No manual this year?! Oh well, it can’t be all perfect
Tyler again with a look into the wonders of the world of golf training. Last week I attended the World Golf Fitness Summit, hosted by the Titleist Performance Institute. This was their third summit, and the best by far. The speakers this year really came to play and did a great job of refining old topics and presenting some new controversial ones. I’ll get into the topic reviews shortly, but first let me say that the one disappointment was the lack of of a slide book to write notes on. This year, instead of a bound book with all the slides, they gave us a thumb drive will all of the presentations on them. For some this is probably preferred, but for someone like myself who takes a lot of physical notes, this was a mild frustration.
Every game needs it’s rules – even Calvinball had rules
The overall theme of this years summit was reinforcing the concept of the team. The main stage speakers stuck to this topic and presented in a couple different formats.
- The big key speeches – on topics that should be interesting to everyone in attendance
- Team presentation – each of who explained how they worked with their players
- Panel speeches – 5 leaders in a field sat on stage and gave their thoughts concerning the audiences questions
Then, after a lunch break, there were multiple speeches going on at the same time with specific topics dealing with what’s going on in the world of golf, fitness, medical, and junior topics.
The speakers have spoken
Here is a review of some of my favorite speeches and what I got out of them.
Mark Verstegen
Before you worry about the specifics of the golf performance you need to establish a foundation. His fundamentals include the proper mindset, nutrition, movement, and recovery.
Key points and commentary
- “we are in the field of behavioral change” – we forget that our goal is not to convey the most perfect information or to sound smart but to actually change the behavior of a person. This can include lifestyle, nutritional, how they think, or how they move.
- “40% of the 46 muscles in the hip cuff are internal and external rotators” – I round up on this kinda thing. Roughly half of the hip muscles aid in rotation of the hips. Are half of your lower body exercises rotary, or do they only include squats, deadlifts, and lunges (not including multidirectional lunges).
- “spinning a ball analogy” – to spin a basketball you can hit either side. If you wanted maximum speed and had an extra hand, you would hit both sides. To spin your hips (or thoracic spine really) you can either pull with the left half or push with the right half, but ideally, you would do both. Good reminder that rotation is a two sided movement. The flexing of one side coupled with the extension of the other generates rotation. If you can figure out which side of the rotation is the real problem, then you will have more success than just trying to fix “rotation”
- “getting within 3-5% of a movement patter will affect it” – he was defending the chop as a movement that will not disrupt a golf swing movement patter. I completely agree for a good golfer, but am unconvinced that a novice has a defined pattern small enough where this wouldn’t overlap. However, it is interesting to think about.
Sean Foley and his team – How you like d’em apples?
I don’t know if it has been said somewhere else, but close your eyes and listen to Sean talk and you will swear that you just woke up as an extra in one of my favorite movies, Good Will Hunting. His team Neale Smith (mental) and Craig Davies (Fitness) gave a few jewels during their presentation. They spent about 20 minutes longer than was needed on their background stories, I think their intro could have been, “hi, we’re Tiger Woods team,” but once they got into how they work with Sean O’Hair and D.J. Trahan there was some really good stuff. My favorites were:
- Sean Foley – “explain why your swing works, not just point out the mistakes” – This was an interesting concept. How often do you see a golf lesson focus on what a player does well and why it produces the results that it does? But as far as committing to a shot, understanding why your swing works well is more important than understanding what is wrong with it.
- Neale Smith – Reaction to good shot should be stronger than reaction to bad shots. He gave the example of giving a big old Tiger fist pump and screaming YESS! after a good shot, and saying nothing, just putting the club back in the bag after a bad shot. This sounds like a good in-season project for anyone trying to score better.
- Sean Foley – In response to a question from Chuck Cook about a youtube video where he was advocating a single pivot movement similar to stack and tilt, Sean responded to the effect of – that video was taken like 4 years ago and it was something I was really into then. It was refreshing to hear a teaching pro talk about the constant shift in information and how we should not take any single instruction topic or tip too seriously. Or take any one tip out of context as the be-all of an instructors teaching philosophy.
