Nowadays, with the popularity of golf, even through a global recession, you can find a multitude of golf instruction and golf fitness sites on the internet. Golf fitness has come to the fore as PGA Tour pros have evolved into more fit athletes due to the domination of Tiger Woods. Tiger decided early on that he would train for his profession as a world class athlete. As a result, we see far fewer golfers on tour like Tim “Lumpy” Herron and John Daly, and a lot more athletic looking golfers such as Tiger, Adam Scott and Camillo Villegas. If you want to be the best, you have to train like the best!

Golf instruction is now evolving into a profession that involves far more than just giving a quick fix to a golfer, although that is still what some may want. Some instructors are content with providing this type of service, but the top instructors realize that they actually have far more to offer their students than just a tip or two on how to fix their golf swings.

Due to the increased focus by professional golfers on their fitness, the idea of golf fitness has become more credible. Professional golfers now often employ the services of a fitness instructor along with their golf instructor.

However, some fitness instructors erroneously suggest to the average golfer that the secret to longer tee shots and a more consistent golf swing is fitness alone. Golfers who have been frustrated by their own lack of improvement from golf lessons are easy prey for fitness trainers who want to sell them on a few fitness tips to improve their golf games.

Then there are the “golf instructors” online who will sell the average golfer on the idea that there is an “easy” way to swing the golf club, if you only sign up for their newsletter, or purchase their DVDs. However, all you have to do is get an understanding of how hard Tiger Woods works on his game, and his fitness, to realize that improving your golf swing requires hard work! Tiger works on his golf game and fitness 10 to 12 hours per day when he is gearing up for the majors! There are no shortcuts in golf!

The top golf instructors realize that they are in a position to better serve their students by being able to identify ways for a student to improve their golf swing through both golf instruction AND golf fitness training. Just like the evolution of today’s PGA Tour stars, the new generation of golf instructors understand that they need to be able offer both services in order to remain competitive in the field.

A golf instructor who practices the “hands on” teaching method of Hank Haney, Tiger Woods’ current instructor, can more easily identify the physical issues of a student. A golf instructor who also has significant experience in a variety of physical training methods can then suggest to a student how to achieve their golf swing goals through fitness training.

This type of instructor is extremely valuable to the golf student. In one location, the student can learn all they need to know about the golf swing, and how to address their own physical limitations to accomplish their goals. Compare that to the golf instructors who simply try to make a suggestion as to how to make a quick fix to a golf swing without ever moving the student through the swing. Or, compare the well-rounded instructor to the fitness trainer who really has no experience in golf instruction. They can offer a variety of gimmicky exercises, but they really do not have an understanding of what really drives the golf swing.

Unfortunately, there are not yet that many instructors out there who can offer this well-rounded instruction and training. However, this is the future of golf instruction, so consider seeking out those instructors who are on the cutting edge. Your golf game is sure to benefit!

Scott Cole www.powergolftraining.net

Golf Fitness Tip - Charging Horse Stance

If you have read through my site, www.powergolftraining.net you will note that trained in the martial art of Pai Lum Kung Fu for eight years, and still to this day continue to work on much of what I learned. One thing that attracted me to the martial arts was the common sense fitness exercises. You don't need to join a gym and lift heavy weights to develop strong muscles. All of the exercises we performed at the school can be done anywhere.

For leg strengthening, we primarily worked on a variety of stances. One of the best of these stances is the Charging Horse Stance.





In the photo, I am standing in a Left Charging Horse Stance. To get in this position, stand with your feet shoulder width apart, hands on your hips. Take a step forward about one shoulder width, with the left foot. Keeping your back straight, let your body sink down as low as you can go. Ideally, you want to see the lower part of your back leg, in this case, the right leg, parallel to the floor. If you can not go that low, go as low as you can where it takes some effort to maintain the stance.

Hold this position as long as you can, then stand back up, and switch legs, stepping forward with the opposite leg. Start out by holding this position for 15 seconds for each leg, and work your way up to as long as you can, ideally for a minute with each leg. Always remember to keep your back straight!

