CrossGolfPros: BE A PLAYER

Welcome Plum District Shoppers

info@crossgolfpros.com (Sean Mysel) — Thu, 24 May 2012 09:07:44 PDT

Welcome Plum District Shoppers!

Hey Golf Moms! Thanks for stopping by and welcome to our blog! We absolutely appreciate your consideration and have a ton of great resources for you on this site. Golf lessons, news and opinions all free.

Check out our parent company's Facebook Page by clicking here!

You can also get free, definitely fresh updates by filling out the forms you see on the right side!

Can't wait to meet all of you!

Sean Mysel

Announcement: Shot Maker's Club

info@crossgolfpros.com (Sean Mysel) — Wed, 23 May 2012 09:42:11 PDT

Hey Golfers What's Up!

Just thought we would let you know on a super cool service we are offering to our readers. Welcome to the Shot Maker's Club. Tired of scouring YouTube videos for golf advice? Why not send us your videos and let us do the work.

How does it work?

Just upload your videos to YouTube and send them to us at sean@columbiagolfschools.com. We run the video through our analyzer, break it down and send them to you....but wait there's more!

Here's what you get:

4 Video Analysis For Your Golf Swing
4 Power Point Display Showing Still Photos
1 Skype Session To Talk About Your Game
Unlimited E-Mail Questions To Pro

All this for only $14.99 per month....no contracts...no long term commitments.

BE PART OF THE CLUB...SIGN UP NOW!

Golf Swing 101: Eight Steps To Hit The Ball

info@crossgolfpros.com (Sean Mysel) — Fri, 25 May 2012 19:49:12 PDT

New golfers! Instantly improve your skills on the golf course by following these eight easy steps to complete a full swing. These steps will give you specific details on how to hit explosive golf shots.

Step 1 – Set Up Position (Click For More Help)

Begin by finding your target, whether it’s the flag stick or land mark, be as specific as possible in choosing a target. Set the club down with the face pointing at the target. Set your feet at least shoulder width apart, the feet will be wider with longer clubs. Check to make sure that your knees, shoulders, hips and eye line are parallel.

Step 2 – Ball Placement

Each club will require a different placement for the golf ball. For drivers, place the ball just off the heel of your front foot. As the clubs get shorter, put the ball farther back in your stance towards your zipper.

Step 3 – Taking The Club Back

To take the club back, begin by rotating the shoulders, arms and hands straight back from the ball simultaneously. Imagine swinging all three around a clock from 12 to 3 on the dial. You want to maintain the slight extension in your arms away from your body. To check your progress, check to see if the toe of the club is pointing skyward as you get half way back on your swing.

Step 4 – Top of Backswing

We can stop the backswing when your front shoulder rests under the chin. The shoulders will have made an approximate turn of around 90 degrees, the hips 45 degrees, your left arm will be extended across your chest with the wrists hinged. Longer clubs will be angled at a flatter angle where shorter clubs will have a more upright angle.

Step 5 – Initiating the Downswing

To initiate the downswing, start with “bumping” or shifting your weight forward. It will feel like you’re the arms and hands are dropping to your side. The force created by the weight shifting forward will force the hands and arms to swing down towards the ball.

Step 6 – Impact Position

During impact the body rotates into the ball while the arms swing downward, your left wrist needs to be flat and the right wrist bent backwards. This prevents the club from “flipping” or getting out in front of your hands and hooking the golf ball. Remember to always accelerate through your shot. As you explode into the golf ball, your right arm will gradually rotate over your left arm. This will force the club face to “square” up to the ball or point at your target line.

Step 7 – Club Release

Once your ball has left the club face the wrists will unhinge. Your right arm will have completely rotated over the left arm. The club face will once again be pointing skyward. Both arms will begin to swing out in front of our body.

Step 8 – Finishing The Swing

As your arms swing around the front of our body, the club will wrap around your back. Your upper body will be pointed to the left of your target. The belt buckle will be pointed directly at the target. The key part of the finish is to maintain your balance through the entire swing.

Here’s the swing in full speed:

The Magnificent 7 Ways To Lower Golf Scores

info@crossgolfpros.com (Sean Mysel) — Mon, 21 May 2012 14:31:57 PDT

Stefanie J. Britch - ColumbiaGolfSchools.com

One of the things that golf teachers get asked often is what one thing a golfer can do to lower scores. This is actually one of my favorite questions because I'm not a believer in instant gratification or quick fixes, but developing a game that can withstand the different pressures from the golf course. With that said, here are seven ways you golf addicts out there can lower scores and build a strong foundation to your game.

#1. Get That Golf Swing On Video - Yes! Why? Most people seem to be visual learners, they see something on TV or on the computer and grow an awareness of what's going on with their golf swing. For instance, there's a golfer I've worked with who had one of the steepest swings a golfer could have. He took his backswing very flat and rolled his right shoulder towards the ball which pushed the angle of his golf club up. Unfortunately, the end result was a huge slice with his driver. Once we showed him the golf video clip software...BOOM! He tells me he didn't even know he actually swung a golf club like he did. Of course, unless it's on film, we can't watch what we're doing.

#2. Develop A "Bread & Butter" Tee Shot - Everyone has a favorite club whether it's their driver, putter, 7-iron or whatever it may be. When you step up on that tee box, find a club you just know it going to be a winner most of the time. This definitely helps when you are struggling with the big stick. Give you an example, I love my driver, but I can make my 3-wood do just about whatever I want. Fade, draw, high, or low it just always feels right in my hands. The only rule I would have with this is try to find something you can hit at least 200 yards. Reason for this is that you want to try and put a short club in your hands going into the green where the accuracy is at a premium. A great club that my students love to hit is their hybrids which are easy to hit and can get you some nice distance off the tee.

