Awareness: The Key To Improvement

Awareness: The Key To Improvement

There is a saying in golf that “feel isn’t real.” What people mean by this is that often, what a golfer thinks he or she is doing is not actually what is happening. As an example, take the golfer who is aligned too far to the left, but in fact thinks he is aligned straight. If we align this golfer straight, what do you think his perception will be? Of course, he now believes he is aligned too far to the right.

This brings up the principle that in order to make a change, a golfer has to feel as if he is doing the exact opposite of what he is actually doing. We emphasize the word feel because it is exactly that, a feel, and not reality. We don’t want the golfer to actually be aligned too far to the right, but the perception has to be as such in order to be aligned properly.

This is where some caution must take place. A golfer who needs to feel as if he is aiming too far right in order to be straight will undoubtedly be aiming too far right at some point, so constant monitoring is necessary. Other examples might be that of a shanker who needs to feel as if he is hitting the ball off the toe of the club – at some point, he is likely to actually do that. Or, a golfer who takes the club back too far to the inside and later is now taking it back too far to the outside. This phenomenon of overdoing a change cannot be overstated enough, and the teacher needs to make the student aware that this could very well happen.

This is where the concept of awareness becomes paramount. Tim Gallwey, in his classic book The Inner Game of Golf, theorized that awareness, as opposed to “do” instructions, was the key to improvement. In other words, making the student aware of what he was actually doing was far more effective than merely telling him what to do.

Although sports psychology and motor learning theory have gotten far more advanced than what Gallwey’s book offered, awareness is still a valuable principle in making motor pattern changes. Have you ever struggled to get a student to change a bad habit?  If  you’ve  taught  for  any appreciable  length  of  time,  you  have  indeed experienced  this. You might have explained to the student what the problem is and how to fix it (verbal instruction); demonstrated what the student is doing wrong and what he needed to do correctly, and/or shown the student a video of his swing (visual instruction), or moved the student through the correct patterns or given him drills to fix the problem (kinesthetic instruction). You’ve used all three senses available for golf instruction, but you have failed to effect a change in the student’s habits.

This is where alternative methods to create or increase awareness come into play. Let’s explore a few of them:

Deliberate bad practice swings
Having the student deliberately create his bad swing habit during a practice swing can give the student insight into what is actually happening. For example, a student is coming over the top but he cannot feel it.  You might have him deliberately come over the top on a practice swing and then contrast that to a good practice swing, something that virtually everyone can do. The student might say he feels his trail shoulder being thrown outwards when he comes over the top, but feels it going more downward on a good practice swing. We would then have the student monitor what his trail shoulder does during the actual swing. Gallwey recommends using a scale of 0 to 5, where 0 might be no coming over the top while 5 is the maximum over the top move.

Half-speed swings
When a student is given a “do” instruction and then makes a swing full-bore, his automatic motor response may well kick in and no change will occur. Instead, if we have the student swing at half-speed, the conscious mind takes more control of the action, and most students are able to make a swing with the suggested change…at least to some degree.

Reduced-motion swings
Akin to making half-speed swings, this is where we have the student make a smaller swing. An example would be if we’re trying to teach a student to release the club properly through impact.  We might have them do the toe-up to toe-up drill, where the club goes no farther back than horizontal to the ground and the follow-through matches that, concentrating on the release through impact. Or a student might early release. The pump drill, where a student fully cocks his wrists and goes up and down a couple of times in a half-swing motion, can give the student the feel of not early releasing.

Compare/contrast
Sam Snead once said the problem with most amateurs’ games is that they don’t use their practice swing to hit the ball. This is because most golfers, regardless of skill level, can make an acceptable practice swing with proper fundamentals. We can have  our  students  take several  practice  swings, take  note  of  what  the  overall  motion  feels  like, and then have them hit a shot. The key here is not to have them try to duplicate their practice swing, but  instead  compare  and  contrast  their  hitting-the-ball  swing  with  their  practice  swing. Most students should be able to feel the differences and similarities within a few shots.

Summary
We need to accept that some students are completely unable to make any changes to their swings, no matter who is teaching them or what methods are used. A few prominent teaching professionals have written that this has happened to them, too, so you’re not alone. But giving students an awareness of what they are actually doing is an invaluable tool that is probably vastly underutilized by most teaching professionals. Take the techniques mentioned here and give them a try when a student is having difficulties in making a change. You should find some forward progress with one or more of them.

Major U.S. Cup Announcement

For the first time since its inception in 1996, the United States Golf Teachers Cup will change formats. The 2019 edition, to be held Monday and Tuesday, October 7-8 at Oak Creek Country Club in Sedona, Arizona, will feature a concurrent pro-am, similar to what is played every year at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on tour.

Each USGTF participant is encouraged to bring an amateur partner with a verified USGA handicap through the GHIN system. The format will be 36 holes of four-ball, using the best score between the pro’s gross score and his or her amateur partner’s net score, with amateurs allotted 80% of their course handicap. USGTF professionals will still be competing for their own individual titles, as in years past.

Look for final information and entry forms available soon at www.UnitedStatesGolfTeachersCup.com.

Richards Wins National Open

Christopher Richards from Trinidad & Tobago, a USGTF member and 2007 World Golf Teachers Cup champion, won the 112th Trinidad & Tobago Open this past March with a four-round total of 280, besting runner-up and PGA Tour player Ben Martin by nine strokes. The tournament was played at St. Andrews Golf Club in Moka, where fellow USGTF member Anthony Benny is the head teaching professional. Richards also won the 2010 United States Golf Teachers Cup. The win gives Richards an exemption into the Jamaica Classic on PGA Tour Latin America.
usgtf logo golf teacher certified golf instructor pga

USGTF Regional Action Starts Soon

USGTF regional championships are a great way to compete and enjoy some camaraderie among your fellow members. Regional championships offer a way to get together without traveling extremely long distances, in most cases.

Southwest Region – The USGTF Southwest Region Championship will be held Saturday and Sunday, May 4-5, at Ridgeview Ranch Golf Course in Plano, Texas. Region director Bruce Sims is the host. A practice round is available Friday, May 3, for a cart fee, and a dinner will be held that evening. The entry fee is $225, and an optional $20 skins game is available. For more information and to enter, please contact Sims at (214) 475-5168, bsimspro@hotmail.com.

Northwest Region – USGTF Northwest Region director Nathan Guerrero has scored a real coup with his securing historic TPC Harding Park in San Francisco for the 2019 USGTF Northwest Region Championship, to be held Wednesday and Thursday, May 15-16, 2019. The entry fee of $295 includes two days of golf and prize money, and division play will be based upon the number of entrants. To enter, send your name, age, gender, telephone number, email address and a check for $295 to Nathan Guerrero, USGTF Northwest Director, 736 Guerrero Street, San Francisco, CA 94110. The entry deadline is April 20, 2019. Please contact Guerrero at prtime.ng@gmail.com should you have any questions.

Southeast Region – May 18-19, 2019, at GlenLakes Country Club in Weeki Wachee, Florida. This private course is challenging, beautiful and impeccably maintained. Mature stands of oak and pine, water features, undulating hills and sand traps provide endless variations of play. A prize fund of $1,000 and the Southeast Trophy is assured with a field of 12 players. Entry deadline is May 10. Send entries to

USGTF National Office
200 S. Indian River Drive, Suite #206
Fort Pierce, FL 34950

If paying with credit card, call the office directly at (888) 346-3290. Questions? Please contact USGTF Southeast Regional director Mike Stevens at ams1127@msn.com.

Central Region – The 2019 USGTF Central Region Championship, a 36-hole stroke play event, will be held Sunday and Monday August 4thand 5th at Pheasant Run Golf Course in Canton, Michigan. For more information and to register, please visit http://www.mogtt.com/central-championship; Questions can be referred to region director Brent Davies at btkadavies@comcast.net or (248) 701-6843. The Michigan/Ontario Golf Teachers Tour also boasts a complete summer schedule. Please visit http://www.mogtt.com for more information.

