Friday, September 25, 2009

Where do you play your best game?

Are You Better on the Front or Back Nine?

Looking at the way you perform through the course of a game can give you a lot of powerful information that can be transferred into results the next time you play.

I have talked to many golfers and there seems to be a consistency with a lot of them relating to their performance on the front nine compared to the way they play on the back nine in most tournaments.

Not that there is a consistency in their game, but a consistency in the part of the game where they consistently fare the worst.

Some people struggle to get their game right for the first nine holes and then improve on the back nine, while others start off fine and then fade on the last nine holes. It is like there is a switch that gets flicked half way through the game and their performance changes in one direction or another.

There is always a reason why this is happening and targeting that reason can result in some excellent improvements to your score. More often than not the second nine holes result in a poorer performance and this can be due to a number of factors.

Those factors can be fatigue or a lack of hydration. Hydration in itself will result in fatigue. These are simple factors that can be easily addressed with regular intake of water and foods containing some carbohydrate content to keep the energy levels up.

Other people find they perform worse on the first nine holes and that can often be from tension whereas they tend to relax later in the game and start playing better.
Once again, if you are aware that this is happening you can address the problem by making an effort to relax.

Learning relaxation techniques can do more for many people's game than all the advice in the world and it might be just what you need to take your game to the next level.

To a better golf game!

Fran
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Golf Fitness Guide


Are You A Leftie?

We can't blame the golf club manufacturers for targeting their most profitable market of right-handed golfers, but it is quite difficult for those golfers who play left handed to find the selection offered to the mainstream players.

A few golfers made the change early on by training to play right handed but this is unrealistic for most people.

You should be playing in the most natural manner possible and if that means left handed then so be it.

Unfortunately with everything these days it all comes down to economics and profitability and there just isn't enough money to be made for many manufacturers in the left-handed market.

The percentage of left handed players to right handed players is somewhere in the region of 8 percent so the market is quite small, although it is a niche market that some manufacturers are targeting albeit at more expense in most instances.

But there is always a silver lining to the problems that we might encounter.

At a recent after tournament function I was introduced to an elderly gentleman who was playing on a low handicap and had done so for many years. During the discussion he mentioned left-handed clubs and the fact that he had started playing left handed initially. He hadn't learned how to play from a professional and had developed some bad techniques.

Eventually, due to frustration with his game and the inability to source the clubs he wanted to, he enlisted some professional help. After much discussion it was decided that he should try playing right handed and the golf pro would give him the necessary tuition.

It was a godsend as he was effectively starting from scratch and he learned how to play golf without any of the bad techniques that he had developed on his own.

The change from left to right, along with the professional training had held him in good stead for the rest of his golf playing life.

Sure, it was a major decision that most golfers wouldn't make, but you can never beat a golfer at trying to improve his game no matter what steps they might take.

To a better golf game!

Fran

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Golf Videos

Need help with your golf game?

Check out these golf videos.

Fran