#3. Get It Down Around The Greens - For beginners, getting up and down refers to a situation where your shot into the green misses and you need your chipping and putting to save par. This tip is in the same vein as #2. Develop a shot that feels great for you whether it's a bump and run shot, flop shot, one-hop-and-stop shot or anything else that's super reliable. For instance, my favorite shot is to chip with a pitching wedge with a slightly open face. You can still get the roll you need with a little extra spin for controlling the distance. Much like your tee shot, find something that totally suits your game around the greens. If you tend to hit the ball too far past the cup, find a club that's easy to spin and control the distance rather than going with conventional wisdom.

#4. More Mileage From The Driver- Here's probably the most sexy and popular topic with golfers. Tour Pros, scratch golfers, mid handicaps and beginners all want to destroy the golf ball with the big dog. You have every good reason to want more distance off the tee. More distance off the tee equals less distance into the green which means smaller clubs to hit. The shorter the club, the more backspin the ball gets and the less chance you have of hitting an errant shot. There's two ways of getting more distance from the driver: get a longer club in terms of size or swing the club faster. There's a way you can do the second if you pick your shots carefully. Let's say you have a huge fairway with no water or out of bounds, great then get up there with the driver, point both sets of toes out for a bigger turn and swing that club as hard as you can without falling over. Seriously I mean it. If you miss who cares?

#5. Be The Putting Ninja - We want you to be a ninja star throwing, deadly golfer on the greens and this tip will help you do just that. Dave Pelz wrote an article for Golf Magazine that talked about the differences in putting between Tour Pros and high handicappers. From 10-15 feet Tour Pros make roughly 30% of their putts, while 30 handicappers make about 25%. Doesn't sound like much right? Let's say you have about nine putts from 10 feet or in and you make two of them, well you saved two shots. What if you could bump that percentage up to even the tour pros where you make three or four, well you just saved more strokes. More importantly, you feel like there's a reward for hitting a great shot into the green. A great way to learn how to practice putting is to use aids like The Putting Fork which forces a golfer to keep the blade square through impact. I like to set four balls around the hole on each side and practice rolling balls from all types of situations.

#6. Play For All Conditions - Wind, rain, weather it's golf's version of a bully on the course. It shoves your ball whatever direction it wants simply because it can. How do you deal with this bully? Learn to play different trajectories by working with different swing lengths and follow through techniques. For instance, at my home course it's not unusual for the wind to reach 30 mph and to swirl around, this is what my friends in the England would call normal golf. One shot I love to hit from about 125 yards is a faded punch 7-iron or what we call "punch me sexy." What happens is I place the ball back in my stance, use a club I can hit about 160 and take a half backswing. My stance is open and before I let my hands come through the shot, I shift my weight forward and cut across the ball. My flight stays low but the side spin on the ball allows it to stop a bit faster. Whatever your shot is, learn how to flight it a bit lower than normal.

#7 Plan Your Game - Every week we send out a picture from a course titled "What's Your Shot?" It's a picture of a green from a tee box and ask people on Facebook and Twitter how they would approach the hole. Seriously, it's a lot of fun asking people what type of shots they would play in certain scenarios. The answers may vary but the important aspect of this question is get you thinking about playing shots rather than hitting the ball. When you look at a score card or stand on the tee box, figure out type of shot is going to work best and just hit it. Only rule to think about here, don't aim at trouble, if you have to aim at a bunker just make sure you can carry it or land short of it. Now we just have one more piece of advice!

#8 Penny For Your Thoughts - Seriously! We absolutely enjoy hearing what players have to say about the topics that influence their games. You can leave your comments below or check us out at Columbia Golf on Twitter and Columbia Golf Schools on Facebook.

Get The Best Golf Set Up & Posture

info@crossgolfpros.com (Sean Mysel) — Mon, 21 May 2012 14:31:04 PDT

By Stefanie Britch - columbiagolfschools.com

Ever have the feeling like your golf shot is lost before you ever make your backswing? Or have you taken swings that felt great only to have that feeling of the golf club thudding into the turf? For most beginning and high handicap golfers, the biggest threat to their golf swing is their posture. The threat doesn't just come in the form of bad golf shots, but also in terms of physical problems.

For instance, RPM Therapy states that 35% of golf injuries are lower back problems and most of that is due to poor posture. Specifically, most beginning golfers bend far too much at the waist putting an enormous amount of torque and strain on the lower back. Hank Haney in many of his books talks about the ideal degree angle bend is somewhere between 20 to 23 degrees. If I were to guess, most amateurs bend somewhere in the 30 to 39 degree range. What does this mean for your golf swing? Well it will cause the swing to become far too upright which means the shaft of the club will never slot itself in the proper plane.

To give you an example, a 7-iron swing becomes something like a lob wedge and a driver looks like an 8-iron. When our swing plane becomes too steep we tend to hit behind the ball and scoop it into the air with no power. Additionally, steep swings will also prohibit our arms from rotating over and squaring the club face back up. This will cause our slices that we all fear on the golf course.

So how do we fix this posture problem? What we have done to show you in a different manner is not to do a video or embed pictures, but actually to present it to you in a slideshow format. We felt this would make it easier to read and look at without having to replay videos or read a whole mountain of text. Check it!

Proper Golf Set Up & Posture

View more presentations from calisooner08.

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Proper Golf Swing Set Up

info@crossgolfpros.com (Sean Mysel) — Mon, 14 May 2012 11:08:43 PDT

Ever have the feeling like your golf shot is lost before you ever make your backswing? Or have you taken swings that felt great only to have that feeling of the golf club thudding into the turf? For most beginning and high handicap golfers, the biggest threat to their golf swing is their posture.

