Warning: Golfers - You've Been Brainwashed?

Over the past few years there has been a growing number of coaches using the likes of NLP and mental techniques to help golfers improve and play better.

These techniques are not only limited to improving your golf game, but can have dramatic effects on other areas of your life if applied in the correct way.

The techniques are extremely powerful and effective. Up until now these techniques have only been used to influence yourself and in a positive fashion. I am sure there are some secret military agencies who are using these for other means, but this is the first time that I have came across these as a means to influence others.

Yes, you did read correctly. These techniques are now being used to influence others in a way that I am not too sure that I agree with. It does bring into question your honour and integrity. These two guys clearly aren't that bothered about that and there are a lot of others that won't either.

So, what does this mean to you. Can you remember that easy straight two foot putt that you missed last week? It might not have been your fault. One of your playing partners could have caused you to miss it as a result of using these techniques.

These techniques can ruin a good golfers game without any effort at all. They are sneaky. There are times that you may think it would be good to have. Lets just call it sweet justice. You always get those few obnoxious golfers that may need to learn a lesson or two.

If you are not aware of these techniques, then you are leaving yourself open to being manipulated, and it will be to the detriment of your game. If you know what they are and how to use them, at least you stand a fighting chance of immunising yourself to their effects.

Check out their website. It is called Black Ops Golfer. I do like their logo.

What You Can Learn From Greg Norman

It has been an incredible Open Championship. I went on the Tuesday Practice day and the atmosphere was great. Everybody was relaxed and the Players were all signing autographs. It is by far the best day to go. You can get close to the action and you can see a lot more than you can on a Championship day. Plus you get to see the players messing around hitting a variety of shots.

The story of the week was Greg Norman's return to form. It was great to see Greg playing some good golf. He looked relaxed all week and was enjoying his golf.

There are two important lessons to learn from Greg's performance this week.

First of all, it show you that age really doesn't matter as long as you have got a good level of fitness. At 53 Greg is still one of the fittest and strongest guys out there. Improving your fitness is the easiest way to improve your golf and will allow you to play better golf a lot longer.

You do not have to work out like Arnold Schwarzenegger, but simply increasing your strength in the legs and core muscles will make a big difference. Check out Mike Pedersen's website - Perform Better Golf for the easiest way I have found to improve your golf game.

Secondly, being able to hit a variety of shots will allow you to play your best in a variety of conditions. Greg showed great imagination in his shot making from the fairway and around the greens. Jim Flick (my favourite golf coach) talks about a good drill to work on in this month's Golf Digest where you should practice hitting 100 yard shots with every club in your bag. This will definitely help your shot making and creativity.

I know I did say there were two lessons, but I have realised that there is a third, and this is an important lesson. Greg was smiling all week and clearly having fun. So was Anthony Kim. Just listen to Kim's interview on Saturday evening. He was loving the conditions and so was Greg. The majority of players were moaning that it was tough and almost unplayable.

Even so, they still have the choice of how to think and behave. Greg and Anthony's attitude (also Padraig's) showed that this has a big effect on the outcome of your round. The conditions are the same for everyone. You might as well enjoy it. It will make it easier for you and you will play better.

Have fun on the golf course.

How Many Wedges Do You Carry in Your Golf Bag?

Most golfers will carry a standard pitching wedge (PW) as it comes with the set, a sand wedge (SW) and more often than not a lob wedge (LW). Between a PW (47-48 degrees) and SW (56 degrees) there is approximately 8 or 9 degrees of loft. This equates to approximately a gap of 30 yards between the two clubs. The difference between a sand wedge and a lob wedge is only 4 degrees, so approximately 12-16 yards. This is ok. So what do you do between the PW and SW? The answer - a Gap Wedge. A gap wedge or approach wedge has approximately 52 degrees of loft on it. This will give you a more even gap between wedges and allow you to avoid the awkward in between distances that you will get between a PW and SW. However, to allow you to put a gap wedge in your bag, you will probably have to ditch one of your longer clubs. I would recommend your 3-iron. So you would have a Driver, 3 wood and 5 wood or rescue, and then it would jump to your 4-iron. This does give you a bit of a gap in your longer clubs, but you will notice it less than you will with the shorter clubs. The next time you go out make a note of how many times you use your 3-iron and then make a note of how many times you would use a gap wedge if you had one. If the number of times that you would use the gap wedge is greater than the 3-iron then you know that you should put one in your bag.

What Your Golf Coach Should Be Telling You!

Learning golf can be easy! You may think that this sounds incredible, but we as human beings are making it hard for ourself.

There is a natural way that we learn, and most golf teachers do not allow this process to happen. There are many complex moves involved in learning to walk. Do you think the golf swing is any more complex than walking?

Of course not, the golf swing can be as easy as walking. The problem is in the way that we learn how to do both of these. Most golfers learn to play through verbal commands - "do this, do that, dont do this, dont do that" etc.

