Format: Stableford
Venue: [Home course]
Score: 28pts
Handicap mark: 15
Themes in reply: The Method; putting; slicing; camcorders; e-mail.
Hi Colin,
Thanks for the visit on Tuesday although I felt a bit brain-dead at the end !
Yesterday I played in the Wednesday swindle and scored 28 points- not a great score but there were some promising signs.
I warmed-up on the practice ground by hitting wedge shots. Initially I hit some good, some really bad ( even shanked 2 or 3 ) before I settled, relaxed and gained some tempo, thinking about my takeaway being slow and complete. I didn’t rush but hit about 15 very good shots.
The round itself started and I really tried to think of my timing. I’ll go through hole by hole just on this first occasion but you will no doubt tell me if this is not really necessary in future reports. By the way the greens had just been vertidrained so there were large holes and sand all over the greens.
1st – Good tee shot-hybrid, good 9 iron just off green 3 putts for 5
2nd – Pushed 6 iron , pitch over green into bunker,out of bunker, 2 putts for 5
3rd – Great drive, good 8 iron onto green, 3 putts for 5
4th – Great drive, slightly pulled 6 iron, good pich onto green, 2 putts for 5
5th – Reasonable 8 iron just left of green, reasonable pitch, 2 putts for 4
6th – Good drive, good 5 iron, very good 9 iron, 2 putts for 5
7th – Good drive, hit tree with 3 wood, pushed 5 iron to right of green, 2 very poor chips, 2 putts for 7
8th – Pushed drive to 9th fairway, scuffed 3 wood, back to 8 fairway with recovery shot, long slightly pulled 3 wood to left of green, excellent pitch to 12 inches, 1 putt for a 6
9th – Pushed drive out to 8th fairway, good recovery back to 9th fairway with hybrid, decent chip, 2 putts for 5
10th – Slightly pulled 5 iron to side of green, chip on, 2 putts for4
11th – Cracking drive but kicked off right, recovery with low 5 iron, good wedge just off back of green, 2 putts for 5
12th – Good 3 wood to just right of green, good pitch , 2 putts for a 4
13th – Cracking drive, good 8 iron just off front of green, good chip, 1 putt for 4
14th – 6 iron into right hand bunker, 2 to get out , 2 putts for 5
15th – Slightly pushed drive, 8 iron over trees, well struck wedge to right of green, 2 poor chips, 2 putts for an
8
16th – Well struck 3 wood but left of green, chip onto green, good 1 putt for 3
17th – Well struck drive but pushed to right and finished close to a tree, recovered sideways, good 9 iron to front of green and then 3 putts for a 6
18th – Good drive, good 5 iron, 9 iron to front of green, 3 putts for a 6.
Looking back I hit some really good shots and felt my timing was good but occasionally I lost a bit of confidence and didn’t allow time for gravity to take over. Putting certainly didn’t help my score and a few bad chips didn’t help. I would really like to see my own swing and see for myself was is good and what creates the faults, particularly the push to the right. I do have a small, cheap camcorder which could be used. Do you think this might help?
Anyway I look forward to your response.
Best wishes,
Matthew
Dear Matthew,
Timing – To begin, I want to remind you of the basis of what I am saying.
To hit or throw something so that it moves from position A to desired position B, is an incredible skill and barely believable when one considers all the complicating factors. Nevertheless, humans have this ability and games have evolved to test it in a measurable way under all sorts of conditions.
At the very heart of our ability to hit and throw accurately is the phenomenon that is generally known as “timing”. It is a phenomenon that is experienced by all games players and can be described as that feeling you get when the shot has done exactly what you wanted it to do and with the minimum effort. It is characterised by a feeling that the shot is going to be perfect even before contact has been made with the ball. The shot feels effortless and completely controlled. From a thunderous drive to a deft chip, the amount of power exerted feels precise. In short, “timing” is what makes playing games worthwhile.
I discovered the secret of “timing” in 1987 and have spent the next 25 years (intermittently!) developing a method that maximises our chances of producing a “timed” shot to order. What has emerged is a method that requires the player to approach each and every shot in an identical manner, with the express purpose of allowing the sub-conscious to execute the task of getting the ball from A to B.
