As the Season winds down…

As the Season winds down…

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As the summer winds down, and we can begin to see the end of our 2011 golf season in sight, it is a great time to evaluate your golf game, and start making plans for next season, and how to play better golf.

One of the common myths among amateur golfers is that once the season ends, it’s time to put the stick-up, and move on to another hobby. Then, when the first signs of spring appear, we get the sticks back out, dust them off, and start getting our game back in shape for the golf season that is about to begin.

The problem with this line of thinking is that while most of us realize that our games could use some improvement (I mean, who doesn’t want to get better?), we approach our game improvement in the same way that many of us approached our finals in college; we wait until the last minute, and then have some major cram sessions. And if we are honest with ourselves, we KNOW that those cram sessions didn’t really lead to any lasting knowledge, and we know that our golf ‘cram sessions’ don’t really lead to any lasting improvement in our games.

If you study the people whose livelihood is there golf game, the touring professionals, you will see a completely different approach about making improvements to their swing, or any other part of their game. They get instruction in the fall and then spend the WINTER months working on making the changes necessary in order to improve.
I often get asked by students when the best time of the year is to take attend a golf school, and often they are surprised by my answer – the FALL.  Why?

Well, it’s the same reason the pro’s use the fall and winter months to make changes. When you get instruction in the fall, you then have plenty of time in the off season to practice new feelings and make positive changes in your game. By practicing and making changes in the fall and winter, you aren’t under the pressure of your regular league play, or your weekly foursome match, you are free to focus on your changes, and more importantly, you have the time necessary to make the changes permanent.

Going into this fall, I challenge you to change your thinking about when the best time to work on your game is, and start to think about your game in the same frame of mind that a touring professional does. If you do this, come next spring, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how your game “hits the ground running”.

Scott

It’s NOT Rocket Science

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Forever it makes me wonder the extent to which golf instruction has become so difficult that golfers now believe that good players hold some secret. While the secret is nothing more than good solid mechanics. There is no secret other than the secret is “get the club to impact in the easiest way possible”. The golf swing is not rocket science.

I don’t play much golf anymore. Today I played my fourth round for 2011. Here are my scores for this year – 74,66,73,68. I’m seven under for the year and I don’t practice, I don’t worry about it. I just step up and play – occasionally. I don’t hit it perfect, as a matter of fact here are today’s statistics: 11 Fairways, 13 Greens, 1 Sand Save, and 26 putts. Golf is like riding a bike to me – it just comes back to me even when it doesn’t feel that well. Sometimes I feel a bit quirky over a shot – but overall I manage to play well enough to have fun. Here are some of my secrets to making the game low maintenance.

Learn how to “feel great” at address

The main way to play well is that once you have a swing, you must learn to use it. The best way to do this is to learn how to feel really good at address when you aim at a target. This is my key to playing well. If if feel good at address, then it is easy to pull the trigger. If I don’t feel right at address, then thoughts can creep in. When weird thoughts creep in, I find it difficult to pull the trigger and I lose confidence. I practice on the range like I am playing because I am really practicing on how and when to pull the trigger.

Aim at targets as often as you can and be aggressive

Aiming at targets is the key to learning how to pull the trigger. When you aim at targets, you learn to eventually stop all thoughts and you develop the timing of “when” to pull. This is the key to developing consistency and aggressiveness in your playing. I hate not being aggressive in my ball-striking. As a matter of fact, I rarely ever “ease up” on a shot. If I need to hit a small 8 iron or take something down a notch, I will usually just choke down and still swing full. I like aggressive swings, not tentative ones.

Have confidence (or act like you do) even if you don’t

Paradoxically, this is one of my keys to playing well even if I don’t feel like it. Sometimes I don’t feel like I am playing that well or I haven’t played in a while – say two or three months. Usually, I get invited to play at really great and hard golf courses so playing poorly is not fun. So what I do is act as though I have been playing every day. I act as though I am sharp and ready as though I just walked off of a major tournament and played well. I act as if I am playing well. By acting as if I am playing well, my physiology changes and I actually start believing it. Then, when I hit a few good shots, my confidence builds and I start playing better and better. If find that acting like I am playing well gets me playing well. Just think of the alternative. What if you act as though you are not playing well. This prophecy fulfills itself and soon, after you hit a few bad shots, you start to make excuses. Don’t make excuses, just act as though you are playing well.

Focus on the best outcomes for all shots

Another thing that keeps me playing well is that, other than feeling great at address, my only other conscious effort is to focus on the best outcome on every shot. I constantly ask myself, “what do I want on this shot?” or “What would be a perfect shot here?”. By focusing on the best outcome, I stay aggressive and positive.

