THE QATSPY GOLFER’S PAGE
By: Charles W. Boatright
Like most people regardless of your age or whether you are a man or woman, you had your favorite car as your dream car. I had two vehicles, a Jeep and a 1963 Red Stingray Corvette. When an image of either a Jeep or a Corvette come to mind, it seems like everything else fades from focus except for these two images. I’m still working on the ’63 Corvette Stingray.
Image was part of the discussion on a weekly radio show Arkansas Fairways & Greens out of Little Rock that I listen to each Saturday morning on my I-Heart Radio App. Details of the station and times are noted at the end of this Blog.
On Arkansas Fairways & Greens on Saturday, 12Nov2016, Bob Steel, the host, was discussing with Shawn Humphries, a professional golf instructor, the importance of mental image and physical fitness in golf. The two are equally as important and inseparable, this is reinforced in the quote that what benefits the heart also benefits the mind and vice versa. This principle has been proven in medical research dealing with Alzheimer’s. Research has indicated the importance of Cardiovascular exercise to combat the onset of Alzheimer’s. The main reason is the oxygenated blood being supplied to the brain which is crucial. This is why golf is an important sport to pick up especially as we age. I consider Cardiovascular exercises so important that I have them listed Cardio as the first component in my CASPER (Cardiovascular, Aerobic, Strength, and Plyometric Exercise Regimen) in Section 20 of my book, The ESPY Golf Swing Coach.
It is true that golf, like baseball, is 90 percent mental, and some golfers focus just on the mental component and just working on the swing mechanics and techniques. But golf is still an athletic sport where image and fitness is important. The more an athlete can use a image to work and exercise a particular muscle, the more mental control the athlete can exercise control over that muscle. If you want to perform at your best, you need to build up your horsepower in the muscular system. This is why the golfer needs to hit the gym, just as much as the golfer needs to hit the golf course. I have set up in my house a home gym, not just to strengthen the muscles, but to learn to exercise control over the muscles, as part of the golfer’s command and control.
All fitness starts with a person adopting a good mental image of what they want to achieve, and the same can be said about the golf swing. The golfer needs to develop a mental image of the swing in order to capitalize on what to work on in the gym. If the golfer doesn’t know how to properly engage their muscle in the correct sequence, the muscle can’t provide the essential power and speed.
I found that a great method to initiate my golf swing sequence is with a mental image. If there is not a mental image, there’s no muscle memory. In my golf swing sequence, I use one of America’s iconic images, the muscle car, to establish both my mechanics and techniques needed in the golf swing. I use two images, the Jeep and the 1967 Corvette Stingray. The Jeep represents my mechanics, while the ’67 Corvette represents my muscle memory or technique. There is no denying the classic performance of the standard ’67 Corvette Stingray, with its 355 horsepower, 427 cubic-inch, 4-barrel Holley carburetor. Accept no substitute.
The grill of the Jeep is basically format how the golf mechanics are naturally set up. The ’67 Corvette Stingray represents one single muscle I want to feel engage. If you properly engage this one muscle, the majority of the other 320 pairs muscles are naturally engaged. This muscle is not a household word like the biceps, triceps, or deltoid muscles. But it is one of the body’s most unique muscles. This muscle, the Brachio-Radialis, is critical in the golf swing to supinate and pronate the wrists and to flex, or bend, the forearm at the elbow. Ben Hogan even used supination and pronation in his book to set up the golf swing. By focusing on setting this one muscle properly, provides confidence for the golfer’s entire golf swing to provide power, control, and speed. Similar to pressing the accelerator on the ’67 Corvette and knowing the power will be there without question.
The Sync and Preset elements set the Brachio-Radialis muscle. For the right-handed golfer, the golfer needs to focus on two carpals in the left wrist and right lower forearm nodular, called the Radial Styloid Process. I refer to this nodular as the Radial Sync Process. Referring to the diagram above you will see how the left wrist, Hamate and Capitate carpals, is orientated with the right lower forearm nodular, Radial Sync Process. You can locate this nodular just above the right thumb.
This is where the Brachio-Radialis muscle is attached to the Radial bone at the Styloid Process. This attachment point is the key for the golfer to engage the feel for the muscle memory. Now this is where the golfer’s working out with a punching bag pays off. From the illustration of the pair of boxing gloves, the gloves are positioned as if the gloves are placed on the handle of the club. The golfer wants to Sync and Preset the below the left wristband and at the nodular of the right lower forearm. I have placed a red and yellow shaded disc where this orientation is located, called the Synchronization Line.
The key is to know how to supinate and pronate the wristbands of the boxing gloves to preset the wrists. Consider everything above the wristbands, or the yellow disc as being neutral only responding to the Sync and Preset maneuvers. The reason the term neutral is used is no movement take place above the wristbands; the golfer is wanting to anchor one end of the muscle and coil the other end at the wristbands. The more of the muscle the golfer can coil, the better the results. If the golfer turns both ends of a muscle, the golfer loses the effect of entire muscle. You will find the preset of the ESPY Golf Swing is a better and simpler golf swing by presetting the wrist than you have ever tried before. How to Sync and Preset is discussed in detail in Section 1.13 of my book.
If you want to include the Brachio-Radialis muscle in your normal workout routine, use a boxing bag work out, cable hammer curls with elastic tubing, and stocking the shelves using a Medicine Ball. All these exercises are a part of my CASPER Workout Program that is also great for general fitness. There no reason with general fitness you can’t enjoy life even in your 90’s. This is why picking up golf is an important sport to play because of the health benefits it offers, especially if you walk the course like I do. Also golf is a great sport to prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s; please see my Blog on the benefits of golf in preventing Alzheimer’s: http://goo.gl/HJX8Ss
To learn how to establish your own mental image purchase your copy of The ESPY Golf Swing Coach.
By: The QATSPY Golf Approach
Charles W. Boatright
Madison, MS
1-888-514-1228
The ESPY Golf Swing Coach:
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Once you learn WHY, you don’t forget HOW!
YouTube Videos:
https://youtu.be/ZGVNrIw_wlo (Cam & cam-over elements)
https://youtu.be/K2FDHZ3AX9w (Figuring your proper swing plane)
https://youtu.be/TO82PMO6G8M (Developing muscle memory)
You can make a difference for yourself and your kids by placing a golf club and a copy of my book into their hands. You will never look back, only forward. You should not miss this opportunity for yourself and/or your kids.
A Recommendation for your Golf Game:
I would like to recommend a wonderful radio program that I regularly listen to on my I-Heart Radio app on KARN 102.9 FM, out of Little Rock, AR. They air a golf show called “Arkansas Fairways and Greens,” at 7:00am CST on Saturday mornings. It is hosted by Bob Steel and Jay Fox. Bob occasionally has on his show a guest named Shawn Humphries, a Professional Golf Instructor from Dallas, TX. One thing that Mr. Humphries stresses is the mental part of golf, not focusing on the results but the process.
Until next time– Be Synced, Tee-to-Green, with The ESPY Golf Swing!