According to a recent, Golf Week Article, USGA is on the verge of banning ‘anchoring’ belly putters. I think this will be a good thing for golf. I see more and more Juniors coming to see me with belly putters in their bag. I have come to believe this as bad for the game, and development of Golfers. The Belly Putter, when anchored, robs the player of the ability to develop a deep sense of feel and touch. The degree of freedom that the anchored putter eliminates, is essential to developing what all great players have shared over the years; touch. Is touch innate? It is often suggested that it is, some are born with it, while others are not. Touch is more a product of environment, both short and long term. The more fundamental sport skills one developed as a youngster, will increase their ability to develop deeper senses of touch and feel as an adult, older golfer. Furthermore, the more one works at consciously challenging one’s ability to hit different distance putts, the more touch is augmented and refined.

What about the Yips? Many have skirted the Yips with the long putter. The Yips are rooted in anxiety. Anxiety is rooted in fear of missing. Fear of Missing is rooted in a fear of a negative score, and finally fear of a negative score is exists only for those that find their self-identity in score. So, like the DircTV commercial, ‘don’t find your self-identity in score’.

Embrace the short putter. It’s the way the GAME was meant to be played.

Luke

I write this looking out on a rainy NW Day. Winter is descending, rapidly.  Meanwhile, much of the country is strangled by frozen temperatures that are suffocating distant memories of the good, as well as the bad shots of the last golf season.  It is during these cold and snow-filled months that I tend to field a particular, and seemingly perennial, question from my students and golfing friends:

“What should I do to keep my ‘muscle-memory’ up for golf during the off-season?”

Maybe you’ve asked this question yourself at one point. I’ve seen all kinds of things: nets in the garage, a club or two in the corner of the living room. Here’s the thing: it’s not that hard really, because, (how do I say this clearly enough…?)

“THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS MUSCLE MEMORY!!!!!!”

There, I said it. I can hear gasping, reaching, searching, what?!!? No such thing as muscle memory? The audacity!

Yep, that’s right, your muscles don’t remember anything. They don’t have hard drives; they don’t have short-term or long-term memory of anything.

The ability of your brain/body to perform and behave efficiently is entirely a function of neural pathways… Little trails in your brain, insulated by stuff called myelin. The more myelin, the better the trail. The better the trail, the more efficient you are at performing the task that the neural pathway serves. The more efficient that the neural pathway is at striking the golf ball crisp and clean — the more pars and birdies, etc. You get the picture.

So, how do you make those “trails” better? That’s what the winter is for. I think, for the most part, people get worse during the summer. Yep, that’s right, they just travel those same old bogey laden paths. They’re comfortable, they’re easy, they’re what you know and go to when situations stress the brain/body. The winter is time to build, and strengthen new paths, so to speak.

Here’s Step One:
Relax. There are many ways to do this. My favorite is to eat right, drink lots of water, and breathe. Next, just create some sensations in your mind of flush contact with the club and ball, see some pictures of high straight ball flights, and hear the sound of well-struck crisp golf shots… The key is to see, feel, and hear what you want to happen, rather than how you want it to happen. The latest intellectual analysis in your favorite golf magazine on how the lower body works in the golf swing won’t really help — but the pictures of Tiger swinging will. It’s a subtle, but important distinction.

Step Two: Ski. Run. Bike. Do Yoga. Whatever you want to do-Just Build as many new motor patterns in your brain as you can. It will help your golf.

Step Three: Break your Swing Down. Get it on Video. Get some Data. Get an objective pair of eyes, and more importantly  a more accountable set. Make as many ‘new’ swings without a ball, as you do with a ball. Get uncomfortable. Study and understand your ball flight. Gravitate in your mind to the kind of purposeful ball flight you want this spring. Practice, and begin to own your swing.
I have actually learned to love breaking down my game, simplify it, and giving those bad-swing paths a chance to get over-grown, while building some new, sub-par paths that I am sure will eventually lead to sweet spring birdies.

Casey Maralack, rehearsing the Throw.

Just Throw it!

Wedge shots inside 40 yards can be a frightening experience for some golfers. For others, it can be a stress free green light opportunity to score. How do we get into the mindset of the ladder, and obviate the former? The answer is simple: Think about throwing the ball. Thinking about throwing the ball does two things; First, it sparks some of the correct motor patterns in the brain, that are related to executing a good golf shot technically inside 40 yards. Secondly, it gives the brain a good trajectory image, and it puts it in a state of relaxed automaticity, free from anxiety and tension, from which good golf shots are more easily born.  Shanks, skulled-shots, and fat shots all find their root in fear, hesitation, and anxiety.

