mind coach

Smooth Authority

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By Tim Graves, PGA

Mark W. (East Saint Louis, MO)

To: Timg@Gravesgolf.com

Hey Tim;

I just wanted to say thank-you and to share my experience playing yesterday due to some freakishly warm weather in St. Louis.

This month I have been working on my putting, chipping and pitching (into a tarp) in the basement for a few minutes daily and tracking the time spent. It’s amazing how spending 7 to 12 minutes a day per discipline can add up – so far this month I’ve practiced my putting stroke alone for 3 hours plus (23 of 27 days). I have incorporated your teachings on ball position, shaft lean and hands down the line and continue to work to ingrain them.

Your tips during the FF <Fast Forward> presentation – specifically the single trail hand drill that Tiger used, and the short backstroke to promote acceleration – were golden. Yesterday – the first real round in over 6 weeks – I had 30 total putts with no three putts. What’s more – I had several 4-6 footers that due to your acceleration drill went in the hole with smooth authority!

Thank-you for all that you do to share your insights – very grateful for you and the GG team.

Mark

Enjoy your day – “The Best Is Yet To Come”

Fast Forward Information:

http://gravesgolf.com/fast

Winter Training – Get Ahead of Your Buddies

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By: Tim Graves, PGA

It’s the off-season for golf. Your golf buddies are eating turkey and getting fat. I can’t think of a better time to get the edge on them. So get off the couch and let’s get practicing!

Students often ask how to improve their games in the off-season. And most of you who have participated in our instruction know that we strongly promote many types of practice away from the driving range – in your own home, even while you watch football.

We have quite a few options for working on your game in the winter. Here are some ideas:

1) Always work on flexibility strength and fitness. Remember, you are an athlete if you play golf. Train like an athlete. See our Single Plane On Demand App and in particular our “Flexibility and Exercise Video” for more information. Also “Improve your Move” Video is great for indoor training.

2) Practice positions in front of a mirror – all of the positions of the swing. Training on creating new habits / new positions in front of the mirror. Remember, the slower you do it, the faster you will get it. Use the Single Plane Position Trainer to work on positions in front of the mirror. Work with a online coach to make sure you are training correct and working on habits you need to improve.

3) Find (or build) an indoor studio where you can hit balls into net. Use video to look at your swing and compare to Moe and model the Single Plane Swing. Indoor – Net practice is great for making changes in the winter and with a net you will still be focusing on swing positions rather than ball flight. A VERY good thing.

4) Practice your short game inside, in particular your putting stroke (using Excalibur Trainer) and chipping stroke. Remember, short game is just smaller version of full swing. Working on short game will not only help you scoring part of game, but can also help your full swing (aka – “Two Birds”).

5) Work on your mental game over the winter. Green / Red and Grey Zones (Preshot, In-Shot and Post Shot routines). Work on improving your practice regimens, work on improving your mental game on and off the course.

I can’t think of a better time to work on your game: swing, flexibility, short game and mental game over the winter. You are not rushed over the winter, anything you improve will get you ahead of those who are not practicing and you will not be working hard in early spring trying to get back to where you were when season ended last year…

We can help.

STRONGLY recommend looking into our Winter Fast Forward Training Program. Includes full swing, short game, fitness and flexibility and mental game training / work over the winter. A three month program starting in middle of December that will guarantee improvement and getting you ahead of all those “sitting” over the winter.

More information about Winter Fast Forward Training Program: CLICK HERE

Or email me at timg@gravesgolf.com

I will be happy to get you information about our Winter Fast Forward Training Program.

“Mind Boggling” – Holy Crap / Brighten Your Day Email Part 2

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By Tim Graves, PGA

From: D A JENSON <jenson*****>
Date: Mon, Dec 8, 2025 at 8:40 AM
Subject: Follow-up
To: Tim Graves <timg@gravesgolf.com>

Hey Tim, 

This is Dean Jenson again.  I just got the email with your video about my email.  I was chuckling when you described what I was likely doing in my swing.   You nailed everything, of course. 

Just to fill in some blanks, I had the body damage mentioned from my sports activities earlier in my life.  Boys will be boys.

I spent one winter looking at different golf swings and settled on the single plane because of the reduced strain on the back and lead knee.    

My ACL damage was significant.  If I slipped a little shoveling snow, I would be down on the ground instantly.  I had to be very conscious of foot placement. I got the ACL replacement when pro athletes started returning to their sport after having the procedure done.  The problem for golf was 15 years of conscious and subconscious knee protection.  Correct lead knee movement and trail hip motion took years to override the self-protection mechanisms. 

