Wednesday, August 8, 2012

It all starts with a good grip.


Perfect Right Hand Golf Position from Peak Performance Golf
Hi my name is Paul Wilson and I’m the creator of Swing Machine Golf and the director of the Paul Wilson Golf School at Bear’s Best Las Vegas. In this tip, I’m going to talk about the best placement for the right hand on the golf club.
Now, what I want for you to do is pay close attention, because I see so many people that do not have the right handle in the proper position. Hopefully, I can clear that up for you today and show you the right way to put the right hand on the golf club so that you can master that position.
So why is the right hand important?
Well, in a golf swing, particularly a right-handed golf swing, typically your left hand is the weaker hand and your right hand is the stronger hand. If you’re a leftie, that’s great because you’ve got a bonus, your left hand is already strong.
Now I’m talking, typically, the right-handed player, their left hand is weak and their right hand is strong. So what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to weaken the strong hand and we’re trying to strengthen the weak hand. As we do that, the hands balance out one another and allow our wrists to swing freely in the golf swing.
What happens often is people hold the golf club on too strong of a position in their right hand. And that’s because they’re looking for power or that feeling of power to try and hit that golf ball as hard as they can.
So when they do that, the harder they hit, the tighter the golf club becomes in the wrist or the tighter your wrist becomes. That slows down the golf club and opens the club face more.
Also, if you do happen to allow the wrist to return over, if the hands are in a strong position, that rolls the face over and you’ll end up in a closed position with the club and you end up hooking it.
So not only does the strong position create shots that can potentially slice or spin off to the right, but that strong position can also create hooks as well. What we want is for the right hand to be on in a very balanced position so that it’s not influencing or dominating throughout the golf swing.
Now, if you know anything about my teaching method, I based my teaching on the Iron Byron Swing Machine. With the Iron Byron, it’s only got one arm and that’s the golfer’s left arm in the backswing, left arm through impact, then it becomes the golfer’s right arm.
So in essence, by weakening the right hand, you’re taking that out of the picture and you’re creating a firm connection of the left which replicates the machine. So we don’t want this right arm in there trying to do anything because the machine doesn’t even have a right arm until after the ball’s been hit.
Hopefully, you understand that.
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We’re making a secure connection in the left and a weaker connection in the right.
Ok, so how do we get this?
With your left hand, what we want to try and do is follow the video that I did previously about that left hand placement or your top hand if you’re a left-handed player. So with the left hand or top hand, we’re putting this on where the golf club is across our palm.
I know about people that talk about the club in the fingers, I want it in the palm because it’s a secure position. And if you look at this hand, it’s going to go right across here (in palms) and to get that, we’re going to do that by keeping the thumb against the side of our hand.
So if we got the thumb against the side of our hand, the club will fit perfectly across your palm. You don’t even have to wonder where it’s going to go. Ok, so thumb is against the side, we’re going to take this hand and we’re going to put it where our thumb is straight down the shaft of the golf club or straight down the grip just for a second.
And from here, we’ll turn the right hand a little bit to the right. That allows us to see two knuckles of this top hand. So we got this hand on (top hand), this gap is closed (between thumb and side of hand), thumb is slightly right of center and you see two knuckles.
Now with our right hand, we’re going to bring this hand in and as we do, we want to take a look at the middle knuckle section. So what that means is we got one, two and three knuckle sections.
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I want you to be looking in the middle knuckle sections.
Typically people are going to be holding the golf club up here (top flesh of fingers). That’s the position of strength I was talking about. However, we want to feel weak in this hand. So, we’re going to hold it in the middle knuckle section.
So we got our left hand on the golf club, we’ve chosen the grip we’re going to use and now we’re going to put our hand on, bring it in and we’re going to stop right in the middle knuckle section.
We’re then going to curl the finger tips.
Now we’re going to wrap this hand on top of our left, covering the left thumb. So left hand on, we’re coming in like this (bring hand towards middle knuckle section), and we’re going to wrap it on top of the left thumb covering it.
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And what that does is it creates the letter ‘V’ right here (between the thumb and side of hand). So that letter ‘V’ is very important in your golf swing because that letter ‘V’ is going to cradle the golf club once we hit the top of the back swing.
So what that means is as the wrist hinges, it’s resting in that letter ‘V’ at the very top.
Ok, so I’ve taken my left hand position, my right hand wraps on top. I’ve got my letter ‘V.’ I go up to the top of the back swing and the club is actually resting in that ‘V.’ Now most people they would hold onto that golf club with their right thumb straight down the shaft.
If you do that, that’s a strong position, you can see that it’s in my middle or it’s down towards my palm here so that’s a strong position in the strong hand and the thumb is straight down.
