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Hopefully, you were able to read the last 2 practice tips (November 2019 Update and December Newsletters) – Tips for Improving (Part 1 and 2).

In those practice tips we discussed how we work with our students to create new habits rather than breaking old habits. It is essentially impossible to break bad habits (our mind/body is not set up that way) … but we are set up to be able to create new habits and ultimately make changes/create new movements, etc.  we want.

We talked about a book we strongly recommend – The Little Book of Talent/52 Tips for Improving Your Skills by Daniel Coyle

It is described as a manual for building a faster brain and a better you. It is an easy-to-use hand book of scientifically proven, field tested methods to improve your skills – your skills, your kids’ skills, your organization’s skills – in sports, music, art, math and business. The product of five years of reporting from the world’s greatest talent hotbeds and interviews with successful master coaches, it distills the daunting complexity of skill development into 52 clear, concise directives. Whether you are 10 or 100, this is an essential guide for anyone who ever asked, “How do I get better?”

This book is available at Amazon.com

The last instructional newsletters (Tips for Improvement Part 1 & 2) we talked about the following tips:

1. Staring at who you want to become.
2. Spending 15 minutes a day engraving the skills on your brain.
3. Stealing without apology.
4. Buying (and keeping) a notebook.
5. Be willing to be stupid
6. Choose spartan over luxurious
7. Before you start, figure out if it’s a hard skill or a soft skill
8. To build hard skills, work like a careful carpenter

This instructional newsletter (Part 3) we cover the next 3 tips for improving your skills and relate them to you learning/working on your single plane swing and golf game.

9. To Build Soft Skills, Play Like a Skateboarder

While hard skills are put together with measured precision (Tip # 8), soft skills are built by playing and exploring inside the challenging, ever-changing environments. These are places where you encounter different obstacles and respond to them over and over, building the network of sensitive wiring you need to read, recognize and react. In other words, to build soft skills you should behave less like a careful carpenter and more like a skateboarder in a skateboard park: aggressive, curious and experimental, always seeking new ways to challenge yourself.

It may seem a far distance between a skateboarder and golfer, but it really isn’t. A soft skill in golf is primarily built on the course or practicing for “on course” situations. It is much more about feel than technique.

Some examples: Hitting shots into different winds (down wind, cross wind, etc..), hitting different trajectories (high, low, etc..), working on different shots into the green, ones that roll (like a long chip), ones that stop fast (like a pitch or lob shot), hitting off of side hill lies (up hill, down hill, etc..), and obviously many more.

Suggestions to help you practice/work on these soft skills:

– Try to get on the golf course early or late… at a time when you are alone or with someone who doesn’t care if you hit more than one shot. And at a time when you aren’t holding anyone up behind you. My favorite times are to start on back nine early in morning (not getting in way of grounds crew) or teeing off early evening when the front nine is open.

– Hit more than one shot (hit many if possible) in the situation you are working on.  Especially if the first was not performed correctly. (I like to hit 6 to 10 balls from the “situation”)

– Hit YOUR golf balls – the one’s you typically play with. NOT range balls…. You are learning feel, etc.. You need to learn feel with YOUR golf balls. They react different than range balls.

– Doesn’t hurt to make a plan before you start on what you want to work on. For example, let’s say you want to work on side hill lies and some flop shots around the greens.  You play the first hole and hit the ball down the middle… on a flat lie. Pick up the ball and find the nearest side hill lie.  Drop the ball on the lie and hit it. Hit a few more. work on that shot.  Let’s say you hit the shots on the green. Pick them up and throw them into a position that you will have to hit a flop/lob shot from… hit a few from there……  Have a plan before you start on shots you want to work on.

– Remember – learning/working on feel is just as important, even more important, than technique in building soft skills. Think about the feel….  take your time to learn the feel, even take notes on what you feel… it will help you a lot in recall when you have the same shot during a round of golf.

When you practice a soft skill, focus on making a high number of varied reps, and on getting clear feedback. Don’t worry too much about making errors – the important thing is to explore. After each session, ask yourself, what worked? What didn’t? And why?

