Fitness Friday: Sync Your Swing

Fitness Friday: Sync Your Swing:

By Ron Kaspriske

To swing a club effectively, you need sufficient strength to stabilize your body, decent flexibility to improve your range of motion, and good coordination to wind and unwind in the correct sequence. This dynamic medicine-ball workout will help give you all three traits, says Trevor Anderson, director of golf performance for the David Leadbetter Golf Academy. Anderson says that throwing a four- to 10-pound medicine ball against a reinforced wall or to a partner, while performing these exercises helps train the proper order of body movement during the golf swing--known as kinematic sequence. So start with the 1. Wind and Toss. Then move on to 2. Load and Toss, and the 3. Synchronize and Toss. Do 10 throws of each exercise in both directions.

1. Wind and Toss

Simulate your address posture while holding a medicine ball in front of your waist. Wind up to throw the ball by squatting slightly as you shift the weighted object past your right hip (above). Then thrust your hips, straighten your legs and powerfully throw the ball toward the target, making sure not to lose your balance.

 

2. Load and Toss

Stand perpendicular to your target while holding the medicine ball in front of your waist. Wind your upper body to the right as you move the ball past your right hip. Now load your body weight into your left leg, fire your right hip toward the target and throw the ball powerfully, but not so you're out of control.

 

3. Synchronize and Toss

Set up in an athletic posture with your back to the target. Wind up by squatting slightly as you move the medicine ball past your right hip. Once you're completely wound, load all your weight onto your left side, powerfully tossing the four- to 10-pound ball over your left shoulder, without neglecting your footing.

 

Ron Kaspriske is the fitness editor for Golf Digest

Follow @Ron Kaspriske

(Photos by Stephen Szurlej)

(Via The latest from GolfDigest.com)

App Review: Pre Shot Club Golfer App

App Review: Pre Shot Club Golfer App:

While there are many different golf apps available, there are relatively few that concern themselves with one of the most important aspects of the game; the mental side of golf. The Pre Shot Club Golfer app (and it’s successor the Golf Pre Shot Pro app) are two golf apps for iPhone and iPad that break that trend.

Priced at £4.99 each, we’ll examine the first of these apps in a little more detail and examine if they are worth the investment and for which type of player they are most suited, high, mid or low handicapper.

 

 

 

What is Pre Shot Club Golfer?

In essence, Pre Shot Club Golfer is an app which focuses on the golf game that is fought mentally on each shot of every round. The software is based upon the teachings and beliefs of the great Jack Nicklaus, who claimed that the correct make up for any great golf shot was; 10% swing, 40% stance and 50% mental.

While there are countless apps available that help a golfer focus on their swing and stance, there are considerably fewer for what Nicklaus maintains is the crucial aspect of golf. Pre Shot Club Golfer is one of them.

The aim of the app is to engender positive mental thoughts and processes within the golfer when they are out on the course so that they have a much sharper, more focused and more positive mental attitude when playing. The belief being that this mental positivity will translate itself into better shots and lower scores.

Certainly there are quotes from PGA Professionals and satisfied customers that attest to the effectiveness of the app and the fact that they have brought out another app aimed at players who want to think like tour profesionals, certainly suggests that there is merit within these claims. So let’s examine the positive aspects in a bit more detail.

 

 

The Positive aspects?

The first and most obvious positive aspect is simply the fact that this app introduces a key element of successful golf to beginner golfers. It is very easy when learning the game and trying to lower your handicap to focus solely on your stance and swing. Yet how many times do players attempt to improve with negative thoughts playing constantly on their mind?

What the Pre Shot Club Golfer app does particularly well is empower the user to recognise these negative thoughts and attempt to banish them and instead replace them with more positive thoughts. It does this without going too psychoanalytical and overly-complex and as a result, it is easy to see why beginner players can get benefit from the app.

Another positive aspect is the focus on ‘visualisation’. It is becoming widely accepted across sport now that positive mental rehearsal, or visualisation, before you perform a sporting activity can have a very positive effect on performance. The section of the app dealing with this is particularly good if you are new to these techniques and will help put you in the right frame of mind before you play a shot.

