There's a difference between interest and commitment. If you're interested in something you do it only when it's convenient. When you're committed to something you accept no excuses; only results.
-Kenneth Blanchard
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Wednesday 24 March 2010
I'm a happy geek...
...it's not only Hannibal Smith who loves it when a plan comes together. Even the fact that Master Geek appears to be teething and is sitting on my knee at 10.30pm restricting my typing to one handed cannot deflate me.
The amazing thing is that my breakthrough had the most inauspicious of beginnings. I had a pretty lousy day at work, and came home in a mood that refused to lift, despite the best efforts of Mrs Geek. Around 9pm I realised I wasn't going to achieve much, and after some none too subtle hints from Mrs Geek caught up with some angry comedy. I felt a bit bad that I'd not managed any practice but knew that the chances of me managing anything productive were slim.
And yet...the mind is a strange thing. Without realising it, I must've been mulling over this and marrying it to this. As my mood lifted, I had an urge to try this out; My downstairs hall will tolerate anything up to a half swing with anything up to a five iron (this was discovered the hard way. The money to pay the handyman to fix my dents came from my golf fund. The fact I'm still alive to tell the tale tells you how much of a saint my wife is ;-)
Because I've started to practice deliberately, trying to feel my swings, it was easy to feel the right arm extension through the ball and the downward hit; I realised this is what I did when I hit the pitch shots I was happiest with. I then added Terry Koehler's instruction to look at the front edge of the ball if you want to get that crisp, "trapping" strike (more of Terry's instruction can be found here)
I then tried with my eight and five irons, and this was also very promising. I initially used a more pitch-like swing, with the upper and lower body more synchronised. From my time at the range, I know I hit it further if I swing with more of a whip-like action (I feel my lower body turn start first, my upper body lagging a bit more). I did this, and results were again good. To be honest, I'll wait and see which swing is more consistent at the range; I'm pretty sure I can get past the macho nonsense and go for accuracy over distance with my irons. I tried again tonight, and the feeling's still there. And it feels good.
I discovered John Graham (@JohnGrahamGolf) and Jason, the Golf Guru (@onplanegolf) on Twitter, and both are remarkably good teachers.The key for me was the concept that flipping came as a result of "stalling the pivot" and the video evidence both of John's and Jason's showed us exactly what they meant- any ex-golf magazine tip junky knows that "scooping the ball in the air" is bad, but not many can tell you exactly what that means, let alone the way to cure it demonstrated in Jason's blog (John also has drills to stop flipping; he is incredibly involved in the technical aspects of golf, but also very passionate about the need for awareness, something often missed by the more technical teacher).
My suspicion is that, although it may often seem that there are many different theories and ways to swing, a great deal of the variation is due to the same things being expressed in many ways. A truly great teacher won't rest until they have found the correct way to express this so a student gets it (the archetype of this might be the late Mr Penick). Twitter seems to have a number of these teachers, who will not only share their knowledge but also engage with those wishing clarification. I'm a subscriber to the Golf Smarter Podcast too, and there are a great many interesting coaches on there too and the 45 minute average is a good length of time to form an opinion on the methods and theories proposed.
As if that wasn't enough, I had a great run on the putting "leapfrog" to develop putting "touch"- not only did I have my highest score, and my first run with no balls short, I then followed it with a score of 7, with the eighth just sliding past the back marker.
A good couple of evenings all in all, from an inauspicious beginning.
The amazing thing is that my breakthrough had the most inauspicious of beginnings. I had a pretty lousy day at work, and came home in a mood that refused to lift, despite the best efforts of Mrs Geek. Around 9pm I realised I wasn't going to achieve much, and after some none too subtle hints from Mrs Geek caught up with some angry comedy. I felt a bit bad that I'd not managed any practice but knew that the chances of me managing anything productive were slim.