Richard Schmidt - he spins my head right round, right round
I have to admit that when I saw his name on the speaker schedule I got excited like a teenage girl getting to hold the tickets to her first Jonas Brother concert. For those of you who don’t recognize the name, Richard Schmidt is the godfather of motor learning. He wrote the two definitive textbooks on the subjects of Motor Control and Learning and Motor Learning and Performance. When you teach movement, you better know motor learning. His talk was more intense than most of the golf room was probably prepared for, if you’ve ever heard a master researcher talk about his subject then you know what I mean, but there were some key lesson’s that will guide my own researching for a good bit.
- Motor Programming vs Muscle Memory – his first study presented demonstrated that there is no such thing as muscle memory but rather that movement is controlled by motor programs. The study involved a pipe that slid on a track. The subjects used a tricep extension to move the pipe on the track until a certain point where they would stop it. Electrodes mapped the muscle activation in the tricep and bicep. They had two groups – one who slid the pipe and stopped it, and one who started to slide the pipe but didn’t stop it because it was electronically brought to a halt soon after they started it. So the key question was, was the bicep acting as a reflex to the lengthening or was it reacting to a program. Both groups generated the same pattern of activity indicating that it was not the reflex of the muscle and the joint, but rather, the program from the brain. The implication of this for us is pretty strong – the brain controls everything, so if you are not affecting the movement pattern as a whole, you are not helping the program.
- Blocked vs Random – This was the main event on Schmidts fight card. There is a lot of talk these days on the benefits and difference between blocked practice vs random practice. The research is pretty clear, and this topic will require a blog or two following my WGFS summaries. The conclusion from 4 decades of studies show that UNLESS you are a rank beginner, random practice has a stronger carry over on retention tests. Since golf is what we care about, here’s one study that supported it.
- putting and pitch shots practiced
– Day 1 – pretest
– Day 2 – practice (80 putts; 80 pitches)
– Day 3 – retention test
• Subjects assigned to one of three practice groups on Day 2
– Blocked: 80 putts, 80 pitches (or opposite order)
– Alternating blocks: 10 putts, 10 pitches (repeated 8x)
– Alternating shots: 1 putt, 1 pitch (repeated 80x)
• analyzed shot outcomes and movement patterns – and in both performance and quality of movement, the group that alternated each shot did far better, followed by the group that did the alternating blocks, and the worst group was the 80/80 strict block practice group. - A second interesting study involved 10 practice sessions and a pre-test question. This concept is the key for golf instructors going forward.
- Random – predicted that they would do about average, actual results were slightly better but pretty close to the prediction
- Blocked – predicted that they would do very very well, actual results were that they did drastically worse
- Think about it. If you just gave a lesson, you would want the golfer to think they are going to do well. Blocked practice builds that false confidence. If you actually wanted them to do well, you would do almost entirely random. However, they would leave the lesson not feeling as good about what they “learned” as if they had done blocked. This is, in my mind, the biggest single barrier to getting the average handicap to actually drop.
- putting and pitch shots practiced
- Random with a model - Another group of studies showed that if the person has a model to mimic when they are doing the random practice, then it wipes out the benefits. However, they will predict that they will do better than even the blocked groups. This provides a problem for us because according to Schmidt most training aids fall into this category included the one close to my heart – biofeedback training. When he said that, my eyes bugged out and I didn’t breath for a second or too. But as he moved on to the next slide, instead of jumping out of my seat, I began to think about it. My take on it is, that if we are referring to practice not learning, this makes sense. If you have no idea what the correct movement is, then use an aid to get the movement but then once you do it once or twice correctly (the movement, not hitting the ball) then you need to step back and start random practice. Think of it this way, once you know how to write a letter a, don’t do a page of writing it 100 times, start writing words with the letter a in it. Biofeedback training will take you out of the moment and ruin your ability to practice the process. So yea, even though I love it, I have to say, use it judiciously.