Read em and Roll em

One of the places that are easy to get discouraged is on the greens – putting. One way that I stay focused and positive on putting is what I call “read em and roll em”. What I mean by this is that if I read the putt well, my only expectation is to roll it where I read it. There is nothing else I can do. Therefore, the key to putting well, for me, is to read the putt well.  Once I get a good read – let her roll.

Love every shot you hit

The final and toughest part of playing “part-time” is enjoying every shot even the bad ones. But I think loving every shot you hit is one of the secrets to great golf. If I hit a bad drive, I simply try to recall what the swing felt like. Then, I attempt to recall what a good swing feels like and I can appreciate learning from the bad swing.  Just like that – I loved the bad swing too because I learned something from it.

These are just a few keys that I use to play well all the time – especially when I am not playing regularly. They keep the game fun.

The Feeling of Greatness

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Everything goes silent. Its over in an instant. You feel the ball strike the club and you look up to see a perfect ball in flight.  Something feels satisfied inside of you, almost as if a thirst has been quenched.  The ball lands on the green next to the flag…and stops.

Hitting great golf shots is addictive. And when you are striking it badly, you often feel like a drug addict needing a fix. It can be frustrating as hell. Depressing too.

What is it about hitting a golf ball?

I ponder this question often. Hitting a golf ball well does something deeply for us. Is it satisfaction and accomplishment or is it something more?  Is it touching something locked inside of us that we are desperate for?

Moe thought so. But it was the accomplishment of a great swing that gives one the ability to get more satisfaction. Moe understood this concept. He probably hit more great shots than anyone who has ever lived.  Just look at one of his old iron club faces and you will see a hole worn in the sweet spot. “Purity of technique” he would say, ‘It builds men”.

I agree with him. There is something great about building a great golf swing. Moe also said, “It might take work but the rewards are greater. You can’t buy it. You must work for it.”

As an instructor there is nothing I want more than for my students to feel this satisfaction. It is the reason I teach. And it troubles me when I teach students who are searching for a quick fix. These are the ones who don’t want to work, they want to buy it. Yes, I do believe there are short-cuts, but I don’t believe there are quick fixes for major problems. I do, however know that there is one solution to every problem – and you can quote me on this one.

Do what is correct until it is all that you know.

Can you do this? Are you willing to make the sacrifices to do this. The key is to plan on succeeding and then do whatever it takes. It comes down to a willingness, on your part, to do it. And don’t stop until you have done it.

Its the “I won’t stop until I got it” students that I am looking for. It is these students who Moe related to when he said “I gave myself a chance”. You need to listen to those words. Give yourself a chance and do what is correct and then work at it.

Weird Looking Swing

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I can’t count the number of times I hear golfers talk about Moe’s swing describing it as weird looking. When I first saw Moe, I thought the same thing – until I saw him hit the ball. Then after seeing his amazing ball flight, incredible accuracy and solidness of contact and when I finally understood it, Moe’s swing started looking simple. Other swings began looking weird and complicated.

Two words are the best way to describe Moe’s swing mechanics – common sense.

Yes, common sense is what makes Moe’s golf swing so simple. For those of you who understand Moe’s swing, you can’t think of any other way to play. For those who haven’t tried Moe’s swing you just don’t understand it. If you did, you would feel as all Moe Norman Swingers do – that it is the only way to play.

The common sense of Moe’s swing is relatively easy to explain – he starts the club, at address, in the same place he impacts. While this statement seems so logical, conventional golf teaching does not teach this simple truth. Conventional golf incidentally teaches to start lower than you impact. Why?

This is a good question. I don’t have the answer – only a theory. Conventional golfers address the ball improperly. But what does improperly mean? It means with difficulty. In other words – complicated. Conventional golfers address the ball in a more complicated way than is necessary – biomechanically.

Quite frankly, Moe figured it out. Thank goodness that Moe didn’t have any lessons from a conventional instructor. Rather, thank goodness he didn’t listen. Moe did however, pay attention – to his intuition. That is what I believe. That Moe’s genius was similar to instinct. He used his body in a way that made sense – intuitively.

On one occasion, Moe said, “I don’t know how to swing it badly – I have the feeling of greatness. Oh what a feeling.” After hearing this, I could only think of the possibility. That the golf swing could be mastered. In my conventional life, a great golf swing was like the weather, good one day, terrible the next. I was tired of bad weather and thanks to Moe, I finally realized that sunshine every day was possible. Golf could actually be fun, not frustrating. It could be a great experience and not a dreadful event. Moe had the answers so why do so few try to understand him?

