How To Get Your Child Started in Golf

The game of golf is experiencing a boom of new life as youth are discovering the excitement of a day at the course. New facilities that offer children affordable access to play the game are being constructed throughout the country and the world. This article is written for parents to offer tips on how to attract their youngsters to play this game for a lifetime.

Ideally, your son or daughter will approach you one day and express an interest in learning to play golf. You may have to cultivate that interest in them because you appreciate the qualities that golf embodies and want your children to share those experiences. No matter because you, the parent, are the person who must provide access and offer encouragement to your children.

One of the keys to getting your child interested in golf is finding a program that they enjoy participating in. Select a program that nurtures their interest and stresses having fun. A visit to www.juniorlinks.com is a way to find out what programs are available in your area. Other information sources may be your local recreation department or your local PGA Professional. Many schools also have golf programs and these are a great way for the serious junior golfer to develop his or her interest.

Ultimately, parents are the catalyst to the growth of their childs interest in golf. A visit to the driving range where your child and you can spend time together is an excellent way to get started. Invite some of your childs friends along so that they associate golf with FUN. Unless you are qualified to teach, dont worry too much about instructing your child. Just make sure that he or she gets an opportunity to hit some balls and enjoy the exercise.

Once a strong foundation has been developed, a visit to your local course or Par 3 course is warranted. Try to play in non-peak hours so that your child is not subject to the pressures of pace of play requirements of a busy facility.

Children learn by imitation, encourage watching a PGA or LPGA event on TV. If you should have a tour event in your local area, go to the course. The crowds and excitement of big time golf are great magnets for a young persons imagination.

Many recreation departments and most public golf facilities offer junior programs (usually in the summer months). One advantage of utilizing these programs is the social interaction that your child experiences with the other children in the clinic. Kids learn that golf is a social game played by rules of conduct and proper etiquette.

For advanced juniors who show an interest, junior tournaments are a great way to test their skills. It is important that participation in tournaments is the childs idea. Access and encouragement are two important things that parents can provide to their children to help them learn and enjoy golf.


Article Prepared by US Golf Camps
www.usgolfcamps.com
US Golf Camps conduct the Ultimate Junior Golf Camp Experience for junior golfers 9-17 years old.

How Doing Yoga For Golf On The Ball Can Quickly Improve Women Golfers Balance And Stability

Are you getting tighter by the day? Do you feel like your swing is out of balance and not very stable? Doing yoga with a ball will help.

Improving flexibility is a well-known thought for most golfers, including women golfers. But why are women golfers hesitant to stretch regularly? Could it be that its boring?

There is a growing population of female golfers who are taking up yoga. Yoga is a great resource for not only improving your flexibility but strengthening your core and improving your balance for a more stable golf swing.

Thats why adding some interest by incorporating a stability ball in the routine might increase your interest in doing yoga.

Using a stability ball in a yoga routine can add some visual interest as well as challenge. The stability ball by itself works the core and stabilizing muscles of the entire body. Add some yoga exercises and youve got a great workout that will dramatically improve your golf game.

GOLF TIP: The Simple Exercise That Helps You Relieve Back Pain -- and stress on your hips when you play.

This exercise targets the muscle groups in your hamstrings, glutes and hips. Theses are key muscles to strengthen to not only reduce back pain, but improve golf posture and stability in your swing. Here's the exercise that will solve that problem:

I call it the "Bridge On The Ball" It requires the use of a stability ball. Sit on the ball and roll out until only your head and upper back are on the ball. Now raise your hips up until they are parallel with the ground. Hold this position for up to 60 seconds and repeat 3 times. That's all there is to it! Do this exercise everyday and you will notice a marked improvement in lower back pain and stability in your golf swing.


Consider this: It's proven that tension in the golf swing is a killer. Really pay attention to how you feel on the course. Standing over a shot that you dont feel comfortable with. Thats a common scenario in golf. The result is undo tension - causing mishits and higher scores.

Being able to trust your body during every shot will greatly reduce the amount of tension your produce in your swing give you the best chance at solid-ball contact and greater distance and accuracy.

