This
site is dedicated to recreational players around the
world looking for the simplest and easiest way to enjoy golf
You
will break 80 but you won't be Tiger Woods
The
information herein is intended for recreational
players
only.
It should enable you to break
80 with some practice but it is never intended to help you turn
pro. Look elsewhere if that's your
objective.
I define a recreational player as the following:
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You
play golf because you enjoy it ( instead
of making a living with
it)
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You
believe
playing in the 70's is more fun than in the 80's or 90's
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You
don't
play on the 'tour courses' (e.g.
super
fast greens and 4"
rough)
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You
don't have a lot of time to practice |
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If
you fit the profile above, read on!
Why
the simpler the better?
Have
you ever wondered
why you had a good swing one day but you just couldn't
reproduce it
the next day?
Even if you wrote down the exact swing thoughts that helped
you on that good day
and tried to faithfully repeat them, the perfect swing just
disappeared or gradually faded away. I
have an explanation.
Unified
Swing Theory (UST) 1: A good swing requires many many things to
be right. It will
turn bad if only a few of them go wrong.
As
illustrated by the green line in the diagram below, a swing is
great when a high percentage
of the things (such as grip, posture, swing plane, tempo, ...etc.)
are going right. As more and
more of them go wrong, the 'goodness' goes down drastically.
A touring pro does most things
correctly so he/she operates in the green zone. Even though
a few things might go out of whack
on a specific day, the 'goodness' of the swing is still pretty
good.
Simplified
Golf!
The
easiest
way to play
The reason
we can't repeat the good swing even though we followed the exact
swing thoughts
is not because the swing thoughts are no longer helpful and making
the corresponding
aspects of our swing correct. It is because the other
aspects of our swing went wrong and
brought down the 'goodness'. To make matters worse,
different things could go bad at different
times. This is why a good swing is so elusive.
Since a simpler swing has fewer elements, and thus, fewer things
to get right and maintain
right. It stands to reason that the simpler we make golf,
the better!
Unified
Swing Theory (UST) 2: The fewer the concerns of a swing, the
simpler it gets.
In
addition to finding a simple swing, we can further reduce the
number of concerns by using
�mega swing thoughts� that combine the effects of several swing
thoughts. An example would
be the #1 Pressure Point by Homer Kelly (covered in detail in the
swing section). It�s also worth
noting that some swing thoughts are harder to execute than the
other. When given a choice, the
easier one is always better than the hard one.
Unified
Swing Theory (UST) 3: Spreading the concerns of the swing
elements across time
makes the swing simpler to execute.
Besides
reducing the number of elements, we can further simplify golf by
taking advantage of
the time dimension. The difficulty of getting multiple
things right simultaneously increases
exponentially with the number of things we need to be concerned
with at once. Try juggling one
ball. It�s easy, isn�t it? Now add another ball.
It�s a bit harder. Add more balls. It becomes
much harder.
A golf swing takes roughly 2 seconds. Asking our mind to
handle too many swing thoughts
(even though they help us get many elements of the swing right)
during that time is futile. Most
likely we can�t do it, and the cognitive stress makes us tense up
and further hurt the swing.
Instead, if we shift some of the concerns away from the actual
swing phase to the pre-shot
routines (or even the follow through), we effectively reduce
number of things we need to
consciously get right during the actual swing.
We�ve all heard the old saying: �Never put off till tomorrow what
you can do today�. In golf, �Don�t
put off till the actual swing what you can do before it.�
The putting section provides a good and
simple example. The same principle, of course, applies to
others as well.
Unified
Swing Theory (UST) 4: Pushing the concerns of the swing elements
to subconscious makes the swing simpler to execute.
When
you don�t have to think about it and can do it right, it�s the
holy grail of golf. Practice can
push consciously controlled elements into subconscious.
However, the right kind of practice is
important for it to happen. There will be examples in the
full swing section.