After a week in the UK it was a pleasure to spend a day at the races at Villeneuf Loubet ( Nice).







The race course is situated right on the sea front and from the restaurant there is a wonderful view of both the race course and the sea.
The sea and sky were blue and the setting was beautiful. We were met by a Brass Band as we entered the course and proceeded directly to the restaurant where we were seated at tables directly overlooking the course.
I am NOT a gambler but this does not stop you from enjoying both the excitement and the ambiance.
We went with a group of English people who had arranged the day and had organized an all in price of €50 per person for entry, a three course meal and wine.
The meal started with Salmon Tartine, too much to eat, and was followed by a choice of fish or meat. My wife and father in law went for the fish which was delightful (they said) and I, of course, went for the meat. This turned out to be a very large Steak Rossini with a large piece of Fois Gras on top!! It was in fact too much meat.
The desert was a lovely raspberry tartlet with cream and was followed by coffee.
This was a delightful way of spending a winter Saturday.

Mr. L

Popped down in to Sainte Maxime today for a bit of lunch with Michele and the Belle Mere and was confronted with the main coast road being closed for the Tour du Haut Var bike race! Now when it comes to road racing you must understand that the French authorities do everything humanly possible to disrupt normal vehicle circulation and so as the French say c’est la vie, tanpis, c’est comme ca! I will however keep honking my car horn whenever I find myself behind the Sunday amateur cyclists who insist on cycling 5 a breast!
I do know two people over at the 'Our Juicy Life' blog who happen to be big time cyclists and would have fully appreciated the sights and sounds of this event,if I’m honest it was a pretty cool experience. So guys this is just for you and your wonderful enthusiasm for most things French.





Two things really impressed me while watching the Tour du Haut racing through Sainte Maxime. Firstly the wind generated by the speed in which they shot through the town was unbelievable, in fact if you listen carefully you can hear the whoosh as they go past. The only way I could get that sort of speed on my city/vtt bike is if I rode over a cliff!!
Secondly the number of back up bikes that the convoy of cars following the ‘peleton’ have stacked on their roofs.

NB: I filmed this clip with a Nokia 95 mobile phone.You can catch the rest of the tour tomorrow on French TV.

It’s Friday so its Pizza night!

Main ingredients:

Bacon
Cream
Roquefort
Goats cheese
Mozzarella
parmesan

Enough said!

NB: Photo taken at the Pizza du Golfe, Sainte Maxime

Flexibility becomes an issue for the golf swing when the lower back, hamstrings, hips, and shoulders are tight. A lack of flexibility leads to compensations within the golf swing and a loss of club head speed.

If you are finding "tightness" in any of these areas start doing specific flexibility golf exercises, not only will you increase the distance of your drives but you will feel a lot less tired!!



Flexibility is the key in achieving the correct shoulder turn during the backswing.

This was sent to me from Martin who really is a male chauvinistic pig! It’s bloody hilarious though and some what true??

If ever you fancy getting away from the maddening crowds on the coast and don't fancy driving too far, I can highly recommend a walk in the Valley des des Fées (The valley of the fairies) near Old Grimaud. The walk starts just behind the village and takes you down in to and along the valley. You really do feel that you are away high in the mountains and with the 16th Century Pont des Fées, (Fairy bridge) and the spectacular views of the Golfe of Saint Tropez this is truly a magical setting. It took us about one and a half hours to complete the walk including lots of stops for photos and it also conveniently brings you back to the starting point.
You can visit the photo gallery by clicking here.



My sister pat enjoying the sun shine



Grimaud castle



It was just paradise for Lady



The Golfe de Saint Tropez

When I played in Arizona we were always told not to go looking for balls in the desert that bordered the fairways. Now I know why!!

A great clip of James Bond and Gold finger cheating at golf. This scene was filmed at the Stoke Podges golf club where incidentally I won a pro tournament back in the early 80's, God how time flies.

Le Jardin de Bambou

A bit bored with the bad weather my wife and I and of course my other girl Micha (our Belgian Shepherd) went off to Cannes for a couple of nights to see how the townies were coping with our strange winter climate.
The Croisette was full of couples strolling in the winter sun and the ladies had their fur coats on show. As we dodged the joggers and roller bladers our dog had the time of her life on the beaches and there was a beautiful sand sculpture of a crocodile which was attracting much attention.
This indeed is a lovely time to visit Cannes as the traffic is minimal and the restaurants are not busy.
When you are continually eating out at French restaurants you yearn for reminders of home and my choice was a Chinese.
In the VAR the majority of such restaurants are actually Vietnamese, which are similar but with subtle variations, especially in the sauces.
I discovered a lovely restaurant just off the Croisette and feasted on Chinese spare ribs, Sui Mai ( prawn or pork steamed dumplings) and King prawns in a sweet and sour sauce with boiled rice. My wife, Mrs. L, started with giant prawns deep fried in a very light batter ( Beignette de Gamba) followed by Duck Lacque which, in her opinion, was one of the best she had eaten in the region.
The atmosphere was great and the food delicious if not quite equal to the restaurants in Liverpool China Town!
I would recommend this restaurant to anybody.

