GRIP IT AND RIP IT!

SwingFit’s Pierre van Vuuren differentiates between the ‘weak’ and the ‘strong’ grip

This month we’re back on the range with PGA Professional and Pearl Valley-based SwingFit coach, Pierre van Vuuren, and we’re discussing how the grip influences the shot we hit.

“Our grip plays a very important role in how we swing the club” says Pierre. “It is the only part of our body that connects us to the club (and ultimately the ball) so it has to be 100% right. Having a bad grip will negatively influence the outcome of the shot we hit and lead to inconsistency.” 

We first look at the two most popular grips – the Interlocking (where you interlock the pinkie of your right hand into the first finger of your left) and the ‘overlap’ where the pinkie just overlaps. The 10 finger – or baseball grip – is not recommended because the hands don’t get to work together well.

The grip can also be considered either ‘weak’ or ‘strong’. “Having a weak grip is where the left thumb favours left side of the shaft and the ‘V’ formed between your thumb and first finger of the right hand points to the left shoulder. The clubface lies open at the top of the swing and the result is a fade that has the wrong type of spin
and lacks distance.” Clearly a ‘no go’ set up.

A strong grip is when we have our left hand favouring the right side of the grip. “This shuts the club face at the top of the backswing and, although might result in more distance, can flip the club over and hook the ball” says Pierre.

A neutral grip, where we can see about two knuckles of the left hand, is ideal. “The club sits more into the fingers, the ‘V’ points to the right shoulder, not the left, and the result is a better, more consistent, golf shot” says Pierre, who proves his point by hitting one straight down the middle.

Fashionably Yours

Annamé Lotz draws inspiration from her changing surroundings

As the days grow shorter and night sets in earlier, sunsets become richer and the trees change their colours from bright green to the warmer shades of red, brown and yellow.  Just like Nature, we too should take this opportunity to shed our summer colours and dress ourselves in warmer, more comfortable layers.

Autumn is such a fun time to play around with layers and different textures.  The weather is still very forgiving; you don’t need to cover up completely with a coat and scarf.  There’s a lot of opportunity to combine playful layers and experiment with textures and shades.  This allows you to look good while we’re in this limbo of seasons, where we’re likely to have winter and summer both in one day!

Draw inspiration from your changing surroundings: play with shades of brown, red and gold to mimic the trees and shades of grey to tune in with darkening skies.

A sequined soft pink top, layered with a chunky knit cardigan looks very ladylike tucked into a grey flared skirt.  Be sure to tuck it in! This will accentuate your waist that could otherwise so easily get lost in a chunky knit cardi. and add some pretty accessories to make it your own.

Be a little more daring and try this season’s hottest item: the faux fur waistcoat.  It adds instant character and depth to your outfit.  Take it a step further and combine it with something out of the ordinary: an interesting top perhaps? We’ve done just that, choosing a knitted, almost metallic, rust-coloured one that you can pair it with your best-fitting tights or dark wash jeans and tuck them into a pair of brown boots.  Now add a little glamour with bold brushed gold accessories; the contrasting textures and warm colours make for a pretty picture with lots of interesting detail to add value.

Take on the cold and wet weather by wearing the same tights with a burgundy shirt and a grey coat, preferably with a hood.  Give this look some extra kick and go get those Hunter boots you’ve been dreaming about!  A dark olive pair would go beautifully with this outfit’s grey, burgundy and black palette, once again mimicking our changing surroundings.

So, before winter forces us all to cover up completely, have a little fun with layering different shades and textures, adding a spot of shimmer here and there. 

This Wasn’t the Plan!

The Publisher looks  at Professor Tim Noakes’ controversial ‘new’ eating plan

Professor Tim Noakes is not getting any younger. But, at 62, he’s getting lighter and running faster than at any point in his last 20 years. He puts this down to eliminating sugar, bread, cereals, rice, pasta and other refined carbohydrates in his diet and replacing them with a high-fat and high-protein diet of meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, nuts and dairy produce. We thought it worth taking a closer look at the nutritional claims of South Africa’s pre-eminent sports scientist to understand why this is.  

First up, the conventional wisdom suggests that high blood pressure, obesity and adult-onset diseases like heart disease are best avoided simply by remaining physically active into your ‘mature’ years and avoiding excessive weight gain by eating a balanced diet. For those that succumb to weight gain, the calorie-restricted diet is the only option – the ‘energy in, energy out’ equation is undoubtedly fact. If you eat more calories than you burn you’ll gain weight, so to lose weight you need to eat less and exercise more. It’s simple.

