Trade In Your Anxiety for Ownership

When I was teaching golf full-time, the most common emotion that I noticed in my students was anxiety.  This wasn’t unique to me; it was true of every teacher I knew.  Students are anxious because they’re trying so hard to get things right, but the much surer path to playing better is owning your swing.  In this lesson, I’ll explain how you can start walking down that road.

This Lesson Is For You If:

You want a more consistent, repeatable swing

You jump around from one swing thought to another

Conformity Is Killing Your Swing

Golf is a sport of conformity.  Between the dress codes and rules for etiquette, no other sport I know gets people so anxious about doing the “right” thing.  This extends to the golf swing: golfers talk about trying to “fix” their swing as if there’s a Platonic Ideal for what it should be.  That idea of perfection also bleeds into how we talk about our swing – most people think there are right and wrong things to feel and words to use.

If you’re going to own your swing, you need to set aside these ideas.  There is no perfect way to swing a golf club.  There is not a right or wrong thing to feel or way to describe it.

Pay Attention to Yourself

Most golfers have no idea what their body is doing during the golf swing.  This isn’t because they’re bad athletes; it’s because they’re overly concerned with the result of every swing, mistakenly thinking that other people care about it.

The first step toward owning your swing is paying attention to yourself.  The next time you’re at the range, put the focus on your body and make swings.  Don’t try to change things, don’t try to control things, just swing the club, and note what you feel.  Is there pain anywhere?  Where do you feel exertion?  Is there tension or restriction somewhere?  What makes a swing feel good or bad?  And, finally, what feelings are connected to good results?

I’ll offer two keys to keep in mind when you’re going through this process.  First, go slow.  If you hit a stinker, don’t be in a hurry to race away from those feelings and hit another.  No one cares about your bad shot, and racing to the next one just cheats you out of the chance to learn.  Second, don’t judge.  This is not an exercise in self-flagellation or evaluating your abilities.  You’re just here to learn what your swing feels like.  Those feelings are not good or bad, they just are.  Take note of them and keep going.

Find Your Own Words

After you’ve spent some time gaining awareness, you can start to put things into words and creating cues.  The biggest thing to remember here is that your words don’t have to make sense to anyone else.  You can say that your swing works best when you feel some “bing” in your left elbow.  You can strive to put some “oof” into your right hip.  As long as you know the sensation that connects with those words, they’re good cues.

Once you have those cues, write them down.  These are your swing feels, and they’ll be your North Star when your swing gets lost.  I have a page of notes on my phone that I refer to whenever I start to feel like golf is a foreign concept.  My notes likely wouldn’t make sense to anyone, and they wouldn’t help most players even if I “translated” them, but they don’t need to: they’re my swing feels.

Feelings Change

One of my favorite things about my notes is the way that they’ve evolved.  In a way, it’s like a history of my golf swing.  I can look at the first note and remember when I needed to emphasize that sensation.  Being a gear nerd, I can also remember what clubs I was playing when I had those feelings.  Then I can look forward and see how it has changed.  “This is the note I made after that lesson…this is the cue I used to stop hitting shanks [more on that HERE].”

I say all of this to let you know that your feelings and cues will change over time.  That doesn’t mean you should hopscotch from one swing thought to another, but it does mean that your body may feel or react differently from one day or week to the next.  For example, I’ve been working on “opening” the club more early in my swing.  Though I have stuck with that thought for several months, some days I need it more than others.  Some days it feels easy and natural, some days it feels hard and laborious.

The Ultimate Goal

Your target in this journey is not a perfect swing.  Even if the perfect swing did exist, you couldn’t expect to own it for more than a moment.  The goal is awareness and understanding.  If you go to the course with a knowledge of what your swing feels like and how to keep it on track, you’ll be well on your way to playing your best golf.

Further reading: I didn’t write this as a companion piece to Andy Hayes’s recent lesson, but it turned out that way.  Check out his lesson HERE

The post What Should the Golf Swing Feel Like? appeared first on Plugged In Golf.

Forget Your Vision

Every golfer has a vision of their perfect practice.  The weather is beautiful, the grass at the range is flawless, you’re standing next to a mountain of gleaming Pro V1s, you have nothing else on your mind, and your body feels amazing.

Take that vision and throw it in the trash because it’s getting in the way of your golf improvement.

This Is For You If:

You don’t practice because you can’t do exactly what you want

You only practice when conditions are perfect

Practice Doesn’t Need to Be Perfect

Your perfect practice scenario is rare and maybe impossible.  Speaking for myself, waiting until “everything else is done” means I would never practice.  There is always a work task, a home chore, an errand to run.  For those of us who don’t belong to private clubs, we’re always going to be hitting range balls off grass that looks like it hosts off-road races.  The putting green is always going to be too crowded, and the short game area too small – if it exists.

Everything Counts

The good news is that all practice – good, bad, ideal, and horrible – counts.  It doesn’t matter if you’re perfectly focused.  It doesn’t matter if your shots aren’t traveling their precise distance because the range balls are three years old.  Having a golf club in your hand builds experience and helps ingrain good habits.

Think about your golf practice like exercise.  Would it be better to walk for five minutes or sit on the couch?  Of course it’s better to walk for five minutes.  An hour with a personal trainer in a fully equipped gym might be better than that five minute walk, but that’s not always (or ever) an option, so we’ll take what we can get.

Make It As Good As It Can Be

Rather than waiting for the perfect scenario or whining about how our practice opportunities stink, we need to make the most of what we have.  If you have time to hit a small bucket, do it.  And when you’re there, make it the best small bucket it can be.  Focus on every shot.  Change clubs for each ball to make it game-like.  Pick specific targets.  Go through your pre-shot routine every time.

