Know Your Shopping

Every golfer wants to know the magic secret to achieving the proper golf swing. One that is repeatable and produces results.

If you have been trying to accomplish the proper golf swing through traditional ways and still aren’t happy with your results…you’ll need to keep reading this article to find out why.

You see…it’s your body that is keeping you from achieving the proper golf swing and playing your best golf! Doesn’t that make sense?

If your body is physically declining, and has limited golf-specific strength and flexibility…you will have a minimal chance at ever achieving the proper golf swing.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news…but this is a fact!

There are certain physical ‘musts’ to achieve a proper golf swing.

Here are just a couple: •Approximately a 90 degree shoulder turn with a 45 hip turn. •Golf posture with a slight bend at the hips and in the knees. •Start the downswing with the lower body first, maintaining your upper body coil. •Impact…you should be ‘behind the ball’ with your head and upper body as the hips are slightly open. •Follow through requires maintaining the spine angle you had at address, throughout the follow through.

Now…you don’t see how physical limitations in both strength and flexibility will limit or not allow you to attain the above requirements, I don’t think you’re really looking at it closely.

The golf swing puts the body under tremendous stress throughout the entire swing. Especially the lower back (due to the coiling and uncoiling of the upper body over a stable lower body), hips, wrists and even shoulders.

The ONLY way to achieve the proper golf swing is to physically improve your bodies limiting factors, so that you can finally achieve the proper golf swing.

Generally, a set of golf clubs off the shelf isn’t likely to be a perfect fit for you. Manufacturers create golf clubs for folks of average build – whatever that is! Not only is everyone different in their physical make-up, but no two players swing exactly the same. So one golf club size definitely does not fit all.

If your clubs are too long or too short, you’re likely to have problems. To find the right size clubs for you, try swinging with a few different lengths. Basically, you choose clubs that are about as long as the distance from your navel to the floor. You don’t need to decide right awaylots of courses and driving ranges have sample clubs that you can practice with until you find the perfect fit!

You can rent different kinds of equipment, too. Before you invest in a set of expensive clubs, try a variety of types at your local golf course. Test the waters for a few months. See what feels best for your game.

Now, if after you’ve tried out several brands of clubs, and you’re getting serious about the game, it’s a good idea to get custom fitted by a PGA professional at a golf range. Don’t do this until you’re able to consistently repeat a swing. Bottom line – if you can’t hit worth a nickel, you don’t need to be fitted for clubs yet!

A golf pro can help you find which clubs are best for you. As previously stated, everyone has a different physique. Some clubs just aren’t going to feel right to you. This is no reflection on your game and certainly no reason to quit playing. By getting custom fitted for your clubs, you will likely hit the ball more consistently and accurately.

First, the fitter will have you hit a few balls. This is no time to try to impress. Just hit normally, and try to loosen up. Your swing speed will be recorded to determine the right flex of shaft.

Fitters will take into account the length of the club so that it’s comfortable for you. They’ll look at your hands to determine if you need special grip fitting. You may need longer or shorter clubs.

The angle of the club may be adjusted for you as well. When you’re done with the “fitting”, specific recommendations will be made regarding

• Length of club • Size and design of clubhead • Lie angle • Shaft type • Grip type • Set make-up

Then you can make a wise decision on exactly what clubs to purchase. You will likely see an improvement in your game overall when you have the right equipment, tailor-fitted for you.

What Every Golfer Should Know About Home Putting Greens

How do you say goodbye to 3 and 4 putts? Practice, practice, practice. The key to improving your short game lies in putting practice. But where?

You can practice conveniently on your own home putting green and it may even increase the value of your home. If you’re thinking about installing a putting green, there are several factors to take into consideration.

Will your putting green be portable?

Roll out greens come in many sizes. Popular sizes are 2′ x 6′, 3′ x 12′ to 6′ x 15′. Some feature a regulation cup, while others have a smaller cup than regulation size, which will hone your targetting. Some feature a ball return.

Will you install your green inside or outside?

Indoors, there are small practice greens, rollout greens and larger indoor greens. Large indoor greens can be as large as 12′ x 30′. Outdoor greens can be as large as you want.