Except, in practice, it doesn’t work, says Noakes. The moment we either eat less or exercise more, our appetite is stimulated – our mind controls this. So we eat until we are satisfied and return to ‘energy balance’. In fact, most overweight or obese people are actually in (or close to) energy balance, he believes.

What Noakes has highlighted is that, possibly because in large quantities it is toxic to humans, protein is a potent appetite suppressant. In contrast, carbohydrates (especially those that are rapidly assimilated like sugar) may be addictive - which drives overconsumption of all foodstuffs.


So a low carbohydrate, high protein, high fat diet works because you reach satiety at lower levels of calorie intake and you lose weight comfortably by taking yourself out of energy balance and that, without hunger. He tried it himself and it worked. So why aren’t we made more aware of this? His suspicion is that “some very large industries, including the soft-drink, sugar and confectionery industries – all of which produce sugar-based products of no nutritional value - and those pharmaceutical companies that produce drugs to treat the medical consequences of this toxic foodstuff, do not wish us to know this.”
Upon investigation he found no empirical evidence that fat makes you fat or that the amount of saturated fat in your diet is even related to the incidence of heart disease at all - and notes that the French have one of the highest intakes of saturated fat among the developed nations and one of the lowest incidences of heart disease. What is unambiguous is this, however; the ten-fold increase in sugar intake during the 20th century has been matched by an equally dramatic rise in the incidence of obesity and diabetes. “The best evidence at present is that a high intake of omega 6 polyunsaturated fats found in vegetable oils and processed foods together with a low intake of omega 3 fats present in fish oils and grass-fed animals, is the toxic combination of fats that causes heart disease,” says Noakes.

Notwithstanding, US dietary guidelines continue to recommend a ‘balanced’ diet of six to eleven servings of refined carbohydrate a day (bread, cereals, rice and pasta) and endorse that sugar can safely provide up to 15% of the daily calories in a healthy diet. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, first-world dietetic associations are largely funded by those companies “who pro-actively protect their profits by ensuring that the public remains misinformed” – the global soft-drinks and refined carbohydrate producers.

If sugar is, in fact, a highly addictive substance, three things are for sure. Firstly, the global use of sugar will undoubtedly continue to rise – and with it the incidence of diabetes and the single biggest medical problem in the US, obesity. Secondly, the pharmaceutical companies will continue to profit from producing drugs to counter this entirely preventable scenario. And lastly, there is a vested interest in “our not having freedom of access to all the evidence of the toxic effects of dietary sugar” as Noakes so succinctly puts it, since “what we believe about nutrition is engineered by powerful forces,” so not much is likely to change.

History shows the Professor has an unbridled willingness to attack the conventional wisdom and, with it, the knack of being proven right in the end. Is history about to repeat itself?

Ed’s Last Writes

The Editor on Christians, demons and nudity

Google ‘tolerance’ and you’ll ten-to-one make your first stop at Dictionary.com where the noun is defined (in part) as: “a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one's own”.

I like the idea of tolerance; having said that, I’ll admit that the adjective ‘tolerant’ sits a little less comfortably with me. In my home, for example, my four-year-old knows that not all behaviour will be tolerated and that’s particularly true of some of the behaviour he sees accepted in the homes of others. I think of ‘tolerance’ as ‘understanding’ and ‘tolerate’ as ‘accept’. I’ve tried to explain to him that understanding and acceptance are quite different, and I console myself that he’ll grow up one day to be both open-minded and principled; but he’s four, so we have a way to go yet.

Having recently concluded a lengthy explanation to him that TV is not a dessert to be enjoyed as the last course to Sunday dinner, with


the words “Do you understand?”, I couldn’t help but dissolve when he looked at me intently and replied “No; but I accept.”

I wondered what he would make of the following mail I received from a friend just a day before:

Dear Friends
 
Members of the Shofar Church, in their ignorance of the meaning behind Dylan Lewis' work, are moving to have his work removed from Stellenbosch, viewing it as Satanic. 

