“Success depends almost entirely on how effectively you learn to manage the game’s two ultimate adversaries: the course and yourself.” – Jack Nicklaus (Champion Golfer)

The reality of playing golf on tour is that you are always searching for a competitive edge over the golf course you’re playing and ultimately your opponent which doesn’t really make it that different from any other stick and ball sport, where a score is involved, except for one important qualification; on the pro golf tour you have to shoot consistently low golf scores just to make cuts in tournaments before you can make any money.

In other words you don’t get a dime for playing less than your best for four days.

So every moment that you are not competing at a golf tour event somewhere you’re on the practice fairway and practice green finding ways to sharpen, refine and develop your golfing skills in an effort to make more cuts, more money and the opportunity to play in the big league on a major golf tour.

In essence you’re practicing your golf skills exclusively to perform better on the golf course.

Design Your Golf Practice
You practice so you can become so skilled at playing golf that you make a lot more cuts than you miss, which translates into a lot more money in the bank account and the possibility of winning golf tournaments.

So I‘d like to share with you a key distinction I learned about how top tour golfers practice effectively;

“You must practice in such a way that there is a high probability that you will perform better on the golf course. “

Another way of thinking about it is like this; “you design your practice sessions solely to improve your playing performances.”

I know that this might seem quite obvious to you but this is not what most of the golfers I’ve observed do when they practice at golf ranges. I’m sure that at some level they genuinely want to improve their golf skills to improve their performances, but they don’t think about designing their golf practice for improvement deliberately enough.

Perfect Match Practice
When you practice your golf skills you are attempting to modify or adjust an aspect of your physical behaviour by conditioning a new set of behaviours that you can rely on when it really counts, through a large quantity of highly focused repetition.

I’m sure that you can see that this shouldn’t be taken lightly? You need to be absolutely sure that the information you’re using is the perfect match for your particular problem. Also you cannot improve your skill set if you’re dividing your attention between trying to perfect a particular movement and also trying to hit your shot to a target on the golf range.

The Golf Practice Multi-tasking Myth
In the workplace this would be called multi-tasking and a raft of recent research shows that splitting your attention between tasks significantly reduces your effectiveness to perform optimally in the different tasks you’re focusing on.

“It is a myth to think you can work on improving some aspect of your golf swing whilst at the same time you’re trying to hit your golf ball to a target.”

But this is precisely what the vast majority of amateur golfers do.

The problem could be that golfers are confused about what the right golf practice method is. With all the information available through golf instruction books, DVD’s, golf magazines and golf instruction online it’s a real challenge trying to find information that is highly relevant to your needs.

Relevance then Repetition
When I played golf on tour I discovered that golf practice was really about continually finding ways to improve my bottom line results. So you are always zeroing in on the ideal practice method or drill because you’re travelling continually and you need to make sure that the time you invest in your improvement is highly specific and manageable.

So it’s not unusual to see a professional golfer working on one particular drill for a year or more. Since any physical change requires literally thousands of repetitions in order to build up sufficient memory, changing a weak skill requires a pro tour player to practice the drill whenever he/she gets the opportunity – which is often.

They will practice with a ball and without a ball, and they will practice in front of mirrors in their hotel room or windows at the airport; literally anywhere they can perform the practice task that leads them to a new and desired behaviour.

When they practice they practice with a level of intensity that closely matches or simulates a real competitive situation.

Practice Like it Matters
“Perfect practice makes perfect” is a common cliché in sports, business and life but doesn’t really describe at all what perfect practice is, which just makes it easier for most golfers to perform “practice” without the “perfect” part.

I believe that the ‘perfect’ component is to perform your golf practice with a level of intensity that closely matches or simulates a real competitive situation.

This means that you make sure that the entire practice routine is exactly the same routine you use when you play on the golf course.

Instead of mindlessly blasting away at golf ball after golf ball you thoughtfully and carefully practice each stroke like nothing else in the world matters as much. I have observed this first hand with some of the greatest golfers in the world.

What Jack Nicklaus Taught Me About Deliberate Practice
When I was a young assistant professional my idol Jack Nicklaus came to our club to play in our national championship and that week I was fortunate to work at the driving range where I got my first look at how great tour golfers practice to perform.

