New Year's Resolution

I have been reflecting back over that last year. It has been a mountain and valley year both in the golf game and the professional world.

Over the next year I am looking to update this blog 2 times a month. I would love visitor input for the blogs next month. So this blog is to drive comments. Here are some ideas but you are the great golfers, readers and improving your games.

• Putting


• Decreasing Shoulder Pain


• Accuracy


• Distance (of course)


• Short Game


• Nutrition

Happy New Year and see you in 2010!

Heat it up!

Welcome to December! I was attempting to keep warm after my Thanksgiving dinner talking golf with my father and my uncle. They are both successful businessmen and avid golfers. It was great to gain the perspective of not only family but golf consumers. So I am going to relay that information to you. I would love your comments!

Top four things "golf consumers" look for:

1. Distance: How do I get it? Is it my body? Is it my club? Is it my club head speed?


2. Accuracy: How do I play from the fairway more often? How do I shape a shot?


3. Lower Score: I cant seem to break 100? 90? 80? etc.


4. Less strokes on the putting green: Is it my putter? How are my feet supposed to be? How do I read the green quickly.


5. How do I play with PAIN? You don't have to!

THE ANSWER TO EACH OF THOSE IS ....

In order to play the game you want to play you must practice your game on the course, on the putting green, in your mind and most importantly with your body. On a day to day basis I encourage the avid golfer to visualize their favorite course playing the perfect hole or even if you have enough time the entire round. Your body does what your mind sees.

In order to improve your game your body must be able to do the things the golf swing and game demand. This will keep you out of pain. If you are experiencing pain it is a good idea to find out why your swing hurts. And it is NO EXCUSE to say I am getting older or that has always been there or other such things. Please consult someone and get it fixed so you can enjoy the game pain free. Distance, accuracy and lower scores come hand in hand...they are simply perfecting your swing by perfecting your body with precise and specific golf exercises and golf specific strengthening and flexibility routines.

As for the putting I suggest get specific putting lessons. Attend a workshop or get some lessons.

To the Golf Consumer...what else do you look for?

POWER

How do I add distance this off season? This is the number one question I get asked at the clinic. My questions back are how bad do you want it and are you willing to work for it. You can read endless books, watch endless videos, buy new clubs, buy new balls, even buy a workout plan but if it not personally tailored to you and your work efforts it just wont work!!!

So for those of us who are going to work a little harder to get healthier, stronger, and improve our golf game please read on!

You MUST create POWER.

P: Positives and negatives: You must strength train concentrically and eccentrically. This means control your movements on both the push and return. If possible create a forced negative environment for your muscles. This requires help from a trained professional.

O: Optimism: These few months of work may hurt, may not give the results asap but they will show up if you are consistent for 90 plus days.

W: Will: When everyone else is having that extra eggnog. Have a glass of water.

E: Enthusiasm and Energy: The positive frame of mind must include picking yourself up when you are down, eating right, and doing the perfect workout for YOU to up your energy.

R: Recover: You are going to want to push but take at least a one day rest every week and a recovery week once every four to five weeks. The recovery week is not a do nothing week. It is a light conditioning and heavy on the flexibility week.

Goofy Acronym I know but you need to add it to your plan, not only that you have to work the major muscles groups. The top exercises to get your POWER on are:

1. Squats



2. Cleans



3. Pull ups



4. Bench Press



5. Lunges

Please ask a trained professional how to maximize your golf routine with these exercises.

On a side note you must also work on your balance and core.

Making it Happen

I have been out and about of playing golf over the last several weeks. Spending time at the LPGA event at the Blackhawk country club in Danville, California and working at the specific chiropractic center. I am hoping to play soon but with that being said I just concluded a six month program with an amateur golfer. Here is what happened!!!!
Making It happen

1. Over 110 scores consistently: Now he is shooting in the high 80's and low 90's.
2. No ability to move Pelvis: Rotation has increased from no stability or mobility, to stability with some mobility (basically he is able to actually rotate his pelvis when he had to move his whole body before)
3. Incredibly inflexible in the shoulder joint: Now he is able to touch the wall with out bending his elbow.

Now what does all this mean?
Over the course of 6 months not only did this golfer practice quit a bit he was also able to find his body. More importatnly find how his body was moving and not moving in the golf swing. There is still considerable work to be done but HIO golf fitness is proud to be putting an improved golfer out on the courses.
His friends dont believe how much he has improved. If you or someone you know is looking for results you know where to go!

QUICK POST

Short Entry today

• check out breaking out of your comfort zone
• Come Visit us at the LPGA event at the Black Hawk Counry Club
• have a great week

Larry

Golf Fitness Basics

If you are looking to improve your golf fitness you should consider 5 aspects of fitness. Each is individually important but nonetheless should not be ignored. Golf demands golfers to have basic flexibility, stability, balance, coordination and muscular endurance. If any of these qualities are absent, the golf swing will be inefficient and inconsistent. The golf swings is athletic from stance to follow through. All major muscle groups are used in a specific sequence to allow distance, consistency, and accuracy. The non optimized golfer might hit a few solid shots in a round of golf, but that is chance and not skill.
Without taking it to the basic fitness components, your swing cannot be consistent, nor will it ever have accuracy along with distance.

• Stability: This is your ability to utilize your strength and flexibility. You need have stability have an optimized swing.

• Flexibility: Flexibility is a must to achieve a full backswing and front swing without strain. Lack of flexibility creates strain in your body and ultimately affects your golf swing, depriving your golf swing of club head speed, accuracy, and distance.

• Balance: Balance is your body’s ability to perform all the component of your golf swing while staying on your feet. As you begin to improve stability, flexibility, and strength often times balance training is missed. If you are strong but are falling out of your swing you are losing almost everything you have worked so hard for.

• Coordination: The golf swing requires a particular sequence of motion. This motion must be done over and over again in the same sequence to have lowered scores and consistency.

• Endurance: Having endurance is your body’s ability to maintain all of the above components for an entire round. Not only that when you body has endurance is allows you to maintain the mental aspect of the game a little bit better.

Implementing golf fitness for your golf swing MUST include ALL of the above components and you will get you results!

Driving it home

I was out on the course yesterday with a friend who was playing from the blacks while the rest of us were playing from the blues...not only was he still out driving us he was more consistent. This is the type of person that gets great results from what we do at HIO golf fitness. His game is already great but it is stuck. Adding more yardage to his game, adding more consistency to his game is tough cause it is there already...it is getting the body to be into peak condition and then raising the peak again that is going to get him to drive it home. It is going to be a fun adventure as we travel together with his training. All this being said he is already driving it home.
Now you may be asking what IT is???? It in this case is not the ball, not the swing, not the player, but the program. The program is going to to take his game to the next level.
Lesson one:

1. Get back to the basics
2. Break down the body into individual parts and work from there
3. Add Cardiovascular routine

The basics at HIO Golf Fitness are getting the body to function at its highest potential. The nervous system is the master controller of all movements and if that system is not under par ;)
then the body will not be optimizing. So we are going to be on a strict regiment of checking the nervous system.
Breaking the body down is going to be the most challenging aspect for my friend. His swing and game are already great and taking him back to elementary-seeming body movements is going to seem strange at first but time and time again we see quick improvements. Without checking him and watching him play I know that pelvic tilts and single leg balance are going to be key into his improvements.
Cardiovascular routine: I am going to change his current routine from random and long to quick and effective.
I am looking for to watching the process of DRIVING IT HOME.