GREAT interview with Dr. Carol Gaffney PhD is available to all golfers!

The relationship and impact of the mind on your golf game.

Dr. Carol Gaffney, PhD works with athletes around the world at all skill levels including golfers and offers insight into what you need to do to calm the mind to improve your game.

Go to: lessontee.podomatic.com to hear this DYNAMITE interview and help your golf game.  Taken from the Internet/Radio Show, THE myNEGM LESSON TEE that can be heard weekly at either wnri.com or mynegm.com.  Show currently has a following in 19 states and Canada and is about the golf swing.

"It's about communication, regardless of the venue."

Cheers!

The specifics of effective use of the mirror to improve your golf swing

It is time to get ready for the 2011 golf season and if you live in cold areas of the world, well, that is no excuse. The time to start is now, so, get off the couch and get a head start on a better swing and game. You only need a 5, 6 or 7 iron, a full length mirror and a little patience.
Actually, this infatuation I have with the mirror all started in 1983 when I set about rebuilding my own golf swing after being away from the golf profession for over 7 years.

My rebuilding efforts, hitting over 140,000 range balls in roughly a year and a half were, in large part, successful due to the time spent in front the mirror.

The mirror is a way to re-enforce proper basics which may have gotten out of whack over time. The basics are the place to start if you want to improve your golf swing. Oh, and that business golf you expect to use in 2011? By starting in front of a mirror to improve that swing, you are sure to help snag those ‘golf course deals’.

When using the mirror, don’t look into the mirror until you have completed the specific task you want to check, like your grip. The visual feedback gleaned will tell you if your grip, posture, weight distribution, arm positioning and alignment have changed from what it should be.

Now, taking that 5, 6 or 7 iron, grip the club and take your stance in the set up position. Do not look in the mirror.

With regards the grip: Once set up, take a look at your hands and how they are positioned on the club. Now look at your grip in the mirror. Check to be sure your grip is correct. Both ‘Vs’ generated between the thumb and index fingers are pointed at or towards the right or TRAIL ear, or mid way between that TRAIL ear and shoulder, (right shoulder for right hand golfers and left for left hand players). If adjustment is needed, relax your hands on the grip of the club and move your hands into the proper position. Look back down at your hands as you make adjustments, then look in the mirror to let your system ‘take it in’.

There is a good chance any correction you have to make is going to feel uncomfortable. When you look in the mirror, you are going to see that what you corrected does not look nearly as bad as it might initially feel! This is the feedback your system needs to confirm your brain is tricking you.

You need to see any changes you make externally. Otherwise, you may unintentionally go back to the old position, ‘overcook’, or exaggerate a position change you have made, making matters worse. This too can happen when you stop using the mirror for re-enforcement of your ‘set up mechanics’

Now, it is time to check your arm and shoulder positions. This requires two mirror views. Head on, facing the mirror and off the left or LEAD side.

Look into the mirror at how your shoulders are positioned. You might notice they are parallel to the ground. If so, relax your right or TRAIL shoulder as well as your neck muscles. This will cause the TRAIL shoulder to relax and wind up lower to the ground than the LEAD shoulder. In other words, you want your shoulders to be ‘tilted’ in relationship to the ground and parallel to each other and the target line.

You can also achieve this by feeling as if your TRAIL arm is literally ‘hanging’ from your neck muscles and shoulder socket. This may cause you to feel as if the grip of the club is simply ‘resting’ in the fingers of the right or TRAIL hand. GREAT, that is what we want!

Before you set up to the mirror off of your LEAD side, it helps if you first create a couple of lines on the floor to check your alignment to the target line. Two strips of tape or two golf shafts work well. Heck, a couple of yard sticks will work. Anyway, one line should represent the target or ball line, and the other your feet line. Both need to be parallel to each other and running perpendicular into the mirror.

Now, set up in the address position so your LEAD side only is pointing, looking or facing the mirror.

At this point you first need to see the relationship between your LEAD arm and the TRAIL arm. Do this by turning or cocking your head and looking into the mirror.

You should see that your LEAD arm is ‘above’ or ‘higher’ than your TRAIL arm which should appear in the mirror to be ‘under’ your LEAD arm. Again, looking in the mirror, your TRAIL FOREARM should be visible UNDER the LEAD arm. If not, try to further relax the shoulder, elbow and wrist of the TRAIL arm. Again, this will feel as if the TRAIL arm is literally hanging from the neck while the grip of the club will feel as if it is resting in the middle two fingers of the TRAIL hand.

Now, checking your shoulders, you should not be able to see any part of your TRAIL shoulder as you look in the mirror off the LEAD side. If you do, keep working the TRAIL shoulder and neck muscles until you are able to make it disappear from view WITHOUT turning or twisting your upper torso. If you do ‘turn’ your body, so you can’t see your TRAIL shoulder you may wind up with your shoulder plane literally across or closed to the target line. Oh, and being able to see the TRAIL shoulder in the mirror off the LEAD side means your shoulders are actually open to the target line.

