Learn from the pros on the lpga tour

Women who strength train on a regular basis, feel more confident and competent. Just look at some of the more experienced players on the LPGA tour. These women have dedicated their time to becoming physically fit and confident, both on and off the course.

Nancy Lopez, Julie Inkster, Annika Sorenstam, and many other women who’ve been on the LPGA for a number of years know it takes much more than their natural ability to create a good golf swing. Their physical and mental strength and stamina must be in good shape in order to meet the demands of hectic travel schedules combined with the expectations of top golf performance.

Just how do these LPGA players maintain their level of play and the consistency of quality stroke production?

One thing that the majority of these women do, that most women golfers don’t is the methods by which they condition their bodies. Most women golfers shy away from strength training. While some will do regular exercises, their concentration is not on strength; the one area where most women need much improvement. Many will spend time stretching and doing cardio routines, yet don’t spend quality time improving muscle strength, tone and function.

Strength training is strongly recommended for women golfer’s, no matter what their age or level of play. It’s even been proven that women in their 70’s can benefit by regularly performing strength training. Many women fear they’ll “bulk up” if they lift too many weights. It won’t happen. Women don’t have the hormones that men do. Women’s muscles will become more defined and powerful, but not bulky.

Regular strength training has great benefits to women golfers both on and off the course. By improving strength, the muscles are much more prepared for the demands of daily living. Not to mention the fact that you’ll have a more powerful and consistent golf swing.

Golf tips tips to improve your putting

If you are seriously considering lowering your scores, then you must take your putting seriously, as roughly half the strokes you play in a round of golf are likely to be on the putting green. However good you are at driving, pitching and chipping, if your putting is not up to standard, you will never make the next level. My Dad told me the famous quote when I was probably about 12 or 13, ‘Drive for show putt for dough’, this says it all! That is why it is quite incredible that putting is not often concentrated on.

Tips for setup:

First of all I’d just like to say that there is no one correct putting grip/posture/stroke, there are wide variations, so if your technique is different, don’t worry, some of the top golfers have very different putting actions e. g. Bernhard Langer, Ben Crenshaw and Tom Watson all have very different techniques. These are basic tips that can be applied to most techniques to help improve your game.

An ideal putting stroke should strike the ball on the up, to do this the ball should be placed opposite the inside of the left heal (for a right hander), this results in the ball being hit on the up and top spin is generated.

In relation to setup, the hands should be either inline with the ball or ahead of the ball, if the hands are behind the ball, then a clean consistent strike of the ball is not likely, and the common result is the ball popping up in the air.

Tension on the green is one the most destructive things that can happen to your putting, especially with the short putts, this is known as getting the ‘yips’, this is caused by moving during the stroke. This causes you to ‘fluff’ your shot and miss your putt. To avoid this happening, concentrate on the spot where the ball was after impact rather than following the ball. This ensures that you do not move your head during impact and will help give you the clean smooth impact you require.

A simple technique to reduce the tension in the body and the stroke is simply to let your arms dangle in front of you before you putt and gently shake them. This should relax your muscles enabling an enhanced sensation of feel and touch, both vital for reliable consistent putting.

Tips for the swing

Your grip should not be too tight, and your arms should be relaxed. Gently and smoothly in a one piece action, sweep the putter backwards. It is important to keep the triangle formed between your arms and the line joining your shoulders consistent through the whole shot and the shape should not change. The move backwards should be like a pendulum movement with your arms, while your wrists remain stiff. A good tip for making sure that this is correct is by starting the action by dropping your left shoulder; this will get the pendulum motion started.

Keeping the triangle mentioned before in tact, in a pendulum motion, accelerate the putter smoothly through the ball; the ball should be hit on the up. Throughout this whole period, keep your eyes fixed on the ball to avoid fluffing the putt and keep the eyes fixed on that spot after impact.

It is vital after impact that the left wrist remains firm and does not break; the follow-through should go inline with the direction you were aiming and should be the same length as the backswing.

Key points

Try and relax before playing the stroke, this will help enhance your feel and touch and help avoid the yips due to excess tension

The stroke should be a pendulum action swinging with your shoulders and arms while the wrists remain stiff.

Don’t move your head during the swing.

Swing in a relaxed smooth fashion with a smooth and constant rhythm.

Keep the wrists firm throughout the stroke.

Play the ball from underneath the eyes.

Have the ball in the front of the stance to ensure that the ball is hit on the up.