This stance will help develop the strength of your legs, as well as balance. I also combine this stance with some work with a balance ball, dumbbells and body blades. Incorporating those items while working in this stance helps develop the balance even further by engaging the core muscles with more intensity.

Work this simple exercise into your routine and you will get fabulous results!

Scott Cole

Crunch Time For Aspiring Tour Pros

PGA Tour qualifying is under way this week, with the second round of qualifying being held at six locations around the country. The low 20 from each qualifier advance to the finals, which is often considered to be one of the most difficult events in the career of a tour pro. The finals will then be held December 2 to 7, where I believe the low 25 receive their PGA Tour cards. Those that don't make the cut will have some limited Tour opportunities or will play on the Nationwide Tour.

The Champions Tour completed its qualifying today. Only 5 players earned all-exempt status for the 2010 season. Finishers 6 to 12 receive conditional exemptions and the top 30 can compete for qualifying spots where opportunities are available. The list of players not earning their cards for the Champions Tour is dotted with lots of name players did not make the top 12, including Jay Don Blake, Chip Beck, Keith Clearwater, Tom McKnight and Bobby Clampett, among others. To make the top 5, players had to shoot 12 under for 4 rounds.

I always have tremendous respect for pros who endure these qualifiers. Some work their butts off for years before breaking through to the big show! But, it is work that they truly enjoy, just like the rest of us who enjoy this great game!

Scott Cole www.powergolftraining.net

During the Holidays, Do More Cardio!

The Holidays are fast approaching! That means one big meal after another, and one party after another! When the holidays are over, many of us make a New Year's resolution to lose weight, but it's usually the weight we just put on in the last month!

Don't fall into that trap this year. I am not saying to avoid those parties, and not enjoy those fabulous holiday meals. But, what I am saying is that you should work extra hard to avoid adding on the pounds from those meals by doing more cardio exercise.

If you have never done much cardio exercise, simply start out by walking. If it is cold, or snowy outside, head over to the local mall in the morning join the parade of walkers. Walk for at least 30 minutes, but if you are physically able, walk at least an hour.

If you are used to doing some cardio exercise, add more to your normal workouts. If you jog, swim, bike or do any other exercise that makes you breathe hard, and you do this three days per week, try to add a fourth workout, and start by adding an additional 5 minutes to each workout.

If you can avoid adding on those extra pounds during the holidays, then you won't have to work so hard on your body in the New Year. And, THAT will leave more time to work on your golf game!

Scott Cole www.powergolftraining.net

Increasing Swing Speed

Tonight I was back in to my golf studio working on my swing around giving a fitness consultation to one of my students. My studio has been set up for about five weeks, and it includes a GSA/GGS golf simulator. Although I only purchased the bare bones simulator system, I have found it to be an incredible teaching tool. The simulator gives me information on swing path, club face angle at impact and swing speed. Based upon these items, and some assumptions on launch angle, it calculates the ball flight and distance, which is reproduced on the projection screen. More accurate feedback would be provided once I add a couple other sensors down the road.

Lately, I have starting lifting weights more heavily to regain some strenght I've lost in the last couple of years. However, I have not had a heavy lifting workout in about six days. I had chopped and pushed around some wood in a wheel barrow a couple days last weekend, but this week had not done any type of workout. Therefore, I was feeling quite limber and loose in the studio tonight.

Now, as of late, my swing speed had been maxing out around 117.5 mph. On Monday night, I started working on a new swing thought after reading a bit more about Hank Haney's work with Tiger, and reviewing my lesson with Hank in February. As such, I started working on a little bit more rotation with my hips in the back swing, as well as my left forearm. This results in a flatter swing, but more on plane, and I noticed, a bit higher swing speed! So, Monday night maxed out at 118.6 mph.