10. Honor The Hard Skills

As you probably recognize, most talents are not exclusively hard skills or soft skills, but rather a combination of the two. Prioritize the hard skills because in the long run they’re more important to your talent. Most top performers (top athletes) place great importance on practicing the same skills they practice as beginners.

As we always say, over and over and over (I am sure many of our students get tired of us telling them this) – you must first build/work on your grip, then set up, then take away, then down swing, impact and release… in that order. And you will NEVER stop working on these fundamentals.

In fact, even myself (Tim) and my brother (Todd) continually work/tweak, check, etc.. these fundamentals. I ALWAYS use an alignment trainer when I practice, I quite often use a grip training club when I practice, Todd videos his swing almost every session he hits balls (to check) … You will and should NEVER stop working on your fundamentals.

One way to keep this idea in mind is to picture your talent as a big oak tree – a massive, thick trunk of hard skills (fundamentals) with the towering canopy of flexible soft skills up above.  First build the trunk.  Then work on the branches.

11. Don’t Fall For The Prodigy Myth

Most of us grow up being taught that talent is an inheritance, like brown hair or blue eyes. Therefore, we presume that the surest sign of talent is early, instant, effortless success, i.e. being a prodigy. In fact, a well-established body of research shows that that assumption is false.  Early success turns out to be a weak predictor of long-term success.

We believe and prove it every day, regardless of athleticism, age, “current talent”, etc.. you can, should and will improve if you practice correctly. In other words, as we always say, if you practice with a purpose and focus on getting a little better every time you practice, you will improve. The rate of improvement is up to you. How much you practice, your focus during practice, your focus on fundamentals, your “patience” to allow time for changes to occur and become a new habit, and in general your belief in the methodology are all factors to your improvement. We see too many fall into “the trap” that they can’t learn new habits because they are “too old” or aren’t “athletic” enough..  Both have very little to do with learning new habits… the issues typically come down to forgetting how to learn something new and flexibility issues. Both areas that can be worked on.

Talent Code comment: If you don’t have early success, don’t quit. Instead, treat your early efforts as experiments, not as verdicts. Remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint.

Watch our next Practice Tip(s) for continuation of this topic – Tips for Improving including picking a coach, finding the sweet spot, breaking down moves into chunks, and many others.

Hopefully, you were able to read last month’s practice tip (November Update) – Tips for Improving (Part 1).

In this practice tip we discussed how we work with our students to create new habits rather than breaking old habits. It is essentially impossible to break bad habits (our mind/body is not set up that way) … but we are set up to be able to create new habits and ultimately make changes/create new movements, etc. we want.

We talked about a book we strongly recommend – The Little Book of Talent / 52 Tips for Improving Your Skills by Daniel Coyle

It is described as a manual for building a faster brain and a better you. It is an easy-to-use hand book of scientifically proven, field tested methods to improve your skills – your skills, your kids’ skills, your organization’s skills – in sports, music, art, math and business. The product of five years of reporting from the world’s greatest talent hotbeds and interviews with successful master coaches, it distills the daunting complexity of skill development into 52 clear, concise directives. Whether you are 10 or 100, this is an essential guide for anyone who ever asked, “How do I get better?”

This book is available at Amazon.com

The last instructional newsletter (Tips for Improvement Part 1) we talked about the following tips:

1.  Staring at who you want to become.

2.  Spending 15 minutes a day engraving the skills on your brain.

3.  Stealing without apology.

4.   Buying (and keeping) a notebook.

This instructional newsletter (Part 2) we cover the next 4 tips for improving your skills and relate them to you learning/working on your single plane swing.

5. Be Willing To Be Stupid

Feeling stupid is no fun.  But being willing to be stupid – in other words, being willing to risk the emotional pain of making mistakes – is absolutely essential, because reaching, failing, and reaching again is the way your brain grows and forms new connections.

When it comes to developing talent, remember, mistakes are not really mistakes, but rather they are guideposts you use to get better.