The pros and cons of cavity back irons

Whenever I talk about irons in my golf lessons, students invariably ask which style is best—cavity back or blade. The cavity back has its advantages and its disadvantages. It also has its fans.

Golfers, however, shouldn’t choose an iron style because it’s popular in the clubhouse, since the style many not fit their game. The key to iron styles, as I’ve said in my golf tips, is finding what’s right for you.

Cavity backs are popular these days—and for good reason. A cavity back has a small amount of metal removed from the back of its clubface, producing a small hole. Removing the metal re-distributes the clubhead’s weight around the edges of the clubface, father away from the center of gravity (COG).

Re-positioning the COG creates a much more forgiving iron, with a larger sweet spot along the blade. Thus, a mis-hit with a cavity back is more likely to stay on target than a similar shot with a blade. Why? Because the cavity back twists less in a player’s hand when the ball is mis-hit. A mis-hit with a cavity back is also more likely to travel farther than with a blade.

Cavity backs are “game improvement’’ clubs, offering special features that help golfers play better, like an oversize head. I’ve talked about these clubs in my golf tips. Players with high and mid golf handicaps prefer cavity backs, although some low handicappers and touring pros use them.

Blade irons are not as popular as cavity backs. A blade iron features a solid clubface back, distributing the weight more evenly across the clubface, closer to the clubhead’s COG. Thus, a blade has a much smaller sweet spot than a cavity back. A blade is also much less forgiving than a cavity back because it twists more in a player’s hands on mis-hits.

Distributing the weight evenly across the clubface, however, creates an iron with better control and more feel. These irons need to be hit nearly perfectly, though, to avoid a bad shot. Thus, it takes a lot of practice and experience to hit these irons well, something I work on in my golf lessons with low handicappers.

The blade iron is known as a more traditional iron because it lacks the cavity back’s special game improvement features. Players with low golf handicaps and touring pros prefer the blade style iron because the added control and feel enables them to shape their shots better—a necessity when playing on challenging courses.

Manufacturers make cavity backs and blades in cast and forged versions. The terms “cast” and “forged” refer to the manufacturing process used to form the iron head’s shape.

Casting turns the metal from which the iron head is made into a molten liquid, which is then poured into a mold to form the iron head. It’s then left to cool.

Forging involves pounding or compressing the metal, in it’s solid form, from which the iron head is made into the desired shape. Other machining and drilling steps complete production.

The manufacturing process has no impact on the iron’s capabilities, as I’ve explained in previous golf tips. If you have two irons, one forged and one cast, of exactly the same shape, with the same center of gravity, same loft, same grip, hitting the same ball, and so on, the shots will travel the same distances 99 percent of the time. And the players won’t know which iron head is cast and which forged.

You need to find the iron style that best fits your game, as I point out in my golf instruction. If you’re a less experienced golfer, the cavity back is probably a wiser choice, since you’re more likely to mis-hit a ball. If you’re a more experienced player, then a blade is probably your best choice, since it provides more control and better feel for shaping shots.

The best way of choosing a style that fits your needs is to test it out. Hit a few balls with each style. If one style feels better than another does, and you have confidence in it, that’s the style that’s right for you.

Increase your flexibility with these 3 key golf stretches

Why is it a golfer rarely asks for a full 20 minute extensive warm up routine prior to golf, but rather those two or three key stretches guaranteed to yield the best results in the shortest period of time?

No matter how hard those in the golf fitness arena try and convince golfer’s to stretch prior to a round of golf, our efforts are often fruitless. It’s not that golfers don’t care; life just seems to get in the way of our best laid intentions. So, instead of arriving 30 minutes early as planned, most golfers come scurrying around the corner and plop into their carts in an effort to get away with the bare minimum prior to tee-off.

So, based on popular demand, here are those 3 key stretches. While it will always be in your best interest to plan and prepare, both mentally and physically, prior to your round of golf, the following stretches will get your body ready in record time.

Stretch #1 Lunge with Rotation

Goal:

This movement is designed to duplicate the trunk rotation involved in the swing while stretching the hip flexors.

Instruction:

• Place hands on opposite ends of a golf club and place behind the top of shoulders

• Begin by taking a nice long step forward, then lowering to a lunge position

• Gently turn your torso towards your extended knee

• Hold each side for a count of two, then switch legs

Stretch #2 Rotator Cuff Stretch

Goal:

This movement is designed to stretch the rotator cuff muscles.

Instruction:

• Hold the club in the middle of the shaft with one arm extended straight out

• Rotate the club to the right and then to the left

• When complete, switch to the other arm and repeat

Stretch #3 Trunk-Hip Rotation

Goal:

Loosens up the hip joints and prepares the body for a shoulder turn by stretching the low back.