The hallmarks of a good wedge player include having weight on the left side (for right handers) at impact, and good body rotation on the downswing so that the chest faces the target when finished. What do you need to do to throw a ball properly? Plant your weight on the forward or left foot (for right handers), and rotate the chest to the target. Throwing the ball also gives the brain a good picture of where the ball should land, which always dictates the proper trajectory needed to get close to the hole.

Throwing the ball is something most people can do with relative ease. Most of us make the task of pitching the golf ball less than 40 yards too difficult, because we place too much ‘should’ type thinking on it. What does that mean? Short shots we ‘should’ get close. They are relatively easy, right? This mindset is one of pass/fail, where you should succeed, and where failure is embarrassing. Swinging from this mindset of failure avoidance, almost always is stressful, and good golf shots rarely find their origin in stress and anxiety over the outcome. The first step is to convince oneself there are no ‘easy’ or ‘hard’ shots in golf. They are all just shots. Next, simply rehearse a couple of throws in your mind, get it relaxed and at ease, then commit to swinging the club from that place, fearless of the outcome. Transcending the ‘should’ mindset and creating a more ‘this is a challenge’, anxiety-free mindset, is the key to finding yourself with more 6 footers for birdie and pars, lowering your score, and more importantly, enjoying yourself inside 40 yards.

Here’s a quick drill you can use on the putting green to get yourself in the right mindset for rolling good putts. It’s called the ‘go-line’ drill. You’ll need a ten-foot putt, and a stick or club on the ground marking a ‘go-line’ to step across from behind the putt and into your putting stance. Crossing over the ‘go-line’ and into a mindset of clear committed intention is the goal.

Behind the Ball, and behind the ‘go-line’:

1)   Establish your ‘spot’ 6-8 inches in front of the ball you would like the intended putt to start on.

2)   Create a mental image of the ball rolling into the hole (last 2 feet or so)

3)   Cross the ‘go’ line with a firm commitment to your spot, and your image. (A touch of swagger doesn’t hurt either).

4)   Pull the trigger and stay committed to your spot and image through the stroke.

5)   Evaluate. Were you committed?

Lastly, all great putters, and most great athletes employ pragmatic attribution patterns. What does that mean? It means they blame the right things for missed putts, so that they protect their putting confidence.  Bernard Weiner, a respected psychologist who first came to prominence in the 1970s, has, in his published work, shed light on what people choose to blame or credit for their failures and successes in life. His research, applied to a performance-based activity such as golf, is simply fascinating.

Weiner said there are three basic things that people will blame (or credit) when they fail or succeed at a task: Ability, Effort, or Luck. How you perceive and describe your own successes or failures will reveal everything about your beliefs, motivations and future expectations about your performance.

The bottom line is that great performers rarely fault their ability. They always look first at their effort, or lack thereof, as the reason for failure. If great effort was given, well then, sometimes things just don’t go your way, and that’s just bad luck. Don’t be afraid to employ the luck card when effort was put forth, and the results simply didn’t come through.

If there’s an intangible in putting that is difficult to teach and measure, and that separates great putters from good ones, it’s confidence. Most great putters have the unique, learned, ability to decipher between a bad putt, a bad read, and bad luck. I see countless amateurs hit good putts, but simply under or over read the break, only to fault their ability as a putter. Or, they hit a good putt and get a bad bounce at the hole, only to quickly degrade themselves as putters. This slow degradation of ability has enormous consequences for ones confidence. Good putters quickly ask themselves of a missed putt, if they hit a solid putt on the line they intended, if the pace was correct, or if the read was correct. If the answer was yes to these questions, then guess what? Bad luck was the culprit, and they are still great putters in their mind. Good putters rarely fault their ability, and if they do it’s with a firm resolve to work harder.

Spending time away from the golf course enhancing your ability to relax and focus, and your ability use imagery and visualization so that you can effectively get the most out of the ‘go-line’ drill, and your putting on the golf course.  These two strategies, when employed properly are what distinguish those that consistently miss, and those that simply can’t.

Luke Brosterhous, M.S., PGA is the Director of Instruction at TPC Snoqualmie Ridge, in Snoqualmie, WA. Luke holds a Masters Degree in Exercise and Sport Science, where he studied Sport Psychology. Luke was the 2010 & 2011 Colorado Section PGA West Chapter Teacher of the Year. For more information visit www.lukebrosterhous.com or www.tpcsr.com.

Compressing the ball has to do with letting the right hand get in the passenger seat when holding the club. I say ‘Hold’, because that’s what we need to think when using the club, not ‘Grip’. ‘Grip’ has a firm rigid connotation, while hold has a soft athletic connotation for most.

