How to discover THE EASIEST SWING IN GOLF

Since becoming a fully Qualified Positive Impact Golf Coach, I would say I've become somewhat of a Senior Golf Specialist. The learning has been incredible and the realisation of asking a senior golfer to move like a younger person is simply unrealistic . 

Traditional golf coaches who don't Specialise in this area could be doing more harm than good with their students. 

So what, you may ask do Positive Impact Golf Coaches do different? 

"We retain the Complexity and pass on the Simplicity" 

Realistically, senior golfers aren't going to practise much, so everything we ask them to do needs to be easy to do, uncomplicated and above all achievable.  

We start with a series of questions that are aimed at understanding a persons belief system, we want understand what maybe holding a golfer back so that the information that follows is impactful. 

One of the biggest killers of a golf swing is TENSION, we must reduce this before any changes can be made, if you score your tension on a scale of 1-10 , 10 being the tightest you can hold a club, you need to be at 5 or under, TENSION causes muscles to shorten thus reducing potential movement. TIGHT muscles move slower and reduce club head speed resulting in an increased amount of effort to hit the ball and tiredness further on in the round.

We coach 6 main PRINCIPLES and 3 DEADLY DONT'S

The 6 principles are:- 

Turning

Weight shift 

Rhythm 

Coordination 

Balance 

Souplesse 

Let me explain a little bit more about the 6 main principle.

TURNING - quite simply your body turns right and your body turns left if your right handed

WEIGHT SHIFT - form the address position as you turn your weight shifts on to your right side and when you turn in the opposite direction your weight shifts on to your left side.

RHYTHM - We all have our own natural rhythm and we ask our pupils to maintain theirs, being too fast or too slow will affect the rest of the swing,

COORDINATION - this is about coordinating the movement of the club with the movement of the body , if one is too fast or too slow you will struggle to match these two component parts. So commonly golfers don't do the first two things correctly resulting in poor coordination. 

BALANCE - This is so important in the golf swing, next time you hit some shots try holding your finish until the ball stops rolling, this gives you time to be ware of your balance and if you feel you lose yours put yourself back in balance so that your mind knows how this feels, eventually you'll naturally end up in balance. 

SOUPLESSE - this is quite simple suppleness, holding too much tension in your address position will suffocate suppleness , try to remain relaxed during your set up & swing and watch as you see the yards you've lost reappear.  

The 3 DEADLY DONT'S are. 

DON'T KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN.

DON'T KEEP YOUR LEFT ARM STRAIGHT. ( if your right handed , reverse if your left handed) 

DON'T KEEP YOU FRONT HEEL ON THE GROUND.

One of the most common sayings in the world of golf is "Keep your head down" I believe this has caused more swing faults than any other piece of advice, the art of keeping your head down stops fluent movement in its tracks, I'm going to write a whole blog on this, so you'll fully understand why not to do it and what you should be doing. 

Again another famous saying in the world of golf is "Keep your left arm straight" in order to do this you will automatically create TENSION , and remember tight muscles are short muscles, so many times I've witnessed golfers doing this and become very successful at topping the golf ball, allow your arm to be relaxed, indeed try hitting some balls with a bent left arm and see what happens . 

And finally please don't try and keep your front foot Cemented to the ground, this is not only a bad thing, but it may well cause you to have knee injuries and possible back injuries, there is a thing called the Kinetic chain which starts from the ground up, your ankle is pretty mobile , your knee is fairly stable , your hips are mobile , your lower lumber spine is again fairly stable and your upper spine( T Spine ) is mobile, by allowing your front foot to move freely the Kinetic chain works as it should but if you keep your front foot down your body moves in completely the opposite way to how it should, leading to poor swings and worse still injury.  

I could and will go into more detail on these subjects in future blogs but I wanted to give you a simple understanding of what Positive Impact Golf Coaching is all about. 

So a quick reminder, reduce tension in your set up and swing, allow your body to move freely and please have a quick look at Brian Sparks video so you can see just how easy the Golf Swing can be. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eURbeXGkeCU&sns=em

I hope this Blog inspires you to look at your swing in a different way, and remember you can always improve your swing no matter what your age. If you have any questions on this subject feel free to message me any time. 

Happy Golfing. 😀

Julian Mellor

PGA Professional 

Positive Impact Golf Coach 

www.julianmellorgolfschool.co.uk

07595 157452

Julianmellorpga@icloud.com

http://julianmellorpga.blogspot.co.uk

Why is Golf in decline ? How can we reverse it?

I was asked to put my spin on this Question "why is golf in decline ? And how to reverse it ?" 

So here goes, together with 8 friends and colleagues we have been working on a specialised golf website , to make it a success we believe it will be, we've had to do a lot of research and thanks to some amazing help from 5 interns at Coventry University Business School we've now got a much clearer picture about Golf.

Here is a glimpse at one stat we found 

I believe Golf isn't in decline it's just being accessed in a different way. 

Traditionally people joined golf club , played mostly at that venue, made friends and formed micro communities. The golf club became a central meeting place and a go to environment. All this happened way before current communication was the norm. Back then golfers agreed to meet up next week and stuck to their plans. 

So let's fast forward to 2015, mobile technology and the Internet, how's these 2 things transformed the golfing world? 

Quite simply choice, we can choose where and when we play we can invite friends at the touch of a button , choose the amount we want to pay at a course of our choice, Golf Clubs fight for our business and make it a NO BRAINER not to join theirs because the deals are so fantastic for the consumer, why on earth would the modern Savvy Golfer want a membership weight around their neck? 