I am not going to get into my shoulder and arm issues.  However, after talking with other students at your schools that I have been to, I feel relatively unscathed.  I suspect overcoming self-protection mechanisms might be slowing down other students’ learning processes as well.  I first had to slowly hit each position and hold it and tell myself that it was a safe position for me to be in. I had to repeat those slow movements a lot before I could speed up my swing.  Your comments about the 25, 50, 75 then full swing are great practice methods for the swing.   But they were also very helpful for tip toing in to find out my body parts could perform the movements safely. 

I decided last Thanksgiving that bike riding indoors and outdoors would be my main source of exercise for life.  Watching pro bike races got me interested in training.  Training harder got me into the pro rider’s health habits.  That got me and my wife into better nutrition, which was already good thanks to my wife.   I started getting into joint mobility and stretching after seeing and listening to you and Chris.  My wife made stretching a little competitive as she would ask me if I could do some of her Yoga poses.  I couldn’t, and my hips would actually cramp up just from sitting on the floor and spreading my legs out.   That was freaky.   I have been working on hip flexibility regularly for the last year and will continue whole body mobility as long as I breathe.   I am conscious of and work towards keeping full shoulder range of motion.  The golf swing itself helps with that.  The golf exercises from Chris, of course, are tremendous.  I may not get stronger, but flexibility will help maintain my golf swing’s range of motion.  It appears to me that range of motion is most important for the proper swing positions to take place and create the effortless power you talk about regularly.    

In the last month I have begun to feel effortless power.   I actually feel I need to slow the swing down.  I was always trying to swing hard to make up for a less than perfect swing.   Maybe it is not slowing things down but just using less tight muscled-up force.  I have reached a connectedness in the swing where I can feel I am hitting the ball hard; it sounds different as well.   The ease of the swing now makes me feel I could easily do 36 holes a day if I wanted to.   It is just mind boggling seeing the changes in the last 2 months.  

This is getting a little long again, sorry.  Apparently, I don’t do short emails.    

Thanks Again,

Dean Jenson 

Practice Slower, Play Faster

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By Paul Monahan, Graves Golf Mental Game Coach

Sounds like a directive. Right?

Actually I think of it as a mental game approach. Here’s why:

At almost every Graves Golf school I attend, lots and lots of students are doing their level-best to achieve the Single Plane Swing model. But many, if not most suffer because of two important missteps.

They practice too quickly. And they PLAY the game too slowly.

Interestingly, these are not execution missteps (caused by lack of focus or an inability to understand a strategy)…they are mental game failures.

Let me explain, first with the concept of Practicing Slower.

The Single Plane Swing curriculum that Todd and Tim Graves and their instruction team have refined over the years is based on the very latest in skill development research: that we learn best from slow, deliberate and proper practice movements. (Not beating balls over and over again.)

One simply cannot groove and assimilate new body positions without this kind of work.

Moe Norman famously said to Todd and Tim that he once spent an entire day holding what we call position five. Why? Moe said he wanted to “…make it stronger.”

Just last week I heard Todd tell the story that when one of their Master Instructors was converting from conventional to the Single Plane Swing, he was known to spend hours on the practice range working on one thing: perfecting his move into position one.

Why won’t most students spend their practice time like this? One word: Their EGO.

It’s more satisfying to the EGO to hit ONE great shot every once in a while rather than spend the time needed to master a position or two.

In other words, even though it is a rational-enough concept (practicing slowly during your swing development), it is much harder to do because a part of your brain wants to “show the world” what you are capable of.

The harsh reality in all of this is: Until you SLOW DOWN and develop a deliberate practice regimen that includes far MORE correct body movement and far LESS actual shots with a ball, you will continue to delay the mastery of the Single Plane Swing. (Sorry. That’s just the way it is.)

This requires cultivating the awareness that your EGO will try to sabotage a regimen like this. It requires that you learn to tune into your mental and emotional tendencies…and be disciplined enough to stay on track with the deliberate, deep practice that will yield the changes you are looking for.

Dan Coyle wrote about this in  The Talent Code…and Todd and Tim refer often to the research and insights from Coyle’s work. Skill development comes from deep, deliberate, proper practice.

Now let’s address Playing Faster:

When it comes to playing the game, most players play too slowly. Specifically, they tinker and hover too long over the ball when they are hitting their shots. This causes paralysis by analysis – and yes…this is an actual technical term.

Sian Beilock, in her book Choke chronicles the trouble we get into when we linger over a golf shot too long. Basically, she explains that the part of our brain that is responsible for moving the body in space (procedural memory) switches off in those moments, and then our working memory takes over. This causes over-thinking and less-than-optimal muscle movement. (And yes, often is causes: The Choke)

The antidote? Play faster. Stop lingering. Pull the trigger over your shots sooner. This will prevent over-thinking and will allow you to play golf more as a reactionary sport…and you will be able to execute shots up to your talent level, not BELOW your talent level.