If we start with our hands and arms relaxed, yet ready, we are more apt to make a fluid and athletic move. Holding the club right is simple: use the last three fingers in the left hand to secure the top of the golf club. Next, use the middle two fingers on the right hand to attach the right hand for its ride.

Here’s the drill:

1)Hit 1 balls with the left hand only.
2)Hit 1 ball with both hands, yet let the right hand come off on the follow through.
3)Hit 1 ball with both hands. Let the left hand drive the club, and the right hand check out the scenery along the way!

When I turn on the golf channel, I frequently see some guy screaming at the camera telling me that I need to feel or think about this or that when I am swinging. The question then is, what exactly should you be focused on when you swing? Is there one thing that is better than another? Over the course of 20 years of golf, I’ve tried a myriad of things: feeling the ‘lag’, thinking right hand-down, and turn the left shoulder–just to name a few. I’ve tried being “aware”, but got a really bad case of the shanks doing that in a tournament once. I’ve tried just focusing on the flag, but have had very mixed results. The flag, it seemed, wasn’t really related to what I was doing with my club and ball, it was just a marker in space. What if I hit it? (see Hunter Mahan, 2009 US Open). Recent research has shed light on this question, and has relevance for playing at our peak; it all has to do with what we put our “attentional focus” on. In other-words, it’s all about what are we focused on when we swing. When I stumbled upon the initial waves of this research a few years ago, the way I played and taught the game dramatically changed for the better. The answer, as to what is the most beneficial thing to focus on for optimal performance in golf, may pleasantly surprise you.

Essentially, we can boil down where we put our attention into three categories, Internal (how are body is moving when we swing), External nearby, (i.e., the club face at impact), and External far away (i.e., the flight of the ball). According to the latest study in this area of research, referred to as action effect hypothesis, James Bell and James Hardy, scholars at Bangor University, in Wales, UK, decided to explore these areas of attention, with an historically understudied population of golfers: experts. Those with an average handicap of 5. In the past, most research on this subject has been conducted on novice golfers (They are easier to find and study). Bell and Hardy had three groups of golfers, all with with an average handicap of 5.5, hit chip shots to a target about 22 yards away. The first group, had an internal focus: wrist hinge. The second group had an external nearby focus: square club face. The third group had an external far away focus: straight flight. The results were unequivocal. Performance from the third group was significantly more accurate using the far away external focus in comparison to both the external nearby and internal focus groups. Furthermore, when the researchers introduced anxiety heightened conditions (offering $$$$ for accuracy), the results duplicated themselves.

So, why doesn’t awareness work? Awareness itself is not bad. In fact, it may be helpful in learning a movement pattern. However, awareness of how the body is moving brings about an internal focus of attention, and as the research has shown over and over again, an internal focus in performance settings is less helpful. Bell and Hardy even go as far as saying that performance is impaired with internal focus, and enhancedwith external far away focus. Shanks? Say hello to the cause: internal focus. It’s all about letting the mind respond withautomaticity. When you go internal, you don’t allow this process to take place.

Why is the flag-stick or a target irrelevant? An external focus of attention is one that is directed toward the effect that our body movements have on the environment. I’m not affecting the flag, where as I am affecting how the ball flies, and where it lands on the the green. What you choose to focus on may seem subtle, yet it holds a significant difference in the way things may turn out. I credit this body of research as the biggest influence of improvement in my personal game and teaching, and I’m confident, that when employed correctly, it will benefit your game too.

Numerous studies have been conducted on the positive effects of imagery and sport performance. However, little has been written in the golf world, on how exactly to employ imagery, or as to what it is for that matter.

The word imagery, suggest vision and sight, however imagery really involves all the senses. The most important senses for golfers are sight, feel and sound. A pre-shot routine is the place where imagery takes place, and the litmus test of a pragmatic pre-shot routine is found in this question: Do you have a clear picture, feel, and anticipation of the sound you want this swing to make? That’s it. If your routine does not achieve that, then while you may look really cool throwing grass around and making practice swings, you are just wasting time before your shot.

Good golf shots start with a clear picture of where the ball is to end up, and how it is to get there (trajectory and bounce). Once that is established, a feel for how that shot should play can be created and rehearsed with practice strokes. Finally, the sound of the golf shot, is like the cherry on top of imagery in the pre-shot routine. If you can begin to anticipate the sound a quality golf shot makes, you enter into an advanced plane of imagery, and prime the neural pathways that are responsible for executing the best possible movement you can make. When the picture, feel and sound is clear, it’s time to swing with a commitment to the result we have created in our minds.

