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12 Nov 2018 admin

Confidence is a Choice

By Dr. Gregg Steinberg USGTF Sports Psychologist, Nashville, Tennessee

This past April, Patrick Reed won the Masters. What impressed me most was his second shot on #15 on Saturday. It was rainy and a bit risky to go for it, but he nailed his shot and his ball just cleared the water. From there, he made a birdie which helped him win the tournament.

Patrick Reed has complete confidence in his abilities. Remember, early in his career he said he was a top-five player in the world, although he was not even close to that ranking at the time. The media admonished him for that, but that showed me that this guy is a winner and will be a winner!

Patrick Reed gets it. Confidence is a choice. This is one of the most powerful mental-game ingredients that I can share with you. No matter how many bad shots you just hit or how many easy putts you just missed, you can still choose to be confident. Regardless of outcome, you can always be confident, but that mental skill is supremely difficult.

Another story that relates to this mental skill that I love to tell at all my seminars relates to the great Tom Watson. Most golf fans will remember his remarkable chip-in on the 17th hole at the 1982 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, where he went on to victory. However, on the seventh hole, he missed a putt from two feet. Watson didn’t lose confidence in his putting; he merely told himself that even great putters miss an occasional easy one.

Winners, like Reed and Watson, choose to be confident regardless of the situation or past disaster. This is what makes them champions. Here are a few suggestions for you to help your students build their confidence:

1. Create a confidence journal. In this journal, write a confidence statement everyday such as, “I choose to be confident” or “I am a great putter” or “I am good out of the bunker.” This journal will help to make a habit of making confidence statements when you are in a pressure situation.

2. Record the time when you were very confident.  Record the shot you hit as well as why you were confident and what it really feels like to you, because everyone is unique in this regard. When you feel your confidence sliding, just glance at this journal to get a quick jolt of confidence.

Make confidence a choice and a habit, and you will increase the chances of playing your best in every situation!

About the author: Dr. Gregg Steinberg was ranked by Golf Digest as one of the world’s greatest sport psychologists and is the USGTF sport psychologist. If you want to learn how to teach your students key mental-game aspects, the International Golf Psychology Association (IGPA), endorsed by the USGTF, has created an on-line course at www.MasteringGolfPsychology. com. This course was created by Dr. Steinberg, and members of the USGTF can access the course for half price using the promo code iggy199. In addition, Dr. Steinberg just completed the Masters Level Golf Psychology Webinar Series in April and plans on conducting another Masters Level Golf Psychology Webinar series in October, 2018. If you have interest or any questions, please contact him at mentalrules24@msn.com.  

8 Nov 2018 admin

The Dreaded Yips

Don’t even say the word, as you might get infected. If you do say the word, say it in a hushedtoned in a quiet place. The yips are deadly and candestroy even the best game of golf.

Don’t feel bad. Even professional golfers have theyips. Professional golfers seriously afflicted by the yipshave included Padraig Harrington, Bernhard Langer(thus the long putter), Ben Hogan (maybe it was thecar accident), Harry Vardon, Sam Snead (rememberthe croquet-styled stance outlawed by the USGA?),Ian Baker-Finch and Keegan Bradley, who missed asix-inch putt in the final round of the 2013 HP ByronNelson Championship due to the condition (althoughhe may also have been suffering from strabismus, amisalignment of the eyes).

The Mayo Clinic found that 33 to 48 percentof all serious golfers have experienced the yips. Itwas Tommy Armour who coined the term; thanks,Tommy. Over the years, others referred to it as thejerks, the waggles, the shakes, and even whiskey fin-gers. I like the latter term the best – don’t you? It’spainful to watch, and I have to turn my head.

It is believed that the yips are caused by focaldystonia, whereby the brain sends electrical signals tothe muscles in an incorrect sequence. There are twokinds of yips, rotational and acceleration. Most of uscould figure out the latter!

As teaching professionals, we must think aboutproper diagnosis of the problem and determinewhich type of yip the student has. Video and a prod-uct called Blast Motion are great ways to help youdetermine what the heck is going on. When using video, you need to place your iPhone at ground level(go to www.EyeLine.com and take a look at slow-motion as a useful tool). Your iPhone has a slow-motion button and can be operated by a Bluetoothremote. I use my iWatch remote function to controlmy iPhone. Video using a bi-colored ball can easilypick up on acceleration yips. Blast Motion is anotherdevice that you place in the butt end of the putter.Using an app on your iPad, it produces some excel-lent metrics to diagnose rotational yips. Students lovethe quick and accurate feedback.