The challenge for golfers is mostly to do with interference from the conscious, which manifests itself as an obsession with modifying some of the thousands of co-ordinated physical movements that make up a golf swing. It is like consciously interfering with the act of feeding ourselves by concentrating on the angle of delivery from plate to mouth while keeping our head still, our eyes on the laden prongs and using only the latest Ping II graphite shafted fork.
Because I have discovered the actual physical basis of “timing”, and I have taken the time to find out how our brains get our jointed limbs to swing to exploit the accuracy and power of the double-pendulum mechanism, I have been able to put together a method that maximises our chances of producing a “timed” shot and that does NOT get waylaid by unnecessary complications. The method is simple but complete; nothing has been added and nothing left out.
It also has the inestimable advantage of giving our ever-interfering conscious mind something useful to do because the conscious mind is given the task of furnishing our subconscious mind with the information and conditions it needs to perform at its best.
The method is this:
1. Approach the shot with as clear a mind as possible and in as relaxed a frame of mind as possible. Your aim is to absorb the conditions without giving any particular condition prominence by thinking about it.
For example, your ball is in the short rough. You need to be aware of the lie, your probable stance, room to swing, the length of the grass, the wetness of the grass, the state of the match, the wind, the required length of the next shot. If you think something such as: ”I must remember to take one more club to make sure I reach the green”, the act of formulating this common thought into a thought will reduce your capacity to absorb the other conditions. Trust your experience to suggest the right club for the shot (it will, more than likely, be one more club than you would usually take for that distance, anyway); there is no need to be hidebound by dogma; it is counter-productive.
2. Select the club, and only when it is absolutely your turn – and from behind the ball – “visualise” the shot. You need to wait until the last minute because the subconscious loves a fresh, vivid image. “See” the ball travel from its current position to its desired position; “see” the probable trajectory and flight path; “see” where you want the ball to land; and, if it is landing on the green, “see” its roll after it has bounced. You need to do this as quickly as you can, which is why you need to have a clear head and a relaxed frame of mind.
3. Take up your stance. If you are relaxed your subconscious, feeding off your recently burned-in image of where you want the ball to go, will put you in the right place. Do NOT have conscious thoughts about the stance such as: “This lie is slightly uphill, I must make sure I lean over a little” because this will give your conscious permission to over-ride your subconscious’ far more subtle attempts to line you up. If you stay relaxed and un-thinking, you will be open to judging if you are in the right place. If you feel uncomfortable, move away, re-visualise and move back to the stance.
4. When you are over the ball, switch your imagination to the task of imagining how much oomph you want to give the ball, and have it as a lump of force surrounding (plopped over) the ball. When that is clear, breathe in with about the same amount of force (this is a little trick that helps you to remember to breathe in and also reminds you to choose an amount of force. [On short shots, the amount of force you choose is very helpful and will greatly improve your accuracy around and on the greens. For longer shots any amount of force will do]). As soon as you have remembered to breathe in, switch your imagination again to the feel of the pendulumic rhythm. Pay attention particularly to how unimaginably long it takes to switch direction at the top of the swing. Get to feel that at the top of the swing, the whole system of your swing is still, but has the undeniable feeling that it wants to come back towards the ball.
5. “Timing” will occur if you get the hang of “letting” your swing happen from this point. You have hit enough shots in your lifetime for your subconscious to know exactly what to do with the thousands of co-ordinated muscle movements that need to happen next. You just have to let it do its work by NOT interfering consciously.
Written down, this looks complicated but it’s not. It boils down to:
- Stay relaxed and calm and absorb the conditions that will affect the next shot but do NOT give any particular thought prominence by distilling it into a conscious thought.
- From behind the ball visualise the next shot as vividly as you can.
- Move to the ball and allow your stance to occur naturally
- When you’re comfortable switch your imagination to imagining the force with which you are going to hit the ball and have it plopped over the ball like a blancmange
- Whatever that force is, breathe in with about the same amount of force
- Switch your imagination for the final time to imagining the delightful thing that is a smooth and effortless pendulumic rhythm. Get a strong and vivid image of the feeling of miniscule delay and stillness at the top of the backswing. Get an image of the whole system just waiting to come back to the ball.