 

 

The Negative aspects?

So is this all worth £4.99? The answer is that it very much depends. If you are a novice golfer and have very little understanding of the mental aspects of the game, then I would say that the app is good value for money. There is certainly enough within it to help you knock shots off your game from improving the number of positive thoughts and developing helpful shot routines alone.

However, if you already do have a rudimentary understanding of the psychology of golf then really there is nothing new here to justify paying £5. The concepts and methodologies explained within are aimed at the novice golfer, or a golfer new to the mental side of the game, and if you have experience of this already, it is unlikely you’ll learn anything new to help you on the course.

Conclusion

To conclude, the Pre Shot Club Golfer app would work well for golfers with a limited understanding of the mental side of the game and it does attempt to give these players not just a better understanding of the mental side of golf, but also how to develop positive shot routines and thoughts and also how to visualise the perfect shot to help you become a better and more positive player.

However, it does have limited appeal as there is nothing really ground-breaking in the information contained within and many golfers will have already been exposed to these ideas and may already use them as part of their approach to the game. In which case, the second app Golf Pre Shot Pro, may be more beneficial (and we’ll review that at a later date).

 

Overall 7/10 – Good but only for certain golfers and only until you are used to the simple processes explained within.

Images and Video courtesy of the Pre Shot Golf Apps website

(Via Gorilla Golf Blog)

Photo Just In: Tiger Helping Rory Remove Finger From Ass

Photo Just In: Tiger Helping Rory Remove Finger From Ass:

(Via GolfCentral Daily)

Tiger, fraternization and what it portends for Augusta

Tiger, fraternization and what it portends for Augusta:

By John Strege

Photo: David Cannon

There was a time that an athlete detested his opponent, competitive nature trumping friendship. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird might have been friends in the off season, but...

"He was always smiling," Bird said once. "And as I told Magic, my goal my whole career was trying to knock out his two front teeth. Then he wouldn't be smiling so much."

Major League Baseball, meanwhile, even has a rule that prohibits public displays of affection. It states in part that "players of opposing teams shall not fraternize at any time while in uniform."

We bring this up, because in the wake of Woods' second consecutive victory (and third of the year), this in the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Monday, there might be a faction of the PGA Tour membership wishing that golf had its own rule against fraternization.

Related: Tiger's long road back

Two weeks ago, Steve Stricker gave his friend Tiger a putting lesson on the eve of the WGC-Cadillac Championship. What, the competition might be asking, was he thinking, a few weeks ahead of Augusta?

Woods' putting has been brilliant since, notably in Saturday's third round, when he had 18 putts inside 20 feet and made 17 of them, maybe "one of his top 10 putting rounds ever," NBC's Johnny Miller said.

He was locked in with the putter again in the final round on Monday, to wit the pivotal 27-foot birdie putt he poured in on top of Rickie Fowler's 38-foot birdie putt to maintain a three-stroke lead at the 12th hole at Bay Hill in Orlando.

"His putting is better than a machine," Miller said. "I've never seen anything quite like it. At Doral he had 100 putts for 72 holes, the least he's ever had. So he's in a total crazy time with his putting."

Whatever his other merits as a golfer, his putting prowess has been the linchpin to his greatness. Greg Norman once called Woods the "the best clutch putter I've ever seen." Paul Azinger wrote on Twitter that "there was never a better putter on the face of the earth as @TigerWoods."

Related: The Evolution of Tiger's swing

The popular perception is that Tiger is again the dominating player he once was; the evidence cited are three victories in four stroke-play starts on the PGA Tour, his having regained the No. 1 spot in the World Ranking, and the return of his marksmanship on the greens. But here's where we bring out the caution flag: None of it matters until and unless he begins winning majors again.

"The Masters is so important for him," Miller said. "He needs a major. The more this goes on the tougher it is to get the next one."

Woods, 37, remains stuck on 14 majors, four short of equaling Jack Nicklaus' record, and it's coming up on five years since he last won one.

