I recently applied for a job that I had wanted since I was a young man, a job I felt I deserved and it was the perfect time in my career. I had thought that the stars had lined up as the person in the job had gotten a better job so it was a win win for everyone. Something happened during the process and I am not sure what. I have many speculations but I have a hard time understanding the final results.

I am a firm believer in behind every cloud there is a silver lining, so I am confident that better things will emerge. I am just having a tough time with this situation. The company went outside the area and hired someone, not recognizing one of their own community members. This is one of the problems we all are having. I received an email the other day stating how much the big three auto makers contributed to the relief efforts after Sept. 11 and it was substantially more than the other auto makers yet we keep buying foreign products, outsourcing labour and product. When are people going to look at the bigger picture and start supporting our own communities? We have local talent and if we stick together it will be way better in the long run. We must look at the long term effects or we might end up worst than we are today. We have to stop this apathy for the long term benefits of our children and future generations. It matters!

Tags: General by John White
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There are so many articles written on how to get rid of a slice as this probably plagues more golfers than anything else. I am here to tell you exactly why you slice and some of the things that you can do to get rid of it.

First, the reason that you slice the ball is because the club face is open to the path the club is travelling on or is opening through impact. Those are the only reasons you slice the ball. Now your job is to figure out why this is happening.

There could be a number of reasons why this happens. The first place I would start would be the grip. Look down at your top hand and see how many of the knuckles on the back of the hand you can see. I would then turn my hands so I can see as many as I can and keep turning it until the ball starts curving in the other direction. These are all experiments to get you to feel different things. We need to get more control of the clubface as that is what is causing the curvature.

The next thing I would do is close the clubface, turn the toe in and keep doing it until again the ball starts curving in the other direction. All we are trying to do is make the ball curve the opposite way than the slice. I am not that interested in where the ball starts or ends up right now.

The final practice drill would be to hold the club out of the ground almost parallel to the ground and make some practice swings similar to a baseball swing. You should feel your hands rotate or as you come through the bottom hand flips over the top hand. This is proper rotation or release of the hands. Doing this drill often will educate your hands to release through the shot or at least give you the feeling of what you should feel. If you do not feel this when the ball is there then they might be the culprit or your swing plane is too steep which almost causes the hands to reverse this process.

Try these drills to combat your slice. Remember the only reason the ball slices is because the club face is open or opening.

Tags: General by John White
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It amazes me when I talk to golfers about their games and I point out something that is producing bad shots and their response is I know but I am working on this or that. Maybe it is an ego thing and they want to work it out for themselves, but I know if someone pointed out something to me then I would listen or at least take it into consideration.

Golf is a complex motor skill, a precise strike and there is a physics and geometry reason for every shot. There is an explanation and a cause. This does not mean you have to know about every shot but if you have a tendency to keep hitting certain shots, then you should find out why you hit these shots. Trying to guess and work it out for yourself is very risky as it leads you down a path of constant corrections and usually leads to a very unorthodox method or swing.

The ball is telling you what you are doing to it. Ask questions of a qualified professional why it is going or doing what it is doing? We need to ask questions, listen to answers, and watch ourselves at all times in order to learn. Maybe it is an ego thing but people should not be learning this game by themselves or someone that is untrained.

Tags: Golf General by John White
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I talked to a lot of avid golfers about their swing and they tell me that they “swing to fast” or “come over the top” and then I ask them whether they have ever seen themselves on video and the most common answer is “no”. Most of them watch golf and know what a good golf swing looks like so it is very important that they get to see themselves on video to actually know what they are doing.

This would be the first step that I recommend to everyone out there that plays golf and wants to improve. You must know what you are doing as oppose to what you think you are doing. It would help also to have a qualified golf instructor analyse it and give you positive steps to improve your motion.

The golf swing is a complex motion so anyone that tells you that it is simple then I would look for another person. It is a series of motions and compensations that end up in you overall motion. If one part is changed it changes other reactions and results so you need someone who knows the whole motion and all the parts of it that affect other parts. Most of the time instructors are trying to correct the effect rather than the cause. This just leads to more frustration. For example the head comes up for a reason in other words coming up is the effect, what is the cause, improper weight transfer or fluctuations in spine angle, physical problems, clubface correction, proximity to the ball or any number of other things. The next time an instructor tells you that this is happening in your swing make sure you ask him why that is happening. If he can’t tell you then he doesn’t know the cause either.

Tags: General, Golf General, Lessons in Golf by John White
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