Ultimate Golf Blog

This is just a quick note about the Traveler’s Championship. Kenny Perry won and Paul Goydos was real close. Neither of them has a pretty swing… But did anyone notice their setup routine?

Granted, it wasn’t strict GSC setup, but there were both stepping in with the right foot and keeping the clubhead grounded behind the ball as the looked down range and set their feet…HMMM!

I didn’t teach them this directly or they would have hit the ball even better, but it shows that this setup routine does a lot to make up for a not-so-perfect golf swing. Maybe they saw it on the website… You never know who’s watching.

If you haven’t used the setup routine, check it out. The link is over on the right.

Regards,

Tracy

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Where do errant shots come from? I’m convinced that it’s Gremlins.

Well think about it… One minute it’s the swing, the next a bad decision, later it’s lack of focus… The  strokes add up and the cause for them keeps changing. How can any golfer expect to find it, let alone fix it. The way it moves around, it has to be Gremlins.

Here’s the BIG NEWS!!!

I found the little bugger and I managed to trap him. He almost ate his way through the cage, so I moved him to a titanium cage.

WHAT??? (I’m sure you’re thinking that I’m nuts right about now…)

Let me explain. The big debate in golf instruction is whether the “secret of golf” is in the golf swing or if its all mental. You’ve heard me say its all mental because the mind also controls movement…

But I guess I was wrong. (You won’t hear that one very often!)

You see, the golf swing is controlled in the mind, but the very same golf swing can be a distraction that causes the mind to make mistakes. The physical body causing the mind to screw up… So which came first; The golf swing or the thought that made it happen?

Confused yet? Can you see why nobody has been able to corner this sneaky little devil?

I finally figured out the answer… Mental or physical? Neither!.. and Both! (I told you this wasn’t an easy task.)

The Gremlin messing with your golf game is a combination of doubt and unsupported conscious thought. Doubt is the mental Gremlin. If you doubt your ability to make a shot, the worry itself will be enough of a distraction to your mind to mess up the shot. No golfer is beyond this Gremlin. Think about Tiger Woods revamping his golf swing… While he’s winning everything! Why, because he knows that he won’t ever have a clear mind if he has doubts about his golf swing.

But what in the world is “unsupported thought”? I’m glad you asked!

Unsupported thought is an idea that isn’t supported by physical evidence. For example: Where are your hands at the top of your backswing? You might think you know, but for most golfers, until they look, they really aren’t sure. (There’s also that doubt again.) Few golfers I have taught ever been able to get that one correct(before instruction) because what they think they feel isn’t correct. The feedback they were trying to use to answer that question was incorrect… Unsupported thought is the physical Gremlin.

So how do you fix it?

Doubt comes from not knowing your golf swing well enough… Which is also caused by feedback which the brain cannot accurately interpret. So is it the golf swing? Not quite… It’s the knowledge and confidence in the golf swing. You see; mental AND physical.

If you can confidently eliminate golf swing gaffs AND make any shot at will, you would in fact, OWN YOUR GOLF SWING. That is the real goal that Tiger is working towards.

Tiger wants to make every golf swing in complete control of his movement. The key word is: CONTROL.

Do you see where I’m going here? Why do you think my course is called Golf Swing CONTROL? GSC is designed NOT to teach you a new golf swing, but rather how to get the most out of YOUR GOLF SWING and get it under CONTROL.

But to help you do that, I have to explain how the golf swing works, which is why the course goes through the workings of the complete golf swing. Once you have your best golf swing, Golf Swing Control shows you how to OWN YOUR GOLF SWING. No other instruction course shows you how to own your golf swing because nobody else knows where the Gremlins that mess up your golf game are hiding.

You’ve seen all of the articles on this blog about balance. If not, you should read them. I talk a lot about balance, because it’s something you HAVE to HAVE if you ever hope to achieve ownership of your golf swing or golf game. As long as there is gravity, balnce will either help you hurt your golf swing, depending on whether you are swinging in balance or not. This is a physical law, so there isn’t a choice.

Here’s the bonus. When I work with advanced golfers and professionals, I usually only have to fine-tune their balance. When I do, their swing self-corrects. Their posture improves, their tempo improves and their swing plane sets itself. A miracle? No, just the laws of Dynamic Balance working for them.

Do you want to get rid of the Gremlins? Would you like a golf swing that self-corrects, one you can own? The only path is Golf Swing Control…

If you choose to go the way of Golf Swing Control, remember one very important point. Its NOT about the golf swing; its all about the CONTROL.