And why, when we first see Moe’s swing, do we see “weird”.  It’s because we always see things that way when we don’t understand them. This is an important lesson for us.  What we don’t understand we reject. Then, when we understand it, we accept it as truth. This is how I view Moe Norman’s golf swing – as truth.  Sometimes weird is the truth. It is just so hard to accept sometimes.

I Don’t want you Satisfifed

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“Do we have audio?” – Check.

“Camera on?” – Thumbs up. “So let me take a few questions. First question “What is the difference between what you teach and Natural Golf”.

Answer, “Nothing and Everything – Next question.”

The reason for the obvious head fake is for multiple reasons, one of them being the fact that I have been teaching Moe Norman’s Single Plane swing for over 15 years, 11 of these years with my company – the Graves Golf Academy. As a matter of fact, the Graves Golf Academy has been in business longer than Natural Golf – as far as single ownership is concerned.

The other reason is that I really don’t know where to start answering this question. Why? Because I can’t really find the value in it. Yes, there are differences and similarities in what we, the Graves Golf Academy, teach versus what Natural Golf has taught in the past. The only answer that makes any sense to me is to simply say “We Teach Moe Norman’s Single Plane Golf Swing in its purest form. We don’t compromise on this. We believe that Moe was special and his swing was special. More importantly, whether you are a PGA tour player or weekend warrior, everyone can learn and benefit from knowing about him.

Furthermore, we don’t believe that Moe had a secret. We believe Moe was the secret. Moe said it himself – in my first interview with him, the day that I met him. When I asked him how he learned to be such a great ball-stirker, he said directly, “hard work”. Later, he would expand on this and tell me “you can’t buy it”.

This is an important point of view – that Moe was the answer – all of him. What this means is that you can’t take pieces of it and expect to get the full benefit. So when people and companies such as Natural Golf try to only take ‘parts” of Moe’s swing and develop versions of a Single Plane, they miss the full benefit of what Moe actually offers us.

I’ve said it before, Moe did the hard work for us. We just need to copy. Not that copying is easy, that is not what I am saying here. What I am saying is that we can stop guessing at what we are doing and just do what Moe did. What a great opportunity and a great gift.

I was 28 years old when I met Moe. I can look back now and speak from a different point of view now. When I reflect on that time now and see how far we have come, I can connect the dots so to speak. This is what I can offer you now – today. This is my offer to help you shortcut the process of you benefiting from knowing Moe. You see, I got to know Moe the hard way. I had to teach myself what he was doing by doing it with him. I too made tons of mistakes in this process. This is the evolution of the Graves Golf Academy. You make something and then you break it so that you can remake it stronger. What an incredible lesson.

Yup. Its hard work, just what Moe said. To become a better ball striker you need to Make it (your swing), break it and then remake it again. Then, guess what. Break it again.

This is an incredible process. Why do I think so? Because when you experience this process, you get incredibly strong. This strength is like building muscle. You can’t build muscle unless you break it down. The worst place I believe you can be is in a place of satisfaction. If you are satisfied, you aren’t growing. Don’t be satisfied.

If you are wondering about the difference between Graves Golf and Natural Golf, it doesn’t matter – really. What matters is that you Swing Like Moe and that you are willing to not be satisfied with mediocre. Just get busy, practice and work toward the model. It comes, you will improve, I guarantee it. And, you will get stronger and better in the process.

Self Confidence – What Is It and How Do I Get It?

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By Dr. Ron Cruickshank, Golf Mind Coach & GGA Director, Canada

Watching young Rory McIroy’s last day crumple at the Masters was a great window into the dynamics of self-confidence. One could literally see it seeping out of Rory as he self-destructed over a few holes after a “masterful” performance in the first three days. It showed in his posture, his demeanor, and his actions.  In his post round interview he mentioned the loss of “confidence” in his putting and how it negatively affected him.  Obviously, losing his self-confidence was experienced as a damaging to his performance. So what is this subjective state we call self-confidence and how do we get more of it on demand?

WHAT IS THE NATURE OF SELF-CONFIDENCE?

From a behavioral science perspective, self-confidence is the expected probability that a person will achieve a goal in a certain situation. For example, if you tell me your handicap is a 10 and you estimate your probability of shooting that score on any day is 90%, we would say your self-confidence is high.  If you estimated the probability of shooting your handicap on any given day at 15%, we would say your self-confidence was low relative to this particular game or task.