Did you learn to walk by someone telling you to lift your left leg move it forward at an angle of X degrees and a distance of Y inches and move your weight so far here or there? I hope you didn't, unless you are a robot, then this might be acceptable.

There are a number of ways that you can learn quicker and as a result play better golf quicker. I will be discussing some of these methods over the next few weeks. You can subscribe on the right hand side to get the updates.

Why Do You Play Golf?

I have just added the stumbleupon.com bar to my explorer page and was just randomly going through the golf pages to see what is out there and where it would take me.

It lead me to the www.pgatour.com website. On the video it was playing the shots of the week and it reminded me of one of Bob Rotella's ten commandments - Play to play great.

It didn't so much get me thinking, but it got me contemplating why I play the game. I went through the usual list of reasons such as the score, the friendship, the fun, but quite possibly the biggest reason that I play is for those shots. Those shots that would make the Shot of the week, those shots that keep you coming back for more.

To be able to say that I hit that shot makes me feel really good. No matter what you shoot for the round, there is always one shot that you hit. It may be a smoked drive, a stiffed iron, a mammoth putt across the Himalayas, a holed bunker shot, a chip in or something else.

Play for those shots. Play to be the one that is hitting the shots of the week and see how good it makes you feel. That is why you spend the hours practicing on your living room carpet and why you practice in the middle of winter. It is not to shoot level par, although that is nice.

It is to hit those shots that stay with you forever!

How to Easily Increase your Distance and Accuracy

Every golfer seems to be obsessed about hitting the ball further, but seem to go about it in the worng way.

Hitting a long ball with the driver and any other club requires several things:
1. Good fundamentals - Grip, setup, posture, ball position and alignment. If any of these are off then you make it hard for yourself to create the positions that you need to hit it a long way.

2. Good Rhythm and Tempo. The only way to increase your distance is to increase your speed. Make sure that you are swinging at the optimum tempo for you. If you watch any of the top tour pros, you will see that there rhythm is the same with every shot, and it is smooth. There is no hit in the swing. The clubhead gathers speed as it goes and collects the ball along the way. All the energy is focused towards the target and not at the ball.

3. Impact position. There are many different routes to the ball, as there are many different routes to any destination. The one thing that has to be good is the impact position. No matter how you take it back, if you are not in a good position at impact, then you will lose distance and accuracy.

4. Make contact with the sweetspot. If you do not find the sweetspot, then you will not maximise your distance. If you are not hitting your wedges out of the sweetspot, then how can you expect to hit the driver from the sweetspot consistently.

If you focus on these four areas, then you will easily increase your distance and accuracy not just with your driver, but with all clubs in your bag.

Look out for my next post where I will show you how to get into a good impact position.

Have fun on the Golf Course.

What Everybody Ought to Know About Playing Golf

Golf is one of the hardest games in the world. For a beginner, it seems at times like an insurmountable task to get good. At lot of people "try" golf, meaning they will have a go at swinging a club, but fewer will actually attempt to play the game. As anyone that plays the game will tell you, golf is like a drug. You constantly want more of it.

Why do I say this? Well, when you get to a level where at least you can get the club on the ball consistently and get the ball going forward you will start to hit some golf shots. This is when it gets addictive.

You will hit one special one, and then you will want to do it again. The feeling when everything comes together is almost undescribable. The problem comes when you start to improve, so does that one special shot. So essentially the goal posts are always moving.

Not only that, but everyday is different. Even although you may play the same course twice, you will not hit the same shots twice. You will end up in different places and playing from different positions. This keeps you on your toes and keeps the game interesting. Thanks to mother nature, the weather is never the same (well for most of us) two days in a row. This affects the shots that you are required to hit, where you can hit the ball and the decisions that you make.

There is never any end to the game. You can always keep on improving. There are always new courses being built and there are lots of great courses around just now that would keep me very satisfied for a very long time.

The individual aspects of the game of golf are great, you can even play on your own, but some of the best are spent playing with fellow golfers. There is a great camaraderie in golf that you don't get in too many other sports. Some of my best memories of golf have come when playing golf with my Dad. It is also great to get a four-ball together and go and play a new course.

How many chances do you really get to leave all your worries to one side and just enjoy yourself? Most don't. To play great golf like everybody is capable of playing requires a quiet mind, so why not leave your worries in the clubhouse and just have some fun as soon as you step on the 1st tee?

There are a lot of lessons to be learned through playing golf. Not to mention humility, as it will on many occasion humble you if you don't give the game the respect it deserves. There are a lot of ups and downs in golf, as there are in life and some setbacks that require mental toughness to recover from, but most important of all, you get to be outdoors in some wonderful surroundings with friends sharing a common interest. You can't beat that!

Have fun on the golf course!