Golfers,

I am snowed in with 30 inches and not much to do. I’m still working hard on my neck rehab, so this will take me longer than I would like, but I have some fun ideas to share for your 2010 golf plan.

First off, let me thank an ex-student. I met him last fall and worked with him for about 6 months. He was an accomplished amateur who had a really bad back injury. He hits 15 greens a round and has a swing that most of you would love to have, but the engine didn’t match the paint and he is working his way back into it. Anyway, he didn’t share with me initially, but he was a secret shopper -I mean another blogger. Last week he thanked me on his website and it means a lot so I wanted to share. If you want to read what he said, here you go. Golf’s Not Hard

On to the fun stuff and the reason for the title of the article. By the way, I realize that our blog has become more of a weekly newsletter type service, but stay with us, my neck is getting better and my time at the computer is improving. 2010 will be a good year for the GFG’s.

During my last trip to California I read a jewel of a book, “What Happy People Know” by Dan Baker. It was given to me by Bobby Foster, a sports psychologist that I have a lot of respect for, and knew it would be a good read. It is a book about the science of fear, how the brain is hardwired to be afraid, and most importantly what you can do about it. Dr. Baker brings up an interesting point on the underlying assumption of the current health care system and it got my wheels turning.

Think about this, the current health care model is built on the assumption that if you remove disease, then what you will have left is health. Similarly, the current psychology model is built on the assumption that if you remove negative thoughts, positive thoughts will remain. But, is the absence of disease, mental or physical, optimal health? The alternative medicine model is built on the assumption that if you chase optimal health, the disease will not have an environment to survive and the new science of happy psychology is built on the premise that if you focus on happy thoughts then the unhappy depressing thoughts won’t have a chance to exist either. I’m not here to tell you that I believe in the more holistic alternative approach to focusing on optimizing health, but I am going to challenge you to look at your golf swing in a different way.

The current model of golf instruction is built on the assumption that if you remove the swing faults then you will have a good swing. The first thing a golf instructor does when they look at a swing is video tape to look at swing plane. But here’s an interesting thought for you, if you look on video and see a player that doesn’t sway, doesn’t early extend, doesn’t come over the top, doesn’t reverse spine angle or pivot, doesn’t scoop or chicken wing and swings on plane then do you really have a good swing?

Here’s the problem, I have worked with at number of golfers who demonstrate the above and yet complain that their swings don’t hit the ball where they want or as far as they want. So what would the alternative or positive psychology model of the golf swing be?

3D Analysis is the new paradigm! It allows you to look at your efficiency, which is your swing’s health or “happiness.” If your swing is not efficient, then you can see where the inefficiencies exist. These inefficiencies allow a skilled instructor to see where potential injuries could develop – it’s like knowing if a person has a history of heart disease. Swing efficiency is just as important as swing plane. I know this is hard to hear Mr. Hogan, but it’s true and I hope you can eventually accept it. Swing plane is important, but I would trade a slightly imperfect swing plane for a happy swing.

But here is the more exciting thing. If you chase an efficient swing, generally your swing plane will improve and your swing faults will go away. Most of them, but maybe not all. While the converse, if you chase a perfect swing plane, in no way guarantees an improvement in efficiency. An efficient swing comes from swinging in proper sequence (lower body, core, upper body, arms/hands,) with the dominant force being rotational. If your goal is proper sequencing and efficiency then you will build a swing that holds up under pressure and provides you with as much success as your short game will allow. If you end up with a few swing faults at the end, so what? You’ll probably be a successful single digit golfer and we can worry about fine tuning then.

But the big picture here is are you running away from disease or are you pursuing optimal health? Are you running away from sadness or pursuing happiness? And are you fighting away swing faults or working towards an efficient swing?

Enjoy the blizzard D.C. – mull this over while shoveling.