How much do you want to spend?

Roll-out greens can be found in a wide range of prices from $20 to $300. Larger indoor greens can cost as much as $700. When you start looking at outdoor putting greens, you are talking about costs per square foot for all of the materials – the green material and the base layers.

What material will your green be made of?

Indoor greens are synthetic of course. When you’re considering outdoor putting greens, you have a choice of materials. Your choice is natural grass or an artificial turf.

At first glance, you may think all-natural grass might be best. Think again though. If you choose grass, you will need to spend time maintaining the green. The question is, would you rather be mowing, watering, feeding and weeding OR putting? Since most golfers choose putting, let’s talk about artificial greens.

Artificial outdoor putting greens

With an artificial putting green, maintenance is minimal which means more time to putt. The synthetic fibers are manufactured to resist fading and matting.

There are two popular UV-treated materials: polypropylene turf and nylon turf. Nylon turf is easier to maintain than polyropylene turf. The fibers spring back so your ball has a true roll to the cup. Nylon turf is also denser than polypropylene turf.

Polypropylene turf needs sand fill to keep the fibers upright. During installation, sand is spread across the top of the polypropylene surface and brushed into the turf with a broom. Since the sand can wear away, from time to time, you’ll need to add more sand.

Outdoor putting greens also require a base of stone or concrete. The cups are concreted into place. As for drainage, synthetic turfs drain off the turf, not through it. Drainage needs to be provided.

How fast will your outdoor green be?

Another decision you’ll make is regarding green speed. Stimp measures how fast the green is. You can have your green speed matched to your local courses or to a championship course. In general, adding more sand to your synthetic green makes it faster.

Will you Do-it-Yourself?

You can buy a putting green kit to install yourself. Many come with video instructions. Depending on the size and design, you may need help in installing the green.

Once your new putting green is installed, you can enjoy hours of putting practice and improve your golf game. For a putting green resource site, visit http://www.allputtinggreens.com/

Snowboarding has great similarities to surfing and skiing: It’s like surfing in that it is a board sport, and like skiing because it is performed in the snow. Snowboarders – or riders, as they are called – strap boards to their feet and slide down snow-covered slopes. It is an increasingly popular winter sport across the world, wherever there is snow. In 1998, it became an eligible medal sport in the Winter Olympic Games. Other major events include the U.S. Open Snowboarding Championship and the Winter X-Games in Canada and the United States.

No one knows exactly when snowboarding was invented, but it is widely accepted that it was created around the 1950s by a mix of surfers, skateboarders, and skiers – who were able to transfer their skills to the cold mountains. Snowboarders during that time used hand-made boards. Because snowboarding was new and crude at that time, many skiers largely frowned upon the sport. In fact, many ski resorts would not allow snowboarding.

However, the sport began to gain more popularity in the 1970s and ’80s, and snowboarding equipment became more sophisticated and advanced. By 1997, almost all of the ski resorts in the United States allowed snowboarding. Today, the sport is attracting an ever-growing fan base (more than 3.4 million people), so much so that the number of skiers has actually declined. Some people attribute this to the comparative ease of snowboarding.

Today, standard snowboarding equipment includes snowboards, boots, bindings, and warm clothing. The sport has three main sub-styles: freestyle, freeride, and freecarve, with each style distinguishable by the equipment used and the desired terrain.

Freestyle riding is currently the most popular style among snowboarders. It is characterized by a lot of jumps, tricks, rail slides, and switch riding. Freestyle equipment includes soft boots and relatively short mobile boards, which are ideal for the frequent jumps in this style of riding.

Freeride, the most general style of snowboarding, is performed on most mountain terrains including open terrain and backcountry chutes. As with freestyle snowboarding, freeriders wear soft boots; however, the actual snowboard is a little longer and directional than the one used in freestyle snowboarding.

Freecarve – also known as alpine snowboarding – focuses on carving and racing. Freecarving is performed on hard-pack or groomed runs. In this style, there is little or no jumping. Equipment includes hard boots and plate binding system; and the boards are stiff, narrow, and long.