Will any of this eliminate the clown who’s playing music on a speaker ten feet away?  Nope.  And it won’t fix the turf or replace the range balls with Pro V1s.  But it will help you get the most out of what is available to you, which, in the long run, will make you a better, more skilled player.

Don’t Take Zeros

“Taking zeros” is what I call a day without golf (or exercise, or basketball, or whatever you’re pursuing).  When you learn to practice however you can, you’ll stop taking zeros.  When you learn to stop taking zeros, you’ll see your game improve dramatically.

“I’m too busy to practice every day.”  No, you’re too busy to do a big range session every day.  You’re not too busy for the minimum effective dose [more on that HERE].

“I live in a tiny apartment in a cold weather climate, so I can’t practice.”  If you wanted to find a way to practice, you would.  I have loads of ideas for practicing in any environment HERE.

Enjoy What You Get

The other piece of this puzzle is learning to enjoy every opportunity to put your hands on a golf club.  I’m frequently guilty of forgetting this lesson.  I’ll go the range to test a club with a sense of obligation or get on my putting mat with an eye roll.

This isn’t just entitled, it’s unproductive.  If we start with gratitude and enjoyment – “Even if it’s just putting 10 balls, I’m happy I’m able to take time to play golf” – it’s a lot easier to make your practice as good as it can be.  As much as it’s lionized in some sectors, grinding with gritted teeth only works for so long.  Embrace the joy of being able to play – in any way that you’re able – and you’ll get more out of it.

The post Practice Doesn’t Need to Be Perfect appeared first on Plugged In Golf.

Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop

In the first part of this lesson – When to Take a Break from Golf [read it HERE] – I discussed the reasons why you might want to take a break from golf and why a break can be beneficial.  In this lesson, I’m going to discuss what to do if you’re struggling with your score or your feelings about the game but don’t want to take time off.

If Your Scores Are Stuck

There are lots of cliches that are appropriate for the golfer who isn’t improving.  I’ll use these two:

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

To be plain: if you want to shoot better scores, you need to start doing something differently.

Change Your Practice

Practice more, practice differently, or practice better.  The first one is self explanatory.  Practicing differently could mean spending your practice time differently (changing the ratio of putting/short game/long game) or changing the way you practice (random practice vs. block, for instance).  Practicing better means getting more out of our your practice by improving your focus, tracking your practice, or eliminating distractions.

Take a Lesson

If you haven’t had a lesson in a while, it could be time to get an outside opinion.  In one hour, you might find that you’ve been looking for answers in all the wrong places.

Learn Your Game

I say it all the time: if you’re not shot tracking, you don’t really care about your score.  Every player at every level will learn something they did not know if they track five to ten rounds and carefully examine the stats.

Change Your Strategy

Are you playing strategically, mathematically optimal golf, or are you just following your gut?  Much like people who don’t shot track, those that play by old cliches like “drive for show, putt for dough” are leaving shots on the course.

Work on Your Mental Game

Rounding out the trifecta of “Things Most People Should Do But Won’t” is working on your mental game.  Pick up a book by Dr. Bob Rotella or check out In The Zone mental training HERE.

If You Aren’t Having Fun at Golf

These suggestions are all about your enjoyment of the game.  If you don’t like them, I’m going to strongly suspect that you’re unhappy about your score and should try something from the list above.

Stop Keeping Score

This is my single best suggestion for enjoying golf more.  As someone who put the pencil away over a decade ago, I can personally attest to its effectiveness.  Most golfers are unhappy because of their score.  I’ve even seen players walk off the 18th smiling then get upset when they add up their card.  If the scorecard is what’s making you unhappy, get rid of it.

Play Different Formats

If your scorecard is making you unhappy but you still want to compete, play different formats.  Try match play.  Try Stableford scoring.  Pick a gambling game like Wolf and focus on winning the bets rather than adding up the strokes.

Use Fewer Clubs

For the average golfer, who is used to carrying a “full set” of clubs, nothing will shake things up like playing with fewer clubs.  Cut your iron set in half, carrying just the odd or even numbers.  Dump a wedge or two.  Play without your driver.  You’ll hit different shots than you’re used to, which can be very enjoyable.

Create a Constraint

Carrying fewer clubs is one constraint, but it’s not the only one available to you.  You can choose to never hit the “right” club.  You can decide to hit a fade on every shot or a draw.  You might decide that you won’t hit a club a second time until you’ve hit every other club at least once.  Experiment.  Get creative.

Record Your Good Shots

Carry the scorecard purely for writing down the best shots of your round.  When you make a long putt or pipe a perfect drive, close your eyes and lock in the feeling, then write it down on your card.

Focus on Gratitude

Golf gives us a lot to be grateful for.  You’re outside.  You’re probably with people you like.  You’re able to move around and create shots.  Focus on the positives and you’ll be quickly on your way to having fun on the golf course again.

The post Alternatives to a Break from Golf appeared first on Plugged In Golf.

A Break From Fun?

For a lot of us, the idea of taking a break from golf sound crazy.  Golf is something we love.  For most of us, it’s something we don’t spend enough time doing.  We sneak out at the crack of down to get a round in or smash a bucket of balls after work as the sun sets.

But sometimes, a break from golf can be a good thing.  In this lesson, I’ll discuss when you might want to take a break from golf and how it can help your game.

When to Consider Taking a Break

There are two main reasons why you should take a break from golf: score and emotions.

If you play golf strictly or predominantly for score, and your scores aren’t improving, you may want to take a break.  There are several reasons why a break can be beneficial to your scores – I’ll discuss them in detail shortly – but it can also be worthwhile simply to stop beating your head against a wall.  Not meeting your scoring expectations can be frustrating and demoralizing, which leads us to the feelings bucket.

