As you know I work hard on my fitness. I am a big runner and recently completed my third marathon this past October (Chicago Marathon). I am not fortunate to have a very high metabolism, so i have to work hard to keep my weight down and to stay fit. I gain weight by just looking at a chocolate chip cookie. If you are one of those guys that can’t gain weight, I hate you, seriously. One of my goals this year, to help improve my running and my golf is to get stronger in my core and upper body. My next race is the New York Marathon in November so I have time. If you are not getting the results from your workouts, you probably need to mix it up a bit, get out of the box. So I started doing my research and I think I found exactly what I have been looking for. This is my 2011 fitness routine as demonstrated by a PGA tour player.
Hahaha! Gotcha! It can’t be all serious, right. Who would have thought that
Ben Crane had a sense of humor.
Follow me on twitter @twitter.com/onplanegolf
I will be back soon with a serious post, but until then…….best of luck with your workouts and I hope you laughed today
Welcome to your full service golf information blog. If this is your first day viewing my blog, welcome to Guru Nation. For those of you who follow me, thank you and let’s get busy on making this upcoming golf season the best ever. I have my goals in place and am very motivated to help as many golfers that I can with their games and also help coaches with information that will enhance their teaching. Some of my projects for the upcoming year include: authorship, improving my video/tv quality (Guru TV), writing for magazines, speaking appearances and blogging of course. I spend a lot of time trying to figure out what my audience needs and what they might want, but it is a guess at best. I frequently get the question,”Guru, how do you come up with all of your ideas that you blog about?” Most of my ideas are formed by my students that I work with on a day-to-day basis. My experience on the lesson tee is priceless. I learn something new every week that I spend talking to and helping people. So, In an attempt to achieve my 2 goals for this blog 1) to educate my readers and help your golf game and 2)grow my readership in order to reach more people so I can affect their golf games and their minds.SO I NEED YOUR HELP. Here is my charge to you, yes you.
1. TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WAY OF POSTS AND OR VIDEOS
2. TELL SOMEONE ABOUT MY BLOG. SHARE THIS BLOG WITH AT LEAST 3 OF YOUR GOLF FRIENDS THAT YOU THINK WOULD BENEFIT FROM THIS INFORMATION
Whether it is players or coaches, let’s get some dialogue going and help me bridge the gap between learning and getting RESULTS, which is the goal of every player or coach.
I look forward to hearing from you and I ask you again
WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU?
Follow Me on twitter @twitter.com/onplanegolf or friend me up on facebook.com/onplanegolf (Jason Sutton)
Stroke mechanics are only half of the battle to putting better. It doesn’t do any good to make a perfect stroke unless you read it correctly. Studies show that most amateurs under read putts which means they miss them on the low side. This is something that I have been preaching to my students forever using string or aim line aids to prove it. Mark Sweeney, the founder of aimpoint technology that you see on televised tour events, has developed a system to help you read putts more consistently. My friend John Graham is a certified aimpoint instructor (check out his blog @ johngrahamgolf.com) or check the website (@ aimpointgolf.com) for more info. This is a wonderful video that demonstrates what I am talking about. I look forward to learning more about this system and maybe getting certified to instruct it. In the meantime. PLAY MORE BREAK. You will putt better in the long run.
Today is the day.
Headed to the course mid-morning for a round before the bowl games get into high gear. I am anxious to see if the KURE has had any impact on my putting. But before I get too far ahead of myself, remember I needed to replace some dead batteries before I could get the KURE back into action. This mission was accomplished early this morning after the wife and I went out for some breakfast. I did a quick battery replacement, took 10 balls and went through the full routine. Going through the aim, stance and stroke. I wanted to get the feel of the KURE back since I missed a day yesterday. I did this right before leaving for the golf course.
Since we are closing in on day 7 lets go on a quick recap of drills and practice sessions. I tried to spend 30 quality minutes a day with the KURE. I started the original session with just aiming the putter and progressed over the next sessions by adding getting into my stance while keeping the club aligned to the target and finally making a stroke concentrating on getting the green light that shows the club was square at impact. I also left the KURE set up and as I passed by it during the day I would stop and hit 5-10 putts. I probably have a total 2.5 hours of focused practice not including the “ad hoc” putts or the time I spent playing around at different distances, angles, etc.
Now back to today and what happened when we took the KURE training to the course.
