Strengthen Your Core For Golf

Some call it a Swiss Ball, some call it a fitness ball, others use the more modern term 'stability ball.' Whatever you call it, the stability ball has been used in exercise and rehabilitation for years and has recently been adopted by personal trainers and fitness instructors for use in strength training and muscle development, especially when it comes to exercises designed to strengthen the core muscles.

The American Council on Exercise (ACE) says that core strength is important because the muscles of the lower back and abdomen serve as a solid foundation for nearly all bodily activities, movement, and posture. Incorporation of the stability ball into an exercise routine helps to further strengthen core muscles due to the continuous adjustments that the body's muscles must make to remain stable on the ball.

Use of the stability ball has become fairly common is core-based exercises like crunches, but many trainers have discovered benefits of using the ball in other exercises as well. It can even be used in non exercise settings to help strengthen core muscles. Reebok University Education manager Lisa Wheeler recently told CNN correspondent Kat Carney that stability balls can even be used by office workers. Replacing the desk chair with a stability ball can lead to strengthening the core muscles while simply sitting at one's desk.

A stronger core can benefit anyone, but golfers in particular will see benefits from the increase in core strength and stability, leading to longer drives, and better posture and balance. If you want to improve your core, get on the ball!

Golf's Mental Game Plan Thoughts

Thinking of having a great round on the golf course can be a lot of mental work. The most important part of having a great round on the golf course begins with a few thoughts. Question is where and how many?


Preparing your mind for a great golf game can be quite time consuming and unhealthy, depending on where you start your mental game. Triggering your thoughts for a great game of golf should not be in the car on the way to the golf course. If you're approaching a curve ahead of you going downhill on a slippery roadway, and you see a sharp curve ahead of you. Do you start thinking on how you are going to fly the trap on the first hole? Trying to dream up a great game of golf in a coffee shop can have your lips seared with hot coffee as well. Thinking of sinking that long 30-foot putt on the first hole, while having dinner out with your wife or girlfriend, could have that same coffee all over your lap.


Trying to conjure up a great game of golf, while doing other things at the same time. Does not work! No matter how good you are! For some of us trying to play a golf hole in our mind is our way of preparing ourselves for the game to come. Thoughts on visualizing how you plan on conquering the fifth, or seventh golf hole that you always seem to have trouble with, could have you playing it over and over again in your mind, until you get it right. I think it gives us the self-satisfaction before we approach the notorious golf hole, that in our mind we have conquered the golf hole the night before. Have you ever lost sleep the night before trying to conjure up a great round of golf for the next day?


The thoughts of having a great round of golf, and a good game plan, should start on the first tee box, looking down the fairway and visualizing the shot at hand. If you start thinking of anything other than where you want the ball to land on your shot at hand. You will find yourself scratching your head, and thinking of where you went wrong.


Thoughts on a good game plan should be on your immediate task at hand. Most of us have been told to play one golf shot at a time. I think the same would apply on playing one golf hole at a time, taking one curve on the roadway ahead of you at a time, and taking one sip of coffee at a time, and leaving your golf game plan thoughts at home when you go out for dinner. Do not attempt to take your golf game plan and wife, or lady friend out at the same time.

What Causes Golf Back Pain?

Why it that golf back pain is such a common complaint in golf and amongst golf players on any course?

Does golf back pain have something to do with the game or do most players bring back pains acquired elsewhere into the game?

While it is true that there are golfers who started having back pains and related problems long before they set foot on the course, there is clear evidence that golf does cause back pain, especially to those who do not exercise and condition their bodies for the game.  One reason is that many of the golf back pains are aggravated by playing the game for long periods.

So why do many golfers continue to suffer in silence and yet simple golf specific exercises can permanently cure a golf back pain for good? The following effective, but simple exercise has helped many golfers gain more endurance to play golf the whole day without experiencing the usual nagging lower back problems that are extremely common on the course.

This golf back pain exercise also does an excellent job in adding endurance and strength to the muscles and usually makes such a tremendous difference in your strength that you have to try it to believe and experience the impact for yourself.

This exercise that cures golf back pain is done by lying flat on the floor on your stomach with your hands at your sides. You then raise your chest and upper body as well as arms and legs as high as you can. You do this so that your stomach supports the weight of your entire body. Hold the position and go for a count of 10. Doing this simple exercise for 2 sets daily will completely eliminate your low back pain for good. Keeping yourself golf fit by getting involved in a good golf specific exercise program will keep any golfer free from golf back pain.

CLIFFORD ROBERTS

One of the traditions at the Masters is that the defending champion selects the menu for the annual Champions Dinner. In recent years, the choices have been haggis, a Scottish dish that can only described as an acquired taste (Sandy Lyle in 1989); steak and-kidney pie and fish and chips (Nick Faldo in 1991 and 1997); and chicken cacciatore (Fred Couples in 1993).

When Clifford Roberts was alive, however, the menu tended to reflect his tastes, which is to say it usually featured some variation on a strip steak dinner. There was a reason for that.

“My first Champions Dinner was in 1964,” Jack Nicklaus remember. “The head waiter told me, ‘Mr. Roberts like this, and he likes to have that, and I think you’d probably like it, too.’ I told him that if it was good enough for Mr. Roberts it was fine with me, and we all had a very nice dinner. I don’t remember what we ate, but I’m sure it was a very nice.”

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GARDNER DICKINSON

Dickinson won seven times on the Tour, on great courses like Doral and Colonial, and beat Jack Nicklaus in a play off for his final win, the 1971 Atlanta Classic. He had a 9-1 record in Ryder Cup play-the best percentage in the history of the competition-and with a record of 5-0, he and Arnold Palmer were the most successful American team in the competition’s history.

But for all his success, his failure to win more tournaments bothered Dickenson. One Sunday night another disappointing final round, he sat around drinking scotch with Palmer. As the evening wore on, he finally asked Palmer what was lacking in his game. What was the missing piece?

Palmer thought for a moment. His answer spoke volumes about his own success-and the mind-set of a champion. “I win because I love to win, but I’m not afraid to lose,” Palmer said. “You need to win. That’s a big difference. You put too much pressure on yourself.

JIMMY DEMARET

Jimmy Demaret was a great friend of Bob Hope’s,” recalled Dwayne Net land, a former senior editor at Golf Digest who coauthored the best selling golf book with Hope. “Bob had almost a professional admiration for Demaret’s sense of humor. One time they were playing in the Crosby. Bob hooked his tee shot on the first hole out-of-bounds. Demaret looked at him and said, ‘That’s okay Bob, there’s only next year.’ Bob loved it.”
Another year at the Crosby, Demaret was on tee when Phil Harris, nursing a world-class hangover, whiffed not once but twice. “Don’t choke now, Phil,” Demaret said. “You’ve got a no hitter going.”

CRAIG STADLER

 

When Stadler was a kid growing up in Sa Diego, he was part of the group that took lessons from two-time PGA champion Paul Runyan. Years later, after Stadler had won a U.S Amateur and twelve PGA events, including the 1982 Masters, a writer asked Runyan about his early impression of Stadler. Runyan said he thought Stadler was one of the shyest yungsters he’d ever seen. Several years later, an interviewer asked Stadler about Runyan’s assessment.

“Actually, I thought he would have said that he thought I had a bladder disease,” Stadler said, laughing. “Paul is a sweetheart and a very good teacher, but sometimes I’d get confused when I tried to follow what he was telling me. Pretty soon every time he came down the line on practice tee and was about to get to me, I’d tell him I had to go to the bathroom. I didn’t want to hurt  his feelings, but I didn’t want to get any more confused, either.”