Golf is supposed to be fun, recreation, relaxation.  It’s not your job.  It’s not life-or-death.  If you’re not enjoying your time on the course, it might be time for a break.

That’s not to say that every moment on the golf course needs to have you doing cartwheels.  Golf is hard.  That difficulty is what makes it satisfying when you succeed.  But if you’re not looking forward to your rounds, it might be time for a break.  If you look back on your round and realize that the dominant emotions are stress, anxiety, fear, or apprehension, there are probably better places for you than the golf course, at least for a time.

What’s the balance of fun and score?  Matt and Andy discuss HERE

Scoring Benefits of a Break

There are several reasons why a break from golf can help your score.  First, it can give your body a chance to recover.  Golf is a physically taxing game for everyone, even the young.  You’re going from stillness to maximum speed to stopped in about one second.  There’s also the high speed collision with the earth (hopefully just on iron and wedge shots).  This can lead to back issues, tennis elbow, shoulder problems, and more.  Taking time away from golf can allow your body to recover so that you’re not just getting through each round but excelling and enjoying it.

Time away from golf can also give your brain time to recover.  The score-obsessed golfer is probably also a player who has a lot of swing thoughts and ideas about the game.  This can be great – thinking about strategy and technique can lead to a lot improvement – but it can also be burdensome on the course.  Playing good golf requires a balance of active thoughts and calm focus.  A break can help tilt the scale towards the latter.

Finally, taking a break gives you a chance to reset your expectations.  A lot of players’ score issues are rooted in pressure created by unrealistic expectations.  These players were happy when they first started shooting 90 (or 80 or whatever the number is), but now it’s a miserable grind.  Taking a little time off can allow you to enjoy your baseline score again, no matter what it is.

Emotional Benefits of a Break

In a word: reset.  If you’re not enjoying golf, it’s probably become too routine and your expectations are probably out of line.  Getting away from the game can fix both those issues.

When you’re playing every week, it’s easy to lose your appreciation for all the things that make golf great.  You’re seeing the same faces, playing the same course, and probably hitting the same shots.  That kind of routine can get old, but absence will make the heart grow fonder.  After a little time away, your friend’s tired jokes will be funny again, and your home course will be a bit more vibrant.

Resetting your expectations is just as important.  Golfers are great at constantly raising the bar for themselves.  This is fine to a point, but it can get self destructive.  Taking time away gives you a chance to realize that you’re not going to be a Tour player or knock down every flag.  No one cares what you shoot except you.  Being away from the game can give anticipation and joy a chance to catch up (and hopefully run past) stress and anxiety.

You can also consider getting away from The Biggest Lie In Golf HERE

How Long to Stay Away

How long you need to stay away from golf is entirely personal.

If you’re break is emotion-driven, I think your feelings will tell you when you’re ready to come back.  When the excitement and anticipation start coming back to you, you’re probably ready to get back on the course.  This could be as little as a couple weeks if you’re just a touch rundown; it could be a couple months if you’re more severely burned out.

For those players looking for a score boost, I would suggest taking at least a month off.  This gives your body a sufficient amount of time to heal, your mind time to clear, and your expectations a chance to reset.

What if you don’t want to stop playing golf?  Click HERE

The post When to Take a Break from Golf appeared first on Plugged In Golf.

Not Another “Easy” Fix

Across any endeavor – sports, fitness, personal finance, etc – the most common form of clickbait is advertising one “easy” thing that will make all the difference.  The allure is obvious: who wouldn’t want to see massive growth from one effortless change?

This lesson is different.  I’m going to suggest something that’s incredibly hard.  I think it’s worth it – it will dramatically improve the results you see from practice – but it’s not easy.  If you’re ready, read on.

Before I go any further, I want to credit the book Essentialism by Greg McKeown [check it out HERE] for inspiring this lesson.

This Lesson Is For You If:

You’re ready to get serious about improving your swing

You are a disciplined golfer

Get Focused

The uncomplicated but difficult message of this lesson is that you need to focus your practice on one thing if you want to see real improvement.

“What?  That’s it?  That sounds really easy.”

No, it’s really difficult.  It’s not complex, but it’s hard.  I’ll explain.

Let’s start with the first requirement: knowing the right thing to focus on.  To do this, you need to know what’s really hurting your golf game.  Thankfully, there are a couple ways to figure this out.  One approach would be to take a lesson and have a coach tell you the biggest problem in your golf swing.  That could be poor contact, poor club face control, etc.

Alternately, you can look at your shot tracking data [Shot Scope V5 review HERE] to determine which part of your game is hurting your score and drill down from there.  As an example, you might see that your short game is suffering, mainly 20-50 yard shots, and mostly due to poor distance control.

Once you’ve got the diagnosis, the hard work of focusing begins.  For the rest of this lesson, I’ll use the example of minimizing fat and thin strikes with your irons.  You buy a bucket and set up your practice station.  The first swing is good.  Then you hit one fat.  The next ball is perfectly struck, but it slices.  What do you do?  This is where most golfers lose the plot.  Rather than staying focused on their goal, they chase that slice like Dug in Up (“Squirrel!”).  The focused golfer pats themself on the back for the perfect strike, ignores the slice, and keeps moving forward.

The graphic above is a perfect encapsulation of this idea.  If you are constantly chasing squirrels in practice, you’ll get a tiny, tiny, tiny bit better at a lot of things.  If you focus on one thing, you’ll see real improvement.

The Phrase to Erase

A key to progressing on this disciplined path is eliminating the phrase “I have to” from your golf vocabulary.  This is a game that you decide to play; nothing about it is “have to.”