Here are 3 quick ways to improve your imagery skills:

1. 1)Sit, Breathe, and quiet your mind. Then, practice creating images of simple things in your mind first. Then progress to creating movement oriented and golf specific images.
2. 2)When you hit a quality shot while playing of practicing, immediately take stock of what exactly felt good about it. Relive those shots over and over. Attach happiness, confidence, and gratitude to these memories. Good players fill their minds with good shots and positive emotions; mediocre players ruminate over the missed shots and anchor them with negative emotions.
3. 3)Close your eyes and listen to your playing companions shots when they swing from time to time. Start to really decipher bad sounding shots from good shots. Quality strikes that compress the ball and leave divot in front of the ball sound weightier, create more of a crack at impact, and in general are more efficient. Poor strikes often sound tinny, lifeless, hollow, and uncertain.

I promise you that in golf, just as in life, clear pictures create clear results, while vague pictures generally lead to vague results.

Many Golfers I teach take lessons because they want to get better. However, when we sit down to find out where there game is, they often have no idea how to measure their ability, and thus have un-validated expectations about their games. How do you go somewhere if you don’t know where you are right now?

When endurance athletes, such as Lance Armstrong, set out to improve their fitness and performance, they establish a baseline. Usually this is done with a “Lactate Threshold” or “LT” test. This test essentially tells them how good their body is at that moment in time at processing Lactic Acid, and thus gaining a precise measure of their fitness. From this point, a steady stream of specific training can improve this benchmark with a goal or target in mind.

The problem with golfers is that they think their handicap, score, or stroke average, is the “LT” test for golf. In a sense it is, but really, score is simply a reflection of two kinds of skills: Physical Skills, and Mental Skills. Want to lower your score? Improve your Physical and Mental Skills. Physical Golf Skills can be boiled down to fundamentals related to compressing the ball with the full swing and short shots in line with a target. Mental Skills consist of ones ability to manage mindsets and emotions before, during, and after a round of golf, allowing for the efficient execution of ones physical skill sets.

Here are what I feel are to be 2 of the most important Golf Skills Tests or “GS” Tests for golf. One is Physical and one is Mental.

“GS” Test-Physical Skill

Take 3 balls and hit them by swinging full with just the left hand on the club. This test exposes the weakness that exists in most people’s golf swing; most under-utilize their left side in the golf swing. Good ball strikers can perform this drill flawlessly with their middle and even long irons, compressing the ball cleanly and with power. The great thing about this test is that it is a drill in and of itself. Start with your wedges and progress. How deep can you go into your bag compressing the ball with just the left hand?

“GS” Test-Mental Skill

Look at your last 5 rounds, preferably tournament or competitive rounds. In those 5 rounds, take your average over or under par for the first 3 holes, and compare that to your average over or under par for the middle 3 holes (9-10-11). If there is a significantly higher average on the first 3 holes, you need to work on your energy management through relaxation and concentration exercises. Approaching the first few holes with a clear calm mind is essential to peak performance, and sets the stage for your best days. Learning to monitor and adjust your energy and concentration levels is an essential skill in becoming a mentally tough golfer.

Technique practice is most often associated with a swing ‘change’, or new way of moving, but can also be used to solidify existing ‘good’ movements. It is the conscious building of neural patterns in the brain that signal the body to move in certain ways. The more often we repeat a sequence of movements, the faster and more efficient we become at them. This kind of practice can work efficiently if we remove the target, and in some cases the ball entirely, allowing us to completely focus on the movement.

The second mode of practice I call ‘play practice.’ This is where we should spend most of our time, and is where we teach ourselves to play and respond to targets as we would on the golf course. Targets should be precisely selected, and most importantly, varied from shot to shot.This challenges the brain, simulates real play, and does not allow the brain to rely on the steady stream of feedback we get from hitting 20 consecutive 7-Irons from the same lie into the “black hole.” If we practice like we play, then actual play becomes less foreign and more automatic. I tell my students that when we get to this point, we’ve skirted the black hole of practice, and are light years ahead of the competition.

Here’s a drill to help you get started with play practice:

Find a practice area that has room to hit 50-75 yard shots at a flag on a green. Place 10 balls in various locations and in various lies starting at 50 yards, and working back to 75 yards. Move from shot to shot, recognizing your exact distance every time, and hitting each shot at the flag, or a different part of the green. You will be varying the shot and the target by changing the distance and lie with each swing. Use your routine and watch each shot to its complete finish, just as you would on the golf course. Once you’ve mastered this, hit each shot with different trajectories, and/or clubs.