Northeast Region – The 2019 USGTF Northeast Region Championship will be conducted Friday, June 21 at Mercer Oaks West Course in West Windsor Township, New Jersey. Region director Bob Corbo serves as the tournament host. The entry fee is $165. For more information and to enter, please contact Corbo at simductivegolf@gmail.com.

Letter From Recent USGTF Course Attendee

I would like to officially thank you and the USGTF for the wonderful week of learning and laughs in Las Vegas. The facilities were amazing and the instruction was very insightful. Bill Rice is a top-notch instructor and moreover, a great human being. He clearly knows what he is doing and makes it easy to translate into repeatable action. My lesson calendar is bursting at the seams and I am approaching each student with a new sense of confidence that I didn’t have prior to the class.

My intention is to progress through to the Master level and then become a certification instructor. Further, I would love to entertain the idea of using my facility in the future as a host location for certification classes. All in good time, of course, but I thought that I would put that out there to discuss further down the road.

In closing, I will highly recommend the USGTF to those interested in pursuing their dream to teach and grow the game of golf. Thank you again, I look forward to future interactions.

My best,
Rich Howard

“PRO” File – Touring Professional Jose De Jesus Rodriguez

One of the more remarkable stories in recent times in professional golf belongs to Jose De Jesus Rodriguez. At the age of 15, he illegally crossed the border from Mexico to the United States and wound up in Arkansas, where for the next 10 years he worked at a golf course. Returning home to Mexico after those 10 years, he began caddying and continued to play golf, where a wealthy member bought him a membership, and as Rodriguez’s talent became apparent, sponsored him into the professional ranks. Rodriguez started his career on the Mexican Tour and Canadian Tour, eventually graduating to PGA Tour Latino America and the Web.com Tour. He qualified to play the PGA Tour for the 2018-19 season through his performance on the Web.com Tour. Rodriguez’s story is one of hard work, perseverance and a little bit of luck along the way. As of April 1, he stands 184th in FedEx Cup points.

Editorial – Ten Dollars An Inch!

Ten dollars an inch. That’s how much it costs for a three-foot putter these days. The rack of putters in our pro shop carries a price tag of $360 each. What a country, you can buy accuracy. Yet, even the pros who all have these wands miss three-foot putts when it really counts. Hard to figure how anyone could fork over that kind of scratch for something that sends a ball generally no more than 60 feet. But they do it gladly, as if there is some magic hidden in a head shape or soda-can grip.

It’s amazing how many styles of putters have been created over the centuries. You know the saying, “It’s not the arrow, it’s the Indian.” Just replace arrow with putter and Indian with human. There is no putter out there that can compensate for nerves. Putting is about confidence. If you think you’re a bad putter, then you will be a bad putter, no matter what you have in your hands. Someone once asked Ben Crenshaw why he was such a good putter and he said it was because he liked to putt.

Also, how many people spend time working on their putting stroke? They’ll spend hours on the range, yet barely a few minutes before a round on the practice green. As I said, putting is about confidence, but also good technique. Technique is about repetition, and good technique builds confidence. In my younger days I played with a friend who was the best putter I ever saw, He used one of those putters that looked like it came from a miniature putt-putt operation. He spent more time on the practice green than anywhere else. He almost never missed anything from four feet or less. Maybe it was because he practiced four-foot putts for hours on end. The great humorist Will Rogers once said about golf, “Golf doesn’t need better golfers, it needs better putters.” He meant humans, not implements. He could never figure out how someone could hit a shot from 150 yards to three feet, then miss the hole from that little distance. I don’t think it is because they didn’t pay $10 an inch!

By Mike Stevens, USGTF Member and Contributing Writer

To Edinburgh and Back

To Edinburgh and Back

By Mike Stevens, USGTF Teaching ProfessionalTampa, Florida

Edinburgh, Scotland, is old. Evidence of people in the area date to 8500 BC. The city has been home to royalty, novelists, poets, engineers, scientists and golfers. It is the home of the oldest golfing society – the Royal Burgess Golfers of 1735. They played at Bruntsfield Links, which is steps from the heart of the city. It is still in operation today as a 36-hole short course which is free to everyone. A few blocks away is Leith Links, where the first rules of golf were established by John Rattray in 1744. The course no longer exists and now serves as an open park, but once a year the course is laid out for play as it was back those many years ago. Leith was also the site of the first international match between Scotland and England in 1681, featuring the Duke of York, who would become King James VII.