Tonight, I had a good bit of energy and my first swing with the driver was 116, when normally it would be about 114. Then I started hitting 117+ pretty easily, and once I got warmed up, 118.5 was getting to be the norm. This was giving me a carry of about 293 yards on the simulator. I have programmed in a bounce and roll of about 20-25 yards since our fairways tend to be pretty soft here in PA. So, most of my swings on the simulator were resulting in drives of about 315.

I then decided to see if I could crank it up another notch. I hit 119 mph on one drive, then followed that up with 120+. Finally, a couple swings later, I registered just over 121! And the beauty of all this was that these drives were going very straight, usually with a bit of a draw.

The moral to all of this is that 1) I know exactly what I want to work on with my golf swing 2) I get great feedback from the simulator and 3) Increased strength and flexibility is resulting in great results in regard to swing speed.

This is how I can help students in person, and through my online instruction. For more information, visit www.powergolftraining.net

Scott Cole

A different Golf Exercise

Recently, I have been spending more time in the gym lifting some heavier weights, looking mainly to regain some strength I seem to have lost in the last two years due to focusing more on getting a bit leaner. While I was not as successful as I wanted to be in that goal (food is my enemy!), I did seem to improve my cardio health.

One thing I have realized over time is that it's definitely a good idea to break up your exercise routine from time to time. I have been lifting hard for a few weeks, and definitely have made some gains. However, the body will have a tendency to adjust itself to these workouts, making it harder to achieve gains going forward.

This past week, a neighbor of mine decided to cut a tree down and I asked if I could have the wood, and he agreed. So, for a total of about 3 1/2 hours over a couple days time, I chopped wood, loaded it into a wheel barrow, and pushed it up a hill, and then back down that hill before dumping into a wood pile. You want to talk about a total body workout! Well, probably the only muscle group that did not get worked was my triceps. Otherwise, chopping the wood worked most of my upper body, while hauling the wood in the wheel barrow worked my arms, shoulders, core and legs.

Since I was getting such a good workout simply by doing this chore, I didn't see the need to hit the weights, or do any cardio. When the weekend was over, I felt great, and am ready to start pumping some iron again.

So, if you have the opportunity, go and chop and haul some wood just to break up your routine!

Scott Cole www.powergolftraining.net

Golf Specific Exercises

I've commented on the topic of Golf Specific Exercises before, but I had the opportunity to see some more stuff on the internet recently, and I felt compelled to to comment. The bottom line is that much of what I see from some of the so-called internet experts is crap. On the other hand, there is some real good stuff out there, specifically the products sold by Golf Gym and Joey D, a renowned trainer to such PGA Tour pros as Vijay Singh.

What I typically see on the internet, however, are exercises that are a complete waste of time. These exercises target small muscle groups, and in my view, are generally only required if you have a specific issue going on with that particular muscle group. Yet, these exercises are hyped as golf specific exercises that will help you had 30 yards to your tee shots!

The bottom line is that performing an exercise such as a wrist rotation with a weighted golf club, or a rotator cuff exercise with a dumbbell, or a tricep extension with tubing will not add a single yard to your tee shot.

If you are a short hitter and you truly want to add distance off the tee you must first be sure to develop a more fundamentally sound golf swing. Sure, if you have an injury or some sort of physical liability that restricts movement, this will prove to be more difficult, but that is where physical therapy comes in, not "golf specific exercises."

Once you have developed a more sound golf swing, if you want to add yards, the first order of business is to work on your flexibility. Lack of flexibility will prevent you from making a bigger, more effortless shoulder turn with significant width in your golf swing. If you want more yardage, you need to create greater centrifugal force, and that comes from flexibility.

Address the flexibility issues and then begin to combine that with strength training. And when I am talking about strength training, I am talking about working the big muscle groups, i.e., the legs, back, shoulders, chest and core. Just have a look at Tiger Woods and you know he works out his entire body, and I suspect he is not wasting time doing single arm tricep extensions!

The fact is, most of us barely have time to work on our golf games, let alone have time to work on improving our fitness. So, we don't have time to waste on gimmicky exercises.

