Resolve

Not something that even my closest friends would have associated with me (unless a motivational boot had been applied to my posterior), but as I was reading the always thought-provoking Single-Minded Golf blog of Adam Sprackling, I found a post on resolve. I was pleasantly surprised to realise as I read he was by and large describing my attitude to golf, and to improving at it. I'm really linking to it here so that I've got it bookmarked should I hit a prolonged slump and that resolve starts to waver. I follow Adam on Twitter (@AdamSMG) and enjoy his tweets, so I've signed up for his newsletter and tipcasts (I'm listening to a lot of golf audiobooks and podcasts, a great way to use the time commuting). I'm looking forward to receiving them, along with my 3 Good Shots email.

Reflection...

...I'm working this weekend, so no golf (most vexing, as due to a lack of planning I've missed the 2nd qualifying round for the club championship, when I was lying 3rd after the 1st round- I'm hoping next year's schedule might allow me to have a go at it). I've been reading back through the blog tonight (don't have Sky Sports, so no US open for me ;-) and it's been a bit of a shock. Having the blog recording how I feel about my golf at the time of writing means that I can almost travel back in time, but as an observer rather than a participant, and what has surprised me is just how far I've come in what is a relatively short period of time. It's a bit like not noticing how much your children have grown until you look back at photographs from a short period.

One of the most striking changes, and also the most positive one, is that in my original posts I'm more swing focused; it's almost like I'm playing "golf swing" then, whereas now I'm a lot closer to playing "Golf"- the complete entity of which the swing is but a part. I've also been working a lot on my putting, and have found the results-based coaching I thought would suit me best. And no matter how much I knew in theory, I had to start to experience it- walking the walk rather than talking the talk. I've played a number of competitions; I've been in the top 5 twice and my handicap has started to fall. I've managed to identify and start to work on the single most important factor in my improvement (haven't as yet missed a day of Karen's stretches) It's so easy to miss all of these things because they happen inch by inch and it's difficult to remain motivated if you're putting in the work and aren't aware of all your improvement (although this perhaps isn't too much of an issue for me; it seems I'm head over heels in love with golf, and don't view practice as a separate entity from golf and have come to love even the stretches, sap that I am!).

It's therefore been absolutely lovely to have had this wee reflective time to confirm how much things have moved forward. Still would rather have played in the 2nd qualifying round of the club championship or watching the US Open, mind!

Things are improving...

...95 in the first qualifying round of the club championship, with a third placed finish. It would have been 1st had I not played the wrong ball on the 14th for a two-stroke penalty. Vexing, but it's the type of mistake you make once. We'd been off searching for one of my playing partner's ball, we had a very impatient group behind us (they'd been a bit naughty, they'd squeezed in between times) I rushed up to where I thought my ball was (it was actually about 5 yards away, I hadn't realised group behind had played so hit one of their balls. Heart sank as I realised what I'd done, but thankfully when I went back, I just slid into that trance-like state and when I came too I'd hit an absolute screamer onto the green and got down in two.

Scorecard and details can be found here

I'm encouraged by this round, for a number of reasons. I had no idea what I'd shot, but was aware it was pretty good, and managed to bring myself back to the present after I'd started to wander off into the future. I don't remember bits of the round as I seem to have drifted off into a wee trance at points. This seems to be seen as a pretty good thing, provided the intentions sit well with your core values; think that this is the case for me.

It was a howling gale for the front 9, and I started quite well on the first hole. On the second, I was on the edge of the green in 3 (not bad into a very strong wind on the 2nd hardest hole) but proceeded to 4-putt. One of my playing partners helpfully pointed out it was a poor hole, but managed not to let it get to me. I struggled with my swing at first, but then slowed it down, concentrating on playing and swinging smoothly and that really helped. After a couple of slightly disappointing course management decisions I made the decision to just try to get the ball to a point just beyond where a good shot from the previous shot would have landed (I'm reading Dave Pelz' damage control, which I'll post my thoughts on later, but apparently if you do that you lose less than a stroke a hole on average). I managed yet another chip-in with my hybrid putt-chip on the 8th (I actually thought it was for an eagle when I hit it, so I'm really pleased I got it thinking that.