Instead, realize that everything within golf is a choice, so use the phrase, “I choose to.”  This change is powerful because it allows you to ignore all the squirrels.  You don’t have to fix the slice.  You don’t have to fix the toe shot.  You choose to focus on hitting the ball before you hit the ground, because that’s the most important thing for your game right now.

Not Everything Matters Right Now

Right now, the Dugs in the crowd are furious.  “Everything matters!  I can’t go out on Sunday and hit slices!  I need to fix that!”

They’re not wrong.  If you want to play good golf, you can’t have a wild, unpredictable slice.  However, you can only fix one thing at a time.  That’s why the first step – diagnosis – is so critical.  Find the thing that’s causing the most pain and address it.  I have an entire lesson on what the real focal points are HERE.

When it’s no longer a problem, we can move on to other things.  But understand that nothing gets fixed with five swings.  Your focus should not change within practice sessions.  Whatever you came to the range to fix, stick with it the entire time.  If you allow yourself to change within a session, you’re back to chasing squirrels.

The Feeling of Control & Accomplishment

Ignoring slices and toe strikes will create a certain amount of psychological discomfort at first.  You may feel like you’re embarrassing yourself with those “unfixed” slices.  Pro tip: no one cares, you’re experiencing the Spotlight Effect [learn more HERE].

That feeling of discomfort will go away after a time, and you’ll be left with a feeling of control.  You’re no longer running aimlessly after every squirrel; you’re systematically addressing the flaws in your game.  When you leave a practice session, you’ll have made real improvements which will show up on your scorecard.  It’s hard, but it will be worth it.

The post The Hardest Step to Better Practice appeared first on Plugged In Golf.

“I’m Better Than That”

This is the biggest lie in golf, and it’s one that every golfer I know has told.

Some golfers tell The Lie out loud, trying to protect their pride by tongue-lashing themselves.  Others silently tell it to themselves after a bad shot.  But no matter how it’s communicated, it’s a lie.

In this lesson, I’ll explain why that lie is hurting your game and how you can play better with a healthy dose of the truth.

This Lesson Is For You If:

You get frustrated with your game

You want to shoot better scores

“You Are What Your Record Says You Are”

This line from coach Bill Parcells cuts to the heart of The Lie.  If you are the player who hit the bad shot, you aren’t better than the bad shot.  That’s not to say that the bad shot is all that you are or that you aren’t capable of better sometimes, but denying that the bad shot is part of your game is folly.

The full grown version of The Lie is the player who says, “Well, I shot 94, but…” and then explains how they actually shot 85.  It shows a detachment from reality that won’t help them improve.  Those nine extra strokes were not the result of the golf course conspiring against them.  The sooner they take responsibility for the mistakes they made, the sooner they will be on their way to fixing them.

Understanding Peak, Range, and Probabilities

Every player has a range of shots that they’re able to hit.  A 30 handicap can hit a solid approach shot, but they can also hit it three inches fat or slice it off the planet.  And those bad results are far more likely.

As we move toward scratch or Tour players, the high quality shots become better and the bad shots become less likely.  What’s important to understand, however, is that the chance of a bad shot is never zero.  Players on the PGA Tour can hit shanks or miss three-footers.

The Frustrating Middle

Being a mid-handicap player – someone between those two extremes mentioned above – may be the most frustrating.  As a 10 handicap, you’re an above average player.  You’re capable of hitting really nice shots.  But you can also hit terrible shots.  It’s not out of the question for you to lay the sod over a chip or duck hook your drive.

To stop telling yourself The Lie, you need to understand your peak, your range, and your average.

Peak Performance

This is the one that most golfers know best.  What are you capable of doing when everything goes right?  It’s the most fun element to think about, and it’s a key to good strategy.  If you have the horsepower to hit it 225 yards off the tee, you shouldn’t aim at the lake that’s 220 yards away.

That said, many golfers dramatically overestimate their peak.  This is the golfer who waits for the green to clear from 275 yards out after driving it 210.  Learn your actual peak – distances, shot control, etc – instead of playing on hopes and dreams.

Learn about your peak, range, and averages with these tips HERE

The Other Side of Your Range

Most sports psychologists would caution against negative thoughts, but it’s important that we’re aware of what kind of bad shots we hit.  I know that a snap hook off the tee is never out of the question, and I’m capable of thinning a routine chip.  That doesn’t mean I hope for those outcomes, but, if I’m going to operate in reality, I need to be aware that they exist.

We can go a step further and consider what situations make those bad outcomes more likely.  Do you slice more when you’re under pressure?  Do you hit it fat when faced with a forced carry?

In practice, we can work on eliminating these poor shots.  When we’re playing, we need to know they exist so we can minimize the damage they can cause.  Here’s an example: if I haven’t played lately, thin chips are more likely.  That may lead me to use my putter around the green more often, especially if there’s trouble long.  I’m not throwing in the towel, I’m not giving up on the idea of ever being a good chipper, I’m just adapting my strategy to my strengths and weaknesses.

Averages

The most important thing to know about your game is your average outcome with each of your clubs.  This starts with distance.  You can’t score well if you’re constantly expecting to hit the ball your all-time best distance; play for your average carry.  Similarly, while we all love hitting a laser at the flag, those are rare.  Play for your most common shot shape.

And remember that with every shot, you are aiming your whole shot pattern, not a single point.  The size and shape of your shot pattern will change from club to club, and you need to think about getting the biggest chunk of that shot pattern into the best position possible.

Play the Odds

If you know about your peaks, ranges, and averages, what should you do?  Play the odds.  Most of the time you’re going to hit an average shot.  Pick a club, a shot, and a target that will give you a good outcome most of the time.  Give some consideration to the extremes, especially when there are stroke hazards involved, but play for the fat part of the bell curve.

