How to Get Your Golf Game Fit and Ready for the Season
Start getting your golf game ready -- it's never too early. Get your game fit for the season!



1) Make a commitment to improve your golf game this year, and get beyond conventional theories -- if you're following the same old conventional theory then you'll receive the same old conventional results. If you're still trying to keep your head down, you definitely need to see a pro...

2) Good fitness, equipment fitness, good instruction, and a some common sense -- these aren't secrets, but they are the four keys. Any one will help. All four will compound your improvement. It's winter, and you have just a few months to get your game in shape ... Start now!

3) Fitness: If you're committed this will help more than you know, and besides, it's cold outside! Consult a doctor before you start. Make a schedule and commit to it even if it's only 30 minutes twice a week. You need to take a couple of months to strengthen your legs and core, stretch, and do some aerobic exercise. If your legs can't support what your mind wants to do then your balance is already affected. If walking is all you can do, then start doing it.

4) Do golf-specific stretches regularly -- say 3 to 5 times per week, and before each round. Warm your muscles first by doing 10 - 15 minutes of walking or other aerobic exercise. Legs, hips, back, shoulders -- stretching your hamstrings and strengthening your quads takes stress off your back. Stretching your waist and back helps you turn your body in your swing. Stretching your back and shoulders creates a bigger turn and more power. Good fitness adds up to strength, flexibility, speed, and stability. Put those into a golf swing and you have better directional control and more distance.

5) Fitness for your clubs: a precise fitting for clubs is essential. Can you play with clubs that don't fit? Sure, but can you play well with clubs that don't fit? For every one who does there are hundreds that can't. If your clubs don't fit a good swing then you won't make one. Get a club fitting from a certified teacher/club fitter!

6) If nothing else, at least have a golf pro test your equipment. If your clubs don't fit, at least it's nice to know whether the ball might go left or right. Be warned that clubs that don't fit can actually cause injuries -- for example if the shaft is too stiff and the loft is too low you'll fight to hit it higher which puts unnecessary stress on your back, hips, shoulders, and arms. And, consider if all that's happening and you're trying to keep your head down, you're making it worse. Are you talented enough to compensate for clubs that don't fit? It may be hard to hear, but it's not likely.

7) Instruction: Get some one-on-one instruction from a good, reputable golf pro. If the pro knows the benefits of proper equipment and the right swing, then you're ahead of the game. Balance is first and foremost. If you're off balance then you're losing power and accuracy. In an effort to hit it straight, if your club doesn't fit it can throw you off balance.

8) Ask the pro to go beyond the golf swing, however. Why can't you hit the ball solid and straight every time? Guess what? It's not supposed to: for one thing, common sense says the golf course is not flat! For example, if your ball is on the side of a hill the ball is not supposed to go straight. Or, if the ball is in the rough you may not be able to hit it solid. Ask the pro to go on the golf course to teach you. If they can't or won't, find another pro. Playing better golf is not all about the golf swing...

9) Common sense says PRACTICE. Ok, the driving range is fine. But do some practice on the golf course in your first 2 or 3 outings. Best way: Go out when the course is not busy. This is a great way to learn and improve. Just remember not to hold up the play of others. Or, tell your playing partners you're playing a practice round and hit some extra shots on the course for practice. Encourage them to do so as well.

10) How can you learn from hitting extra shots on the course? One way is to immediately try to correct what went wrong on the last shot. You may not be successful, but by trying to correct it you will learn in the long run.

11) Combine fitness, club fitting, instruction, and common sense and you'll play better golf.

Share your tips and best golfing stops on the road!!

Threat of Dogfish Sharks Unite Commercial and Recreational Fishermen From Maine to North Carolina

Hundreds of millions of these voracious predators are impacting every fishery in the region

