Archive for the ‘Golf Swing’ Category

Breaking Down The Golf Biomechanics

Posted on Friday, 8th October 2010 in Golf Swing

Breaking Down The Golf Biomechanics

Breaking Down Golf Biomechanics into its’ three most basic parts:
1. foundation and power generation,
2. transfer of power into rotational speed and
3. amplification of speed. A brief video of golf swing biomehcnics with some basic skills development exercises or Progressive Skills Training (PST).

As a golf biomechanic, my focus is on looking for areas of poor flexibility and muscle imbalances which effect the mechanics of the golf swing and create opportunities for the body to break down in injury. Each of these situations presents possibilities for improvement in your swing as well as keeping the body in an injury free state.

When the body is out of balance, this means some muscles are shorter than normal and some muscles are longer than normal. When muscle length is less or more than optimal, swing mechanics are altered.

According to Paul Chek of the Chek Institute, there are five factors which influence the flight and destination of the ball.

- Club face alignment

- Swing plane

- Angle of attack/impact

- Club head speed

- Hitting the sweet spot

Unfortunately, many golfers experience limiting physical factors which prevent them from achieving accuracy and consistency regarding these five factors.

Here is an example of a common swing fault and how it may be affecting your current swing.

Tight hip flexors are a common reason for loss of distance off the tee in addition to limitations in achieving a full backswing because of restrictions in trunk rotation.

Short and tight hip flexors are a known source of lower back pain where the low back muscles tighten while hamstring and abdominal muscles lengthen. You see, everything has a cause and an effect within the body.

Tight hip flexors limit a golfer’s body in trunk rotation which ultimately leads to compensations at the shoulders, elbows and wrists. It is important to clearly understand where the chain broke down in the first place so corrective action can be taken. Follow these quick golf tips to restore optimal rotation in the joints which most affect the golf swing.

1. Contact a CHEK certified golf biomechanic for a personal analysis of your golf specific strengths and weaknesses.

2. Begin using exercises and stretches which primarily focus on your weak links.

3. Follow a continuum of flexibility, stability, strength, then power in developing your body for better golf.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Comments Off

The Real Golf Swing Killer

Posted on Sunday, 3rd October 2010 in Golf Swing

The Real Golf Swing Killer

Tips To Improve Your Golf Swing

Tips To Improve Your Golf Swing

What part of the body contributes the most to generating the maximum speed of the club head?

This single answer allowed me to make a huge leap in my understanding of the golf swing, and in everything I had seen and read about the golf swing none of it emphasised it enough.

I carried out a survey on the Internet over several weeks and asked visitors to my web site the question:- What part of the body contributes the most to generating the maximum speed of the club head?

Only 20% got the answer correct – That’s only 1 in every 5 golfers! And these golfers had a wide range of handicaps down to single figures.

Interestingly this figure corresponds to another golfing statistic – Did you know that only around 20% of golfers have a handicap of less than 18? It made me wonder whether the misunderstanding of the fundamental aspect could be the one thing that is holding so many golfers back.

Which part of the body do you think creates the maximum speed of the club head?

Is it: Shoulders, Arms, Hands, Hips, Legs, Torso, wrists

….So the answer to the question that I posed above is that it is the hands (or wrists) that contribute the most to generating the maximum club head speed.

The club is moved through over 180 degrees whilst the arms move through less than 60 degrees – all of the rest of the movement of the head of the golf club is generated by the movement of the hands. Unfortunately the large majority of golfers think that it is with the shoulders and arms.

I’ll come back to this point at a later date as even when you get everything else right in your swing this can be a real golf swing killer!

Today I would like to talks about the #1 problem in golf swings that people tend to have. It goes back to clichés that are predominating in golf. Golf, many times is taught by clichés. Your dad or your uncle or grandfather may be the one that teaches you how to play at a young age.

You get a lot of common advice, things like; keep your head down, keep your eye on the ball, shift your weight, follow through and so on. Many of these are repeated so much that they become cliché, and this one I call the killer cliché because it kills golf swings more than any other one and it is:keep your head down, keep your eye on the ball, its really two but I think of it as one because you always hear them together.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Comments Off

Bad Golf Swing: Maybe It’s Your Golf Clubs

Posted on Wednesday, 29th September 2010 in Golf Swing

Bad Golf Swing: Maybe It’s Your Golf Clubs

Bad Golf Swing

Bad Golf Swing

You could be making a big mistake blaming your mishits and mishaps on your golf swing?

No matter how much time and effort you have been spending, grooving your golf swing to perfection, you still will not achieve your goal if you are using unsuitable or defective golf clubs, will you?

Now is the time for you to consider the following Golf Tip – this covers an examination of your golf clubs quality.

If you plan on buying used golf clubs as beginner’s tools, scrutinizing before purchasing is a must. The clubheads, the shafts, and the grips are golf club parts that should pass inspection first, before landing a decent spot in your golf equipment locker.

Another excellent golf tip that will help you when buying a used set of golf clubs, try and ensure you have set consistency. If all the clubs have the same grip, shaft and heads then this will add consistency to your golf swing. It will also help a lot if you check the price of new clubs versus used clubs.

A golf tip for a golfer that plans to regrip his clubs – Be cautious. This is because the grips are the only point of contact you have on the club during your swing. If the grips are too thin or too fat, this will make a big difference to your swing. Before carrying out the regripping, you need to 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 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 carry out the golf swing effectively. Too heavy or too light clubs will result in changes to your swing angles when carrying out your golf swing. With the resulting poor results. This will be avoided if you select the best fitting equipment available.

Custom golf club fitting makes a better option than just buying a new set of golf clubs. Getting custom fitting golf clubs 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 golf clubs 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 well 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 golf club shaft will benefit your game.

Observations show that the steel club shafts are more preferred by professional golfers while graphite shafts have 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 in 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 golf club load your bag is allowed to hold during a round. You can only carry a maximum of 14 golf clubs in your bag. No more.

Aside from your skill level contemplation, your mastery of a certain golf club and being comfortable with using it must also be put into consideration in deciding which golf club to hit.

The correct combination of the right swing and a good choice of equipment will better arm you to become the best golfer you could ever be.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
1 Comment »