Golf instructors often talk about the transition in the golf swing as that pause between completing the backswing and starting the downswing. They often suggest that slowing down the transition is one of the most important keys to hitting a good shot.

Well, I’m not qualified to comment on the technicalities of the golf swing. However, I am qualified to comment on what for me is an even more important transition in golf psychology. It’s the transition from the conscious analytical planning phase of your pre-shot routine to the unconscious instinctive phase of actually hitting the ball. Unlike the pause at the top of the backswing, the faster you can comfortably make this transition, the better and more consistently you’ll find yourself striking the ball or rolling the putt.

If you watch the top players in the world, like Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods, you’ll notice that they take very little time between taking their chosen club out of the bag and hitting the ball. A recent study suggested that Tiger and Phil consistently take around 11 to 12 seconds to do this and they are very consistent with the timing. If they took any longer, they often hit a less than good shot – these guys don’t hit many downright bad shots.

So what do they do in those 11 to 12 seconds? Well, every player has his own idiosyncrasies, including re-gripping, waggling, breathing, blinking and countless other rituals. However, they all seem to

1. take one or two practice swings to get the feel of the shot they visualise playing
2. step forward to the ball and take their stance
3. align their body and clubface
4. take a final look at their target
5. finally, hit the “start button” and swing the club or putter.

What’s interesting is that they don’t seem at all rushed in fitting all that into such an apparently short time. They certainly don’t have any spare time for self doubt and that little voice in their head telling them they’re doing it all wrong! In fact, they complete the process like they’re in some sort of trance and that means that they are leaving the whole process to their unconscious golf mind, just like driving a car or riding a bike.

Now some of the players you watch on TV or out on the course take a lot longer to make this transition and the time they take is less consistent. How well did you see them play? If you watched Sergio Garcia playing golf a few years ago, you’d have often seen him take an inordinately long time to hit the ball. He had a pained expression on his face that suggested he was experiencing a lot of negative self-talk and he seemed to be wringing the life out of the club as he repeatedly re-gripped his hands. It’s no surprise that his golf was inconsistent at best and he certainly didn’t seem to be enjoying his golf.

So how do I speed up my transition from taking my club out to hitting the ball, I hear you say. Well one way is to make the whole process an instinctive or unconscious activity. Streamline your own transition process and use it every time you hit a shot on the golf course, at the driving range, on the practice putting green and in your mental golf practice. You do practice and play golf in your mind, now don’t you?

Andrew Fogg, the Golf Hypnotist, is an enthusiastic golfer, hypnotherapist and NLP Master Practitioner. He is a practicing golf psychologist and author of a soon to be published book The Secrets of Hypnotic Golf and a series of golf hypnosis MP3 programmes.

Visit his website for information on how to get the most success, pleasure and enjoyment from the wonderful game of golf. More specifically, it is about how to improve your golf by working on the 90 percent of the game that is played in the 6 inches between your ears.

Sign up for the free Golf Hypnotist ezine at http://www.golf-hypnotist.com/ and get your free 25- minute Your Own Virtual Caddy golf hypnosis MP3 that goes with this article.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/golf-articles/speed-up-your-preshot-routine-transition-for-better-golf-psychology-1405430.html

How much is the accuracy of your golf shot influenced by club alignment at address and how much is down to your instinctive or unconscious golf ability? Now I’m not talking here about the complexity of aligning the various parts of your body when you address the ball. That’s a subject for your golf pro, not your golf psychologist. All I’m interested in here is the alignment of your club face at address.

I’ve been writing a lot recently about the importance, in golf psychology terms, of a quick transition from the conscious processes of planning your golf shot and selecting the right club and the unconscious process of taking your stance and hitting the ball. What concerns me most is that while the best golfers seem to take as little as 11 seconds to complete this transition the average golfer seems to take that long just to align their stance and the clubface.

Now, I don’t want you to go straight out and time how long you take, as that would introduce an unnecessary conscious activity into what should be an unconscious process and I don’t want you blaming me for making you play worse. You probably already know whether you are quick or slow in this area and if you don’t, just ask a golfing friend to tell you.

How accurately can you consciously aim your club face? Well, let’s look at a few technical facts. A typical club head is about 3 inches long from heel to toe and the hitting area is less than 2 inches wide. With a mid-iron, those two inches sit on the ground about 4-5 feet from your eyes, depending on your height and style.

And how precise can you be with the alignment of that clubhead from that distance? If you were an eight of an inch out with the face alignment, then your club would be facing about 10 yards wide of your target 160 yards away – the difference between hitting or missing an average green. Now, I know that the path the club head takes at impact has more affect on the direction the ball starts flying than the alignment of the clubface, but that’s more than compensated for by the slice or draw swing created and the tendency for us golfers to swing square to our clubface.

