YOGA FOR GOLFERS

Whether your goal is to win a major golf tournament with a torn ACL and double stress fracture in your leg or just break 100 one day soon, there's no denying the importance of a strong and healthy body.

Beyond the usual work on the swing and positive mental approach, Tina Gokstorp has one more suggestion, yoga.

Gokstorp owns and operates OSO Yoga in London and Ailsa Craig and specializes in relating yoga techniques to other sports. An avid athlete, she sustained a running injury seven years ago. After trying a lot of traditional treatments without much success, she turned to yoga, almost out of desperation.

'I didn't think it was very athletic and it took me a while to come around to it,' she says candidly. 'But then it just clicked, and I realized what a perfect complement it is for people doing other sports.'

Today, Gokstorp, 35, specializes in yoga classes geared to runners, kids and golfers.

She has teamed up with one of London's best known golf pros, Bob Martin, and his partner, Ron Lampman, to offer a unique set of golf performance clinics for men, women and juniors this summer.

Martin and Lampman operate Golf Unleashed Entertainment. They travel to a variety of events and entertain crowds of golf fans with an almost unbelievable assortment of trick shots.

'We're both golf pros, but what we do with Golf Unleashed is entertainment,' says Martin, 68. 'It's a lot of fun.'

Lampman, 39, handles most of the trick shots at the clinic. He finished third at the 2006 world golf trick shot championships and also competes in long drive championships, where his record is 412 yards.

The Golf Unleashed website gives a sample of some of the eye popping shots he can make. Though there's rarely a need when playing a Saturday round of golf with friends to juggle a ball with an iron before hitting it with a driver, or to hit a ball while balanced on a medicine ball, it's fun to watch.

In addition, Martin and Lampman work with a Kitchener-based company, Golf Without Limits, to offer hands on instruction and high-tech feedback to golfers who want to improve.

'When you add the entertainment we offer, the Golf Without Limits clinics and Tina's expertise on yoga, it's a complete package,' says Martin.' There's nothing like it anywhere.'

Gokstorp uses the highly regarded Katherine Roberts Yoga for Golfers program, which she says helps golfers to develop better stability, flexibility and a stronger back, a worthwhile combination for golfers and non golfers alike.

The clinics concentrate on more traditional golf teaching, from the swing to the short game. But all three partners believe the emphasis on yoga acts as a catalyst, so all the instruction has more impact on players' games because they can do more with their bodies.

The next Golf Unleashed show is July 19 at 6:30 p.m. at Bob Martin's practice facility on Wonderland Road South.

The trio also is organizing several golf trips to locations such as Myrtle Beach, S.C., this fall and winter. They will include lessons, lectures, golf fitness and golf at top courses.

By CHRISTOPHER CLARK

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