Guys and Gals listen up. It started on hole #1. I rolled in a 25 footer, followed up with a solid 12 footer on #2, then an 18 footer on 3. Before you know it I had 1 putted the first 3 greens. Now I know what is going through your heads at this point but believe me, I am a no BS kind of guy. I can certainly understand your skepticism at this point but read on it actually gets better. I lipped out on 4 and 1 putted again on #5. This was 4 one putts in the first 5 holes. Now don’t get me wrong I had a few 3 putts today as well but I have never come close to 6 putts in a 5 hole stretch. At least before today.
Today’s General Discoveries.
I had a great run of putting today. Was it because of the time spent with the KURE? Ultimately who knows for sure. Golf if a funny and amazing game. Putting even more so. This much I do know. I spent quality time over the past few days working to improve my putting. I re-enforced this practice by going over my routine with the KURE right before heading to the course. I then had one of my best days putting ever. Coincidence?
I don’t believe in coincidence.
Tomorrow will be the last installment. I will try and summarize the Good and Bad with the KURE. Tune in then
Alan
*****I WILL HOOK UP THE PHONE NUMBER AND DISCOUNT CODE FOR “The Kure Putting Solution” after Alans last post on Sunday for anyone interested in purchasing one.
Hello GURU nation,
Here we go with Day 5 installment.
Well I have to apologize as today’s installment will be short. Yes I hear you, Hallelujah you say, We want the GURU! We want the GURU! Well you only have 2 days left so “grin and bear it”
It seems that I must have jinxed myself talking about batteries. During the ball games last night I would take advantage of the commercial time outs to race upstairs and get a few putts in. As it turns out I must have forgot to turn the KURE off before I went to bed. As Phil Mickelson would say “I was an idiot”. Since I am feeling a bit lazy I am not going to make a special trip to Wal-Mart tonight, I will pick some up on my way to the golf course tomorrow morning.
Today’s General Discoveries
The KURE will not run forever without replacing the batteries.
I will say and I hate to admit this but, remember those little yellow and green lights I lamented so much about last night? I think I miss them.
Sorry GURU and the nation but with the help of the energizer bunny I will be back tomorrow in full stride.
Here we go with Day 4 installment,
We began today normally with my double checking the KURE for alignment. It did not disappoint. 4 full days and nothing has drifted or changed with the original setup. I did not get a chance to move outdoors as I originally planned so back to the hallway carpet. I have been playing with the KURE making full putts since day one but I have only been measuring how well I aimed the putter. Everyone does measure their practice sessions don’t they? If not just ask the GURU what he thinks about measuring practice and play as well. Well starting today I am going to add taking my stance AND making the stroke to the list of scores I am tracking. So the complete drill will go something like this “Rock in” and aim the putter. Was it good (yellow light on) or bad. Take my stance. Was it good (light still on?) or bad. Make the stroke. Was it good (green light on) or bad. Just for warm-up I started with the aim drill and it seems that I have peaked at about 70% for now. I was 7,6,7 out of 10 today. Now on to the full routine. I went through this routine with 10 balls tonight and stopped there because it identified a couple of additional areas to work on as you will see from my score. I was actually 8 out of 10 on my initial aim but I was 0 out of 10 after taking my stance and I got 5 green lights.
Aiming the putter correctly is just the beginning. Keeping it on target while you take your stance is just as hard as the initial aim. I was surprised at how far the putter face moved while I was assuming my stance. I would not have realized this had it not been for the KURE. To me this was one of those surprises that lead to an “Ah Ha” moment. It doesn’t matter how well you aim the putter if you cant keep it there while taking your stance.
Using the forward press. I use a slight forward press when I putt. Have you ever thought about what your putter face is doing while you forward press? Me either. That is until tonight. So I finally aimed the putter correctly, got into my stance while keeping the yellow light on, and when I made my forward press guess what happened,,,,the light went out. What just happened? I thought it might have been a glitch. I tried again, same results. The light went out when I forward pressed the putter. Again I had moved into a position where the club was not in the proper alignment.
Too Much Information/Feedback? After today’s session with the KURE I went into the “Valley of Despair”. I caught myself thinking these little yellow and green lights are going to drive me crazy. This is too much information. Lets just roll the ball. Then I thought,,,,,Heck Phil, Ernie or Tiger would want to know if they were aiming the putter correctly wouldn’t they. They would also want to know that their putter was still on line after taking their stance wouldn’t they. And yes they would also probably want to know if they were opening up the putter blade on the forward press. So as I climb back up from the valley of despair I will accept the information for what it is and try to use it to improve.
Later ,
Alan
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Good afternoon Guru Nation
Here is day Three’s installment with the KURE.