Dylan Lewis' work is in no way affiliated with a religious message.
Please take a moment to sign the petition, and support artistic freedom.
http://bit.ly/HYAJgN

Please feel free to forward this email to anyone you feel would support freedom of artistic expression.

Regards

Not being a member of either the community of Stellenbosch or Shofar, I followed up on the  mail and came across a number of letters in Die Burger that relate to the petition to "save" Lewis’ works and the gist of the petition of the students who have taken offence at two of his statues on campus. My understanding is that the issue of exposed male genitalia is possibly of more concern than any demonic connotations.

The wording of the "save" Lewis’ works petition does not indicate that only two works are in question, nor does it properly explain why some people have taken offence and it also doesn't indicate that the students have simply called for the works to be placed in a museum, as opposed to having them "removed from Stellenbosch" as the forwarded mail suggests.

Without seeking to prejudice the intent of the parties involved, and Lewis in particular, it strikes me that from time to time those who would have us tolerate their views, often exercise very little tolerance themselves. I wonder who the police would be asked to remove first, the Lewis statute flaunting its manhood or the editor of The Month, similarly attired? I'm opposed to censorship - so certainly don't want to see Lewis’ works removed from Stellenbosch, but I do understand that some would want to avoid being subjected to a particular spectacle and that they have the right to make their feelings known.

For the record, I'll sign neither petition, and I’ll be sure to keep my birthday suit well and truly packed away lest the Publisher happen upon this missive as a means to get rid of me cheaply.

It IS a Noun, BUT…

Use of the word ‘varietal’ seems to be a love-hate issue in the world of Winos. Say “This Cape Blend contains only a small portion of the Pinotage varietal” and you’re sure to get lynched - but why?

A prolonged stay at the office, a little Googling and a fair number of drained glasses yielded the following:

varietal
adj. Of, indicating, or characterizing a variety, especially a biological variety.
n. A wine made principally from one variety of grape and carrying the name of that grape.

So The Month concludes: Use ‘varietal’ as an adjective to modify a noun; if you must use it as a noun, simply use it to refer to a wine bearing the name of the principal grape from which it is made and if you’re in any way unsure, keep the wine glass to your lips.

Keeping it Bottled Up

The Vineyard Connection team introduces us to a number of ‘personalities’ in a bottle

A word that is often thrown around in wine circles is ‘terroir’ – which is best summarised as meaning a ‘sense of place’. The idea is that wines from specific vineyards will display unique topographical characteristics… much as people from Cape Town or Johannesburg often define a particular stereotype!

But the character of a place is not just limited to its slopes, soils and climate. There are human and historical elements too that make the Winelands and its wines special  and this month we’ll consider two labels with strong ties to Stellenbosch’s yesteryear, Muratie and Teddy Hall.

With Muratie's deep roots in our history, their wines tell a love story which still captivates the imagination over 300 years later. Ansela was born in the notorious slave quarters of the Cape's Castle. She fell in love with Laurens Campher, a German soldier in the service of the Dutch East Indian Company. Laurens was granted a farm in 1685 by Cape Governor, Wilhelm Adriaan van der Stel, at the foot of the Simonsberg. The love affair between slave and landowner lasted 14 years, and Laurens would regularly undertake the three-day journey to the Cape to visit Ansela. Their dreams of being together were finally realised when Ansela was freed in 1699 and Laurens could take her and their three children to their new home at Muratie. The oak trees Ansela planted as a blessing to their marriage still stand on the property today.

1. Muratie “Ansela van de Caab” Red Blend 2009, R200
This Bordeaux blend from an excellent vintage is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc, with concentrated fruit and cigar box on the nose. The flavours and tannins are beautifully balanced with a lingering and elegant finish.

2. Muratie “Laurens Campher” White Blend 2011, R105
A blend of Chenin Blanc with Verdelho, Viognier and Sauvignon Blanc, this wine was fermented with wild yeast and all, bar the Sauvignon Blanc, were barrel fermented. The blend was then matured in barrel for six months and the result is a wine with flavours that range from honeysuckle to pineapple. A good acidity and the off-dry finish make this wine an excellent match with spicy food.

Teddy Hall is a contemporary personality synonymous with Stellenbosch, who meticulously searches for great grapes within the Stellenbosch district from which to make his wines. His results are labelled under names of eccentric and dubious characters of Stellenbosch’s past; each with an equally compelling story.