Gray Cook – Mr movement himself
Gray cook is one of the greatest lectures in the world of health and fitness. If there was a hall of fame, he would surely be a first ballot inductee. His most recent textbook, “Movement” is paving it’s way through the golf medical specialists. It is an outstanding overview of the world of screening and assessing and how to utilize each tool correctly. It is informative, well written, and highly practical for anyone but it’s especially usefull for those of us who have studied his FMS and SFMA systems. This WGFS talk was focused on dynamic stability training. I don’t have a lot of notes from this one, so instead of interesting comments, I’ll give you more of a summary from the slide.
- Stability training is typically done to prevent injuries, but statistics don’t show any correlation between lack of stability and the risk of an injury. The biomarkers that do predict injury are:
- Previous Injury
- Asymmetry
- Motor Control
- BMI
- Stupidity
Gray went on to show studies supporting examples of each as a biomarker for an injury but followed it up with a study that he has been conducting using the FMS as a possible predictor. For those of you who don’t know the FMS it is a movement based screen that allows you to objectively rank the quality of a person’s movement. It involves specific versions of a squat, a lunge, a push up, some core stability tests, etc. One interesting thing they found was that when you fix the person’s worst movement pattern, they showed the biggest improvement in the two core stability tests. This helps support his argument that stability is more about the timing of muscles in movement, not the ability to hold a plank for 20 minutes. He is saying that if you clean up your squat pattern, your core stability will increase, and the likelihood of an injury will decrease.
Bottom line, stability is really about timing, not about strength, so train the movements to be clean and you will have stability. Train the stabilizers to be strong and it won’t necessarily give you better movement.
On second thought, maybe one at a time is best
So I was going to summarize all 3 days in one article, but that damn Richard Schmidt took up half the blog. So I will spare you and call this the firs in a 3 part series. Stay tuned for my reaction to the second and third day coming soon!
…oh, but don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten the promised article on error detection and transference. It’s coming after this series. And a closing thought, I think the next wave in golf instruction will revolve around how to practice instead of how to swing. It may be a little wave compared to such things as one-plane or stack-and-tilt, but I have my board ready for when it comes.
Filed under Uncategorized by on Nov 16th, 2010. 1 Comment. 
Greetings golf fitness boys and golf fitness girls. Tyler here with a tip from my recent trip to the Titleist Performance Institute (TPI).
I was watching Greg and Lance help one of their players with their putting. This player thought that most of his putting troubles were a result of poor green reading. However, after some simple testing, TPI determined that it was not green reading. Then this player thought it must be his stroke. After some simple testing, TPI determined that it was a bit of his stroke, but it was more about how he practiced. This is nothing new for me. TPI is on the forefront on the research in motor learning and so I know how they stress the importance of transference to the golf course. Transference is how well does the change in practice show up on the course. Here is what they changed in his practice routine.
This golfer had previously hit hundreds of balls using a plane board (like a putting arc type training device). This type of tool has shown to have MINIMAL transference. Let me restate that. These things do NOT help change your stroke on the golf course. So now, this player gets to have the putting device over on the side of the green to hit a few putts with if he needs the feel, but then he needs to go quickly back to his putting drills. Every putt after his 10 ball warm up MUST be hit with his preshot routine. In fact, the putt begins with taking the putter out of the bag. This was the key moment that dawned on me.
When I played basketball, and we would practice free-throw shooting, I noticed that lots of players would toss the ball up with some back spin so that they could start their free-throw routine from the catch. Well folks, the epiphany that I had was that the golf stroke starts at the bag. Yes, using this method, you may only be able to hit 30 putts in an hour on the putting green. But this practice is vastly superior in how it helps transfer over to the course. The same thing can be applied to the range. Hit a shot, put the club back in the bag. Pick a new target and new shot shape, then take the club out of the bag, go through your pre-shot routine, hit the shot, and repeat. This is what it takes to do random practicing, which after you have a basic understanding of the mechanics should comprise 70% of your practice time at minimum. Give it a try, and see if you don’t feel more comfortable on the course.