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So when you do that and you take the club to the top, the club can’t be hinging properly because what happens is you feel pressure in the right thumb right here. And because your body or mind doesn’t like that pressure, it locks your wrist. So when you try to hinge fully, you feel the pressure.
Now if I go to the top in the wrong position, I’ll start feeling the pressure right about there (thumb). So what’s going to happen is your wrists are going to lock and all of a sudden you can’t hit the top of the backswing position.
You’ve probably heard about creating this ‘V’ on a golf club between your right index finger and thumb. Now you know the importance of it.
We’re creating a ‘V’ because the club is resting in that ‘V’ at the very top of our backswing.
Ok, so that’s very, very important that we get that. The whole idea is that we’re really wrapping this right hand on top of our left. Now, in that process, it is very, very uncomfortable. And again, that’s because we’re taking the power out of your stronger hand.
If you feel kind of weak on that hand, you’re not going to want to do that grip because you like that feeling of strength. The problem with the grip though, in a strong position, remember it’s going to put you in a position of strength where you’re trying to hit the golf ball too hard.
The harder you hit, the tighter your wrists, the more open the club face becomes.
Also, if you’re in a position that you’re trying to hit with the right hand, you’re doing something that the Iron Byron is NOT doing. So we want to take this hand out or eliminate it from our swing by putting it in a weaker position.
So we’ve got our left hand on in position with our thumb slightly right off the center. We come in with our right, we’re holding it in the middle knuckle section. Then we’re wrapping it on top of our left hand.
That’s how to get the right hand on in the position.
Now what I want you to be aware of is that your left hand on the golf club determines the position of the right hand. This is very, very important that you get this because if your left hand is on wrong, you will not be able to do the right hand position.
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So what I’m getting at is, if you take your left hand and the thumb is straight down the middle of the golf club, what’s going to happen is when you go to the middle to put your right hand on, your right thumb is actually going to fit in this groove right here.
So you can see the fleshy part of this thumb and your left thumb, they fit together perfectly. And if your thumb is out of position, you know one knuckle position here and thumb is going straight down and you try to put this position on the golf club, your right hand is now in a very weak position.
You can see that your ‘V’ or this line is pointed left in the setup position. So if the thumb is here and you’re trying to nestle that thumb in that groove, your right hand is on in a very weak position.
Likewise, if you’re in a 3 knuckle position with your left hand and your thumb is way over here and you try to put that thumb in that fleshy part right there, there is no way that your ‘V’ can get on top. So you’re actually gripping on the side of the golf club here.
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So that’s a real strong position in your strong hand which is exactly what we’re trying to avoid. So in order to get the right hand on in the perfect position, we’re making sure that our thumb is just slightly right off center in a 1 o’clock position as we take our grip.
If we take it on in a 1 o’clock position, we’re going to allow the right hand to nestle on there perfectly and create our letter ‘V.’ So really be aware of that, that the left placement of the hand is critical to the placement of the right hand.
Now one other thing I want you to be aware of is that when you do your grip and you go to put this right hand on in it’s position, the pinky of your right hand is going to feel out of place.
So that will add to the feeling of being uncomfortable with your right hand. So what we want to try and do there is we want to understand that this isn’t about the comfort of the right hand or the pinkie. As you keep doing the grip, it is going to feel comfortable and you will get the right hand on in position.
So what I’m getting at is if you take your grip like this, what you don’t want to be doing is taking your pinkie and trying to get it way up here to get into a comfortable position.
As you can see, I can’t get my right hand on top of the golf club but right there, that feels really good. This is especially true with people who do interlocking grip so that they get their index finger and pinkie really nestled in there, but the problem is you can’t get your right hand on top.
So now the ‘V’ is not in position, you take that to the top and there’s no way that ‘V’ is going to cradle your golf club. So we want to be sure that we’re not trying to get this pinkie way in here. All that we’re concern with is the proper positioning looking down at your hands.
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So we’ve got the left hand on in position, we’re holding the club in the fingers of our right and we’re covering the left thumb looking for this letter ‘V’ to be right on top.
There’s also another way to check it and that is to find this line and this line parallel between our right ear and shoulders.
If your lines are all off, there’s no way you’re doing the right grip.
I know that was a lot of information but it’s very, very important that you get the right position in the right hand or the bottom hand grip.
We’re trying to weaken this hand so that it wraps on top better, balances the hands out and allows the club to swing freely throughout our swing. So we’re holding the left hand in a secure position, a 2 knuckle position, across our palm, fingers of the right, wrap it on top. No matter how uncomfortable it is, keep doing it and finally you will master the right hand position.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Kelly Tighlman doing a drill with Rick Bradshaw on The Golf Channel.

Monday, April 23, 2012

AccraSpeed Sports Trainer




The AccraSpeed Sports Trainer will immediately improve your performance in your chosen sport. AccraSpeed teaches the rhythm and tempo required in sports sensing centrifugal force and velocity speeds. The tones emitted by AccraSpeed’s highly engineer circuits provide an instant measure performance. AccraSpeed does not have to be reset or require visual monitoring by you. This allows you to maintain rhythm, timing and tempo at different precise levels. Made of durable lightweight aluminum and a mounting strap that allows the AccraSpeed Trainer to be worn on the wrist, hand, arm or leg by both right and heft handed players. Through its 56 marked settings, one may measure the slowest back swinging golf to a fast ball in the major leagues. Now see and hear for yourself the AccraSpeed in action.
Hi, I’m Rick Bradshaw, two time North Florida Section PGA Teacher of the Year and National PGA Teacher of the Year Nominee in 2006. I’ve been teaching golf for 33 years and the AccraSpeed Performance Trainer was the best golf trainer for rhythm and tempo that I’ve ever seen. This device measures the unseen force in the golf swing. I call it a centrifugal outward pull and centrifugal inward force, but it’s the unseen force. Many gold professionals say you want to feel the force, don’t force the feel. Well I can hear the force in the swing… and when I hear it evenly… then I know that everything is flowing from the ground up and out to the club head. Also this device has a great feature, it positions your hand so you can put the club, the grip, on that black holder and it positions you and the fingers perfectly so that you don’t have it up on the palm too much. So I have it in the fingers and I grip it… I want to focus on that even sound… not short and quick. It can slow down the monster swing. Let’s see if I can hit one. I want to sense the force in the golf swing.
Now, we’ve done the finger feature for tempo and feel and hearing the unseen force, but I going to work on my lead side in golf. So I’m going to put the wrist strap on and I’m going to focus on through to the finish with my left side. Through to a finish. I can also work on even flowing, but I want to focus really on this side so I don’t stop at the ball. Well, let’s see if we can hear that when we go through to a finish by having it on the left wrist. That really helps me get through the shot, not chop at the ball.
A lot of times my students come in with a “Yip Chip”. Or what I call a “Caveman Chop” where they chop and they can’t get through the chip. I like to use the AccraSpeed Performance Trainer to keep a flowing motion, back and accelerate through, back and accelerate through. If you think about going through, you want to stop and chop.
The AccraSpeed Performance Trainer measures the unseen, critical force in the golf swing and it’s an outward even pull. So if I want to a smooth, long swing, like a little long one with a driver, I can keep my tempo. If I want to keep it shorter, a pro shot with the pitching wedge, the same principals and the physics, I just don’t want… that. Can’t have that. I need to have an even and outward pulling. Also what’s interesting is that if I pick it up you don’t hear a sound. I’ve got to glide and wide. I gotta’ be wide and around so… I want to be on the big Ferris wheel, not the kiddie Ferris wheel. So here, I’m going to do a wedge here, a little shorter. Same force, I want to focus and hear that. Feel the force and hear the force, don’t force the feel.
Hi, I’m Lorie Miles and I’m here in Tampa, Florida and I teach tennis. I’ve been teaching tennis in the Tampa area for about 20 years and I also coach a local high school girls tennis team. I’m here to demonstrate the AccraSpeed.
I’m going to demonstrate what the forehand should look like without the AccraSpeed, it’s a nice long swing, as tennis teachers we emphasize the long continuous motion of the follow through and the longer you follow through towards your target, the more accurate you’re gonna’ be and the more successful you’ll be at your tennis game. A lot of students tend to shorten up their swing, which would produce a short chirping sound. I’m looking for a long chirping sound. Teaching kids, a lot of times they don’t have the vocabulary to be able to tell them exactly what I am looking for in a long swing. A lot of times I’ll see this… when they’re trying to push at the ball and just make it go over the net. They think stronger is better, but with the AccraSpeed it will be able to show them that a nice long swing has a nice long chirping sound. They’ll be able to hear a nice long chirping sound. So I am not looking for this… a short sound, I am looking for a nice long sound… like that. Something that they can ingrain in their head and have, establish that muscle memory of hitting that stroke over and over again with a nice long chirp. Once they feel it, they’re more able to put it in practice without the AccraSpeed even on.
The same thing with the one handed backhand, and that’s a really nice advantage to have when you’re teaching the one handed backhand because a lot of one-handers will shorten up their stroke and chop. You don’t want that, you want a nice long swing and a nice long follow through.
I showed you how to use the AccraSpeed with beginner students who are just learning the strokes. I had the AccraSpeeed set at a very low level. Now, to challenge yourself for more advanced students, you can tighten up the AccraSpeed so that you have to swing a little quicker to get that same chirping motion. See if I had the same swing, I don’t hear any motion, I don’t hear any chirping. Now if I speed it up, I hear that nice long swing again and I was able to get more torso rotation and more leg motion into the shot. That’s what you usually look for, for advanced students.
In teaching the serve, I take the students and I show them to serve. The correct way to serve is a push motion that goes like this… and you can tell, you can hear that you had a long chirping sound both on the back swing and then again on the forward swing. What I see a lot, especially with beginning students, is that they get initial success with just popping it over with the very short backswing, very short follow through and it looks more like this… and as you can hear, there was no chirping sound or very little chirping sound.
Now acting as an advanced player, I gonna’ ramp this thing up a little bit and turn up the dial and have a faster swing. So get your AccraSpeed to improve your technique, your strength or speed and your follow through or your finish. Get AccraSpeed, see what it can do for you.
Hi, I’m Sam Perlozzo and I’ve been a major league coach or manager for the past 25 years and today I want to give you a little bit of tips about this AccraSpeed which is like a coach in itself. I’ll tell you why I really like it, it gives you instant feedback and a lot of times, you just don’t need the coach at the time.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Tempo & Rhythm in the Golf Swing: Perfect Pair to blend= Perfect Swing