www.lejardindebambou.com
0492 986306

"Thats exactly what I was thinking"

Photo taken with a Nokia 95 mobile phone

This Tony Robbins’ video is from a fantastic selection of videos at TED.com - I can highly recommend a thorough browse through the site for some great perspectives on life.

It’s a fairly rambling speech, to be honest, where he tries to perhaps squeeze too much in.

But… at around the 5.00 minute mark you get to hear some truly great stuff about excuses.

I made excuses for ten years of my life about getting better at golf. There was always some reason why “next year” would be the year to knuckle down and start my challenge. For ten years “next year” came and went. And then I got going…

Do you want to seize this opportunity or do you want to wait until “next year”?

At this rate we will be sold out long before the deadline of Sunday at midnight and I will not be extending the membership for any reason. If you want to get in, you really need to go here right now.

Don’t forget - you can get a full refund for ANY reason during the first sixty days. Why not give it a try and see what might just happen to your golf game?

(Please note: there is some profanity in the speech.  Just wanted to warn you)

Go Here To Buy Your Copy Of The Break Par Blueprint

The 80/20 rule is a strange phenomenon in human behaviour that was discovered by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto.

In business it means that 80% of your profit comes from 20% of your customers, 80 of your complaints come from 20% of your customers and 80% of the productive work that you do comes from 20% of your total hours worked.

In my consultancy business it’s a key concept that I discuss with clients about but… how does it relate to golf?

Welll pretty much the same principles apply. Only 20% of what we do in golf actually helps us get better and perhaps more importantly only 20% of our practice produces 80% of the results. The rest is just ineffective thrashing at the ball.

The Break Par Blueprint is all about you making effective use of your time and making huge improvements without massive amounts of work. So if you haven’t got your copy yet make sure you go here and get signed up soon. We have sold more than half the available copies in only three days so the chances are that we might sell out before the Sunday night deadline arrives. I will NOT, on point of principle, be selling more than the 382 Golds and 20 Platinums because I want to make sure I can provide a strong personal impact to all in the member’s area.

So go here and give it a try and don’t forget my cast iron 60 day I don’t like your hair guarantee.

Click Here To Get YOUR Break Par Blueprint - Totally Risk Free

This is a great little tip from Nick Faldo.  He very astutely discusses the issue of all the myriad swing thoughts and issues that we have before we swing.  As golfers we tend to worry relentlessly about all the things we shouldn’t do.

Faldo explains how important it is to ignore these and not think:

“Don’t hit it in the water!”

or

“Don’t hit it in the trees”

but this simply encourages our mind to think more about the hazard.  Sadly it’s not as easy as just ignoring that and swinging in a more positive way.  The Break Par Blueprint offers you two absolutely cast iron ways to achieve this.  One of them guarantees that you’ll never think about a hazard during the swing again!

So if you’ve haven’t signed up make sure you do so here.

BREAKPARBLUEPRINT

We’re now more than half sold out and I regardless of whether we sell out or not I will stop selling this Sunday (24th August) at midnight.  Don’t forget you are completely covered by my 60 day no-weasel, no-catch money back guarantee.  In fact there is absolutely nothing to stop you buying the course reading these two tips and asking for your money back!  That’s how confident I am of the course and also how much I want you to be able to try something new!

Sorry for the delay (let’s blame the internet or something)

If you go now to www.breakparblueprint.com you go straight to the sales page which leads you to the purchase page. Please note the purchase page is hosted on Andy’s servers so don’t be alarmed when you end up on his site.

The three winners are:

Fabian Greenan

Hans Lofgren

Steve Patterson

I’ll explain why later.

Once again many apologies for the delay.

First of all - for those of you who are still struggling to watch the videos make sure you have Adobe Flash player installed.

You can get it free here:

Click here to potentially solve all your video woes

The main points once again.