Now, let’s talk about a cure. For those that wantto flip their right hand at impact (assuming aright-handed golfer), I suggest a grip change suchas a pencil, claw, or left-hand-low grip. Placing aSharpie on the wrist and taping it, or using a rubberband, is a cheap way to help the student feel the flip.Acceleration yips are a programmed response, and weneed to create new neural pathways to create change. Try providing a series of balls of different kinds –ping-pong, tennis ball, balls of steel, etc. Have thestudent putt these balls in a series, followed by a realgolf ball (repeat the drill over and over again). The drill is designed to break the cycle of anticipation.Eyeline Golf also has a product called the Putting Pen-dulum to help provide proper sensation and rhythm.

Students and teachers need to understand thatthe rotational yips are an over-rotation of the putterthat leaves the putting plane. It is hard to believe, butevery stroke has arc – even the straight-back-straightputting stroke. A simple fix is the use of the PuttingRail from eyeline.com as a means to help the studentfeel and stay on plane.

Lastly, I offer two other ideas for your consid-eration. The first is placing a large ball between thewrists or forearms to help the student stay connected.The last drill is the two-ball drill, whereby the studenttries to putt two balls at the same time which areplaced side-by-side. Both drills help the student withover- or under-rotation.

No more three-putts, and don’t forget to analyzetheir equipment!

6 Nov 2018 admin

The Snow Board

By Larry Van House, USGTF Member, Camp Hill, Pennsylvania

“Hit the small ball before the big ball.” This is the most important skill to achieve to develop a golf swing…period. When a client can learn to do this successfully 90 percent of the time, his or her golf experience will improve drastically.

The small ball is, of course, a golf ball. The big ball is the earth. Hit the earth first, followed by the ball, and you will have hit a “fat” shot. Much of the energy of the swing and the speed of the clubhead will just sink into the earth. The ball may advance down the fairway, but it will not achieve the distance or backspin it could have. The fat shot will not stop and hold on a green. I am sure that a very large percentage of our clients will hit the earth first. We can teach them all sorts of things about a golf swing, but they will never realize anything close to their potential if they continually strike fat shots.

A deep divot after the ball is not always necessary or desirable. A shallow divot after the strike is fine, but it must start at the golf ball or even slightly in front of the ball.

Strike the golf ball first and then the turf, and all of the good things in golf are possible.

The truth of this is shown in Bobby Clampett’s “Impact Zone” golf teaching. Mr. Clampett shows how a golfer can test himself/herself quite easily by drawing lines in sand or even on grass turf, placing a golf ball on the line, swing, and obtain instant feedback on the quality of the swing – not just fat or thin but directionally, as well. Striking a golf ball isn’t even necessary. Swinging at the line in the sand can be sufficient. This is a perfect diagnostic test of a golf swing. But…how can the golfer make his/her body do the things necessary to hit the small ball before the big ball? Mr. Clampett has answers for that, as well. Helping our clients make this adjustment should be, I believe, also our first and most important task.

This method of drawing lines in the sand or turf works very well when it is possible to practice a golf swing outdoors. But what can we do to bring this diagnostic test indoors when the weather is bad? I worked on this problem for quite a while. I hoped to be able to bring this teaching method indoors to my indoor golf studio in Pennsylvania. I tried several potential high-tech solutions. They worked, but they were expensive and didn’t give the instant feedback that a simple line drawn in sand can give.

I finally settled on a low-tech solution. It is quite inexpensive and works perfectly. I call it my “Snow Board.” I think it may help you in your lessons for clients indoors, or even if it is used outdoors.

My Snow Board is a sheet of plastic (polycarbonate – G.E. trademarks it as Lexan) painted on both sides with black spray paint. The “snow” on my Snow Board is a covering spray of imitation snow – the stuff people use for seasonal decorations at Christmas. This imitation snow stands out bright white on the black background. I tried a lot of other white materials, and the imitation snow has been the best. Foot powder works well, but it takes a few minutes to turn white on the black background. This makes an unwanted delay in the progress of a lesson.

After spraying the imitation snow on the sheet, I draw a few lines on it with an aiming stick. I place a ball on the lines and ask my client to swing away. This is the first thing I do with a new client after they warm up. The results of this little test are, on almost all occasions, a major revelation to my clients, some of whom have been playing golf for many years. They are usually, as the Irish say, gobsmacked.

I think that when golfers go to a driving range, they are too interested in only watching the flight of the ball. They do not tend to examine the turf and the divot their club makes and its relation to the location of the ball. I think that may be why they are so surprised when they see the results their swing made as their club struck the Snow Board several inches behind the ball.

I ask them to make several swings and measure their results in inches behind where the ball was placed. I record this information as a way to measure later success. The Snow Board also provides a record of the direction of the swing. Whether a swing is outside to in, inside to out, or directly at the target, is plainly visible. Then, after discussing the importance of this test and of the great opportunities that will come when the strike on the Snow Board is made in front of the ball in a straight line toward the target, we get to work.

