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October 23 /11

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Summer's long gone in the Northern Hemisphere. Now, we're getting into the later stages of fall. There aren't too many golfing days left. How are you going to work on your game in the off season? You can use the Swing Speed Radar to monitor your swing speed.

Click on any of the following Newsletter topics or just scroll down the page:

Learn New Motor Skills -- Golf Swing Positions
Golf Ball Drill -- 9 to 3 o'clock
Golf Swing Instruction -- How we learn
Colder Temperatures and Distance
More Clubhead Speed -- How's your lag?

Going away on a golf holiday with a group? Need a golf draw that pairs each player with each other player exactly once? or twice? or not at all? I have developed draws that meet those requirements. Take a look at them by CLICKING HERE, Golf Draws.

Regular Prices: $100 Swing Speed Radar $150 Swing Speed Radar with Tempo Timer $70 Golf Ball Finder Glasses   Pair them up for a 20% discount: $129 Swing Speed Radar + Golf Ball Finder Glasses $169 Swing Speed Radar w Tempo Timer + Glasses

New motor skills -- Golf Swing Positions

In my last email, I outlined some of the latest research on how we learn motor skills, such as how to swing the golf club. Review this below. The topic of this newsletter includes some of the swing moves we can work on during the off season.

One of the most important positions in the golf swing is the 9 o'clock position. This occurs during the takeaway where the club gets to a position that is horizontal to the ground. See the images below.

One gets into this position by making a one piece takeaway which involves purely a rotation of the shoulders about the spine and very little, if no movement, of the wrists are hands. If one imagines the arms and club forming the letter Y at setup, this Y remains intact all the way to the 9 o'clock position. At 9'clock, the club is parallel to the ground, parallel to the target line and pointing directly away from the target.

The toe of the club should be pointing vertically upwards towards the sky and the face of the club should point in a direction perpendicular to the shaft (in the direction the golfer is facing). Many teachers advocate clubface evening pointing slightly downwards.

The golf swing is purely a rotation of the body about the spine. Too many golfers, instead of rotating, do more lifting of the club; they lift the club abrupty upwards on the takeaway.

From this position, the shoulders will continue to rotate about the spine and the arms will rotate about the shoulders.

Over the off season, you can practice getting into this position. Kinesthetic scientists have determined that to master a motor skill takes between 3000 to 5000 repetitions. And, we learn faster and more efficiently if we spread those repetitions out over a long time interval. Thus, practicing 20 times a day for a month (20 X 30 = 600) is better than practicing 150 times, once each week for weeks.

So, I encourage you to leave a golf club at your office, have one in your home and even one at the gym, so that you can practice this move regularly and frequently. In a matter of about 5 months (5 X 600 = 3000), you'll have the move mastered and it will be automatic.

I also encourage you to then practice the 9 to 3 drill in which once you get the club to the 9 o'clock position, you then swing it to the 3 o'clock position. The the 3 o'clock position, the club is parallel to the ground, parallel to the target line, pointing towards the target and the toe of the club is facing upwards into the air.

You won't look quite like the photos above, as this is a full swing. But you do want to get the club into the 3 o'clock position like above, with your weight more on your front foot.

Another drill you can also practice utilizes a ball, instead of the club. You can use a soccer ball, basketball or even smaller nurf ball. Just take your address position, holding the ball between your hands, with your palms facing one another. Rotate your shoulders until your hands get to waist high. Envision you are passing the ball backwards to another player, but remain facing forward as in the golf swing. Then, swing the arms to the 3 o'clock position with the feeling you're passing the ball to someone on your left.

Power Meter measures Swing Speed

Ball Drill -- 9 o'clock to 3 o'clock

Here's a drill that you can practice at the office, at home, or anywhere else you'd like to practice. It's a drill that helps you get into the correct positions in the backswing and forward swing.

You can use a medium to large size ball, like a basketball, football, soccer ball or even nerf ball.

1. Place the ball between your hands with your palms facing one another.

2. Grasp onto the ball as shown and place your arms and hands in their address position, as if you were holding onto the club.

3. Get into the 9 o'clock position by purely rotating the shoulders about the spine. The triangle formed by the arms and shoulders should remain intact. Imagine that you are passing the ball to someone on your right (if you're a right swinger), without laterally shifting your upper body to the right (rotation only). Keep your right leg flexed yet firm, feeling the a little more weight on the right foot, but on the inside of the foot towards the ball of the foot.

3. Rotate your shoulders about the spine again, but in the opposite direction, passing the ball to your left, getting your arms into the 3 o'clock position. Your weight should now be predominantly on the left foot, with your right heel off the ground.

Golf Swing Instruction -- How we learn

Recall the concept of wearing headphones while you sleep to learn new information? It's still science fiction ... as is learning new golf swing moves without a lot of practice.

Psychologists and Kinesiologists have made great strides in recent years understanding how we learn new things.

Since you first started to move you limbs as an infant, you have learned to move them with greater control. Crawling and walking were some of the first “complex” motions you learned. You then learned to run and do other sophisticated movements with your body.

Because of golf swing's complexity, the body must learn it in parts or stages, not all at once. You may have heard of the term “muscle memory”; a motion must be “stored in muscle memory” to be automatic. In fact, muscles don't have memory; only the brain does.

The brain controls all motions of all muscles through electrical signals in the nervous system. Millions of neurons in the brain “fire” signals to one another, leading to the muscles.

The more efficient the sequence of firing between neurons becomes, the more efficient the muscular motion. When first learning a motion, the neuron pathways are not efficient. The more often the motion is repeated correctly, the more efficient the firing between neurons becomes (automatic).

Think of some automatic motions that you perform like:

Breathing

Heart Beat

Blinking of eyes

These motions are totally automatic, although you can alter them for a limited time.

Think of some automatic motions that you perform like:

Walking

Running

Dressing

These motions are not automatic, although you perform them very well. They have been learned, through practice have more chances, and, you won't make as many large numbers in the process.

The challenge in learning the golf swing, is to program the neurons of your brain to fire in the proper sequence, efficiently. This requires repetition and practice.

Kinesiology scientists believe it takes:

About 100 repetitions for a neuron pathway to be created

About 3000 to 5000 repetitions for mastery (to become automatic).

That's a lot of swings and practice.

There are multiple motions that must be mastered in a golf swing, many of them connected to one another.

The receptors in the diagram above are input sensors such as what would come from eyes, ears, fingers, etc. In order for the proper sequence of muscles to be fired as a reaction to the stimuli.

Once the neuron pathways are established and solidified (mastery), the brain will follow the proper sequence of signals to perform the task, automatically Just like you don't need to “think” about the proper sequence of motions in walking, the golf swing, although more complex, is the same. All that is needed is a conscious swing cue to begin, and the brain will tell the muscles how to do the rest.

We must practice enough so that the brain establishes an efficient sequence of neuron firing. An analogy would be learing the most efficient route to follow in getting from one point in a city to another (without the aid of GPS!).

Go to the 1 Iron website to learn more and order here. Enter the code 10504 and receive a complimentary set of club covers worth $25. Email me after your purchase and I'll send you a copy of my Golf Driver Distance Calculator ($25 value) and my popular Golf Tips of reading greens, elevation changes and playing the wind ($39 value).

Science tells us some important things about repetition. "It is a well known principle that learning is better when training trials are spaced out than when given all together," says Dr. Wayne Sossin , of McGill University in Montreal.

Sossin proved that spreading the production of the neuro-transmitter serotonin over five weeks of repetition leads to better learning than a tsunami of serotonin over a short time.

Other researchers, TJ Shors and her team at Rutgers University, have shown that the adult brain makes new neurons in substantial numbers -- between 5000 to 10000 a day. These cells are thought to be available to capture new learning – if such is presented to them. If not they die within two weeks.

Experiments at the National Institute of explain why practice and repetition are so important. There is a substance produced in the brain called myelin that acts as an insulator – it wraps around your neurons and prevents the electrical current that energizes your networks from leaking into the periphery.

Brains that have thick layers of myelin think and act faster. When Albert Einstein's brain was dissected they found glial cells in much higher concentration then in a normal brain and that was about the only difference between his brain and a normal one. Glial cells produce myelin.

When you repeat the same motion, it sends a signal down the pathway and it is that signal which prompts the brain cell to generate a wrap of myelin. Do this enough and you have yourself a neuro -template of how to repeat the motion – and the more you wrap it, the more efficient the performance.

Play Premium Golf Balls -- Used Ones

You know from past newsletters that I promote all golfers to play premium golf balls

Premium balls provide comparable distance (no significant loss, compared to those hard balls) along with maximum backspin required on those wedge and iron shots as well as great feel for chips and putts.

When's the last time you "found" a premium golf ball like a Titleist ProV1 or Nike ONE? Bet you were excited. Then, did you play with it and notice any significant loss in distance? Probably not.

In fact, most used golf balls perform just as well as brand new golf balls. Besides, when's the last time you played a full round with a new golf ball without losing it? Very few amateurs end up with the same ball they started with. Thus, most balls you find aren't even 1 round old.

The Golf Ball Testing company, GolfBallTest.org, conducted some very thorough tests on "high quality" second hand Water golf balls (balls found in water) and found:

1. NO significant difference in compression, weight, roundness or cover hardness, all tested with equipment similar to what the USGA uses.

2. NO significant difference in distance and amount of backspin, all tested with a robot launcher.

Golfers also involved in the testing just commented on the appearance of the balls (not as shiny and pure as a new ball). But, how many hits, trees, cart paths, before a new ball begins to look like a used ball.

There are a number of retailers out there that sell used golf balls. I'd stick with the highest grade used balls, although even the lower grades perform as well; they just aren't as nice cosmetically (which is the way the balls are graded in the first place).

So, stop by those kids that are selling used balls, or, perhaps the fellow on the side of the road. You can play premium balls for less than half the price. Click on the banner below to take a look at the offerings of a company I've affliated with.

No shipping charges on orders over $75.

If you want some more details about a Golf Digest Study of Used Golf Balls in which they had Golf Laboratories use their Golf Robot to hit the balls, click on this link:

Golf Digest Study

Trying to find answers on my website? Here's how.

1. Go to my Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page. There's a link to it on my pages from the left hand menu near the top of the page, just below the Search icon. It's called "FAQs." You then click on the graphic icon and you'll be taken to my database page. For your convenience, here it is:
FAQ

I've answered hundreds of questions over the past 6 years and have created a fairly large database. You can search it out. If you can't find the answer you're looking for, submit a question and I'll answer it.

2. On all of my web pages, there is a search feature in the top left section, right underneath my LOGO. Just place your search keywords in the search box, select "This Site" below it, and then press "Search." What will come up is a Google search of the pages on my site with relevance. You can also search the entire internet by selecting "Web" instead.
Go to my main page now: Home or just check the top left menu of this page.

3. Also, directly under the Google Search area, you'll find a pop down menu called "Your Topic." Select the topic of interest and press "Go."

I would suggest you bookmark my main page and/or your specific areas of interest so that you can find them easily in the future. On each page at the very top, there is a link you can click on:
"Click here to add this page to your favourites"

Hope you find all you're looking for.

You can learn more from NEW Titleist Pro-V1 by clicking HERE.

Ken Tannar