Golf Product Review Blog

Let’s face it, it’s easy to struggle with some of the common frustrations and problems of golf. Many times the 80/20 rule applies to your golf game in this circumstance. 80% of the problems you are having are the result of 20% of your golf game. When you put attention and effort into that 20% you can easily add yards to your drive.

Golfing drills can be a very useful tool to quickly improve your golfing skills. Drills in your putting, chipping, pitching, bunker play and driving can easily help you to gain yards to your drive and lower your handicap. Golf drills can give you intense practice at particular types of shots and force you to quickly master them and overcome any faults you may have that cause you to suffer during those shots.

Richard Smith has put together his unique golf instruction manual called 21 Days To Better Golf. In his guide, Richard outlines for you each and every drill he uses to help you improve your golf game. 21 Days To Better Golf covers all types of shots and situations and helps you to easily master the 20% of your game that is holding you back.

Today’s Resource:
21 Days To Better Golf by Richard Smith

If you are just starting out in golf there is no doubt that you may be feeling a little overwhelmed. There is so much to learn at first its easy to feel overwhelmed by the amount of information out there and trust me the internet sometimes doesn’t help the problem, just makes the overwhelm worse.

Think of the list of the things you have to figure out when you are just starting:

• What Kind of Golf Clubs Should I Be Using?
• What Type of Golf Balls Should I Buy?
• What Other Golf Beginner Accessories Do I Need?
• Should I Start Taking Golf Lessons?
• Do I Need Any Golf Training Aids?
• How Do I Hold A Golf Club?
• How Do I Swing A Golf Club?
• What Are The Rules of Golf?
• What About Golf Etiquette?
• What Golf Courses Should I Start To Play On?
• How Do I Use A Golf Scorecard?
• How Do I Keep My Golf Equipment In Good Shape?
• How Do I Calculate Your Golf Handicap?
• How Do I Stay In Shape For Golf?

That list of questions doesn’t even cover everything that one needs to learn when starting to play golf. Golf can be a very fun, competitive, healthy and relationship (personal/business) building sport. Obviously it’s best that you know someone personally that has more experience than you do with golf that you can ask questions like these to. At times it can be difficult to approach someone when you are new to golf and many rather try to learn and figure out the answers to some of these questions on their own.

From my experience and the experience of others that come to this site, Frank J. Peter’s Golf Beginner Guide has a lot of great information for anyone who has just started or looking to get started in golf. Frank’s Golf Beginner Guide covers a lot of the questions listed above and much, much more. It’s highly recommended and even those that think they know their golf learn a thing or two from Frank.

Today’s Resource:
The Golf Beginner Guide by Frank J. Peter

Without a doubt your golf swing is the most important aspect of your golf game. It single handedly determines the outcome of your game. When it comes to seeking advice on how to improve your golf swing, every person you ask will yield you a different answer. Everyone has their own opinion when it comes down to improving your golf swing. There are really four parts to developing an effective golf swing: Proper Instruction, Golf Fitness, Swing Rhythm and Mental Attitude.

Proper Instruction is the most critical piece to your golf swing. If you aren’t following correct golf swing instruction, you’ll end up with a swing that lacks its true potential. If you are just starting out in golf, one of the best resources to start developing your golf swing is The Golf Beginner Guide by Frank J. Peter. It’s one of the highest recommended resources for when you are just starting out. If you are a more advanced player or looking to just improve on your already existing golf game, you may be more interested in The New Four Magic Moves To Winning Golf by Andy Brown. It’s a great resource to help tweak your swing.

Golf Fitness is the next piece that impacts the power of your golf swing. Your golf swing can only be as powerful as you. Your strength, flexibility, stability and power will all influence your swing significantly. You may have the proper technique down, but if you can’t move your body within the proper golf swing mechanics your swing will still lack potential. Mike Pedersen is regarded as an authority when it comes to golf fitness. His Ultimate Golf Fitness Guide has helped many become more flexible and develop a more powerful swing. You can’t hit the ball very far if you don’t develop the power to do it.

Swing Rhythm is the fine tuning of your golf swing. It includes the balance, speed, angle and acceleration of your swing. Developing a smooth rhythm in your golf swing takes time and practice. Once you start to see improvement that will build your confidence and you’ll see even more improvement in your rhythm over time. Developing good golf swing rhythm really takes some expert advice. Robert J. Cotter addresses how to properly develop your swing rhythm in his The Key To A Repeating Golf Swing, a great resource if your looking to enhance your timing.

Mental Attitude is what it all comes down to in golf. You can have the best instruction, be in the best shape of your life and have a great golf swing but if you are not mentally in the game then you’ve lost before you even got on the course. Dedication, practice and patience will be key in order for you to overcome the bad shots in golf. If your new to golf you won’t become a pro overnight. If you are more advanced you already know that it takes even more discipline to improve on your skills. Take it one day at a time and focus on having a positive mental attitude and you’ll see how your games improve over time.

