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2 Sep 2017 USGTF Admin

Editorial: Jordan Spieth’s Secret Weapon

By Dr. Gregg Steinberg, USGTF Sports Psychologist

Jordan Spieth was in low gear until hole 13th at The Open Championship. He had just made five bogeys and had just lost the lead to Matt Kuchar. But then he turned it on and finished 5-under for the last five holes to win the Claret Jug for the first time.

How did he do this?

It is called intensity level. Jordan plays by it. He plays his best when his intensity level is high, but for the first 13 holes, it was clearly on a lower level. When he fell one back to Kuchar, he cranked it up, and we all saw greatness in action!

However, you may not be like Jordan Spieth. You may play your best when your inner flame is set lower. The secret is to know what level you need to set your flame.

A useful analogy to understand this process is the example of setting a flame on the stove when you are cooking soup. When the flame is set too low, the soup will take forever to cook. If the flame is set too high, the soup will come to a boil too quickly and perhaps burn or spill over the sides. To cook your soup most effectively, you need to set your flame at the appropriate level.

If you are notorious for being a slow starter, your flame is set too low at the start of play. If you are a college player or professional, you could try the same strategy by pretending that your practice round is your first tournament round. If you are an amateur and typically play one-round events, you may need to have a pre-event routine that gets you fired up. A strategy you could use is to take more time practicing and preparing mentally for the round.

In contrast, if you usually have a terrible last round of a tournament, or if you are a player who struggles to bring a good round into the barn, it may be that your flame is set too high. You could tone it down by practicing relaxation techniques and use these techniques to calm you down when necessary. Another strategy is to decrease your focus on the outcome and focus more on the process, taking one shot at a time. Focusing on your score can set your flame too high, especially if you are near the lead.

To play your best golf, be like Jordan Spieth and set your internal flame at the appropriate level.

See more articles like this at www.masteringgolfpsychology.com. Also, please check out the USGTF-certified golf psychology course at this site. You can take this course for 1/2 off for the month of September with the promo code iggy199. On this site, there is a free mental game e-book, as well as many free videos and articles.

The Language Of Teaching

By Norm Crerar USGTF Contributing Writer Vernon, British Columbia

I have been teaching skiing for 50-some years. I have been playing the bagpipes for 10 years and have just started teaching beginners. I take golf lessons. I speak English, of the Canadian variety, but have to admit that I become stumped and agitated with the language of teaching.

It was traditional to teach bagpipes through canntaireachd (pronounced can-ter-act). This is a Gallic word meaning “chanting.” Before music was written as it is today on paper, with lines and notes, the instructor would sing the notes using distinct sounds for the different notes, grace notes and embellishments. Master and pupils would spend hours sitting together singing tunes to each other. Nowadays, people learn with sheet music, and canntaireachd is still used by some gifted and experienced instructors to support the acquisition of lyrical flow.

When I started teaching skiing, the manual was6” by 8” by ¼” thick, and half was in French and half in English (Canada’s two official languages). The manuals of a few years ago were three-ring binders two inches thick and needed a set of wheels to haul them around. Happily, today you can log on to the instructor website and find the latest digital copy. The old thick manuals were updated every two or three years due to the simple fact of the time lag brought about by writing, editing, picture editing and then printing. Today, the digital copy can be changed very quickly, but this brings on the language of teaching, as the amount of material is never-ending and quite often the “subject-matter expert” (SME) is a Ph.D. who can’t use 10 words where he/she thinks 100will fit better. Skiing is simple: stance and balance, left turns and right turns!

Where we live, golf ends in October and doesn’t start again until the end of April. We have a lot of time to watch the Golf Channel, professional tournaments, and the constant barrage of free lessons that pop up on our computers. With the tournaments and lessons come the “subject-matter experts” and their confusing language! Why is it that the broadcasters from the European Tour, and there are usually two, speak quietly and from time to time, while the PGA broadcasts seem to have 20 people online and some-one is talking all the time?