The threat doesn't just come in the form of bad golf shots, but also in terms of physical problems. For instance, RPM Therapy states that 35% of golf injuries are lower back problems and most of that is due to poor posture. Specifically, most beginning golfers bend far too much at the waist putting an enormous amount of torque and strain on the lower back. Hank Haney in many of his books talks about the ideal degree angle bend is somewhere between 20 to 23 degrees.

If I were to guess, most amateurs bend somewhere in the 30 to 39 degree range. What does this mean for your golf swing? Well it will cause the swing to become far too upright which means the shaft of the club will never slot itself in the proper plane. To give you an example, a 7-iron swing becomes something like a lob wedge and a driver looks like an 8-iron. When our swing plane becomes too steep we tend to hit behind the ball and scoop it into the air with no power. Additionally, steep swings will also prohibit our arms from rotating over and squaring the club face back up. This will cause our slices that we all fear on the golf course.

So how do we fix this posture problem?

First as you approach the golf ball, anchor your golf club first and use your right foot to start your stance

Second, set up your feet the way you wish to hit the shot and flare out your toes a little

Third make sure your knees, hips, shoulders and eye line are all perfectly aligned

Next and most importantly just bend your back at the waist just slightly. If you were to imagine standing up against a wall, there would be no more than 20-27 degrees of space between you and that wall.

This should get you in a better hitting position, one way to check is to see if your back is pointing at 1 as if you were part of a clock. By doing this you should alleviate the amount of strain you're putting on the back and make better golf swings.

Check out more at ColumbiaGolfSchools.com

Why We Struggle With How To Play Golf's Difficult Shots

info@crossgolfpros.com (Sean Mysel) — Wed, 23 May 2012 09:24:11 PDT

Why We Struggle With How To Play Golf's Difficult Shots
From www.columbiagolfschools.com

Could you imagine how it must feel like to hit a shot like the one Phil Mickelson hit below?

Even better question, what was he thinking before drawing that Callaway iron back for a huge money shot? Probably nothing, honestly his mind was free of clutter and he just hit the damn ball.

Here's another question...what would you be thinking?

We are thinking more about the trouble surrounding the green rather than hitting the stupid freaking little white ball. How do we get over trouble shots like this? Fortunately and unfortunately it's all between our ears, but here's some ways to approach shots like number 17 at TPC Sawgrass:

*Know your weaponry, or more specifically how far you hit each club

*For Pete's sake just pick your shot and try to hit it

*Go brain dead, seriously just accept the fate of your shot regardless of what happens

Billie Jean King once said that pressure is a privilege and honestly she's right. If you had the opportunity to play a hole like this, it's one of those rare occurrences where you can tell your friends (or mates for our UK friends) that you stared the monster down. Make life easy on yourself, there's nothing on the line but a piece of equipment and I don't mean you club you threw in the lake.

Just remember it's just one swing out of many!

What you need to picture is the ball seeking the flag stick, the gentle bounce and back spin the ball makes when it hits the putting surface. Of course, the sound of you talking a crazy amount of trash to your friends when they've sent their ball to the depths of the lake. If you miss, you're not the first, but if you hit it which you can and will...you have a story for a lifetime.

How Would You Brand Your Golf Game?

info@crossgolfpros.com (Sean Mysel) — Wed, 09 May 2012 19:27:02 PDT

"How Would You Brand Your Golf Game?"
By Sean Mysel
5/9/12

Seriously? Have you every asked yourself that question before?

It's really something to think about, for instance Bubba Watson could be branded as powerful yet creative. Tiger Woods would probably be mechanical. I always felt Rory McIlroy was Super Smooth, we could argue the semantics, but one thing is for sure, everyone has their own style.

I would classify my style as daring, I'm always trying to create different shots for different situations. In teaching, I go about it the same way with my students, I try to unleash their cunning and wit on the golf course. Our buddy Sean Saunders at SWSGolf.com would tell you your lesson is improvement by design. Certainly doesn't mean I'm a better golfer than anyone in particular, just means that I try to find different ways to attack a problem.

So what is your style or brand? We would love to know....leave us some comments below!

Attention All Antioch, CA & East Bay Golfers!

info@crossgolfpros.com (Sean Mysel) — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:49:37 PDT

Hey All East Bay Golfers...

We want to hook you up big time!

All we ask is for a text message to Like our Facebook Page!

Check it out!

Video Golf Lessons & False Promises

info@crossgolfpros.com (Sean Mysel) — Tue, 08 May 2012 08:32:08 PDT

This is one of my biggest pet peeves!

Save Strokes Promise

You see these all the time....

We GUARANTEE you will save strokes off your game...that's BS and it pisses me off!

Remember when Benjamin Franklin said "Nothing is certain but death and taxes?"

Nothing is certain in golf...period! These promises are like promises made in dieting. Take this and you will lose 20 pounds in a week. No, you will lose 20 pounds in a week if you exercise and burn more calories than you take in.

Golf is the same way, if you practice and play often enough, you can lose strokes off your game, but the rates of losing strokes will vary. Because this irks me so much, here's a short little video discussing why I hate these promises:

Golf Shot Making & Fear

info@crossgolfpros.com (Sean Mysel) — Mon, 07 May 2012 10:17:52 PDT

"Golf Shot Making & Fear"
By Sean Mysel
5/7/12

What scares you the most on the golf course?

Is it that buried lie in the bunker? What about that ball resting in front of the giant oak tree? Oh I know a lot of people get scared of that par-3 carry over the water, do you?

Recently, I did a Google Search with the search terms, "biggest fears, high handicap golfers." The number one thing that came up was bunker shots. In fact, this search took you a few pages before you actually found something other than a bunker shot as your greatest fear.