Next week, Dee and I are headed to the World Golf Fitness Summit. Stay tuned for some more tips from the leaders in the world, or golf, fitness, and health.
Filed under Uncategorized by on Nov 7th, 2010. Comment.
Tyler here with a thought inspired by a local pro here in Scottsdale.
The golf season is just beginning here in Arizona and with it, I am doing more and more 3D evaluations these days. I had a great experience last week that I wanted to share.
I was at a local club showing off the powers of the motion capture system that I use to a local head teaching professional and his first assistant. When I was working on the assistant pro, I discussed his swing with the head professional and learned that they were working on preventing his head from dropping in the downswing. While I don’t agree with the description, the head should not stay the same height during the swing for a variety of reasons, I do agree that it should not drop in excess (whatever that vague term means). So I captured a few swings and took a second to do a quick analysis. He had a bit of an excess hip trigger at transition and a pelvis that didn’t stabilize it’s lateral motion through the ball. Uh oh, spaghetti-o’s. So I gave him a couple things to contemplate about his swing and explained that we needed to get his abs more turned on during the transition. We tried a couple methods and settled on one that seemed to be making the biggest change. In 5 swings his hip trigger was back to a acceptable degree and the lower body was starting to stabilize through impact. This quick physical change with the aid of the 3D was nothing new or exciting, at least for me, but the head professional watching was amazed.
He said, “this [meaning the 3D] is going to revolutionize golf instruction as we know it!”. It still gives me chills to think about. However, he went on to explain his thoughts and maybe that will help you understand his excitement – I’ll paraphrase his explanation:
Golf professionals learn to interpret the ball flight first, then look at the divot for more information and then if they have time (or video) to look at the swing plane and big body movements. Many very good teaching professionals still work primarily off of ball flight. With the 3D, ball flight is the last thing that we care about. 3D helps us see how the body is moving and with that information, we can see if your body is running smoothly. With the assistant pro, I was able to see quickly that his abs were not engaged during a critical tenth of a second. This is something the teaching pro would have never focused on in a million years.
My advice is simple. If you have been struggling with a swing fault for some time and have not looked into the body, do so very soon. It could ultimately save you a lot of time and frustration. Good luck.
Filed under Uncategorized by on Oct 5th, 2010. 3 Comments.
Tyler here with a take on the mental game that might surprise you.
“Golf is a game that is played on a five-inch course – the distance between your ears.” – Bobby Jones
If you stick around golf long enough you will hear many different versions of the same conclusion that Bobby Jones made – that golf is mostly a mental game. I do not disagree that golf has a strong mental component, but I do think that a majority of issues labeled as a poor mental game are really a consequence of some other factor.
So let’s take a little different perspective on the mental game and see what filters out. Let’s play the scenario game.
Scenario number one -
Golfer A arrives to the course and goes through a warm up and then heads off to the range. He’s hitting the ball great on the range with one right after another fly at the practice greens on the range. But then, he gets on the course and while he hits his first three drives in the fairway, he somehow manages to hit his first three iron shots fat. His inner commentary goes something like this, “I was striping my irons on the range, but out here I’m such a head case!” His friends agree, but was he right?
Scenario number two -
Golfer B is a range wizard. He can hit any shot he wants with his full swing but has some troubles with the short game. His biggest problems are with chipping and putting. When he is practicing his chipping he thinks he does pretty well, but when he gets on the course he gets nervous and hits a lot of chip shots fat. Is this guy mental?
Scenario number three -
Golfer C is in a bit of a slump. He’s a bit over weight and his doctor has asked him to start working out and eating better. So, he hired a trainer and a nutritionist and feels like he is doing great. After a few months of working out and eating low fat he has lost 20 pounds. He has more energy, he feels great, but he has noticed that his game is suffering a bit. Recently he has been erratic and has had a hard time focusing. He is mishitting more than usual and he’s also been missing a bunch of putts but doesn’t know why. He had been playing great up until recently and is actually thinking about putting the weight back on to get his scores back down. Is he going through a natural cycle of his game or is he just becoming a head case with his putting problems?