But the likelihood of his extending this streak much longer does seem remote. Woods surely will take with him to Augusta more confidence than he's had heading into a major than at any time in the last five years.

And for this, at least in part, the rest of the field has Stricker to thank.

Follow @JohnStrege

(Via The latest from GolfDigest.com)

App Review: Free Golf GPS & Scorecard

App Review: Free Golf GPS & Scorecard:

When we conduct a golf app review for iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or Android, we do try our best to cover as many devices as possible and occasionally something surprising happens that baffles us. This happened with Free Golf GPS & Scorecard, a popular app from developers Swing by Swing.

And sometimes, the problems with an app lie beyond blaming the developer for designing poor software…

 

 

 

 

 

What is Free Golf GPS & Scorecard?

Free Golf GPS and Scorecard is very much a self-explanatory app. It is a free to download app which offers detailed GPS information on almost 35,000 courses across the globe at present. In addition to measuring yardages, the app also allows you to keep record of your score and analyse how you have played statistically by breaking your round down into the different types of shots you played.

With the app you also get a free website account on which you can view all these stats in more detail and compare it with other rounds, as well as upload any pictures you have taken.

 

 

 

 

The Best Features?

Free Golf GPS and Scorecard really does have some excellent features. First up, it is free of charge to download and use. Which is always a positive in these more austere times. Other features that are very impressive are:

• Great Coverage - Very accurate and the fact that the developers now offer course information on almost 35,000 courses around the globe (and are dedicated to mapping every golf course in the world) means your course is likely to be included. If it is not, you can send the developer the data yourself, or for a small fee, ask them to map the course for you.

 

 

 

 

• Rangefinder – The Rangefinder is one of the best and most accurate I have used. Accurate to within a couple of yards when working well. There have been issues at a few courses with coverage and it does eat up your battery when playing (you’ll need a fully charged device before you start the round) but for a free app, the rangefinder is very accurate.
• Scorecard – Simple to use, if a little time consuming at first to get used to the level of statistics you can enter per round. Remember, don’t do this on the green after you have putted out, get to the next tee and while you are waiting to tee off, enter all your information in then and you won’t annoy the group behind!

 

The Big Problem?

Up until late September last year, the scores for this app would have been very high regardless of the device that you had it installed upon. It worked well on both Android and Apple devices and then something calamitous happened that no developer could foresee.

Apple released IO6, with the first, awful incarnation of Apple Maps, automatically switching its devices from using the perfectly reliable (and working) Google Maps, to using their own in house software for mapping services, GPS and whatnot.

 

 

 

 

Any user unfortunate enough to download the new upgrade last September/October and then load up the software may well have been in for a surprise. The new Apple Maps was utterly dreadful and appallingly inaccurate. We are not just talking about a few yards wrong here and there, we are talking entire cities being wrongly represented on maps, other historical locations being hundreds of miles from where they actually are and golf courses simply vanishing, or more puzzlingly, disappearing under water.

Of course, an app like Free Golf GPS & Scorecard is completely reliant on the accuracy of map data. Without it, the major selling points of the app are rendered useless. Yes you can still use parts of the app, such as the scorecard, but what’s the point if you need the app for yardages and it has your golf course located four miles offshore in a windfarm?

 

This is where we feel for developers, this is an outstanding free app but was rendered almost unusable for the majority of Apple users due to Apple’s own incompetence. Android users of course, happily continued using the app with no problems throughout this time.

Fortunately, now there is a Google Maps app available for Apple device users to use, which can eradicate a problem that should never have surfaced in the first place.

 

 

 

 

Rating: 9/10

If you have a device that it works on but if you were one of the few who upgraded to IO6 and had all the issues with Apple Maps, then the app only scores 3/10 (and that is not the fault of the developer) unless you’ve switched back to Google Maps when it scores a resounding 9/10 again!

