Tyler here with a little break from my norm.  I love a good movie, and this scene from Forgetting Sarah Marshall plays in my head anytime I hear a certain phrase during a PGA Tour Player’s interview.  Refresh yourself with the clip first.

How many times have you heard a tour pro say that they swing at about 80%?  Well, the PGA Tour average club head speed is around 112 MPH.  That means if a player were to swing all out, by basic math (112/.8) They would have a club head speed around 140 MPH, which is a typical output for a member of the long drive circuit.  So either one of two things is going on.  Either the average player doesn’t know how hard he is swinging compared to what he is capable of.  Or Brad Faxon has been really holding back all these years.  To think, he could have been driving par fours all along!

I understand that golf is a complicated sport, but we are at a place with technology where we can put an end to some of these confusing and misleading mantras, and hopefully avoid falling down the nutrition path.  To a novice, the golf swing is as confusing as deciding what is healthy to eat and what is not.  Can I eat bacon?  Whole grains are healthy still right?  Are eggs healthy these days or not?  Think about it, we have the same thing in golf.  I should swing easy?  I should keep my left arm straight?  It’s all in the hips right?  Don’t tell me chubs was lying, I don’t think I could take that one.

Nutrition goes through fad diet cycles just as golf goes through fad swing cycles and to the average consumer this creates a defeatist attitude.  The more complicated a topic is, the more opinions you will find on it.  I haven’t seen a new style of shooting free throws since the great debate between the purist and Rick Barry.

Usually, at the heart of complication is the quality of the data and the size of the sample.  Nutrition problems started by looking at small populations and making the claim that the success that population had will work for everyone.  Everyone should eat low fat because a small tribe in South America did so with success.  Golf was the same way.  Everyone should swing to parallel because Ben Hogan did.  Well, with nutrition, systems of evaluating the person first and then determining the appropriate diet have successfully evolved.  This evolution came from better data collection and identifying underlying critical factors, such as blood sugar, antioxidant levels, or calorie density.  These systems are now being used with great success to create healthy plans while still accounting for biochemical individuality.

Golf currently has 3D technology which can do the same thing which can debunk a lot of these myths.  Golfers are now going through screens before lessons to see what their body can physically do.  Then golf swings are being adjusted for these physical parameters.  The more we use accurate data to get our answers, the better our instruction is going to get.  I’m excited for the next coming years in golf and nutrition.  I’m excited to be able to swing hard…and eat bacon.

As a follow up to the last post, I guess putting blogging back in my forefront worked because I started seeing good topics everywhere I look again. Anyway, This morning, I was watching Sports Center on ESPN and they were interviewing Chip Kelly, the head football coach for University of Oregon. He was talking about a fun activity that the team does each Friday night to help get them pumped up for a game. He takes a popular movie and dubs over the famous lines with the message of the week. The thing that impressed me was the reason that they do this. It’s not to lighten the mood. It’s not to keep a bunch of 21-year-olds entertained. He does this because he said the majority of his players are visual learners. Do you know what style of learner you are? Does your instructor or trainer? I’m guessing no to all of these questions, but it may be one of the limiting factors in your improvement.

Somewhere during childhood we each hardwire our brains into a certain pattern of learning. The three common distinctions of learning are Visual, Auditory, or Kinestetic. In golf, or sport, these would be Visual, Rhythm, or Feel. The different learning styles really dictate how a person should approach practice and how they should build a preshot routine. If you cross languages, or wires, you will be confused.

Here’s a familiar example for a visual learner. Let’s say a visual learner goes to the golf course with a tip from a recent golf magazine fresh in his mind. The article talked about dropping the arms to bring the club from the inside in order to stop his slice. Sounds good right? Not for Mr. Picture. The only way that he will benefit from it is if he were to try and drop his arms but focus on what it looked like. Otherwise, this will create a fuzzy picture and for a Visual person to perform well is simple. The clearer the image for a Visual learner, then the better the result. Visual learners do well with shafts in the ground for practice so that they can SEE where the club is supposed to travel or other drills that help create a clearer image. Drills that focus on FEEL can confuse a visual learner and make the player worse.

