Instruction

Goals are the fuel of greatness

Published

10 years ago

May 19, 2014

“Set goals for life, set them high and persist until they are achieved, set bigger and better goals. You will soon find that your life will become happier and more purposeful by working toward positive goals.”

— Raymond Floyd, Four Time Major Champion Winner

All golfers who genuinely want to get better have goals. Not every golfer calls them goals, for some golfers the word is too overwhelming, and for other golfers, the word goal is not enough. At its most basic level, a goal is an objective of where you want to go, and at its highest level, a goal is a personal dream of what you want to accomplish.

Whether you call it a dream, a goal, an objective, or something else – the most important thing is that it:

Motivates you to work hard.
Focuses you to work smart.
Centers you to balance your expectations.

All the greats in golf have had goals, dreams and visions of greatness, from Arnold to Jack, Faldo to Norman and Tiger to McIlroy. Goals are the fuel of greatness and direct practices to create consistent improvement. It’s impossible to withstand the challenges and struggles of this great game without big goals that are properly managed. Goals helped these and other greats work hard after a great day and bounce back after a tough day.

There is both a science and an art to setting and managing goals. Entire books have been written on the topic, and hundreds of scientific studies have been done within the arena of goal setting. The objective here is not to explore every nuance to setting and managing goals, but provide some practical suggestions that you can use today.

If you already have a consistent goal-setting practice, use the suggestions here to enhance your goal setting toolbox. If you don’t set goals, use this article as a starting point.

Having goals that are general, not written, simply in your head and only thought about occasionally is not a goal setting practice. Having goals that are specific, written and looked at daily, but not followed through with action, is not a complete goal setting practice either. It’s a good start, but action is imperative.

A solid goal setting practice is meant to do one thing: create positive, efficient actions toward a desired objective.

I’m all for having BIG goals. Bigger can mean better, if done properly. Big goals can be the fire and motivation that make golfers practice and work hard. The trick is to remember that these are typically long-term goals and outcome goals. Meaning that the outcome is not completely under your control. Great golfers all strive to win majors, but everyone in the field has the same goal of winning, and only one player can win on any given week. When winning is a golfer’s sole goal, it can lead to a lot of dissatisfaction.

Focusing on your BIG GOALS in the short term can create frustration and pressure. That is why you need to focus on short-term goals that are based on the process. Good process goals keep golfers on task during practice and competition. Process goals are centered around mental and physical actions you control, such as a good game plan and strategy. Sticking to a solid process and game plan provides the best opportunity for long-term outcomes to occur.

One of the best ways to create solid process goals is to set aside time each week to map out your plan. It’s better to do this at the same time each week so it becomes habit. The best time is on Sunday, the end of the week and the beginning of the next week. You can review your goals from the previous week and evaluate how you did at accomplishing your goals. Then, you can reset your goals and make them more challenging if they seemed too easy, or less challenging if you struggled to accomplish them.

All golfers have something they can improve. That’s what’s awesome about golf. You never fully master it.

I love hard work, but let’s work smarter first, then harder. When you know what to do and how to do it, practice and competition become much easier and your work ethic increases almost automatically because you are improving and having fun. Isn’t that what golf should be all about.

Your Reaction?

LIKE1
LEGIT0
WOW1
LOL0
IDHT0
FLOP0
OB0
SHANK0

Instruction

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

Published

1 week 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!

Your Reaction?

LIKE0
LEGIT0
WOW0
LOL0
IDHT0
FLOP0
OB0
SHANK1

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?

Your Reaction?