 

Images Courtesy of Swing By Swing Golf Website and iTunes Page

(Via Gorilla Golf Blog)

Série para golfe por Eduardo Cirilo (Método DeRose)

Golfe - nível intermédio

(baseada nas técnicas orgânicas do Método DeRose)

Objetivo: 

Reforço muscular (pernas, braços e costas) e aumento de flexibilidade da coluna vertebral.

Observações:

Execute para ambos os lados quando necessário (respeitando assim a regra de compensação). Reforçar permanências para o lado esquerdo de forma a melhorar a rotação do tronco no backswing.

Tempo de permanência:

1ª semana - 30 segundos

Aumentar 15 segundos a cada semana.

Por: Eduardo Cirilo | eduardo.cirilo@metododerose.org | Professor Certificado pelo Método DeRose

https://www.facebook.com/topbirdie

What McIlroy can learn from the best fitters

What McIlroy can learn from the best fitters:

It's no surprise that the country's best clubfitters think the easiest way to adjust to your new clubs is to be fit for them, something that's clearly been done and being done with McIlroy and his new equipment. Still, McIlroy's treatment by the team at Nike is no more important or specifically tailored than the experience an average golfer should find with a quality fitter. Not only does a proper clubfitting result in clubs matched to your specifications, it also means you've got an interested clubfitter to turn to if the new stuff isn't working right away. 

A fitter sees both what clubs can do and understands how a player's swing or his ability can or can't make those clubs reach their true potential. That knowledge and the instant verification provided by today's launch monitors and high-speed video are the building blocks to finding new clubs that will improve your old game, says Dana Upshaw of Dana Golf, one of America's Top 100 Clubfitters, "Considering that a well-executed fitting puts the correct type of clubheads, shafts, and specifications in the golfer's bag, there should be no 'technical reason' that the golfer shouldn't be able to hit them well - save a possible minor tweak.

"It's never just clubs, and it's never just the swing. There's a marriage of the two on every shot, and like most marriages every now and then a little incompatibility creeps in. Good 'counseling' can help resolve both."

It all goes back to confidence, says Craig Zimmerman, general manager at RedTail Golf Center in Beaverton, Ore., another Golf Digest Top 100 Clubfitter location. "If a player who I have fit is confident in his new equipment yet he subsequently struggles with his game, he is more likely to place emphasis on his swing or factors other than his equipment for his woes. He is more committed to the equipment, and this most normally leads to significant success," Zimmerman says, indicating that his facility guarantees a clubfitting for life and that a good fitter, like Upshaw says, needs to understand the golf swing, as well. "If, however, I did not provide the player being fit with confidence in their new equipment and they go out and struggle they are much more likely to blame the equipment. It can become a classic perception versus reality situation."

McIlroy's change also is probably bigger than the change most average golfers would make. Finding 14 new best friends and getting rid of 14 current ones is no different a shock to the golfer's system than moving to a new city is to the psyche of a 16-year-old girl. That's why most fitters wouldn't recommend such an overhaul for an average golfer. That said, a Golf Digest clubfitting study conducted with Club Champion Golf, which has clubfitting facilities in Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Houston, showed that 8 of 9 golfers improved their scores by an average of almost two strokes in less than six months after a complete bag evaluation and upgrade. More details are in the May issue, on newsstands and in digital versions in the next few weeks.

"Although any equipment change is made with the intention of better performance, there is often an adjustment period," says Jason Fryia, owner of The Golf Exchange with stores in both Kentucky and Ohio and a Golf Digest Top 100 Clubfitter. "Usually the new club just takes a little getting used to. However, changing all 14 clubs and your golf ball at once takes that little getting used and changes it drastically.

"I typically do not recommend that any player overhaul his entire bag all at once. Even when a consumer comes into our shop looking for a completely new set-up all at once, we usually recommend that we tackle the purchase over a number of weeks or months giving him time to become comfortable with one before getting the next."

When the swing changes, it's certainly true that a fitting might need to be adjusted, too. "Most of the time the player has had a lesson, has read an article or listened to a friend about swing advice," says Brent Norton of Top 100 Clubfitting location Miles of Golf in Ypsilanti, Mich. "When this happens we re-fit the player and make the appropriate changes to the equipment."  