On this occasion of my travel to the golfer’s land, the lovely Mrs. Stevens and I let an apartment adjoining Holyrood Park across from Arthur’s Peak, the top of which I reached one day, giving me a magnificent view of the city and Edinburgh Castle. We were there for the annual World Hickory Open and Archie Baird International matches. There’s nothing more satisfying than golf on century-old courses with the clubs of the original game. Just east of the city are the courses of East Lothian, where this year the venues were Gullane #3, Luffness New and Kilspindie. Those familiar with the area know these well. A record number of participants from around the globe gathered at the sites, including four from the Florida Hickory Golfers clan.

The weather was spectacular for the entire week. Think of fall in New England. Not a drop of rain, either. Our first round was played at Gullane #3, and I managed to turn a good round into a mediocre 79 and a five-shot deficit. On day two at Luffness New, my game was just not there. Numerous mental mistakes and a couple of bad breaks resulted in a disastrous 85, well back of winner Johan Moberg of Sweden. Such is golf, and age has caught up to me. For our third and fourth rounds, we ventured over to 150-year-old Kilspindie GC, where the Florida Hickory Golfer team of myself, Winter Park’s Bill Geisler, Lakelander Mike Tracy and Tampan Steve Haigler managed to take third place in the Archie Baird International Championship. It was a great way to close out the week.

The remainder of the trip was a respite from golf, as the frau and I spent time wandering Edinburgh’s many historic sites, from the Queen’s Palace, the National Museum, and another trek up Arthurs Peak to the café where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter , “for sure, maybe, possibly,” as it said on the marquee. We especially liked the writer’s museum chronicling the lives of Robert Lewis Stevenson, Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott. I have to say, it is one of the most fascinating cities I have had occasion to visit.

I said Edinburgh is old. Everywhere you go there are dates on buildings going back centuries, and then you arrive at Castle Rock, which dominates and overlooks the city. The “Maidens Castle” goes back to 989 BC. In America, Scotland is known for golf, but her contributions to the world are so much more.

  

What’s Your GPA?…And The Myth Of Modern Technology

By Thomas T Wartelle, WGTF Master Golf Teaching Professional and Examiner 

Some of today’s golf instructors have gone over the top with the use of technology, terminology, and their claim to science.  To be clear, I am a science guy.  I have a degree in science.  I have always loved mechanics, engineering and science.  However, when you hear or read some of the propaganda that is being promoted by some of the “Top Teachers,” it is almost laughable. The invented terminology about the golf swing would make almost any true scientist or engineer cringe.  This phenomenon continues to perpetuate.  Many of these instructors seem to enjoy listening to themselves expound on their knowledge and their level of scientific expertise.

I have witnessed instructors rattling off launch monitor numbers to golfers (including many Tour players) who couldn’t care less about spin rates, angle of approach, and the D-plane.  As someone who was secretly working with the so-called D-plane over 30 years ago, I certainly am a fan of the science.   I have been involved in several projects on the very subject and was an early proponent (so was Ben Hogan over 70 years ago).  But, in most cases, such information should be kept in reserve and should not be relayed to students or clients.

Brooks Koepka, one of the top PGA Tour players today, recently said that he bought a launch monitor and used it only once. Koepka is an athlete and is known for some serious workout routines. For his golf practice routine, he said that he basically takes his mobile phone and videos a few swings.  Then, he monitors and works on grip, posture and alignment.  That is all he basically works on for mechanics.  If you go to any PGA Tour event, most of the players are monitoring these three things during practice sessions.

Golf is a reaction sport, the same as shooting a basketball, throwing a ball, hitting a baseball, or playing tennis.  If a player tries to think about too many moves or positions, speed and quality of contact diminishes.  With my students, we spend a lot of time on the process of proper grip, posture, and alignment (GPA).  We work on methods to make this repetitive.  All of this happens before the clubhead begins to swing.

