INTRODUCTION: THE GLASS CEILING
“Your swing is your swing.”
Jackie Burke Jr.
The 20th century golfer is the penultimate research scientist. Like a modern day alchemist, the rabid golfer experiments tirelessly to uncover the combination of elements that will unlock the vault guarding the secret to a consistent game.
The Golf Gods tantalize us with the illusion that the missing piece of the puzzle is out there somewhere. Golfers have an insatiable thirst for knowledge. Amazon.com lists over 1,240 instruction books. YouTube boasts 13,000 videos on How To Cure A Slice. These numbers are multiplying daily at an exponential rate.
It would appear that every instructor has a different version of the golf bible.
Any golfer with a computer has free access to unlimited resources on every aspect of the game, from swing mechanics to physical conditioning to mental secrets of the world’s best players. Esoteric knowledge is no longer the exclusive domain of scratch players and elite instructors.
Drivers with self-adjusting screws allow a golfer to compensate for a chronic slice or hook, without taking out a second mortgage to enlist the services of a highly-touted teaching professional.
Smart phones with built-in, high-definition cameras are capable of slow motion playback. Within minutes a golfer can see the critical flaws in his swing. With all this knowledge (literally) at one’s fingertips, you would think the average golfer would score in the 80’s consistently.
According to the National Golf Foundation, the 2012 median handicap for the average male golfer in North America is 16. Only 10 percent of golfers score below 90 consistently. This figure hasn’t changed appreciably in 40 years! My search for an answer to this paradox was the tipping point for writing this manuscript.
SAME OLD, SAME OLD…
Upon reviewing my lesson notes compiled over the past thirty-one years, I’ve noticed a disturbing pattern. My regular clients take a series of lessons every spring, practice regularly and improve. During the summer, the golf clubs are often relegated to the basement as kid’s activities, family holidays and home renovations assume top priority.
Often, I wouldn’t see the student again until the following spring. In the majority of cases, the first two lessons of the new season were devoted to correcting the swing faults that were supposed to have been exorcised the previous year!
This ritual repeated year after year with alarmingly regularity. (The image of a mouse on a treadmill pops into my head as I write these words.) When the student had time to practice, the new technique produced significant improvement. After an extended layoff, however, the old habits re-emerged.
Most once-a-week golfers do not have the time or resources to invest in regular lessons. Resigned to this fact, you may abandon any hope of improvement. You just play for fun right? Score doesn’t really matter, does it?
My approach is based on fundamental concepts of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) as popularized by Anthony Robbins. (Don’t worry, it’s not as scary as it sounds). You have untapped natural ability. The key to your best golf is learning how to unlock your mental vault and access your innate swing on demand. One of the biggest roadblocks to improvement is our automatic tendency to dwell on apparent flaws in technique.
Based on my experience, most golfers find it easier to think negatively; we have been conditioned to look for mistakes. An awareness of critical flaws is necessary for improvement, however, our obsession with fault-finding leads to the embedded belief that our natural instincts betray us and must be constantly suppressed.
How often do you hear a golfer ask, “What’s right with my swing?”
The technology that permits us to dissect the golf swing into a hundred pieces perpetuates our tendency to look for errors; technical nuances that cannot be seen by the naked eye.
Disassembling the motion is easy. Learning how to put the pieces back together again is the “kicker”. The secret to constant improvement is refining, not destroying, your innate ability.
Traditional golf instruction is akin to “throwing out the baby with the bath water”. For the once-a-week golfer, attempting to correct every swing flaw in pursuit of an esoteric ideal is lunacy.
So what’s the alternative?
Every golfer has hit shots that just felt right. Re-creating this feeling is the key to unlocking your best golf. Feeling is, by implication, the absence of conscious thought.
A common misconception among high handicap players, is that one must have the proper form in order to recapture the gossamer feeling of a perfect shot. The skilled golfer knows that the exact opposite is true. Learn how to “find the feeling” and the swing will take care of itself.
Every seasoned player has heard that golf is ninety percent mental. Taken to its literal conclusion, one might assume that technique is irrelevant and you can learn to will the ball to the hole. At this point in our evolution, telekinesis is not a viable alternative to hitting the ball with a club. While the (technical) 10 percent of the above equation sounds trivial, it is critical for improvement.
You must have the essentials of technique firmly established to implement the ninety percent effectively. A house without a solid foundation will eventually crumble.
There are three mechanical prerequisites which form the foundation of every effective swing. These three essentials are much easier to master than you are led to believe. Adhering to the above maxim, ninety percent of this book is devoted to helping you master your mental arena. Every instruction book offers a different perspective on proper swing mechanics.
It’s my hope that the chapter on the Three Essentials will allow you to incorporate them quickly into your unique style. They are offered as signposts to help you avoid the recurring dead ends that many golfers encounter in the search for their innate swing.
One of the fundamental concepts of NLP is the power of habits or rituals. If you had to think about which pant leg to pull on or which shoe to tie first, your daily existence would grind to a halt. Habits are essential to help us navigate smoothly through our day, however, they can cement beliefs and shut off your potential to explore new possibilities.
How does this relate to your golf game? Good question
Your handicap is the result of habitual ways of thinking and acting. Over time, this pattern creates a wall to improvement that appears insurmountable.
Until you become aware of your rituals and learn how to develop new empowering ones, the wall remains intact. You have more natural ability than you realize.
The first step to breaking through the wall is to uncover it…