yoga92829

Southend united returned to the top of league One with a 2-0 win at Yeovil. Available at 13/8 before kick off, a first half goal from Mark Bentley and one from veteran Shaun Goater extended the Shrimpers unbeaten run to 12 games. steve Tilsons side are 7/2 to win the division outright.

Colchester set a new club record of nine consecutive wins as they came from behind to beat Bradford City. Colchester, 8/11 before kick off, fell behind after 37 minutes but hit back through Richard Garcia (2) and Chris Iwelumo. second placed Colchester are two points behind leaders Southend with two games in hand and are 11/4 favourites to win outright.

Friday night saw Swansea City edge back into third with their first win in five games against Bournemouth. The 4/5 Swans scored the winning goal through midfielder Andy Robinson on the stroke of half time.

Barnsley, at 10/11, kept up the pressure with a win against Bristol City. A goal in each half from Marc Richards secured the third successive 2-0 victory for the Tykes.

Brentford adapted quickly to life without striker DJ Campbell, a 500,000 signing for Birmingham City, by crushing Walsall 5-0 at Griffin Park. The 8/11 odds looked the safest bet of the day as goals for Isaiah Rankin, Ricky newman, Paul Brooker, Sam Sodje and a penalty for Kevin O'Connor eased the Bees to victory.

Huddersfield lost ground in the promotion hunt going down 2-1 at Tranmere on Friday night. David Graham cancelled out an early Carl Tremarco goal but the home side stunned the Terriers when former striker Delroy Facey netted the winner with six minutes to go for 7/5 Rovers.

Veteran striker Paul Hall's 100th league goal denied Gillingham an unlikely 7/2 victory and extended Chesterfield's unbeaten run to 15 matches. The Gills took the lead through Tommy Black but hall ensured the Spireites a share of the points with a last minute strike.

Neither Rotherham nor Hartlepool did their relegation battle any good with a goalless draw. Both sides occupy a position in the bottom three and shrewd punters will have got on at 23/10.

While Rotherham and Hartlepool were cancelling each other out, Swindon edged out of relegation for the first time this season with a 2-1 victory over Doncaster. The Robins, 7/5 before kick off scored through Ricky Shakes and Charlie Comyn-Platt to earn Iffy Onouras side their third win in a row.

How you align yourself when setting up to hit a golf ball has a critical affect on how good your golf shots are going to turn out. But don't believe me. Read what a golf legend has to say on this alignment issue

"It goes without saying that it is no good having a perfect setup, perfect grip and perfect golf swing if the whole thing is misaligned. It sounds obvious but many players simply do not spend enough time getting themselves on target."

Nick faldo - winner of 6 major Championships

So hopefully you now understand the importance of golf alignment. And if you do, here's a simple exercise that you can quickly and easily do to check your feet alignment.

To do this golf alignment exercise I want you to setup to a golf shot as normal and get comfortable. Then just before you're ready to hit your shot, get two golf balls and without moving your feet place them directly behind your heels so they're touching your feet. Now take your feet away and go back behind your ball down the line of your target and see how good your alignment was.

The beauty of doing this golf alignment exercise is that it shows you exactly where you are aligning your feet and then you can simply change the golf balls so they align correctly and then setup with these balls touching your heels. If your feet have been aligned incorrectly for a while then it will feel quite strange when you align them correctly. But keep practicing and before long, your new feet alignment will become second nature.

So that is a great and easy way to check the alignment of your feet. But you still have to check the alignment of your knees, hips and shoulders as they also have a big affect on your golf shots success. And the absolute best way of checking this is to get a person to get a golf club and lay it across each part of your body once you've setup to a shot. But remember, you want each part of your body to be aligned parallel to the starting line of your golf shot.

You do NOT want your body to be aligned directly at your target. A good way to picture this is to imagine yourself setting up to hit a golf shot on railway tracks. Imagine the golf ball on one rail and you're standing on the other rail.

golf alignment is critical to your success and consistency so check it often, because it's very easy to align yourself incorrectly without even knowing. But now you know exactly what you need to do to check your alignment so you have no excuse. So please make an effort to check it often...because it can only do your golf game good.

Nick Bayley is a professional golfer who has discovered just one golf swing fault that could be stopping you from ball striking consistency and success. But luckily for you, now you can take a simple 2 minute golf swing test to see if you have this swing fault or not. So don't delay! Go here to take The Golf Swing Test now

How do you get on hitting your ball from hard pan? Goodness, I used to lose some shots from his type of lie. I just didnt have a clue. Then, one day, I read how to do it and it became easy.

That is what I want to tell you today.

The first thing to do is to hit down onto the ball. If you hit your shots in a scooping motion, you will have great difficulty from such a lie. It is not a difficult shot as long as you know how to go about it. Set up with your ball opposite your right big toe. You have to hit down on the ball and make sure your pinch it cleanly between the club and the ground. Setting your ball so far back in your stance makes it easier to hit down on the ball and hit it cleanly.

Keep you head still and watch the ball. This is vital.

This will get the ball up and flying. The important factor is to let the loft of your club get the ball into the air. As mentioned, if you try to scoop, you will fail. You know how you keep your hands in front of the ball when you make a chip. Well, you follow the same mechanics here.

You make sure your keep your hands in front of the club face during contact and until after you have hit your ball.

