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When is it good enough?

May 17th, 2009
This is a question I have struggled with for many years and one I see my students struggle with also. We all know(or should know) that the quality of the mistakes determines our skill level in golf. Or at the very least, we see the best player’s in the world hit bad shots on a regular basis. For some reason, the expectation of continual consistency seems to be an unattainable goal for many of us.

How do we know when we are good enough to compete. I think this answer varies on the confidence of the player. How did Bruce Lietzke know he was good enough when he hit his 30 yard “slice” all around the golf course. I mean, is hitting it basically straight the only way to determine a golfer’s abilty? Absolutely not. Many of you that read my forum and this blog are better than you know. The thing is, many of you don’t apply what you do in the heat of competition. With everything we have learned about course management we know what “should” be done. If what “should” be done is a weakness of ours, are we strong enough, mentally, to do what we can do vs. what we should do.

The ability to stay mentally strong enough to aim 30 yards left over out of bounds says alot about Lietzke. He had to know very few people were doing it and I’m sure a bunch of people were mocking it. Yet, he has led one of the best lives of a professional golfer that there ever was. He KNEW what he could do and he did it over and over and over and over until he got his paycheck at the end of the week.

So, what can we learn from this? Those of you that hit it far enough to compete, need to be ok with what it is that you do. Does someone need to be able to hit a draw and fade wedge on demand to compete? No! They need to be able to take advantage of the times that match their strengths and survive the times that challenge their weaknesses.

I remember watching last year’s US Open and I guarantee you if there was no gallery that week, Tiger would not have been on TV. He hit the ball all over the map and if the rough wasn’t trampled down we would have seen a lot more holes like his first during the playoff where he made double bogey because he couldn’t hit it out of the grass. Is Tiger the best player in the world? No question! Is he even close to being the best ball striker? Nope. But he knows what he is capable of at any time and is strong enough in his belief.

In short, you only need the ability to hit it far enough to reach all the holes. After that, how you get there doesn’t really matter.

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Why do I Play Better in Practice vs. Tournaments?

April 30th, 2009

I have recently received this question from a couple of my students and I think it comes up often enough that I would share with the group. In my experience, there are two categories of tournament golfers. One group plays better in tournaments than practice and the other group plays better in practice than tournaments.

This discussion will be for group number two. The main reason that I see is that in tournaments, the player plays differently than they play in practice. Most, not all, of the players I’m referring to play more aggressive in practice than they do in tournaments. They seem to always second guess their decisions and try to play “smart”. They approach similar situations so differently that their practice is so far removed from how they actually play.
The only thing this accomplishes is that it creates indecision and frustration. Make your decision and go with it. Trust your gut and be yourself.

There area also those people that don’t trust thier swing when they get in tournaments. This is very common. Learning how to let go is a scary proposition. It is usually just mind over matter. Telling yourself that your swing is good enough and to let it just happen while being prepared to accept the results is the key to overcoming this fear. Just like in practice, there is a sense of not caring about the result because it doesn’t mean anything. This is actually the same mind frame you want for tournaments. Not caring is a mental freedom that lets your athleticism come out and play its role.

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Swing Mechanics or Ball Flight?

April 9th, 2009
The answer to this question will determine how quickly good information is added to your motion.

I see all too often people trying to learn a result before they learn a motion. I may have just had a lesson with that person and as I watch them practice, I can see them trying to make the ball go straight instead of trying to learn the motion that will make the ball go straight.

How is this line of thinking beneficial? Why would someone pay for information intended to help and disregard the information before you’ve learned how to accomplish it. Now, it is true that some people don’t want to change what they do but they want the ball to change what it does. Those people may be looking to get back to where they were and not move ahead to a better place. That, I can respect and understand.

However, for the person who wants to change from a 90 to 70 shooter without working on their shortgame or on ball flight improvement, it confuses me. I know many people play this game for fun. I guess it depends on how you define fun.

When you go out to practice, make sure you have a goal. Whether it is mechanics or ball flight, you need a goal. Don’t go out with one goal and go through 4 others on the way. You will not improve this way. I mean, would you decide to go out for a nice dinner and on the way decide to try fast food and still end up satisfied that you had a nice meal. I don’t think so. If you want that nice meal, save your money, make a date and do it. Don’t say you want it, eat at McD’s and wonder why it didn’t taste that great.

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Posted in Mental Game, Practicing, Teaching Techniques

Golf-Why Do You Play?

March 29th, 2009
This question has many answers and I don’t believe their is a right answer. I play because I like the challenge it presents me. I have been very blessed to be “good” at many things. I say that not to be arrogant but to get across that I haven’t been great in many things. Golf was something I learned almost completely on my own. I watched and I felt and I watched and I felt. To this day, I have had only two lessons and work almost completely by what the swing and clubhead feel like.

I know that learning is one of the things I do very well. I use this skill to it’s fullest until I need to seek out more information. Golf requires me to learn things about myself in order to improve. Rarely have I looked inward for reasons why I haven’t achieved what I want. I play because it helps me to improve these areas which I struggle with. I have always wanted to engage in things that challenged me and golf is the ultimate.

I haven’t had the urge to play in the last few years. I generally, don’t play very much. I tend to practice more. Because I work off feel, I practice until I feel what I want, then I go test it on the course. With 4 children, I just haven’t made it a priority to go compete.

This year I plan to do more. After looking at the section schedule, it doesn’t look very good because of conflicts, but I haven’t been this excited about playing in a long time. I hope my excitement spreads and encourages you to get out there more.

Don’t forget to spend time feeling what is happening and checking with someone if what you feel is really happening.

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Posted in Mental Game, Tournament Golf