Hit’m well,
Tracy

For more information on How to Own Your Golf Swing, go to Own Your Golf Swing

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If you take the time to read the comments left by readers of this blog, you might wonder what my instruction has that other instruction doesn’t.

Well, here’s your answer  - and the secret that makes Golf Swing Control work like magic:

GSC shows golfers how balance works and how to make it work for them so they don’t have to work at their golf swing.

But it doesn’t stop at the golf swing…The most important 6 inches in golf is between a golfer’s ears.

Balance will help there as well! Please allow me to explain…

The very first rule you need to know before you will ever master golf or the golf swing is the rule of Dynamic Balance.

Dynamic Balance states that the brain’s first priority when your body is in motion is to keep your body in balance so that you don’t fall and hurt yourself.

So why is this so important? Good question!

If you start your golf swing from an out-of-balance stance, your brain’s first priority will be to try to get your body into balance. By doing so, it will REDIRECT THE GOLF MUSCLES IF NEEDED - whether you like it or not.

But the fight to keep your body balanced gets into physics and Newton’s laws of motion, so the body has a tendency to over-correct for the original imbalance, and then re-correct for the over-corrections.

It can’t just fix the situation and be done with it, so the out-of-balance pendulum is swinging back and forth in smaller increments while you’re trying to swing a golf club.

Even if the body gets balance, the club will not be in the position it started, so who knows what will happen when the club gets back to the ball.

Here’s the rub, most golfers (even pros to a lesser degree) start their swing from an out of balance position, which means that their body is actually FIGHTING AGAINST THEIR GOLF SWING the whole time they are moving.

Doesn’t sound promising, does it?

Here’s why balance is so important: If you start movement from a balanced position, your brain WILL FIGHT TO HELP YOUR GOLF SWING accomplish its goal.

So Balance can be your best friend or your worst enemy…

But getting into balance isn’t as simple as it might seem at first.

Ask any guru HOW balance works in the body and you probably won’t get an answer that will help your golf game. You could probably hold a million dollars in front of them and they wouldn’t be able to answer the question properly to get the money.

Why? Because they take balance for granted and most of the pros are in pretty good balance… most of the time… And they have drills you can use to get into balance, so it doesn’t matter.

But it DOES MATTER, and I’ve proven that with the results of thousands of golfers around the world who play better just because they understand balance and how to use balance in their golf game. If you go to just about any golf instructor and he sees that you are woefully out of balance (and unfortunately too many don’t because they don’t recognize balance issues), he may try to correct the balance situation with a simple drill.

He’ll give you the drill because it gets results, but he won’t be able to explain what the drill is really doing for you or how you know its working. So, later when you get on the golf course and the old habits start to creep back in, you can’t see the problem, you don’t know how to recognize the problem any other way, and you may or may not have the mental clarity to try the drill he gave you to hit the ball better.

The result is a bad day on the course with no idea of why, and no idea as to a way to correct it. Sound familiar?

But what if instead, you were able to tap into a reliable feedback in your own body that would tell you exactly what is wrong?

Better yet, what if that same feedback gave you the means to fix the problem right there?

But what feedback can do that? NOT MUSCLE MEMORY…

Why? Because as you warm up or cool down, your muscles change the feedback they send to the brain. Since the feedback is always changing, there’s no way to know just what your muscles are trying to tell you.

For example: When’s the last time your backswing felt fine, and then an instructor told you that you were flat or too upright, maybe sliding or reverse-pivoting?

The feedback I’m talking about is balance feedback and you already use it 24/7… to keep yourself in balance. You just don’t realize it yet because it is used “behind the scenes.”

When’s the last time you tripped and instantaneously threw your arms or legs out to catch your balance? That was balance feedback and dynamic balance at work.

Balance in the body is not the simple as balancing a stick on a pivot. The stick doesn’t have the ability to change relative shape as the human body does by throwing out arms or legs. Balance in the body is satisfied when two requirements are fulfilled.

First the whole body has to be balanced as a stick would be on the points of contact. But the complicated part is that each muscle and its opposing muscle must be working evenly.

If one muscle is pulling more than its opposite muscle (all muscles work in pairs - like your bicep and tricep in your arms) then when the muscles are relaxed, the body will change shape (arms drop for example) and the basic balance will be lost.

It is this principle that makes the golf swing such a challenge.

For example; If you are set up and your lower back is getting tight, it’s because those muscles are out of balance with their opposing muscles in the core. If you take the time to feel your leg muscles, you’ll find that the muscles in the backs of your legs are probably real tight also.

Even if the weight feels balanced in your feet, you are still out of balance because your muscles will want to even out with their opposing muscles as soon as you start moving. If they can’t move because they are too tight, you’ll lose the use of those muscles and their opposing muscles in the golf swing.

