Jeremy Reilly Golf and Fitness Academy

Are you a 20/20/20 Gym user??

2013-09-30T06:13:00.000-07:00

Are you a 20/20/20 Gym user??

I have performed many gym consultations in my time as a Personal Trainer and I always like to ask new clients what they are currently doing during their sessions. The answer I very commonly get is ' I do 20mins on Cross trainer, 20 on bike and 20 on treadmill (sometimes rower!), I follow this by asking if they do any resistance work, usually getting either ' I do a couple of the machines', or 'I'm not looking to get bulky'.

20 Minutes sitting reading a book on bike.

All this explains to me is why so many people give up using the gym after the first four weeks. Firstly this is such a boring workout and secondly it will bring you the minimum results in the maximum amount of time.

With most people looking to lose weight, tone up and be generally healthier then some kind of functional resistance training is essential. You cannot tone up without resistance work and you won't burn many calories working in the 'Fat burning zone' or as I like to call it the 'doing nothing at all for you zone'. If you want to be in the fat burning zone, walk slowly to the shops or hoover the house at low intensity, that's how effective it is. The other way of knowing if you are in the 'waste of time zone' is if you can read a book or watch the tv. Whenever I see someone doing this I just want to scream 'put the magazine down!!!'

How about a magazine?

If you want to use these machines then do some HIIT training, that High Intensity Intervals. But I do have problems with doing this also. How functional is it being fixed in one position for a period of time? What are you really doing to improve posture, balance, flexibility, core stability, mobility, power, strength. The answer is very little. The same goes for any machine that you sit on. If you have a sedentary job you spend the whole day sitting at your desk and in your car/on the train, then you sleep in a seated position whilst lying down. So basically a good 20 hrs crunched up, why use the gym to sit down also?

Wonder what's on tv?

If you don't know what to do then ask a Personal trainer. A good trainer will be able to screen you and sort out your goals to plan a programme that is designed specifically to meet your needs. It seems that people would rather wander around the gym wasting their time than ask a professional to give them guidance. People are willing to pay to fix their TV, car, phone etc. But when it comes to their health they would rather not bother. I don't know whether they've just worked with poor trainers (of which there are a few) or just think they know best. Most trainers are very dedicated professionals who have a real desire to get their clients to achieve their goals. Put your trust in one and see the results.

For more details on my personal training visit www.berkhamstedpersonaltrainer.co.uk

Mission to more power. Hit it one club further in 90 days.

2013-04-17T09:31:00.002-07:00

After playing my first tournament of the year earlier this month and hitting 15 greens and only two real bad swings I've decided that my swing is moving in the right direction. This inspired me to take on a new challenge in addition to improving technique. I believe that with the right training and diet I can gain at least one club more distance.

I'm going to base my gain on two clubs. Driver and 7 Iron. Currently I hit my 7 Iron on average (in English weather!) 162yds. One club more distance would therefore mean 13 more yards. This should translate into approximately a 20yd gain on my driving distance. Which would mean hitting 2 and a half clubs less into most par 4's. That would truly transform my game, 7 iron instead of 4 iron is a big difference. I will also be checking on my clubhead speed which averages 108mph with the Driver atm, I would like to get it up to 115mph, to achieve my required gains.

Will this be me soon??!

I'm starting today with a heavy legs session. Box Squats, Lunges, Deadlifts and Romanian Deadlifts. As I am already trained I am going straight to the power phase, anyone duplicating my workout will need to start with mobility and strength first. My numbers for squat and Deadlift today were 105 for 5 for squat and 140 for 5 Deadlift. This is an indicator that I haven't trained big in a while. I know that Lee Westwood can Deadlift 190kg for 1 so that is my initial target, I am about 25kg short of that at the moment. My box squat target is 135 for 5 giving me approximately a 150kg 1rep max.

I am going to try to get a 5 day routine in place with Legs, Chest and triceps, Back and Biceps, Power shoulders and legs day and a Core day. This will be in addition to my golf conditioning class, spin and plyometric classes that I teach but also participate in.
Golf is an all body sport so I will be covering the whole body. One of the keys to my workouts is to include stretching during my rest time to maintain and increase length of muscles.

My goal date is 90 days from today to have gained the yardage. It's not long but if I work hard and eat well I truly feel it's achievable.

My blog will be updated regularly with updates on my progress and on the various workouts, supplements and diets to help along the way. Check out my golf blog for updates on my swing changes.

Golfing Blues

2013-03-01T04:29:00.001-08:00

David Duval

The Golfing Blues

I interrupt my usual blog to talk about getting down at golf. I think most people who have played golf for a while have got to the point where they have just about had enough with the game. It usually comes after a period of particular struggles and a feeling that it’s not worth the time you put into it.