Launch monitors are great and I love the data.  But if you ask most golfers, including Tour players, they just want to perform to some expectation.  They do not need terminology or data or the P-6 position.  They really do not care.  They just want a process to get the ball somewhere down the fairway, on the green, and in the hole.

Remember, as golf instructors we must always embrace technology and science.  That being said, temper the science and use it for your own knowledge.  The golf swing is not static.  Work on the swing being more reactionary.  Does everyone have the same grip, posture, and alignment?  Of course not!  Our job as golf instructors is to maximize each individual student’s physical parameters to achieve the best and most consistent results.

By the way, how is your GPA?
Making Sense of Modern Wedge Design

Making Sense of Modern Wedge Design

Years ago, picking a wedge was simple. In addition to your normal iron set, usually 3-PW, you would buy a sand wedge to complement the set. Companies usually had only one choice of sand wedge, usually 56° in loft, and one bounce and grind option that wasn’t even stamped onto the clubhead. Professional golfers who desired a different grind would manually grind down the sole themselves, or have a clubmaker do it for them.

That has all gone out the window today. Walk into any golf store that has a decent selection of products, and you will find wedges anywhere from 46° to 64°, with all sorts of bounce angles and sole grinds. S-grind, M-grind, W-grind…it’s enough to make anyone’s head spin. Let’s dig in and try to make some sense of all of this so you can help your students select the wedges suited for their games.

Be aware that many of your students will not even have a sand wedge in their set. A sand wedge is important because the proper bounce angle on the flange helps to get the ball out of sand. In addition, it’s a versatile club that can be used around the greens and even for full shots.

Here’s a brief description of the names of each loft:
• Pitching wedge: 46°, 48°, 50°
• Gap wedge: 50°, 52°, 54°
• Sand wedge: 54°, 56°, 58°
• Lob wedge: 58°, 60°, 62°
• X-wedge: 64° and higher

You will notice some overlap in lofts between descriptions. That’s because that particular loft can serve multiple purposes, depending upon the set makeup. There is also an angle of bounce of the flange, as we mentioned earlier. Normally with pitching and gap wedges, this angle of bounce is fairly low, perhaps in the 4° to 8° range. Sand wedges are usually in the 10° to 14° range, and lob and x-wedges have bounce angles similar to those in pitching and gap wedges.

As a general rule of thumb regarding bounce angles, the steeper the angle of attack, the greater the bounce angle is needed. If we have a steep angle of attack with a low-bounce wedge, it can dig in to the turf and decelerate quickly before the ball has had a chance to leave the clubface, negatively affecting the shot. As another rule of thumb, the softer the turf and ground, the more bounce angle is needed.

Sole grinds and flange sizes are another aspect of wedge design. The bigger the flange and the more the sole is exposed to the ground, the lesser the versatility it provides. The smaller the flange and the less the sole is exposed to the ground (something shaped like a “half-moon”), the more the versatility is available.

A dilemma in selecting a wedge can occur for someone who has a steep angle of attack who plays on firm turf, and someone with a shallow angle of attack who plays on soft turf. This is where sole grind and flange size come into play. For the steep angle/firm turf player, a higher angle of bounce with a smaller flange and a sole grind that is more of a half-moon might be a good option. A player who has a shallow angle of attack who plays on soft turf might benefit from a lower bounce with a fuller sole grind. However, as with many things in golf, these are preferences and may not necessarily work for a particular golfer. If a player is going to hit mainly full shots with a wedge, the bounce angle and sole grind become less important, as the ball is likely to be off the clubface by the time the clubhead interacts with the turf.

Most golfers, despite their attack angle and turf conditions, would likely benefit from playing wedges with more bounce. Wedges used in the sand, in particular, should have bounce angles of at least 10°, and bounce angles of 12° to 14° should be strongly considered.

Wedge design today is a highly involved science and art that has resulted in a dizzying array of choices. Make sure your students have loft gaps of no less than 4° and no greater than 6°, and then help them select their arsenal based on the advice given here. And since many golf retail stores offer 90-day playability guarantees, if the wrong wedge selections are made, they can easily go back and get the right ones for their game.