So step one - and the most important step in golf for a consistent swing - is getting into a properly balanced setup.

Doing so makes the golf swing work much more efficiently with less effort and better results.

But the setup and the golf swing the golf aren’t all there is to golf. No, each shot has certain obstacles to overcome, such as the elements, and to make matters worse; the mind is constantly getting in the way of doing it properly… But as I said before, balance can fix that…

How do you fix the mind with balance? Glad you asked!

First the problem: If the mind is in the way, any golf psychologist will tell you to quit thinking.

RIGHT! They’ll tell you that if you just focus on your target, your swing will take care of itself.

But does it?

You have to think on the golf course. You have to consider the parameters of each shot and adjust the plan for each shot accordingly. You can’t “not think” on the golf course.

The problem is that you can’t “think” your way through a physical motion either.

When you trip and your arms or legs suddenly shoot out to keep you from falling, do you think about it?

Do you think about your arm movement when you turn the steering wheel in your car? So how does it work?

The answer to the brain-in-the-way problem is again, an understanding of how the brain works with body motion.

Here’s how it happens:

Before you move any muscle, the brain creates a visual signal; a map of sorts to guide the movement.

That picture is based on two types of input to the brain; the external forces acting on the body or around the body, and your balance feedback.The brain has to check balance feedback because it must create a balanced movement if possible.

When you monitor your own balance feedback, you’ll start to see the pictures the brain creates for movement. Once you see the picture, your mind will focus better and the movement will be more accurate.

So balance feedback initiates visualization.

Let me prove it with a simple exercise: Take a walk. Every time you set a foot down, try to get an exact idea of where the greatest amount of pressure is felt under the foot.

As your body moves on the foot, try to get an exact idea of where the weight moves along the foot; i.e. along the outside of the foot, inside the heel to the outside of the toe.

Do you push off of the big toe or the smaller toes? Keep working on this until you know exactly where the foot has the most pressure for each moment that foot is in contact with the ground.

If you are relaxed, you will see a picture of this pressure map in your mind.

Now change the patterns by changing where you want the weight to be felt.

You’ll see that your mind will change the picture and the body will follow. That is what we are doing with the golf swing.

If you can feel and control how you walk on your feet, you can feel and control how your body makes the golf swing.

Here’s a bonus nobody realizes until a friend compliments them on how their swing looks…

By making the golf swing in balance, your swing will naturally adjust itself to match your body structure. And YOUR SWING PLANE?… That’s decided automatically by balance as well!

One less thing to think about.

The last step is using this visual thought to increase focus on the course.

Focus will automatically be increased, but there are some tweaks I do for competitors that increase it further.So can you see why it’s so important? It’s all in the Golf Swing Control course and that’s why so many golfers are playing so well by studying it.

Please post your comments below - let me know what you think!

Hit’m well,

Tracy

To learn how to find a perfectly balanced setup, click: Setup Routine Video

To quickly gain confidence and accuracy in your swing, click: Golf Swing Control

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If anyone remembers, Nick Faldo was the number one player in the world for a long time. A lot of credit was given to David Leadbetter for getting Nick’s swing in order, but I for one have always doubted that the golf swing made the golfer.

Nick had another secret and without it, he never would have been able to make the swing work. What’s his secret? To find out, simply listen to his commentary when he’s covering golf. Specifically, listen to his comments concerning the mind in golf. He talks about visualization, feel, staying in the present, and not letting the brain get in the way.

OK, what’s the connection? Nick Faldo’s real golf secret was his mind. It was also Hogan’s secret… and Tiger’s secret. Starting to see a pattern here?

The simple fact is that nothing happens in the body until it first happens in the mind. Nick Faldo, Tiger Woods and Ben Hogan all used their minds in a way that allowed them to have complete control over their body movement. Nick used what was considered to be a technically perfect swing. Although other PGA golfers have used this same golf swing, none have been able to repeat Faldo’s success. The difference is in the mind.

Tiger has won multiple times… with three different golf swings, AND with a “broken” left leg! How? A super-focused mind.

How about Ben Hogan… A flat swing, weak grip, yet incredible accuracy. His secret, contrary to all other theories, was how he used his mind to create his swing and use it to control his movement in spite of intense pain from his near-death accident.

So how does all of this information about the golf swing relate to a focused mind? It’s not what these famous golfers were thinking… As I said before, it was and is HOW they use the mind.

This is where golf psychology fails because it deals with what you think. Golf Swing Control works because it shows golfers how to use the mind. But for many who have the instruction course, it’s not evident right away. GSC is not a mental game course AND it’s not an instruction course about the golf swing.

