Golf Winner: Can You Swing Like A Girl?

How To Play Golf

There is a similarity between a mans golf swing and a womens’ golf swing and I am referring to the professional and the amateur alike. First of all, because men are physically stronger and to pinpoint just where I am inferring here, arm strength. Having studied the golf swing, it’s easy to see the difference at full speed. When you slow down a video, it becomes clearer that a man can delay the club head from releasing until the last millisecond. Women, on the other hand will release the club head when their arms have traveled to about waist level. The top womens’ long hitters can hold it just a little more than this, although not as much as a man. Besides the accuracy the girls have with their full shots, I believe it’s their putting that shows to be their strength. Woman have more sensitivity in their finger tips.

Yes, there are exceptions to every rule and a select few ladies can hit the ball fairly long distances. The main reason for this however is perfect timing and being able to move their hips very rapidly to accelerate the club as fast as they do. Laura Davies, the talent English Golfer is pretty strong and takes a healthy cut at the ball. Michelle Wie is very gifted and also extremely subtle. Able to generate great speed because of her athletic attributes. These are a couple of the longer hitting ladies but when it comes to being able to delay the force of the upcoming hit of the golf ball, most women will have to release the club head when their arms are close to waist high on the down or forward swing.

If Ms Wie ever learns to get her total power harnessed to the point of not going full bore on all her shots, she could start making records that no one has ever seen. She does have a long way to go, however.

Regarding some very talented female players today. With all the focus on Lorena Ochoa and of course the great Annika Sorenstam, many may have never heard of Mickey Wright, that is unless you are over fifty years old.

If you ever get a chance to watch movies or videos of one of, if not the greatest woman golfer of all time, check out the most powerful and graceful swing of Mickey Wright. There are many comparisons with her swing and many of todays’ top male golfers.

Just a note for many younger golfers who may not have heard of the lean gal from California. The Associated Press voted her The Greatest Female Golfer of the 20th Century. I’ll take her on my team any day.

See you on the green ~

Article source: http://ezinearticle.com

Golf Winner: Golf Swing Training Aids

How To Play Golf

Everyone is looking for the best golf swing training aid that will straighten out that slice or make the ball stop like a dime when it lands on the green. And are there a lot of them out there just waiting for you and your hard earned money. You can find footprints that can help you stance, specially designed golf balls, contraptions that hold you still as you duplicate that perfect swing and many mechanical devices. There is also a full complement of videos, DVDs, books and diagrams, all guaranteed to shave shots off your score.

Some of these teaching aids are great and some are complete rip offs. The secret is to decide exactly what part of your game you need to improve and then find a teaching aid that focuses on that particular golf skill. Then, use the darn thing. Not just on your way to the course , but set up a daily schedule and follow it. Maybe its only for ten minutes, but that’s fine. Simply put, golf swing training aids help your body memorize the correct muscle movement as you swing the golf club. The more you repeat the exercise, the faster your brain will retain the action and send the plan along to the appropriate muscle groups. The PGA pros didn’t develop their great golf swings by accident. They all spend thousands of hours swinging all of their golf clubs in every possible situation they can experience on the golf course. That’s why is looks so easy on Sunday afternoon.

Most amateurs are interested in golf teaching aids that focus on the actual golf swing. However, a training aid that works for your driver, probably won’t help make that delicate chip shot a few feet from the cup. They are completely different golf shots and use different muscle groups. Therefore, it is best to shop for a training aid that specifically addresses the specific part of your golf game you want to improve.

Before buying, do some research. The best place for this is online. Google golf training aids and start to check out some of the web sites that show up in your browser. Don’t get drawn in by the hype. Remember, you are simply gathering information. The buying comes later. Is the site, just selling, or do they offer helpful information about improving your golf game and specific reasons why their product will solve your problem. A great place to get information is the FAQ page. If the web site doesn’t have one or it is stuffed full of hype, go somewhere else.

Make sure the web site is not a one product wonder. Credible online golf training aid web sites offer a wide variety of golf teaching aids. This lets you know they are professionals and serious about their business. Finally, see if any “name” golf professionals endorse or even better, participate in developing and presenting some instruction with their training aids. The men and women have a reputation and simply aren’t interested in promoting a training aid that won’t help the golfer.

