if it is in line with the target. A slicer will probably find that the left needs to be pulled back, square to the target line. Hope this helps.

Custom Golf Clubs Improve Your Game

Do you love to play golf but are tired of having to visit the golf club repair shop on a regular basis? If this is the case then you are like many other golfers out there who have to deal with golf club repair on a regular basis just to enjoy the game you love so much. But, what if there was an option for you to avoid frequent trips to the golf club repair shop? What if you could finally play a round of golf with a set of golf clubs that really fit your size and swing without worrying about golf club repair? Well, you can and the way you can is with a set of custom golf clubs. Custom golf clubs may seem like a major expense up front, but if you sit down and consider the price of your current set of clubs in addition to all the golf club repair bills then you will see that when you do the math a custom golf club set really is not that expensive. And, the benefits of having custom golf clubs is that you will play better golf than ever and will enjoy the game even more. But, what are the benefits of custom golf clubs and why should you choose custom golf clubs over others? The following information will guide you to all the benefits and information you need to know about custom golf clubs. All About Custom Golf Clubs

Just to make a point about custom golf clubs take a look around you the next time you are out on the golf course. Is everyone the same height, weight, sex, and age or are there major differences in appearance? Now, check out everyone’s golf clubs. Are all of the clubs practically the same with standard grips, lengths, and the like? So, what does this observation mean? It means that standard golf clubs don’t fit the majority of golfers. So if you truly want to improve your game you will customize a set of custom golf clubs, just for you. Now, you are probably thinking that custom golf clubs are even more expensive than name brand golf clubs. However, that is not necessarily the case. Not to mention that the fitted custom golf clubs you hear about aren’t anything at all like custom golf clubs, they are made from scratch just for you. Don’t get confused between fitted custom clubs and custom golf clubs. The fitted custom golf clubs simply start out with the standard set of clubs from any golf manufacturer and then they proceed to make the clubs more suitable to your personal and playing traits. Although the custom fitting doesn’t do too much other than cost you money because they are starting with a product that doesn’t fit you to begin with! 

Why would anyone anticipate that mass produced clubs would help them play golf at their best? The reason is because golfers want to be better and they believe the hype from the golf manufacturers that the “newest” technology will improve their game. Well, the real answer is not in buying mass produced clubs but rather customizing your own golf clubs. Anyone who has ever had a set of custom golf clubs can tell you that finally having a set of clubs that are the right length, with the right grip, will greatly impact what you shoot the next time you are out on the golf course. 

It is simply logical to buy custom golf clubs that are made to fit you or customize your own set of golf clubs. That means your golf swing is analyzed as well as your personal characteristics to create a custom golf club set that works with your golf style and not against it. A custom golf club set will allow you to have grips that are the right size for your hands, heads that reflect your skill, and shafts that are the right length and flex. 

When you have your first custom golf club set made you may see some big differences from your last set of clubs. Your custom golf clubs may be a different length or the grip may be smaller or bigger. The flex may be different and the head might be different as well. For some people who set out to play with their custom golf clubs the first day they see amazing results. Others will need to make some changes and practice because although the custom golf clubs really fit their personal characteristics it’s difficult to change after playing with clubs that don’t fit for so long. Just a little practice and patience is all that is needed to see the difference custom golf clubs provide. Not to mention that when you have a custom golf club set made you will have new clubs that won’t be in need of golf club repair any time soon! If you really love golf then a custom golf club set is really worth the investment.