NO, Golf Swing Control addresses both the mind and the golf swing, because it’s the only way to gain real CONTROL over your golf game. Hence the name of the instruction course. Funny, it was the only name that fit, and even though it probably didn’t help sales with a name like Golf Swing Control, no other name would work… But I digress.

So if you really want to improve your golf game, spend time in your mind. It’s not what you think, but how you think. It’s using visualization, getting in touch with feel and using the mind in such a way that thinking doesn’t get in the way of playing golf.

After all, it worked for three of the best…

Think about it.

Tracy

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What is a “feel player”? Of course, it is a golfer who gauges his shots mostly on his sense of feel. Every golf club becomes part of his body when he grips it. Oh, there are calculations to be made, but the finer touches happen when the feel golfer makes his slow, easy practice swing. He just knows how much to give each swing to give the ball the proper finesse.

Does feel come from hitting thouands of golf balls, or is there another way to attain this level of golf?

Most golfers would kill for this instinct… But is it really an instinct or can any golfer learn to play by feel?

My answer is that golfers can learn to be feel players without spending every waking moment on the driving range.

Let me enlighten you…

First, where does feel happen? Is it physical touch or is there more?

Feel is an interaction between the brain and the body… Just as golf requires the use of both brain and body.

Please indulge me for a second while I go off on a slight ranting tangent, because this always gets my blood boiling…

For years, golf has been taught as either a physical game or a mental game. Like it or not, it is both and separating the two only screws up golfers. If you try to teach them something physical, they have to find a way to remember it. If you try to work on their mental game, they find that all the great thoughts in the world are useless if their golf swing ain’t working that day.

Feel golf is the best example of mind and body working together. But feel is somewhat of an enigma for many golfers. That’s because feel requires the golfer to use a different part of their brain. It requires the use of the “non-thinking” part, or subconscious. In other words, it uses a process in the brain that is separate from conscious thought.

For golfers who learn to play by feel, they find that the special brain process also helps them in other areas of their lives. For example, feel players are often well spoken and they are better than average problem solvers.

What process am I talking about? I call it the Monitor.

The monitor is that part of your brain that watches out for you. It tries to make sure you don’t say embarrassing things. It tries to make sure you don’t hurt yourself. The monitor is there to keep you safe. Most people don’t realize they have this process working, but it is present in every human being. Once you start to tap into the monitor, your life and your golf game start to improve.

People ask me why it is that some people improve quickly with Golf Swing Control while others struggle. The answer is that those who improve quickly make better use of their monitor function.

The best example of the monitor function is the classic freckle-faced kid asking the pretty girl for a date. He doesn’t think he’s worthy and he’s trying to work up the courage to call her. The conversation in his mind is between his conscious and his monitor. The monitor says, “Just do it.” and the conscious says, “What is she says no?” The conversation creates a twisted feeling in his stomach.

In golf, the monitor function has another role. It is used to monitor feel.

I know that right now you’re cussing at your computer because you’ve been trying to pinpoint how your golf swing feels for years and that just hasn’t worked. I’ve been there too. But there is a reliable place where feel never changes and that feel can be used to make your golf swing more consistent.

The monitor can also help you to stop making bad decisions and to control your emotions on the golf course as well. From the mental game standpoint, the monitor will do things for you that golf psychology can’t touch. The monitor is the secret to sub-par golf.

So how do you use it? I’ll start with two exercises; one for your physical game and one for your mental game.

Exercise 1) Take a walk. As you make each step, try to pinpoint where the greatest weight is felt under your feet at every moment. In other words, if you land on your heel, is it the inside or outside of the heel? When you roll forward on the foot, does your weight go to the outside of the foot or do you move from the heel to the ball of the foot? When you push off, does the weight center in the big toe, or do the smaller toes do more work? Do this drill until you know exactly how your weight moves across each foot. You’ll probably find that each foot feels differently.

Exercise 2) Listen to yourself speak in every conversation. Count how many time you say, “um”, “ah”, or “you know”. That’s it. Let me know what happens as you continue to monitor your conversations.

What I’ve just given you is the first step towards developing a mental game that rivals Tiger Woods mental game. A word of warning: Tiger has been doing these things since he was a toddler, so he has a big head start. That said, anyone can make up ground in this area… And it doesn’t involve hitting thousands of golf balls.

I want to hear your feedback on this. But before you write, do both exercises, re-read this post and take some time to let it sink in. Like everything else I do, there is much more in this post than is immediately seen during the first read.

Regards,
Tracy

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