HERE is a statement to make you sit up and think!

 

 

Before I go on, this has nothing to do with good or bad luck.Golf, if you did not know, is not one dimensional nor is it black or white.

Any decent coach can demonstrate a dodgy-looking technique and still hit a good ball and, likewise, he can then make a visually great-looking movement and totally duff it; both deliberately, I hasten to add.

 

One of the saddest spectacles on a golf course, though, is the man who mystifies everyone in that he has regular lessons, has a great-looking swing but hits very poor-quality shots and plays off a handicap of 20-plus.This poor soul is simply lacking one element in his swing that makes the difference.

 

So what defines a good swing?

A good swing is one that delivers the club head into the back of the ball right on the button consistently.

If you have a slightly eccentric loop or an extra couple of movements somewhere, but still strike the ball solid and in the right direction, don’t whatever you do change it or let anyone else change for that matter.

 

Many a decent player has tried to make big changes in his technique in order to get their handicap down and ended up sending it the other way.

For many players wanting to lower their scores, they would be better off spending 75 per cent of their time working on the 100 yards and less shots. What’s the statistic? Is it something like 60per cent of the shots we hit are played from less than 100 yards out?

Is anyone asking how we get the club head to the ball in the right place at the right time? That’s a difficult one, but there is a great drill that can have a dramatic effect.

 

Find a coach who will give you a session on an IMPACT BAG. It’s essential you are shown how to do this because, done incorrectly, it can have some serious consequences.The drill is not a new one; in fact it was very much in fashion back in the 60s.Things move on but nothing changes.

 

For more on golf go to Nigel Burkitt’s website at www.101-golf-tips.co.uk

WHAT you read today is possibly more important than any bit of golf swing advice or theory you will ever receive.

Over the years, I have talked about the player finding the right coach who can communicate simple instruction that works for him or her.

I have talked about the importance of really listening to the coach and putting aside your own notions and giving 100 per cent to your half of this working partnership.

The next thing I need to tell you is this. Never book a lesson if you have an important golf tournament to play in the near future. When you make changes it takes time to build trust into those adjustments.

 

On the practice range that trust can take place reasonably quickly as there are no hazards, no spectators and no score to post. Coupled to that you have a basket of golf balls so if you hit one poorly, just get another one.The golf course is the theatre of pressure. For some people this is even the case first thing in the morning, playing on their own when no one is around except for the green keepers.

 

Standing there with one ball, a hazardous tree lined fairway and one chance, requires a bucket load of trust in your technique.

Having a lesson – half an hour practice in your lunch break the next day – and then stepping up to the tee in competition two days later is guaranteed to get you second guessing what you achieved with your coach three days earlier when your familiar bad shot re-appears.

It ruins your confidence, wrongfully undermines your trust in the coach, wastes your money on the lesson in the first place and worst scenario of all, it takes you one step nearer to the dreaded “Carousel of Quack Theory” where everyone onboard fills their heads with quick fix-its and in time goes barking mad.

The only exception I would make to mixing lessons and playing important matches soon after is if you are one of the rare, fortunate, breed who has a fantastically healthy perspective in that you see the game bigger than anyone or any event there ever was or will be and there is always another day for glory.

If that is the case, you are already a winner.

I will start this next blog by asking some great age old questions.

 

 

The answer to question one is, there is no answer as it usually degrades into a philosophical debate where everyone claims they are right. However the question still remains.

 

The answer to question two is really irrelevant but it may have something in common to question three which is the one we are hopefully still interested in after this ramble into the world of academia. I think I am correct in saying that the egg/chicken scenario evolved over thousands, maybe millions of years into the form we recognise today. It may interest you to know the golf swing has also evolved over the centuries and is still evolving even today. When we talk of evolving, I interpret that to mean adapting, but adapting to what?

 

I think it’s safe to say the club was first on the scene and the swing in hot pursuit. The better players over the centuries are the ones who have adapted and developed a swing that suits the design of the golf club where as the lesser able players over the centuries have tried to adapt the golf club to suit their misplaced and incorrect ideas.

 

So many times do coaches see players investing £300 in a new driver only to witness the player then throw himself at the ball. If they had a better grasp of the technique, they would hit a second-hand 20-year-old bit of kit just as well.The golf club is a weird strange contraption and requires a unique technique to get it to work to its best potential.

 

The more you understand the club the more chance you have of finding that unique swing – the textbook swing in other words.