I had myself experienced various minor periods of the blues but had my worst case of it during the middle of my current swing change. I had been putting in plenty of quality time into my practice and although results had been pretty poor had seen enough in terms of position change and shot shape improvement to continue to persevere with the work. However towards the end of last year in spite of some real big progress with my swing positions I couldn’t find a way to get my driver going. The rest of my game was going pretty good but my driving was shocking. Probably as bad as it had been for a long time. It wasn’t just that the direction was bad, it was the quality of strike. For about three weeks I practiced and was hitting some absolutely horrendous feeling shots. But I am not one to give up easily so I carried on with the practice.

However, the final straw came playing a Winter mini tour event at a local venue I won’t name. Arriving on a frosty winter morning I expected the usual decision to either delay or cancel the event due to frozen greens. But to my surprise we were going out. ‘The greens must have thawed out’ I thought to myself. But a trip to the putting green confirmed the opposite. So in spite of the poor decision I go out. The first couple of holes go okay, fairway wood off tee and run the ball in to frosty greens and scrape pars. Then I start to miss fairways and hit into rough, which is sodden. Every shot missing fairway is plugged. Balls missing fairways by yards or greens by feet can be lost in their plug marks. Balls hit on greens bounce through into soaking wet lies. This is not enjoyable golf, made worse by the fact my driver shots feel like I’m hitting a rock with a drainpipe. I left the tournament with one thing in my mind. I’ve had enough.

I didn’t pick up a club for two months apart from during lessons. I made a choice that I was only going to get back to it when I felt a real desire to practice again. Two things brought me back to the game. Firstly, during a lesson I hit my driver and the face cracked, turns out it had a flaw in the face and that was one of the reasons it felt so bad!! But I still wasn’t fully converted back. The final turning point was my coaching trip to PGA Cataluyna in Spain. Good golf course, good condition and the sight of the sun that I hadn’t really seen for twelve months did wonders. My new driver head was a revelation also and suddenly golf became about enjoyment and making birdies and eagles again. My love affair with the game had renewed.

Unfortunately coming back to minus temperatures in England put a bit of a dampener on it, but I finally feel a desire to hit balls and get back to it. The pieces of my swing change feel better now I have confidence back off the tee and I am starting to look ahead to some tournament golf again.

My experienced is shared with another at my club. Neil Padbury, who is featured in some of my earlier videos got the end of his golfing tether at around autumn last year. He has a huge amount of golfing potential but apart from brief periods has never quite has showed the work rate required to push on from a potentially good golfer to actually reaching the scratch standard some would say he should have. As a result his dreams always outweighed the results he achieved. He is currently retired from the game in his early twenties, but I hope this season some good weather will bring him out and maybe give him the motivation to give his well of potential one last run at the big time.

My biggest respect goes to David Duval, he has suffered possibly the biggest career slump since Sandy Lyle, but still comes back to play week in week out. He must have gone through the blues several times but still works hard. I hope that soon he is rewarded for his perseverance.

Swing change Part 2

2013-01-31T06:29:00.002-08:00

Old Flatter Shoulder Turn

So after my change to the posture that I discussed on my earlier blog the next step in my swing adjustment was to adjust my shoulder movement in my backswing.

Partly due to the excessive lumber curve in my posture and partly just bad habits my left shoulder tended to move back on the backswing with a immediate movement to the left and also coming up as I swing back. This caused two major issues. Firstly it meant my head and upper body moving to the right, it also meant that my shoulder plane became too shallow. This gave my swing a weight shift that was caused by my upper body, as opposed to through the movement of the hips and pelvis.

The first thing that I need to do with the change was to sort out the first movement away from the ball. Before I would initiate my backswing with an immediate turning of the body and pushing away of the left shoulder. The feeling I needed to get was that of my shoulder remaining in position for the first couple of feet of the backswing, and then getting it to work down, and under my chin.

Secondly in order to stop my shoulder over turning I have to keep head centred with my face on the ball. Before I would rotate my head about 25’ to the right on my backswing. Now I need to have no head rotation, this limits my shoulder turn dramatically.

New Shoulder Position

At first it feels as if my swing is really steep with a lot less body turn. I am struggling with how my weight shift is going to happen. But there is more than enough to work on for the time being. I love the look of my compact backswing, but can’t really feel how I’m going to generate power. It is close to the feelings I had when I was experimenting with the Stack and Tilt motion. This does change soon. I’ll be discussing how in a blog in the near future, and the movement is a revelation in my game.

For more details why not visit my website at www.jrgolfacademy.co.uk

Getting flexible for my new swing.