From my experience, very few golf professionals are really aware of the different learning styles and even fewer incorporate them into their lessons. They ask every player, “How does that feel.” They stick shafts in the ground for anybody doing a path drill. Or they talk about how important rhythm and balance are regardless of who they are talking to. Let me give you an example that comes to mind when I think of how golf instructors look at students. A friend and golf pro had just finished giving a lesson when I was walking up to join him for a late nine. I could tell by the expression on his face that he thought it went well. But I asked how it went anyway.
He said, “That was one of the best lessons I have ever given.”
I said, “So if I asked your student, he would know exactly what he is supposed to work on and why?”
He looked puzzled and said, “well no, he probably couldn’t explain it to you.”
I responded, “That’s fine, could he show me?”
“well…maybe” He said as his tone changed towards frustration with me and my constant questioning.
Now I was puzzled. I asked him, “What made the golf lesson one of the best you have ever given?”
He said, “Easy, I explained what he needed to work on as clearly as I ever have and I did a great job of showing it on the video.”
“oh….good, let’s go play.” During the round, I explained my line of questioning.

An important lesson in communication is that “the meaning of a word in a given conversation is the interpretation of the listener.” I might say the most correct explanation imaginable, but if it not interpreted by the listener then it’s my fault. Usually, if the listener doesn’t get it, then I’m not speaking the same learning language that they are looking for. That might have been the case here. All those pretty words might have been lost on a feel or visual player.

My lesson to you is to know your own personal learning style. Until this concept is more mainstream if you don’t know your own personal learning style then you are just rolling the dice with your golf pro. Well, unless of course you get one of those rare special coaches like Chip Kelly of University of Oregon. I’m routing for the Ducks this year.

Testing….Testing…

Is this thing on? Sorry, it’s been a while and just wanted to make sure this thing still worked.

Long ago, I learned from golf that as soon as you think you have things figured out, you learn that you don’t. And while this may no longer apply to golf for Dee and I, we are the Golf Fitness Guys after all!, it certainly applied to the last year of my life. I thought I had my neck figured out last fall…I didn’t. So after a rough patch, I’m back to where I can spend more time working on a computer and I couldn’t be happier to return to blogging.

I thought long and hard about how I wanted to return, but I ultimately decided that having a big return is making more a deal of it that it really is. It’s like a New Year’s resolution. I don’t know the statistics, but I know that most New Year’s resolutions fail. I personally have much more success when I just decide that I am going to try and do something more often. I’ll start today, and then I’ll try to keep it going as long as I can. I feel that with this approach it is much easier to get back on track after inevitable slip ups. Or, maybe a more golfy example, it would be like stepping up to the first tee with the goal of hitting every green. This is a lofty and difficult goal because there is so much pressure associated with each shot. A better phrased goal for golf would be, “I’m going to try and hit this shot as well as I can.” Realistically, if I hit it solidly, and I pick the right club, and the right shot, then it should hit the green. But it doesn’t create the same internal environment as if I start out on the first tee with the goal, “I will try to hit every green.” Think about it this way, you don’t go to the range and say, “I’m going to try and hit every green.” You go to the range and hit a shot. In order to perform your best you should practice how you plan to play and imagine that when you play it is just like practice.

In my case my thought process goes like this. “I’m going to blog today.” I’m not going to make an outrageous claim to blog every day or even every week. I’m just going to blog today, put blogging back in my mental picture and on my to do list. I’ll start taking notes when I read, teach, or watch golf of topics that I would love to share.

Check back soon for tips from Dee and I to help your game.

sorry! Tyler and I have been working hard to get our product done and have been enjoying the summer, and all of the sudden it’s august!

anyway, we have exciting things coming up that well keep you driving toward being not only a better athlete, but a better golfer as well!

stay tuned!

“Golf Drive Secrets- The Ulitmate Guide to Driving it 300 Yards”

That is the title of our upcoming e-product we will be launching soon!

We know that every golfer wants to hit the ball 300 yds or farther all the time and with consisitency, so we are creating this product just for you!

It is NOT a quick fix, although whenver you allow the body to be more mobile, flexibile and stable, it will begin to show quick results, and we know that better moving body’s make better hitting golfers!

This weekend, Tyler and I will be filming the video portion of the product and our team members are hard at work getting up a NEW looking blog etc, so keep a look our for it!

Golfers,

I am snowed in with 30 inches and not much to do. I’m still working hard on my neck rehab, so this will take me longer than I would like, but I have some fun ideas to share for your 2010 golf plan.

First off, let me thank an ex-student. I met him last fall and worked with him for about 6 months. He was an accomplished amateur who had a really bad back injury. He hits 15 greens a round and has a swing that most of you would love to have, but the engine didn’t match the paint and he is working his way back into it. Anyway, he didn’t share with me initially, but he was a secret shopper -I mean another blogger. Last week he thanked me on his website and it means a lot so I wanted to share. If you want to read what he said, here you go. Golf’s Not Hard

On to the fun stuff and the reason for the title of the article. By the way, I realize that our blog has become more of a weekly newsletter type service, but stay with us, my neck is getting better and my time at the computer is improving. 2010 will be a good year for the GFG’s.