This is a topic we discuss often at our schools and clinics. When you are making changes in your golf swing, it should be uncomfortable at first and you will not hit it well at first. You shouldn’t – many feel they are making “mistakes” and feel “stupid” when they do this. But this shows you are making changes and something EVERYONE will go through when they are making changes and creating new habits. If you are willing to make “mistakes” – miss hit shots when you first start to make changes, “willing to be stupid” as Mr. Coyle calls it…. you will create new habits. If not, the process will take MUCH longer, if not hindered all together.

6. Choose Spartan Over Luxurious

We love comfort. We love state-of-the-are practice facilities, oak-paneled corner offices, spotless locker rooms, and fluffy towels. Which is a shame, because luxury is a motivational narcotic: It signals our unconscious minds to give less effort. It whisper’s, Relax, you’ve made it…

The point of this tip is not moral; it’s neural. Simple, humble spaces help focus attention on the deep-practice task at hand; reaching and repeating and struggling. When given the choice between luxurious and spartan, choose spartan….  Your unconscious mind will thank you.

This is actually one of my favorite tips in the Little Book of Talent. Do I like fancy country clubs, fancy ranges, fancy practice areas – ABSOLUTELY! But, there is no question, my focus suffers big time when I’m in that environment. In fact, when I grew up hitting golf balls, and practicing in high school, in college and when I was starting on the mini – tours, 90% of the time I hit balls (practiced) in a field hitting my own golf balls out of my shag bag. And I guarantee my improvement was increased dramatically as my focus had to stay alert as when you are hitting your own balls, you must shag your own golf balls. If you loose focus, it is absolutely no fun shagging those balls….

I always recommend to my students (especially younger high school and college students) if you want to dramatically improve your quality of practice – hit your own golf balls – whether you are chipping, pitching, or working on your full swing, if you have the opportunity to hit your own balls – I strongly recommend it

7. Before You Start, Figure Out If It’s a Hard Skill or a Soft Skill

The first step toward building a skill (creating a new habit) is to figure out exactly what type of skill you’re building. Every skill (habit) falls into one of two catagories: hard skills or soft skills.

Hard, High-Precision Skills are actions that are performed as correctly and consistently as possible, every time. Hard Skills are about repeatable precision.

An example of a hard skill is creating new moves/working on new positions in your golf swing. Golf swing fundamentals are hard skills.

Soft, High-Flexibility Skills are those that have many paths to a good result, not just one. These skills aren’t about doing the same thing perfectly very time, but rather about being agile and interactive, reactive and making timely choices.

An example of soft skills is working on things that will help you on the course/on course type situations. Hitting shots into the wind, moving the ball right to left, or left to right, hitting different trajectories on golf shots, working on your short game (creating different shots around the green), etc. Soft skills tend to be more “feel” related and something that is reactive to the situation

8. To Build Hard Skills, Work Like a Careful Carpenter

To develop reliable hard skills, you need to connect the right wires in your brain. In this, it helps to be careful, SLOW, and keenly attuned to errors. To work like a careful carpenter. Precision especially matters early on, because the first reps/swings establish a pathway for the future. Neurologists call this the “sled on the snowy hill” phenomenon. The first repetitions are like the first sled tracks on fresh snow. On subsequent tries, your sled will tend to follow those grooves.

When you are working on hard skills (working on your golf swing), be precise and measured. Go SLOWLY. Make one simple move (change) at a time, repeating and perfecting it before you move on. Learning fundamentals only seems boring – in fact, it’s the key movement of investment. If you build the right pathway now, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and trouble down the line.

This is EXACTLY why Todd and myself have worked so hard on creating and implementing our training aids and instructional videos.

These training aids and instructional videos are set up to help you act like a careful carpenter. They help you take the guess work out of practicing. Even if your focus starts to “lax” – they will help you keep on path.

Do not guess, do not question if you are doing it right or not.

As we say at all our schools and to all our students – a majority of typical golfers have no idea if they are on the path to improvement or not. Our students do not and will not have this problem. By following a model, studying and learning proper movement and using training aids to check and check often, you can guarantee you are building those hard skills (fundamentals) perfect – like a VERY careful carpenter.

Watch our next Newsletter (December Update) released in 2 weeks for continuation of this topic – Tips for Improving.