I hope you're having a great summer season of golf. The main topic of this newsletter is gaining a little more distance. You can use the Swing Speed Radar to monitor your swing speed.
Click on any of the following Newsletter topics or just scroll down the page:
Going away on a golf holiday with a group? Need a golf draw that pairs each player with each other player exactly once? or twice? or not at all? I have developed draws that meet those requirements. Take a look at them by CLICKING HERE, Golf Draws.
Are you playing a Driver with a Loft that gives you max distance?
More Clubhead Speed-- How's your lag?
How far you hit the ball is mainly dependent on your clubhead speed. As we get older, our muscle mass decreases as well as our flexibility. Both of these cause a decrease in clubhead speed unless your swing technique is good.
View Demo of how they help you find your lost golf balls.
The main reason long hitters hit it so long is because of their "lag." By lag, I mean the delay of the uncocking of the wrists on the downswing.
The physics of the golf swing dictate that the club will naturally catch up with the arms on the downswing, regardless of the amount of lag. Thus, the greater your lag, the greater will be your clubhead speed.
Take a look at the video below. I constructed a simple apparatus consisting of two straight sections, like the arms and club in a golf swing. The upper part of the apparatus is about the same mass as an average male arm and the lower part is about the same mass as a golf club.
Most golfers think they must consciously delay the wrists which is not correct. Under gravity alone, note the lag is maintained until late in the downswing. Near the bottom of the swing, the club naturally speeds up while the arm naturally slows down.
Likewise, look at Tiger's golf swing with lag. Note how his arms slow down near impact as the club speeds up.
High swing speed comes from the wrists uncocking, where the club finally catches up to the hands. You want to dely this uncocking for as long as possible. You don't do this by "preventing" the wrists from uncocking through physical force. You do it by keeping the arms and hands passive. The key is timing.
Allowing the lower body lots of time to lead the downswing. Thus, you must start down "slowly", with a smooth increase in speed. The arms and hands should be very relaxed, with hardly any grip pressure (just enough to hang on). There are two important angles. The angle between the club and arms and the angle between the arms and shoulders. You basically want to maintain both of these angles for as long as possible. You achieve this by "waiting for the club" on the way down. Don't rush it. Be passive. This is the reason why you'll tend to hit your best drives when taking an easy swing.
You don't want to start all the parts of the body moving downwards at the same time. The lower body needs to lead, but not too quickly, which is what you might be doing when you try to lead "from the ground up." The key is taking lots of time during the transisiton from backswing to downswing. This needs to be slow and gradual.
See my lesson on this at: http://probablegolfinstruction.com/golf-swing-downswing.htm Jamie Sadlowski generates so much speed because of his extra long backswing/shoulder turn, but his transition from back to down is very smooth. The acceleration is very gradual, but because he has such a long distance to accelerate, the resulting clubspeed is huge. Try the drills in my lesson. You almost want to have the sense that you're just allowing the arms to fall at the beginning of the downswing. You're not trying to force them.
Recall the concept of wearing headphones while you sleep to learn new information? It's still science fiction ... as is learning new golf swing moves without a lot of practice.
Psychologists and Kinesiologists have made great strides in recent years understanding how we learn new things.
Since you first started to move you limbs as an infant, you have learned to move them with greater control.
Crawling and walking were some of the first “complex” motions you learned.
You then learned to run and do other sophisticated movements with your body.
Because of golf swing's complexity, the body must learn it in parts or stages, not all at once.
You may have heard of the term “muscle memory”; a motion must be “stored in muscle memory” to be automatic. In fact, muscles don't have memory; only the brain does.
The brain controls all motions of all muscles through electrical signals in the nervous system.
Millions of neurons in the brain “fire” signals to one another, leading to the muscles.
Human Brain
Two Neurons
The more efficient the sequence of firing between neurons becomes, the more efficient the muscular motion.
When first learning a motion, the neuron pathways are not efficient. The more often the motion is repeated correctly, the more efficient the firing between neurons becomes (automatic).
Think of some automatic motions that you perform like:
Breathing
Heart Beat
Blinking of eyes
These motions are totally automatic, although you can alter them for a limited time.
Think of some automatic motions that you perform like:
Walking
Running
Dressing
These motions are not automatic, although you perform them very well. They have been learned, through practice have more chances, and, you won't make as many large numbers in the process.
The challenge in learning the golf swing, is to program the neurons of your brain to fire in the proper sequence, efficiently. This requires repetition and practice.
Kinesiology scientists believe it takes:
About 100 repetitions for a neuron pathway to be created
About 3000 to 5000 repetitions for mastery (to become automatic).
That's a lot of swings and practice.
There are multiple motions that must be mastered in a golf swing, many of them connected to one another.