Jack Nicklaus was a study in concentration and not one golf ball he hit was wasted. He hit each practice shot like it really mattered to him and this practice method required his total concentration. He worked on controlling his ball flight so that the ball flew with a similar trajectory and spin shape nearly every time.

Where I observed other professionals chatting away with their friends on the range, Jack Nicklaus seemed to me to be the one serious figure who although very pleasant when someone acknowledged him was there for a very specific purpose, he was there to prepare to perform to the best of his ability.

Golf Practice is Not a Social Experience
He was not there for a social engagement he was there to work at his craft so he could take it to the course and perform. Golf practice is not a social experience, its work and you’re there solely to improve your performances on the golf course, so you never have enough time to waste on idle chit-chat.

This is where I learned an important lesson about practicing like it matters. Never waste my time, never waste a golf shot and make sure that the shot is executed to the best of my ability with my full attention on it.

The next time you decide to go to the range to work on your game, consider that you have a marvellous opportunity to start practicing with real purpose.

You can design your golf practice so that it’s highly specific, highly engaging and highly repeatable and you’ll discover that this shift in the way you go about performing your practice will build a strong and reliable bridge between practicing on the range and performing on the golf course when it really counts.

Until next time,

Practice with definite purpose.

Lawrie Montague

Sometimes you’ve just got to laugh. If you have a bad day on the golf course watch this advert and it will definitely change how you feel.

Just Chip It Out!

“A good mental game won’t overcome poor impact physics”

Developing consistency and confidence in your golf game begins by firstly developing a better understanding of how the golf club’s design influences your golf balls behaviour. Each golf club is engineered to very fine tolerances and has been built to help you to gain a level of control over trajectory, curvature and ball speed. Your job is to use the golf club correctly, which is to say use it in such a way that you strike consistent golf shots that you’re satisfied with…most of the time. But this as you already know is definately a challenge given the amount of conflicting information you have to sift through to find the best way for you to use the golf club correctly.

In my last post I described the three success factors of the pro golf swing (PGS).  As a reminder they are;

• A Pro Golf Swing produces a high degree of control over the golf balls trajectory
• A Pro Golf Swing produces a high degree of control over the golf balls curvature
• A Pro Golf Swing produces a high degree of speed as the golf ball departs from the club face

We all want to hit the ball better and learning how to apply the principles of the pro golf swing will definately help you to develop consistency and confidence. Following are the pro golf swing principles that I believe will help you to strike the golf ball more solidly and consistently leading to more confidence on the golf course.

Principle # 1 - Control the angle of the golf shaft as it strikes the golf ball.
Controlling trajectory begins by understanding the relationship between the head or striking end of the golf club and the handle or holding end as the golf club strikes the golf ball. There are three conditions that the golf shaft can be in as it strikes the ball. The shaft can lean forwards towards the target, it can have no lean, or it can lean backwards away from the target. When using an iron or a wood we ideally want the golf shaft leaning slightly forwards as the golf ball departs from the clubface.

How do you do it?
Practice punching your golf shots by trying to hit your golf shots as low as possible using a seven iron without moving your upper body towards the target until the golf ball has left the clubface. Practice hitting golf shots under low tree branches and bushes and focus on hitting the ball before the ground. You might have noticed that PGA tour professionals use the punch shot quite often when they hit their approach shots into the green.

Principle # 2 - Control the clubface angle as the clubhead strikes the golf ball.
The clubface can be in one of three conditions as the golf ball is struck. It can be open to the target line, square to the target line or closed to the target line. It is helpful to know that the golf club should not be square at impact but actually slightly open. The reason for this is that there is a very important distinction that you should be aware of. Rather than thinking of impact as the time when the club comes into contact with the golf ball, think of it as two distinct times in your golf swing – impact or collision and separation. When the golf club makes contact with the ball the clubface should be slightly open not square, and during the time that the golf ball is in contact with the clubface it “squares up” and the ball departs or separates from the clubface.