Mike Pedersen is a certified golf fitness expert and founder of the webs only online golf performance program for women at www.fitgolfforwomen.com

How Golf-Specific Strength Training Can Enable You to Play Exceptional Golf

Is your driving distance going down and down? Does your back hurt after a round of golf? Do you feel like you've lost power in your golf swing? Improving your strength specific to golf may be the missing link.

Golf is no longer just the leisure game it used to be. It is now recognized as an athletic sport. As with all other athletic sports, your body's strength plays a crucial part in how well you play the game.

FACT: A stronger body plays better golf. Most strength-building workouts can be beneficial to some degree, but there are golf-specific strength exercises that enable you to hit longer -- and straighter -- drives with less effort and hit more accurate shots, which will consequently lower your scores.

GOLF TIP: Strengthen Your Back and Prevent Low Back Pain -- so that you can play 18 holes without fatigue

Did you know that doing even just one exercise will greatly improve the strength of your back so that you will be able to play 18 holes, or hit balls all day without any pain?

I call this powerful little exercise the "Lying Superman." You won't believe the amazing difference this exercise can make in your strength until you actually do it -- so go for it! All you have to do is lie on your stomach on the floor with your hands at your sides. Raise both your upper body (chest), arms and legs as high as you can. Hold it for a count of 10. And that's it! Just do this simple exercise for 2 sets every day and you can say goodbye to low back pain!


Playing golf at an optimum level requires muscular strength, power, and endurance. Contrary to what most people think, long practice sessions and hitting hundreds of balls will not improve these components. In fact, they will only result in physical injuries (from overuse) and a great deal of frustration.

Benefits of Golf-Specific Strength Training

Strength training is the obvious solution for taking your golf game to the next level. The benefits of golf-specific strength training have been well documented. Golfers have significantly increased their driving distance, lowered their handicaps, and reduced injuries. Therefore, it is advantageous for golfers of all ages and fitness levels to start a strength training program.

The "Lying Superman" is just one of the many results-producing exercises compiled into one revolutionary golf fitness program that I personally designed for golfers, and which I've trademarked the Power Performance Program.

Mike Pedersen is a certified golf fitness expert and founder of the Power Performance Program at www.golf-trainer.com

The Three Secrets of A Consistent Golf Stroke

S.E.D."At Last! The "3 Secrets" Of A Consistent Golf Stroke -- Revealed!

How You Can "INSTANTLY" Drop Strokes Off YOUR GAME!"

What you are about to read... will change your golfing life forever! What are these three "secrets"? If you knew how would they effect your game?. These three "secrets" are what the worlds best players do. Every player MUST know these
"secrets" if they are to have a powerful, repeating golf stroke.

The problem with the majority of golfers is that they don't know what to do. Oh their friends, well wishers at best, tell them that they are "bending their left arm", "raising up through the shot", "coming over the top" and host of
other swing faults. But these are the same people that shoot the same scores you do! What could they possibly tell you that would improve your game?

The information you are about to receive is not theory or conjecture but science. Ooooh, you say, this sounds complicated. Well it isn't, it is simply the laws of force and motion that govern our entire lives and day to day living. Once you understand these simply laws your golf
game will forever change...for the better!

Secret 1: A Flat Left Wrist

Because the golf stroke involves a golf club, a left arm, and a wrist in between, it is called a "lever system". The left wrist acts as a "hinge pin" much like the old time "flail" used to beat wheat. This "hinge pin" can rotate, cock or uncock but NEVER Bends!

Golfers however routinely bend the left wrist causing the clubhead to reach the ball before the hands do. This causes a "quitting" motion, adds loft to the clubface, points the face to the left of target, makes the clubhead swing upward disrupting the downward motion that ALL good golf shots MUST have. Good players DELOFT the clubface at Impact. Poor players ADD loft to the clubface costing them distance, direction, and trajectory.

A 5 iron, for example, has approximately 8 degrees for "forward lean" when soled properly. At Impact with good players the "lean" is approximately 15 degrees. This turns the 5 iron into a 4 iron. Poor players reach Impact with a "backward" leaning clubshaft thereby ADDING loft and turning the 5 iron into a 6-7 iron!