The receptors in the diagram above are input sensors such as what would come from eyes, ears, fingers, etc. In order for the proper sequence of muscles to be fired as a reaction to the stimuli.
Once the neuron pathways are established and solidified (mastery), the brain will follow the proper sequence of signals to perform the task, automatically Just like you don't need to “think” about the proper sequence of motions in walking, the golf swing, although more complex, is the same. All that is needed is a conscious swing cue to begin, and the brain will tell the muscles how to do the rest.
We must practice enough so that the brain establishes an efficient sequence of neuron firing. An analogy would be learing the most efficient route to follow in getting from one point in a city to another (without the aid of GPS!).
Science tells us some important things about repetition. "It is a well known principle that learning is better when training trials are spaced out than when given all together," says Dr. Wayne Sossin , of McGill University in Montreal.
Sossin proved that spreading the production of the neuro-transmitter serotonin over five weeks of repetition leads to better learning than a tsunami of serotonin over a short time.
Other researchers, TJ Shors and her team at Rutgers University, have shown that the adult brain makes new neurons in substantial numbers -- between 5000 to 10000 a day. These cells are thought to be available to capture new learning – if such is presented to them. If not they die within two weeks.
Experiments at the National Institute of explain why practice and repetition are so important. There is a substance produced in the brain called myelin that acts as an insulator – it wraps around your neurons and prevents the electrical current that energizes your networks from leaking into the periphery.
Brains that have thick layers of myelin think and act faster. When Albert Einstein's brain was dissected they found glial cells in much higher concentration then in a normal brain and that was about the only difference between his brain and a normal one. Glial cells produce myelin.
When you repeat the same motion, it sends a signal down the pathway and it is that signal which prompts the brain cell to generate a wrap of myelin. Do this enough and you have yourself a neuro -template of how to repeat the motion – and the more you wrap it, the more efficient the performance.
Play Premium Golf Balls -- Used Ones
You know from past newsletters that I promote all golfers to play premium golf balls
Premium balls provide comparable distance (no significant loss, compared to those hard balls) along with maximum backspin required on those wedge and iron shots as well as great feel for chips and putts.
When's the last time you "found" a premium golf ball like a Titleist ProV1 or Nike ONE? Bet you were excited. Then, did you play with it and notice any significant loss in distance? Probably not.
In fact, most used golf balls perform just as well as brand new golf balls. Besides, when's the last time you played a full round with a new golf ball without losing it? Very few amateurs end up with the same ball they started with. Thus, most balls you find aren't even 1 round old.
The Golf Ball Testing company, GolfBallTest.org, conducted some very thorough tests on "high quality" second hand Water golf balls (balls found in water) and found:
1. NO significant difference in compression, weight, roundness or cover hardness, all tested with equipment similar to what the USGA uses.
2. NO significant difference in distance and amount of backspin, all tested with a robot launcher.
Golfers also involved in the testing just commented on the appearance of the balls (not as shiny and pure as a new ball). But, how many hits, trees, cart paths, before a new ball begins to look like a used ball.
There are a number of retailers out there that sell used golf balls. I'd stick with the highest grade used balls, although even the lower grades perform as well; they just aren't as nice cosmetically (which is the way the balls are graded in the first place).
So, stop by those kids that are selling used balls, or, perhaps the fellow on the side of the road. You can play premium balls for less than half the price. Click on the banner below to take a look at the offerings of a company I've affliated with.
1. Go to my Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page. There's a link to it on my pages from the left hand menu near the top of the page, just below the Search icon. It's called "FAQs." You then click on the graphic icon and you'll be taken to my database page. For your convenience, here it is: FAQ
I've answered hundreds of questions over the past 6 years and have created a fairly large database. You can search it out. If you can't find the answer you're looking for, submit a question and I'll answer it.
2. On all of my web pages, there is a search feature in the top left section, right underneath my LOGO. Just place your search keywords in the search box, select "This Site" below it, and then press "Search." What will come up is a Google search of the pages on my site with relevance. You can also search the entire internet by selecting "Web" instead.
Go to my main page now: Home or just check the top left menu of this page.
3. Also, directly under the Google Search area, you'll find a pop down menu called "Your Topic." Select the topic of interest and press "Go."
I would suggest you bookmark my main page and/or your specific areas of interest so that you can find them easily in the future. On each page at the very top, there is a link you can click on:
"Click here to add this page to your favourites"
Hope you find all you're looking for.
You can learn more from NEW Titleist Pro-V1 by clicking HERE.
A list of resources that have been used to produce
this newsletter can be found on my web site here.
Hope I provided some useful ways for you to
become better prepared for you best golf season
ever.
Ken Tannar
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