Are these all mental?
Granted, these scenarios are made up, but the represent some common themes that I have seen with my students. There is a comfort in claiming that something is mental and fixing it is “out of our control.” But for me to believe that something is mental, you must be able to do it well about 75% of the time in practice and then succeed less than 25% of the time with the same thing on the course. The areas that I see most confused with “mental” are the aspects that relate to:
- How a golfer practices
- How a golfer eats
- How a golfer exercises
Let’s go back and put a new spin on these scenarios.
Scenario number one -
Golfer A arrives to the course and goes through a warm up. He’s hitting the ball great on the range. One right after another fly at the practice greens on the range. He gets on the course and hits his first three drives in the fairway, but hits his first three iron shots fat. His inner commentary goes something like this, “I was striping my irons on the range, but out here I’m such a head case!” Confirmed by his friends, but was he right?
So let’s go through the possible pitfalls going on here. The warm up could be something he just picked up from gym class (like stretching the hamstrings triceps and shoulders) and didn’t warm up his core rotators. So as a result he was tighter on the range and stayed more on top of the ball then when he loosened up on the course. More likely, he was probably hitting off of mats in the warm up. On mats or out of thick ruff (watch out for this if you practice in a field) you can get away with coming in too steep and flipping your hands as your method of release. So Golfer A gets two strikes for how he practices. Sorry guys, he doesn’t know how to practice, so his mistakes on the course are not mental in my book.
Scenario number two -
Golfer B is a range wizard. He can hit any shot he wants with his full swing but has some troubles with the short game. His biggest problems are with chipping and putting. When he is practicing his chipping he thinks he does pretty well, but when he gets on the course he gets nervous and hits a lot of chip shots fat. Is this guy mental?
We see this all the time. A guy who can hit the ball more accurately from 150 yards than he can from 20. The skills required for hitting the ball well are very different from those that make a short game wizard. I think this guy may be a technical issue. How are you practicing? If you are struggling with your chipping, or with your driving, or putting, or iron play you need to practice until you can hit it solidly. If you never do it in practice then you won’t do it on the course. But here’s the real trick, you need to practice until you can do it solidly the FIRST time. If you go to practice your chipping and you hit the first one fat most of the time, then what you are doing is not working. I don’t care if you find a groove before you leave where you are hitting it solidly on most shots. If when you return you still hit the first one fat, then your practice didn’t help you. Using my 75% gauge your first shot or a shot where you have at least 5 minutes in between shots, should be hit solidly 3 our of 4 tries. If you don’t have this on the range then it is not mental on the course.
Scenario number three -
Golfer C is in a bit of a slump. He’s a bit over weight and his doctor has asked him to start working out and eating better. So, he hired a trainer and a nutritionist and feels like he is doing great. After a few months of working out and eating low fat he has lost 20 pounds. He has more energy, he feels great, but he has noticed that his game is suffering a bit. Recently he has been erratic and has had a hard time focusing. He is mishitting more than usual and he’s also been missing a bunch of putts but doesn’t know why. He had been playing great up until recently and is actually thinking about putting the weight back on to get his scores back down. Is he going through a natural cycle of his game or is he just becoming a head case with his putting problems?
Let’s get the easy one out of the way first. Anytime I hear, “hard time focusing”, “made some poor decisions” I am thinking nutrition and more specifically hydration and blood sugar control. The very first sign of dehydration, before feeling thirsty, is poor decision making. Common signs of low blood sugar levels include anxiety, nervousness, confusion. So this gentleman’s eating low fat foods usually means eating more sugary foods which could contribute to the trouble focusing on the course. But the troubles with his game probably relate just as much to the new exercise as they do to the diet – especially if the exercises are primarily driven toward weight loss. The weight loss exercises can hurt golf if you are not careful. The leg press and other leg machines can tighten up the hip rotators, while the bench press and lat pull down can tighten up shoulder rotation. And not one of those exercises mentioned works the core in an integrated fashion.. Golf fitness is relatively simple. We want flexible hips, flexible shoulders, flexible spines and we want a strong core and back. This golfer who lost 20 pounds and probably stiffened up is not losing his mind – he lost his body.
