A typical lesson with Golfer-29

Since I was mentioned as a Coach who dares to be different (See article here), I thought I would write about a typical lesson/coaching session in my studio. This is an example of a lesson with a person who has played golf many years and still maintains a handicap of 29. "Golfer-29" is approximately 58 yrs old, has worked at the same company for 22 years and plays on Wednesdays with the guys. He gets in some 9-hole rounds with his wife, but doesn't really practice at all. He travels a lot with his job and one can see the affects of beer consumption around his waist. His idea of working out is taking a 25 minute walk 2-3 times per week.

Steven "Welcome to my studio. What can I do for you?"

Golfer-29 "My swing is all messed up. I am slicing the ball."

Steven "What type of shot do you normally play? and How long have you been slicing it?"

Golfer-29 "I usually hit it straight. I have been slicing it this entire season (2 months) and thought I could fix it myself. This is why I am here."

Steven "Do you slice it with ALL of your clubs or just your driver?"

Golfer-29 "I slice it most with my driver. My buddies tell me to finish my swing, so I try and swing MORE LEFT, which only makes the ball slice more."

Steven "Ok, I see. How often do you practice?"

Golfer-29 "I don't have time to practice. When I do have time, I want to play. I might, though, hit a bucket of balls before going out to play."

Steven "Do you have any injuries or limitations that I should know about?"

Golfer-29 "Nope. Perfectly healthy."

SIDE NOTE: When I do a quick TPI screen later, it is revealed that my student can not disassociate his upper and lower body. Very important to know when creating an improvement program.

Steven "Ok, we are going to hit some shots (from a perfect lie and toward the same target on the range) with a variety of clubs: SW, 9i, 7i, 5i, 3-wood, Driver. With each shot, I want you to talk through your routine with me. Where is the ball placed? Where is your balance? Tempo- Is it slow, medium or fast? How you align yourself."

Golfer-29 "What? You want me to what?"

Steven "Tell me what you are doing on every shot."

Golfer-29 "Hmmm? Ok. Let's see........"

As he started hitting shots, it was clear that this golfer NEVER paid attention to what he was doing within his own space (body, ball, alignment). Once we started talking through where he might have his ball position and balance, we progressed on to his tempo. He felt that his tempo was 100% but after examining shots at MAX speed, we realized that he likes to swing the club at about 70% tempo. Within the past few months, he was swinging the club WAY too fast and thus his lack of ability to disassociate his upper from lower body showed up. This made the club swing too steeply down to the ball. TEMPO was the culprit to faulty swing mechanics in this situation. However, I stressed that this person should start thinking about a routine to keep his body, ball, alignment consistent with every shot. Once we got the tempo down to a manageable level, he could start hitting the shots that felt familiar. It was up to him to pay attention to his routine / tempo and thus he could always play close to his potential (and handicap).

This is an example of this player using his mental energy to do what he already knew how to do. I didn't really do anything to change his swing. This session was a matter of "bringing out" shots he already knew how to play, thus making his shots and hopefully the game more predictable.

Thanks for reading!
Steven

It's the end of the season, now what?

As I am writing this, I am watching the greenskeeper preparing for the winter months ahead. The golfers have stopped playing and there is less and less light during the day. So that begs the question, "What do you do at the end of the season?" Now is the time to take an honest look at the state of your game and decide how/what you want to do to improve it. Hopefully, if you have read my blog posts in the past, you will know that I am a fan of recording stats throughout the year. Let's look at my stats from Shot by Shot:

My handicap is 1 and is always being compared to handicap range +1-+3 of players who enter their information into Shot by Shot. You can see from the picture (above) that my best shots are bunker shots, which I find interesting because I love bunker shots and teaching bunker shots. No surprise there. My Tee to Green game and Short Game is closely compared to a 5hcp. Both of these areas need further investigation. Let's take a closer look at these stats. Below you can see that the solid green line is the # of greens that I hit and the solid pink line is the distance (in feet) from the hole after hitting the GIR. My average GIR is 8.9 which is about 3 greens away from my goal. I am happy with the average distance from each hole and I am aware that with more GIR, the average distance will likely go up. So if I have approximately 9 GIR that are average of 17 feet from the hole, why am I so much over par? Let's take a closer look at my putting below.

Improvement area #1 is Putting. During 2011, my putting closely resembles that of a 12-handicap player. There could be lots of reasons why, not the least of which is lack of practice time, but let's look a little closer at my putting stats: A couple of areas *POP* out at me. First, I need to improve the quality of my three-footers. 79% doesn't cut it. That number needs to be around 95%. To improve I will focus on (1) Square face to the hole (2) Square path of the putter head (3) Proper speed to reduce lip outs. Second, I NEVER make anything 16-20 feet. This is alarming since my average distance to the hole is 17 feet. To improve I will focus on (1) Knowing my speed (2) Starting the ball on the proper line. Third, I have 3-putted 100% of the time from 30-40 feet and 51-99 feet. Improvements here are speed control.

So, I am at the end of the season and see that my putting needs desperate attention during 2012. I need to improve my putting technique during the winter. I need to take this information to my coach and create a plan that I can do just a couple of minutes each day! If you are curious about how you can improve, feel free to contact me! Thanks for reading.

Regards,
Steven

Hit your Vokey Wedge different distances

A couple of important keys to hitting any great wedge shot is:
(a) Solid contact with the ground. Make sure you know where the bottom of the swing is.
(b) Good Tempo.

When learning how to hit your wedge different distances, always start with a baseline swing. In the following video, my baseline swing is a 9 O'Clock - 3 O'Clock swing. Become an expert at this swing and this distance. Know the distances for all your wedges with this swing. You can easily adjust up or down with the length of your arm swing if you need a shorter or longer distance. Check out the video below and good luck!

Steven

Custom fit clubs do lead to more learning

I had a student yesterday who was having difficulty hitting the club face of his new irons. Since he is 6'4," we extended his irons to closely match his posture and promote a better posture through impact. Because his old irons (standard length) forced him to get shorter through impact to find the face (think "Keegan Bradley set up" and then lunging forward about 5 inches at impact), he hit "heel-side" portion of the face with the new irons, sometimes even missing the ball. I actually saw a shot go backwards between his legs. Impressive!

If you find yourself in a similar situation where you just can not find the face, slow down and find a couple of fundamentals:

(1) With him, he had to learn what it felt like to stay "Tall" through the swing. This meant lots of rehearsal swings at 10% speed. He had to find impact and learn (a) where is the balance (b) where is the face (c) where is the bottom of the swing...where I would strike the ground.

(2) We started to put these swings into motion, but at a 10% tempo and no more than a half swing.

(3) Rather than jumping for a new ball when he hit one poorly, he had to take at least 10-15 seconds to understand what went wrong. NOTE: This is probably the difference between regular players and great players. The idea of slowing down between shots to figure things out. Flip the notion that (a) a mistake is bad into (b) a mistake that reveals opportunities for development...but only if one PAYS ATTENTION TO MISTAKES.

(4) When he felt that he could put the swing together, his full swing thought is now "50% Tempo." I like speed, but I only want my students to swing fast until they (a) lose stability of their body, (b) control of the bottom of the swing or (c) awareness in general about what they are doing.

After simply extending the length of the irons, my student has a new perpective about how to practice.

Leave a comment if you like what you have read! Thanks for reading!

Regards,

Steven