After the session, the Snow Board and the golf clubs can be cleaned easily with just water and a light brushing. The imitation snow that has splattered vacuums up from my golf mats quickly.

The Snow Board is my most important swing diagnostic. In a series of lessons with clients, I use it often as my clients’ swings progress. I would recommend that you consider using a Snow Board or similar device in your lessons, even if the lessons are conducted outdoors. Sand traps are not always readily available for us to use.

The results that appear on a Snow Board seem to be immediately understood by clients. The results are measurable and provide a visual direction for future lessons.

2 Nov 2018 admin

Teaching Green Reading

By Bert Jones USGTF Member, Loomis, California

There are four major elements to putting: equipment, the putting stroke, the setup and green reading. Since putting is approximately 42 percent of the game, it deserves more attention.

Over the years, I have distilled green reading into three styles: instinctual, AimPoint (invented in the 1990s), and Vector Green Reading (invented in the 1970s). Instinctual green reading lends itself to motor programming over time where the brain learns how the ball will behave under certain conditions. But is it that easy? Let’s take a closer look at how course architects fool your instinctual learning through optical illusions, pin placements and green types.

Course architects use four different types of greens: planar, tiered, saddle and crowned. Planar, the most common and which comprise 95 percent of all greens played, are characterized by a high and low point. In other words, planar greens are in fact a tilted plane. Tiered greens are devious, with players three putting 38-45 percent of the time, and are rarely built due to cost. Saddle greens are even rarer but do exist, and can be combined with planar greens. Take one look at Augusta! The last is crowned, as exampled by #2 at Pinehurst. They are upside-down bowls used to efficiently move water from the surface. Architects know that the hydrodynamics of water need a 2 percent incline.

So, course designers have four different types of greens to throw at you. In addition, they can design greens to maximize difficult pin placements, like #17 at TPC Sawgrass, home of the Players…splash.

But let’s get back to green reading, which can be taught. Vector Green Reading, which is the precursor to AimPoint, is a science-based approach to reading greens. Col. H.A. Templeton, who invented Vector Green Reading back in 1979, was an Air Force SR-71 spy-plane pilot. This was no small feat, since there were only 31 of these titanium planes ever made. In addition to being an expert pilot, he was a frustrated single-digit golfer. He was so frustrated with his putting that he decided to compute the math needed to read how much a ball would break using green speed, slope percentage and distance away from the hole. To make the math work, the ball needs to have enough speed to travel 12 inches by the hole. It pays to be a left-brain (analytical) thinker to use Vector Green Reading!

Let’s try an example. The ball is 10 feet away from the hole on a green with a Stimpmeter reading of 10, and the slope at the hole is 2 percent. To determine the break, we need to find the zero-break line. The ZBL is the straight putt up or down the fall line. There is only one ZBL on a planar green. You can find it by walking around the hole to determine where the ball will not break when putted. Finding the slope (which admittedly is hard) can be found by standing near the hole and facing up the ZBL. Standing perpendicular to the ground, feel the pressure in your feet. If you feel pressure in your toes, use 1 percent; balls of your feet, 2 percent; arches, use 3 percent, and heels, use 4 percent. Most holes are cut between 1 and 2 percent to move the water off the greens. Now that you have found the ZBL and slope, you will need to take the number from Col. Templeton’s chart using the Stimpmeter data inputs.

In this case, the ball will break 10 inches. Measure 10 inches from the center of the hole up the fall line to find the aiming point. A straight line is found by using the aiming point and your ball position. Putting the ball at the aiming point with the correct speed will cause the ball to reach a vector known as the inflection point. The inflection point is where gravity takes over the ball to create break.

The need for correct speed is a critical component, as aim is intuitive and speed is not. Incorrect speed will cause the ball to travel on the wrong path and be short or long, depending on the stroke. I often joke with students that 100 percent of short putts don’t go in, so get in the habit of going past the hole. Besides, you might get lucky. Some teachers teach die-in-the-hole putting, which I find impossible for several reasons: No one can judge the exact speed all of the time; ball imperfections create an error rate; the donut effect of players walking around or standing by the hole creates a slight incline at the hole, and green imperfections can move your ball off line.

Col. Templeton stated that you need the foot-by-the-hole speed to make his math work, which makes sense and meets my criteria for avoiding the items listed above. The only problem with speed is that the hole capture rate is reduced by 12 percent for every foot that the ball goes by the hole, which is the cause of lip-outs.

Take the guesswork out of green reading and consider the use of an evidenced-based approach. Thank you, Col. Templeton, for your service to our country and contribution to the game of golf!