2013-01-28T08:57:00.000-08:00

One of the areas I needed to work on to help implement my swing changes was my flexibility. Restrictions in hip flexibility can affect the amount of controlled rotation you can make on your back-swing Tight hamstrings can affect how well you can maintain spine angle and posture on your back-swing.

The first exercise I decided to use in my workout was the reverse toe touch exercise. This is basically where you squat down holding onto your toes and then straightening your legs whilst keeping hold of your feet.

This exercise has a couple of benefits; firstly it’s a great way to help lengthen your hamstrings. The other main benefit that convinced me to use this exercise is that it helps me to achieve a better squat position.

Reverse Toe Touch

I have always struggled to get the full range of motion when trying to perform a squat. With the squat being such an important exercise for golf and for life it seemed that if I wanted to get the most out of my training then I needed to be to get into a full squat position.

When I first started this exercise I wasn’t able to get my legs to full extension on the way up. It took about 4 weeks of repeating this exercise (30 reps a day) to be able to get to full extension. The second goal I had in this exercise was to be able to let go of my toes at the bottom of the squat and maintain my balance. This was much harder for me, doing the exercise helped me discover that my calf muscles were preventing me from balancing at the bottom of the exercise.

Standing Calf Stretch

Calf flexibility is important for correct knee movement and good balance in your swing. This meant adding another exercise to accelerate the process; I added the simple step calf stretch. Standing with your toes on a step let your heels drop down until you feel a gentle stretch, hold for 30 seconds allowing the muscle to relax throughout the exercise. This feels really good especially after a day walking the links.

Hopefully you can add these exercise to your daily routine and start getting fitter for golf. I'll be starting a golf fitness class at my local gym soon and these will definitely be included in there.

Check out my website www.jrgolfacademy.co.uk for more info.

Time for a Change

2012-12-18T02:46:00.002-08:00

This season has been mixed at best for me, results and scores not what I wanted. My old technique left me open to a straight push and a hook. Plus the distance I was getting was average. Things needed to change, so in October I decided to spend the next few months rebuilding my swing. This series of blogs will discuss the process and my thoughts and results during it. I’m aware it won’t be easy but know that you don’t achieve anything without hard work.

I started my project by locating another Pro who I could work with. I needed someone whose ideas I understood and agreed with and whose current players swung the club in a way that I desired. After conversations with many Pros at tournaments I decided to work with Matt Belsham a coach who works with guys such a Rob Rock and several other European tour guys. People often ask why I don’t work on my swing by myself. Well the problem with that is that I am always my biggest critic, and when looking at my own swing I see all the elements I want to change but tend to flit from change to change. All pros I speak to agree that changing your swing alone doesn't work. You never teach yourself like you do others. You would give a pupil 2 or 3 changes to apply each lesson, when you work on your own you tend to see so many things wrong that you never commit to a single move for long enough. I need to agree on what I'm going to work on and stick at it until it changes. Working with another Pro ensures I commit to the swing change one piece at a time.

Step one of the change was to get my setup into a new position, I need to steepen my shoulder plane so had to get more tilted over the ball at address, reducing my knee flex, and looking down at the ball more. Plus had to remove the excessive lumbar curve in my setup. Also wanted to improve knee and hip movement so turned my feet out more and narrowed my stance. As with all changes this feels very odd my posture is more relaxed with my stomach muscles able to work better but feels to me lazy and hunched. Feet feel like I’m a duck and legs feel super straight.

One check on the camera confirms that despite feeling so bad it’s actually correct, this is a very common feeling for anyone changing the swing. I have every confidence that I’m moving in the right direction but know that results may suffer whilst my brain is working hard to turn these moves from conscious to subconscious.

Will update soon on the second phase of my changes.

What makes a good pupil?

2012-07-16T06:11:00.001-07:00

As a coach you are judged on the performance of your pupils. You can give the best advice and give great lessons but if your students don't use the tools you give them correctly then they are destined to fail.

What makes a good student?

Good Practice.
This is the first and most obvious answer. If students don't practice then how are they going to improve. It takes 10000 good repetitions to take a new movement and make it instinctive.

Firstly students need to make time to practice. This means stopping the excuses that accompany doing any activity. People find time to watch their favourite TV programmes, go shopping or other time wasting activities they should be able to find an hour in the day to hit balls or even just practice the motion at home. The more you practice the faster you can implement these changes.
Practising doesn't make perfect it makes permanent. They key to practice is to work hard at the positions you are taught not just bash balls. 40 balls can be better than 140 if you are deliberate and precise over what you are doing.
Finally you need to be strong minded enough to take these changes onto the course and get used to feeling these new movements on the course.