Secret 2: A Straight Plane Line

You only have two choices when it comes to the swing plane,you are either on or you're off. There is no middle ground!

What exactly is the swing plane? The plane is the angle of the clubshaft as it sets at address - period! It is NOT Hogans plane of glass as many would have you to believe.
There are only three planes available;

1. Horizontal - a wall
2. Vertical - the floor
3. Inclined somewhere in between

As golfers you and I use the Inclined Plane to swing the club back up and end, down out and forward, up back and in making the Golf Stroke three dimensional.

The clubshaft, actually the sweetspot of the club, may travel to any other plane angle during the swing as long as it DOES NOT cross the base of the plane. Here is a simple way you can know if you are on plane or not. Whichever end of the club is nearest to the ground MUST also point at the base of the plane from horizon to horizon. If neither end is nearer then the clubshaft MUST be horizontal to the ground and parallel to the base of plane.

Secret 3: A Lagging Clubhead

Lag by definition means "trailing". When the clubhead passes the hands coming into Impact there is no "lag". Without "lag" the golf ball cannot be compressed, we cannot
hit downward, and we have a tremendous power loss. Clubhead lag promotes a steady and even acceleration giving us a
dependable way to control distance.

Look at any picture of your favorite player at Impact. The left arm and clubshaft are in ONE LINE! Never two lines. This means that the player is utilizing "lag". When a ball is struck with "lag" it explodes off the clubface! Without this "lag" the sound turns into one of mush, a soft Impact
instead of a driving Impact.

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If you follow this outline, learn these three "Secrets" you will be hitting the ball with more compression than you ever thought possible.

For example, a Driver striking a golf ball with a 2 degree "backward" leaning clubshaft at 100 mph with 9.5 degrees of loft produces a launch angle of 6.4 degrees and a carry distance of 230 yards.

By changing Impact to a 2 degree forward leaning clubshaft the player produces a launch angle of 10.4 degrees and a carry of 251 yards. A 21 YARD INCREASE WITHOUT buying a new Driver and simply having clubhead lag!

YOU can improve your game dramatically by following the steps outlined above. Become the best player YOU can be and start winning those 4 way presses! If YOU really want to elevate your game, hit it farther, straighter, and nearer the hole then practice what I've shared with you.

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Chuck Evans, G.S.E.D.
www.chuckevansgolf.com
chuck@chuckevansgolf.com

P.S. Visit our website for more information on how to become the best player YOU can be.
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Chuck Evans is one of only 31 Teachers in the world to hold the designation of "Doctorate in Golf Stroke Engineering", he is one of the most highly sought after instructors in the world not only by players but other teachers as well and is known as the Teacher of Teachers!

Chuck has appeared on numerous golf talk shows, written and published instructional articles in local, regional, and national golf publications. His DVD, "60 Days To Game Improvement" has sold in excess of 10,000 copies and his new eBook, "How To Build YOUR Golf Swing" is in the library of amateurs and Teaching Professional alike. He has also appeared as the featured instructor for education classes regarding the golf swing at various PGA Sections and Chapters around the country and has been nominated numerous times for Golf Digest's Top 50 Teachers and Golf Magazine's Top 100 Teachers.

In addition Chuck has held the positions of Director of Schools for the PGA Tour Golf Academy and the Director of Instruction for the United States Golf Institute.

You can reach Chuck through his Golf Academy in Mesa Arizona by calling 480.862.6544, by email at chuck@chuckevansgolf.com or through the website www.chuckevansgolf.com

Amazing 1892 Golf Book Predicted Bullet Trains, TV, More

hear about the strange little book, written in 1892, that predicted such wonders as bullet trains, digital watches, television and women's liberation decades before those things came to pass?

The book leapt into the news in early 2005 when a rare first edition sold at auction for more than $2,000.

The strangest thing about the book is that it is not a work of science fiction, as we would generally understand the term, nor some obscure tract of religious prophecy. Instead it's a novel about, of all things, golf.

Written by a 19th-century professional Scottish golfer named J. (or Jay) McCullough, about whom very little is known, "Golf in the Year 2000; or, What We Are Coming To" also predicted the advent of golf carts and international golf competitions.

Published under McCollough's pseudonym, J.A.C.K., the book chronicles the tale of a character named Alexander J. Gibson who falls into a near-comatose state on March 24, 1892. He awakens 108 years later (on March 25, 2000) into a world, where, among other things, women dress like men, run businesses and hold most of the top government positions.

Gibson also learns, to his considerable delight, that women do all the work in this evolved society while the men play golf full time. Upon being informed of this fact, he cries out that it's "the dream of my former existence come true! I am, indeed, a lucky man to see it. ... The world is evidently getting things ship-shape. ... Oh, how I would like to wake up some of my old chums. I know a few who would appreciate the arrangement."

But Gibson finds that his beloved golf has changed radically, too. He has to adjust to the existence of driverless golf carts, golf clubs that automatically register their user's score and jackets that yell "Fore!" whenever the golfer begins to swing. He finds the jackets to be particularly grating, but it's the rule at every club in Britain: you can't play unless
you're wearing one.

He also gets to watch -- via a television-like device that works through an elaborate mirror arrangement -- a golf competition between Britain and the United States, much like the Ryder Cup (an event which did not begin until 1927).

And, he learns that wars have ceased, at least among the European powers, because international disputes are now settled by ... golf matches.

One thing about golf hasn't changed, Gibson reflects following a round of golf in which he emerges the victor--and has to listen to his defeated opponent grousing about bad luck. "The same old excuses, I thought. Among all those inventions, surely they might have got something new in that line."

The main character's adventures in the year 2000 also include taking a ride in an underground tubular railway, which people familiarly call the "tub," and reading about a new London-to-New York speed record of two hours and 32 minutes, which is achieved by a bullet-type train traveling beneath the Atlantic Ocean.

Little things, too, amaze him: He no longer has to shave every day; instead, he brushes a miraculous preparation of some sort over his cheeks once a week and this is sufficient to keep down his beard. Similarly, he uses a hairbrush that keeps his hair at the length of his choosing, so he never needs to visit the barber (which is good, since barbers no longer exist).

The appeal of "Golf in the Year 2000" is perhaps stronger today than it was when it was first published. Golfing fans, as could be expected, enjoy it for its wry commentary on the sport as practiced in the 19th century and in
the "future" (our present) as imagined by a contemporary of H.G. Wells, who was also writing speculative fiction about things to come. General readers have fallen in love with it, too. Not only is it fun to go through it tallying up author McCullough's hits and misses on the predictive front, the book radiates a kind of Victorian charm that is reminiscent of a Sherlock Holmes story.

Now, the world is rediscovering this little literary fantasy.

In January of 2005, news services reported that an American collector named James Espinola had paid $2,240 at auction for a rare first edition of "Golf in the Year 2000". Although Espinola is said to be in the process of selling off his own huge collection of golf memorabilia, he was quoted as explaining that he can't resist buying the occasional "odd thing" at auction--and this was one of those things.

The Edinburgh, Scotland, auction house of Lyon and Trumbull had guessed that the book would fetch less than a quarter of what it ended up bringing. The auctioneers' golf specialist was quoted as saying that the final price "took us a bit by surprise."

Although original editions of the book are extremely rare, it has occasionally been reprinted in facsimile editions from time to time. No one thought to make it available to the vast audiences of the World Wide Web, though, until recently.

On February 26, 2005, a little over a month following the news about the auctioned first edition, "Golf in the Year 2000" made its debut on the Web. The full text of this odd and
engaging book is finally available for anyone, anywhere to read--without charge.

At the end of the book, the main character declares that he does not intend to wake up and find himself back in 1892 again, and that his amazing adventure was all a dream. "No, no; I'm in 2000, and in 2000 I mean to stay." Like
him, the tale of his adventure seems to have found a secure place in our time.

Steve Smith is a writer and editor living near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in the United States. He is currently working on additional features for his Web site, Golf In The Year 2000: http://www.golf-in-the-year-2000.com