I want to be clear. This post is not meant to diminish the importance of the mental game – it is meant to clarify it. It is supremely important to get in a zone if you want to achieve maximum performance, but you can hit a perfectly crappy shot while deeply immersed in the zone. And to tag a golfer as mental can be damaging, especially if this masks a potentially easily fixed problem like nutrition, practice habits, fitness, or even technique. Golfers are highly suspicious and easily influenced, and you as a GFG are better than that.
Filed under Uncategorized by on Sep 21st, 2010. 2 Comments.
Tyler here with a little break from my norm. I love a good movie, and this scene from Forgetting Sarah Marshall plays in my head anytime I hear a certain phrase during a PGA Tour Player’s interview. Refresh yourself with the clip first.
How many times have you heard a tour pro say that they swing at about 80%? Well, the PGA Tour average club head speed is around 112 MPH. That means if a player were to swing all out, by basic math (112/.8) They would have a club head speed around 140 MPH, which is a typical output for a member of the long drive circuit. So either one of two things is going on. Either the average player doesn’t know how hard he is swinging compared to what he is capable of. Or Brad Faxon has been really holding back all these years. To think, he could have been driving par fours all along!
I understand that golf is a complicated sport, but we are at a place with technology where we can put an end to some of these confusing and misleading mantras, and hopefully avoid falling down the nutrition path. To a novice, the golf swing is as confusing as deciding what is healthy to eat and what is not. Can I eat bacon? Whole grains are healthy still right? Are eggs healthy these days or not? Think about it, we have the same thing in golf. I should swing easy? I should keep my left arm straight? It’s all in the hips right? Don’t tell me chubs was lying, I don’t think I could take that one.
Nutrition goes through fad diet cycles just as golf goes through fad swing cycles and to the average consumer this creates a defeatist attitude. The more complicated a topic is, the more opinions you will find on it. I haven’t seen a new style of shooting free throws since the great debate between the purist and Rick Barry.
Usually, at the heart of complication is the quality of the data and the size of the sample. Nutrition problems started by looking at small populations and making the claim that the success that population had will work for everyone. Everyone should eat low fat because a small tribe in South America did so with success. Golf was the same way. Everyone should swing to parallel because Ben Hogan did. Well, with nutrition, systems of evaluating the person first and then determining the appropriate diet have successfully evolved. This evolution came from better data collection and identifying underlying critical factors, such as blood sugar, antioxidant levels, or calorie density. These systems are now being used with great success to create healthy plans while still accounting for biochemical individuality.
Golf currently has 3D technology which can do the same thing which can debunk a lot of these myths. Golfers are now going through screens before lessons to see what their body can physically do. Then golf swings are being adjusted for these physical parameters. The more we use accurate data to get our answers, the better our instruction is going to get. I’m excited for the next coming years in golf and nutrition. I’m excited to be able to swing hard…and eat bacon.
Filed under Uncategorized by on Aug 31st, 2010. 1 Comment.
Tyler here…
I guess putting blogging back in my forefront worked because I started seeing good topics everywhere I look again. Anyway, This morning, I was watching Sports Center on ESPN and they were interviewing Chip Kelly, the head football coach for University of Oregon. He was talking about a fun activity that the team does each Friday night to help get them pumped up for a game. He takes a popular movie and dubs over the famous lines with the message of the week. The thing that impressed me was the reason that they do this. It’s not to lighten the mood. It’s not to keep a bunch of 21-year-olds entertained. He does this because he said the majority of his players are visual learners. Do you know what style of learner you are? Does your instructor or trainer? I’m guessing no to all of these questions, but it may be one of the limiting factors in your improvement.
Somewhere during childhood we each hardwire our brains into a certain pattern of learning. The three common distinctions of learning are Visual, Auditory, or Kinestetic. In golf, or sport, these would be Visual, Rhythm, or Feel. The different learning styles really dictate how a person should approach practice and how they should build a preshot routine. If you cross languages, or wires, you will be confused.