TRENTON, N.J., May 4 /PRNewswire/ -- An unprecedented alliance of commercial, recreational and party/charter boat fishermen and associated businesses has formed Fishermen Organized for Rational Dogfish Management (FORDM) to deal with a looming crisis. FORDM has requested assistance from Dr. Jane Lubchenco, newly appointed National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration head, in dealing with an out-of-balance population of highly predatory spiny dogfish that is depleting other Northeast and Mid-Atlantic fisheries. Scientists estimate their biomass at up to four billion pounds.
The classic Fishes of the Gulf of Maine says of this shark species, "voracious almost beyond belief, the dogfish entirely deserves its bad reputation. Not only does it harry and drive off mackerel, herring, and even fish as large as cod and haddock, but it destroys vast numbers of them... they prey on practically all species of Gulf of Maine fish smaller than themselves." Spiny dogfish can exceed 5 feet in length.
The huge population of these ravenous sharks is holding back the recovery of New England groundfish and many others fish stocks, either feeding heavily on the more valuable species or on their prey. In 1992, Dr. Steven Murawski, now National Marine Fisheries Service's chief scientist, wrote, "Given the current high abundance of skates and dogfish, it may not be possible to increase gadoid (cod and haddock) and flounder abundance without 'extracting' some of the current standing stock." The abundance of dogfish today greatly exceeds that of skates, comprising over half of the fish taken in the Northeast Fisheries Science Center's annual trawl surveys.
Conservatively, spiny dogfish require a daily food intake of 1-1/2% of their total body weight. This equates to a minimum of two and a half million metric tons of prey species eaten every year. In 2007 the commercial catch of all species from East coast fisheries was 2/3 of a million metric tons.
Throughout their range spiny dogfish are also seriously interfering with traditional fisheries. According to Ray Bogan, legal counsel for United Boatmen and member of one of New Jersey's oldest party/charter fishing families, there are more spiny dogfish than he has encountered ever before in a lifetime spent on Mid-Atlantic waters, it's impossible to fish in areas that they have seasonally "taken over," and every year they take over more fishing grounds. Hank Lackner, Captain of the F/V Jason & Danielle out of Montauk and participant in a number of government sponsored trawl surveys, reports that spiny dogfish are destroying 10 years of efforts to rebuild other stocks and are overpopulated from the beach to 250 fathoms, from Cape Hatteras to the Canadian line.
Dick Grachek, owner of the F/V Anne Kathryn out of Point Judith, relayed a message from Captain Joe Mattera, who had just curtailed a scup trip because of the extraordinary number of dogfish he encountered. His net was plugged with spiny dogfish in five of the seven tows he made. Jim Thompson, a recreational fisherman from Delaware, reported that when wreck fishing he catches 20 spiny dogfish for every targeted fish. According to Cape Codgillnetter Jan Margenson, "The codfish gear we haul is plugged with dogs and the occasional cod we catch is stripped to the bone of flesh. They act just like piranha, only it's our catch that they're eating." Chris Long, a San Francisco resident who comes to fish on Cape Cod for striped bass and tuna for five days every three weeks in the spring and summer, is now "doing (fresh water) bass fishing in the Cape Ponds" instead.
Craig Banks operates a commercial fishing website. He has spoken with hundreds of recreational and commercial fishermen from New England down to North Carolina about the dogfish issue and says, "The general consensus is that dogfish numbers have been building and now they often make fishing impossible. One of the biggest concerns is the voracious appetite of the hordes of dogs that travel the coast, eating everything in their path." And Rich Ruais, Executive Director of organizations whose members target tuna, reports, "There is not a doubt in any tuna fisherman's mind that the abundance of dogfish throughout the Northeast has severely impacted tuna catches over the last decade. If action is not taken soon to control the hoard of dogfish, the ecosystem in general and the migratory habits of bluefin tuna in particular may be permanently altered and, in spite of our rigorous conservation efforts, the traditional giant tuna fisheries may be destroyed forever."
According to Jim Donofrio, Executive Director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance and an organizer of FORDM, "Tens of millions of recreational fishermen, tens of thousands of commercial fishermen and the thousands of businesses that depend on them are suffering a double whammy because of a management philosophy distorted by foundation-funded marine 'conservationists' with no regard for fish or fishermen, just the crises they create. As the huge biomass of dogfish is reducing the populations of other, far more valuable species, fishermen are required by law to compensate by catching less of those species. This is becoming increasingly more difficult - and more expensive - because of interference from the ravenous hoards of spiny dogfish."
The Magnuson Act, which establishes federal fisheries policies, has been amended by pressure from rich environmental activist groups, making it virtually impossible for managers to effectively address issues like this. Coastal legislators including New Jersey Congressmen Pallone, Lobiondo and Adler, Massachusetts Congressman Frank and North Carolina Congressman Jones, who are familiar with the untenable position that the federal law puts fisherman in, have introduced legislation, H. R. 1584, CommentsClose CommentsPermalink addressing some of its shortcomings.
Nils Stolpe, another FORDM organizer and Communications Director of Garden State Seafood Association, emphasizes that Dr. Lubchenco now has an opportunity to prove to the fishing community that concerns over her association with the Pew Charitable Trusts are unfounded. "Pew is inextricably linked to the advocacy science that seems designed to turn the public and our elected officials against fishermen of every stripe. This will be her first opportunity to demonstrate that she will guide NOAA with a balanced hand, utilizing objective science and fairly serving all of her constituents, fishermen included."
The FORDM letter to Dr. Lubchenco is available at http://www.fishnet-usa.com/dogforum1.htm, along with additional fishermen's comments and other material on dogfish.
SOURCE FishNet USA