Trust

This sometimes takes time to achieve as a coach but a pupil has to trust that what he is working on is correct. This is where video coaching sometimes can help. But a number of people will have a lesson and then come back to me telling me how they've also been working on some tip they saw in a book or magazine or that they have filmed their own swing and seen something else they think might need work.

A good pupil will stick with what they have been given to work on and make sure this is improved. They then may ask about other things they have read or seen in the next lesson. What they won't do is get a lesson and then go and practice something completely different.

Patience

Sometimes swing changes give instant benefit, sometimes it takes time. Only with patience can a student be able to stick to changes and takes his swing forward. This also means sometimes results getting worse before getting better. If changing your swing was easy then there would be a lot more low single figure golfers in the world. Truth is its a tough game sometimes and those who push through the tough times can reap the rewards afterwards.

Adaptability

The willingness to change a movement even if it feels and comfortable and initially gives worse results is possibly the most important factor in creating a great golf swing. When I see someone come back looking exactly the same as the week before I know they have trouble letting go of their old techniques. This is linked to all the above attributes and can take a while to improve.

Conclusion

The best pupils have all the above attributes plus the single minded dogged determinedness of a champion. You can be a good player with just ability but to become a great player you need to drive to leave nothing to chance to be the best player you can be.

Whatever level of golfer you are if you want to get to the next level in you game you need to be able to look at yourself and honestly believe that you are doing everything possible to achieve you goals.

Greatness can be achieved not just by what you do but also by what you sacrifice to do it.

Reilly Project Season 1 Finale

2012-06-02T10:56:00.001-07:00

Due to unforseen circumstances I have had to end the first season of the Reilly project early. But would like to show the success I had after just the first two sessions.

As you remember from the first post our student had a poor posture with caused a real loss of balance throughout the swing and a complete loss of position the way down causing an out to in swing path and a slice at best. After some good work correcting the posture the next step was to get the hips in the swing working harder in the downswing. As with most slicers of the golf ball Stuart started his downswing with a turn of the shoulders and a hit with the arms. (See episode 1 for Original swing.)

In this lesson we worked on getting the hips to laterally rotated from the start of the downswing shifting weight to the left foot on the way down whilst keeping the head behind the ball to impact. This combined with making sure that Stuarts finish was under control and in balance changed his ball flight and quality of strike to a whole new level. He finished the sessions with a much more consistent shot that flew with a slight draw. Add in an increase in yardage and you'll see that Stuart left with a very realistic chance of making his target. I hope Stuart continues with his golf as he pursues his new career as I feel he could be a solid golfer.

And for those of you who wish the series could continue, don't worry. Our new project is starting very soon and its going to be a winner. I'll be taking a new golfer who has never ever played on a course and trying to get him to break 100. Now I have yet to see him swing a club so am not setting a time-scale yet but I will post as soon as his first lesson begins.

In the meantime I'll be posting some updates on some of my lower handicap players, including Neil Padbury 7 Handicapper, whose goal is to be able to get his handicap below 4. He has a unique action but a lot of self confidence. I'll be posting some videos of him soon, so keep checking out the blog.

www.jrgolfacademy.co.uk

The Reilly Project Lesson 1

2012-05-06T02:57:00.004-07:00

Being inspired by the TV series featuring Hank Haney in the Golf Channel I have decided to do my own mini version. The videos featured in this blog are of Stuart, the Marketing guy at Chartridge Park Golf Club. Stuart is a self confessed hacker. He is my version of Charles Barkley (featured in the Haney Project, check out his swing here), he currently struggles to break 100, often shooting scores towards 120. He has broken 100 in the past, but right now has trouble hitting the ball consistently. My goal is to get him breaking 90 in six months.

First lesson I asked Stuart what he thought he was doing wrong. I like to ask this to my new clients just to get some idea of how their movements and their feelings are related. Often swing faults are exacerbated by people working on the wring fixes. He described his problem as coming over the top and he felt his problem was his weight falling forward on his downswing. He had been shown a drill to put golf balls under his toes in his setup to prevent this from happening.

Now my philosophy in my coaching has been to always get to the root of the problem in the swing. This is always based in the setup first.

As you can see in the top video, Stuart is bent over with a lot of curvature in his upper back, he also has quite straight legs. Stuarts has quite a longer body with shorter legs, this means poor posture will result in him This is not an athletic posture. The majority of the lesson was dedicated to fixing this. I got Stuart to get his spine into the correct straight back position with the muscles of his core and his upper back engaged. We also worked on getting Stuarts' thigh muscles engaged, holding him strong and balanced. As you see below this is a much more athletic position. All he needs to do now is practice so that he can actually relax into this position as lose some of the unwanted tension you can see.