Still, what seems most apparent when you talk to some of the best fitters in the game today is that the way a fitter and player relate to each other is where all problems can be solved.

"The most important part is educating the player," says Steve Ball at the Ball Golf Center in Oklahoma City, another Top 100 location. "I think a lot of the potential problem would be handled during the fitting. We can usually prove to a player the club or the spec of the club is correct. Either by ball flight, or we can prove with the numbers from the launch monitor and again matching those up to the ball flight. If a fitter is educating during the fitting and not just trying to sell, then the player will understand the 'why' of the fitting decision. Many times the decision is made together, or at the very least players will feel confidence in the fittings. And then they are comfortable that they do have a lot of responsibility in the results on the course."

Again, like just about everything in golf, it comes down to what's going on inside a golfer's head. That's why in addition to being an expert in equipment technology and having a working knowledge of the golf swing, a good fitter needs to be a bit of a psychiatrist, too. When a player brings his new clubs back with some issues, an exceptional fitter will lay out all the evidence to restore some mental stability.

"Most of the time the customer sees that he's hitting the new clubs much better than his old ones," says Woody Lashen of Pete's Golf, another Golf Digest Top 100 Clubfitter. "This helps fix the doubt in his mind that these are the best clubs for him. Emotion is a very big part of the game, and if any player does not have confidence in his clubs, no matter how good the quality or fit, they simply won't work. In our environment, when you can show the golfer that they hit a certian set up that much better than what they have, you don't have emotional issues."   

(Via The latest from GolfDigest.com)

TRAINING AID REVIEW – ORANGE PEEL

TRAINING AID REVIEW – ORANGE PEEL:

Introduction

(Written By: Matt Saternus)

One of the very, very few things in the golf swing that is not debatable is that good players have their weight forward, or towards the target, at impact.  Bad players, like the majority of the guys on your local driving range, finish their swings falling over, spinning around, and doing everything other than imitating the PGA Tour logo.  With all this in mind, a swing trainer that is designed to help golfers with their weight shift, like the Orange Peel, should be a slam dunk.  But is it?  Read on for the juicy details.

Ease of Use/Set Up – 10 Points

The Orange Peel is one big hunk of plastic, no set up required.  Throw it down on the range, take the appropriate stance (more on this later), and you’re ready to go.

Score: 10/10

Effectiveness – 30 points

Though it would seem to be a uni-tasker, the Orange Peel can be used to address a number of different balance or swing issues.

• If you stand on the center of the Orange Peel, the raised ends will simply amplify your weight shift, helping you to move behind and then through the ball.

• Standing towards the front of the Orange Peel simulates an uphill lie which will help players to “get behind” the ball in the backswing.

• Standing towards the back of the Orange Peel simulates a downhill lie making it easier to get to your target-side foot at impact.

• Players who struggle with “outside-in” or “inside-out” swings can stand with their toes or heels, respectively, on the edge of the Peel to help feel get their swing more “on plane.”

So, the Orange Peel has many potential uses, but is it effective in these uses?  My answer is a wishy-washy “maybe.”  There is no doubt that standing on the Orange Peel and making swings helps you to feel a good weight shift.  The major problem is that you can’t hit balls while you’re standing on the Orange Peel.  Ok, to be accurate, you can hit balls on the Orange Peel, but the Orange Peel places you approximately 2 inches above the ball.  That may not sound like a lot in writing, but it forces you into a significant posture change.

Ultimately, the Orange Peel is best used for practice swings, whether with an Orange Whip or a real club.  Though this has some value, we all know that doing something in a practice swing and doing it while trying to smash the ball are very different.

If the Orange Peel could be used while hitting balls, it would be a home run.  As it is, it’s just a single: good, but far from great.

Score: 22/30

Longevity – 20 points

The Orange Peel is 44”X28” and weighs 21 pounds.  It’s not exactly the kind of thing you can easily leave in your bag or in your trunk for those impromptu range sessions, nor is it the kind of thing you can use discretely.  For the guys with practice stations in their backyard (or at least enough clearance to swing a club in the garage), the Orange Peel definitely will have more longevity, but that’s a very small minority of golfers.