But I wanted to indulge in a different approach at tacking your greatest fears in terms of playing certain golf shots. The problem is that many golfers never actually practice to play many different types of shots. Our good buddy Adam Sprackling of SimpleMindedGolf.com actually wrote a great piece about this very topic.

In it he asks many questions I believe most of us either deal with now or have dealt with at some point in our golfing lives. So here's the question for you, what do you truly fear and what do we do about it? Think about this for a moment.

One of the major problems with golf instruction, at least in my experience as a student is the lack of imagination and shot making skills that are taught. The Sport Journal from the United States Sports Academy sums it up this way, "was found that male amateur golfers must possess a variety of shot-making skills to be successful and that relative to driving ability, putting skills and reaching greens in regulation contribute more to explaining tournament success."

In other words, it's not sufficient to beat golf balls, you need to play shots. Go to the range and hit fades, hooks, low and high shots. If you have a bunker at your practice facility bury a few golf balls in there or if you don't go play and throw one or two in the bunker quick if you can.

Fear comes in golf with a lack of confidence and knowledge on how to handle a situation. It's not unlike situations in our life like financial problems where we don't have the answer and begin to emote rather than think.

In the coming weeks, we will be putting together a comprehensive e-book that you will all love. It's going to cover shot making for high to mid handicappers and how you can play shots that you watch the pros play on Sundays. Keep your eye out for it!

So seriously...what scares you out on the golf course?

The Putting Fork

info@crossgolfpros.com (Sean Mysel) — Sun, 06 May 2012 09:18:35 PDT

You remember this guy?

Well you don't have to have flashbacks of these types of moments on the putting green! With the new Putting Fork, putting is made easy and more fun than bombing a 300 yard drive. Don't believe me! Check this out from our good buddies at Putting Fork!

Putting Fork Give Away

You can win a Putting Fork at the Golf-Gab Forums! Enter here to Win.

You’re probably asking yourself, exactly what is a Putting Fork and what does it do. The Putting Fork is very simple Putting Training Aid that is intelligently designed to do several things. Clearly no one would design a Putting Aid that didn’t drop strokes off you round, and of course the Putting Fork does just that, but how?

The Putting Fork, with its innovative design and advanced engineering techniques, trains the user to produce a putting stroke that maximizes ball control and precision. In layman’s terms it makes you putt straight, or rather you teach yourself to putt straight.

By consistently utilizing the Putting Fork in your practice you will learn superior putter face control providing you with increased putter stability. The Putting Fork’s instant and accurate feedback allows the user to rapidly evaluate the putter face and stroke allowing you to make the proper adjustments to increase accuracy, control and performance.

The “Alignment T” incorporated into the Putting Forks design allows the golfer to create proper putter alignment, helps maintain the putter’s natural balance and allows the golfer to maintain the putters Moment of Inertia. The shape of the Putting Fork was designed to allow the golfer to narrow their focus to generate a controlled and stable putter face as it strikes the ball.

· Putt Straighter

· Drop Strokes

· Increase your makeable putts range

· Make all your short putts

· Make more long putts

Using the Putting Fork is simple. Just pick your target, align the Putting Fork, anchor the unit to the green with standard Tee’s and select the difficulty in one of the four levels. Then simply make your stroke and adjust your natural putting stroke to clear the putting gap with your selected difficulty level.

Simply go to the link above to sign up and enjoy a great forum as well.

For more information on the Putting Fork you can visit us at http://www.puttingfork.com

Tribute To Adam Yauch From The Beastie Boys

info@crossgolfpros.com (Sean Mysel) — Sat, 05 May 2012 07:42:04 PDT

"Tribute To Adam Yauch From The Beastie Boys"
By Sean Mysel
5/5/12

As some of you may have heard, Adam Yauch (known as MCA) passed away this week. The Beastie Boys are one of my all time favorite bands and this is just a small tribute to their work.

Tweet This For The Beastie Boys!

Operation Kill My Slice: Swinging Over The Top

info@crossgolfpros.com (Sean Mysel) — Fri, 04 May 2012 07:18:25 PDT

"Operation Kill My Slice: Swinging Over The Top"
By Sean & Stef Mysel
5/4/12

What can I say about swinging over the top? I would be willing to be that most of the slicing and dicing that's done out there is caused in no small part by this move many golfers make.

In fact, it hurts a golfer like it hurt Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera shagging fly balls.

What is an over the top swing?

Let me tell you and show you....and don't worry we'll discuss ways to fix it!

Swinging over the top involves swinging the club over its intended or proper plane and angle into the golf ball. In other words, the shaft of the club begins angling itself towards your body capped off by a move with your back shoulder up and over towards the ball.

What this in effect does is causes the shaft of the club to become more upright, as you swing into the ball it prevents the arms and hands from rolling over thereby keeping the club face open. We hit the ball with an open face and our golf ball spins away from us.

Teaching pros may see a different percentage, but I would say at least 75-85% of the people at my facility have this issue to some varying degree.

Now as promised, here is what that swing looks like in still pictures:

These are pictures I used in a previous post, but they tell the story in a striking way. Notice in the picture above our golfer has at this point an absolutely perfect plane for his body and club. The blue line should be parallel and above his club's starting position in terms of plane. The problem comes here in the picture below...

What happens is our golfer makes another move at the top of the back swing and rolls his shoulder to the right, steepens the club shaft and BOOM! The ball spins off to his right...OK DUDE SO HOW DO WE FIX THIS? How long you gonna make me wait to get the goods?

NOT LONG!

When I speak to golfers at the range who have this problem, there's one fairly common narrative they give me. As they take the club back, which is typically pretty flat, there's a feeling of heaviness in the club. Jim McLean says the club is out of balance, which I completely agree with.