The other thought I wanted Stuart to work on was to improve the transition from backswing to forward swing. Stuart has a common problem amongst amateur golfers in that he starts his downswing with a turn back at the target. There is so much talk about turn in golf magazines and books that people often think the downswing should start this way. In fact the real important move before turn is the lateral movement of the hips towards the target. This lateral move allows weight to shift to left foot and also to get the club started in the correct plane for the movement through the ball.

Stuarts original swing

The results of these changes were immediate. He has begun striking the ball better and hitting his woods with a nice draw. Obviously this is just a start and we have plenty of work to do to break 90. Keep in touch for more videos and lesson information.

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Stack and Tilt Experiment Conclusion

2012-05-02T00:20:00.001-07:00

It has been two weeks since the start of the Stack and TILT experiment and I have decided that it is time to end it. I feel that I have given it enough time and enough practice to gain an understanding of the principle movements and techniques of the swing.

My intitial reaction to the stack and tilt was very positive, upon reading Plummer and Bennetts book I found that a lot of the information and thoughts in there were just sound biomechanics and swing geometry. The spinal tilt towards the target, the swing centre remaining constant. On the downswing they talk about the explosive power from the legs and hips. These are all good swing thoughts for all players even without stack and tilt.

The real crux of stack and tilt is that they advocate that there is no weight shift on the backswing whatsoever. The right knee should be allowed to straighten and the hips should rotate 45'. This is a real change from standard swing coaching such as Jim McLeans X-Factor and pretty much every other text on the swing.

It is this lack of weight shift that I found a real problem with. Using irons the strike was pure and distance similar to that of my usual swing. However this became a real difficulty when using the fairway woods and especially the driver. It was a real surpise to me that the book makes very little reference to power and also has absolutely no images of players using driver and only one paragraph describing the driver swing. It talks about moving more weight to front foot at address with driver and moving ball position forward. What it really only gives brief reference to is how to create a shallow enough angle of attack to hit driver.

Modern launch monitor technology has proven that optimum distance with a driver is obtained by a high launched and low spinning ball. This requires an upward angle of attack of around +2'. Stack and tilt creates a shallower angle of attack by the hip drive towards the target. This really can only ever create at best a level angle of attack and Bennett and Plummer refer to this being the trend and suggest that pros were moving towards teeing it lower and using this level angle of attack. Myself and the obvious proof that launch monitor results bring would argue otherwise. It was very difficult to stop the ball spinning with the swing.

The other problem is also the ability to generate power using a single pivot move. If you are swinging around your front foot then my problem is how can you drive your hips forward with any momentum if you are pushing off the front foot. Imagine throwing a ball or serving at tennis without shifting your weight back. When I was swinging the longer clubs trying to generate power was very difficult, the swing felt weak and that I needed an almighty use of the hips to get even close to the power of my previous swing. It was this that stopped me continuing with the motion.

The book really never mentions an increase in power, it explains how hitting the centre of face will help you hit the ball farther. This is correct if you weren't already striking the middle of the face!

Now I can see that a lot of people will get real benefits by a lot of the information in the book. Staying centred over the ball will help everyone's ball striking with irons. Allowing the hips to rotate will help those who lack the flexibility to turn their shoulders independently. Also the explanation of generating power from the hips is really well described.

For now though, I will be reverting back to my original swing with some feelings I learnt from the S&T.
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Stack and Tilt Golf Swing Experiment Part 1

2012-04-21T00:42:00.003-07:00

I've heard a lot about the Stack and Tilt swing over the past few years and at first I must admit I was very sceptical. Most of my information at the time came from commentators and coaches who were very keen on criticising the swing.

I decided it was about time I investigated the technique for myself. I was vaguely aware of the main principles behind the 'Stack and Tilt' but when I read Michael Bennetts and Andy Plumbs book I was really surprised that some coaches were giving it such a hard time.

For those of you who know nothing of the stack and tilt golf swing it is based primarily around the geometric principles set out in Homer Kelleys 'The Golfing Machine' this is a very old book that has some great information regarding the physics and geometry of the golf swing, although it's not really an easy read.

The main principles of the stack and tilt is that the two major pivot points of the swing don't move. Simply put your shoulders turn around a fixed axis and your weight starts on the left foot and doesn't shift back to the right on your backswing.

The name stack and tilt was given by PGA tour player Charlie Wi who described it as the feeling he had when he swung the club. The stack being the weight staying on left side and the tilt being the feeling that you tilt your spine towards the target as you swing back.