I'm pleased with my back 9..2 doubles, the rest bogeys if you discount the two stroke penalty on the 14th. I brought it home, kept it steady and didn't let the silly penalty get to me. Without it, it would've been my first win, and a 93. That's great, as I could easily play that round four strokes better without major work. My stretching has also paid off as I've never been so relaxed and comfy finishing 18.

More and more I feel that I've got the game to break 90 without having to go through significant work on my swing. It's more a case of making more of my swings good swings, making my poor swings better and making better decisions when I'm in trouble. Crucially, I need to make more putts, and get the ball up & down more often. The goal has to be 3 shots at most from 100 yards and in. I'm going to try more bump & runs (might use the hybrid for that too) as that's classically the answer for links golf.

My Putter's been a bit of a struggle getting it to sit right and knowing it's square; my playing partner (the one who helpfully pointed out that 4 putting wasn't very good ;-) made some comment about it not sitting flat. It's got a curved bottom, and is meant to sit square on that; I showed him and he mumbled something about modern equipment- his putter cost 50 shillings, the second one he's ever owned- and clearly suits him. There's a lesson there. My putter (an Odyssey 2-ball SRT) is a good putter, but doesn't totally fit my eye. I was out getting Miss Geek a putter & 7iron from US kids, and she insisted I try a putter on the shop's green. I picked up a 2nd hand "Heavy Putter" the L-3 Medium Weight with a 34 inch shaft, and it just fit. A colleague, teasing me, likened it to Harry Potter with his wand. I laughed, but actually it's not that far off. After sleeping on it for a couple of days, I bought it today. It sits square with no effort, I've always like the half-mallet design, the alignment aides are excellent and suit me, it puts my hands in an excellent position and the weighting in the head and butt of the shaft not only stop me taking it back too far and stop deceleration but also seem to help me weighting long putts appropriately. In short, it's great. A good purchase!

Another thing that was good about this round is that it's thee first time I've encountered a negative playing partner- the one I've alluded to above. He had comments on everything from my putting to my trolley! It amused me rather than upset me, and I just played my game and ignored his tips or at least the ones I didn't agree with. I don't think either of us will seek the other out to play together, but equally neither of us will mind if we get paired together again. Another rite of passage into the golfing world negotiated!

Unfortunately I'm on call this weekend, so if Saturday's the 2nd qualifying round for the club championship I won't be progressing, but good to get up the leaderboard. My handicap's down to 26.4; I feel like I'm starting to get on my way. This seems to be helping, so more blogging to follow

3 Good Shots...

Many mental game coaches recommend a shot diary, a journal where a player records details of all of their finest shots, the best three of every round, in sufficient detail to be able to put themselves back into the same situation and visualise the shot when they read it back. Thus the player develops their selective memory, celebrating the good and relinquishing their hold on the disappointing shots. This in turn increases confidence, and as we all know, Golf is a game of Confidence.

I got an @ mention on Twitter from @3GoodShots, asking me to have a look at his website. Intrigued (and I must admit not a little flattered to be asked ;-) I toddled along to 3GoodShots. and very much liked what I saw.

I do try to keep all of my best shots in my memory, but even with as good a memory as I have I know there's shots that I want to keep hold of that I have for about 24 hours after the round, and then a lot of the detail's gone. A fellow golfing geek, Nick, kept a shot diary following a Jamie Edwards seminar, but found he never got around to looking it up and rereading it.

