December 2007

We are all built differently

Great Christmas Gifts!

Did you know?

Can Golf Performance and Sleep be Connected?

Did you know?

An Old Game

Therapy: What is the real difference?

Our Shots Reflect Our Thoughts

We are all built differently

As most of you know we are all built differently.  Not one of us are alike, just take a good look at your fingerprint.   In as much as we’d like to think we can swing like Tiger Woods, most of us simply will never have that ability.   But here is the good news: you have ability in golf!  We just need to make some effort to find it.   It is not like searching for gold, although that is what most instructors might want you to believe but rather searching for the assets and liabilities within ourselves. 

Let’s take a look at two simple areas of improvement that you can manage.  If I asked you how much your head weighs you wouldn’t have a clue, right?  That is because we do not put our heads on the scale and individually weigh them, then add our arm to the scale and add it to the head weight and so on.  But if you take a look at the golf swing as a whole, you can certainly send your balance scale off keel by simply tilting your head the wrong way at address.

The diagram to the side represents three head positions.  Number two, the middle image, is the best position.  But for those who struggle with bifocals or poor vision you may be susceptible to position #3 on the far right.  This position with the head is putting your weight too far forward and easily causing you to swing off your swing plane. 

Now, since our head on average weighs 6 to 8 lbs, we need to counter this weight by sticking our rear end out up to 6 to 8 lbs behind our center of gravity.   What is your center of gravity? 

Center of gravity: a fixed point where gravitational attraction act. 

For golf it is usually in the trunk of the body near the belly button, this is why most people have a spine angle around 36-39 degrees.  If you have a big head (ego does not count) and a small rear you will need to stick out those little gluteus muscles further behind you than someone with a small head and a big rear. Thus  you might be the one with a greater spine angle or nearer to 40 degrees.  Now there is a catch, you can balance your head more over your hips causing you to have a spine angle of 33 or so but you will be an all arms swing and not be able to properly use your hips because of the compromised position.   The taller you stand the less you will be able to powerfully activate your legs.

Here is the kicker, literally; if you have created a posture that is tucked like the image to the side then it automatically causes your head to be in a compromising position which therefore makes your swing inconsistent. Bottom line, get that rear end out!

It is not that we measure the weight of the head but is that you realize all heads are different shapes and sizes and that all rear’s are different weights and sizes.  Balance them and you’ll have the first step to the proper balance in your swing.

Swing away,
Shannon
Golf With Shannon

Did you know?

Golf is the only sport played on the moon. On February 6,1971 Alan Shepard hit a golf ball on the moon.

Can Golf Performance and Sleep be Connected?

Dr. James B. Maas
Nation's Top Sleep Educator

People think that sleep is a luxury.  It's not.  It's a necessity.  We are operating on half of our battery and people who follow the rules, and the strategies in Power Sleep tell me after three weeks, 'Jim, I never knew what it was like to be awake before.'  It's like a religious convergence, but I'm not selling snake oil, there's no medicine here, there's no pills here.  It's just getting back to the basics of what a good nights sleep is, of adequate length and uninterrupted. Getting a regular schedule, that means, going to bed every night at the same time Monday through Monday, and waking up at the same time, including weekends, Monday through Monday, without an alarm clock.  If you need an alarm clock to get up, you are sleep deprived. 

You want continuous sleep of an adequate nature to make sure that you have met your sleep requirement and for most people that's 8 hours.  We have a lot of macho people saying, 'Oh, I get by on 6 or 7', but they are getting by; they are no where near their peak performance.  As a rule of thumb, most of us would increase our productivity by at least 25% (including our golf game), and certainly our mood, if we got 1 (one) more hour of sleep; that is, we went to bed one hour earlier instead of surfing the web or staying up watching late night television.

Some say they can’t go to bed at the same time every night. Well, it's a matter of life choice.  People say there are not enough hours in the day, but if you follow my suggested rules and the twenty strategies what you will find is you are so much more efficient, so much more dynamic; you won't need all of those hours.  If we operated machinery like we're operating the human body right now, you would be accused of reckless endangerment.  It's that bad.

Find out what your need is, and the book tells you how; some people need 7, other people need 9 or even 10.  And then what you have to do is arrange the stage for the theatre of the night - - your bedroom; quiet, dark and cool.  You want to develop some relaxation techniques.  Some people find sex before bedtime is very soporific.  Other people like to read and relax, take a warm bath, do easy stretching - - but, avoid alcohol after 6, no tobacco, and avoid chocolates and caffeine after 2 in the afternoon.  Just by following those rules as a start you're going to be the person that you've always wanted to be.  You are going to be happier.  You are going to be healthier.  You are going to be the spouse that you wanted to be, you're going to be the parent that you wanted to be and the worker you wanted to be and the golfer you want to be!

An Old Game

Article from: http://www.segetaway.com/Golf/Trivia.html

The Romans played a game called paganica that was reputed to have been played with a bent stick and a ball which may have been made of wood or animal skin stuffed with some kind of material. They played "through" as they expanded their empire into western Europe.

Scotland has the earliest written evidence of the existence of golf due to the fact that King James II in 1457 proclaimed that the game be banned. The Kings reason was that Golf was taking up valuable time that should have been spent practicing archery, swordsmanship, and other defensive skills.

Many historians believe that the coastal areas of eastern Scotland contained the first courses. These courses, continuously eroded by tide and wind were structured by mother nature. With the removal of offending pieces of scrub and weed, 'fair ways' and 'holing out' areas were formed. The 'holing out' areas were formed with a hole in the center cut out with a knife and marked with a large white sea-bird's feather. Later the feather was pushed into a piece of stick in the hole.

Therapy: What is the real difference?

Dr. Taras V. Kochno
Nation's Top Physiatrist and Sports Performance Doctor

Physical Therapy is the treatment of injury and disease through the assessment and application of appropriate therapeutic exercise and other physical agents such as ice, heat or ultrasound.  The goal of physical therapy is to treat the pain symptoms and restore wellness.

Kinesiotherapy is the assessment and treatment of individuals through progressive resistance exercise.  The primary objective of Kinesiotherapy is to maximize the strength, flexibility and endurance of affected muscle groups.  Facilitated stretching is the most natural technique or rehabilitation of musculoskeletal pain.

Massage Therapy is a gentle manual method to the superficial tissues of the human body (muscles, skin, tendons). Massage therapy is often used in conjunction with other forms of therapy to reduce pain, increase flexibility and improve function.

Neuromuscular Therapy is a highly specialized massage technique used to restore the soft muscle tissue of the human body into a normal "tone".

Medical Evaluation and Comprehensive Treatment Plans can be provided to determine the exact nature of pain or disability coordinating a specialized treatment plan for correction and restoration of function and pain management.

 information from www.drkochno.com

Golf is not a natural sport as we all know.  If you do have an injury and feel uncertain as to where to turn for help, email  our Golf With Shannon doctor, Dr. Kochno,  and get his recommendation. 

Our Shots Reflect Our Thoughts

Mary Ritchie, LPGA
Golf With Shannon Mental Coach

 When asked what is most wanted from their golf games, many players waste no time, “more consistency,” is their knee-jerk response.  It seems obvious that with more consistency, scoring would plunge considerably and we would become the golfer we imagine we are capable of being.  What stands in the way of this illusive consistency?  Is there nothing we are doing with our current skills that demonstrates repetition or are the results we are getting completely random?  Often, we hit a shot that viciously curves in one direction, and next we compensate with an opposite ball flight. This may or may not be your actual experience. Instead, your story may be one of repeating the same pattern of misshapen shot.  Either way, regardless of the particular outcome, the process is the same.  My belief and observation is that our shots are the products of our thoughts. 

If we change our thoughts our experience changes.  When we repeat the same pattern of thinking, our experience remains the same.  As players who seek improvement in our golf games, what we really should be asking ourselves after making each swing is, “What was I thinking to create the shot I just hit?” In most cases, we may notice that none of our thoughts involved a certainty that our ball would move toward the target.  Often our thinking is focused on where we don’t want to go and then to the various swing thoughts that further detract from the target by cluttering our minds.  For many players, "target" is some vague construct that is not given much emphasis. Instead, we are consumed with internal directives that we believe will cause our shot to move somewhere “out there”. Simply put, we get so distracted with how we will perform the swing that we place little attention on where we would like the ball end up. Our target, we think is obvious.  This sounds so logical yet many struggle to put the concepts into action. It seems easier to avoid the unwanted terrain on the golf course. For instance, we notice a hazard lining the fairway.  We are very familiar with this area of the hole, having experienced it many times.  With a belief that our ball will be kept from harm’s way, we tend to align our body 40 yards away from this obstacle.  The result: the dreaded slice or ugly hook. Our bodies have performed a seemingly miraculous feat.  How could this possibly happen?  What we have actually done is align ourselves with the hazard energetically by placing most of our attention on it. To be truly successful, it is imperative that we be intentional with our thinking about our desired target and allow the magic to unfold. 

Action:

1. First we must imagine and decide where we would like our shot to go.

2. Trust that it will occur. Then we allow the appropriate swing to surface naturally rather than attempting to force and control the process.

Why do this? When we become a witness rather than judge to our own thinking then we become objective rather than analytical.  From this standpoint, we are better equipped to

3. Observe the shot or assess which thoughts are producing which outcomes rather than focus on labeling your shot as desirable or undesirable.

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