And yet...the mind is a strange thing. Without realising it, I must've been mulling over this and marrying it to this. As my mood lifted, I had an urge to try this out; My downstairs hall will tolerate anything up to a half swing with anything up to a five iron (this was discovered the hard way. The money to pay the handyman to fix my dents came from my golf fund. The fact I'm still alive to tell the tale tells you how much of a saint my wife is ;-)
Because I've started to practice deliberately, trying to feel my swings, it was easy to feel the right arm extension through the ball and the downward hit; I realised this is what I did when I hit the pitch shots I was happiest with. I then added Terry Koehler's instruction to look at the front edge of the ball if you want to get that crisp, "trapping" strike (more of Terry's instruction can be found here)
I then tried with my eight and five irons, and this was also very promising. I initially used a more pitch-like swing, with the upper and lower body more synchronised. From my time at the range, I know I hit it further if I swing with more of a whip-like action (I feel my lower body turn start first, my upper body lagging a bit more). I did this, and results were again good. To be honest, I'll wait and see which swing is more consistent at the range; I'm pretty sure I can get past the macho nonsense and go for accuracy over distance with my irons. I tried again tonight, and the feeling's still there. And it feels good.
I discovered John Graham (@JohnGrahamGolf) and Jason, the Golf Guru (@onplanegolf) on Twitter, and both are remarkably good teachers.The key for me was the concept that flipping came as a result of "stalling the pivot" and the video evidence both of John's and Jason's showed us exactly what they meant- any ex-golf magazine tip junky knows that "scooping the ball in the air" is bad, but not many can tell you exactly what that means, let alone the way to cure it demonstrated in Jason's blog (John also has drills to stop flipping; he is incredibly involved in the technical aspects of golf, but also very passionate about the need for awareness, something often missed by the more technical teacher).
My suspicion is that, although it may often seem that there are many different theories and ways to swing, a great deal of the variation is due to the same things being expressed in many ways. A truly great teacher won't rest until they have found the correct way to express this so a student gets it (the archetype of this might be the late Mr Penick). Twitter seems to have a number of these teachers, who will not only share their knowledge but also engage with those wishing clarification. I'm a subscriber to the Golf Smarter Podcast too, and there are a great many interesting coaches on there too and the 45 minute average is a good length of time to form an opinion on the methods and theories proposed.
As if that wasn't enough, I had a great run on the putting "leapfrog" to develop putting "touch"- not only did I have my highest score, and my first run with no balls short, I then followed it with a score of 7, with the eighth just sliding past the back marker.
A good couple of evenings all in all, from an inauspicious beginning.
Monday 22 March 2010
It's been a while...
...life gets in the way of golf far too often. However, I've had some progress. I've had some sessions at the range, using the practice "challenges" suggested by Neil Plimmer and VISION54; these give deep practice, and I do my best to use my full routine on every shot, also picking a target.
I've also been doing putting drills at home- Dr Parent's putting games for touch and feel (his game for touch is suggested in slightly different forms in a few of the blogs I'm following), as well as the "ladder out/cluster back drill" (hit putts, with ball going twice as far each time, and then back to starting point. Do it with eyes closed for an even bigger challenge)
That's the good points. The bad is that I haven't done enough of it yet. Not nearly enough. There is mitigation- I took golf up during a long period of illness, with lots of time off work, nearly three years. I've been returning to work, and am trying to get to full time. I'm getting there, but tired. However, I need golf now, and will try to accommodate it around family life as much as I'm able. With it getting lighter at night this should be easier. Mrs Geek is being fantastic, but I can't ask too much of her; will try to make my medal rounds early Saturday mornings for example.
Have managed at least one practice a week but will try to up that to 2-3 times. Encouraged by results on the course though.
In the past I've had real issues getting my club down square, pushing and pulling the ball to the point where I was almost screaming in frustration. I stared and stared at it until it looked ridiculous whatever I did, like when you spend too long looking at a word and it's alternative spellings until they look like hieroglyphics. And every time I thought I'd got it down, it'd start happening again, and again and again.
