|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
What "Program" Are You Running? |
|
|
Greg Schulze
· PGA Master Professional of
Instruction
Sawmill & Loggers Trail Golf Clubs |
|
|
|
|
I was amazed as a high schooler watching my college-bound
brother create computer programs. This was back in the early 80's and compared
to today, the art of programming was quite archaic. He would use small circles
or boxes of written instructions which would lead the computer from step to
step. And there would be "loops", either sending you back a step or two or
sending you forward.
In golf learning, you are currently in one of four mental
programs: |
|
|
- Uncomfortable/Incorrect… This is how you probably
started out, and if you are a beginning golfer reading this, the first few
times holding and swinging a golf club, it was not only uncomfortable due to
lack of experience AND incorrect since you had no formal instruction and
knew little about the fundamentals of the game.
- Comfortable/Incorrect… The first instinct is to
eliminate the feeling of being uncomfortable. Human nature comes before golf
specific changes. Unfortunately, this "mental box" is the most common of all
high handicap players, and you will never find your potential in this box,
but it's where many of you stay because the next step is scary and the
hardest to take.
- Uncomfortable/Correct… Yup, your back to feeling
uncomfortable again because you received some positive, fundamentally
correct advise and changes from a qualified professional or other source.
Since it is a new feeling, the urge is to retreat back to your comfortable
nest in the last box. Even though you know you are on the right track, and
you can see good things happening to your golf shots, you just can't stand
how awful that correct grip feels, or how "weird" that correct backswing
feels etc. so you "loop" back to the preceding stage… too bad, because you
almost made it! This step takes the most patience, its the box that most
golf professionals become coaches, encouraging you to "hang on" until your
time in this box is up. If you make it, the rewards are great as you reach
the ultimate stage…
- Comfortable/Correct… CONGRATULATIONS! You made it
to the same stage as all top players…welcome. You stuck with proper advise
and made the needed changes to get you here. Through the repetition of the
preceding box, you have cleared the final mental hurdle. Now your correct
swings feel comfortable as well, and since it feels comfortable, why not
repeat it, and if you repeat it, it gets more and more comfortable… and you
get BETTER AND BETTER! Now that's a good loop to be stuck in!
|
|
What program are you currently running? Do you try things only
to find yourself back where you started? Golf improvement is not unlike any
other, to move ahead you need valid information, and the patience to get
comfortable with it. Physical skills will not do it alone, you need mental
skills even more. Are you in the wrong loop? |
|
|
|
|
|