One of his wines tells of Dr Jan Cats, who had his medical practice in the centre of Stellenbosch. The fact that the local mortuary was just across the road was cause for notoriety – especially as one of the window designs allowed casualties to be easily transferred on stretchers in the dead of night (so to speak).

Another mysterious figure of Stellenbosch is the first Dutch Reformed pastor, Hercùles van Loon. He lived in the oldest house in Stellenbosch and also had a farm in the Klapmuts vicinity (in the same ward as The Vineyard Connection today). During one of his trips between domiciles, he mysteriously met his end, reportedly by committing suicide with a pocket knife. No one has yet discovered the reason for his profound and sudden despair…

3. Teddy Hall ‘Dr Jan Cats’ Chenin Blanc Reserve 2010, R131
A benchmark for Chenin Blanc in South Africa by the Chenin King! Made with only free run juice from vineyards planted in 1986, this wine was fermented with wild yeasts and matured in oak and is rich and round with good acidity to compliment and clean the palate. It is bright gold with pineapple, orange blossoms, peach, vanilla and baked apple flavours - just what the doctor ordered!

4. Teddy Hall ‘Hercùles van Loon’ Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2008, R362
An exceptional Cabernet (with a dash of Merlot). A beautiful opaque crimson colour leads to cassis and violets on the nose, with a layered palate of blackberries, chocolate and vanilla. Aged in 100% new French oak, with a good concentration of fruit and complexity, this is one of the current highlights of The Vineyard Connection’s wine team!

Another Wine Festival? Sweet!

Cobie van Oort tells us why we should plan to attend the 8th Winter Wine Festival | The Month May 2012

With the kind of cold weather we’re sure to experience in May, wine lovers will no doubt begin to turn their thoughts to hearty winter dishes paired with rich wines, to be enjoyed beside a roaring fire.  It’s early days yet, but be sure to plan get to the 8th Winter Wine Festival at High Street Shopping Village in Durbanville from the 21st to the 23rd of June.

The festival offers visitors an opportunity to taste a wide range of Ports, brandies, dessert wines, Muscadels, Jerepigos and a selection of red and white wines and a chance to stock up ahead of the coldest part of the year.

Two of the interesting sweeter wines that will be on show at this year’s festival are Perdeberg’s Weisser Riesling - a natural sweet wine which is perfect with cheese or even instead of a dessert,  and Solms-Delta’s ‘Gemoedsrus’ which is a complex, fortified Port-like sweet wine that brings to mind brandy-spiked
Christmas cake!

Elize Walters, the PR and Marketing Manager of Propergation Estates, which presents the Festival, says that “for the first time we are including wines from Chile and Italy as well as creating a market atmosphere with our food exhibitors.  Visitors are encouraged to relax and linger at the festival; and with the regular wine theatre presentations, live music and food courts, we hope they will!”

With nearly 30 wineries and 20 food stalls pulling out all the stops, there’s every reason to linger and to make the High Street Shopping Village home for a few hours. The Durbanville Round Table have been chosen as the beneficiaries of monies raised via the festival, so you’ll have the added benefit of knowing that you’re there for a good cause.

On-site sales are encouraged and storage will be available from where purchases can easily be transferred to the parking areas.

Ticket prices are R80pp if bought on-line and R90pp at the door.  Pensioners’ and groups of more than 10 pay R70pp. Tickets are available at www.ticketbreak.co.za  from 1st of May or at the door during the festival. For more information visit www.winterwinefestival.co.za

Perdeberg Weisser Riesling Natural Sweet, R80 per bottle at the cellar
This low alcohol Riesling is a ‘sticky’ to be sure – with almost 133g of residual sugar! It has a beautiful pale yellow colour with immediately evident whiffs of honeycomb and apricot on the nose and perhaps even a little lime. There’s a fresh acidity to the palate that deals adequately with the sugar, but still allows the wine a sweet finish. Try it with rich cheeses, a sweet pudding or simply on its own!

Solms-Delta Gemoedsrus 2010, R220
This 100% Shiraz, fortified with Shiraz husk spirit, was matured for 15 months in mostly new French oak barrels, to retain the primary fruit aromas. It is a dark wine with hints of almonds on the nose and cocoa on the palate. With a little less than 80g of residual sugar it a decent sweet wine for the weight-conscious, but be warned – at 18.5% alcohol it may skip your hips and go straight for your head!