Golfers don't need to be loyal anymore, they can get their handicaps on line, track their scores, seek out advice on forums , get the best deals on golfing equipment and have it sent to their home FOC. 

Just because Non Members of golf clubs can't easily be tracked doesn't mean that they are not playing. It's different to how it used to be, unions fees are dropping through the roof and they scream golfs on the decline, when it really isn't ,  clubs have just created a MUNICIPAL culture and the Internet has enabled it to grow. 

Golfers CAN have their cake and eat it.

I love this saying from "FIELD OF DREAMS" if you build it they will come, give golfers a reason to come to your venue and they probably will; but not alone, they will invite their Facebook friends, txt their mates and share in linked in and twitter groups. The golfing world is the smallest it's ever been because of these social media sites, stories are spread to every corner of the world and before you know it's gone viral. 

Once clubs wake up to the power of sharing and do something about it, then their stories will be told, stop being exclusive and become inclusive, welcome the modern golfer into their world and all of a sudden courses will be full again. 

Remember Golfers haven't stopped playing they just do it when they want to, not when you want them too. 

Become open minded to new ideas, and make sure you spread the word preferably not on the notice board stuck in the corner.

These are some of my own thoughts and I'm always happy to share your spin on this story. 

Thanks for reading 

JULIAN MELLOR 

PGA PROFESSIONAL 

Julianmellorpga.blogspot.co.uk

www.julianmellorgolfschool.co.uk

Modern savvy golfers

The Modern Savvy Golfer Expects!

What some golf clubs seem to forget is that the world of communication and competition has changed. No longer will golfers necessarily seek you out, so it’s vital to communicate directly with them. Competition is also much fiercer these days, and there’s a need to entice and incentivise.

Technology rules the way, and the way we all access our information is far removed from bothering to read the minutes from a stuffy old committee meeting that have been pinned to the clubhouse notice board!

Even a special offer on the club’s website or having a few leaflets put through letterboxes doesn’t suffice anymore. Instead, it’s the ability to deliver immediate and well targeted messages to a wide and varied audience that matters. Things like effective social media campaigns, eNewsletters and the use of discounting platforms like Groupon and Tee Times hit the mark with their real time mass delivery of offers which are just too good to resist.

Let’s face it, with the cost of an annual membership at a private club being around £1000 you need to play fairly regularly to get your money’s worth. Even playing once a week at those rates costs £19 a throw, and how many working people get the chance to play that often – particularly with the good old British weather spoiling things? So golf clubs need to catch up and realise that membership might not be the Holy Grail, and in fact many different offer seeking ‘nomad’ golfers might just be the future. Albeit at the risk of upsetting a few long in the tooth stuck in the mud members who are quite literally sucking the life out of many clubs by stubbornly opposing evolution.  So the time to communicate and compete effectively in order to reach a new audience is here – and the need to embrace new technology is vital.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against private clubs one little bit as they can be a second home for many people. However, we don’t pay full price for anything anymore and we’re certainly not restricted to spending all of our spare time in one place. So clubs need to evaluate what the future holds, look after their members yes, but realise new revenue streams are there to be secured if they embrace new technology, communicate and compete in a way the modern savvy golfer expects.

Happy Golfing 

Would you encourage a mystery shopper to visit your golf club ?

After lots of twitter rants and plenty of feedback in reaction to my previous blogs, it’s really clear that golf clubs need to improve their offering. What they need is a mystery golfer to visit them who can give unbiased feedback and offer positive recommendations that will not only swell the club’s bank balance but will greatly improve the visitor/members experience of their venue

I've worked at several golf clubs over the past 28 years, from municipals to privates with 9 and 18 hole courses, and they all have their positives and negatives.

However, one thing they all have in common is a lack of training. Club’s normally employ a professional, a secretary, catering staff, green keepers, GM's and volunteer committees , but never in my experience has any club ever sent its staff on a customer service course  - so how can there ever be continuity of service? Can you imagine this happening in any other customer service industry?

Right now clubs are desperate for members and income, but what are they doing differently to stand out above the rest? Maybe now is the perfect time to award clubs an industry standard Kitemark and see how many are prepared to really look at their business, let experts examine it with fresh eyes and then adopt any recommendations that will see them improve……including those from the mystery golfer who really will be on the receiving end of the service they offer!

There are so many ways now for golfers to share their thoughts online and clubs need to listen and make changes. So as a golf club, be proactive not reactive, offer members and visitors a money back guarantee and see how quickly things change for the better!

How to clean your Golf Grips

Hello, a quick question, is having clean grips important? 

Yes is the short answer, but for more than one reason, it's not easy to hold onto a shiney grip as it requires you to hold the club tightly which is really bad , by tightening your grip it contracts your muscles thus shortening them, It also creates tension which stops your body moving freely, this ultimately leads to bad swings and poor golf.

So if you don't know how to clean them carry on reading. 

Firstly you will need the following 

Hot water

Bucket 

Wire scouring pad

Soap

Towel 

Elbow grease 

Start by dipping your grip into the water, rub soap all over the grip and scrub the grip using the wire scouring pad until it starts to squeak.

 Keep dipping the grip in hot water and you'll be surprised how much black comes of it, repeat this a couple of times until your happy that your grip is clean. 

To finish dry the grip using your towel and leave near a rdiator to dry out completely 

Compare it to a grip that you haven't cleaned and prepare to be amazed. 

This should be repeated as soon as you feel your grips start to lose their tackiness. 

Hope this helps

Happy Golfing 

Julian Mellor

PGA Professional 

Positive Impact Golf Coach 

www.julianmellorgolfschool.co.uk

Email julianmellorpga@icloud.com