In the next article I’m going to finish up with Alignment and move into How to Check and Correct Posture which can seem like a daunting task. Also we will talk about checking your Weight Distribution.

In closing, you are probably going to spend 2-4 minutes the first couple trips to the mirror. That is the bad news. The good news is that after a few repetitions the time frame will dramatically decrease to somewhere around 15-20 seconds for the ENTIRE SET UP ROUNTINE! I will explain in the next article.

Got a teaching pro you'd like to hear from?

Let me know if you have a favorite teaching professional you'd like to hear from. I'll do everything I can to get them on the show and let you know when they are on the air with me. 

Remember, the mynegm LESSON TEE Internet/Radio Show is on Wednesday from NOON-1pm ET and is followed in 19 states and Canada and streams LIVE at mynegm.com and wnri.com

CHEERS!

Women’s Breasts Impact On Their Golf Swing

This is a reprint of an article I wrote for a woman's online magazine. Useful information for men too.
A high quality website for women (http://www.parexcellence.com/).  Their golf section is but a fraction of the entire site.  Enjoy the article.

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For over thirty years, I have dedicated my life to helping golfers of all skill levels gain a better understanding of the golf swing in general and their swing in particular. To that end, the topic covered in this article, while sensitive, is one that I have discussed with countless ladies over the years. I have yet to have a single woman express being offended by the information I have covered with them.· I only hope you will read this piece with an open mind and consider its relevance to your golf swing and game.


My goal as a teaching professional has always been to help my clients better understand and improve their swing. To do this effectively, I have always felt it my responsibility to sometimes touch upon some delicate topics. In particular, a common discussion point I bring up with some of my female students relates to their chest, and how it might actually be getting in the way of their golf swing. While most of my peers agree the topic is germane, most simply will not talk about it with women students. Further, some female students simply are not comfortable discussing this issue unless with an LPGA or woman teaching professional.

I by no means encourage this discussion with every female student, as this topic does not always apply. If I think it would help the client, I will bring the subject to light. There is often a sense of relief that someone is actually willing to talk with them about this issue.

When it comes to beginners and average players, many women will often state they have problems getting comfortable over the ball. Terms used by students have included “jammed up” or “crowded” across the chest. The student generally doesn’t offer input until an honest discussion is engaged about why they seem to have continuing problems getting comfortable with the set up and the swing motion.

One of the biggest reasons the average woman golfer has problems with distance is tied directly to the issue of being tense and uncomfortable across the chest which then negatively impacts the swing motion. As any teaching professional will tell you, tension radiates and actually diminishes club head speed. Loss of momentum, resulting from this issue also leads to a loss of distance.

A characteristic of this dilemma can be observed when a woman consistently takes the golf club into the backswing on a path that is outside the target line. Much of the time she is literally swinging around her chest. Also, you will occasionally see a woman start the club away from the ball by first cocking their wrists then lifting the club the rest of the way into the backswing with the arms.· If you watch closely, you will see they tend to take the club away on an outside swing path.

The fix is to get the upper arms on top of the outside of your chest allowing for more freedom and comfort during the set up. Also, this position allows the arms to move freely into the back swing as well as though impact and follow through.

In the privacy of your bedroom or bathroom in front of a full length mirror, before getting fully dressed, take a 5, 6 or 7 iron and get into the set up position. Look at the situation in the mirror to see if, in fact, you are jammed up or crowded. Seeing this is half the battle of correcting the situation. You may notice your upper arms are situated on the side of your breasts, crunching everything between your shoulders which is what tends to make the set up uncomfortable for women golfers.

View the situation from three angles; head on, facing the mirror, off your left or lead side, (the side of the body that is closest to the target, the left side for right hand golfers, or the right side for left hand players), and off the trail side, (the side of the body furthest from the target.) You need to literally see the situation from all sides. Once you have done this, you can set about remedying the situation.

Next, back far enough away from the mirror to literally raise and extend your arms and the club in front of you and slightly above your chest. As you return the club to the set up position, watch what happens. You will see how the upper arms come down on top of the breasts.

As you finish lowering the club into the set up position, use your legs and knees to adjust for what you have just accomplished. This will keep your spine straight.

Note: Do not use your back to accommodate for the change in arm position. Should your upper back become curved or rounded, spend a little time getting the spine back into a straight position. This is accomplished by pulling your shoulder blades toward one another which can only be done by relaxing the shoulders as well as any tension in your hands and arms. If you are using your back to achieve this new arm position, you are simply trading one problem for another.

