Carlo Reumont over at thefastlearners.com sent me a guest post that's a little different from the sort of thing I usually post. However, he included an unusual drill that struck me as a unique approach to the problem of developing a consistent swing. This drill demonstrates a different mindset, so I'm passing it on.
From working golf to playing golf: How to break through the effort barrier
Most golfers DO NOT play golf. They WORK golf!
Why?
Because they are thinking about how to hit the ball.
“Well of course I think about hitting the ball!” you might object. “How else can I figure out what to do?”
Think back to when you played as a child – making sand castles, shooting marbles, playing soccer, throwing ball or surfing.
Did you practice playing?
Did you try to play?
Did you work on getting into the zone of playing?
Of course not!
If you were like most children you just PLAYED!
What if you never had to think about how to hit the ball again? What if you could simply play the game?
YOU CAN!
Going beyond effort
There is a logic to golf and low scoring that is overlooked. This logic says:
You can only play good shots if you can swing the club.
Let’s be honest for a second:
Who goes out and learns to swing the golf club?
What do most golfers do? They try to hit the ball!
Catch my drift?
This means they skip step one and try to start with step two.
The result?
They play under their potential!
That used to be me too. Then I discovered that swinging the golf club is a skill in itself.
And the best thing?
I can learn this skill anywhere I can swing a golf club!
It’s logical!
So here is an EXERCISE to move from working golf to playing golf:
Grab a club and take it to a space where you can swing freely. You do not need a ball. Go into the address position. Legs strong, low point of gravity, grip tight, arms relaxed. Now swing the club back and forth ten times. Do five sets so you do 50 swings.
As you progress from set to set, feel into each part of the swing:
- Legwork: How strong and stable does your stance remain? What can you do to remain firm from the first swing to the 50th?
- Grip: When and where does your grip loosen, weaken or fail? Weed out any disconnection you feel to the club at any point. Pay attention to maintaining a solid, air-tight grip from beginning to finish.
- Center: Where does your power come from? Focus on activating your body’s core (back, abdominal muscles, chest muscles) and have them guide the arms through the swing. What can you do to have you center create club head speed?
As you see, there are some critical swing elements at play in this exercise. The best part? You don’t even need a ball! You can practice this anywhere you can swing a club.
Why?
Because the body and the speed of the club give you so much feedback on what is going on, you can tell even without a ball whether you are doing well of not.
Your new game
Most players are preoccupied with good ball striking and forget that this is not the aim of golf.
The aim of golf is to
finish the round with as few shots as possible.
To move from working golf to playing golf, we must broaden our horizon of the playing field.
First, we want to work on our swing.
Then we can work on striking the ball.
Finally, we want to improve our decisions on the course.
When we improve steps one and two to get better at three, we are truly playing the game of golf. The more you do the above exercise, the more you can focus on the “higher” challenges of golf – the real challenges of the scratch golfer.
Your new game is then to tick the boxes that you can tick:
- Build and maintain stability.
- Create a solid connection with your club.
- Swing from the core.
All these things are in your power. Once you work on them consistently you are winning the game within and this will show on the score card as well – it must!