Dr. Albert Bandura, a well-known research psychologist says that high self-confidence increases people’s motivation and persistence. Further research also demonstrates that generally, high self-confidence is a good predictor of how well people will perform on all sorts of tasks. In other words, the internal subjective state of feeling self-confident makes it more likely you will be successful in any endeavor you undertake.

Some important knowledge about self-confidence is that it is primarily situational–not absolute. It is important to remember that self-confidence is always relative to the task and situation. We have different levels of confidence in different situations and even within the same situation, like a game of golf. Look no further than your own golf game and ask yourself which part of your game you are most confident in. Do you fearlessly boom out a drive, hit a confident iron shot on to the green only to find yourself weak in the knees over a 3 foot putt or a bunker shot that is sitting in a fried egg lie? Confidence is relative to the particular situation, task, and the expectations you are experiencing, both self imposed and external.

There is a familiar premise that states the “exception proves the rule”. This is true relative to self-confidence because while self-confidence is primarily situational, it may generalize across many situations. For example, if you are good at sports generally, it is likely you will develop self-confidence for learning other new sports. If you are good at other life skills like relationship building, conflict resolution or academics than we can predict that you will develop a high level of self-confidence in general.

Unfortunately, the inverse is also true. If you have a history of performing poorly in a broad variety of life areas it is likely you will develop a low level of self-confidence in general. However, most of us are somewhere in between. Most of us tend to think we will excel in some areas and situations and do poorly in others.  This would argue we should aggressively pursue our strengths because when engaged in our strengths, motivation increases and self-confidence is enhanced. In practical application the science is simple – if you are a great putter, use the short stick off the green as often as you can. Apply this to every aspect of your game, and when possible play to your strengths. 

HOW DO WE GET MORE SELF-CONFIDENCE and MOTIVATION?

For over 25 years my favorite expert on motivation and the resultant self-confidence has been Dr. David McClelland. He was the architect of numerous break-through insights on motivation; in particular, his watershed study popularly known as The Ring Toss Experiment. The formal title was The Relationship of Motivation to the Perceived Probability of Success.

In this landmark study, Dr. McClelland established that motivation is highest when our perceived probability of success is at the .50 levels.  In other words, we will keep playing a game longer or pursuing a goal when we are successful, or perceive our chances of success, as 50%. Significantly more than that and we get bored and significantly less than that we get frustrated. The classic insight that has weighty implications to how we should set up our expectations and practice that will directly influence our self-confidence and motivation.

Think about it. Would you practice a SIX INCH putt for very long and with much enthusiasm? Of course not, you would quickly bore and automatically begin to move back for a longer putt that was more challenging. In fact, the research says you will tend to sub-consciously go to a point where you make it about 50% of the time and thus optimize motivation and self-confidence.

Conversely, how long would you be willing to practice 75-foot putts?  The answer is not very long unless you began to sink a few! As in the six-inch putt, you would automatically begin to move closer until you perceive your chances of success to increase to the 50% level.

Recently, Dr. McClelland summarized years of research on self-confidence. He said that the “most important factor for developing self-confidence is to master the needed skills. Your mother, your wife, your friends, your boss and your teachers may tell you that you are not good at task XXX. However, if you know how to XXX well enough, you can feel confident about XXX no matter what they think. Likewise, if everyone else tells you are great at XXX, but you know that you don’t know how to do XXX well enough, you will lack self-confidence.”

The implications for us all are that just having encouragement and positive feedback from other people is not all that helpful in building self-confidence. The critical component is that we have mastered the needed skills. This puts the onus on each individual to practice diligently and practice with knowledge and purpose. We can improve our skills through watching and learning from others who are experts, reading, taking classes, and from practice. The more we immerse ourselves learning the skill, the faster we will learn and the result will be self-confidence.

Learning the skill will allow us to gradually increase our goals as we increase our skills.  As Dr. McClelland stated: “We can be challenged, interested, and feel successful at every stage of learning–novice, intermediate, advanced, and expert. The same methods of learning apply as well to interpersonal skills as to sports, business, or intellectual skills. If you have been good at learning in one area of your life–such as sports, playing the piano, or in school–apply the same learning methods that were successful there to an area where you feel less confidence.”

About the Author: Dr. Ron Cruickshank recently opened the GGA – Moe Norman Golf School as part of our expansion program into Canada. We are headquartered at the Royal Ashburn Golf Club in Whitby Ontario, a top 50 Canadian Course. If you are serious about owning your golf swing you can reach him at 647-892-4653.

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