Within each of these sub-styles are more variations, including sandboarding, heli boarding, kite snowboarding, and mountain boarding.

for more information on snowboarding and skiing you can visit the site at http://www.winter-skiing.com

A full golf swing is the desire of every golfer. You know that a full golf swing is needed to produce maximum clubhead speed and ultimately distance…but do you know how to accomplish it effectively?

You’ve probably heard your golf teaching pro say, “you’re not getting a full golf swing”, but has he told you how to get it? It’s easy to analyze, but much harder to come up with a solution…until now.

You see…a full golf swing is impossible to achieve if you do not have a higher level of golf-specific strength and flexibility. Let me say that one more time.

“A full golf swing is impossible to achieve if you do not have a higher level of golf specific strength and flexibility”.

Let’s look at these so-called “requirements”, for you to see I’m not just blowing smoke.

A full golf swing is considered a 90 degree shoulder turn, with a 45 degree hip turn. This is what we read in all the analysis’ of the golf swing.

Achieving the above physical components in your golf posture proves almost impossible for the senior golfer who has declining physical abilities.

Are you in this category?

Are you a 50-70 year old golfer who has lost a ton of yards off the tee and watched your scores get higher and higher?

If so, don’t you think if you did a simple, “in-home” golf performance program you’d see dramatic improvements in your body’s ability to make a bigger, even “full golf swing”?

To achieve this doesn’t mean hitting more balls at the range or taking more lessons. In fact, you can eliminate hitting balls altogether for a short time while you get your body back in tip-top shape.

When you do, the next time you go out to practice or play, you will be shocked!

That full golf swing you’ve dreamed about will happen without you even thinking about it. Your body will do it because it has been ‘trained’ properly.

A Quick Tip – you’ve got to focus on your rotational strength and flexibility to make a full golf swing! You can even do this sitting in your chair. Reach around the back of your chair and rotate your upper body, while leveraging your opposite arm against the chair. This is a simple, yet very effective rotational stretch you can do all day long.

You don’t need fancy, expensive equipment to improve your physical abilities, but a simple and effective program will do wonders for achieving your full golf swing.

You learn how to break in a baseball glove as soon as you’re able to hold a baseball mitt with one hand. It was a tradition in my family each winter. Come late October or early November, after the leaves had already fallen and been raked up and when the air smelled like peanut butter and jelly, my dad would take me down into the garage.

With a secret batch of ingredients, a few old stained rags, and our elbow grease, we set to work breaking in a new glove so it would be ready to play catch come April.

Everybody’s dad probably has their secret formula for what ointments, homespun compounds, and techniques used. Whatever the means, the ends justify the means. A broken in glove means that is has been softened up, adding flexibility and comfort. Besides the soft leather, a broken in glove also has a worked-in pocket.

Of course, experts out there will tell you that your dad’s baseball glove alchemy was all hokuspokus. They’ll tell you that there are no secrets on how to break in a baseball glove. The best and more commonsense way to do it is to simply apply oil that’s specifically designed for this purpose. Make sure to rub the glove oil on every glove part, including the inside and the laces.

This oil helps the glove stay moisturized so it won’t dry and crack. The glove webbing will also not come loose. Best of all, according to the experts, this oil won’t damage the glove, whereas many other compounds will.

The other compounds include everything that only a dad could come up on how to break in a baseball glove. There’s foam shaving cream, Vaseline, saddle soap, mink oil, or tanners glove oil. Some secret glove recipes even call for you to put the glove in the oven for a few minutes to bake in the foams and oils. Whatever you choose – your dad’s family tradition or modern science – hopefully you’ll find your glove soft and ready to play come springtime.

A couple of weeks ago a number of football players from the football team the Minnesota Vikings were revealed to have been part of a cruise on Lake Minnetonka where great quantities of alcohol were consumed and some of the players had sex with prostitutes. Or maybe it was all of them. In response, the front office has published a code of conduct for them, because apparently the players didn’t know that getting drunk and having sex with prostitutes is considered wrong. Thank God it’s in writing, so that they don’t have to figure out these gray areas for themselves.

Actually, it’s totally beyond me why stories of athletes misbehaving like this even make the news. This is what these guys do. Always have. Remember Babe Ruth – one of the greatest baseball players that ever lived? Hey, real choir boy, wasn’t he? Or how about Ty Cobb? he murdered somebody, or was reputed to, but again – no choirboy. Or how about … oh, never mind, I could go on forever and ever and ever with examples.

But, you know, athletes are role models. We should expect them to display exemplary behavior. Right?

Says who?

I sure hope no young child is looking up to these people and using them as a basis for living. In fact, I dare say that most kids are way too smart to do that. They know better. Athletes may be appropriate role models if you’re talking about throwing a football, or learning how to do a lay-up, or kicking a soccer ball or other sports stuff. You can certainly look up to them when it comes to the dedication and fortitude that’s needed to be successful in sports, but as for the rest of it: most of them are just young idiots with money.

When I was going to school in Minnesota we had ’student’ athletes. I remember one series of basketball scandals where some of the basketball players had been sort of raping women on the road, or near to it, since the women were too drunk to quite know what was going on. When these guys were arrested, it was revealed that the graduation rate for U of M basketball players after five years was ten percent. And that was high for a big ten school at that time.

About that time there were a couple of football players – the Golden Gophers – who were thrown out of the special football dormitory for doing stuff like throwing animal parts around and crucifying cats. In the dorm rooms. One of those guys had his college major declared as wild life management. I’ll bet! Just look at how great he already was at managing wild-life.

The football players especially felt that they should be priveleged since they were bringing so much money into the university, especially the alumni money, though none of these athletes that I know about was doing it for free out of the goodness of their hearts. And to top it all off they were rated as the worst team in the nation. Thanks, boys, I appreciate it.

In a Playboy interview about this time the fitness expert Jack LaLanne (ninety, now, and he can kick your butt) was asked how it was that pro-athletes could party so much and still perform on the field. His reply was that since they were such superbly conditioned athletes in the first place they could get away with it and he pointed out that: ‘The more money you put in the bank, the more money you can take out of the bank’.

Me and some other guys I used to work out with came across this quote and took it to mean that if we worked out hard then, ergo, we should also be partying hard. Saint Jack told us it was the right thing to do, after all. We compounded our gross and purposeful misunderstanding of his words by labeling this as ‘The Jack LaLanne Principle’ and thus when we were out on the town on a Friday or Saturday night (or Monday, or Tuesday, or Wednesday …) we said we were using ‘The Jack LaLanne Principle’.

I feel a little embarassed about that now. Mostly I hope Jack never, ever hears about this.

He’ll kick our butts.

Looking around for a generous deal on a brand new flat screen LCD TV? The John Lewis web-page can be a great place to browse for for an extensive array of hi tech items and add ons. They have listed on their website a vast array of great products, such as; plasma TVs, Samsung televisions, iPods, Panasonic digital cameras, laptops, etc. It is obvious that every single one of the TVs they have listed on their site are from top brands e.g. Samsung, Panasonic and Sony. Searching for Samsung TVs? The John Lewis product page is a wealth of information.

So you’re hunting for a brand new Panasonic Viera TV and do not know where to start first. Unsurprising given the confusing selection of products on offer in the market; LCD, plasma, flat screen, HD, Freeview etc. A very useful resource for fighting your way through all of the confusing industry speak is the John Lewis consumers web guide – this impartial web page will help guide you through the industry speak and help you best choose the TV that’s correct for you and your family. It’s key not to forget the add-ons as well! Finally deciding on the correct television stand and cabinet, that will accent your chosen room as well as support your great new plasma television is certainly an all too often underappreciated consideration.

Your subsequent question might be at which site to look online for your brand new Panasonic Viera TV? There are quite a number of websites on the world wide web claiming they offer the best deals on LCD televisions, but how do you know who you can really trust? With John Lewis you can buy in full confidence, and here’s the reason; Free nationwide delivery on every last one of your orders – no need to fret about that ‘brilliant price’ you think you’ve found all of a sudden not looking very good as soon as you factor in the additional cost of postage. And should you and your family need any TV in a big hurry, next day delivery service is certainly 3 on most products. One more marvellous thing is, if you’re not 100% happy with your brand new LCD flat screen television then returns are absolutely free. But saving the best for the end – The John Lewis company offers you a free 5 year guarantee for every last one of their televisions, something you would pay a substantial premium for on most other sites.