Here’s a familiar example for a visual learner. Let’s say a visual learner goes to the golf course with a tip from a recent golf magazine fresh in his mind. The article talked about dropping the arms to bring the club from the inside in order to stop his slice. Sounds good right? Not for Mr. Picture. The only way that he will benefit from it is if he were to try and drop his arms but focus on what it looked like. Otherwise, this will create a fuzzy picture and for a Visual person to perform well is simple. The clearer the image for a Visual learner, then the better the result. Visual learners do well with shafts in the ground for practice so that they can SEE where the club is supposed to travel or other drills that help create a clearer image. Drills that focus on FEEL can confuse a visual learner and make the player worse.
From my experience, very few golf professionals are really aware of the different learning styles and even fewer incorporate them into their lessons. They ask every player, “How does that feel.” They stick shafts in the ground for anybody doing a path drill. Or they talk about how important rhythm and balance are regardless of who they are talking to. Let me give you an example that comes to mind when I think of how golf instructors look at students. A friend and golf pro had just finished giving a lesson when I was walking up to join him for a late nine. I could tell by the expression on his face that he thought it went well. But I asked how it went anyway.
He said, “That was one of the best lessons I have ever given.”
I said, “So if I asked your student, he would know exactly what he is supposed to work on and why?”
He looked puzzled and said, “well no, he probably couldn’t explain it to you.”
I responded, “That’s fine, could he show me?”
“well…maybe” He said as his tone changed towards frustration with me and my constant questioning.
Now I was puzzled. I asked him, “What made the golf lesson one of the best you have ever given?”
He said, “Easy, I explained what he needed to work on as clearly as I ever have and I did a great job of showing it on the video.”
“oh….good, let’s go play.” During the round, I explained my line of questioning.
An important lesson in communication is that “the meaning of a word in a given conversation is the interpretation of the listener.” I might say the most correct explanation imaginable, but if it not interpreted by the listener then it’s my fault. Usually, if the listener doesn’t get it, then I’m not speaking the same learning language that they are looking for. That might have been the case here. All those pretty words might have been lost on a feel or visual player.
My lesson to you is to know your own personal learning style. Until this concept is more mainstream if you don’t know your own personal learning style then you are just rolling the dice with your golf pro. Well, unless of course you get one of those rare special coaches like Chip Kelly of University of Oregon. I’m routing for the Ducks this year.
Filed under Uncategorized by on Aug 27th, 2010. Comment.
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.
Filed under Uncategorized by on Feb 6th, 2010. Comment.
Tyler here, taking a break from my studies during a C.H.E.K. training course to give you an update. I was reading a book on the plane ride over here that had an interesting section on changing and the different logical levels that one is capable of changing. Let’s see where most golfers fit into this paradigm.
There is a hierarchy of logical levels that a person can change. Think of it like a pyramid:
At the top – Purpose
Level 1 – Identity
Level 2 – Beliefs and Values
Level 3 – Capabilities and Skills
Level 4 – Behaviour
Level 5 – Environment
The higher up on the pyramid you go, the harder it is to change that logical level. This makes sense. It is much harder to change your purpose than it is to change locations or atmosphere. The example is a company. It is easier to change the color of the walls than it is to change what the company stands for. But if you change what the company stands for, you will probably change the color on the walls.
You must be thinking that this is all interesting stuff but how does this apply to golf?
Tiger and John Daly are both golfers that have overhauled their games in the last decade. John Daly has done a tremendous job of getting healthier by going to the gym and eating better while Tiger overhauled the way that he worked his way around the golf course. John Daly took a big step for him by changing his Behaviour. As a result, it affects all of the levels below. Which means that he surrounds himself with different food and these heavy things that he now tolerates lifting. Tiger on the other hand made changes to his Beliefs and Values if not his Identity. He want from overpowering golf courses to working on shaping the ball. This forced him to look at his capabilities and skills and work on those -this is where the swing change came in. His behaviors changed slightly as a result of changing his skills. His fist pumps became more mild and he appeared to think his way around a golf course on a higher level. Environment? I’m not sure this changed much but if one of you knows Tiger, ask him and send me a message. I’ll update when I get an email.