So if you want to get better this year, do yourself a favor and tune up your Mental Game skills: create a discipline to practice slower when off the course, and to play faster when on it.

Have Fun!

Mastery Orientation

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By Paul Monahan, Graves Golf Mental Game Coach

GGA Mental Game Coach

Your brain is amazing.

It regulates your body process, allows you to analyze and interpret external stimuli and is the source of the very consciousness that allows you to read this sentence.

And it is also an incredible survival tool.

The brain has a very powerful (but primitive) threat response system designed to keep you alive. Great when you need to run from a tiger (as you may have needed to 50,000 years ago), but not so great when you want to perform at your best in a competitive situation (like the Spring member-guest against your buddies.)

Your brain’s threat response system is always monitoring your external environment to determine if your safety is in jeopardy, much like aa software program running silently in the background. You probably aren’t even aware of it.

The challenge with this system is that it is not smart enough to know the difference between a saber-toothed tiger running toward you (which could ACTUALLY harm you) and a slippery downhill 10-footer on the eighteenth hole to tie your match.

In both cases, your brain goes into threat response because it has assessed that you might lose something very important to you. It signals to your body that you are in danger.

The problem? On the golf course, this response has physical and mental implications. Sweaty palms impact your ability to hold the putter properly. Nervous, shaking hands affect your ability to move the putter as you would like to. And clouded judgment can impact the kind of decision-making that keeps you in your process.

So what to do?

I believe that we can be successful more consistently in nearly any performance context when we do certain things to prevent the brain’s threat response from activating.

I coach my clients on the distinction between operating from a Mastery Orientation versus operating from an Outcome Orientation. And I teach them how to adopt a Mastery Orientation whenever stepping into any kind of performance arena.

The primary difference between the two operating orientations is this: people who operate a Mastery Orientation are concerned with elevating their competence. People who operate from an Outcome Orientation are concerned with proving their competence.

Because of this, a golfer with a Mastery Orientation has a distinct performance advantage. They are more likely to stay connected to all their skills and abilities. And they can execute at a high level and do things like:

  • tune into their surroundings in productive ways
  • stick to their game plan and make clear decisions
  • stay in the present moment and execute their process
  • feel the putter move freely
  • be playful and PLAY the game

This is because they are not wrapped up in results. To them, outcomes are important, but only insomuch as they (the outcomes) reflect where they (the golfer) are on their own path to mastery.

They know deep down that the WORST that can happen is that they will learn something: about their game, their capacity for resilience, their ability to compete in certain conditions…etc. And because they hold this knowledge, their brain’s primitive threat response is not activated as easily.

When they hit wayward shots, they see those shots in the context of their overall goals in golf – and not as defining moments in that particular competition, nor even how they define their own self-worth.

In a way, golfers who operate from a Mastery Orientation have written a story for themselves about what their experiences on the golf course mean to them. And they access that story each time they play.

For them, golf is not (entirely) about winning or losing, but rather about growing in their mastery of the game. Each shot – no matter the stakes – is an opportunity to learn and improve, not a challenge.

The result? They play better. They score better. And typically enjoy themselves more.

On the other hand, the golfer who operates from an Outcome Orientation is typically in for a much more emotionally-charged ride on the course. Why? Because their ego is heavily involved in how they see each shot. (Remember, they are trying to PROVE their competence, not grow it.)

When they stand at the first tee, they experience anxiety because they are trying to show the world the fruits of all their hard work on the range. (We call this pressure.)

And when they have to face that slippery downhill 10-footer, the dominant thoughts are not about what they could gain, but rather about what they might lose. They experience what my colleague and NHL hockey prospect coach Walter Aguilar calls horizontal thinking: they “move horizontally” in their thinking to the future, imagining how awful it would be to miss the putt and to lose their credibility with their friends and/or competitors.

As a result, they begin to lose access to their high-level cognitive functioning, as well as the physical skills and abilities they possessed prior to starting the round. And of course, this can start a kind of performance death spiral that is very difficult to pull out of.

The good news is that you have options. You can choose the mental and emotional stance from which to operate when you play. You can choose the orientation you want to adopt when playing golf.

xI hope you choose a Mastery Orientation.

“Do Not Try, Just Do”

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

Today was a good day. My son Blade, a collegiate lacrosse player at Guilford College in North Carolina, was requested this year to take up the goalie position. Now, if you know anything about lacrosse you know this is like setting yourself up at the business end of a shooting gallery, without much padding. His first month was a regular series of phone calls asking Mom for some home remedies for bruises and bumps all over his body.

Most of his buddies questioned his sanity for taking up the goalie position, as it is common knowledge that this position can result in being ‘gun shy’ and develop an early case of the jitters as you are trying to avoid getting whacked on the shins with a ball about the same density as a hockey puck. Not fun!

So, why was it a good day when my son’s schedule calls for him to show up as the target for 30 top athletes with sticks? The reason was a call we had today in which he shared he had a great day of practice, maybe his best ever at this level. That was a change from the last couple of months.

As we queried the reasons, he told us that he had pulled some advice from the past (meaning something his old Dad had told him) and decided to start humming whenever he was under intense assault from the opposing attack men. “It worked great,” he said. “Got a few strange looks from my teammates, but they liked the results.” He further added. “I was able to quit trying so hard and just let it happen without thinking about it.”

Read carefully here and understand the message. What he was doing by humming was interrupting his own internal dialogue (negative, fearful, uncertain) and letting his body do what it already was programmed to do. That is, watch a ball coming towards him at 90 MPH and catch it in a net connected to stick in his hands. His body knew how to do that because he has practiced it thousands of times and has it stored in his brain within thousands of neural circuits. Yet, something was getting in his way.

What most often gets in the way is a negative internal dialogue that gets manifested as some self-defeating behavior. It gets more complicated when you attach real pain to this dialogue (he actually got whacked a bunch of times). It then becomes what is known in behavioral science jargon as a “kinesthetic or visual anchor’. That is, just the visual imagery of the ball or even a feeling or thought can cause the body to be less than resourceful and reduce overall performance.

Let me give you an example. If you will imagine you are driving along a nice scenic highway on a lovely spring day. Your car is new and freshly washed, the windows are down and the trees seem extra green and vivid. The flowers are out, the air is crisp and you have a sense of well-being and things seem right with the world. All of a sudden a flashing blue light appears directly behind you and the Highway Patrol guy is motioning you to pull over.  Whoops! Now tell me what happened to your emotional state as you imagined this scene?  That is an anchor and the feeling you got is similar to what happens when you let your dialogue get negative under stress.

There is a memorable scene I love in the movie Star Wars. Luke Skywalker is trying to raise his crashed ship from the primordial ooze and is unable. In frustration, Yoda tells him. “Do not try Luke, just do!” What a great statement by a great teacher. Yoda was telling Luke to get his preconceptions, his fears, his wishes and his wants out of the way and just let his mind and body do what it knew how to do. In Yoda’s sentiments, trying doesn’t exist, you either do or you don’t.

The lesson here, for each of us, is that performance is often inhibited because we care too much. We want to do well so intensely that the desire itself becomes a type of over care or stress and the toll it takes – is our performance.

If you are seeking to maximize your performance when playing golf, or any other aspect of your life, where you get into a state of over care, it makes great sense to reduce the significance of the event in any way you can.   My son is doing it by humming because you can’t think and hum at the same time (try it, it is true).

You can practice reducing significance by trying the following:

  • Being truly in the here and now. Focus on what is happening this second.
  • Think of the game you are in as just a fun round without any real consequence to you. You dissociateyourself from the emotional meaning.
  • Focus on a physiological aspect, like your breathing.  This moves your thoughts of performance into the background.
  • Direct interruption of your internal dialogue – hum your favorite tune. This can be done sub-vocalized to keep the noise down, or perhaps you might be playing with the members of a rock band and they would enjoy it.
  • Develop and rely on a routinethat allows you to minimize your thoughts beyond what you are actually doing. This is why so many Pro’s use a strict pre-shot routine for every shot, especially putting, because this is when they are most susceptible to minor muscle movement related to stress. When they get under pressure they have a familiar routine to fall back on that lets them compartmentalize their internal dialogue to the rehearsed procedure.

You hear this reflected often in post-round interviews when a pro will tell the interviewer. “I was trying to not get ahead (a head) of myself.” What he is telling us all highlights his desire not to let distracting, and unrelated to the task at hand, internal dialogue begins to affect his performance. If you are thinking about getting the trophy in an hour, or your gracious acceptance speech, it is hard to be lining up and executing the perfect putt.

In general, if you reduce the emotional significance of an event, you will reduce negative emotional impact on your state of being and that translates into improved performance. Your body is a closed and connected loop and every part is interacting with the other.

So, as to my humming lacrosse playing goalie son, I will report that his team is off to its best start in 20 years, with 5 wins and 1 loss so far this season. Now that’s a tune we can all enjoy.

About the Author: Dr. Ron Cruickshank recently opened the GGA – Moe Norman Golf School as part of the GGA expansion program into Canada. He is headquartered at the Royal Ashburn Golf Club in Whitby Ontario. This year’s offerings include a variety of Specialty Clinics in addition to the regular GGA Schools. If you are serious about getting better this year call Ron at 647-892-4653.

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