All golfers, at least those in the North, love when spring finally arrives. And as it always is in the past the spring brings with it new hope – hope for this to be the year that you bring your game up to the next level – closer to what you know your potential is. And we have all seen glimpses of our potential and it’s very exciting. But usually the excitement and commitment to being a better player starts to wane relatively quickly – most likely because of disappointment and the perceived inability to improve, along with the frustration and hurdles every golf will most likely hit along the way.
Joe Laurentino
News - The Negotiable Golf Swing
Working with Analyical-minded Golfers
September 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment
I’ve been coaching golf for some time now and the one thing that is most challenging is figuring out the most effective way to coach someone – everyone is different. By far the easiest group I work with is juniors – from the ages of 10 to 17. The reason why is their minds have not been filled with a lot of information. They’re not constantly watching the golf channel or reading golf instruction books and magazine. So when they come to me I’m more or less working with a blank slate. It’s amazing how simple my approach is with juniors. I focus on setup, then getting them to learn how to move the club, while understanding the relationship of the club and ball by reading their ball flight. And amazing things happen with these juniors.
Dustin Johnson’s 2 Shot Penalty at the PGA Championship
August 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment
As a Head Golf Professional at a club that has many tournaments, I’m very actively involved in marking the golf course, making local rules, and refereeing those tournaments. I’ve been asked my opinion on the ruling at the PGA Championship.
Teaching Hockey Reinforces Me on How I Approach Teaching Golf
August 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment
As I continue to share the hockey learning experience with my son, I’m watching closely on how he learns and how I help him learn to do things.
Along with us skating together, we also play some foot hockey with a ball in the driveway. So my son has been hitting slap shots, but all of them roll, with some speed, along the ground. So last week I started telling him at he needed to start seeing if he can start hitting the ball up into the upper parts of the net (he know what that is as he does it on his NHL 10 PS game).
Blog Making Changes in Your Golf Swing
July 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment
More times than not, making adjustments and changes to your golf swing, after doing it a certain way, can be uncomfortable to say the least. One of the most fundamental changes I try to make with students, and one of the hardest, is a grip adjustment. And generally speaking, no matter how little the change, it seems to be one of the greatest challenges for golfers. But the grip is a very important fundamental as it has the most influence on the clubface at impact, which determines how well you can control the direction of your golf ball. And while the grip is negotiable, it does mean you can hold it anyway you want, the important thing is to find the MOST effective way for you to hold it.
Be Careful When Listening to TV Golf Announcers
June 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Every golf tournament I watch, it’s inevitable and only a matter of time, before one of the broadcasters, whoever is the “expert’ on the golf swing, will say something about a player’s missed shots or even the positive analysis of a player’s swing, to make me so mad I want to throw my drink at the TV. There are two problems here -one is that damn “Biz-Cam” that does video playback at 1 zillion frames per second. The other is commentators that don’t know much or anything about the golf swing.
A Good Front Nine, Bad Back Nine and Vice Versa
June 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Many times golfers come to me complaining that they “can’t put two nines together” – they either play a good front nine and poor back nine, or a bad front nine and a good back nine. Golf is a fickle game, and on any given day that just may happen, but if you start to see a pattern of this occurring, it’s probably something you might want to take a closer look at. My opinion for this is that golfer’s are too focused on their score – a problem for nearly all of us that play this game.
For Golfers, The Driver Has No Limits
June 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment
The primary reason that golfers have the most challenge controlling their driver, versus the other clubs in the bag – is simple physics – the clubhead is traveling faster, there is less loft, and more sidespin. The combination of these factors simply magnifies any curvature with the golf ball’s flight.
For Golfers, The Driver Has No Limits
May 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment
The primary reason that golfers have the most challenge controlling their driver, versus the other clubs in the bag – is simple physics – the clubhead is traveling faster, there is less loft, and more sidespin. The combination of these factors simply magnifies any curvature with the golf ball’s flight.