So the higher up the pyramid you go, the greater the influence it has on the levels below it, but not the opposite. Just starting to work out doesn’t change a persons identity or values, but changing an identity or values might change the behavior.
Most golfers make quick changes to their environment (new clubs). Some might change their behavior (work out/take lessons). But very few start with a high level and make a commitment to themselves to be a healthier person and to use golf as a vehicle for being healthier. We, The Golf Fitness guys, know that this is a much tougher, yet more rewarding step.
Before you purchase a new driver this winter (environment change) think about what you really want to do/be as it relates to golf. If you have taken instruction in the past you may be wary of promised improvement, but the Titleist Performance Institute has helped make guaranteed improvement a possibility. But the only way it works is if you commit to the time it takes to see the results.
Remember, if it were easy, everyone would be doing it. Have a very productive off-season golfers and let us know what you’re hoping to work on this year so that we can help you. In fact, we may have a road map for those dedicated golfers coming soon, but until then, start reflecting on your golf identity and think about what you really want to change this year. make sure those goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. Only you know what you are ready to change this year. If all you can afford (energy wise/commitment wise) is a environment change then go for it, but don’t kid yourself that it will be the end all and be all of your game.
That kind of change is going to take effort.
Filed under Uncategorized by on Nov 7th, 2009. 1 Comment.
So here is the much awaited video explaining the last post.
Filed under Uncategorized by on Oct 26th, 2009. Comment.
Greetings golfers. I have been working on a correspondence course that was taking up a lot of my time and then throw in some travel and suddenly a month has gone by. I want to thank Dee for picking up the slack. And I will try not to leave you wanting for so long again but hopefully this post will allow the healing process to begin.
So the question I’m answering came from a guy named Jay. He asked, “How do I keep my left wrist flat through out the swing?”
I’m glad I had a month off because there is a lot to cover in this post. There is one assumption here that I need to take care of first – the assumption is that we want to KEEP our LEAD WRIST FLAT throughout the swing. After analyzing lots of tour pro’s lead wrist graphs, I can tell you that not one that I have ever looked at keeps his left wrist flat during the swing. I will have to make a youtube video to demonstrate what they do, but I promise you that we don’t want to keep it flat. That being said, the left wrist should be flat (well, flattish) during the release so instead of being difficult I will answer the question, “how do we keep our left wrist flat throughout the release?”
There is a common pattern on tour that shows the lead wrist going through a well sequenced series of movement to maximize speed at the point of contact. This patter is the lead wrist finishes the backswing in a hinged, pronated, and slightly extended position. The first thing to change is that the left wrist goes from extended to flexed. It will basically continue flexing all the way until just before impact for most players. About halfway down, the wrist will begin to unhinge and then it will supinate hard through impact. Ok, lets put this in practical English that might help you.
If you take a normal neutral grip then it it is impossible to have your right wrist and your left wrist flat at the same time. So interestingly, if you want to make sure that your left wrist is flat, then you have to make sure that your right wrist is NEVER flat (the only exception is if you let go of your right hand at impact like Vijay…but you’re not Vijay, so hang on to the club if you can). If you scoop through impact, then your right wrist will be flat and therefore your left wrist will be cupped. So if you have your left writ flat then your clubface will be closed compared to where you started at set up. That means that your body can’t be in the same position at impact that it was at set up or else your left wrist being flat would cause a hook. So to make sure that your wrist is flat, you really have to make sure that your body has turned through impact. Imagine that you are Iron Man and you have a bright light shinning out of your chest. At impact, that light should be pointed well out in front of the golf ball. By turning your chest you will be able to have the left wrist flat, strike down on the ball, and not hit a hook.
Stay tuned for the video explaining that train of thought.
Good luck Jay, and thanks for the question!
Filed under Uncategorized by on Oct 13th, 2009. 1 Comment.