During my last trip to California I read a jewel of a book, “What Happy People Know” by Dan Baker. It was given to me by Bobby Foster, a sports psychologist that I have a lot of respect for, and knew it would be a good read. It is a book about the science of fear, how the brain is hardwired to be afraid, and most importantly what you can do about it. Dr. Baker brings up an interesting point on the underlying assumption of the current health care system and it got my wheels turning.

Think about this, the current health care model is built on the assumption that if you remove disease, then what you will have left is health. Similarly, the current psychology model is built on the assumption that if you remove negative thoughts, positive thoughts will remain. But, is the absence of disease, mental or physical, optimal health? The alternative medicine model is built on the assumption that if you chase optimal health, the disease will not have an environment to survive and the new science of happy psychology is built on the premise that if you focus on happy thoughts then the unhappy depressing thoughts won’t have a chance to exist either. I’m not here to tell you that I believe in the more holistic alternative approach to focusing on optimizing health, but I am going to challenge you to look at your golf swing in a different way.

The current model of golf instruction is built on the assumption that if you remove the swing faults then you will have a good swing. The first thing a golf instructor does when they look at a swing is video tape to look at swing plane. But here’s an interesting thought for you, if you look on video and see a player that doesn’t sway, doesn’t early extend, doesn’t come over the top, doesn’t reverse spine angle or pivot, doesn’t scoop or chicken wing and swings on plane then do you really have a good swing?

Here’s the problem, I have worked with at number of golfers who demonstrate the above and yet complain that their swings don’t hit the ball where they want or as far as they want. So what would the alternative or positive psychology model of the golf swing be?

3D Analysis is the new paradigm! It allows you to look at your efficiency, which is your swing’s health or “happiness.” If your swing is not efficient, then you can see where the inefficiencies exist. These inefficiencies allow a skilled instructor to see where potential injuries could develop – it’s like knowing if a person has a history of heart disease. Swing efficiency is just as important as swing plane. I know this is hard to hear Mr. Hogan, but it’s true and I hope you can eventually accept it. Swing plane is important, but I would trade a slightly imperfect swing plane for a happy swing.

But here is the more exciting thing. If you chase an efficient swing, generally your swing plane will improve and your swing faults will go away. Most of them, but maybe not all. While the converse, if you chase a perfect swing plane, in no way guarantees an improvement in efficiency. An efficient swing comes from swinging in proper sequence (lower body, core, upper body, arms/hands,) with the dominant force being rotational. If your goal is proper sequencing and efficiency then you will build a swing that holds up under pressure and provides you with as much success as your short game will allow. If you end up with a few swing faults at the end, so what? You’ll probably be a successful single digit golfer and we can worry about fine tuning then.

But the big picture here is are you running away from disease or are you pursuing optimal health? Are you running away from sadness or pursuing happiness? And are you fighting away swing faults or working towards an efficient swing?

Enjoy the blizzard D.C. – mull this over while shoveling.

Hello valued reader!

Again we aplogize for the look of the blog and our infrequent posts, we are going thru some changes and we are excited about them!

1. Tyler is moving to Scottsdale, AZ to live and work with Advanced Motion Performance which is what we will be doing in Vail at Red Sky Ranch all summer.
2. We are speaking at the Denver Golf Expo on Feb 12-14th at 2pm friday and saturday on “power equals distance.” We will also be doing 3D motion capture demos at the Mcgetrick Golf academy booth.
3. The weekend of the 19-21st we are doing a weekend of 3D motion captures for anyone interested in taking their game to a whole new level!
4. and Tyler will be going back and forth to San diego to see the awesome Janet Alexander at the CHEK Institute to get his head and neck better.

So please stay tuned as our goal hasn’t changed, to provide you with the best golf fitness, nutrition and game related info we can!

Happy New Years Golfers!

