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Even when we are simply ‘Walking’ (Ambulating - cool word) we move in the direction that our toes are pointing!

How many really nice folks ‘Set-Up’ with their toes (all of them) pointing directly at the Body or Target lines? Many and even most?

Well, that is the direction that your ‘Golf Body Machine’ will want to generally travel. That is NOT where we want our golf ball to travel! We want it to fly 90 degrees towards the ‘Target Side’. The ‘Square Target Footed Stance’ is counterproductive and physiologically dangerous!

How many of you are golf agronomists? Not many I’d presume! So how hard do you have to work at knowing different strains of grass and how to make adjustments for variable grasses on the ‘Putting Surface’?

Here are some of the most common ‘Grass Strains’ just for the fun of knowing or just hearing the various names. 1) Bent Grass, 2) Poa Annua, 3) Annual Bluegrass, 4) Bermuda, 5) St. Augustine, 6) Perennial Rye Grass, 7) Zoysia and some local or regional others. With a touch of ‘Nasty’ there may be hay just off the greens!

I know! I know! Good to know but hard to remember? Have to confess! I know the strains but never pay too much attention to them. A little lazy but not too costly for the average golfer. Tip? You have to ‘Pace Your Putts’. Knowing your ‘Distance’ is not optional. Guess and you shall ‘Pay The Price For Being Lazy’!

There are as many ‘Putting Techniques and Tips’ as there are golfers! So, how do we make that ‘Shortest Of Strokes’ with optimal intellect and success? After all, the ‘Flat Stick’ makes up about 35% to 55% of the total strokes in a round of golf. There is significant similarity in the ‘Chipping Stroke’ as well. Thus, our total really short strokes might reasonably make up 65% to 75% of our total strokes. Meaningful? Rhetorical question, right?

Here is a worthy topic concerning both of these ‘Short Strokes’. It is related to a ‘Bullet-Proof Putting Drill’ you very likely know about. It is called the ‘Rail or Channel Drill’. It is very simple but worthy of discussion.

Select a flat place to Putt or Chip. Place two ground sticks or golf clubs on the ground just wider than the cross section (heel to toe) of the Putter head … Blade or Mallet. This channel should aim directly into the middle of the cup. There is no break so the aim is reasonable and logical! (see ‘Direction’)

That statement may just be a matter of opinion rather than of fact? “No!” After over forty years of studying and teaching golf, I think it is a matter of fact!

Let us examine a round of golf? We shall assume that it requires 120 strokes … God forbid!

We know that the average ‘Golf Full Swing’ takes about 1.5 seconds from ‘Trigger To Chase Follow & Finish’ ... Top Of Front Swing (TOF).

We have client who often come to us saying “If I Could Only Get My Lower Body to cooperate with my Upper Body!” or even more often, “I need to stop playing like poop!”

I could say right here and now that you shall manage to accomplish that feat but, it is the wrong goal or challenge … in the wrong time and place or sequence!

In any ‘Stage 3 Procedure’ (involving both Wrist Cock and Pivot), it is the ‘Pivot or Spinal Engine’ (Lower Body Machine) that governs or controls the ‘Lever Assemblies’ (Upper Body Machine). If one inserts more ‘Forward Inclination’ (more knee flex and body leaning towards the ‘Target Line) as well as more ‘Aft Tilt’, whereby the Upper Body is tilted away from the Target, the ‘Clubhead Path and Swing Plane’ is directly altered.

How might one recognize ‘Real Passion’? When the wind is up and it is chilly or downright cold and your Lazy Boy is reclined and feeling ‘comfy’, you still get up and go to the golf course to practise precise shots for an hour! Core desire may even get you out the door half an hour early?

You do not lose or wear out ‘Real Passion’. This gift is a renewable human resource. It shall prevail over any and all adversities! Nurture ‘IT’ every day!

If you learn and believe in your knowledge, talent and experience, you can stumble and even fall with a quick and efficient recovery!

Firstly, all golf strokes. ‘Putting to Driving’, are ‘Back & Up’ followed by ‘Down & Out’. When we involve this ‘Vertical Movement’, we activate muscles, big and or small, ‘Slow or Twitch’.

This ‘Vertical Movement’ has its inception and conclusion in ‘Newtonian Gravity’. Even in the smallest of ‘Putting or Chipping Strokes Procedures’ there is the predominant effect of ‘Gravity’. We tend to oppose or overcome ‘IT’ on the ‘Back & Up’ (Back Swing) and should sensibly utilize it in the ‘Down & Out’. (Front Swing)

It is the ‘555 Team’ opinion that ‘Gravity’ predictably starts every golf swing procedure. We often discuss the fact that a golfer might tend to ‘Slam on the Brakes’ at the ‘Top Of Back Swing’ (TOB – Transition) and then ‘Step on the Gas’ in the DOFT (Down Out Forward & Through) aspect or Front Swing’. (see ‘Spastic & Jerky’)(see ‘Instability’)

If you have ‘An 18 Hole Goal’ and are struggling to achieve it, perhaps you might approach that challenge from a slightly different ‘Angle Of Attack’?

What is your ‘18 Hole Goal’ … breaking 120, 110, 100, 90, 80 or even 70? They are worthy accomplishments indeed. “Never Give Up!”

Are there incremental ways of doing or reaching your goals? “YES!”

Here's a 'today' Yule story that occurred a month ago – and now, in time for the holidays, I bring you the best Christmas story you “never” heard.

It started last Christmas, when Bennett and Vivian Levin were overwhelmed by sadness while listening to radio reports of injured American troops. "We have to let them know we care," Vivian told Bennett.

So they organized a trip to bring soldiers from Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Bethesda Naval Hospital to the annual Army-Navy football game in Philly, on December 3, 2019.

The cool part is, they created their own train line to do it. Yes, there are people in this country who actually own real trains and Bennett Levin, a native Philly guy and a self-made millionaire is one of them.

He has three luxury rail cars. Think mahogany paneling, plush seating and white-linen dining areas. He also has two locomotives, which he stores at his Juniata Park train yard. One car, the elegant Pennsylvania, carried John F. Kennedy to the Army-Navy game in 1961 and '62. Later, it carried his brother Bobby's body to D.C. for burial. "That's a lot of history for one car," says Bennett.

This is simply how the ‘World Works’ … by “Cause & Effect”. What happened? What made it happen? This is very much the ‘What?’ and the ‘Why?’ of golf.

What are the ‘5 Impact Points’ on any ‘Golf Clubface’? 1) Heel, 2) Toe, 3) Fat, 4) Thin, and 5) Sweet Spot. Pretty simple! We, unfortunately, can find ourselves hitting our golf balls off each one of these ‘Impact Points’ in a random distribution. Kind of a nasty global problem?

These ‘5 Impact Possibilities’ are ‘Effects’. They are really mechanical or motion observations. Just facts that tend to gather or create ‘Emotions’! Try not to get emotional about your golf! Easier said than done! I get it!