So, how do the better golfers maintain their accuracy if it’s so difficult to align the clubface accurately? Well, let’s look at other sports where the action is so rapid that we don’t have time to think consciously about alignment. How often have you seen a top-class cricket fielder throw the ball from maybe 40 yards more than a yard either side of the wicket-keeper? That’s despite having to run some way for the ball, pick it up, turn and throw it back as quickly as possible. I suspect that something similar happens in baseball. Now, do they spend any time aligning themselves consciously before they throw the ball? I don’t think so, they just turn and throw the ball and trust their amazing bodies and unconscious mind to assess all the variables and let fly.

The same goes for tennis where there’s little or no time for alignment. Timothy Gallwey’s original Inner Game book made similar arguments for the capabilities of the unconscious mind in the game of tennis. When he talked about Self 1 and Self 2 he was talking about what I describe as the conscious and unconscious minds. Even with the dynamic nature of tennis, he found a need for a distraction to stop the conscious mind interfering with the shot – calling out “Bounce” and “Hit” when the ball bounced or you hit it with the racket.

Now, what are you suggesting I should do to shorten my alignment time, Andrew? Well, all I’m saying is to think about taking less time with your club alignment when you’re setting up to play your shots and trust your unconscious to hit the shot where you want it to go. Work on it on the practice ground and in your mental practice until it becomes second nature and you know it works well for you. Then take it to the course and enjoy the results.

Andrew Fogg, the Golf Hypnotist, is an enthusiastic golfer, hypnotherapist and NLP Master Practitioner. He is a practicing golf psychologist and author of a soon to be published book The Secrets of Hypnotic Golf and a series of golf hypnosis MP3 programmes.

Visit his website for information on how to get the most success, pleasure and enjoyment from the wonderful game of golf. More specifically, it is about how to improve your golf by working on the 90 percent of the game that is played in the 6 inches between your ears.

Sign up for the free Golf Hypnotist ezine at http://www.golf-hypnotist.com/ and get your free 25- minute Your Own Virtual Caddy golf hypnosis MP3 that goes with this article.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/golf-articles/trust-your-unconscious-golf-mind-to-align-your-club-for-a-better-preshot-routine-1405432.html

Community whole selected the world spin to the internet to recommend them to actually explore the grand vast sea of commands that is presented.  Whether you are looking for stock quotes, a absolute videocassette contest, or information on a particular topic the internet is the great place to obtain start at.  You can find virtually everything you could ever visualize of having on the internet which will offer you to certainly grow your knowledge and improve your computer skills altogether at the equal time.  Golf is a classic instance, once most community look towards the television and particular golf tournaments that are televised to offer them instructions nearly golf in common, using the internet you could learn so much additional much quicker.

Using the internet, you could easily look up with study the vast array of different golf terminology.  Merely trying to learn every of the golf expressions once you actually play, or even starting watching television could be an incredible hassle.  The internet yet makes the whole means much easier starting you could easily learning once you have the time, without worrying approximately looking foolish on the green.  This could be a huge facilitate furthermore will propose you to spend the time you spend watching golf on television sincerely watching the contest, rather than trying to have a vocabulary lesson.

The internet is next the absolute location to do research on the ultimate golf courses that are both in your area and various the world.  This can offer you to intend out the best vacation probable, or even shop various for the ideal country club for your various needs.  If you are trying to find a golf course, using the internet you have the capability to search based on difficulty, situation, moreover even the name of the program.  This could be a huge assist so you may find the accurate classes that you are interested in, without worrying nearly wasting time looking at golf courses that you do not certainly like.

Those golfers who love to consult who they are playing against earlier a game could even use the internet to do a bit of experiment nearly their opponents.  If you know whom you are going to be playing against, or whom you might be playing against you may obtain the time to look several furthermore see how properly they play in new conditions.  This allows you to be absolutely prepared preceding you ever walk out onto the earliest green on the day of the match.  You may want that you merely merely choose to look up player’s profiles with statistics even if you do not actually play however considerably watch, this is considerably potential using the internet as fine.

One of the extra substantial uses of the internet in relation to golf is the capability to learn around orders next tricks that might give you to quickly moreover easily troubleshoot your competition.  Of program not every players require several aid including troubleshooting their match nevertheless the vast majority of players might use a bit of plus aid.  Using the internet you can search for the single crisis that you are having then read up while much after possible next work to knowledge the orders moreover tricks that you learn.  This can be rather helpful in improving your competition if you actually carefully read ended the guidance that is given.   In extension, it can aid you avoid having to pay for expensive golf course if you are only trying to help your game.