The feeling of tilting spine towards target is not new however. As you can see above, Tiger Woods has this very position at the top of his swing. All biomechanics agree that there is a spinal tilt towards target on backswing in an athletic swing. Tiger also doesn't shift off the ball with his upper body, he turns his shoulders but doesn't make a lateral move. The only real difference is that Tiger does shift his weight with his lower body and hips and creates resistance by keeping the right knee flexed, something which is not done in a Stack and Tilt swing.

On way through Tiger maintains more principles contained in book, he keeps his shoulder axis in the same point, he drives his hips towards target and he has good arm extension and strong wrists though the ball. All of these are key points in the book. And most of these key points are observed by top players such as Woods, McIlroy etc.

The main real difference I see is the lower body movement on the backswing, which in stack and tilt means keeping weight on left foot and allowing right knee to straighten to allow more hip turn. The second major difference is the feeling of holding off forearm rotation on way through ball, i.e. rolling clubface. This change results in a curtailed finish.

I have decided to conduct an experiment with my swing to test the merits of the method. I will be writing about how I get on in a future blog but if you'd like to check on a video record of my progress please checkout my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/JrGolfAcademy, I have videos of my normal and my developing stack and tilt swing so far on the page.

My initial thoughts on the movement are that helps to create good positions, especially in those less flexible people and I already can see some of my faults associated with my 'normal' swing being removed. I'll give a more detailed report in my next blog.

Check out my website http://www.jrgolfacademy.co.uk/

Pros and Cons of Video to improve golf swing.

2012-04-18T01:56:00.002-07:00

The introduction of video analysis for golf swings brought about a whole new dimension to swing improvement. Coaches and pupils are able to examine every aspect of their game and break everything down to the smallest degree. The question is: Is video analysis making people better?

Video gives coaches the opportunity to firstly look more closely at areas of the swing they can't see fully with the naked eye. This helps to take any guesswork out of coaching.

I find the most useful part of using video is not for my own analysis of the pupils swing but to be able to use the video to let the pupil see what they are doing. They soon discover that 'feel and real are rarely the same'

Pupils will often believe they are over exaggerating whatever change you are implementing into their game, but once they look on camera they realise that what to them feels like an enormous change of movement is actually not as much as they need.

It also helps to get the pupil to be able to see how the work he is putting in is paying off by not only seeing improvements in striking and ball flight but also in the changes to the shape of his swing. Golf lessons become more enjoyable for the player.

These are the positive aspects, however there are also some negatives to the introduction of video.

Golfers can become obsessed with the mechanics of their own game and spend time trying to replicate their favourite player or the latest book they've been reading. There are some benefits to imitation but you also need to build your own swing which suits your bio-mechanics and build.

You also need to develop your own feel and learn to create shots and be able to manipulate the club-face and path to hit a variety of shots. The obsession with mechanics is made even worse when the player has only a limited knowledge of the golf swing. Often a player who videos himself will pick something to work on and this might have an adverse effects of his results, he will then move from change to change getting worse like a driver losing his way.

In conclusion video has some real benefits to improving your game but only if used in conjuction with quality coaching to let you focus on what needs actually needs changing and how. For more info and to book a golf lesson visit www.jrgolfacademy.co.uk

The 3 Planes of the golf swing.

2012-04-12T00:43:00.005-07:00

Tiger and Dustin.

With so much being talked about and written regarding the golf swing and with video technology readily available on phones and other devices there is a ever growing number of people who are going DIY on their golf swing.

Now I don’t have any problem with people sorting out their own games, I believe learning about what works and doesn’t work in your game is one way you can grow as a player.

What is a problem is making changes to your swing without having a full understanding of the mechanics. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. The first area people need to understand is the swing planes and wrist set.

Club Plane

Most people focus on one area, the club plane. Obviously this is the most important part as it is what makes contact on the ball. Unfortunately people strive to get this onto the perfect plane without any idea of what influences this. The club plane is mainly influenced by three other elements; the wrist set, the arm plane, and the shoulder plane.

Wrist Set

The wrist set is one of the most common errors I see in the golf swing, people don’t realise how the wrist should set in the swing and will bow, bend, cup and rotate their wrists in all kinds of positions. The wrists can influence clubface position, arm plane, club plane and even shoulder plane. I will talk about proper wrist set in a future blog as it is a subject in itself. Suffice to say proper wrist set is essential to correct club plane.

One final point on the wrist set is that it in itself is often performed poorly as a result of incorrect hold and also the setup position of the hands at address so ensure this is correct before anything else.

Arm Plane

The way the hands rotate around the body have a huge influence on your shots. People who have a flat club plane can have a steep arm plane. This is a very popular mistake. The club gets dragged around them by a poor wrist set or shoulder plane and as a result they lift their arms to correct the swing. Alternatively they take club up steep and drag hands around their body. Both of these errors can cause all manner of poor shots.

