Exploiting the Masses!

This cracks me up.  In the video these guys don't know the difference between face angle and center of gravity.  Yet in the text, center of gravity is printed and center of gravity is not correct.  These guys want people to buy this driver and then figure out how to make the adjustments to make better shots?  (If you really have to experiment with this contraption, don't pay $500 to do it.  Wait a few months and you can probably buy one, nearly new, hardly ever used, off of the trade in rack at your local big box retailer for about $100.)

The proliferation of bad information is alive and well and as long as folks are willing to buy this stuff. Who really cares what the center of gravity and face angle are all about.  It is just the business of selling equipment for the purpose of making sales.  And it is from this type of sales propaganda that the golfing public receives its equipment education.  Shoot, anybody can be a professional club fitter!  And a high handicapper at the same time!  Just read the article and watch the video.  It's all perfectly clear.

Click here for full story and video:  BBC News

Even if you did know what you were doing, these adjustable drivers fall short of being able to offer the full benefits of custom fitting for the maximum amount of game improvement (there are 12 basic driver fitting specifications).

What I Teach That is Different

Why should anyone come to me for a golf lesson?  What do I do that is different?  Even if I wrote a book you would still have to experience an individual lesson with me to "get it".  That's no fault of yours, it’s just that I am not that "good of a writer".  Even though that hasn't stopped many "authors" on the subject, the ailing swings of golfers won't be cured with another useless instruction manual.  So,....  

What do I do that is different?

I train the mind.  The body knows what to do, but will only perform as well as the instruction it receives from the mind.  If we focus on doing what is correct, then there is no need for our "focus" to be fractured figuring out what is wrong that needs "fixing".  Just do what you know to do that is correct.  Hmm..

If you haven’t already done so, browse my web site, please!

The gist:  There is no need to make a career out of: 

1.  Searching for the latest “fix” for your golf swing, although the golf magazines would go out of business if somebody didn't dream up some new “secret” every month;

2.  Continually shopping for the latest and greatest golf clubs because the folks who only sell clubs will promise something next year that will eliminate ..... all those par 3 "layup shots", an additional 10 yards off the tee (by my calculations, an extra 10 yards a year for 40+ years....I should be driving the ball 500-600 yards, (accounting for old age of course) or whatever.  Duhh...

Learn what to do to swing correctly.  Buy custom fit golf clubs.  Clubs that do what you need, for the way you play.  Then spend your golfing career perfecting what you know to do.  That is really what I teach.

Teaching the Teacher at TSRHC

February 21st was the annual Tee Up for Teaching Seminar at the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children. About 30 golf pros and allied health care professionals were in attendance. Everyone received continuing education credit through their respective professional organizations. Great combination of academics and hands on demonstrations. Plan to attend next year if learning more about teaching individuals with disabilities is of interest.

To attend the Tee Up for Teaching Seminar, contact Dana Dempsey, Director of Therapeutic Recreation at the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, 214-559-7615.

Kyle Lograsso

Many lessons to learn from this 5 year old golfer.  My favorites:

• Children, children with disabilities, know no boundaries. 
• The capacity of the imitative instinct children possess.

The later is what I think Ernest Jones was referring to in his book, Swinging into Golf, when noting the difference between learning golf as a child versus learning as an adult.  Adult golfers tend to "analyse" every detail and every stage of a swinging motion.  Children are able to see, register and reproduce the "whole motion", the "whole picture", as their imitative instincts allow, without the encumbrance of conscious analysis.

Cure your Hook! Cure your Slice! Hit it Fat? Here’s the Fix!

These are titles we have all seen to the many golf articles, golf programs, golf tips and golf books professing to be "The Answer to Lower Scores."  But there is another approach to better golf. Read on….

Typically these kinds of videos and articles are from: the “Flaw and Fix it” school of thought. This school of instruction focuses on the negative rather than the positive. For example, the negative approach: when a shot is not to our satisfaction we mentally try to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. This requires analyzing, diagnosing and implementing a “fix”. The “fix” may or may not work depending on the accuracy of our analysis, diagnosis and last but not least our implementation of the "fix". The “fix” is typically something we try to do that is physically different.

The positive approach: when a shot is not to our satisfaction we mentally resort to what we know to do. If our golf instruction and training has been grounded in a “mental concept” of what we need to do to swing the golf club correctly, then we can dismiss the errant shot as “we didn’t do what we know to do” and go on about our business of doing what we know to do. ….that’s a mouthful…..in essence it is knowing what to do, Hmmmm, now I’m just repeating myself…… No analyzing. No diagnosing. No, “I’ve got it, here’s the fix and I hope it works.” The positive approach has more to do with what we do with our minds, is much more focused, clear, clean, and decisive and will be the correction we are looking for. The positive approach keeps our mental game intact. Besides, it is the same answer for our bad shots as it is for our good shots, “That was a great shot, how did I do that?” Hopefully you can answer, “I just did what I know to do.” You do reinforce your good swings and shots, don’t you?!

Knowing what is wrong is not the “diet” of champions when it comes to finding out what is right. There are too many wrong ways and to figure out precisely what went wrong and implement what we think is the fix can be a time consuming, discouraging route of trial and error. Our attention and intentions become “unfocused” as we scroll through the list of physical things “not to do” or the long list of things “to do” to prevent hooking, slicing, topping or whatever. If golf is 90% mental and 10% physical we have just turned those percentages around to 10% mental and 90% physical….our mental game is “toast”.

Learning what it takes to swing correctly is simple and easy, for those who know the difference between simple and easy, so simple that the challenge is one of perfecting the things we know to do, the correct things. Thus, the need for repetition….the same things over and over and over…single minded attention, focused intentions, relentless, clear and decisive in what we know to do, to what we want to do. Every time we swing! That’s the hard part!

So, what do we need to do to make good swings? Find an instructor who thinks and teaches in this manner, 90% mental game, 10% mechanics. Otherwise, trying to figure it out on your own can be like a “do it yourself root canal”, the instruction book in one hand, the drill in the other and here we go. Hope this works!

Pickle's Custom Golf located in Euless, TX

Pickle's Custom Golf located in Euless, TX