An enterprising chap, Nick then designed a website, where one enters the details of ...3 good shots (see what he did there? ;-) and you're sent a daily email with one of your good shots. You then read it, close your eyes and visualise the shot. You add a bit of background to set the scene. Like many excellent ideas, it's the fact that it's blindingly obvious as soon as someones thought of it that strikes you. Ever ready to innovate, Nick's added a "par 18" scorecard, and this uses 9 balls for either long putting or up & down practice, allowing you to chart progress. He's also I believe looking at other ways of recording other aspects of practice, making this site both helpful and unique. I'm keen to see this site do well, as I think I'll find it really useful.

Please check it out- I think you might just like it ;-)


Addendum: I've now had the daily emails for nearly a week, and think that they may be helping; Today's one reminded me of a chip-in, two rounds ago, and I visualised it I felt all the elation, and opened my eyes to find myself doing what can only be described as a "wee fist pump" much to the amusement of Mrs Geek. Joking aside, anything that takes you back so vividly into a moment of good golf can only be a good thing. I'm impressed.

The single most important thing for my golf...

...I "teased" this a bit on Tuesday's post. On Monday night, some distance from a course, green or range, I discovered what is currently the single most important factor for me if I wish to improve at golf. It's something I always thought of as important, knew I was far from perfect at it and I've already done a few things to try to improve it; however I was unprepared for just how limited my situation was.

I'm talking of course about flexibility. I know I'm not supple- I was a tall teenager, at an age where all you want is to fit in, so you hunch to try to shrink back into the herd. I also played rugby, and finished up playing prop forward as my fitness levels fell (and abdominal girth increased!) what weights I did focused in the main on the obvious muscles and not their opposing groups. Added to that I have a job where I'm often hunched over trying to speak with an older person and you have a recipe for poor flexibility, even if you don't consider my years of lower activity before rediscovering sport through golf.

I'm very lucky to work (day-job work!) with an excellent physiotherapist (thanks Lisa!), and even luckier that she does some shifts for a sports injury clinic with Karen Young, a young, dynamic yet vastly experienced physio who in 2005 was appointed Lead Golf Physiotherapist for the Scottish Institute of Sport, co-ordinating and providing physiotherapy for the male and female Scottish National golf squads. £30 for a 30 minute consultation that over ran substantially. I shudder to think what the medical equivalent would cost privately.

Karen gave me an extremely thorough once over, and found that I have numerous physical restrictions, one in particular (absence of rotation in mid spine, meaning swing is all done by my arms) that's restricting my length.

I have a set of exercises to do, and now do some if working at my desk and needing a quick break. I've undertaken to do a half hour every day, and although I was tempted to aim higher I know what happens if I am over-ambitious; I shall stick to this for a while and perhaps step it up at a later date.

This might all sound like a piece of nonsense, but both Kendal and Scott commented on how rigid I looked at address, and had targeted relaxation as what they thought I should focus on. I had of course found this difficult to do, and now know why this was the case. I therefore think that my flexibility was the rate limiting step of my improvement, so I'm delighted to have tackled it. There is work to be done, but it's amazing how easy it is to motivate yourself when you have the utmost faith in your physiotherapist's assessment.

Some may be wondering why I didn't choose TPI; don't think there's anyone near me, and also would have chosen Karen's expertise over a TPI-certified instructor; this isn't as much a comment on TPI as their goals are for the most part laudable, but I don't feel that even a motivated golf pro with a good knowledge of anatomy and physiology could work at Karen's level following a few courses. If you're a golf pro reading this and disagree, imagine if the tables were turned and she were to go on courses of equivalent duration and then look to teach golfers.

That's not to say don't use TPI as I would have happily gone if they had been the only therapists nearby. All I'm suggesting is that you ask around to see if there's anyone like Karen near you, giving you the option of seeing one or other.

For anyone in close to Aberdeen and keen to see Karen, her biography is on their website. I can't speak highly enough of her.

Enough of this (this was meant to be a short post!) I'm awa' off tae stretch.