1. We will be opening all programs at 12.00 noon GMT (which is actually 1.00 p.m. BST for those of you in the UK)
2. The main sales page will appear at www.breakparblueprint.com This blog will remain for the time being.
3. All videos will be downloadable - perhaps not immediately but as soon as we can get it sorted
4. All members will get their main ebook immediately. The bonus ebooks will take a little longer because I want to make sure they are equally good content and for that reason I will be recording short videos for each of them. They need video to be properly effective since two of them are pure instruction. These will be available early next week and will be available in ebook AND video format for all program levels. For those of you who are struggling with video on dial up and are subsequently only purchasing the Silver edition I will produce a second low resolution version of each video.
5. I will, as soon as possible, look into printed versions of the ebook. I understand this frustration so will look into it quickly.
6. The audio version of the ebook will not be available until Monday 25th August.
7. I have extended the “I’m not happy with the course/It doesn’t do what you said/I don’t like you/your stupid hair/your silly accent/the way you talk too fast” 30 day money back guarantee to 60 days. I.e. if, for whatever reason, you are not happy you can simply asked for a refund - no weasel out clauses, no reasons why. Simply ask and you will receive. i.e. Once more - I do not want unhappy customers!
8. You can upgrade - if you buy Silver and think you’re missing out on the groovy party going on in Gold then you can upgrade no problem.
9. The doors to the private gold members area will NOT open until Monday the 25th August. That is the official start to the 12 week course.
10. All sales of all programs will stop on that date i.e. Monday 25th August. I will not, for the foreseeable future, be selling this course again. We may sell out before then.

If you haven’t signed up yet you need to sign up below to make sure you get notification of when the “doors open”

The response to the “BPB Revealed” was incredible and I’m delighted that so many of you seem to be keen on the program.

This video answers most of the questions (I hope!) but if not please let me know below.

The important thing really is that the course opens this Friday at 12.00 Noon GMT. We will be accepting applications up to Sunday 24th at midnight. The Gold and Platinum course officially will begin on Monday 25th when the private members area will be opened.

There will be a full money back guarantee during the first 30 days so I’m more than happy to take any risk. I cannot emphasise strongly enough that I do NOT want unhappy customers. I am NOT after a quick buck here and will be working round the clock during the 12 weeks to ensure that, by whatever means possible, I manage to make a BIG DIFFERENCE to your scoring.

Finally please note that by law we much charge VAT at 17.5% to all orders within the EU.

Take five people around you…

In this video I want to talk about the influence of other people in your lives. It’s a very real issue for all of us but it does have a direct influence on your ability to play great golf or at the very least to step up from where you currently are – it also helps to explain a bit why I have designed the Break Par Blueprint the way that I have.

The truth is that “we become who we surround ourselves with”

If we want to become all that we can become, in any area of our lives, then we must surround ourselves with people who live at that level.

I learned about this concept years ago when I first started out in my business career and was given a copy of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Hill wrote this book after spending twenty years studying the most successful people in the world.

He talks about the power of the mastermind – which is basically the power of having people around you to help pull you forward. To help support you. He reckons that it’s such an important concept that “No great success can happen without a mastermind” which is a pretty powerful statement. But it’s not one that I would argue with.

Now this presented me with a problem during my golf challenge since I couldn’t find such a group. I was consistently told on internet forums and by some of the world’s best golfers that it was impossible. But along the way I met a few people, in various parts of the world, who did believe in me and I stuck to them like leeches – it was an incredibly important part of the process for me.

I had also read in Hill’s book about some very famous industrialist (I forget who!) who used an imaginary group of past leaders and business men to help during difficult decisions. Since I didn’t have anyone around me that I could mastermind with I chose a couple of imaginary coaches to help me out. One was Seve Ballesteros and the other was the late great Ben Hogan. This sounds ludicrous but it was extremely beneficial for me. I would stand at the range (sometimes entirely on my own) and simply imagine that Hogan and Seve were standing behind me watching my every move and keeping me encouraged. It stopped me playing silly “how hard can I hit this ball” games and kept my focus.

In my business life I use a mastermind group – but this time it’s made up from real life people! We meet every two weeks for a conference call and this is very useful to keep me on track with my business goals.

If this all sounds a little odd then let me ask you a question:

Take the five people closest to you and average them out. Most of the time this average is YOU.

This works in all areas of life…

• · Weight
• · Money
• · Fitness
• · Self-esteem

…and, of course golf!

During my challenge I tested this theory both with some friends and on a golfing forum. I found out that 80% of golfers lie within three strokes of the averaged handicap of the five people they play with the most. i.e. we really only play with people at our own level.

This has profound implications on your golf (and the rest of your life but I’m not here to preach about that) because it becomes tough to break out of these groups.

It’s very difficult to stay upbeat and positive in a room full of negative whiny people.