As you can see, your golf swing is heavily influenced by more than one factor. In order to develop a powerful, effective golf swing you need to have those four elements in place. Proper instruction, golf fitness, swing rhythm and mental attitude are what help make a good golf swing into a great one.

Today’s Resources:
The Golf Beginner Guide by Frank J. Peter
The New Four Magic Moves To Winning Golf by Andy Brown
Ultimate Golf Fitness Guide by Mike Pedersen
The Key To A Repeating Golf Swing by Robert J. Cotter

The power of your golf swing is directly proportionate to your ability to be flexible. Unless you have optimal golf swing flexibility, you’ll always have a challenge with getting greater drives and longer distance out on the course. A tight chest, tight shoulders, tight back and tight hips can all significantly influence the power of your golf swing, leaving you with a less than full backswing. Be sure to stretch these muscles daily in order to get the full benefit from the stretches.

Golfer’s need to be aware of the importance of fitness in their golf game. Especially more seasoned golfers. The game, let alone every day life can wear away on your body if you do not keep yourself in good physical shape. Over time you can notice a decline in your golf game as muscle imbalances start to show themselves more and other overused muscles start to tighten up.

If you want to start unlocking the power of your swing potential, start doing some simple stretches before your golf game. Stretching out your shoulders, back and hips can significantly improve your backswing and allow you to hit the ball farther every time. You’ll notice overtime the more you do these stretches that your backswing should be slowly getting bigger and bigger.

Mike Pedersen has always been the “go to guy” for anything golf fitness. His Ultimate Golf Fitness Guide is especially great for showing you how to stretch all the muscles that can tighten up and affect your backswing. Mike Pedersen also covers many other great golf fitness exercises and stretches to help improve your game.

“Coming over the top” is a huge issue for many golfers. It’s a fault in your swing pattern that causes you to end up slicing the ball. Coming over the top and slicing the ball fundamentally comes down to your body’s inability to perform proper golf swing mechanics.

Here’s a few other examples that may shine some light on how important your fitness is to your golf swing. If you ever have difficulty staying in a proper swing posture, or if you habitually come out of your swing, the golf fitness component of your golf game may be in need of a tune up.

The main issue affecting golfers in their swing posture and being able to maintain proper swing mechanics is rooted in the hamstrings (the muscle of the upper back part of your legs). Many golfers have tight hamstrings which actually weakens the muscle. Your golf posture and swing take a considerable toll on your hamstrings and once your hamstrings get weak then the stress and strain of maintaining that position starts to affect your lower back.

A proper golf posture requires you to be able to comfortably bend at the hips which also can considerably affect your lower back. If you have tight or weak hamstrings you will not be able to maintain the position for long let alone perform a proper golf swing late into your game.

Remember, the fitness of your body and taking into account any muscle imbalances is what really affects your golf swing and how powerful it is. Techniques in your golf swing can only go so far and usually only “band-aid” the true cause of your faulty swing pattern.

If you really want to correct the cause of your golf swing and make it more effective and more powerful, you really need to focus on your golf fitness. Mike Pedersen’s Ultimate Golf Fitness Guide helps golfers to improve their golf swing power and consistency and correct their golf swing faults by addressing their personal physical limitations in their golf swing. I highly recommend you check out his Ultimate Golf Fitness Guide if you want to develop a powerful and effective golf swing.

There are basically three main issues to address when developing your golf swing. Those issues are:
1. Inconsistent Swing Pattern
2. Slicing
3. Distance (or lack of)

Before going into how to develop your golf swing, you need to first identify which type of swing you are using in your golf game. Are you using a one plane swing or a two plane swing? They both make a difference and if you are using a golf swing trainer you also need to consider which type of swing the golf swing trainer is designed for. You can find out by contacting the manufacturer and asking them.

Many golfers use the golf swing trainers that are made by Medicus and Momentus. These trainers help by “breaking apart” when you swing incorrectly. The only real drawback to these golf training aids is that they tend to be expensive which makes them just out of reach for the average golfer.

For the average golfer there are mainly three options that are cost effective and can help dramatically improve your golf swing.

The first option are golf training grips. These run cheap and if you are really looking for the best bang for your buck, buy one for your putter before any other club since the average golfer will spend as much as 40% of their playing time on the green.

The next option is a little more expensive but is also easily available to borrow. Setting up a tripod and a video camera along with a lot of dirt cheap golf balls is a great way to see where your own improvment needs to be. After you hit about 100 golf balls some of your mistakes will start to show repeatedly. The first step to correcting any habit is awareness.

Last and perhaps your best option is to educate yourself on how to swing a golf club correctly in the first place.  One of the best resources to developing a consistent swing, stop slicing and increase your distance is The Simple Golf Swing. I’ve received great feedback on it from visitors to this site as well as others. I encourage you that if you are really looking to improve your golf swing, educate yourself on proper swing technique and get back out on the course to see how much you’ve improved.