Women Golfers
Women need different techniques
Bruce McCarrol is a Canadian PGA Master Professional and Director of Instruction for The Golf Institute at Bond Head located at the Club at Bond Head just south of Barrie, Ont.,

While equality between the sexes is desirable in many avenues of life, it may not always apply to the technique of the golf swing.

Many women will improve and enjoy the game more if they use different techniques from men.

Most women have more flexibility than men, less muscle and strength, and smaller hands.

More flexibility in the joints and a larger range of motion can cause the hips to over-rotate on the backswing and the arms to over-swing, resulting in a backswing that gets loose.

To correct this, I may recommend loading the club early in the backswing. By the time the lead arm is waist height, the club should be “upside down,” with the shaft forming a 90-degree angle to the forearm.

This early setting of the wrist position, coupled with the feeling that the arms are making a three-quarter backswing, will help control the length of the backswing and make it far easier to return the club to a better position at impact.

Another change involves using a slightly stronger grip position in which both hands are turned more to the right (for a right handed player) and two-and-half to three knuckles can be seen on the top hand.

This helps create more control and leverage in the backswing, increases overall clubhead speed and creates more solid contact. It also tends to add hook spin to the shot, allowing the ball to roll farther once it hits the ground.

Vive la différence.

Note: The teaching methodology presented in this e-newsletter solely reflects the views of the author.

The Canadian PGA Lesson Tee is intended to help Canadian professionals sharpen their teaching and playing skills through an exchange of expertise.

Wrist Rite can help women and men improve their golf game. For more information visit our web site www.kikogolf.com

Tags: Wrist Control by kikod
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The Grip
Rob Anderson, Associate Professional, The Harvest Golf Club
As long as Golf has been around, there has been much debate over the many styles of gripping the club that have evolved over the centuries and its importance in the swing. These days we think of interlocking, baseball or overlapping (Vardon). No matter what your personal style is, your grip plays a marquee role in the performance of your swing.

Much time and effort has been spent in detailing the exact position of the hands on the handle of the club. (I will not try to detail the technical points yet again!). For instance, in ‘The Modern Fundamentals of Golf’, Ben Hogan devoted the entire first chapter to his views on ‘The Grip’. We have seen many poor grips on Tour, (Lee Trevino or Paul Azinger), and the poor swings they result in. Unlike these two excellent players, the very natural grips of players like Ben Crenshaw or the late Payne Stewart produce more fundamentally sound swings.

Rarely do you see a poor gripper of the club have success at the highest levels. David Duval and Tiger Woods both have slightly strong, but very comfortable grips. Their hands are close together on the handle and act as a single unit. Their grip pressure is neither too loose nor too tight and the positioning of their hands, (along with a sound back-swing), allows for the left thumb to comfortably support the club at the top of the swing by being underneath the shaft. This is a hard position to create if you have to compensate for a really strong grip!

An often overlooked notion is the size of the grip on your club. Like a golf glove, the grip must fit your hand in order to be effective. Most players these days have grips that are far too big. They feel better to the player because they can be squeezed a bit harder and are a bit softer. Unfortunately, a larger grip will take some of the natural rotation of the hands and wrists out of play and will result in a ball flight that is more left to right for a right handed player. If you are a senior or have arthritic hands and enjoy the feel of a large grip, try having one of your clubs re-gripped with a much smaller grip. Work on the positioning of your hands and loosen the tension. If your hands have less tension, your entire swing will feel more free and easy going yet produce straighter, longer hits. Whether your grip is technically perfect or not, build some consistency to your swing by ensuring that your grip is the same for every shot, with every club. Your nearest BCPGA Professional will gladly show you the technical points of a sound grip. Remembering that the grip is a key ingredient to the swing will help you overcome the desire to return to a Motorcycle Grip or something previously unknown to the game!

Good Golfing!

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Tags: GENERAL GOLF TOPICS, Wrist Control by kikod
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What Strong Wrists will Do for Your Golf Swing
From Mike Pedersen

Try this Exercise for Better Distance, Control
How important are your wrists in your golf swing? Have you given it much thought?
Take a moment and picture your golf swing. Start at the address position - to the top - through impact and on to the follow through. Now just isolate your wrists and even your hands to get a better visual. Do you see how important they are in your swing? If not, let me explain briefly.

There are several roles the wrists play in your golf swing, but two that really come to mind. They are:

1. Controlling the club throughout the golf swing. That means on plane and with the proper clubface alignment.
2. Providing power through impact or the “hitting zone”.

If your wrists are weak it will be very hard to accomplish these actions. This is a common scenario for junior golfers, since their strength hasn’t been worked on yet. While you shouldn’t be cinching up on your grip, your wrists need to be firm to control the club throughout your swing. For example, picture “setting” your club at the top. It needs to be consistently in a certain position to make a proper downswing. If your wrists are weak you will have a difficult time controlling the club due to its length and weight.

What about impact? The wrist position is crucial in generating maximum distance and clubface angle. The most common mistake caused by weak wrists is the collapsing or breaking down of the lead wrist at impact. This dramatically reduces distance and accuracy. If you discuss this with your teaching pro he will tell you the same thing.

So what’s the solution? Doing exercises to strengthen your wrists specific to their role in the golf swing. Here is one I recommend to all the golfers I work with personally and in my online program as well. And you don’t even need to go out and buy any equipment for it. You already have it.

I call it the Golf Wrist-Cock Exercise. Here’s what you do:

1. Stand with your arm hanging at your side.
2. Grab a golf club (pitching wedge if you’re just beginning, long iron if you have strong wrists already) in one hand towards the end of grip.
3. Raise the club only by cocking your wrist and keeping your arm at side.
4. The club will have the toe pointing up to the sky straight out in front of you.
5. Raise as high as you can, which will probably be just above parallel to the ground with your shaft.
6. Then lower and repeat until a set of 15 repetitions is done.
7. Switch arms and do the same thing. Do a total of three sets for each arm.

If you do this exercise correctly you will get a burning sensation in your forearms. If so, that’s great! If not, you may need a longer iron; or you are using more than just your wrist for the movement.

I’ve had juniors improve their drives by up to 20 yards just by doing this one exercise. What a great return on the small amount of time invested. Give it a try. I’m confident you’ll like the results.

Mike Pedersen is a golf fitness expert .

If you have weak wrists then Wrist Rite can help and no practice or special exercises are required! Order yours today! www.kikogolf.com

Tags: GENERAL GOLF TOPICS, Wrist Control by kikod
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