I Have been practicing wrong all these years!?
When it comes to golf there are many theories about the golf swing, how and
what might be the best way to swing the club for someone, however the nature of
the game is to get the little white ball into the hole in the fewest amount of strokes
possible.
Unfortunately for many golfers they are being pulled into and down a road of golf
development almost solely around building a perfect golf swing based on
someone’s theory or on someone else’s ability, like a tour professional. We and I
at the Golf Performance Center subscribe to the theory that everyone has their
unique abilities but helping them understand what those are through an extensive
evaluation helps put into perspective what they can or cannot do from a
physiological point of view. We call this “Function Dictates Form”, having a
physical or mental limitation (not having growth mindset) can inhabit certain
development as it pertains to the golf and skill acquisition.
What does this mean to you as a golfer? It means, without a clear understanding
of what is happening around your golf play, putting, pitching, driving or any shot
requiring you to use your physiological and neurological systems, you in fact
maybe practicing wrong. Once you understand and have a logical path forward
to your golf development by having a 5 Elements Evaluation and Player
Development Index (PDI) Full Assessment at the Golf Performance Center or
Certified Coach near you. Based on your results, your practice plan should meet
certain requirements for continued improvement to becoming a better golf
athlete. Now I will say that even if you decide not to put yourself through a
comprehensive evaluation, your practice plan should include the follow elements.
“Excellence is never an accident. It always the result of high intention, sincere
effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many
alternatives, choice, not chance, determines your destiny. “ Aristotle
ENCODE SUCCESS: Intention matters, how you prepare and set up your
practice matters. Every time we create an action, our brains encode these
efforts, this is essentially how we have “habits”. Stay consistent with the
time, effort, place etc. Have a plan with an objective to improve your
scores for the time you spend. It is not how much; it is the quality of the
time that matters.
PRACTICE THE 20: 80% of your success will come from 20% of your
behaviors so practice the most impactful 20% to accomplish your goal. In
golf if you want to score better, practice what matters, the most important
is being able to get the ball in the hole. If putting and short game is
roughly 50% of all scoring, why spend 80% of time working on golf swing
technique to score better. In most cases working on swing requires a
physical competency that likely requires much more work than the actual
swinging the club work. Remember “function dictates form”, work on the
lead factors, it will be time better spent.
THE MIND-BODY CONNECTION: Automate skills so you’ll use them
before you consciously decide to. This is on your physiological and
neurological connection. If your wiring is not connected through the brain-
body connection creating the actions you want subconsciously will fall to
the path of least resistance. The equipment gives the golfer the que as to
how it should be used, however it is the brain-body connection that
determines the actions that can take place when and how. This is why
there are so many golfers with unique swings.
OBJECTIVE IS YOUR PURPOSE: Measure and define specifically what
you’ll be able to do once mastering your goal. Practice is used to stay
sharp and continue to improve skills. Great golf is a game that requires
mastery of many skills, the ability to measure improvement requires the
discipline to measure the right things. If you lack physical awareness that
impacts your driver competency, you can measure your ability to improve
body awareness and movement enhancing your ability to control your
driver under game stress. You can quantify your skill practices; this helps
with transference to game day stress. PDI assessment is great way to
daily, weekly or monthly hold you accountable to your improvement.
ISOLATE THE SKILL: If you assess the defined skills required to become
a good or great golfer, the PDI Assessment does exactly this, you can
identify and name each skill you’ve identified as an important building
block for peak performance. Again, the 5 Elements of Success Evaluation
and the PDI Assessment is examining the mind, body, golf skills and
equipment. For practice set up skill stations, but understand each skill has
a requirement from other areas such as mind, body and equipment.
Golf is a hard, even having a great golf swing does not mean that you can
become a good golfer, it helps but it is not a game of technique, it is a game of
skills that tests the mind, the body’s ability to adapt to the challenge of
unpredictable conditions. Therefore, requiring a level of confidence that once
you call on your skills, you are able to perform at a level acceptable to your skill
level, no one elses.
Good luck with your golf development, let me know how we can help you
become the golfer you dream of becoming!
Enjoy your journey!
Roger