For more info, check out what I can do for you at www.powergolftraining.net

Video is a Great Tool For Golfers

When teaching some of my students, I bring up the possibility of analyzing their swings through the use of video. Surprisingly, some are afraid of the process! They are afraid to see what their swings look like on video. Yet, if there is one tool in my arsenal that I think is the most effective for teaching golf, it is the use of video as a diagnosis tool.

The use of video gives tremendous feedback to the student. Occasionally, while I am teaching and moving a student through their swing the way I would like them to swing, they will say “that doesn’t feel right” or “that feels awkward.” Or, sometimes they will say they thought they really had done what I asked them to do on a particular swing, even though from my vantage point, it was clear they had not. Yet, when they see their own swing video, and then how I want them to swing on video, they know they need to make some changes to get better.

As a result of this, I now insist that the first lesson a student receives from me will involve the use of video. I have set up an indoor golf studio that includes video equipment and a golf simulator. The simulator provides feedback as to what the club is doing at impact. It tells the student whether their swing path is inside out, outside in, or square, and then tells the student about the angle of the club face as well. Is it square, closed or open? An explanation in regard to the physics of ball flight laws will accompany this feed back.

Once we see the overall pattern of the swing path and ball flight on the simulator, I bring in the video camera. I combine this with the analysis software that I use. Analyzing the student’s swing in slow motion will reveal the swing faults of the student. This analysis then helps with developing a plan for improvement.

The advantage to using video over the standard lesson on the driving range is clear. When on the driving range, if a student continues to struggle with their ball flight without seeing their own swing on video, they will tend to dismiss the changes that the instructor is communicating. They simply move on to the next instructor to try and find that magic fix. This is why many instructors simply focus on trying to provide a quick swing fix, rather than communicate a plan for overall improvement in the swing. The problem is, that quick fix will disappear just as quickly as it appeared.

On the other hand, when a student sees their own swing on video, that student receives significant feedback regarding golf swing issues they need to correct. If the student gets a good explanation of cause and effect from the instructor based upon what they see in the video, they will have more confidence in the changes the instructor wants to make.

Not only that, but a student can incorporate the use of video in their own practice. Many of the popular video analysis programs can be purchased for home use at a steep discount to what the professionals pay for higher end programs. A standard video camera and computer are all the equipment that is needed. Once a student understands the swing changes they are trying to make, the use of video can provide them feedback on their progress.

The bottom line is that video analysis is now the single best tool a golf instructor can employ when teaching their students. As such, the serious golf student should eagerly seek out instructors who employ this technology regularly.

Scott Cole www.powergolftraining.net

Performance Enhancing Drugs and Golf

The PGA Tour had its first golfer test positive for performance enhancing drugs. Details were not provided due to the tour's privacy policy. The player in question is Doug Barron, not a big name, and a player who has struggled with a variety of health issues over the years. He played little on the tour this year.

Although Tiger Woods has elevated fitness in the minds of many tour players over the last decade, it is really not from the standpoint of hitting the ball further. He was a very long hitter when he first arrived on tour, but decided to approach his profession as a professional athlete, and prepare accordingly. This was to avoid injury more than anything else. Golf can be pretty tough on the body, and we have seen many great players suffer from a variety of ailments over the years.

Can performance enhancing drugs help your golf game? Doubtful. Can it help you hit the ball further? Certainly, if you get a lot stronger. Just look at many of the participants in the world long drive competitions these days. Many are built like NFL safeties or small linebackers. But, in 2008, the World Championship was won by a small Canadian weighing less than 165 pounds.

However, steroids are not going to help your putting or your short game. That is where you score. And the fact is, you really do not need steroids to hit the ball further. Most people need to become more flexible first, so they have a longer, more fluid golf swing. Then a little strengthening and some core work can help add a bit more swing speed.

So, stick with the more natural ways of gaining strength, and you will see a benefit to your golf game.

Scott Cole www.powergolftraining.net