With a product in mind you might now be ready to peruse the great selection of flat screen TVs on offer on the John Lewis website. Their web site is astonishingly effortless to navigate and making your way to the appropriate category and product will take very little time at all. So give John Lewis a try for your brand spanking new plasma TV… Happy shopping!

Fishing Pole

Fishing is about being with nature and for those who have been doing it for a very long time; it takes more than just a simple fishing rod and bait. For others though who want to try it and perhaps do it more often, investing in the right tools and accessories will make it a worthwhile experience and at the same time enable the person to catch a lot of fish.

The most important piece of equipment is the rod. For beginners, the basic rod and some bait will do. During this time, the type of material used and the features it has is not important. What matters is getting the feel of it and having fun. When the person is already comfortable and ready to move on to the next level, then one can invest in other more complex pieces of fishing equipment.

There are several types of rods available and it takes time to try out all of them before finding the right one that works well with the person. Rods are made from different materials like wood, fiberglass and carbon fiber.

It is important to know before entering the store or ordering online the kind of fishing one will be doing and under what conditions. Feeling the rod’s handle in the palm of the hand and practice casting with a rod will test how flexible and how easy it is to use.

The proper length depends on the kind of fish and type of bait that will be used for fishing. A 4 inch to 6 inch rod is adequate for light bait and small fish. Since larger fish will require larger bait that usually requires one to cast in a longer distance, a rod that is 6 inches or longer will be needed.

There is no age limit for anyone to start fishing. Fishing takes a lot of practice before being able to excel at it. One can purchase a new fishing pole either online or at the local store. Another way to get started could be buying a second hand pole first before deciding to buy a brand new one.

Being an expert at fishing won’t happen in one day. It takes practice and patience just waiting for the fish and finally catching it out when it appears. One should always remember that in the water and with people, it is all about having fun.

For the past few years, I’ve been stashed away in my secret lab working on underground strategies for driving hordes of targeted to traffic to my sites.

I’ve decided to emerge from my lab for a limited time and reveal a few of these killer strategies to you.

Are you ready? Good… let’s get to it!

It seems that my consulting clients all suffer from the dreaded ‘limited site’ disease. You may be afflicted by it as well. Basically, the disease consists of limiting your vision to your main website.

Most people see their site as being the center of the universe… but in their universe no other stars or planets exist.

I would like to open your eyes to a bigger picture. One full of stars, each surrounded by their own planetary system.

How does this relate to your website?

Imagine your site sells 32 different widgets (this is the center of the universe).

Now imagine you create a new site for each widget which is dedicated to that widget alone. Some call these minisites, I will call them stars.

The object of each star is to expand upon the benefits of that widget, but point back to the center of the universe (your main site) to order that widget.

With me so far?

Good, let’s move forward.

Now, each star can have its own planetary system. Let’s say each star has 5 planets. Planets are simply ‘feeder’ sites whose only purpose is to direct traffic from the search engines back to the star.

For example, many of you are familiar with page generating applications such as Ranking Power or Traffic Equalizer. What if you used these with the intention of feeding your stars? Are you beginning to feel the power here?

I will stop here for now.

To recap…

Your main site is the center of the universe. You register a domain for each of the products you sell and create a star (or minisite) for that product. The ordering page for that star points back to your main product site. Each star then has 5 planets (feeder sites) generated with Ranking Power or Traffic Equalizer all pointing back to that star.

It’s a very powerful concept, use wisely. More will be revealed soon.

Copyright 2005 Keith Baxter

This article has been authored by Keith Baxter, the editor and publisher of the fast selling video newsletter at http://www.StealthTrafficSecrets.com

If you wish to learn how to drive massive amounts of traffic to your website, then subscribe to the site now… it’s only $7.00 per month!