Tempo has to do with the relative rapidity, basically the overall speed of the golf swing. When you look at great tour players, Nick Price has a faster tempo than Ernie Els.

Rhythm is the movement with uniform or patterned recurrence, basically the relative duration of each of the swing parts. Generally, the backswing is slower than the downswing. For good golfers, you'll usually see a 2:1 rhythm, which means the backswing takes twice as long as the downswing.

The most important part of the golf swing happens when rhythm and tempo come together - the transition to the downswing. When you've got the right tempo, the downswing will  flow into the ball with easy power. Tempo and rhythm affect every shot you hit. If you want to have a great swing, you've got to have the right golf swing tempo, golf rhythm, and golf transition from top.                             
Having the right golf swing tempo and golf rhythm will make it easier for your golf game to hold up and stay consistent - whether it's a pressure shot or a money shot, the right golf tempo and rhythm will make sure you have a continuous uninterrupted flow of power to the club head throughout the swing. The result is consistent ball striking with effortless power regardless of the golfers ability level. THIS IS THE SECRET TO THE GOLF SWING!
Tempo varies from golfer to golfer, so it is really about finding the right one for you. let's go back to the example of Nick Price and Ernie Els. Price is quick guy. The way he walks, the way he talks, all lead to a faster golf tempo. Els is a laid back kind of guy and his tempo reflects it. Both have different tempos, but the flow of power to the club head is uninterrupted for both players.. When they're making the cut and find themselves in pressure situations, their individual tempo is what they continue to come back to to be their own comfort zones.