And then I decided to forget about it- went for what I term an "outward" focus. I would go through my new routine (from the wonderful Golfer Within series of Roseanna Leaton's) which is select target, abdominal breath whilst blinking once then slow programming swing behind ball, then stepping into my setup, putting club down whilst looking at the target. And then not changing position, not even a little bit. Then one last look at the target, place tongue just behind teeth and focus on keeping it in place, relaxing feet and turning back to the ball, then immediately starting my swing, rather than my old habit of trying to stare thee ball into submission. I have in the past used a clearkey with excellent effect, but I'd started to rush my last one (easy-peasey-lemon-squeezy) and thus my swing, so the tongue trick is taking the place of it just now; I may substitute the phrase "Never Eat Shredded Wheat" if the tongue trick loses it's magic.
Results with this are absolutely fantastic. I feel very positive about this season. Goals include: 4 off handicap and breaking 90. I'd also like to experience the pressure of being in contention in a competition, so I think Stableford competitions are the best chance of that.
I'm also invovled in some very interesting discussions on Twitter (@mightyalmac). Should you happen to chance upon this blog, feel free to look me up.
Statistics tell us that the average handicap has not decreased in 20 years, which probably constitutes a rise in real terms given improvements in clubs,courses and balls.
I am determined to buck this trend- I will improve!
(of course, there are likely to be frustrations along the way- I hope to chronicle these with a degree of humour and humility, but will settle for one out the two ;-)
I've also been doing putting drills at home- Dr Parent's putting games for touch and feel (his game for touch is suggested in slightly different forms in a few of the blogs I'm following), as well as the "ladder out/cluster back drill" (hit putts, with ball going twice as far each time, and then back to starting point. Do it with eyes closed for an even bigger challenge)
That's the good points. The bad is that I haven't done enough of it yet. Not nearly enough. There is mitigation- I took golf up during a long period of illness, with lots of time off work, nearly three years. I've been returning to work, and am trying to get to full time. I'm getting there, but tired. However, I need golf now, and will try to accommodate it around family life as much as I'm able. With it getting lighter at night this should be easier. Mrs Geek is being fantastic, but I can't ask too much of her; will try to make my medal rounds early Saturday mornings for example.
Have managed at least one practice a week but will try to up that to 2-3 times. Encouraged by results on the course though.
In the past I've had real issues getting my club down square, pushing and pulling the ball to the point where I was almost screaming in frustration. I stared and stared at it until it looked ridiculous whatever I did, like when you spend too long looking at a word and it's alternative spellings until they look like hieroglyphics. And every time I thought I'd got it down, it'd start happening again, and again and again.
And then I decided to forget about it- went for what I term an "outward" focus. I would go through my new routine (from the wonderful Golfer Within series of Roseanna Leaton's) which is select target, abdominal breath whilst blinking once then slow programming swing behind ball, then stepping into my setup, putting club down whilst looking at the target. And then not changing position, not even a little bit. Then one last look at the target, place tongue just behind teeth and focus on keeping it in place, relaxing feet and turning back to the ball, then immediately starting my swing, rather than my old habit of trying to stare thee ball into submission. I have in the past used a clearkey with excellent effect, but I'd started to rush my last one (easy-peasey-lemon-squeezy) and thus my swing, so the tongue trick is taking the place of it just now; I may substitute the phrase "Never Eat Shredded Wheat" if the tongue trick loses it's magic.
Results with this are absolutely fantastic. I feel very positive about this season. Goals include: 4 off handicap and breaking 90. I'd also like to experience the pressure of being in contention in a competition, so I think Stableford competitions are the best chance of that.
I'm also invovled in some very interesting discussions on Twitter (@mightyalmac). Should you happen to chance upon this blog, feel free to look me up.
Statistics tell us that the average handicap has not decreased in 20 years, which probably constitutes a rise in real terms given improvements in clubs,courses and balls.
I am determined to buck this trend- I will improve!
(of course, there are likely to be frustrations along the way- I hope to chronicle these with a degree of humour and humility, but will settle for one out the two ;-)
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