In essence, we're fighting this heavy feeling in the back of our swing and bring the club up where we can support it more easily. What we need to do is reverse the order we swing the club back.

Try Doing This On Your Back Swing:

1) Swing the club more straight back and upright, really don't care as much about the back swing except we don't want to come too far inside and flat

2) As you're ready to make your down swing, allow your hands to simply drop to your side, your back elbow will attach to your right side and this will flatten out the plane of your swing.

This is effect will accomplish two goals:

1) We will now swing the club on a more shallow path into the ball which more times than not give us that clean, crisp ball striking we want (or make this sound like a food advertisement)

2) Now our swing will achieve greater efficiency and we can more easily square the club face up to our shot.

One final suggestion and I found this to be a powerful tool in showing people the over the top action in their swing. Get your swing on tape...no seriously do this!

I say that because many people don't feel the over the top motion they make until they magically see it on film. This is completely understandable since you probably have been making that motion for years and had no idea. It's amazing what happens when you have an awareness of something the problem becomes much easier to solve.

So what do you think? Is this something you've struggled with? Let us know! info@crossgolfpros.com

Things That Should Change In Golf Teaching

info@crossgolfpros.com (Sean Mysel) — Thu, 03 May 2012 08:13:33 PDT

"Things That Should Change In Golf Teaching"
By Sean & Stef Mysel
5/3/12

Remember the article "Scotty Cameron Is Smarter Than You?" Fred's article was about how the famous putter architect makes these overprices, gorgeous putters that work like a magic wand in Harry Potter to make every ball find the hole. Well you found out that you got laughed at by your buddies when your putting still sucked. This post is in a similar vein to that one but this is about the golf teaching world.

I'm not going to lie, this is going to be a bit of a rant, a funny one, but a rant none the less. There are some things that I see in golf instruction that drive me crazy. Now before I get into the specifics, I want to say that I've had the opportunity to meet or corresponded with some of the best teachers I feel for the money.

Some of them are Sean Saunders at SWS Golf, Rex Cole, Head Pro at Cottonwood Country Club, and Adam Sprackling in the UK with his daily tipcasts at SimpleMindedGolf.com. These aren't teachers you may have heard of, but they are the types of people who most of us can afford and can get your game into beast mode.

Ok, let's converse shall we?

I once had a teaching pro out here in the East Bay tell me that "sometimes you need to just tell a student good swing and you don't really have to teach much else." That's garbage!

If you are paying me money for a service, you will get what you paid for. Every lesson needs to have some substance along with an extra helping of fun. A great teacher doesn't just watch you hit balls, concede that you have a nice swing and walk off. That teacher should teach you to expand your game, hit some other shots or find a few extra yards.

The next thing is tardiness. I cannot remember a lesson I had that either started on time or was highly organized. For instance, when I was and still take lessons, each of those lessons has started at least 10-15 minutes late. Every time!

Unacceptable...but keep reading it gets better!

Perhaps the grand daddy of them all is having your teacher walk off on you. Seriously, the teacher gives up on a student and considers you a lost cause. One of my students had told me this, which is ironic because he is one of the faster learners I've come across. So here's what needs to change:

First, there should always be some purpose to each lesson. Whatever it is, you should walk away with something new to think about regardless of how good your game is.

Second, the teacher should provide some sort of value to the overall teaching experience. This is to say that when you walk away from a lesson, you're happy you paid the sum of money you did to learn something new.

Finally, there has to be respect for your time. Of course, you need to show up to your lessons on time or you have no standing to complain. But, it's fairly rare that my students show up late and I haven't heard many teachers say the same. Golfers are excited more than anything to get better at the game. There's no game where even a slight increase in skill produces so much trash talking, back slapping and beer consumption.

What are your thoughts? Do you think golf teaching needs to change or are you happy with the status quo?

Operation Kill My Slice: Off Balance Stance

info@crossgolfpros.com (Sean Mysel) — Wed, 02 May 2012 09:29:41 PDT

"Operation Kill My Slice: Off Balance Stance"
By Sean & Stef Mysel
5/2/12

As you read these articles, there's something I hope you do when it comes to golf advice and lessons...

My goal as well as the goal of many of the teaching pros I speak with is to try and change your mind about "conventional" golf advice. We want you to have the attitude people have when they had when Mac computers busted on the scene...we're different and smart!

I want you to think about curing your slice in a far different way. Not like this way in the NY Times with the anti-slice golf ball, although I must admit it is pretty funny. Let's talk about some of the things you might here before we get into today's golf lesson in Operation: Kill My Slice!

Many golfers I talk to have a wide array of reasons why they slice the golf ball. Usually they are: I swing too fast, my head moves, or my favorite...I think the club is built to slice the ball. Yes, I swear under oath I've heard this one before. Let me tell you what I see and I would bet many of my colleagues see, it's normally you're way off balance and sliding forward or your swing plane is too steep, or frankly both at the same time.

Today we're talking balance...

In July 2007, Dave Pelz wrote an article for Golf.com discussing the differences between PGA Tour players and your everyday weekend hacker. In the piece, there are statistical breakdowns for distance, putting and sand play. While talking about driving, Pelz mentions that golfers swing so hard they nearly fall over.

That's ridiculous! I'm not the expert Pelz is in teaching, but I've rarely seen people who are regular golfers swing so hard they come off balance. They come off balance because they have faulty set ups. In fact, in terms of swinging too hard, I would argue that more people could use some extra pop on their swings. But I digress...

When looking at the balance of the golf swing, we have essentially a couple things to look at.