Furthermore, while the Orange Peel can be used to fix a number of different problems, it is likely that a given player will only use it for one reason.  This makes the Orange Peel is a bit of a one-trick pony which decreases its longevity.

As for the Longevity of the device itself, it should last forever, which does boost the Longevity score a bit.

Score: 14/20

Value – 20 points

The Orange Peel sells for $179 through the Orange Whip Trainer website, which places it at almost double our $100 “average” price.  That kind of price can be excused if the trainer is dynamite, but the Orange Peel is not that.

Score: 10/20

The Peanut Gallery – 20 points

For this Peanut Gallery, I showed the Orange Peel to the normal Peanut Gallery and I used it with some of my most balance-challenged students.

The Peanut Gallery was as blunt as they’ve ever been: they were not impressed with the Orange Peel.  They got the idea behind it, but felt that the drawback of not being able to hit balls with it was too much to overcome.  When I told them the price, the reactions ranged from face-palming to laughter.

My balance-challenged students, on the other hand, enjoyed the Orange Peel.  The primary issue that these students faced was not finishing their swing on their left (front/target) side.  By having the students stand on the Orange Peel and make full swings (without a ball), they were able to feel a proper weight shift.  Being able to do this with a ball was not automatic after using the Orange Peel, but they did have an idea of what they were working towards.

Score: 12/20

Conclusion

Ultimately, I think that buying an Orange Peel might be a good investment for a teaching professional, but it’s not something I would recommend for the average golfer.  While it has a number of uses, the Orange Peel will likely only serve one purpose for each golfer, which significantly hurts its value.  Most importantly, the Orange Peel is best used for practice swings, not hitting balls. Though making swings on the Orange Peel can help a golfer to feel what they should be doing, the fact that you can’t hit real shots from it severely limits its effectiveness.

Score: 68/100

VISIT WEBSITE: HERE

FOLLOW ON TWITTER: HERE

FOLLOW ON FACEBOOK: HERE

(Via Golf Forum - Golf Blog (MyGolfSpy.com))

What’s In The Winning Bag Tiger Woods. New 5 Wood at 2013 WGC Cadillac.

What’s In The Winning Bag Tiger Woods. New 5 Wood at 2013 WGC Cadillac.:

Congrats to Tiger Woods who switched out his Nike 19-degree SasQuatch 2 fairway wood in favour of a new Nike VR_S Covert with the same loft and Mitsubishi Diamana BB 103x shaft at Doral.

Speaking about changing the club he used for six years, Woods said “The 5-wood that I used is the SQ, so it's, what, three versions ago,I finally put one in play that I felt comfortable with. I hit it a little bit further, so there's a little bit bigger gap between the 3-iron and the 5-wood but I can hit this 5-wood a little bit higher, so I can actually take something off it and throw it up in the air, which is nice.

What’s In The Bag Tiger Woods

DRIVER: Nike VR Tour (8.5°) with Graphite Design Tour AD DI 6 X-flex shaft

FAIRWAY WOODS: Nike VR Pro Limited Edition 3-wood (15°) with Mitsubishi Diamana Blue Board 103 X-flex shaft;  Nike VR_S Covert 5-wood (19°) with Mitsubishi Diamana Blue Board 103 X-flex shaft

IRONS: Nike VR Pro Blade (3-PW) with True Temper Dynamic Gold X100 shafts

WEDGES: Nike VR Pro (56° and 60°) with True Temper Dynamic Gold S400 shafts

PUTTER: Nike Method 001

BALL: Nike ONE Tour D

(Via GolfCentral Daily)

Playlists for the range, green and gym

Playlists for the range, green and gym:

By Ashley Mayo

Music is personal. Some of us couldn't live without Brad Paisley's smooth country tunes, and others swear by Eminem's strong beats. But if you're not married to a specific genre of music, and you want to explore new songs while honing your golf game, you should listen to the three playlists I've created--for the driving range, practice green and gym. Songs I listen to when I'm on the range are uptempo, but don't overwhelm you, while songs I rely on while I putt are comparably mellow. Tunes that get me going in the gym are all about the beat.
 