Today’s session began as normal for me. Double checking the KURE. I have not removed any components since the initial setup and after today’s check-out the KURE is still spot on. I started the session where I left off yesterday, using the “rock in” to check out my initial aim as I set the putter behind the ball. The results were a little better than yesterday. I did 3 reps of 10 tries and went 6,7,7 of ten. Still not where I want to be, as they say “old habits die hard”. The thing that still shocks me is how hard it is to line up the putt correctly after doing it wrong for quite some time. To me this is quite different from making full swing changes. In a full swing change things FEEL a lot different. Using the KURE things LOOK a lot different. The eye/brain just does not want to co-operate.
Today’s “General Discoveries” will focus on how the KURE is different from other putting training aids that I have used. I have used many aids in the past. Chalk lines, stretched strings, the eye-line mirror, plane board, etc. so I have some experience with these aids. So how is the KURE different?
1. The biggest difference I have seen so far is that the KURE uses no lines. Lets take the old standby, a chalk line. I have used a chalk line in the past with varied results. The problem I always had was if a line was present setting the putter down on the correct aim became easy. Heck that was a no-brainer, just follow the line right?. The same is true with the mirror board, strings and other. Regardless of how much I would try to “ignore” the reference line it was always there helping lead the way. Not so with the KURE. With the KURE you have to visualize the line then set the putter down with no “hints” as to what is correct. If you get the yellow light you are good to go. If not you can quickly check to see where you error was. This is some pretty solid feedback.
2. I listed this second but it is really a tie. The KURE gives you immediate feedback on the face alignment of the putter at impact. How cool is that? Short of video I do not know of another aid that gives you this information. If you get the yellow light, make your stroke, get the green light, the ball will be going to the target. Again pretty good stuff.
3. It allows you to experiment with some level of confidence. Ever wonder if using just your right hand to align the putter was better for you than using both hands? How about cross handed vs. conventional. I think that using the KURE would help in determining if the changes you are thinking about making or are actually trying to make are better. Think about it. If you can line up the putter correctly 10 out of 10 times using just your right hand and only 6 out of 10 times using both hands that would be good information to have.
4. The KURE uses batteries (3 types). My chalk line does not. Yes I know. In the age of laser range finders and GPS systems with fly-over mode batteries are almost as essential as a tee. But,,,,I still rue the day that drive to the practice range setup the KURE only to realize that a battery has expired.
In summary, the KURE is beginning to grow on me. Once you get familiar with it and think about the things you can do it’s pull becomes stronger. With the weather continuing to moderate the snow should melt by Tomorrow. I hope to take it to the practice green and get some “real” experience with it.
Day 2 With The KURE
Good evening Guru Nation here is day two’s installment on the KURE.
I did not remove any of the KURE components from my putter overnight but I did re-check everything again before I started today. I even enlisted the help of my assistant again and had them aim the putter until they got the yellow light then visually checked from ground level behind the putter. Nothing had changed overnight. The KURE was still spot on.
With the base line set I was ready to begin. Also unless otherwise noted all of this was done in the 6-8 foot range. First I will talk about a few “general discoveries” on the KURE that I have learned over the past two sessions.
1. Settings on the aiming module. The module has 3 different levels of difficulty, Beginner, Amateur and Pro. The range of acceptance gets progressively narrow as you move up in difficulty. I played with the Beginner level for a few minutes and felt that it was a little too lenient and the Pro level a little to hard for my skill at this time. I settled on using the Amateur mode. I can tell you that the Pro setting is VERY critical and I look forward to working my way up to it.
2. Putter feel. For you perfectionist out there (I tend to lean to that side myself) when you attach the aiming module to your putter, the putter “feel” definitely changes. To me, it deadens the feel of the ball coming off of the face. After a couple dozen putt’s I was able to acclimate to the feel but I wanted to get this point out there. The feel of your putter will change! But hey this is mostly about getting the putter face aligned correctly so this is certainly not an obstacle to be overly concerned with.
3. Side to Side variation. In a perfect setup the practice ball would be on a line that extended straight out from the Spider (target module). What I found out is that the KURE will work just fine with balls that are placed 1 foot to either side of that exact target line (I suspect that it would work with balls placed even further out but the space in my hallway did not allow any testing beyond the 1 foot to either side, maybe tomorrow I will try this). To me this is a very important point because it allows me to place 3 balls each a foot apart when I am practicing. This allows me to aim to the same target from a slightly different spot each of the 3 times. This prevents me from getting into the habit of just pulling balls into the same spot each time. If you are like me it is easy to repeat the aiming process it you never move your feet/body and just pull a new ball into place. To me this is a BIG plus.