First, what does our foot positioning look like. Are the feet too narrow, too wide or just right? Let's assume we have a driver in our hands. What most golfers do is take a stance that is too narrow for that club, in essence they take a stance for a wedge to hit a club that is almost four feet long. We need to match the stance with the club we are using but also the size of golfer we are. If you are 6'5", don't take a stance for someone who is 5'6". This is like Shaq riding in a SmartCar, probably won't make a lot of sense having that narrow of a stance.

Widen it out some, even a bit past shoulder with if necessary.

Next, check how your toes are pointed, yes that's right your toes. Often times I see golfers with both toes pointed perpendicular to the target line or straight at the ball. Try flaring at least your left toe out, this will help you turn through the ball without fighting so much resistance with your set up. Here's are some pictures to illustrate the differences:

What does all of this do with slicing the golf ball? Here's the low down. Most people when they get off balance tend to make a weight transition that is more of a slide than a turn. It's true that you will make a slight lateral move forward to initiate your downswing, but what happens far too often is we slide all the way forward instead of letting ourselves turn.

What happens from here is we get our bodies in front of the golf ball and thus push the club face open and voila! There's your slice!

Try this going forward, find the max swing speed you can use and still stay on balance. Push the limits and see where you top out in terms of club head speed. Next, try widening your base more so you can handle the longer clubs like the driver. Finally, experiment with different set ups to find the one that works best for you.

What do you think? How does your stance affect your swing?

Operation: Kill My Slice - Golf Grip & Swing Tension

info@crossgolfpros.com (Sean Mysel) — Tue, 01 May 2012 08:49:02 PDT

"Operation: Kill My Slice - Golf Grip & Swing Tension"
By Sean & Stef Mysel
5/1/12 - Happy May Day!

Going forward in our quest to eliminate your slice shot, we're going to look at a couple of factors that are rarely discussed in fixing a slice shot in your golf game. Those factors are your golf grip and the amount of tension you put in your grip.

Our hands are the only interface we have with the golf club and of course it's the golf club that hits the ball. No kidding right! So it stands to reason that we need to pay careful attention to how we hold the club and why it can influence what the club face angle looks like at impact.

Before that though, let me tell you a quick personal note about how bad this shot killed my golf game in my younger years.

When I was in high school, I was recruited to play on the golf team. My irons were good, putting solid, short game was respectable but I could not drive a ball in the fairway to save my life. While other kids were hitting drivers, I hit mid-irons. Worst part was getting asked by other players why I wouldn't pull out the big dog?

My response "Oh if I hit another slice I'll wrap this ****** club around that tree!" It was that bad!

So this subject of slicing the ball is something I'm absolutely passionate about and want to lend a hand with.

Let's talk about the grip first.

Grip
Here is a picture of the three grip positions that you would use on the golf club:

picture from propergolfgrips.com

What we want to start with the the neutral grip pictured on the left. Form a trigger as if you were holding a gun and wrap your hand around the club. Put the club in your palm...now I know...it's going to feel really, really weird but it actually helps prevent making sudden movements with the clubface. Actually read this from one of Hank Haney's books and has significantly improved my driving accuracy.

How do you tell if the club is positioned correctly? You will make a "V" with your left finger and thumb that points to your right eye, anything pointing to the left of that is far too weak and to right will be stronger.

The reason the grip is so important is because you interface with the club this way, but also it puts a certain amount of pressure on the club. Normally we want to have an equal amount of pressure on the club, but for the purposes of curing a slice, let's use the strong grip. Simply turn your hands to the right side of the club (or left for lefties). This should help us close the club face far easier.

Tension

Know how you are holding the remote control for your TV and a story comes on about the "Octomom?" The pressure on the remote increases as your irritation level with hearing that story increases as well.

That sort of tension is a killer when gripping a golf club. What happens here is the pressure you exert on the club's grip restricts your arms from rotating over which in kind prevents the club face from shutting at impact. Conversely, the less pressure you put on the club the more it will rotate to closed.

Ask yourself this question...out of a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the most tension...what would your number be?

Mine used to be a 7, I would squeeze sawdust out of steel it was so bad. Try this, go with a 4 out of 10 and do your best to keep that constant. What we want here is to try and close that face at impact and eventually hit hooks so we can get out of a bad shot.

Best thing to do is experiment with different grips and tensions until you find the one that works best for YOU.

I would love to hear your thoughts about hitting sliced golf shots! We answer all e-mails.

Also, check out our daily golf updates where you can get golf lessons like these waiting in your inbox!

What Are You Struggling With?

info@crossgolfpros.com (Sean Mysel) — Wed, 02 May 2012 08:11:13 PDT

We would love to know -

email us at info@crossgolfpros.com!

We answer all emails!

What Causes My Golf Ball To Slice?

info@crossgolfpros.com (Sean Mysel) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 18:13:09 PDT

Operation Kill My Slice
"What Cause My Golf Ball To Slice?"
By Sean Mysel
4/30/12

Hello everyone and thank you so much for checking out the first part of "Operation: Kill My Slice." Today what we're going to discuss is how we go about diagnosing the causes of a sliced shot. Just for a quick review, a slice refers to a shot that for right handed players has a clockwise or left to right spin on it. How many people does this shot affect? Well let's take a look:

*In 2006, Golf.com surveyed golfers who told them that 70% of their bad shots were slices
*Renowned golf teacher Hank Haney has been quoted as saying that it actually affects 90% of amateur, high handicap golfers

Haney and Jim McLean would also probably tell you that most tour pros have had issues with hitting a bad hook, but my guess is that at some point in their lives, we've all had problems with this shot.

In essence, it's almost the bubonic plague for golfers, fortunately there are cures!

So let's dive into the causes of the slice shot and how we can begin finding a cure.

Working our way backwards from ball flight to impact and then to our swing, a slice is caused by an open club face at impact.

