How To Make A Ghillie Suit

If you plan to make a ghillie suit, you will need supplies, time, effort, and patience. Depending on the purpose of the suit, as well as the quality and longevity you want from the finished product, you may spend many hours preparing, making, and seasoning it before you can put it to use. When a ghillie suit is made from scratch, these tasks can take as many as 100 hours to complete. For a small cost, however, you can buy most of the materials you need to put your camouflage together more quickly and easily. A third option is to buy a ghillie suit that is pre-made and ready to wear.

A ghillie suit starts with a foundation, usually a battle dress uniform (BDU) comprising pants and jacket, a flight suit, or simply an old pair of coveralls. If you improvise your own foundation suit by using such garments as old coveralls, make sure they are first washed with a detergent that has no scented chemicals added. When you need your ghillie suit to provide cover only from the waist up, leaving your legs free for movement, you can plan to make a net poncho covered with ghillie material rather than a full suit.

Dedicated people who are determined to make their own ghillie suits from scratch need to buy burlap in preparation for the most time-consuming and tedious part of the operation. This involves dyeing the burlap to various shades ranging from medium green to brown, cutting it into strips, and sewing the strips onto the foundation suit with the ends of the higher strips overlapping the attachment points of the lower strips by about half an inch to provide coverage. Alternatively, you can first sew and glue netting to the foundation suit, then attach the dyed burlap strips or jute twine to the netting. Be careful not to finish with blocks of strips in similar coloring, as this will defeat the aim of using the ghillie suit to merge into the background.

The dye colors should be chosen to blend in with the area where you will be wearing your ghillie suit. You can also increase the authentic look by taking the suit to the area and rolling it around in the local vegetation, or by adding some of the vegetation to the strips on the netting or the suit. Keep in mind, however, when making your ghillie suit, that burlap is hot and heavy. If you add too much to it, you may find it difficult to move as quickly as you may need, as well as being uncomfortable, particularly in hot weather.

You can omit the dyeing and cutting, but still have a hand in the making of your ghillie suit by buying a ghillie kit that includes all the materials you need, as well as assembly instructions. These can be ordered in the custom color combination you want or bought in available patterns, and can take from five to 10 hours to complete by hand. If time is a factor, a pre-made ghillie suit costs more than a kit, but saves time and effort.

When making your own ghillie suit, you need to remember that Hessian and burlap are highly inflammable and take appropriate precautions to treat it. This need should not apply to the ghillie suits and kits available for purchase, because they are usually treated with fire retardants before you buy them or are made of fire resistant materials. They are also often made of materials that are lighter and cooler than burlap, making them more comfortable, if less traditional, than the type of ghillie suit you would make yourself.

Tyler is a manager at Ghillie-Suit.net. The company features a wide selection of ghillie suits and ghillie kits for hunting, paintball, and the military.

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Lower Back Injuries in Golf

I always like to say it is much easier to prevent an injury from occurring than rehabilitating from one. The next few articles will discuss common injuries from the golf swing and how a golf fitness program can assist in the prevention of such injuries. Probably one of the most common injuries, and one as amateurs we are well aware of is to the lower back. Research indicates that one out two recreational golfers will incur a lower back injury at some point during their playing career.

Why is the lower back so often injured during the game of golf? Research studies have provided us some keys as to why this is the case. The golf swing is typically broken down into phases (address, backswing, downswing, follow through), and the sum of these phases is the full swing.

Each phase of the swing can be performed either efficiently or inefficiently. A professional is more likely to perform each phase of the golf swing more efficiently than that of the amateur. As a result the professionals swing has more efficient mechanics from start to finish, requiring lesser amounts of activity from the muscles to execute.

An amateur or less skilled golfer is more likely to have less efficient mechanics. To compensate for these improper mechanics the golfer will attempt to generate extra force from specific muscles than the amateur. Causing these muscles to work much harder to execute the golf swing.

Research from Hosea indicated in certain situations amateurs may develop up to 80% more peak torque in their lumbar spine (i.e. lower back) than a professional, muscles required to generate greater amounts of force are at a much higher risk of overuse injury.

Additionally, Hosea found professional golfers generate 34% more clubhead speed than the amateur, yet amateurs were producing spinal forces 50 to 80% higher, and 50% more trunk muscle activity than the professional.

All of this research points to the first reason as to why the lower back is commonly injured in the amateur golfer. Inefficient golf swing mechanics cause the muscles of the lower back to work harder to generate torque in the swing. Over time these muscles will become fatigued from the trauma caused by inefficient mechanics. Increasing dramatically the possibility of an overuse injury to the lower back.

How can the amateur take the first step in the prevention of a lower back injury? First and foremost is the development of more efficient swing mechanics. This can only be done through proper instruction and practice. If you are finding yourself in the category of a candidate for a lower back injury, my first suggestions is begin developing a more efficient golf swing.

Sean Cochran

Sean Cochran is one of the most recognized golf fitness instructors in the world today. He travels the PGA Tour regularly working with professional golfers, most notable PGA and Masters Champion Phil Mickelson. To learn more about Sean Cochran and his golf fitness exercises and training programs go to http://www.seancochran.com

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