4. Working Distance. In the video and manual it talks about using the KURE in the 6-8 foot range. This is fine because this is where alignment really starts to have a large impact, but I used the KURE in my hallway to a distance up to 25 feet with no issues and only one exception. That was with the KURE set on the Pro level, it is just a little to sensitive at that distance to be effective. BUT it worked beautifully on the Beginner and Amateur settings.
Now on to today’s practice session. Today’s practice focus was on what I term the “Rock In”. Everyone does this differently but it is the process of setting the putter behind the ball and have it aimed at the target. The goal is to have the putter on the target line when it is set behind the ball (yellow light goes on). If you remember from yesterday, what my “eye” perceives as pointed at the target was actually a couple of inches left of the target on an 8 ft. putt. Well nothing changed overnight and on my first try I was only able to get 3 yellow lights out of 10 tries. All my misses were left. I went through 4 more repetitions of 10 each. My best score for the night was 7/10 on the last rep. With every miss being to the left.
In summary, Since my initial surprise on how far to the left I was aiming I have tried to “catch” the KURE in a lie. I have had no success in that endeavor. My mind is struggling with what a correctly aimed putter looks like and wants to believe that the KURE is somehow wrong. I have checked, checked and double checked the KURE and have found no deviation in its operation. If the yellow light comes on the putter is aimed at the target. More to come tomorrow. Wish me luck on my road to recovery.
As the Guru takes a few days to catch his breath after my 20 day “blogging binge”,(I am sure there is a 12 step program for this sort of condition), One of my long time students, Alan White has been gracious enough to chronicle his exploits into his putting practice with “The Kure Putting Solution” training aid. I can assure you that we have not conspired about what he is going to write. All I can tell you is that Alan is a very passionate golfer that is a very straight shooter. What I am saying is that this will be a very honest, forthright assessment on this training aid that I have been talking about for a few months. So if you are on the fence about purchasing one, this is sure to sway you one way or the other. I hope you enjoy the posts and thank you Alan for taking the time to share your perspective from an amateur golfer. I am sure many of you will be able to relate to this diary of sorts.
Well GURU nation a conspiracy has been under foot. It seems a certain golf instructor had passed along a gift wish of mine to Santa (a.k.a the wife) this year. I am now the proud owner of the KURE putting system and I must say they did a great job of keeping it a secret. I was certainly surprised. I know a lot of you out there have been curious about this device so I thought I would share my experiences as I work with the KURE over the next week. I will give you both the good, bad and the ugly so to speak.
Day 1.
Just unpacked the KURE inspected it and installed the batteries that were provided. The KURE comes packaged in a nice little plastic case that houses the KURE putting system and a short instructional video featuring Sir Nick Faldo and Mike Shannon from the Sea Pines resort. Mike gives the promotional side with Sir Nick covering the use and providing some drills to use. This video is NOT a putting lesson it just covers the basic use of the KURE and its benefits.
The KURE system itself consists of 3 components.
First is the “Target Module and Stand”. It is powered by 3 AA batteries (included). The stand is 4 legs and the module sits on top of the stand. When assembled it resembles a spider that sits over the hole or the target of your choice. Going forward I will refer to it as “The Spider”. Second is the “Aiming Module” this is a lightweight plastic part that attaches to your putter shaft. It is powered by one of the small coin batteries (included). The last component is a small “Laser module” It is powered by 2 AAA batteries (included) and clips to the Aiming Module after it is attached to your putter. The module outputs a laser so you can precisely align the aiming module square to your putter face.
Setup
Setup is straight forward and took about five minutes the first time. I can easily be done in about minute once you understand the basics. The only issue I had initially was the laser module did not turn on. A set of fresh batteries were installed and that took care of the issue.
The KURE in action.
Before we get to far into the actual performance of the product. Let me clarify the basic use and feedback of the KURE. The aiming module (after attachment/alignment to your putter shaft) has a small green light built into the top of it. This green light provides feed back on your head/eye position. If your eye is directly over the target line the light will show bright green, as you move your head off the line the light will actually appear to blink then grow dim the further you eyes get from the intended line. The Target Module or “Spider” has light two lights in the front of it. A yellow light and a green light. When your putter face is correctly aligned the yellow light will turn on to let you know you are correctly aligned. The green light comes on after you stroke the putt if the putter face was square to the target at impact. So the sequence goes something like this. Step into your address position and line up the face so the yellow light will come on (it will stay on as long as your putter face stays in alignment). Double check the green light on the aiming module to verify eye position. Make your stroke. If the Green light on the spider comes on you know that your stroke resulted in a square putter face at impact.