This method applies to every single shot, and I can guarantee you that if you give yourself up to it you will hit lots of astonishing shots. More tellingly, though, if you give yourself up to it you will never go “from bad to worse”; you will hit bad shots but “timing” – and thereby, good shots – will never be far away.
Your round
I’ve begun with that long diatribe so that you can refer back to it when I comment on your round.
Putting – You mention that the greens had been treated, which would have made putting more difficult, and increased the influence of luck. The nuisance about adverse conditions is that they have the effect of giving your conscious brain a ready excuse for a bad shot. This can be hopeless because a bad shot needs to fire up your conscious so that it gives your subconscious more vivid information the next time. Ready made excuses dilute this effect by dampening your imagination with cynicism. In a way, you give up before you start. The trick is to turn the adverse condition to your advantage by having it occur to you that the adverse condition means that you are going to have to “time” even more sweetly to overcome it. At the same time you can bask in the knowledge that the adverse condition is putting your competitors’ imaginations to sleep!
When you are “timing” putts sweetly you will get used to mostly holing out in 2 putts, with a fair share of single putts and only the very occasional 3 putt. Two putts is reasonable for anything over 2.5 foot given the huge number of imponderables that exist even in a putt.
“Timing” putts is easy but it requires almost complete relaxation through the whole body, and a very clear and “empty” mind; ie NO exaggerated head stillness!
Slicing – Slicing is completely explained by reference to the double-pendulum diagram. It is caused by the arm-pendulum moving back towards the ball before the club-pendulum has started rotating around the wrist, ie tugging at the top. This puts the pendulums out of synch and results in the club face being open (marginally) at impact. As soon as you get the hang of allowing your swing to start back naturally – by itself, in effect – your slice will disappear. If anything you will start to draw or just hit it straight. Tugging from the top is very hard to resist under pressure, and resisting it is one of the major challenges facing ANY golfer.
7th – The second shot on this hole is your first bad shot (except for the pushed 6-iron off the 2nd tee), and sets off a sequence of poor shots until you get it up and down from off the 8th green. Strings of bad shots will be the first things to disappear once you get the hang of the method. What will happen is that you will hit a nice shot and because you are looking for the rhythm you will be able to get a real sense of it. Whatever the next shot is, when it comes to the time to imagine the rhythm, you will have a very fresh memory of a very good rhythm to work with. This explains me going out in 64 and coming home in 42. Once I had the rhythm, I took it from shot to shot.
A bad shot, on the other hand, will inspire you to follow the method even more closely: sharper visualisation, more relaxed, big breath out, the memory of the last good rhythm. What you will stop doing is analysing why the bad shot went wrong and trying to correct it on the next shot. We will come back to this in more detail because it is a huge problem for most golfers and is based on very poor (if understandable) thinking.
Camcorder – Your swing looks fine. There is nothing to see. If you are desperate to see a “bad” swing then watch the US PGA Tour and look out for a golfer called Tommy Gainey. Watching him should convince you once and for all that it doesn’t matter what your swing looks like, it only matters where the ball ends up. If you “time” the shot then by definition the ball will go where you want it to go and, I’m sorry, but you can’t see “timing”, you can only feel it.
E-mail – I must be such a nerd because I really enjoyed reading the hole-by-hole stuff, especially because I know the course. Also, your description of how the round felt to you was very good. It is your feelings about things that I need most of all.
If you remember, your golf swing is the hurtle down a familiar set of stairs, and your thoughts and feelings about golf in general and playing golf in particular is the environment surrounding those stairs. Your conscious mind will forever be tinkering with the environment, making your subconscious forever uncertain as it approaches the time to hurtle. My ramblings are designed to make the environment stable so that your subconscious approaches each hurtle confident that the stairs is the same stairs it has always hurtled down.
Next lesson – I agree that we need to meet on the practice ground once you have read and absorbed everything you have had from me. Also, I would like to play at least one round together so that we can cover all the aspects of playing golf that exist between each shot.
Regards,
Colin