Keep your wrists firm, as you do when you chip. When you do this, you havent got to think of the hard lie. You just have to change your technique a little and the result will be as desired.

Practice it a bit and you should soon add this shot to your arsenal.

Now you have to hit your ball over some trees to get out of your trouble spot. There are a couple of minor adjustments to allow you to get your ball up quickly.

The first thing, of course, is to use a club with enough loft to clear the obstacle. Dont be greedy and try for more distance than is reasonable.

Always remember, it is most important to get your ball back into play with no dropped shots.

Open your club face slightly, and be prepared for a fade as a result. The more you move the ball forward in your stance, the quicker and steeper it will rise. So, move the ball forward in your stance and make sure you get your club face under the ball.

If you are really close to a bush and have to get your ball into the air quickly, have the ball opposite your left big toe, and hit with your wrists to get the club head under the ball. The ball will go almost straight up into the air. You will get over, but you will not get much distance obviously. What about when you are in a situation in the trees, or near some bush on the side of the fairway where you have a very restricted swing? You know that if you make good contact with the ball you will be able to hit it far enough to get it back onto the fairway and into play.

However, the problem is making good contact. Obviously, the most important thing is your swing and not the lie of the ball in this situation.

The first thing you have to establish is how far back you can take your back swing. Once you are confident about this, having rehearsed several times, you can start to concentrate on hitting the ball.

I find it a good idea to take my stance and then make my back swing and stop here. Then making sure I watch the ball, make an unhurried down swing making sure I keep my body still.

It is important not to rush. Be as smooth as you can be both during the back swing, the slight pause and then the down swing. It is so easy to lift your head before you hit the ball due to anxiety about the outcome of the shot. Be very conscious of this and make total effort to keep your head still.

Bill Maitland is a thinking, inventive golf guru. He thought out and developed simple techniques and tips which enabled him to lower his handicap from 25 to 18, then from 18 to 15, and finally from 15 to 12. He is a passionate golfer, and delights in helping others with their game should they want his help. To receive a valuable weekly golf tip go to his web site http://www.onlinegolfershandbook.com and subscribe to his free Hole In One news Letter. You will be so glad that you did.

Author of On Line Golfers' Hand Book. An e-Book that takes you step by step to being the best golfer that you can possibly be. The basics in great detail. To learn about his tips and simple techniques and order his book, visit his web site

http://www.onlinegolfershandbook.com

sign up for his free news letter and receive a wealth of great tips every time. He really tries to tell you everything and leaves nothing out as so often happens. When you sign up, receive his free chapter from his book on bunker play.

What is a shank?

Have you ever watched Tin Cup? I know its a movie, but there is a scene when Roy 'Tin Cup' McAvoy (Kevin Costner) is at the practice range, and he is hitting shank after shank.

How did he do that?

Well Roy did the same thing that I did and every other golfer does when they shank the ball and that is when you hit the ball with the hosel of your club. The hosel is the rounded bit between the shaft of the club and the club face. This part of the club has a rounded surface, and so the ball shoots off to the right at an amazing angle (to the right for a right handed player and to the left for a left handed player). Basically you are hitting the ball too close to the heel of the club, rather than the center of the clubface. Most likely your shot will fly off as a line drive directly away from your body.

5 Common faults that will cause a shank

Reason # 1 You are transferring the weight from your heels to your toes

weight transfers to the toes at impact making you lean forward When you set up to hit the ball, you may find that you feel more pressure in your heels than in your toes. This occurs because you are basically leaning or sitting back. As a result you may be compensating for this imbalance during your swing. This will have the effect of leaning slightly forward and thereby moving the club head forward. Remember looking at the photo of a shanked shot, all it takes is inch of forward movement from transferring the weight from your heels to your toes and you will get a shank! An uneven weight distribution between the back and the front of your feet during your swing may be causing you to shank the ball.

Reason #2 You are standing too close to the ball at setup

If you are standing too close to the ball at setup, your natural tendency will be to adjust your downswing to a more comfortable and natural swing path. The effect will be that the club head will move away from you, and as we have found out, even inch will cause the dreaded shank to appear into your game. Simply standing too close could be the reason that your are shanking the ball!

Reason #3 Your natural swing aim is flawed

When you are hitting the ball, you are most probably aiming at the middle of the ball, and expecting the middle of the club face to make contact with the ball. The cause of your shanks could be as simple as a slightly incorrect aim!

Reason #4 - Your arms move away from your body

When you are making your downswing, do your arms drift away from your body? If they do, the effects can be disastrous! One of the effects is the club head moves away from the correct swing path and so the club connects the ball with the hosel, and you get a shank.

Reason #5 - You have an incomplete shoulder turn

If you are not getting a good or complete shoulder turn, then your swing will become too narrow and steep. Your left shoulder should rotate to a position above your right knee. If you are not getting to this position, the result is that you are likely to be swinging on a very narrow arc. Having a narrow swing due to an incomplete shoulder turn may be causing you to fall into your shots during your downswing, and by leaning forward by inch will cause a shank. The cause of shanking could be due to an incomplete shoulder turn.

How do you cure a shank?

The main reason I cured the shanks was because I found a solid and reliable swing that was easy to learn and easy to repeat

Visit my website to see My Review of the Simple Golf Swing

If you want to discover the simple set up routine that I used, simply go to my web site and See my review of The Simple Golf Swing Review