The second round of the Murray Cup..(101)

Thankfully the weather was better this week, and although a touch damp golf was a lot more of a pleasant experience. The weather last week led to a very high number of walk-offs, and I turned up to find my partner hadn't. This wasn't an issue as the next golfer to turn up was David, a chap I'd met in the previous round as the groups rejigged to accommodate those who had a burning desire to be otherwhere. David's an enthusiastic ad supportive 13 handicap, and after I'd fessed up my lack of tournament experience on the first green, he happily kept me right, and was always keen to see the positive in any situation, much like I try to do. Both of us look on golf as something that is enjoyed regardless of score, so it was a lot of fun. It quickly dawned on me that he'd read Zen Golf, and we chatted a little about that. I'm looking forward to meeting him again out on the course.

Because of the rain (I usually use Sengyma's GolfCard on my phone) and the fact my long game didn't really fire at all on the front nine slowing us down a fair bit, I didn't keep any stats on the round. This is a bit of a shame, as I'd love to have seen my putting numbers. 3 or 4 up and downs, a chip in on 18 for a "sandy" and only one 3-putt (An annoyingly dribbly little push, a tired effort from 2-3 feet on the 17th). I hit 3 pars, and had a really good back 9 45.

My front 9 wasn't quite so good at 56- once again a slow start. I was on the tee sharp, but not early. I know I keep saying this, but this time there's a little mitigation. Mrs Geek was out at a friends Hen Night (Batchelorette party for American readers) and as my parents were visiting, I picked her up in town at 2am. And of course because I knew I was up early I found it pretty tricky to get back to sleep- typical!

I used my full routine for almost all of my shots, and picked a target for about the same number. My putting, what I'd worked on most in the week, was excellent. I sunk a number of 8-10 footers, and had others that weren't far away.

What to improve? I made a number of poor decisions; often my 6-wood is great, even from semi rough but it didn't work well for me, and there were a number of shots where I didn't reproduce my practice swing by either trying too hard to hit it pulling me out of position or by coming out of tempo, into a quickening swipe. I tried for too much out of the rough on a number of occasions, and my plan is now to aim for a place just ahead of where the previous shot would have finished, had it been a good shot.

Although I had a chip in and a few up and downs, had my short game been more consistent my front nine wouldn't have been quite so high, and my back nine would have been even better. Chipping is the next focus for practice. I think a large number of my chips will be using a hybrid with a putting stroke, and I may explore using putt-chips with other clubs (my Niblick, 7 iron etc) and as I'm playing links golf I'll need to work on my bump and runs- tried one but not a great idea to try a shot you haven't rehearsed on a competitive round, but hey ho. If you've finished learning, you've finished living, so I'm glad I'm still learning lots.

I'm also having a wee bit of difficulty remembering my shots- largely because I was often so absorbed in the process, but also because I didn't review the feedback post shot, something I'm keen to add to my routine (this should only take a quick second or so of holding the follow through and assessing the result)

My brother (the Law Geek- sorry bro, but anyone who blogs on international law with such gusto merits the title!) has suggested that perhaps not every post has to be quite so long, so I'll leave my posts on www.3goodshots.com and what I got up to on Monday night (if that's not enough of a tease, I believe that it's probably the single most important step to allow me to improve at this game). I also promised Mrs Geek I wouldn't be up too late blogging and it's quarter to one already, so I better get off to bed. I'm really starting to enjoy the process of blogging, and do feel it's helping with my journey in golf improvement, and have been really quietly pleased by the helpful and supportive feedback I've received, both on here and on Twitter. Thank you- you know who you are ;-)

A leap of faith

I've had a funny week. I went out on Sunday in the Murray Cup, the championship between the 3 clubs that play on the course but hit a miserable 116 in the rain. I'd got distracted, was again rushing onto the tee. The rain just never let up, and I was pretty under prepared. The rain doesn't usually last that long here, but I'd also forgotten there's a difference between playing a competitive round and a bounce round I'd never have completed the latter in that weather. No umbrella, no umbrella holder, no wet weather gloves, and I hadn't tied my waterproof trousers tightly enough so they slid down (think 15 year old skater boy style) so I got drenched. Actually that last point is probably academic as the rain was heavy and unrelenting, so saturation was unavoidable. I've been drier SCUBA diving.