What's the disease look like? Keep reading and you'll see what it looks like.

Here's a great look from GolfEvolution.com:

You can clearly see in the slice portion of the video the club face is open as the club head pulls to the left.

So how do we diagnose this problem?

We can create a check list of items that could cause the club face to open and cause a slice:

Check List -

*grip? Is your grip on the club too weak or where your hands may be in a position on the grip putting uneven pressure on the club itself

*grip tension? If you were to rate the amount of tension you have on the club from 1 to 10, would it be on the higher end of the scale? If so this will keep the club from rotating through the shot

* set up? Are you set up with a stance that is open with your shoulders pointed to the left of the target? If so you may be swinging more upright and into your body causing the arms to not rotate over.

* top of swing? Is your club face pointing at the sky at the top? If so you would have to rotate the club much faster to square it up at impact.

* swing plane? Are you swinging on the club's proper plane which is parallel and above the line at address? If you are coming in too upright, the arms will not rotate over leaving the club face open.

*lateral sliding? When you shift your weight forward, are you sliding your hips and body towards the target which pushes the club face open?

These are some factors either by themselves or in combinations that could cause the face of the club to stay open and spin the ball to the right (or left for lefties).

So how do we fix these problems, we'll give you one piece of advice in this post because during the course of upcoming few days, we'll actually isolate each one of these problems individually and in greater detail.

But don't stop reading, here's the first step you can take to rid yourself of this shot!

Set up a check list for yourself at the range. You can probably easily figure out if you are squeezing the club way to hard or if your set up is a bit faulty. It happens to everyone and we all have bad shots that need to be addressed.

Our suggestion would be to tackle each one of these individually and not at the same time. By doing so, you are more likely to isolate the root cause of your slice shot.

What is your symptom? E-mail us we answer every email! info@crossgolfpros.com

In our next issue, we'll talk about the grip and tension on the club, in the mean time feel free to check out our FREE daily golf updates!

What Does The Proper Golf Swing Path Look Like?

info@crossgolfpros.com (Sean Mysel) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:28:40 PDT

"What Does The Proper Golf Swing Path Look Like?"
By Sean Mysel
4/28/12

So what actually determines where your ball goes? We hear all sorts of different ideas on the subject but when club face meets golf ball, how do we know what direction it's going to fly to?

Today we're going to look at what our proper path looks like in our golf swing.

First, we'll make the assumption that we want to hit the golf ball straight. Second let's talk about what determines the direction the ball will fly disregarding issues like wind.

Here are the two major influences on which the direction the ball will fly:

1) Club face angle at impact

2) Path, or direction of the club

If you put a gun to my head, the direction the golf ball will travel is far more influenced by the angle of the club face more than the path. I say this because the angle of the club face will direct the ball, but also determine what type of spin we put on the golf ball.

That said, the path we swing the club will also influence the club face angle. So let's take a look at a couple swings with our good friend and my first student Hercules.

Here we have a video of Hercules hitting a ball dead straight (and super far which we'll cover soon).

As Hercules comes into impact, he holds his finish right down the target line, this enables him to keep the club face square through impact and drive the ball with no side spin on it. To really see how this works, just pay attention to the club through the entire video.

In this video, Hercules hits a straight shot that goes to his left, or what's known as a block shot in golf. As he comes through the ball, the face is open, but doesn't pull to the right until after impact. We have one of those weird situations where the ball has no side spin, goes straight actually but doesn't slice. Check it out:

The obvious question then is what causes all the side spin off of the club face?

Here's an excellent description on how this works - link

Essentially your club zigs and the ball zags. Opposing paths and club face angles create side spin (I know the article doesn't call it that, but let's just call it the way we see it.) and away you go.

How do you fix these path and sidespin problems?

1) Sign Up For Our Updates...seriously we talk about this a ton over here!

2) Think counter intuitively What do I mean?

If your ball is going off to your right, start you hands sooner and swing to the right so the hands and arms rotate the club face to square faster. Ball going off to your left, play the ball back a little bit and swing to your left to slow down the club face rotation.

Questions? Comments? Concerns?

We Love To Hear Them All & Answer Your Questions!

Operation Kill My Slice

info@crossgolfpros.com (Sean Mysel) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:48:37 PDT

"Operation Kill My Slice"
By Sean & Stef Mysel
4/26/12

Ok so 90% of amateur golfers slice the ball. Don't lie..you hate this shot. In fact the veins in your neck are already popping out and you will need to choke down some blood pressure meds after picturing a nicely struck shot sailing into the woods.

Maybe you can ask Frodo to fetch it out of the shire for you!

No worries, you know us around here we always want to help you out...

Starting May 1st, we're going to be writing blog posts dedicated to killing that slice. We're going to talk to golf pros around the globe that can give you different techniques to kill this thing off.

Oh don't worry, we'll have videos as well...come on now we wouldn't want you just take our word for it....

We'll prove it!

In the mean time, check out our free daily updates to cure what ills your golfing world

Improve Your Golf Handicap

info@crossgolfpros.com (Sean Mysel) — Thu, 03 May 2012 10:25:37 PDT

"Improve Your Golf Handicap"
By Sean & Stef Mysel
4/26/12

You read this headline and think right away, "A-Ha I'm always lookin' for ways to drop my handicap." Well sorry to disappoint but this golf tip has nothing to do with swing planes, grips, stances, or anything physical.

This is all mental baby!

What I'm talking about is the little devil that sits not on your shoulder but in your golf cart holding whatever the cheapest beer was in the clubhouse. This is what I call "Super Amateur." If you need a mental image, check out Golf Digest's "18 Most Annoying Golf Partners." In fact, please check it out because his is the first picture that comes up.