Tyler here again, recovering from a recent relapse with my neck that limited my computer time. My new years resolution is to learn how to regain my health quicker (it’s unrealistic to wish for perfect health all the time) and to blog more frequently, and yes I will also try to do more video blogging this year. On to my anniversary

One year ago today I got the first symptom related to my neck. I had a hard time swallowing a piece of tomato in a salad. I felt like I was choking from something so small that it couldn’t possibly had been the issue. From this, a cascade began that left me bed ridden for two weeks and then spending the majority of the year bouncing from PT to Chiro to ENT to you name it. The bad news with this year is that I hardly remember what it’s like to sweat from working out, I’ve lost 10 lbs (mostly muscle) and I only played golf 5 times. The good news with this year is that it pushed me in a different direction in learning to analyze the body as it relates to the golf swing and I’ve been able to invest a significant amount of time in reading, which had I stayed healthy I would have been unable to do.

In my year, I had three big lessons: the powers of gluten, the mystery of the atlas, and the reality of the adrenals. I already explained how gluten affected me this year, let me explain the mystery of the atlas.

The atlas is your top vertebrae. Just like in Greek Mythology, Atlas held the world on his shoulders. In your body, your atlas acts like a funnel for your brain to become your spinal cord. This bone can get knocked out of place, and when it does you better watch out. It can cause all kinds of weird symptoms when it goes out. For me, I would have blurry vision and when I read the words would jump around the page. I had a twitch in my movement when I would go to move my head, I would have trouble thinking of the right word and often would transpose the first letter in words. Things like “fatten blackswing” instead of “flatten backswing” would happen much more frequently. These weird symptoms would consume me when they were occurring at a regular rate. It also seemed to contribute to my jaw popping and dizzy spells. How I learned about this was a fun experience.

Being involved in the TPI world, you hear about some of the brightest and best trainers and what they have going on in their worlds. At a conference, 3 different people suggested that I try a NUCCA chiropractor. I was skeptical because I had tried 2 different brands of chiropractors (one regular and one chiropractic neurologist who did applied kinesiology) a this time, so what would be so special about a NUCCA? Out of faith, I tried it the next time I was in California for a conference. I walked in and the first thing the doctor did was take X-Rays. Ok, he had my attention at this point. He gave the normal, “oh, very interesting” as he looked at my scans and then we went to a room where he turned off the lights and had me march in place for a minute. This was supposedly confirmation to the X-Ray. Afterwords, he had me lay on a table with my body in a precise position and he pushed on my atlas repeatedly for about 30-60 seconds. Then he had me lay there for 2 minutes and let it “settle in”. He warned me that when I sat up I was going to get dizzy. He was right. I sat up and the room spun around for a minute before he let me stand. As we were walking to the room to retake the X-Rays I felt every muscle in my neck relax. It was euphoric. After having my Jaw pop daily for a few months, I felt a smooth glide that lasted for about 4 days. I was convinced that we were on to things. I have had some treatments which have helped, but this first NUCCA adjustment was unparalleled.

The downside to this is that there isn’t anyone listed on the NUCCA website in the DC area. The nearest one was in Delaware. So even if you think that this might help you, unfortunately it might be a day trip to get it done. You will know in a matter of seconds if it helps and if it helps it will be life changing.

I’m sure that you’re wondering how this helps the golf thing? Maybe you don’t have crazy symptoms because your muscles are ok with you being out of alignment. Or maybe they are more like subtle annoyances than debilitating conditions but what about your golf swing. A majority of your balance and proprioception comes from this atlas relationship and the CHEK institute has seen a strong correlation between atlas position and head movements in the golf swing. One example would be a forward lunge – a total body shift towards the target at transition. This could easily be a result of a golfer’s atlas being rotated and the lunge a way to find a stable balance point before they can rotate. You could spend thousands of dollars on lessons to hear a golf pro tell you to start the swing with your lower body, but it could be fighting a losing battle if your neck is out.

If you are in an area where you can find a NUCCA and are curious, go check it out. If it is your problem, you will be amazed at the results.

As Dee indicated, I am going to be moving out west in a matter of weeks for two purposes: to pursue a great opportunity for me professionally and to continue healing my neck. They have NUCCA’s where I’m going. I’m willing to move across the country in order to be healthy, think about that the next time you feel to tired to drive down the street to the gym.

Good luck with those New Year’s resolutions golfers.

Hello all!

Tyler and I want to thank you for being regular readers of Golf Fitness Guys, and also thanks for your patience as we strive to make our blog better!

We look forward to putting out the best information re: golf fitness in 2010 and the best part is, is that Tyler and I will be together all summer long as Red Sky Ranch in Vail Colorado working with Advance Motion Peformance!

So we will be pumping out videos and crazy posts!

Stay tuned and we hope you have a blessed new year!

Greetings golfers. Tyler here with the first in a series about the different things that I have gone through this year in trying to get back to competition level.