Laugh it Off

Have you ever seen someone throw a tantrum when they find out their Powerball ticket isn’t a winner?  Of course not.  Everyone knows that most lottery tickets are losers.  You buy a ticket to have a laugh and a chance at something great.  When it doesn’t go the way you hoped, you give a wry smile and move on.  If it does come through, you can be elated.

We should treat golf much the same way.  Most of our shots are going to be average.  That’s fine.  Go hit the next one.  When one of the bad ones pops up, laugh it off.  Go hit the next one.  And when you’re lucky enough to get one of those shots from the top 1% of your range, recognize that it’s special and enjoy the hell out of it.

The post The Biggest Lie in Golf appeared first on Plugged In Golf.

Mantras, though often associated with meditation, can be anything you repeatedly, intentionally say to yourself.  We were all introduced to this idea as children by The Little Engine That Could – “I think I can, I think I can.”  The purposes of a mantra can be as varied as the sayings themselves, from motivation to finding a sense of calm.  In this lesson, I’m going to offer a simple golf mantra to help you enjoy the game more, and, in all likelihood, play better.

This Lesson Is For You If:

You aren’t enjoying your practice

You’re practicing but not seeing results on the course

High expectations are ruining your fun and performance

Job #1

For those that are new here, my primary goal for Plugged In Golf is to help people enjoy the game more.  I’ve attacked this problem from a variety of angles, including sharing the data on how good recreational golfers actually are [check it out HERE] and discussing how to control your self-talk [read more HERE].  Today’s lesson is about recognizing the power of expectations and how we can get out ahead of them.

The Thief In Your Mind

It’s said that comparison is the thief of joy.  While I wouldn’t argue with that, I’d add that expectations are an accomplice.  In golf, I find that expectations – realistic or not – are often fueled by practice.

While this mantra will work for those with unrealistic expectations, they’re not my focus.  If you think that going to the range once a week entitles you to never slice the ball again, you probably need a professional to get you back in touch with reality.

This mantra is really meant to help the player who is working on their game every possible moment.  When you’re putting in 100% effort, it feels completely fair to expect consistent, positive results.  And when those results don’t come, it’s natural to feel disappointed.  We can work toward fixing that with one sentence.

Repeat After Me…

“Regardless of what I did to prepare, I am not guaranteed anything.”*

There is nothing in life that has a 1:1 correlation of effort to results, but golf’s correlation may be among the worst.  Golf is finicky, and the best players and hardest workers can still shoot bad scores.

That lack of direct connection can be maddening, but it’s also where the magic is.  If improvement and good play were predictable, there would be no point (or at least no joy) in playing.

And so that we’re clear, I’m not suggesting that practice won’t improve your game and your chances of playing well.  We know that it will.  But it’s the expectations and entitlement that ruin not only your enjoyment of the round but also your ability to play well.  Playing from a defensive mindset – “I’ve practiced so hard that I better hit this shot perfectly or else” – will result in worse performance than being free.

*You’re welcome to put your own spin on that.  The magic is in the concept, not the specific words.

Enjoy Practice

Another benefit of this golf mantra is that it frees you to enjoy practice.  When you’re grinding, punching the clock so you can feel entitled to better results, you’re probably not having fun.  Practice for its own sake.  Practice because you enjoy having a club in your hand.  Practice because you enjoy making the ball fly or roll into the cup.

There is no destination in golf.  The best players in the world still want to be better.  If you’re not enjoying the journey, you’re missing the point.

When it comes to strength training, I know that I’ll never be peak Ronnie Coleman, but I enjoy putting in the work and giving myself a chance to be the best, strongest version of me.  I’m trying to find that with my golf.  I hope you can, too.

The post Your New Golf Mantra appeared first on Plugged In Golf.

Don’t Watch YouTube, Go Hit Balls

At the Nexus Cup at Liberty National Tiger Woods was asked what his number one advice would be for amateur golfers. “Don’t watch f—— YouTube,” he said, “go hit balls.”  “Just beat balls?” Someone asked, “Beat balls,” Tiger replied.

“Don’t Watch YouTube”

These two tips are extremely relevant for people trying to get better at golf today.  As a coach, many of my students will randomly start working on something in their swing that they saw on YouTube, and nearly every time that thing is contributing to their big miss.  A student who hooks the ball will be trying to lower their hands in transition, or have a more bowed wrist at the top of the swing because of something they saw on YouTube or Instagram, two things that will directly influence the ball to go further left.  A different student will be trying to use their legs and “use the ground,” only they don’t know exactly what they’re doing and end up dipping down and it’s leading to them chunking every shot.

I’m not sure how much time Tiger spends on the lesson tee with amateur golfers, but I can relate to his frustration with learning golf through YouTube.  I wouldn’t be as dismissive of it as he sounded, as the people who are learning on YouTube are usually eager learners who love golf and want to learn as much about it as possible.  The problem is that YouTube is often not the best tool for this as the most popular videos are often selling the quickest and easiest fixes for problems that are more complicated than that.

Everyone is looking for the quick fix, or the swing thought that will finally unlock their game for them. Unfortunately they are searching for something that doesn’t exist. So rather than “Don’t watch f—— YouTube,” I wonder if “Stop looking for quick fixes,” is a more helpful tip.

“Go Hit Balls”

Tiger’s second tip, “Go hit balls,” is my favorite, but it definitely needs further explanation.  Every day I’m able to observe the average golfers on the driving range hitting balls, and it is not a pretty sight, and it does not lead to very much improvement.  The most common way people hit balls is a rapid fire approach where they keep hitting and hoping until they hit a good shot, and then eventually they get in a groove and start hitting it better.  They’re not getting better at golf, they’re getting better at hitting a good 7 iron on their 50th try, which I suppose if that’s what you’re going for, who am I to stand in your way. 

