60 days to go!

This weather is brutal for those who can't get winter holidays or don't work hard enough to own a winter retreat on a beach, so for you hibernation is in vogue...lots of eating, sleeping, TV watching. The good news is that in a mere 60 days the links will be open again, so let's turn these next 2 months to our advantage. I'm going to suggest some simple, quick, and life altering indoor golf exercises that will allow you to hit the ball farther!Now that I have your attention, I will discuss 2 items: stretching and swinging

Stretching:

"Oh God, not again, everyone tells me to stretch, and I hate it, it's boring."

I know, I know, I go through this myself. To tell you the truth, after all we hear about the benefits of core training, Pilates, and yoga, most of us are lazy. Most of our stretching is limited to reaching for the remote on the coffee table. So rather than bore you with lectures on benefits of stretching to your game, I'll give you a simple 5-10 minute a day routine to do while you're watching your favourite TV program. (Hard to do with a pizza slice in your hand, so please do them hands free, thanks).

Here are three simple stretching drills:

#1: Torso bender

Lie on your back knees pulled up, feet flat on the floor, with arms straight at your sides and palms facedown on the floor.

Slowly try to touch your left knee to the floor while keeping your back, shoulders, and palms flat against the floor.

Take the stretch as far as it will go and hold for 5 seconds.

Slowly return to your original position, rest for a count of five, and then swing your knees in the opposite direction, this time trying to touch your right knee to the floor. Repeat 4 times

#2: Toe reaches:

Sit on the floor with your legs stretched out straight in front of you, feet about shoulder width apart.

Reach out your arms slowly toward your left big toe. Try to touch it. If you can't that's OK. Just go as far as you can and hold the position for a count of five.

Now relax and slowly bring your body back up to starting position, take another count of five and do it again this time reaching for your right big toe. Repeat 4 times

#3: Crunches

Still on the floor, same position as for the toe reaches.

Draw your knees up and in as close to your chest as possible.

Wrap your arms around your knees and pull them up tight against you head tucked down Hold for a count of five then relax and return slowly to your original position.

Repeat 4 times

There. Now those 3 exercises are a shortened and simple version of some relatively light non intensive stretching that might take more than 5 minutes, but again the important thing is not so much that you do them correctly, but that you commit to doing them everyday, with one day of rest, and I've suggested doing them while watching TV, because it works for me, because I find repetitious exercising boring and so I need some king of distraction.

Swinging

Now I will tell you about the MOST IMPORTANT golf swinging exercise that I believe there is, and most great golf teachers agree upon. (and that's rare!).

It involves the use of a weighted club. I am not a believer in training aids and gimmicks. I think 98% of them are cheap marketing ploys that have made a lot of money for some clever people. But the one aid that I absolutely believe will do wonders for your game is a weighted club. The first time I learned of this idea was while reading The Little Red Book by Harvey Penick. He talked about the benefits of swinging a weed cutter, a heavy tool back in the days of the Flintstones. Obviously some clever entrepreneur (why didn't I think of that) created a device known as the Medicus. You can buy it in some golf stores for over 100 bucks.

But being the frugal type, I use a device that cost me $3.99 called a swing donut. You know the round ring that you see baseball players putting on their bats before they go up to the plate. I actually use 2 of them because I want a bit more weight and I'm really strong (yeah right). I urge you, no.... order you.to purchase one right now and start swinging it your home or office everyday for 5 minutes. Use your 5 or 6 iron. In the beginning your hands, fingers, wrists and arms will be sore. That's a good thing. Keep going. You are strengthening your key golf muscles. And if you repeat this every day, 6 days a week, you WILL hut the ball farther, guaranteed.

But wait, there's an added bonus of swinging a weighted club, especially if you slice. Because the club is heavy, it is just about impossible to start the downswing using your hands or shoulders as all slicers do, and you are forced to swing down on an inside path. And this is the professional swing path, the only correct path and the one that encourages a draw rather than a slice. The path that encourages proper contact on the sweet spot that also adds to your distance. So good luck!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_M._Goodman