Instruction:

• Bend over slightly from the hips

• Hold your spine in a neutral position

• Place club behind your back and in the crook of your arms

• Rotate your shoulders to the right, then to the left

• The movement duplicates the trunk rotation involved in the swing

Use these three stretches prior to your next round of golf and you will likely see a significant impact in your performance. Get ready to take your game to a new level!

How to implement golf fitness exercises into your golf swing improvement program

Over the last few weeks at BioForce Golf, we have had many questions about golf fitness exercises.

Questions such as: are these type of exercises beneficial to someone who has had a lower back injury, what are the best types of exercises to improve my clubhead speed, and what flexibility exercises can improve my back swing?

Through many of our free daily golf tips on our website, we have provided answers to these questions and many more. One area of golf fitness I get quite a few questions about revolves on how to implement golf exercises into a golf swing improvement program.

Many of the individuals who come to our site are not experts in “working out.” I’ve written my golf-specific exercise manual, YOUR BODY & YOUR SWING, to help you develop a program for yourself.

Probably one of the most-asked questions is: how do I go about introducing certain exercises into my golf fitness program?

At times, certain individuals are unable to perform an exercise in its basic form. They are either out of shape, suffering from an injury, or too stiff to perform it correctly. A Russian Twist may be too difficult for a beginner to execute correctly. It takes great core strength, endurance and flexibility to complete the exercise to the limit.

In this type of situation there are “baby steps” you can take in terms of implementing such exercises into your golf fitness program.

I like to call this the “position, movement, tolerance” training guideline. This is an easy methodology to follow in terms of implementing exercises into a training program.

We’ll use the Russian Twist exercise in my book, YOUR BODY & YOUR SWING, as an example.

When you are implementing a golf fitness exercise(s) into your golf swing improvement program, you must be able to place the body in the correct starting position of the exercise.

For example, if I were to have you perform a Russian Twist, first I would ask you to place your body in the correct position for the exercise. In this situation it would be knees slightly bent and placing your torso in a position where the “abs were turned on.”

Hold it Right There!

Just placing your body in the correct position for an exercise requires effort from the body. If you were able to place your body in the correct position, I would then ask you to “hold” this position for a certain amount of time. This would indicate you are strong enough to add movement to your golf fitness exercise.

On the other hand, if you were only able to hold the starting position of the Russian Twist for 15 seconds before your lower back started to bother you, this is an indicator to me that this is where we begin your golf fitness program. I would have you “hold” the start position of this golf exercise for a certain number of seconds and sets. This would, over a period of time, develop more strength and endurance in those golf muscles.

Once we have reached a good “hold” time on a golf exercise, we then progress to adding “movement” into the equation. Movement simply stands for range of motion (how much movement you can do). Every golf exercise has a certain range of motion you move through to get the greatest benefit for your golf game.

In the Russian Twist example, a full range of motion would be a full shoulder turn to the left and right of center. Again, at the beginning you may be unable to make a full shoulder turn. So what do we do? We slowly work on increasing the “movement” within the golf exercise until you are at a point of full range.

As with the idea of “position,” we do the same with the idea of “movement.” We gradually increase until you have achieved a full range of motion in the golf exercise. Once this is achieved, we move on to the final stage of implementing a golf-specific exercise.

The final stage of implementing any golf exercise into your golf swing improvement program is “tolerance.” Tolerance can be defined as performing the correct number of sets and repetitions of a golf exercise for it to be beneficial to your golf game.

No Pain, No Gain!

The idea of “no pain, no gain” does not work in this situation. Rather, you want to be able to perform a self-prescribed number of sets and reps of every golf exercise in your program. This prescribed amount of work is up to you, the individual golfer, and what you feel is best for your body.

Too little work will provide you no benefit. Too much work or following the “no pain, no gain” mind-set can increase the possibility of injury greatly.

You need to use your best judgment on every golf exercise in your program. This will allow you to perform each golf exercise with the correct technique, develop (maybe over time) the correct range of motion of each golf exercise in your program, and finally take each exercise to “your own level of tolerance.”

It is very easy to implement golf exercises into your golf swing improvement program. Follow the simple rule of “position, movement, tolerance,” and this should help you dramatically in the development of your golf fitness program.

Once you’ve mastered the exercises and routines in your current exercise program, you’ll be ready to take it to the next level, a more advanced program.

Sean Cochran