The Rules Of Golf

A game of putting a small ball in a hole in the ground using clubs was played in 17th century Netherlands. The word golf derives from the Dutch kolf meaning stick, club or bat. The course that emerged featured eleven holes lay out end to end from the clubhouse to the far end of the property. Every player then plays his second shot from within a club length of where the best ball has come to rest, and the procedure is repeated until the hole is finished.

Course

On some courses, walking is prohibited, and the cart fee is often included with the greens fee. The greens fee may vary from the equivalent of a few dollars for communal (also known as municipal) courses in many countries, up to that of several hundred dollars for public courses. Discounts on fees may be offered for players starting their round late (and on many courses, unusually early) in the day.

The stroke play formula is an individual way of playing the game as you are competing against the par of the course. In the contrary, the match play rule will allow the player to approach the course in a more aggressive manner in order to win the hole against his opponent. It is not uncommon for beginners to spend several months practicing the very basics before playing their first ball on a course. Golfers play against the course, not each other directly, and hit a stationary object, not one put into motion by an opponent.

Club

Hosting the oldest tournament on the PGA TOUR is pressure enough, but with all eyes on the FedEx Cup Playoffs, Cog hill golf & country Club becomes the center of the golf world. golf is a sport in which individual players or teams of players strike a ball into a hole using several types of clubs. golf is one of the few ball games that does not use a fixed, standardized playing field or area; defined in the Rules of golf as "playing a ball with a club from the teeing ground into the hole by a stroke or successive strokes in accordance with the Rules. This word may, in turn, be derived from the Dutch word kolf, meaning "bat," or "club," and the Dutch sport of the same name.

The rules of golf are internationally standardized and are jointly governed by the Royal and Ancient golf Club of St Andrews (R&A), which was founded 1754 and the United States golf Association (USGA). To hit the ball, the club is swung at the motionless ball on the ground (or wherever it has come to rest) from a side stance.

There are several possible causes of poor shots, such as poor alignment of the club, wrong direction of swing, and off-center hits where the clubhead rotates around the ball at impact. Many of these troubles are aggravated with the "longer" clubs and higher speed of swing.

James Young Clark is a successful Webmaster and publisher of www.AGolfersParadise.com. He provides more information about golf and golf issues that you can research in your pajamas on his website.

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Play Better Longer - Peak Performance For Golf!

The golf swing is a dynamic movement that demands precise coordination of muscle contraction and relaxation, postural stability, strength, balance and body awareness. That is not to say that we cannot swing a golf club without these elements. The body does a great job in compensating for weakness and faulty movement. However, there is a downside to this compensation. The downside is inconsistency, loss of power, and muscle and joint pain. A well developed golf fitness program will help you develop the physical skills needed to consistently repeat a good golf swing, add power and distance to your shots, and help prevent, reduce and possibly even eliminate golf related pain and injury.

Since countless PGA professionals have proven the benefit of strength and conditioning, the demand for golf fitness trainers and training programs has increased tremendously. When looking for a trainer or golf fitness program beware all programs and trainers are not created equal. A sound golf fitness program should be built on the foundation of postural stability, muscle balance, and efficient movement. Many golf fitness programs put the cart before the horse by focusing on strength without addressing stability. Be very cautious of programs that advertise they will strengthen your golf muscles. Due to the repetition necessary to master the golf swing those targeted golf muscles are often already over developed and over tight in relation to the rest of the body. This common muscle imbalance causes inefficient muscle recruitment that leads to inconsistency, loss of power and increased incident of pain and injury. A qualified golf fitness professional knows that it takes practically every muscle in the body to complete a golf swing. Performing exercises that mimic the golf swing prior to establishing a strong foundation and good muscle balance will only strengthen the imbalance and lead to further inconsistency and greater chance of injury. As well as a strong foundation in exercise science a good golf fitness trainer or program should have a good understanding of biomechanics as they relate to the golf swing.

It is important to note that it may take a little time for your swing to adjust to your newly efficient body. The best way to see consistent improvement in your game as you train your body is to develop a relationship with a qualified PGA teaching professional. Integrating the play better longer fitness program with quality instruction will allow you to get the most out of your practice and playing time. A sound golf fitness program will help prepare your body to perform at its optimal level. Increased muscular efficiency and flexibility allow you to increase power and consistency while drastically reducing chances of pain and injury. You will not only be playing better, but you will be playing better longer!