I suggest you practice this new set up, every other day, for a week or so to ingrain this new position. With repetition, the entire process should take no longer than 30 seconds per day. You will see this seemingly new arm position, in fact, is not as strange as it initially feels when you see the results in a mirror. Hence, your comfort level will improve. In the event you are having problems relaxing the shoulders or upper spine, check with your teaching professional. If you don’t have one, it would be worth 30 minutes of your time and money to have a teaching pro help you get the upper body to relax.

Another benefit of mirror work is you will become comfortable with a routine that allows you to clear your chest, getting your arms on top of the breasts. Another thing that will help is to watch better lady players as they go through their pre shot routines. Like Fred Couples adjusting his arms in those seemingly oversized golf shirts, better women players do similar things with their arms as they are getting set up. They are positioning the arms to allow for a comfortable set up and free swing motion.

In closing, note that I am not talking about swing theory, ONLY about getting comfortable and lessening that feeling of being all jammed up or crowded between your shoulders. You can still stay and feel connected but with much more comfort and freedom, not to mention now being on the road to generating more power in your golf swing, which will go a long way to your creating distance between clubs, not to mention better ball striking.

GOLF DVDs: Three steps to maximize learning from a disc

Millions of golf instructional DVDs are sold every year, especially during the Holiday Season. Millions of golfers purchase DVDs looking for that Holy Grail of the golf swing in their search of improvement and perfection.


I urge caution when it comes to attempting to learn the golf swing from a golf DVD. However, if this is your preferred method of instruction, I would like to suggest you consider something, and that is…when it comes to learning about motion, it is very difficult to learn on visual, static and auditory levels at the same time. This is exactly what golf DVDs do, which ultimately serves to confuse and minimize their message.

Mixed, varied and often times inconsistent messages sum up why golf DVDs, while a good way to provide an overview of a particular swing method or theory, fall short on delivery of a quality message and often content when it comes to any type of effective instruction. While there is no substitute for hands on professional golf instruction, still, people seem to flock to DVDs for advice and wisdom when it comes to the golf swing. These ‘lessons on a disc’, generally wind up in a pile with similar DVDs collecting dust in a corner of your office or under the entertainment center in your den.

In order to be completely effective, these products would have to be customized for each golfer because no two people see or hear the same message the same way, not to mention the difficulty of learning about motion on visual, auditory and static levels at the same time.

That said you can increase what you take away from golf DVDs as sources of information if you follow a few very simple, and seemingly bizarre, steps. These steps can make using DVDs much more productive for you than they probably have been up to now.

When you consider the process of learning about motion and the importance of visualization, the steps become obvious. While I will not guarantee results, I will promise you that your understanding of the information contained on a golf DVD will be greatly improved.

Here we go.

1.) When you receive your DVDs, sit and watch them from beginning to end. Put one after another in your DVD player, watch and listen to the message being conveyed as if you were watching a movie. Do not sit in your chair and try to figure out what is going on. Just watch and listen.

2.) Watch each DVD in the set WITHOUT SOUND. See if you can figure out what they are presenting for your consideration. In fact, from here on, when you refer back to the DVD, try NOT to turn the sound up. Why? Because, it is very difficult to learn via the auditory and visual systems at the same time when it comes to motion. Your unconscious mind is fed information visually and the conscious mind simply gets in the way of learning when it comes to motion.

3.) Turn the picture off and LISTEN to the presentation. This tests your ability to visualize what is going on during the presentation. Also, you might be surprised to find that what is going on visually and in print vs. what is being said does not necessarily match up. I call this a dichotomy of message. It often happens, and this is the only way you are going to figure it out.

I challenge you to try this with one of your old tapes or DVDs. Try it with one you have watched before. You might be surprised at how skewed the message actually is when applying the method of learning I have outlined. It could explain why you have had trouble deciphering the information in the past.

And for those of you thinking of getting the latest and greatest golf DVD for that special golfer on your gift list this holiday season. You might want to put a copy of this article with that gift. Someone will thank you, I am sure.



Cheers!

Follow my weekly articles all winter about off season practice and everything relevant to the learning process

I am starting a new service for readers of golf website mynegm.com.

Starting Wednesday 11/3 I will be posting articles weekly in the mynegm LESSON TEE area of the website under the INSTRUCTION section at the top of the page.

I will be writing about GOLF TRAINING AIDS, DVD LEARNING, EFFECTIVE INDOOR PRACTICE and much, much more.

Membership has its advantages.

While anyone can read and follow this weekly feature, FREE membership of mynegm.com gives you access directly to me. You can ask swing questions and winter practice questions. Members can contact me through my profile page as you progress this winter to improve your golf swing making the 2011 golf season your best ever!

The announcements have gone out and the first article will be up on Wednesday 11/3.

Cheers.

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