Likewise it’s tough to stay negative and downbeat in a room or with a group of people who are very positive and upbeat.

So if you play with 18 handicappers you’re likely to stay an 18 handicapper! If you play with low single figure golfers you’re likely to stay at this level.

So that’s why I’ve designed the Break Par Blueprint the way I have. I haven’t just created a book and said – this is how I did it – away you go and good luck to you. I created a 12 week program with lots of support and interaction with others who are in a similar situation. I created, in the Gold version, that “room full of positive people” and a coaching structure so that you can break out of those old comfort zones.

Of course this doesn’t exist in the Silver version – you are very much given the ebook and left to get on with it. Which is fine for some people. Some people have the strength of character to deal with all this and break free by themselves. But you’ll make life a lot easier for yourself if you can get up to the Gold package and keep yourself exposed to an “improvement group” during the challenge. Simply surrounding yourself with great people has a remarkable ability to pull you up regardless of any other actions.

If you want to go Silver though that’s fine but make sure you start to discriminate a little more with the people you play golf with and generally associate with. It will pay serious dividends to your ability to make that big improvement.

Tomorrow I’ll answer all the questions from the “Break Par Blueprint REVEALED” post so make sure you put up any queries you might have in the comments on that post.

Also make sure you leave full details of any improvements you may have made for a chance to win one of the three free Gold places.

I’m giving away three Gold level Blueprints to those who have clearly shown that they are prepared to take action and are capable of IMPLEMENTION - which is the key in all of this.

Inside this video, I explain exactly what you’re going to be learning inside the Break Par Blueprint that I’m launching later this week, and I show you the three LEVELS of the program that are going to be available on Friday.

I also share the pricing for the program, and give you all the details of what to expect and who it might be suitable for. I also make it clear who it is NOT suitable for.

Please Note - the courses will be available for sale from noon GMT on Friday 15th August. You will be notified well in advance by email. At this stage you don’t need to do anything.

IMPORTANT: After you watch the video, please leave me a comment to let me know your thoughts about the Break Par Blueprint. If you have any QUESTIONS about the program after watching this video, make sure you ask them in your comment. I want to make sure I answer all of them by Friday!

Also, to all of you who have made big progress already, make sure you put that clearly in your comments below. I’m giving away three Gold level Blueprints to those who have clearly shown that they are prepared to take action and are capable of IMPLEMENTION - which is the key in all this.

NOTE: Only the first 100 people will get the early registration bonuses which include the 90 minute teleconference. Make sure you get on the list (if you’re not already) by filling your details in below.

Today’s video is about the process I call “Click”.

It’s about that feeling inside when a switch seems to suddenly “click” into the On position and you really truly commit to starting something. I use it for anything large that I’ve been putting off and have extensively used it with many clients in my consultancy business.

If you’ve been putting off getting better at golf then try this out.

Free PDF explaining the whole concept here:

http://breakparblueprint.com/Clickebook.pdf

So what is your golfing goal and tell me in the comments below how you will create your “Click”?

Make sure you receive the next videos by signing up below:

I’ll let you be the judge:

The number one excuse that people hit me with when they say they couldn’t do what I did is that they wouldn’t have time. “They” say that there is no way they could hit so many balls or devote so much time to practice.

The key point to realise is, especially, if “they” is “you”, that really it’s just a matter of how much do you want to get better. I hate to get all motivational guru here but some part of getting better at golf involves “paying a price”. What price are you prepared to pay to get better?

Are you expecting to get better by paying the price of a new driver or a new set of irons?

Are you expecting to get better by playing a few more rounds a year?

Are you expecting to get better by booking a course of lessons and then not acting properly or in a disciplined fashion on that advice?

Getting better at golf DOES NOT need to border on madness like my challenge did but it does involve a basic commitment to improvement and an open and honest realisation of some of the excuses we all make to avoid us doing certain things. I’m absolutely no different in this but I learned how to create a strong enough goal and apply enough pain to not succeeding that it helped me to keep at it and really focus on getting better for 362 days. Even though on certain occasions I’d have been far happier lying in bed or relaxing in the evening with a glass of wine in front of the television.

In my next video I’m going to show a you cast iron way to get your golfing challenge started. Even if, like I had, you have put off getting better for years and years. This technique is incredibly powerful and can be used to get anything started that you’ve been procrastinating over for a long time. It can be used for weight loss or even for starting up a business.

One last fact:

The average UK citizen watches 28 hours of television per week. During my challenge I only spent 15 hours per week on golf.

Make sure you receive the next videos by signing up below: