Instruction

Golf is simple, it’s just not easy

Published

11 years ago

Jun 20, 2013

The way to succeed in golf is the same as in life and likewise, the happier you are away from the golf course, the better you generally play on the course.

This is true for all 26 countries our students are from at the Gary Gilchrist Golf Academy that I have the opportunity to assist on a daily basis.

As the Director of Mental Training at GGGA, I have the privilege to coach junior and professional golfers how to succeed on and off the golf course.

It doesn’t matter whether a golfer is from Mexico, France, China, or the good old USA – the rules to mastering your mind are as consistent and straight forward as gravity. Almost everything I teach can be boiled down into two key principles. First stay positive, and second stay in the present.

So if that’s all there is to it, then why do so many golfers struggle with the mind game?

Because golf is simple, it’s just not easy.

When you think about it, the actual premise of golf is simple. Golfers are supposed to get the golf ball into the hole in the least amount of strokes as they can – that’s it. The objective is simple, but as everyone who has ever played this game will tell you, it isn’t easy to get the ball in the hole. And while it isn’t easy, golfers find an infinite number of ways to make a challenging game even more difficult, by making the greatest game ever played out to be more than what it is: a game.

Many golfers make the game about the perfect technique, who they are, who they aren’t, their competitors and a million other things. They forget that golf is a game where the purpose is to get the ball in the hole in as few numbers of strokes as possible.

Most of the strategies and secrets of the trade I teach our juniors and professionals at GGGA are meant to simplify their golf game and free them up, so their talent can shine.

I’m not saying a sound mental game will replace good fundamentals, but a sound mental game allows your current ability to show through. One component of scoring better is better technique, but it’s only one part. At GGGA, we teach golfers to succeed in five areas: technical, mental, fitness, strategy and personal. Knowing the most important area for you to improve and having a plan that increases your confidence is the key to you getting better.

Part of my job is helping golfers to be honest with where they are at and focusing on the process they need to take to progress and get results. Every golfer has slightly different ways for creating and monitoring their plan. The key is that their plan produces positive action. One thing that all these plans have in common is that they just aren’t said; they just aren’t thought. They are written and in turn done.

There’s a saying that I think summarizes this practice quite well – “Ink it, don’t think it.”

So how can you make golf easier?

Look at all five areas of your game and be honest with yourself. Identify the area that has been holding you back.
Make a plan to improve in this area – the simpler the better. Remember it’s about results, not making an extravagant plan.
Write it down – “Ink it, don’t think it.”
Take action.
Finally, enjoy the process.

Remember, golf is simple it’s just not easy, but it can be much easier when you take steps to keep it simple.

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Instruction

Clement: Laid-off or perfect fade? Across-the-line or perfect draw?

Published

2 weeks ago

Apr 24, 2024

Shawn Clement

Some call the image on the left laid off, but if you are hitting a fade, this could be a perfect backswing for it! Same for across the line for a draw! Stop racking your brain with perceived mistakes and simply match backswing to shot shape!

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Instruction

The Wedge Guy: The easiest-to-learn golf basic

Published

1 month ago

Mar 29, 2024

Terry Koehler

My golf learning began with this simple fact – if you don’t have a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, it is practically impossible for your body to execute a fundamentally sound golf swing. I’m still a big believer that the golf swing is much easier to execute if you begin with the proper hold on the club.

As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.

The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.

Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply. Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:

Mis-aligned hands

By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.

The position of the grip in the upper/left hand

I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean. Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.

To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.

Too much lower (right) hand on the club

It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.

Gripping too tightly

Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.

So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.

Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!

Published

2 months ago

Mar 4, 2024

Shawn Clement

Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?

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