Don’t they realize they are on television and we can see what is going on and not radio, where constant chatter is needed to fill the void? Constant analysis and over-analysis. “His stance was closed and he was 50 percent on his back foot, therefore changing the swing plane from single plane to double plane; he came over the top, the swing was outside-to-in, his grip was strong but swing was weak, his hip wasn’t cleared in time for his head to stay steady and all was caught on the Konica Minolta Biz Hub Swing Analyzer at 38,000 frames per second!”

I am trying to learn this language of “Golfinese.”Perhaps I will just start the day by putting a few balls into the hole on the practice green, then a few chips, a few pitches, then back up a bit and hit a few longer shots.

Stance and balance swing easy, put the ball in the hole. Who really needs an SME or a Konica Minolta Biz Hub Swing Analyzer anyway!

What Are Your Teaching Ambitions?

At a USGTF Master Golf Teaching Professional certification course last year, one candidate posed an interesting question to his fellow classmates, along the lines of this: “Don’t you want to teach the best players in the world?”He asked this because he was teaching and coaching some professional players, including those on the LPGA Tour, and found his calling in teaching these high-level players.

The question posed is a valid one, because it brings to light the subject of ambition in the golf teaching profession. It’s a subject that is often overlooked, but one that is important to those of us in the teaching and coaching profession.

Motivational speakers and sports psychologists often refer to goal-setting as a critical tool to accomplishment. An article in Success magazine in 2015 stated, “The most important benefit of setting goals isn’t achieving your goal; it’s what you do and the person you become in order to achieve your goal that’s the real benefit.” Setting a goal and striving towards it gives us an action plan to follow, and also a way to plot a path to get us there. Industry professionals –regardless of which industry – who do not set goals are willing to let the whims of outside influences take them in all sorts of random directions.

Some of those random directions may lead to success, but for those who find success in this manner it is, by definition, nothing but a fluke. In other words, the person succeeded in spite of himself or herself. So setting realistic but ambitious goals, along with executing a well-thought-out plan, is a much more sure way of finding success. Even then, nothing is guaranteed. The history of business is filled with stories of failures that, on paper, should have been successes. There are some things that are just out of our control, and they may have been unforeseeable by even the most learned and experienced of experts.

But as the statement from Success magazine says, goal setting is one part of the equation; ambition is the other, and perhaps a more important part. A goal is a tangible destination while ambition is the desire to reach that destination. Merriam-Webster defines ambition as “an ardent desire for rank, fame, or power; desire to achieve a particular end.”

What are your teaching ambitions?

It may be to become a famous guru, although certainly most who are did not start out with that desire. Virtually anyone who is successful will tell you that they got into the profession due to their love of the game and of helping others with their games.

Butch Harmon is one such teacher. Although he is widely recognized for his acumen in helping major championship winners, that’s not what drives him. “I get as much satisfaction or more from someone who’s never broken 90 who shoots 87 for the first time, “he has been quoted as saying. Harmon finds that his passion results from wanting to help all players, regardless of level.

Some teachers find their true enjoyment in helping beginners learn the game. The late Julius Richard-son, the USGTF’s Teacher of the 20th Century, played golf at an extremely high level, winning multiple military and other championships. He also taught touring professionals, most notably Eric Booker, who compared him to Ken Venturi and David Leadbetter. Yet, Richardson’s true teaching ambitions revolved around beginners, introducing them to the game and helping them get enjoyment out of learning and improving. His book, Better Golf – A Skill Building Approach, was based upon the learning principles he was exposed to while a member of the U.S. Army. The book outlines how beginners, and those who need a refresher in the fundamentals, can build sol-id golf skills that will last for a lifetime. Richardson could have chosen to write a book geared towards advanced golfers, but he didn’t. His passion and ambition in helping beginning golfers were the reason she wrote the book he did.

All teaching ambitions are worthy, from wanting to teach touring professionals to helping beginners, as long as they benefit the game in general and reflect the teacher’s true desires and goals. To paraphrase John F. Kennedy’s inauguration speech from 1961,“Ask not what the golf teaching profession can do for you; ask what you can do for the golf teaching profession.”

Ambition: “An ardent desire for rank, fame, or power; desire to achieve a particular end.” as defined by…Merriam-Webster

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