First, for those of you who don’t know me personally, let me give you a brief background of what I battled this year. At the beginning of the year I had a “neck” injury. It built slowly over a few weeks until one day I did one of those, “use my fist as a lever on my jaw to crack my own neck” and BAM! The room started spinning, I had trouble breathing and for the next few hours I felt very uncoordinated. For a 27 year old, this is some scary stuff. I went to a neurologist, a chiropractor, an ENT, a physical therapist, another chiropractor, another physical therapist and finally a CHEK practitioner. While this was going on, I was consulting with some of my TPI super nerds about people to see and questions to ask. I tried lots of different treatments from pills to lifestyle changes to exercise to diet to you name it. But it wasn’t really until I met the CHEK practitioner who sent me to a NUCCA chiropractor and recommended a complete evaluation from a CHEK level 3 that I made big strides (feeling ok for more than a day in a row). Over the next few posts, I’m going to share with you the lessons that I learned and why you might want to give them a try as well. I’m certain that not everyone had a bad car accident, subluxed a shoulder, and ate like crap for 20 years resulting in this kind of skeletal muscle dysfunction, but I’m sure there are things going on that are quite easy to fix if you knew what to look for.

Anyway, after battling this thing for almost a year I am really just now starting to feel somewhat in control of these “weird” symptoms. Things ranging from trouble thinking of the right words, a grinding sensation in my neck when rotating, dizziness, trouble breathing, trouble swallowing, and vision blurriness just to name some of the more annoying. Going from a pretty severe case to somewhat normal has made me even more hyper sensitive to my body’s changes and given me some insight into the nagging issues facing your everyday life. You don’t have to be tired and in pain if you don’t want to be. And on that note, let me share my first lesson.

Gluten free has worked for me!

If you don’t know someone who is avoiding gluten then you soon will. I see it more and more on websites. I hear it every now and then on TV. It’s only a matter of time. Why am I putting this first as far as things to consider? Well, it’s relatively the easiest change that I have made. There really is no need to visit a doctor or practitioner on this one. All you do is try cutting out certain foods and monitor if you feel better. It’s cheap, it’s easy, and it really could be life changing – so let the experiment begin!

A little background on Gluten

Gluten is a protein found in many grains (wheat, oats, spelt, barley, and rye). The major one that you have to avoid is wheat because it is hidden in lots of things other than bread and pasta. Read the labels and become familiar with how much you are eating because if you’re like me, you may surprise yourself.

If you asked people around me, they would have said that I lived a very healthy lifestyle and ate very healthy meals. but I did consume a lot of whole grains (mostly wheat). I must admit, it took a bit of planning and was a little tricky giving up gluten at first but it resulted in one major difference for me. Within 3 weeks of giving up gluten my lower abs were flatter and more active than they had ever been in my life. As a skinny person, few would believe, but I always had a little level of abdominal distention. After a few weeks of giving up gluten that was gone and my lower stomach was flat. In addition, when I’d do my abdominal exercises they became much more effective and I finally felt the lower portion. If you do lots of exercise and have trouble getting your lower abs to flex and flatten, gluten may be a big contributor. How does this help the golf swing?

Well, without having a strong and stable pelvis I had developed what we call a hip trigger. When I went to take the club away, my hips would move first and then my arms and shoulders. Now 3 months on no gluten and I can finally stabilize my lower body which has helped my wedges and short game tremendously. I was stunned with how easy it was to keep my lower body quiet on short shots after my lower abs developed as a result of getting off the G.

If you’re skeptical as I was, here was my confirmation. I slipped up one night and had a breaded cutlet at a Japanese steak house. For almost a week following, I had great difficulty doing the basic lower ab drills that have become part of my nightly routine. I had to use my upper abs and hold my breath to get the same level of control in my pelvis. This was all the confirmation that I needed that cutting out gluten was the key to my golf improvements this year.

For what it costs to make this change, I highly recommend giving it a try. Now here is the kicker. If you are going to try it, you have to completely cut it out for at least a month before you will see benefit. That is how long it takes for your intestinal wall to replenish the Gluten damaged cells with new ones and you won’t see a big change until you have new cells processing nutrients more effectively. When I say Gluten free, I mean free. As little as 1/8th of a teaspoon could cause an inflammatory response in gluten sensitive individuals. So this isn’t one of those, “you can cheat once a week” programs. If you’re going to do it, do it right.

I highly recommend giving this a try and if your improvements are half as dramatic as mine you will definitely thank me. Stay tuned for more info on life changing topics that may make great New Year’s resolutions for 2010.