Your golf tempo may not be like Price's or Els', but when you find it, and pair it with your golf rhythm, you'll find the  golf transition from top to downswing will be much more fluid, dependable and consistent. Check out these golf aids that will make your golf training more productive and consistent.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Refiner Driver and Medicus Driver Reviews



So you just hit a regular driver, Felt pretty good. "Yep".  Refiner Pro.   Now your going to hit this, the only graphite shaft hinged trainer. Alright how that feel? Good. ( Now the Medicus) Now this one is about four times heavier than the graphite one. How that one feel? Well it is definitely heavier and it does not feel as smooth when the club is breaking. Kinda of klanky. Ah that graphite definitely feels pretty good.  That's closer to the actual swing weight of a golf club. Its just heavy. It doesn't feel as much like a club you have in play.  It is just heavy and boardy.
One third the weight.  This one is heavier.  The lighter feeling vs the heavier feeling.  I mean there is a lot of heavy weight here.  And ah, yeah this feels more like my exercise club.  The Refiner club is a lot more like my real driver.  Being that it is graphite and not nearly as heavy.  So it is great for women as well.  Let's switch out see what you think here   You don't fee that real heavy lag as you are coming down you through the shot and that's just  the overall weight of this light graphite shaft and that is really nice.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

A Correct Golf Grip Is A Must

Any pro will tell you that having the correct golf grip will make or break your game. Harvey Penick put it best when he wrote, "If you don't have a good grip you don't want a good swing." Ben Hogan also said that "golf begins with a good grip." Even your local driving range pro will tell you that a good grip is the fundamental foundation for a good golf swing.

The reason why the correct golf grip is a must is clear when you think about it - your hands are responsible for holding on to the clubshaft so that your clubface is square on impact. While your swing may not be in the 100+ mph category of the pros, even a slow swing speed creates high enough velocity that you can't make hand adjustments to correct any clubface alignment issues as you close in on impact. That's why every player needs a good golf grip as a fundamental element of the swing.

In an ideal world, you'll have a golf grip with a neutral hand position. Neutral hand position should result in your hands and clubface consistently facing the target when you make impact. A good golf grip should feel natural - the same way it is when your hands are relaxed and hanging by your body palms inward is the same way you'll go about setting up your grip. You'll tilt your right shoulder down to position your right hand slightly lower than the left. That's proper golf grip positioning for right handers. Southpaws should have the left hand lower.

When your golf grip is finalized, your palms should be facing each other, with the back of your left and and palm of your right hand aligned with the target.

While it's difficult to learn the correct golf grip just from reading about it, training aides such as the Refiner Swing Trainer product line train you to have the proper grip while also working to refine your swing.

Refiner Driver

                                 
Refiner golf is coming out with their 460 cc head on their new driver. It really has the feel of the big drivers that the tour players hit these days. You gonna love it.  I like this trainer because I can feel the one piece takeaway, if I take it back to early with the hands, then I just kinda make it break. If I can keep everything together, my thought is arms together, knees flex, I want to give the grass a haircut turning this triangle back together.  I come here and it stays right on plane.  Don't lay it off so it breaks,, so its back give the grass a haircut, arms together.
Low, stay wide untwist through.  It really works when you feel the force pulling out in the swing.  If you do to much right hand and do this, this is when you snap and break.  So you want to feel the legs, buttocks, back muscles,  turn and twist so you have a force pulling out and this won't break.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

PGA Golf Demo Day 2012

After two years of windy cool weather , 2012 proved to be perfect.
 
                  Held at Orange National, the range is a perfect set up for the golf companies 
to demo and display their newest product lines.



                                         
  Golf swing instructional seminars were available throughout the day.

Bob Toski was there, he shared his thoughts on the golf swing. 
I think he is 85 years old, but he can still bring it.


 The golf fix man was there also.
PGA golf professional Michael Breed from the Golf Channel.