If you are looking for a golf instructor, the internet might be rather helpful in looking for the wonderful someone as perfectly.  As most people could have to search some at the local country clubs to find a promising instructor you could search several online since the very comfort of your house also find exactly what you prefer in an instructor.  This is a enormous savings time wise, including allows you to look ended a huge contract more instructors prior you create a decree. 

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It’s a simple question that applies to many amateur golfers which is — why is it so hard to hit a three iron?

This question is to the point, doesn’t take up much space is very short and not as difficult to answer as it is to hit a 3-iron. Try a 2-iron or even a 1-iron if you are really looking for a challenge and can find one!

The 1-iron lost its place in the bag about 35 years ago, soon after manufacturers started decreasing the unwritten standard lofts for irons. They did this surreptitiously in an effort to demonstrate how their irons hit the ball farther than the competitor’s clubs.

This trend created a 2-iron with the same loft as a 1-iron of old and the 3-iron is now equivalent to the old 2-iron and closing in on a 1-iron. Clubs are now about 4 to 5 degrees stronger than the same numbered clubs of the 1960s

There are no loft standards for clubs as these are now somewhat dependent on the club head design. You will find that the trend of decreasing the loft is reversing a little because of the mass distribution in the club head of the more forgiving heads. These have a backward and low positioned centre of gravity which is getting the ball up into the air more easily and as a result, the lofts are less than expected to compensate for the higher trajectory.

Your 3-iron, which you find so hard to hit is probably one of the older blade like designs without the forgiveness now afforded the newer bulky but forgiving cavity back designs. This bulkiness means that the Moment of Inertia (MOI, which is the forgiveness factor) is greater but not as forgiving as an equivalent lofted Fairway wood or Hybrid. This makes the 3-iron more difficult to hit. If however you hit your 3-iron flush i.e. right on the sweet spot it is as sweet as a any shot can be.

My suggestion – because we are not that good — is to leave your 3-iron and even your 4-iron in the box they were shipped in, even if these are of the latest design and use the space in your bag for a three and four hybrid. Hybrids will certainly do a very good job, which you expected your three and four irons to do.

Iron technology has not changed significantly in the last 10 years or so but it certainly has changed since Jack Nicklaus was at his peak in the early 1960s but he was able to hit a 2-iron very well.

PING introduced forgiving irons – cavity back clubs — in the late 1960’s and this concept is now used in almost every iron club on the market designed for most of us who are not on the tour or aspiring to get.

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Looking for the newest, coolest off-course and on-course golf gifts, whether it is for your own holiday list or for someone else?  Well, it’s that time of year again for gift giving and most golfers are just looking for an excuse to find the new products that will give them an extra edge.

We have selected some of the newest and best performing products to that end that not only will help your golf game, but are great gifts.

Updates in the Studio Select line  and the new Scotty Cameron quartet of putters

From the premier designer of putters and with endorsements and results to solidify Scotty’s esteemed status in the industry, the technology Cameron introduced with the original Studio Select putters, has now been incorporated into the new California line in order to accommodate a wider range of choice in terms of length, weight and putting strokes.

Studio Select Squareback 2

The California line series is precision milled from soft 303 stainless- steel, and includes the Coronado, Monterey, Sonoma and Del Mar, identified by blade and mallet-style heads and two different neck styles.

The California line is distinguished by a unique “Honey Dipped” finish.  The natural bronze finish is actually not “dipped” or plated, rather it comes from a heat-treated process that is part of the head manufacturing process. The result is a rich bronzed appearance that looks great in natural light, while reducing glare and instilling confidence at the very least.

“I’m excited by the feedback I’ve had about the California putters,” says Scotty. “Players who prefer the more flowing, less geometric lines of the Coronado or the Del Mar are now going to find that they don’t have to sacrifice performance. Players can get a perfect fit for their stroke as well as their eye.”

Scotty has also updated the 2009 Studio Select line for Titleist with the Newport 2.5, Squareback 2 and Fastback 1.5 models, replacing the current Newport 1.5, Newport 2.7 and Fastback 1.

All four California models are fit with a stepless steel shaft for a clean, unbroken playing position appearance, a black Cameron Tour grip with dancing logo, an Art-of-Putting shaft band and a new paint drip Art-of-Putting head cover.

The new Cameron California and Studio Select putters will be available in December, with a suggested retail price of $325 ($350 for H weight customization).

Golf Gifts Guide 2009 (1)

Golf Gifts Guide 2009 (2)

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