Bill Scibetta, RN, NSCA-CPT
Bill is the founder and President of Precision Fitness Personal Training Centers in the Charlotte, NC area and co-author of the book Play Better Longer! Peak Performance and Injury Prevention for golf. Bill is a licensed Registered Nurse as well as a national Strength and Conditioning Association Certified Personal Trainer. After spending years practicing in the specialty of Orthopedics and sports Medicine, Bill has dedicated his career to helping individuals identify and overcome obstacles that stand in the way of optimal wellness and peak physical performance.

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Resurrecting Your Sexuality: Two Yoga/Qigong Practices

The Taoist world-view, and its associated yoga/qigong practices, is based largely upon an understanding of the flow of energy, within and outside of the human body, and includes an understanding of sexual energy which is far more sophisticated than anything produced by western culture. Integral to this understanding are what are known as The Three Treasures. These Three Treasures represent three types (or vibratory frequencies) of energy found in the human body: (1) Jing, or generative energy, (2) Qi, or life-force energy, and (3) Shen, or spiritual energy. Fundamental to all qigong/Taoist yoga practice, including sexual/consort practices, is the waking up of Jing/generative energy and its subsequent transformation into Qi/life-force energy and Shen/spiritual energy. And then, conversely, the transformation of Shen into Qi into Jing. In other words, the Taoist practitioner cultivates the capacity to circulate energy freely between its various forms/frequencies: from the most primal/mundane to the most refined/ephemeral and back again!

How exactly this happens is the subject of a vast field of enquiry & practice called Internal Alchemy. If youre interested in reading about internal alchemy via classical Taoist texts, please see Eva Wongs translations (from the Chinese into English): Harmonizing Yin and Yang, and Holding Yin, Embracing Yang. For a wonderful presentation of a sequence of qigong practices (which include sexual practices), please check out Eric Yudeloves book Taoist Yoga and Sexual Energy. In this and subsequent postings, Ill be introducing some of these (and related) practices, but theyre best done in the kind of long sequence that Eric Yudelove lays out and/or with the guidance of a flesh-and-blood teacher.

Heres a simple practice that you can try: sit at the very edge of a firm straight-backed chair (a wooden kitchen chair is ideal), with your feet on the floor and your knees directly above your heels. Your sitting bones should be firmly planted on the chair, at the same time as most of the length of your thighs extends out in front of it. Place your hands, palms down, on the front of your thighs, in a way that allows your shoulders to be relaxed, and let your belly be soft. Take a couple of deep breaths, letting go of any tension you find in your face, jaw, or neck/throat. Smile gently. Then, as you exhale, hinge forward at your hips, bringing your head down toward the space between your knees. With the very next inhale, reverse the process so youre once again sitting up-right. And repeat: exhale~down, inhale~up (like a crane, taking sips of water from a lake) Do your best, with each forward rotation, to rest the entire front-side of your torso onto the front of your thighs. Continue for a minute or two, then pause again in the upright position, and notice how you feel.

The second part of the practice is done entirely from the upright position (still sitting right at the edge of the chair, with your feet planted firmly on the ground). It involves coordinating the movement of your breath with the movement of your attention. As you inhale, feel your sitting bones becoming more heavy, releasing more completely into the chair. (You can imagine that your sitting bones are two heavy diamonds, which youre going to return to their home in the center of the earth.) As you exhale, feel a spaciousness, expansion & gentle effervescence at the center of your heart-space (that place behind the sternum/breastbone and in front of the thoracic spine). And repeat: inhale~sitting-bones heavy, exhale~heart-center spacious Continue for a minute or two, then pause, and notice how you feel.

This simple practice, if done regularly, has the power to wake up fields of sensation which are quite interesting, and enjoyable And can serve as a ground for the continuing cultivation of Jing, Qi & Shen: the Three Treasures which ~ from the point of view of Taoism ~ are the key ingredients of a healthy sexuality, among many other things

Elizabeth Reninger holds Masters degrees in Sociology & Chinese medicine, is a published poet, and has been exploring yoga ~ in its Taoist, Buddhist & Hindu varieties ~ for more than twenty years. Her teachers include Richard Freeman and Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche. For more essays on yoga-related topics, please visit her website at http://www.writingup.com/blog/elizabeth_reninger.

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