How do you do it?
The key to achieving this is to make sure that your hands when applied to the handle are positioned so that the pressure is behind the handle rather than on top. The best example I can give you is to imagine that you are pushing a shopping cart or lawn mower and think about where your hands are positioned on the handle. The strongest position for your hands is behind the handle when applying pressure to move the object forward. This is no different on a golf club where the objective is to apply pressure to the rear of the golf ball. If you want to hit stronger and longer shots, make sure that both hands are rotated slightly behind the handle of the golf club.

Principle # 3 - The accelerating golf club should decelerate as late as possible.
A golf club at the start of the downswing accelerates, achieves peak acceleration and then decelerates until it stops. Every golf club swung by a human being does this. You may have heard commentators describe how pro’s “accelerate through the ball” which is a nice thought but actually it doesn’t happen quite like that. In fact the golf club is slowing down as it comes into contact with the golf ball and for some golfers it’s slowing down quite rapidly. The key is to reduce the deceleration so that it happens as late as possible.

How do you do it?
Make short backswings with a full and complete wrist cock. Swing your arms back to about 9 o’clock with the clubhead pointing directly upwards. From this position swing the club to the finish position and create a loud whoosh sound on the target side of the golf ball. As you whoosh your golf club swing into a perfectly balanced finish position. The key to this practice method is to only focus on developing the whoosh in front of the golf ball rather than at the golf ball. Now transfer the feeling into your golf swing by still focusing on creating the whoosh in front of the golf ball.

Practice developing the pro golf swing principles and incorporate them into your golf swing. With some consistent practice you will start to notice improved results leading to more consistency and golf confidence.

Until next time.

Lawrie Montague

“Reverse every natural instinct and do the opposite of what you are inclined to do, and you will probably come very close to having a perfect golf swing.”  – Ben Hogan

When you think about the professional golfers who play on the golf tours around the world what do you think of? For some of you, you marvel at the prodigious distances they hit their drives. For others, its their remarkable skills around the greens. But for many, the attraction is their golf swings and the effortless and seamless power and accuracy they generate that facinates many of you.

Is there such a thing as a “pro golf swing?” Do the tour pro’s that make their living striking golf balls down fairways and putting them into golf holes have some secret?. I personally don’t believe they do. If you think about it, there are literally thousands of professionals competing in small to large tournaments around the globe and the one thing we can be absolutely sure of is that no two golf swings are exactly the same. What there is is a Tiger Woods version, a Phil Michelson version, a Lorena Ochoa version and so on. They are all different in style, and they all function differently because their styles are different.

 

 Some golf swings are shorter than others, some are faster than others, and some are radically different than others. Of course the reason behind this is very obvious, we are all shaped differently. We have two hundred and six bones in our body and roughly six hundred muscles depending on the expert you listen to. There are thirteen major joints in your body that move within three dimensions making every golf swing totally unique. When we move our bodies to swing a golf club the amount of flexibility we possess in and around our joints will have a significant effect on how we move our golf club, not to mention our physical strength as well.

Tall and thin golfers will swing the golf club quite differently to short and round golfers who will swing it differently to strong muscular golfers. So as I said, there isn’t a “pro golf swing” as such, however I believe that there are pro golf swing principles that every professional golfer and competent amateur golfer practices and develops. Now this is where confusion reins, simply because these principles are packaged up and learned in very different ways.

There are three primary elements involved in the playing of golf. (not including the golf course, type of equipment and weather etc)

• There is the golf swing you use
• There is an impact with the golf ball
• There is a resultant ball flight

Now every element is as important as every other, but the preference of the golfer will dictate how they are learned and practiced. Some golfers will focus on developing the style of the golf swing more than focusing on how the golf ball is impacted or how it flies. Some golfers will build their golf swing around controlling the impact conditions with the golf ball, and some will work mainly on improving their golf swing by focusing on manipulating the flight of their shot through “swing feel.” They are all reasonable approaches, just coming from different philosophies and strategies.

So the pro golf swing can be thought of as any golf swing that can do the following three things consistently;

1. Produce a high degree of control over the golf balls trajectory
2. Produce a high degree of control over the golf balls curvature
3. Produce a high degree of speed as the golf ball departs from the club face

So Tiger Woods and his fellow professionals can all control trajectory, curvature and ball speed. In my next post I’ll explain how they achieve these three critical factors and how you can learn to develop them in your game.

Until next time.

Lawrie Montague