Super Amateur knows everything about the golf swing and is a legend in his own mind. What do I mean?

Well despite having a 25 handicap, SA (for short) will tell you how to fix his slice and then proceed to slice a shot right into grandma's tomato garden. Then he tells you how to get it out of the bunker while he's dug a hole deep enough for one of those old Cold War fallout shelters.

In short, he's the person that gets you so pissed, you want to choke him until his eyeballs pop out.
Tweet This!
But no more!

If you are struggling with your golf game and do not want to get lessons, do this:

1) Go to jimmclean.com or to your book store and pick up a copy of one his books or Hank Haney's books. That will get you to visualize how you can make adjustments in your game.

2) Seriously on this one, get a twitter account or jump on it and send a tweet to Hank Haney. Give the man credit he actually answers a lot of golf instruction related questions.

3) Please, please, please, please...one more...please stop listening to people who don't know how to play the game. All you will do is hurt your own game and stop having fun in the process.

To improve your handicap and to learn the fundamentals of golf, you need to remove the handicap of bad advice. Ask yourself a question, would you take self help advice from someone who's perpetually miserable? Would you take investing advice from Bernie Madoff? So why take golf advice from someone who can't play?

Learning how to play golf should be a fun experience where you learn to experiment and find out what works best for you.

For instance, I had an eight year old boy come to me with his grandfather for one of our free kids' clinics. I just let the young lad hit and hit and hit some more. All we did is just make slight adjustments and give him things to play around with. He went home happy as did his grandfather and away we go.

If you want to get free daily updates, sign up for our Daily Golf Updates in the form below!

Golf Lessons With PGA Pro Article Review

info@crossgolfpros.com (Sean Mysel) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:49:38 PDT

"#1 Problem Students Have Finding Help"
By Sean & Stef Mysel
4/25/12

Here is an article I'd like you all to check out from Chris Czaja, PGA who wrote this piece for GolfInstruction.com. In the article Chris makes some compelling points about how working with a PGA pro can work wonders for your short game. Especially putting, but the problem is this article is very, very vague.

Here's the problem as I see it...

Not every PGA or teaching professional is going to be the greatest at everything. Jim McLean demands that every teacher can hit every shot and while McLean is someone I look up to and would love to meet, guess what....

Not every pro can hit every shot like a pro...

What do I mean? Let me make fun of myself a little bit!

One of the shots I completely suck at is bunker shots. I can get the ball out of the beach, but I don't put the ball three feet or less near the hole every time. Essentially, I can tell you how it works, but there is inevitably going to be someone who can simply do it better. Here is the problem with finding golf lessons for most students.

Most of them aren't really sure what they need help with.....why?

They never get asked.

One thing you should do before hiring a teacher is sit down with them and talk about your game. Most people love talking about their golf game especially the bad parts. Ideally, the teacher should be upfront and tell you what his or her strong points are and things they struggle with. It's hard to be great at everything, but we can be competent at most.

Here are some great questions you can ask a pro you may want to hire:

1) What's your teaching philosophy?

2) What parts of the game are you best at?

3) What type of students do you normally teach?

Ask lots and lots of questions and force them to give you coherent answers.

What do you think? Hollar at us!

Let us help you with finding the right teaching professional for you and get great golf tips in the mean time!

Sign Up Below!

What Do Golf Lessons Cost?

info@crossgolfpros.com (Sean Mysel) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:21:03 PDT

"What Do Golf Lessons Cost?"
By Sean & Stef Mysel
4/25/12

Are Golf Lessons Really Worth It?

Probably a question that always comes up. Essentially people get golf lessons because of two main reasons:

1) They just got started and don't know how to actually begin

2) They are completely frustrated with their game and need help.

But when determining the "value" or what you get out of a lesson, that's harder to put a price tag on...

For instance, when you buy a car or new clothes, you go to the lot or store, the item has a price tag and you pick the one you want or can afford.

With golf lessons, it's the same as well, you pick the one you want and pay the man/woman their fee.

Ahh, but it's not quite the same! Why is that? Because for the most part, unless you see a Hank Haney or Jim McLean, you may not know what you're getting.

Let me ask you this....what does a $125/hour golf lesson feel like? What would you expect for that type of fee. Check out this list from GolfDigest - Top 50 Teachers. Butch Harmon charges $1,000/hr but most of his clients are Tour Pros and corporate entities, not your rank and file weekend golfers. Below I did a quick bit of research in my immediate area and here are some of the rates:

Lesson Rates: San Francisco East Bay - Private Lessons

Delta View GC - $50/45 mins

PGAProfessional.com - $50/30 mins, $75/hour + $30 for book

JoshWillardGolf.com - $50/30 mins, $90/hour

DelongGolf.com - $45/? (not specifically given)

CrossGolfPros.com - $20/hour, $55/3 lessons

To quote Bill Maher in Religulous, "Boy do I feel cheap!"

So again....what's a lesson worth to you? Give us your comments, we'd love to know?

CrossGolfPros Video Golf Swings

info@crossgolfpros.com (Sean Mysel) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 20:13:35 PDT

By Sean Mysel
4/24/12

Here is a compilation of some of my students' swings.

What always amazes me is how important communication is with people whatever business you're in.

I've found that most people can execute with amazing precision just about anything if the teacher can give them the right combination of words, voice inflections, and keys. Check these out:

Nell - 10 yrs old - Started a month ago

Jason just got into playing, wanted to learn how to beat his buddies.

Probably my favorite type of student...one who wants to kick butt and take names. Here he his learning the swing plane theory (really law if you ask me).

Big Hercules...yes that's his name and yes he hits it a ton

What do you think? Got some awesome videos or looking to get some improvement in your game? Check out our free daily golf updates by signing up below: