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Golf balance exercises should be a must for every amateur golfer. One of the biggest issues with most amateurs is balance, stability and body control in their golf swing.

So often I see a golfer swinging outside their physical capabilities and losing their balance, resulting in a severe mishit that will end up being a double or triple bogey.

There is a physical requirement to maintaining your golf balance throughout your swing. The golf swing position commonly referred to as golf posture is a very unnatural position for the body to be in at address, let alone throughout the swing.

Having a forward tilt over the balls of your feet require a high level of both strength and flexibility in your hamstrings. Just get in your golf posture and reach back behind your upper leg to see how tight your hamstrings are.

If your hamstrings are tight and/or weak, you will have no chance at maintaining your golf posture and ultimately balance throughout your golf swing.

How about your quadriceps?

The play a critical role in keeping your golf swing stable. Rotating your upper body around a somewhat fixed lower body takes a tremendous amount of leg (quad) strength. Also your quads help maintain your knee flex that you had at address. If your quads are weak, your legs will straighten, causing you to come out of our swing.

As you can see, your golf balance requires muscular strength and flexibility. Without it, you’ll be falling all over your swing forever!

One great golf balance exercise (drill) is swinging and actually hitting balls on one leg. Give it a try! You’ll soon find out how difficult it is. But stick with it, and you’ll become a pro at it. If you can hit straight balls on one leg, using both legs will be a cinch.

In all of my advanced golf performance training programs, I have the golfer do a majority of their strength exercises on one leg. It is brutal! It takes so much focus and concentration, you’ll be sweating before you even grab the weight.

I have literally dozens of golf balance exercises in my dvds, books and websites that will dramatically improve your balance, stability and overall control. It’s amazing how many emails I get from golfers who thought these golf balance exercises were easy until they did a full set of just one exercise.

They thought differently after that!

This could be your missing link to a great game! Focus on those golf balance exercises!

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Mike Pedersen is one of the top golf performance experts in the country, author of the Ultimate Golf Fitness Guide - http://www.ultimategolffitnessguide.com and founder of several cutting-edge online golf performance sites. Visit his new golf swing improvement site at http://www.performbettergolf.com

When looking at a brief history of golf, it is useful to know that the origins of the game itself are not really that clear. Back in Roman times, the Romans played a game that somewhat resembled golf. In this game they used club shaped branches to strike a feather-stuffed ball. It is thought that the Dutch playing a similar game on their frozen canals about the 15th century and other cross-country variations were popular in France and Belgium around this time too.

In 1457 golf was banned in Scotland because it interfered with the practice of archery, which was vital to the defense effort. But in any event the Scottish people continued to brave the opposition by playing the game on seaside courses called links. In fact Scotland is the home of the world’s oldest golf course, St. Andrews, which was first used in the 16th century.

Golf became established in Great Britain by the 17th century when James VI of Scotland, later James I of England, first played the game. Following on from this, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club at St. Andrews, was founded in 1754. Shortly after this and during the early 1800s the gutta-percha ball, replaced the feather-filled ball that had been used for centuries and in 1860 the first British Open was played at Prestwick, Scotland which was open to both professional and amateur players.

The first permanent golf club in Canada was the Royal Montreal Club, which was founded in 1873 and St. Andrews, one of the oldest golf clubs in the United States, was established as a 3-hole course in 1888 at Yonkers, N.Y. Following on from this, during the next few years numerous 6-, 8-, 9-, and 12-hole courses were opened in the East. The first 18-hole course in the United States, the Chicago Golf Club, was founded near Wheaton, Illinois, in 1893.

The governing body of golf in the United States is the United States Golf Association (USGA), was founded in 1894. The organization rules on ball and club specifications and such regulations as hazards and scoring. In addition, the Professional Golfers’ Association of America (PGA) was founded in 1916 and this Association conducts the PGA and PGA Senior tournaments and Ryder Cup competition between members of the American and British PGAs.

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Imagine hitting your driver farther in your 40’s than when you were in your 20’s!

I imagine a few of you are saying, “No way!”

Read this article to be convinced otherwise. I received an e-mail from a golfer about the amazing change in his clubhead speed.

He wrote in about how excited he was that his clubhead speed had improved to a speed higher than when he was in his early twenties! He stated that currently his clubhead speed is between 105-107 mph, and in his twenties it was 95-100 mph. Go figure!

He related his increased driving distance and clubhead speed to a golf fitness program, a program with exercises specific to improving his golf swing. Not a traditional, pump-the-iron program, but one that promotes a more efficient and powerful golf swing.

He stated that since he implemented a golf fitness program, his flexibility, strength, and power have all increased.

As a result of this newfound “bottle of youth,” he is hitting the golf ball farther, lowering his scores, and enjoying the game of golf more.

The question to ask is, “How do improved flexibility, strength, and power relate to increased clubhead speed?”

First and foremost, we must understand a very important principle. The principle revolves around what actually swings the golf club.

Is it your body swinging the club or the club swinging your body?

Obviously, the answer is that your body swings the club. Keeping that statement in mind, we can safely say it is a combination of two entities that creates clubhead speed.

What two entities do you think I am talking about? They are your golf swing mechanics and your body.

Swing mechanics have an effect on clubhead speed. Optimal swing mechanics develop greater clubhead speed than poor swing mechanics. If you do not believe me, try this little experiment.

Go to the range and pull out your driver. On your first swing, swing smoothly and in control. On your second swing, swing as hard as you can! Which golf ball went farther? I am guessing the first one.

This little experiment just goes to show that the mechanics of your swing have an effect on clubhead speed and distance.

Bottom line on the swing mechanics side of the equation, the more efficient your golf swing mechanics are the greater amount of clubhead speed you will be able to generate.

Now, on to the second part of the equation, your body.

The body supports your golf swing mechanics. If your body does not have the flexibility, strength, or power to swing the golf club efficiently, the ability to generate clubhead speed will be compromised.

And if your body is inflexible, weak, and lacking the potential to generate power, clubhead speed will be a difficult entity to create.

Applying the idea of power to golf can be simply identified through clubhead speed. If the clubhead is moving faster at impact with the golf ball, what does this tell us about the golfer?

The golfer is more powerful, and the ball will probably travel farther.

How can a golf fitness program increase the power production in your swing?

Increasing your flexibility allows you to perform the mechanics of the golf swing more efficiently opening the door for improved clubhead speed.

Increasing your strength and power levels around the golf swing allows your body the potential to generate greater amounts of clubhead speed.

Put these entities together with your efficient golf swing mechanics and you will find increased clubhead speed in your golf game.

Now, aging presents a very interesting situation. As you age, the natural levels of flexibility, strength, and power decrease.

Yes, as you get older the body slows down. The slowing down has an effect on your golf swing.

You do not have the flexibility to perform the mechanics of the golf swing. The lowers levels of strength and power decrease the ability to generate clubhead speed.

In order to reverse the effects of aging and improve your clubhead speed, you need to implement a golf fitness program.

A golf fitness program can slow “the hands of time,” improve your flexibility, increase the strength within the body, and improve your power outputs. You essentially become an ageless golfer.

Bottom line, better flexibility, increased strength and power training will increase your clubhead speed, lower your scores, and you’ll get a lot more enjoyment out of the golf course.

Sean Cochran

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Sean Cochran is one of the most recognized golf fitness instructors in the world today. He travels the PGA Tour regularly working with PGA Professionals, most notably Masters and PGA Champion Phil Mickelson. To learn more about Sean and his golf fitness programs go to http://www.seancochran.com

Over the last few weeks I have had many questions about golf fitness exercises.

Questions such as: are these type of exercises beneficial to someone who has had a lower back injury, what are the best types of exercises to improve my clubhead speed, and what flexibility exercises can improve my back swing?

Through many of our free daily golf tips on our website, we have provided answers to these questions and many more. One area of golf fitness I get quite a few questions about revolves on how to implement golf exercises into a golf swing improvement program.

Probably one of the most-asked questions is: how do I go about introducing certain exercises into my golf fitness program?

At times, certain individuals are unable to perform an exercise in its basic form. They are either out of shape, suffering from an injury, or too stiff to perform it correctly. A Russian Twist may be too difficult for a beginner to execute correctly. It takes great core strength, endurance and flexibility to complete the exercise to the limit.

In this type of situation there are “baby steps” you can take in terms of implementing such exercises into your golf fitness program.

I like to call this the “position, movement, tolerance” training guideline. This is an easy methodology to follow in terms of implementing exercises into a training program.

We’ll use the Russian Twist exercise in my book, Core Golf Fitness, as an example.

When you are implementing a golf fitness exercise(s) into your golf swing improvement program, you must be able to place the body in the correct starting position of the exercise.

For example, if I were to have you perform a Russian Twist, first I would ask you to place your body in the correct position for the exercise. In this situation it would be knees slightly bent and placing your torso in a position where the “abs were turned on.”

Just placing your body in the correct position for an exercise requires effort from the body. If you were able to place your body in the correct position, I would then ask you to “hold” this position for a certain amount of time. This would indicate you are strong enough to add movement to your golf fitness exercise.

On the other hand, if you were only able to hold the starting position of the Russian Twist for 15 seconds before your lower back started to bother you, this is an indicator to me that this is where we begin your golf fitness program. I would have you “hold” the start position of this golf exercise for a certain number of seconds and sets. This would, over a period of time, develop more strength and endurance in those golf muscles.

Once we have reached a good “hold” time on a golf exercise, we then progress to adding “movement” into the equation. Movement simply stands for range of motion (how much movement you can do). Every golf exercise has a certain range of motion you move through to get the greatest benefit for your golf game.

In the Russian Twist example, a full range of motion would be a full shoulder turn to the left and right of center. Again, at the beginning you may be unable to make a full shoulder turn. So what do we do? We slowly work on increasing the “movement” within the golf exercise until you are at a point of full range.

As with the idea of “position,” we do the same with the idea of “movement.” We gradually increase until you have achieved a full range of motion in the golf exercise. Once this is achieved, we move on to the final stage of implementing a golf-specific exercise.

The final stage of implementing any golf exercise into your golf swing improvement program is “tolerance.” Tolerance can be defined as performing the correct number of sets and repetitions of a golf exercise for it to be beneficial to your golf game.

The idea of “no pain, no gain” does not work in this situation. Rather, you want to be able to perform a self-prescribed number of sets and reps of every golf exercise in your program. This prescribed amount of work is up to you, the individual golfer, and what you feel is best for your body.

Too little work will provide you no benefit. Too much work or following the “no pain, no gain” mind-set can increase the possibility of injury greatly.

You need to use your best judgment on every golf exercise in your program. This will allow you to perform each golf exercise with the correct technique, develop (maybe over time) the correct range of motion of each golf exercise in your program, and finally take each exercise to “your own level of tolerance.”

It is very easy to implement golf exercises into your golf swing improvement program. Follow the simple rule of “position, movement, tolerance,” and this should help you dramatically in the development of your golf fitness program.

Once you’ve mastered the exercises and routines in your current exercise program, you’ll be ready to take it to the next level, a more advanced program.

Sean Cochran

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Sean Cochran is one of the most recognized golf fitness instructors in the world today. He travels the PGA Tour regularly working with PGA Professionals, most notably Masters and PGA Champion Phil Mickelson. To learn more about Sean and his golf fitness programs go to http://www.seancochran.com

Golf swing muscles? Is there such a thing? You didn’t think they were important or existed did you? But I’m sure when you’ve gone home after a round of golf with a sore back you were reminded very quickly, you do in fact have golf swing muscles.

Having been a certified conditioning professional for over 20 years and the last 10 with golfers exclusively…I can tell you with one hundred percent confidence there is definitely a muscular component to the golf swing. And if the muscles have not been trained to work in a specific sequence, with minimal tension and maximum power, the expected results will not be achieved.

What are the important muscles involved in the golf swing? There isn’t one or two of them. The body moves sequentially throughout the golf swing. But through research and years of training, I can say without a doubt that the muscles of your core are the most important. Followed by the hamstrings and glutes.

The rest of the muscle groups are supportive to the golf swing, which doesn’t mean they are any less important, just not as critical to improving power and consistency.

Let’s briefly break down your main golf swing muscles and their role in the golf swing.

Shoulders: Support the golf at the top of the swing and also add clubhead speed as an extension of the core.

Upper Back: Maintenance of spine angle for ease of turning on backswing and follow through.

Lower Back: Critical in maintaining of golf posture during the swing and even putting.

Glutes: Helps maintain flex in hips and also athletic, “golf squat” position for a powerful swing base.

Quadriceps: Allows for ease of maintaining consistent knee flex and golf posture for a repeatable swing.

Hamstrings: The KEY muscle group in producing an effective, optimal and repeatable golf posture for eighteen holes.

Core: The engine to the golf swing. Produces maximum power from the pivot. Stored energy from the torque created on the backswing, to unleash into impact.

This is a very brief overview of your golf swing muscles. As you can see, if these muscles don’t have a higher level of both strength and flexibility, they will not allow you to achieve your true golf potential.

Hopefully you will be motivated to look into a golf conditioning program to strengthen these golf swing muscles.

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Mike Pedersen is one of the top golf performance experts in the country, author of the Ultimate Golf Fitness Guide - http://www.ultimategolffitnessguide.com and founder of several cutting-edge online golf performance sites. Visit his new golf swing improvement site at http://www.performbettergolf.com

Using a golf training club is one of the most effective ways to increase golf swing speed and power. You can’t get anymore golf –specific than using a golf training club.

There are many golf training clubs on the market and new ones coming out every year; but the one I’m talking about is a weighted golf training club. When you can literally mimic your athletic movement with resistance, you stand the make the biggest improvement…and quickly.

The goal of most strength coaches and trainers is to come up with exercises that closely resemble that particular athletic movement, but with some for of resistance. It could be handweights (dumbbells), medicine balls, tubing, or even a stability ball.

The direct impact on a golfers swing using a golf training club is an almost immediate increase in driving distance. This is because you are training your golf muscles during the movement, through the same (or even bigger) range of motion, with many repetitions.

A secondary benefit of using a golf training club that’s weighted is promoting an increase in backswing and follow through range of motion. This equates in more power at impact. Golfers are always trying to find ways to improve golf flexibility and power; and this is one way to do it.

Using a golf training club won’t be the cure to all your physical ailments and limitations, but will give you a head start on swinging with higher clubhead speed.

Just think about it! Swinging a golf training club won’t improve hamstring flexibility, nor will it strengthen your lower back. There are many specific areas of the body that don’t get worked when swinging a golf training club.

This is where you would do specific golf exercises, stretches and drills to isolate those weak areas to greatly improve your overall golf performance and prevent future injuries.

Another benefit of a golf training club that’s weighted is a quick warm up before you hit balls at the range or even play. Swinging it 20-30 times will quickly get your golf muscles prepared to hit balls more effectively.

Just beware! When you swing it before practicing or playing, you’ve got to swing your regular clubs, and hit balls with them, to make sure your sequence of motion is correct, before you hit the course.

As you can see, there are many benefits of using a golf training club; so go out and get one. They are a great training aid as part of your ‘off-season’ training program.

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Mike Pedersen is one of the top golf performance experts in the country, author of the - http://www.ultimategolffitnessguide.com and founder of several cutting-edge online golf performance sites. Visit his new golf site at http://www.performbettergolf.com

If you are looking for means to lower your golf scores, then here are some valuable tips that are sure to help golfers of all ages and abilities to lower their golf handicaps.

(1) Practice…Slowly

Good form during a swing is very important in improving one’s performance. However, too many people make the mistake of simply going for many repetitions instead of honing their form per swing.

If you do not force every practice swing to form perfection, simply doing repetitive exercise can actually be detrimental since you could be repeating a wrong form over and over again. This could burn the wrong form into your muscle memory and could seriously hinder your bid for better performance – and a lower handicap.

Practicing a golf swing in slow motion can be a great way to fine tune your swing and get the right form while you are at it. Your mind will connect better to the proper muscle movement and form.

You can start speeding up a little a time while you do this. Eventually, you can get yourself doing the right form over and over again. This is when repetitive exercise can help.

(2) Get a Grip

Good golf grip is important for any serious golfer. And the best way to develop your grip is by practicing it every time you can. Most golfers have golf clubs by their sofa – for easy access whenever they lounge by the television – so that they can practice their grip as often as possible.

With enough practice, holding a club properly will become second nature to you. So keep those clubs within constant range for a better golf grip.

(3) Get a Mirror

A mirror is a great way to monitor and evaluate how your swing is going. You could use a video recorder as well to get better angles of your swing – and they are great for keeping you focused on swinging instead of looking at the mirror. Choose whatever option is convenient for you.

Mirrors and videos can help you get immediate feedback on whether what you are doing is correct. You may also want to send this video to instructors who can then tell you what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong.

Conclusion

As with most things, only practice makes perfect. However, you can avoid wasting your time during practice by learning to practice smarter instead of just more. The tips mentioned above will help you get started on this road.

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To learn more tips on lowering your golf handicap, please visit http://www.supergolf.info/

Golf swing power is truly sought after by many golfers short and tall. A powerful golf swing can be easily accomplished if you’re standing 6ft tall over the golf ball. Knowing the right mechanics of the golf swing, along with the right timing is essential. If you take two golfers of the same height, the exact same swing, same golf club and ball, the results in distance would probably be the same. If you take the same scenario and one golfer is approximately 6ft. tall, and the other approximately 5ft. tall, the advantage would be to the taller person. You’re probably saying, no kidding Sherlock. A taller person creates a longer and bigger swing span, which in turn generates more club head speed. Unleashing a huge drive can be monstrous if all golf mechanics and timing are in sync for a fairly tall person. So how does a shorter golfer stand to compete?

The answer would probably lie in the golf muscles of a shorter golfer. It doesn’t necessarily mean you have to go out and bench press 400 lbs everyday. By exercising your upper and lower golf muscles two or three times a week, you can make a world of difference. The golf muscles that need to be exercised would be the legs, thighs, and whole upper portion of the body. The upper portions of the body are the main coil of the golf swing, with the arms and wrist getting the most exercise. As these same muscles are used most to guide and control the weight of the golf club through the motion of the golf swing. The lower portion of the body is strengthened to reinforce the upper portion of the golf swing. There are many books and videos on the Internet that address these exercises.

Golfers that prefer to exercise outdoors and are not sure of the appropriate exercises to use should take the exercise out on the practice range hitting golf balls. By hitting golf balls at the practice range, you will be exercising the important golf muscles naturally, and greatly improve your golf swing at the same time. Have you heard of golf muscle memory? It is a part of the brain that remembers a movement. Putting it another way, have you felt a muscle say, stop right there? This same part of the brain will tell moving parts of your body how far you can take it, so you do not injure yourself. It also signals for the timing of certain muscles to kick in and take over, if your latter part of the brain were paying attention. It would also remember good habits and bad habits in the golf swing. One must be careful in their practice routine on avoiding the bad habits. Practicing regularly will exercise these certain muscles and train them for further swing improvement in proper moves and timing. Your golf muscles will take the golf mechanics and timing to a higher level of power by exercising them over and over again.

With regular exercise and practicing the golf mechanics and timing of the golf swing, both short and tall players can compete on the same level. To out distance your taller competitors, it would help to pack a few extra pounds of golf muscle behind your golf swing. The same would apply for the taller golfer to stay ahead of the crowd.

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