If you’ve ever watched Tiger warm up before a tournament, or read about his practice sessions, you’ll know that this is not how Tiger hits balls. He goes slow in between shots.  He’ll often take a break to think about something, hit one shot, then take another break.  There is no rapid fire. He’s learning, listening, searching, and becoming more aware of what’s going on.

There’s a common refrain among instructors that the students just don’t know how to practice, and don’t use their time well.  This leads us to create drills, training aids, or detailed practice plans, that will hopefully help the average golfer when they are left to their own devices.  Most instructors would agree that doing specific drills is a better use of your time than “beating balls.”  That’s why I love Tiger’s answer, it goes against the grain of what most instructors agree on.

How To Figure Things Out On Your Own

Reading between the lines, I think Tiger’s responses go hand in hand. “Don’t watch f—– YouTube, go hit balls,” could be translated as “Stop looking for quick fixes, try to figure some things out on your own.”  This is great advice, as it puts ownership back on the student, and empowers them to find their own answers.  As a coach I am very intentional in avoiding giving quick fixes, and instead leading the student in a way where they are developing more awareness and understanding about themselves and the club, so they can solve problems and be able to coach themselves.

Next time you hit balls, use it as a time to try to figure some things out on your own.  Here are three things that everyone could work on:

Figuring Out Direction

As you hit balls, notice which way the ball is missing.  If it’s missing right, then simply try to hit a ball left.  Tee the ball up if you have to so you can just focus on controlling the ball’s direction. You can aim your feet, use your wrists, mess around with how you’re turning, it doesn’t matter.  Try to figure out how to make it go left. If you’re having trouble, go down to as small of a swing as needed to make the ball go left, even if it’s going down to putting stroke!  Once you make some go left with that swing, start to build it up bigger and bigger until you are back to your full swing.  Once you can make the full swing go left, then see if you can alternate between hitting a ball left, then right, then straight. 

Figuring Out Ground Contact

Do you struggle with a thin miss or chunking?  If you keep chunking, try to hit a ball thin.  Top it if you have to!  Then alternate between intentionally thin shots and solid shots.  Once you’ve done this for a while, go back to your normal swings.  These exercises won’t be a magic cure to your problems, but what they are doing is helping you be more aware of what’s going on with the club in your swing, and helping you get better at controlling where that club is at impact, which is the most important thing.

Figuring Out Tension and Balance

Have you ever paid attention to your tension before?  What’s your grip pressure on a scale of 1-10? Is there tension in your arms as you set up?  Does your tension level stay consistent throughout your entire swing?  Once you get out onto the course your tension level will unintentionally increase, so start paying attention to it in your practice sessions. 

Most people have poor balance, and they try to slow things down to improve balance.  Instead of defaulting to a slower swing, see if you can notice at what point in your swing you start to lose balance.  Usually an unbalanced finish is a symptom of something that occurred earlier in the swing.

The Takeaway

I know telling people to practice in this way won’t lead to a viral YouTube video because this isn’t promising quick fixes or ways to magically cure your ball striking.  What it is doing is giving you time to experiment, explore, ask questions, pay attention to what’s going on, and overall increase your awareness.  This is the most valuable way you could be spending your time when practicing.  Instead of always trying out the latest trend in golf instruction, you’ll grow in your own understanding of the golf swing and will develop the awareness necessary to know what it takes for you to play your best golf.

The post Good Advice from Tiger Woods appeared first on Plugged In Golf.

“You’re Going to Get Worse Before You Get Better”

That old chestnut has been heard by almost everyone who has ever picked up a golf club.  But is it true?  Does it need to be?  Let’s examine (and, perhaps, dismiss) one of golf instruction’s oldest cliches.

This Lesson Is For You If:

You’ve been told “You need to get worse to get better”

You want to take lessons or are taking lessons

You want to improve your swing or your scores

Why It Is Said

“You’re going to get worse before you get better” is something you hear primarily from golf instructors, though you’ll also get it from the “experts” roaming the range, dispensing swing tips like candy at a parade.  I can conceive of two answers to the question, “Why are they saying that?”

My cynical answer is, “To sell more lessons” or “To postpone any questioning of their credibility.”  If you give me a lesson and I play worse, logically, I should stop taking lessons from you.  Telling me that getting worse is part of the process keeps me buying lessons.  It also keeps me from questioning you in real time when your swing change has me digging a trench behind the golf ball.  Finally, it shifts the responsibility or blame to the student.  “Oh, you’re not seeing results yet?  You’re probably not working hard enough.”

I can also be more generous with my interpretation and suggest that instructors say this because they genuinely believe it, and they want the student to stick with the process.  It’s fair to see this as a way to set realistic expectations.  “Stick with the plan.  The results won’t come overnight, but they’ll come eventually.”

Is It True?

Now to the heart of the matter: is it true that you need to get worse before you get better?  My short answer is “No,” though there is a version of the answer that starts, “Yes, but…”.

Ultimately, I think that this cliche comes about because of a combination of poorly defined goals and cookie cutter instruction.  I’ll explain that in depth through the lens of the four primary goals a golfer might have.

“I Want More Distance”

It is completely reasonable to have “more distance” as your #1 goal.  Hitting the ball far is fun, and adding distance is one of the best ways to significantly improve your scores.  Gaining distance is also an eminently achievable goal – most golfers can access loads more distance through speed training and swing changes.

If your goal is to hit the ball farther, there is no reason on Earth why you should go backward before you go forward.  Whether you’re doing speed training with a system like SuperSpeed [review HERE] or making swing changes to move more efficiently, you will not get slower before getting faster.