The fluidity of music means my playlists are always changing. Let me know what you think of these, and I'll use your input when I publish updates.

DRIVING RANGE


PRACTICE GREEN


GYM


Follow @AshleyKMayo

(Via The latest from GolfDigest.com)

What is concentration?

What is concentration?:

What is concentration?

And what do I gain by increasing it?

According to the dictionary, concentration is to give full attention and energy to something.

Everyday I hear people say that if only they were interrupted less during their daily activities, their productivity and focus would greatly increase.

But what do I gain from increasing my concentration?

You gain increased productivity and more energy to get things done. This is because a well-trained mind makes everything easier and more efficient. You will not have to do the same things over again because you had not noticed small mistakes in the first place. Increased productivity often means more free time for you, for your children, family, sports etc …

When was the last time you trained your concentration?

Most people do not train their concentration. This is because it is still an unknown discipline and perhaps somewhat obscure to us.

But I assure you, a little dedication in your routine and you will feel your productivity soar.

There is nothing more powerful than a well-trained mind.

When you combine concentration + discipline + focus, you are unstoppable. This clearly defines those that succeed in life and those who do not. Those who haven’t this powerful tool in their hands invariably share the same self talk: “it’s because he is lucky”, “God is with him”, “it looks like he was made for it”, “the stars help” and a bunch of further excuses.

A well-trained mind produces wealth and harmony around you, driving emotional stability and happiness.

Do I need to spend 6 months in Tibet or India dressed in strange clothes?

These things described above have a name: prejudice, fantasy, myth. Increasing your ability to concentrate depends uniquely and exclusively on whether you train, engage and direct your attention to such a thing. Nothing else makes excellent exercise of concentration, as it does to keep working where you work, live where you live and with whom you live.

What does what I eat, drink and smoke have to do with my concentration?

With much experience working in this area, we can guarantee that these are things known to really “drain” your attention and your body. This happens when the body is not well maintained, with excellent maintenance, when you keep ignoring it and do not exercise it, when you keep eating poorly, drinking, and pretending that back pain has gone after all). However disciplined you are, you will not have the same productivity, as it the body hasn’t got any outlet.

A McLaren running with diesel?

Ever imagined a Formula 1 car, racing with a flat tyre, or working with diesel instead of petrol?

Yeah, your body is not much different. And, quite simply, if badly maintained, the most developed machine in this universe will yield 30, 40 and even 70% less than it should. You know what I’m talking about, when you have those days when you simply cannot concentrate. When the work does not get done. When it seems that everything is out of order for no apparent reason.

And why are you not looking at what you did during the day or days earlier – such as sleep less, eat more at dinner, inject caffeine into the body and allow stress to dominate your day.

Alcohol, the silent villain

 

This is a taboo subject in our society, wherever you go in the world the human being makes use of narcotics (from ancient Greek ναρκῶ Närko, ‘Ι benumb’), yet the body always pays a price. The seat of consciousness exists in our brain, and to receive any amount of alcohol, however small, will create alterations, causing decreased concentration and small lapses of consciousness, imperceptible to the individual, but increasing the reduction of concentration.

 

Very far from your reality?

That lapse of a few minutes lost when you had to remember those passwords or keys or mobile phone that you lost during the day, all these minutes add up to a few days of work in one year’s time. Time that you could have spent with family, friends, doing sports etc …

 

I do not want to become a ninja or a Karate Kid

Again, these myths created by Hollywood films deter people with excellent development potential, to whom it would be natural to increase concentration, gain memory and clarity of thought. And with nothing more than closing the eyes and train a simple technique of concentration for a few minutes.

 

I do not believe any of these things

 

Provided you are executing them well, the wonder of these techniques is that you do not need to believe in them. You can tell a massage therapist you do not believe in his or her techniques, but if he or she is good, the techniques will surely produce the effects. You could also say that you do not believe in anesthesia from a dentist, but I do not believe that you would undergo a dental filling without such an injection, even if you do not believe in it.

