KPJ’s Cardiogolf Game Improvement Program
Heading into the last week of the Cardiogolf Game Improvement Program, your focus should continue to be on tightening up all areas of your game so there are no obvious weaknesses and polishing your swing technique so you can concentrate on scoring when you finally get out on the golf course this upcoming season.
During this week, we will focus on refining key scoring skills.
Don’t neglect your golf fitness. Continue to practice golf-specific stretches and warm up routines.
Monday-Basic Refresher Course
Today-Tuesday-The Swing/Warm Up
Wednesday-The Long Game/Strength Exercise
Thursday-The Short Game/Flexibility Exercise
Friday-Practice/Balance and Endurance Work
Building on the established foundation of a good grip, stance, alignment and posture reacquaint yourself with the correct body motion, arm swing, wrist action and resistance that combine to create a solid and repetitive swing. Rehearse the key elements of the golf swing so that they blend together to form a free-flowing, continuous motion.
- Go back through my blog archives and study the parts of the swing that you need to work on
- Make practice swings without a ball in front of a mirror, focusing on your key checkpoints
- When you visit the practice range, hit a few balls working on your fundamentals
Note: To get more distance , try hitting the ball straighter instead of harder. Concentrate on hitting the ball in the sweetspot of the clubface. If you have ever hit the sweetspot, you know that these shots fly farther than the shots you hit off-center in the heel or the toe. For every quarter inch you hit the ball outside the sweetspot, you lose up to 10 yards of distance. So for maximum power, improve your swing technique to consistently hit the ball in the center of the clubface.
Watch this video to help you understand how to the ball more solid, in the center of the clubface.
Click below to view video
Warm Up 101-
Essentials to Better Play and Minimizing Risk of Injury
Studies show that 53% of amateur golfers and 30% of professional golfers have sustained an injury while playing golf and most of those injuries actually occurred while hitting balls on the golf course and practicing on the driving range.
Professional golfers have more overuse injuries due to hours of practice while weekend golfers are more likely to get injured from lack of conditioning and poor swing mechanics. While you may not think that the golf course is a hazardous to your health, there is potential risk of suffering serious injuries to the wrists, elbows, lower back, hips and knees.
Warming up is the easiest and most effective way to prevent injuries that can happen during practice and play.
If you have ever participated in a sport or some form of exercise most likely you performed some type of regular warm up and cool down before and after competition. So why wouldn’t you warm up before a round of golf or a practice session? Swinging a golf club up to 300 times a round including practice swings at speeds upwards of 90 miles per hour stress our muscles, tendons and joints to full capacity. Injury rates for recreational golfers are at an astounding rate of more than 50% – and even higher for golfers over age of 50. Recreational golfers have typically skipped warming up before play and practice because of the misconception that golf is not a strenuous activity or because of time constraints. We are all so busy, so when we have time to play golf, we are all anxious to get out on the golf course and we end up skipping the warm up. But skipping the warm up may mean that it takes us four or five holes before we loosen up and gain our form and by that time, our score may already be ruined. If you had only spent a few minutes warming up before the first tee, you could not only avoid those big numbers on your scorecard the first few holes, but also prevent injury.
Professional golfers now know that a proper warm up is essential for peak performance. Most recreational golfers quite haven’t caught on with the trend, they typically go straight from their car to the first tee and wonder why they don’t hit a solid shot until the 5th or 6th hole. No matter what level of player you are, a proper warm up can help you play your best golf and prevent injuries.
Off-Course Exercise
Complete the Pre-Swing Muscle and Joint Warm Up chapter from the Cardiogolf DVD. To order your own copy of Cardiogolf visit cardiogolf .
On-Course Exercise-You should incorporate an active warm up before you stretch specifically for golf. Active warm-ups can be general and or golf specific. A general warm-up incorporates large muscles of the upper and lower body and require you to move at a brisk pace for 5 to 10 minutes so that elevate your heart rate. For younger players the ideal is to break a sweat: for older golfers, it’s to become slightly winded. Such activities include walking, jogging or jumping jacks or jump rope. Anything that will get your heart rate up.
If looking silly is your concern, you don’t want people to see you jumping rope or something, then simply walking is a way to get warmed up. Instead of driving the golf cart to the driving range, send your partner ahead and walk there. A lot of people may have a hard time doing an active warm up because they don’t want to look silly doing jumping jacks or jogging. My advice is to either do it where no one can see you or get over it. Who cares what people think if it is going to help your game!!
Off-Course Exercise-Here are a series of stretches that you can do on a daily basis to help your golf swing.
1. Cross Crawl to Warm up Body-Alternate lifting legs for 30 seconds.
2. Shoulder and Tricep Stretch-Interlace fingers and stretch arms in front of body.
3. Chest and Upper Back Stretch-Interlace fingers and stretch arms in back of body.
4. Low Back Stretch-Press hips forward and lean backwards.
5. Modified Low Back Stretch-Bend your knees and you press hips forward and lean backwards.
6. Wrist Flexion-Stretch arms out in front as you flex your wrists.
7. Shoulder Stretch-Raise arms above head.
8. Shoulder Stretch-Swing right arm across chest and repeat with left arm.
9. Balance Exercise-Lift one leg up as you pump arms up and down, repeat on opposite leg.
10. Shoulder and Lat Stretch-Pull right arm across body and repeat with left arm.
Hold each stretch for 10 to 15 seconds.
Email me your questions and comments-kpj@swingbladegolf.com.
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