That said, it’s entirely possible (though not necessary or even likely) that while you are working on speed, your scores will go up or your ball striking will suffer.  Neither of these things happening confirms the cliche.  Your goal was to get faster.  You are getting faster.  The other things will sort themselves out.  Keep your eye on the prize.

“I Want to Hit the Ball Better”

This is the goal that will most often lead to someone reciting the cliche.  Why?  Cookie cutter golf instruction.  “Oh, well, if you want to hit it better, we’re going to have to take your entire swing down to the studs.  We’re going to spend three weeks working on the first half of your takeaway, then build from there.  While we’re doing this, you’re going to hit it a lot worse, but, ya know, you have to get worse to get better at golf.”

Bulls***.  Mr. Hypothetical Instructor, nobody asked you to tear their swing down to the studs.  They asked to hit the ball better.  Did you ask what that means to them?  No, you didn’t.  If you had, you would have gotten them to explicitly state that they want one or more of three things: to hit the center of the face (less toe or heel), to hit it more flush (less fat or thin), or to tighten their dispersion.

If somebody came to me asking for one of those three things, I wouldn’t touch their swing.  I would teach them what makes the ball go straight and what makes it curve [fully explained HERE].  Then, I would give them skill drills.  I would teach them how to control the low point of the swing and how to control the club face.  And they would hit it better immediately.

Interested in a skills-based approach?  Read THIS.

“I Want a Prettier Swing”

This is the goal that many, many golfers have, but few will say explicitly.  I ran into this regularly when teaching with a video-based organization: a student would come in after a couple lessons, tell me they were playing their best golf, then cry about how their swing looked on film [this is one reason why I am staunchly anti-video, as I explained HERE].

As with any other goal, I think this is fine.  I can imagine it’s a lot of fun to have a beautiful swing.  And, once again, it’s a goal that does not require any regression before you make progress toward it.  If you tell me you want a textbook swing, we can make progress toward that from day one.  Your swing will look better after every single lesson.

Other things may suffer.  You may hit is shorter or more crooked.  You may dig trenches behind the ball.  But you will look good doing it.

“I Want Lower Scores”

As an instructor, I never accepted that this was the real goal, at least not right away.  I asked a lot of clarifying questions along the lines of, “Will you be happy to hit it the same way if your scores go down?”  But if they held fast to the score being all that mattered, they were my favorite kind of student.

Now, any decent instructor who hears this goal is going to want data.  They’re going to want to see shot tracking data [Shot Scope product reviews HERE] so that they can understand where you’re losing strokes relative to your peers and relative to where you want to be.  Then they can prescribe a fix that focuses on your weaknesses.

In the vast majority of cases, a good instructor should be able to help you shoot lower scores without going backwards.  Most golfers can’t break 100 honestly, so a little putting practice, a tip to get out of the bunkers, and they’re going to be safely in the 90s and thrilled.  Even in the 90s and high 80s, there’s a lot of low hanging fruit that can be picked with skill drills and more focused practice.

The one case where you may have to get worse to get better is if you’re looking for a significant score improvement and you don’t have enough distance and you’re unwilling to move up tees (or you’re already playing the forward tees).  As a frequent solo golfer, I play with a lot of different people, and they’re often older golfers.  Many of them are quite skilled, but they simply don’t hit it far enough to make pars.  In this situation, they would need to get longer to significantly improve their scores.  This might mean that their scores go up in the short term while they get used to a swing change and/or the added speed from physical training.  This is the only scenario where I think the cliche holds true.

The Takeaway

“But, Matt, I want my swing to look better, hit it farther, and shoot lower scores.”

Neat.  I want to deadlift 800 pounds and still see my abs.  I’d like to drive a McLaren but not have a negative bank balance.  Sadly, this is not how life works.  Prioritize.  Pick a goal, focus on it, work hard, and achieve it.

To paraphrase the Rolling Stones, “You can’t always get everything you want, but if you try, you can get some of it.”  And you can get it without getting worse.

The post Do You Need to Get Worse at Golf to Get Better? appeared first on Plugged In Golf.

An Unhelpful Obsession

Since video cameras became commercially available, golfers have been obsessed with putting their swing on film.  Now, with a 4K camera in every pocket, it’s an obsession that’s available to every golfer.  Unfortunately, it’s one that is not helping your game the way you think it is.  In this lesson, I’m going to explain why.

Quick Disclaimer: This isn’t about instructors using video in lessons.  I don’t love video, but I can appreciate that it has its place in some lessons.  This is about you, the golfer, filming your own swing.

Find this lesson in podcast form HERE

This Lesson Is For You If:

You film your golf swing

You’re thinking about filming your golf swing

You’d like to get better at golf

The One Exception

I can think of one case where filming your golf swing makes sense, and it’s this: if you are currently working with a golf instructor, and you need to check in between lessons.

Even in this scenario, I would add two major caveats.  First, I would not suggest filming your swing unless your instructor has shown you exactly how to film your swing, with the actual equipment you’re going to use.  If you’re going to use an iPhone on a tripod, take it to your lesson and measure out exactly where it needs to go with your instructor.

The second caveat is that you need to have the discipline to film a few swings but not critique them yourself.  This is, undoubtedly, the harder part of the equation.  Most golfers can’t help loudly explaining the “cause” of every mishit on the course, let alone filming their swing without picking at it.

With that out of the way, let’s get to it.

Why You Must Stop Filming Your Golf Swing

Ignoring the Ball

One of my primary complaints with video is that it divorces golfers from the result of the swing.  We’re talking about video.  Not the ball flight.  Not the thing that actually matters.  We’re talking about video.