Attention is the cognitive process of selectively concentrating on one aspect of the environment while ignoring other things. Attention has also been referred to the allocation of the processing of resources.
Alcohol That is the principle given to ardent spirit and wine. Their intoxicating power, while the narcotic principle to opium and tobacco imparts similar properties. In popular language, alcohol is classed among the stimulants, and opium and tobacco among the narcotics; which substances are whose ultimate effect upon the beast system is to produce torpor and insensibility, but taken in small quantities they exhilarate at first. And since alcohol does the same, most medical writers, at the present day, class it among the narcotics.

- Edward Hitchcock, American Temperance Society (1830)

The post What is concentration? appeared first on DeRose Method London.

(Via DeRose Method London)

Tips For Her: Grip it in your fingers

Tips For Her: Grip it in your fingers:

Editor's note: Each week, Megan Padua, a teaching professional at Maidstone Club (East Hampton, N.Y.) and Belfair Plantation (Bluffton, S.C.), and one of Golf Digest's Best Young Teachers, offers tips and advice for women golfers.

By Megan Padua

Most golfers tend to place their golf grip in the palm of their hands. As a result, it's difficult to create leverage during the swing. Here's a quick tip that will get your grip more in the fingers of your hands:

Hold a tee between your thumb and pointer finger. As you do this, your golf grip will shift out of your palm and into your fingers. You want to see at least two knuckles in your lead hand (left hand, for right-handed golfers), and your grip should rest under the pad of your hand nearest to your pinky finger.  

Getting the grip in your fingers and out of your palms allows you to hinge the club, thereby putting your hand in a more powerful position. Grip changes are never comfortable, but if you stick with this adjustment you will be on your way to hitting more solid shots with less effort.

(Via The latest from GolfDigest.com)

2013 Shoe Guide

2013 Shoe Guide:

Comfort. That's what we demand from golf shoes today. But for many years, golfers had been forced to compromise comfort for performance. The more painful the shoe, the more support it offered. The more rigid the shoe, the more stability it had. Not anymore. Designers are borrowing technologies found in cleated-shoe sports like soccer and baseball, and non-cleated ones like skateboarding and wrestling to create footwear that offers the ideal combination of stability, traction, support and even comfort. "In its purest form, the game is played walking," says Dav Mattuicci, footwear product manager at Adidas Golf. "So we design all of our shoes for walkers."

As more engineers construct golf shoes for walkers and make comfort their No. 1 priority, they're increasingly adopting footwear techniques used for other sports.

"Tiger was our muse for the TW '13s," says Lee Walker, footwear-product director at Nike Golf. "He was training in Nike Free running shoes and wanted to get that same fit and feel in his golf shoes." When we evaluated more than 50 pairs of shoes to pick the 20 here, we considered comfort and style. "Footwear is grounded in style," says Golf Digest fashion director Marty Hackel. "Nobody should wear an ugly shoe, no matter how great it is."

Even the most classic-looking shoes in this guide offer elements of comfort, but some models push the idea of natural motion, offering a super-flexible, low-profile, spikeless sole that is designed to allow your foot to grip the ground while you swing. In fact, more are accepting the merits of spikeless soles; sales of non-cleated shoes increased by 136 percent in 2012 versus 2011, according to Golf Datatech. But how can you know which shoe is best for you? "It comes down to preference," says Grant Knudson, Puma Golf's product manager for footwear. "Ian Poulter grew up wearing FootJoy Classics, so he likes a rigid shoe. But Rickie Fowler wants more flexibility."

Technology now allows a seamless transition from everyday footwear to on-course footwear. If you wear a dress shoe eight hours a day, for example, you'll likely want to stick with a more structured shoe on the course. If you spend a lot of time in sneakers, you might want a flexible, street-style or sport-performance shoe.

Thankfully, the days of forfeiting comfort for performance are over. Walk on.

(Via The latest from GolfDigest.com)