Finally, make sure there is a good instruction manual or video that comes with the golf club training aid. Nothing is worse than not quite understanding how it works and then finding out it was being used incorrectly.

Whatever golf training aid you choose, stick with it. Believe in it and above all practice with it.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=James_E_O’brien

Golf Winner: The C.O.G. Golf Swing

How To Play Golf

Where do you Start?
Let’s start with equipment. I’m not going to get into your set make up or equipment brand, we can talk about that later, what I’m interested in at the moment, are your grips.

I don’t care how good your equipment is, or how much it cost…if your grips are not in good shape, I, (or any Pro for that matter) cannot properly teach you how to swing a golf club.

Almost everyone I come in contact with on the range or at the club takes pretty good care of his or her golf clubs, with the exception of the grips.

The only contact you have with the golf ball is directly through the grips of your golf clubs, you have to take care of them.

A Professional golfer has their grips cleaned after practice sessions, before a round, during a round, and has them changed regularly.

Have you cleaned your grips yet? Your grips should feel slightly tacky in your hands so you don’t have to squeeze your golf club, which robs you of the ability to swing the golf club with any speed or consistency.

Most grips today are still made out of rubber or a rubber compound that can be kept in “like new” condition simply with hot soapy water.

When you play golf or practice, the dust, dirt, and oil from your hands gets ground into the pores of the rubber, clogging them up and making your grips slick and hard. Washing your grips will clean out the pores making your grips feel tacky again and ready for your next round.

If your grips have been neglected for a while, try a window cleaner solution on them, this will cut through the oils and dirt and should bring even a neglected grip back to life. If they have been badly neglected and you can’t get them back to a “tacky” state, have them replaced at your local Pro-Shop.

The good news is they’re very inexpensive, starting at around $2.00, and while you’re there you can have them sized to fit your hand perfectly.

This will help immensely when you learn to swing the golf club using the C.O.G. effortless power method. OK, now that you’ve got your grips cleaned and looked after, keep them that way, like I said earlier, every Professional golfer has new grips or has their grips cleaned before every round.

If you have a high tech grip material and you’re not sure what to clean them with, simply contact the manufacturer and ask, they will last longer and perform much better. Notice at the top and the bottom of your grip. There is a small hash mark that indicates the center mark of your shaft, these are very important marks, take notice of them now, and we’ll talk more about them later. Now that we have that looked after, we can talk about the BOSS of the golf club.

The BOSS:

Your target side hand, (the one with the glove) is the Boss of the golf club, that’s why we wear the glove on that hand. On the target hand, (the left hand for right handed golfers) the top three fingers assume control of the golf club. This is the Pinky, the Ring, and the Middle finger, (2) leaving the index finger and thumb to rest lightly on the grip. When these three fingers are in control of the golf club, you will be able to swing the club at a high speed with very little effort and fire your “Piston” *(release the club head), however, if your trail hand (right hand for right hand golfers) gets involved, it will slow down the swinging process and turn the action into a “hit”. Work on keeping the target hand the BOSS of the club, this will help prevent two other common problems,

1)The hole in the glove…

2)The “fat” shot…

Hole in your glove?

1)If you are the golfer that always has a hole in the heel of your golf glove, not only am I going to save you $50 to $100 dollars in golf gloves this year alone, but also should save you a quite a few strokes as well. The hole in your golf glove comes from the BOSS fingers giving up control of the golf club. When you take your back swing, if at the top of your swing, the BOSS fingers have let go, creating a gap between your fingers and the heel of your hand; the hole in the glove is soon to follow.(Piston) refers to the action of releasing the club head.

Why does this happen?