Again, you must check other areas of the setup and swing to see whether these are influencing the arm plane.

Shoulder Plane

Shoulders turning around too shallow or too steep can attribute to the same effect on club and arm plane. It can also have the opposite effect as these planes often change to compensate for the poor shoulder plane.

Remember poor shoulder plane can be caused by posture, wrist set and arm plane and also lower body action.

The key to improving your golf swing is not just identifying the faults but also the direct cause/causes of these. The skill a golf professional has is to identify these. Where DIYers go wrong is they identify one fault but don’t fix the cause of it. Therefore actually making things worse. It’s a bit like replacing the gearbox on your car when its only the clutch that has gone!

If you would like more swing tips/ videos and other ways to improve your game or would like a golf lesson either onsite or online please visit my website www.jrgolfacademy.co.uk

Course Management - How to score at golf.

2012-04-06T03:04:00.003-07:00

Ever stood on the first tee and been drawn with someone who swings it like he's a step down on the eveolutionary chain, he hits a scabby runner off the tee whislt you happily rip it 100yds past him. Does this story end with him finishing six shots better than you?

The best players can get it round even when they're not swinging well, they know their strengths and weaknesses, accept them and play to them. The driving range ball striker doesn't, he attempts shots beyond him, he focuses on getting as close to hole as possible on every single shot from tee to fairway to around the green, as a result he wastes shots and frustrates hiimself.

When I play with a player who strikes it well and I see them always trying to hit with the club that will get them as close to the green as they can, even it the green is out of reach. I ask them "Why aren't you confident with your wedge?" The reason for this is that most golfers practice on a range hitting full shots and most of the time a full wedge is a comfortable shot that puts you at worst on the green. They don't normally spend as much time working on the closer shots (which is a whole new post to come!). Why not then just leave yourself a full wedge in, its probably going to be as close as, if not closer than a 30yd flick over a bunker. If you think that way then any problem tee shot only requires a second shot that gets you to 100yds, which takes out the number of times you'll need to hit that low rising 3 wood with a 30yd fade that you never practice but decide to try in the monthly medal!

This is just talking about shot choices when a long way from the whole, when it comes to short game, course management is as much as an issue as technique. That;s something I'll go into in a future blog.

For more help with your golf visit www.jrgolfacademy.co.uk

Putting. What works best?

2012-04-05T06:06:00.001-07:00

There are numerous books and magazine articles about putting. Some of which are over 400 pages long. This seems like a lot of information for a process that involves moving the club back and forward over a total journey of around a foot.

Some of the information found in these books is useful, some essential, but most of it is a page filler or just interesting without any real benefit.
My thoughts on what is essential are:

That the putter is aimed where you think you are aiming, and that your shoulders are square with the putter face.
That your hands directly oppose each other, ie palms facing and back of lead hand square with putter face.
Your lower body and head remain steady until impact.
That the rhythm of your stroke remains constant.

Other than these fundamentals the main thought you need is about line and pace. Jack Nicklaus wouldn't take the putter back until he saw the ball following his line and falling in the hole in his mind. Ever notice how you can tap the ball in from 4 feet one handed but miss it from 2 when you're trying. That is when your focus on everything but putting that ball in the hole.

Get your fundamentals checked by a pro, then get focussing on line and pace, use your imagination and drop those putts. I'll be adding more information on my website soon so check out www.jrgolfacademy.co.uk for more ways to find your game.

Golf Clubs: How ill fitting irons can cause poor Driver shots.

2012-04-04T01:45:00.002-07:00

Club Lie Angle

One of the frustrations of being a golf professional is that sometimes when you give people advice they assume it's because you are trying to sell them something. Now although I do provide custom club making and fitting at my facility www.jrgolfacademy.co.uk this is not the core of my business. My business is making people achieve their golfing goals. An easy way to help yourself do this is by playing with the correct equipment. I have numerous stories of golf club members and pupils of mine who come to me with a big grin telling me how they just bought a new set of irons for their local golf superstore or via the internet and talk about what a bargain they got. My first question to them, after they've told me, without me asking, how much they paid/saved on these clubs, is 'did you get them fitted?'. They either answer with a no, but i hit them on the range and they were the best. Or they will tell me how the guy in the shop (usually a 18 handicap golfer like themselves who's had a couple of hours training) watched them hit balls and said they look about right and custom fitting would be a waste of time.
There is so many things wrong with this it's untrue, and if you think being a beginner means that it won't make a difference to you then you are very wrong. Lets break down this down and talk about iron sets first.
Iron Sets
Lie angle
This is the basic adjustments you need to make according to a persons individual setup and physical profile. For an experienced golfer this will take more into account their current setup and swing to match how they address the ball. If the lie of the club is wrong then the player will not be able to get the whole of the club face on the ball as half of it could be in the air at address and impact. Having the correct lie angle (the way the club sits on the floor) on your irons is a fundamental of good iron play. A poor lie angle can lead to:

Inconsistent distance controlErratic strikingPoor shot direction Another aspect of a poor lie angle that is often overlooked is the detrimental effect it can have on your golf swing. An incorrect lie angle can ultimately aim the club poorly at address, forcing the golfer to make adjustments during their swing to correct the initial alignment.In general a golf club that is too upright (toe up) for a player will aim left at address and a club that is too flat (toe down) will aim right. Also, an upright golf club will promote a toe strike whereas a flat club will encourage a strike towards the heel.Add to this the uneven impact with the turf and you can appreciate how important lie angle is. One of my clients had a club that was 5' too upright for him this meant his clubface was aiming 15 yds left with a 6 iron. This meant that he had to compensate in his swing by holding the club open through impact. This created a swing in which from his backswing he should have been hitting a nice draw but he had to compensate for his clubs and hold it off to hit straight. This swing obviously continued through to his woods which meant he sliced those way right. Once we got him the right lie in his irons he could actually release the club and create his draw without fear of it going left. After a couple of goes on the range he then began to translate this to his woods too and his whole game move forward massively.
He actually stated afterwards that before when he went to range with his driver only he could draw the ball, but once he used his old irons and moved back to driver he couldn't get it to draw. His statement to me after the results he saw from his fitting was "how on earth can people expect to improve when playing with the wrong equipment?" My answer is with great difficulty.

Beginners and juniors(Parents) should take note ill fitting clubs when starting the game is the worst choice you can make. It will force you to develop a swing with terrible habits that can be almost irreversible. Lie angle is just one of the factors to take into consideration there are even more areas that can have just as detrimental effect if not suited to you or your game. GO AND SEE A PGA PROFESSIONAL! GET FITTED OR WASTE YOUR MONEY AND TIME, its you choice.

Does length make courses tough?

2012-04-03T01:57:00.004-07:00

Yesterday someone asked me for my toughest courses. They were surprised when I named my home course which measures 5500yds as one of them. Truth is if you hit the ball above average distance then length is much less of a value of course difficulty. Recently I played a course off the black tees which measured just shy of 7100yds. The course had wide fairways and huge greens which meant accuracy was not at a premium, provided you can putt. Also long courses generally have 4 or 5 par fives, which most will be reachable. Ashridge for example has 5 par fives all of which reachable with hybrid or lower (5 very good birdie chances). Shorter courses usually have less of these holes. Plus at Chartridge we have narrow fairways, small undulating greens which puts a massive premium on accuracy and distance control. The greens are surrounded by small bunkers which mean hitting a bunker can often leave you an uneven lie. The course is such that although you are hitting wedges on a lot of holes these wedges need to be pinpoint accurate to allow good scoring as the undulating greens make for some tough 30 footers.

I'm not saying all short courses are tough or long courses easy, what I am saying is that people make judgements of a course based on looking at the scorecard or course guide. I think people often choose a course to play or join based on ego rather than reality. Length isn't everything!!

Tomorrow I'm playing at Langley Park in Beckenham this course is just 6400yds but only par 69, promises to be a real challenge. Maybe this will make my toughest list.

Can playing Tiger Woods on consoles improve your golf? Question.

2012-04-02T02:42:00.001-07:00

This is the first blog I've ever done so I apologise in advance for the extreme boredom that may occur during this post. As a golf professional I work every day trying to improve peoples golf games, including my own. The thing that I love about this is that you are always learning something new. I've played for just under 20 years and coached for 15 and still I feel that every day brings a fresh improvement to both areas. That is the beauty of the game.
In my own case I thought my mental approach to playing was pretty sound, until I started to analyse my rounds more. Not just the physical stats but also my state of my and thoughts over shots. I compared my shot choices on Tiger Woods on XBox to my shot choices in a real round. The area that stood out was that I would actually play more sensibly on the video game than in real life, especially when it came to choice of club of the tee. I was happy laying back to 7 iron distance in TW but when out playing I would always think 'lets get it as close as possible to green' in spite of the risks, and the fact my iron play is the strongest part of my game. The number of shots I dropped hitting driver on holes of around 400yds where a 220-230 yd hybrid will leave me a 6 or 7 iron in is numerous and stupidity itself.
Now I've decided to approach the game with a brain as opposed to an ego, I'll have to let you know if it has the results I hope to achieve.