I’ve seen countless videographer-golfers hit a shot and barely notice the ball flight before they run to the replay screen.  These players are ignoring the most vital feedback there is – what the ball does – to figure out if their swing looked right.  And what does “looks right” mean, anyway?  Which leads me to…

You Don’t Know What You’re Trying to Fix

With absolutely no apologies to all the YouTube swing doctors out there, the average person filming their swing has no idea what they’re looking at.  They’re drawing lines like Peter Kostis without any clue what they mean or if those lines even apply to them.

“I want to keep my club on this line I drew.”  Interesting, let’s discuss…

Bad and Inconsistent Set Ups

The way your swing looks on video will be dictated by how you set up the camera.  Are you using a tripod to set up the camera in the exact same place every time?  Are you measuring the exact distance from your camera to your hitting position?  If not (and let’s be honest, you’re not), the feedback is worse than meaningless, it’s misleading.  You may think you’re grooving a perfect takeaway, but you’re actually making the problem worse.

Chasing a Look

Video has done immense damage to many golfers who go chasing a look rather than worrying about what matters.  Exhibit A is “lag.”  Many golfers have chased (and continue to chase) this backwards idea of “holding off” the release because video shows that Tour players have their hands ahead of the ball at impact.  In this case – as in others – a still frame of video completely misleads the golfer.  And more to the point, why does it matter?  Video-obsessed golfers will be unhappy with a beautiful shot because it “looks wrong.”  It’s madness!

Moreover, your swing should not look like anyone else’s.  “I’m trying to look like Adam Scott.”  Do you have his flexibility, strength, or coordination?  No?  Then why would your swing look like his?

Finally, “ugly” or unconventional swings work.  Jim Furyk is, of course, Exhibit A, but there are countless others.  Annika Sorenstam was looking downrange well before contact.  Bryson Dechambeau and Matt Wolfe had a playoff for the US Open without making one “beautiful” swing between the two of them.

Wastes Time

The number one complaint of golfers everywhere is a lack of time.  It’s the reason given for why we don’t work on putting or our short game or why we haven’t busted our slice.  So why are you making your practice time less efficient with a camera?  While I’m not advocating that you judge your practice in balls hit per minute, the time spent setting up the camera and evaluating each swing can be better spent either hitting more shots or working on other parts of your game.

Lack of Focus

To get good at anything, you need to focus.  Video is the death of focus because there are countless things to look at.  I’ve seen this in hundreds of students – sometimes even during a lesson!  I can ask a student to keep their head still and by swing three they’re pointing at the screen telling me that their takeaway it too far inside.

The golf swing has dozens of components.  It’s hard enough to stay focused on fixing one thing at a time in the best of circumstances.  Video makes it nearly impossible.

Looking for Problems

Some years ago, an instructor posted two identical swings side-by-side and asked members of the discussion group to find the differences.  Those aforementioned YouTube swing doctors rushed in to explain how the left swing was better than the right or vice versa.  This quickly became my favorite example of how video causes golfers to find problems where none exist.

It is a fine thing to strive for perfection, even though we know it’s impossible.  However, when we go looking for problems and things to change, we undermine our success.

Poor Feedback

Good feedback is clear and immediate.  Video is neither.  The delay is the most obvious issue.  By the time you’ve hit the shot, walked back to your screen, drawn a couple lines, and evaluated the film, your body has no memory of what that swing felt like.

Do you know what does provide clear, immediate feedback?  The ball!  Between the feel of impact – for judging strike location – and the ball flight, you have all the feedback you need to correct what’s happening.

Internal Cues vs. External Cues

This is a little jargon-y, so I’ll explain.  An internal cue tells your body what to do with itself – “Keep your left arm straight.”  An external cue tells your body what you want it to do – “Hit the ball before you hit the ground.”  Research has shown conclusively that external cues are superior to internal cues, and video only pushes us toward the latter.

I discuss this topic more HERE.

Loss of Self Reliance

All of the preceding reasons are good and important, but this is the single biggest one for me.  Players who love video often become dependent on it.  They need to run to the replay like NFL referees to know if the swing was good or not.  They lose the ability to feel their own swing and make the necessary changes.  This is why so many video-obsessed players can put in hours of work but never shave a single stroke off their handicap: on the course, without video, they’re lost.

At its very best, video is nothing more than training wheels.  Used under correct supervision, it can be helpful for working on components of a skill.  But ultimately, to learn the skill in question, the training wheels need to be removed.  The learner must be able to figure things out for themselves.

What to Do Instead

Literally, anything.

My primary recommendation is understanding ball flight.  The five lessons HERE are some of the first things I ever wrote for Plugged In Golf, and they remain some of the most valuable.  If you want to see them in practice, check out how to hit a draw HERE and how to hit a fade HERE.

If you’re addicted to the feedback of video, get a simple launch monitor.  Something like the Swing Caddie SC300i [review HERE] can give you some basic stats on each shot.  Keep an eye on smash factor to get a good sense of the quality of your ball striking.

Should you want to change things you’re doing with your body or club, get some alignment sticks.  I have a full lesson HERE explaining numerous ways to use them.  You can also find countless training aids geared toward specific changes to your swing.

Finally, you can take lessons.  Find an instructor you trust and get to work.  Focus on what they ask you to do.  Commit to their method.  It’s a lot better than trying to fix your swing by drawing lines on a screen.

Fair warning to commenters: I’ve spent more time thinking about this than you have.  You are welcome to disagree, but disrespect, stupidity, and comments from people who clearly didn’t bother to read the article will be deleted or publicly eviscerated. 

The post Stop Filming Your Golf Swing appeared first on Plugged In Golf.