OK here we go with a real try at using the KURE. First let me say that currently my misses with the putter are almost always to the left. “Crap I pulled another one” is usually heard a lot during my rounds of golf. Anyway I set up a small target in the living room, placed the spider over it, dropped 1/2 dozen balls on the carpet 7-8 feet away, got into my address position, aimed the putter at the target and…….I did not get the yellow conformation light. Heck I say… The hole is only a couple of steps away so I back up, reset, and move back into the ball, aim the putter and……still no yellow light. This time around I rotate the putter until I got a yellow light and guess what. I was originally aimed ~3 inches to the left of my target. I repeated this a couple more times to confirm and sure enough I was consistently aiming left of my target. So now I move my body around until the yellow confirmation light came on and WOW I felt like I am aimed way to the right of the target. Now I am in denial, as I honestly did not believe I could be that far off on a putt of that length. So what do you think I did next?….Still in denial I re-checked the alignment and placement of the aiming device on the putter shaft because THAT had to be wrong. It was not. Still in denial I went back and re-tried addressing and aiming the putter….with the same results as before I was still aiming left of the target. Still in denial I enlisted the aid of a lovely assistant (my wife). I had her aim the putter face until she got a yellow light and I laid down on the floor behind the putter to confirm that it was aiming at the target and guess what???? It was aimed directly at the target::: 🙂
I am not in denial anymore…..I can say it now…..I have not been aiming the putter where I thought I was. I have run out of time for today’s session but I will be back tomorrow and pick up where we left off today. Just a final thought ,maybe, just maybe those putts that I was “pulling” were not getting pulled after all…..
Thank You to all of you that have been with me on this blogging journey of 20 days in a row (I’m exhausted,whew!) and Merry Christmas to you and yours. On day 20, I have a treat for all of you. It is with my great pleasure to introduce my friend and the other half of TEAM GURU, Mark Kane (kanetraining.com). He is one of the best in the business of physical fitness in golf, physical therapy and injury prevention. He is very knowledgeable and you will be hearing great things in the future from this guy. Enjoy the post:
Right off the bat I would like to thank the Guru, Jason Sutton, for allowing me the opportunity to express my views on his blog. Jason is one of the finest golf instructors in the country and it is a pleasure to contribute to his Guru Nation readership.
In today’s blog I would like to cover a topic that plays a huge role in your overall health and golf game…Mobility. Unfortunately, many people associate mobility with only flexibility which is incorrect. Simply put, mobility is the ability to move freely without restriction or compensation during a pattern of movement.
In addition to flexibility, mobility also includes joint mobility, soft tissue mobility, coordination, and stability. All of these attributes contribute synergistically to the common goal of the golfer…the ability to produce a smooth, effortless swing. How many of you in the Guru Nation can lay claim to having a smooth, effortless swing that produces a square club face at impact?
As we reach the end of 2010 I’m quite sure that many of you are going to make golf fitness a priority. Goals for the New Year could include increasing your power, getting stronger and being more cardiovascular fit. Unfortunately all of these goals are based on assuming that you have the ability to move freely in a multitude of directions. Noted physical therapist Gray Cook states that mobility should form the base of your fitness pyramid. If mobility is not addressed first then we are putting fitness on top of dysfunction. Having clean, authentic patterns of movement should form the basis of any sport or fitness program. If not, you will join the millions over time who have become adept at movement compensation.
After reading the first few paragraphs of this blog you may be wondering if you do indeed move well during your golf swing. The only way to find out is through some form of an assessment. As part of the Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) family my role is to assist the golf instructor in determining if there are any physical limitations that may be contribute to the client’s swing faults. TPI has developed a golf specific physical assessment which will expose any movement limitations that the client may possess. Additionally, these movement limitations can correlate to specific swing compensation(s) found in the typical golf swing. For example, if you don’t meet the range of motion requirements for the Seated Trunk Rotation Test then odds on your swing will demonstrate a Sway as a compensatory motion.
Once a mobility issue is identified then it is simply a matter of using the appropriate corrective strategy to address that particular weak link. A holistic approach to problem solving may include a foam roller program for soft tissue mobility, an exercise to increase pattern range of motion and finally working on that particular motion as it pertains to the golf swing.
So, if you want to improve your golf game start with an assessment from the Guru. From there, take the time to have a TPI Professional assess your golf specific mobility and make it a priority to move more efficiently and make mobility the cornerstone of your golf fitness program.
The Golf Guru Show 