Head of a swinging golf club weighs about a pound for every mile per hour it moves through centrifugal force. A typical golf professional moves the club head from the address position to the top of the backswing in approximately 1 second. At the point of transition to the down swing, the club head weighs about 14 pounds. That’s the equivalent of a 14-pound weight being held by the top 3 fingers of the target (gloved) hand. Most people can hold this weight OK but if the club travels to the top of the swing faster than that, the transition weight of the club head becomes heavier and the separation of the top 3 fingers (or the GAP) occurs. When the (GAP) happens, you transfer control of the club head to the Trail hand (right hand) and the butt end of the grip rubs or tears the leather of the glove on the transition to the downswing. This all happens very quickly and is hard to catch if you don’t know what to look for or what is actually happening. The dreaded hole in the glove is NOT a normal occurrence in golf; it is the product of a change of control of the golf club from your target hand, to your trail hand during the course of transition from the top of your back swing to the beginning of your down swing. This action can and even MUST be controlled if you are to learn to swing a golf club like you see your favorite Professional swing it every day. We’ll discuss how to control this little later on in the book when we set up the easy 3-piece golf swing and discover that 1-move can solve 4 problems we have in the backswing alone and set us up for consistency and power in our swing towards the target.

2.) The other benefit of learning to control your golf club with the top 3 fingers of the BOSS hand at the transition point to the downswing is controlling the “FAT” shot. The fat shot is the one where you stick the club head into the ground before it touches the golf ball, sending it trickling mere feet from where you’re standing. The fat shot is a totally wasted stroke as little or no ground is covered and we have to hit the same shot over again. At the transition point of your golf swing when the club changes direction back to the ball, if your BOSS hand loses control of the golf club, the weight of the club head rests on the trigger finger (index finger) of your Trail hand (right hand) and that hand becomes the BOSS of the golf club at that moment. Once the trail hand becomes the BOSS of the golf club, the down swing motion becomes too steep and your trail hand throws the club head into the ground behind the ball. If this is the case, you may have noticed your ball position creeping back in your stance and your shots traveling too low and too far for the club you’re using at the moment. This is a side effect of a weak BOSS hand; you have to change the geometry of your golf swing in order to make contact with the ball. When this condition develops, all kinds of mistakes can happen as you try to judge where the bottom of your swing is going to happen. Always remember, when your target side hand (the one with the glove) is the BOSS of the golf club, the bottom of your golf swing will always be on your Center of Gravity (shirt-button) so you can predict proper ball position, trajectory, and distance control of each club in your bag, and eliminate the dreaded FAT shot.

Article source: Rob Bernard

Golf Winner: Practice Your Basic Golf Swing

How To Play Golf

Today, if you step into a bookstore and look around, you will be surprised that there are lots of books and videos that will teach you how to play golf better, such as the correct body posture, golf equipment, etc. Now, if you seriously want to improve your golf swing, let me give in on a simple tip. Practice! Yup, that’s it… Practice, and plenty and plenty of practice! It is most effective way to improve, and it cost you nothing at all. Practice make perfect, that’s right! There is no denying of that.

If you are a newbie in golf, fret not! You just need to have some guidance that show how do you carry out a perfect golf swing. From there onwards, you just have to practice on a consistent basis if you want to see improvement in your golf. For the rest of you that have been playing golf on a regular basis, you just need to remember to make the right adjustments to improve your golf swing during your game.

Even though I have emphasize that practicing is important, many newbies fell into the trap of playing “catch up” with the latest trend. They will just follow any new methods in an attempt to improve their golf swing when they actually possess the most basic and yet powerful skillset in golf. That is to how to hit a golf ball correctly. By deciding to practice and pay attention to how you are carrying out your golf swing, you will be able to see for yourself how small adjustments can have a great effect on how well you play.

Even professional golfers know this. One of the most key factors to improve their game is practice. The same apply to average golfers too. It will not make any sense to be trying system ‘X’ of improving your golf swing for this week, and next week you are already trying out system ‘Y’ that promise to allow you to improve your golf swing in a shorter time! Don’t be caught with your pants down! Remember there are just that many ways to swing a golf club.

Therefore, next time if you got some useful instructions or feedback on your golf swing, tell yourself that only by practicing will you be able to see the improvement. Playing golf does not work just by reading a book or watching a video. You got to apply what you had read or watched. Although you might be felt uncomfortable initially, you will soon get over it and give yourself a pat in the back as you see for yourself how you have improved over the time with your determined dedication to consistently practice your golf swing. Congratulations!

Article source: Ferror Parker