On the positive side- I stuck it out, I finished on a day when many didn't. I didn't attribute my score to the rain; I know it's the same weather and course for everyone and as an outdoor sport the weather is an unavoidable factor. I had a discussion on Twitter with a coach who had inferred I was attributing my score to the weather; he had asked if there were players who were better in the rain. My assertion is that that's not true; I don't think anyone looks forward to it, but there are players who are less affected than others, those that look at something that is unavoidable and think "I'm good in the rain and others aren't" This must be the best way to deal with a situation like this, and I'm going to be one of these players. I'm going to upgrade my wet weather gear, buy a good umbrella holder, gloves and never be caught without my umbrella again.

The main problem was that I didn't have any process, really almost none. Didn't pick a target, didn't make clear decisions, just hit horrible shots. I always had a count of my shots going in my head, focus was on result over process all the way.

A couple of formulae from the late Jack Burke, on this topic.

R/P = 0

P/R = $
( if P=process & R=result)
Emphasise process over result to be "in the money"

So why am I not able to be in the process more? It's not that I haven't mentioned it. I know what I need to do, so why am I not doing it? There's two principle reasons, one theoretical, the other practical, and they relate to each other.

I'd read a lot, and accepted what I'd read, but hadn't fully believed. I was able to regurgitate the theory, but more than that is needed. It's not enough to know, you must believe. I needed to take a leap of faith, to learn how to be totally absorbed in the process. I'm lucky to have got my experience from the Instinctive Golf short game day to draw on.

But that's not the whole reason; after all, I've been out with the intention to be more process focused often and yet not managed to sustain it. So why? Fortunately I don't have to look too far. My practice sessions frequently descend into "scrape & hit", deviate from my original intention and can end up with me just repeating the same mistake repeatedly.

In short, absolutely no focus. And then I wonder why I can't focus on the course?

So I made a plan, and I think it's a good one. I'm going to have two focused practice sessions a week; mostly putting and short game, with the range as a wet weather back up. (I would plan more, but work is pretty busy, Mrs Geek's already taking up an awful lot of slack at home and I'm guilty of making grandiose plans that I stick to for a short time and then when I can't keep up the whole plan goes, so this one is more modest and achievable). I've got a lot of practice plans from both Instinctive Golf and VISION54 that I'll use as well as using Dr Joe Parent's mind training sessions twice a week to improve focus. I'm also going to see a phsysiotherapist with vast experience in golf to look at what physical restrictions I have and for a personalised stretching program. I'm going for an Instinctive Golf long game clinic on the 30th too. I may also try and catch up with Scott Dixon (@scottdixongolf on Twitter) for a more personalised session around that time, perhaps an on course lesson to look at strategy and firm up a practice plan.

Will it work? I don't know but I think it might. I've had a practice session, and went out for a round on the nearby 6-hole par 21 course with a colleague (& hopefully new golf buddy) and hit 26- my best ever score on the course. Didn't even hit my best shots, but had a chip in (for a double as I'd been 3 off the tee ;-) No 3 putts, didn't have to hit 2 short game shots on any hole, but kept in the process very well, and I'm really proud of how I dealt with it when the thought came into my head on the 4ht green and the 6th tee that this could be my best round. In the past I'd either have got excited about it, or thought "oh no I mustn't think about that it'll ruin everything"- a self fulfilling prophecy if ever there was one. Instead, I used Dr Parent's "Labelling and Returning"- I just thought very matter of factly "That's the future. Come back to the present" (no "...or else" addition) and it worked very well.

A leap of faith. It might just work.