South Essex Golf Centre has been selected as a “County Training Academy” and is running a County Academy Programme as part of an Essex-wide initiative to train up young golfers to achieve their potential.

Following a number of Talent ID days across the county, around 150 young players were invited to take part in a nine-month coaching programme at several different Essex-based venues. Specially trained PGA golf professionals, selected for their commitment to developing talented young players, run the coaching sessions.

And since October, 40 golfers aged between 11 and 16 years old have been visiting South Essex GC to take part in the newly-created “County Academy Partnership” coaching days.

Head PGA Coach at South Essex Golf Centre, Matt Stables and Paul Sullivan, PGA Coach at North Weald, have been selected to run a County Academy Programme at the club. He is advising the children on how to improve their golf and helping devise timetables for the appropriate training they should undertake. Stables and his team are also advising the youngsters on how to practice, fitness,lifestyle management, psychology and nutrition.

Stables said: “It is a great honour for South Essex Golf Centre to be chosen as a County Training Academy. The fantastic facilities we have here made a real impact on the representatives from Sport England, who were in charge of selecting suitable venues.

“I am the lead coach for the County Academy Programme, along with Paul Sullivan from North Weald. We have two assistant coaches helping as well, so between us, we have an encyclopaedic amount of coaching knowledge.

“The children on the programme are really thirsty for knowledge, and are very keen to improve their game, so the sessions are a great pleasure for everyone to take part in.

“At the end of the nine-month programme we are confident of producing well-rounded youngsters, who are confident both in themselves and in their playing abilities, to feed into the County teams.”

South Essex General Manager, Shaun Bakker, added: “The coaching sessions are going really well so far. The advice that the coaches give is tailored to each child, and as a result, we are already seeing vast improvements in specific areas of the youngsters’ games.

“We hope to see many of the children on the County Academy Programme go forward to represent Essex. One day they may go even further – watch out Lee Westwood!”

Did your game improve this year? If so keep doing what have been doing. If not you have got to do something differently.

Golf is like most things. You have to take of stock of what has gone well and what has not improved as you would like. You then have to find out the reasons why it hasn’t gone to plan. Are you working on the correct things? Is your mental approach efective? Is your equipment correctly fitted? Are your practice habits helping you or is there another area which is preventing you from reaching your potential and enjoying the game. All of these are important elements to take your game to the next level. Then you need to make a plan to improve. This is where a coach can help by giving you some honest feedback about what you need to do and prevent some inevitable frustration. As Einstein said, ‘ The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.’

Golf is a very focused sport, you not only have to be in top physical condition you have to be mentally fit as well. Hypnotherapy has helped sports people for many years now, hypnotherapy can help you stay focused on your golf game, meaning you play a much better round. Tiger Woods often uses hypnotherapy to help him stay focused and to help him mentally prepare for tournaments.

When you are on the golf course there can be many distractions, meaning your focus changes from your game to other things. When you don’t fully focus on your game self doubt and confidence can creep in, ruining your shot and then your game. Being able to control negative thoughts and feelings is the basis for sports psychology, hypnotherapy engages with a golfers mind and helps them focus on their goals and helps them to achieve them.

Hypnotherapy can help you relax, taking away any anxiety and self doubt. Most golfers that use hypnotherapy find it helps them maintain their composure, overcome their fears and any distractions which leads to an improved game.

For more information on hypnotherapy and how it could improve your golf visit www.hypnotherapy-directory.org.uk/articles/sportsperformance.html  useful. The site lists hypnotherapists in the UK. Each hypnotherapist listed on the site is fully qualified and insured. You can find your local hypnotherapist by searching via postcode, town or county. The site also has lots of information on what areas and issues hypnotherapy can help with. To start improving your game why not visit ww.hypnotherapy-directory.org.uk/

Every year Golf World publishes its list of the top 100 courses in Great Britain and a few years ago I decided to see how many of these courses that I have played throughout my golfing journeys. So I counted these up and found that I had played 21 of these courses. Which I thought was pretty good but I thought I should have played some more of them. So these last six months I have made a conscious effort of play a lot more of these courses. There are some fantastic courses to play all around the country. If you have a look at www.top100golfcourses.co.uk you can have a look and see how many of them you have played. I have recently played Hankley Common and the Addington. Which are both great courses. I hope this inspires you to seek out some great days on the links.

It has been the worst winter for 25 years and if you are anything like me then you are one frustrated golfer. The thought of playing a round in short sleeves seems a million miles away and all you can do is wait for the temperatures to rise above freezing and the grass to change back from white to green. But don’t despair, there are a number of things you can do that will benefit your golf and get you prepared for the new season.

This time of year is a great chance to work on your technique, improve you golf fitness and get your equipment right, so that when it is time to play you will have trained your body and swing ready to focus on getting the ball around the course. Here are some ideas that you can be working on.

Technique
Now is a great time to work on weaknesses in your swing as this requires you to focus on improving a specific movement. Firstly, identify which parts of your swing are the weakest and learn how to correct them properly by having a lesson. Then rehearse the correct movement slowly and in front of a mirror to get feedback on how well you’re actually performing it. Also, practice any drills you have been prescribed. Keep rehearsing it for about 5 to 10 minutes at a time and you will eventually reprogram yourself to perform that movement without having to specifically think about it. Then when the sun comes out you can focus on your target and not your swing. This applies to your putting stroke as well.

Golf Fitness
As with many other people, this time of year is the kick start to thinking about getting fit, but for golf the first thing you need to think about is your flexibility. Being flexible makes it much easier to get the swing you want. The first thing to do is to identify which parts of your body are tight and the best way to do this is to have a screening with a fitness professional. For golf it is important to have good hamstring flexibility, a flexible chest and lats and be able to separate your upper body from your lower body.

Equipment
Now is also a perfect time to get your equipment organised for the upcoming year. Firstly, check your grips to see that they have enough grip left on them and also that they are of the correct thickness. If they get too slick it will mean that you have to grip tighter which is not good and will affect your play. Tests have shown that bad grips can cost you 4 to 6 shots a round. If you play twice a week you should be changing your grips once a year.

Next you should get the loft and lies of your clubs checked. You want to strike the ball with the sole of the club flat on the ground at impact. If this is just 1 degree out it can cause you 2 to 4 yards of accuracy and I have seen many people’s clubs be 3 or 4 degrees out which is the difference between being on the green and in the water. These settings can gradually change through hitting balls and general play so they need to be checked. Hopefully you had your clubs fitted for you so they should also be of the correct length, shaft flex and set make up, if you are not sure then please let me know and I will give you a free no obligation assessment of your clubs. If you are looking to treat yourself and purchase some new clubs then this is the time to do it, it will give you a chance to get used to them before the season starts.

So don’t get bogged down in the winter blues, use this time wisely, follow some of the suggestions above and you will be fully prepared for some great golfing in 2010.