Triple Track Tuesday’s: Length Over Line

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Gary Nicol has teamed up with National Club Golfer, Callaway and Odyssey’s Triple Track ball and putter technology to create a special series of putting videos.

Using techniques from The Lost Art books, co-author Gary Nicol will help you look at putting in a new way. These videos are guaranteed to give all variety of golfers a whole new perspective on the greens.

All of our videos were filmed at Archerfield Links in Gullane.

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Triple Track Tuesday’s: Visualisation Part 3

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Gary Nicol has teamed up with National Club Golfer, Callaway and Odyssey’s Triple Track ball and putter technology to create a special series of putting videos.

Using techniques from The Lost Art books, co-author Gary Nicol will help you look at putting in a new way. These videos are guaranteed to give all variety of golfers a whole new perspective on the greens.

All of our videos were filmed at Archerfield Links in Gullane.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Lost-Art-Masterclass-2048x689-1-1030x347.jpg

Triple Track Tuesday’s: Visualisation Part 2

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Gary Nicol has teamed up with National Club Golfer, Callaway and Odyssey’s Triple Track ball and putter technology to create a special series of putting videos.

Using techniques from The Lost Art books, co-author Gary Nicol will help you look at putting in a new way. These videos are guaranteed to give all variety of golfers a whole new perspective on the greens.

All of our videos were filmed at Archerfield Links in Gullane.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Lost-Art-Masterclass-2048x689-1-1030x347.jpg

Triple Track Tuesday’s: Visualisation Part 1

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Gary Nicol has teamed up with National Club Golfer, Callaway and Odyssey’s Triple Track ball and putter technology to create a special series of putting videos.

Using techniques from The Lost Art books, co-author Gary Nicol will help you look at putting in a new way. These videos are guaranteed to give all variety of golfers a whole new perspective on the greens.

All of our videos were filmed at Archerfield Links in Gullane.

Triple Track Tuesday’s: Start Lines

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Gary Nicol has teamed up with National Club Golfer, Callaway and Odyssey’s Triple Track ball and putter technology to create a special series of putting videos.

Using techniques from The Lost Art books, co-author Gary Nicol will help you look at putting in a new way. These videos are guaranteed to give all variety of golfers a whole new perspective on the greens.

All of our videos were filmed at Archerfield Links in Gullane.

Triple Track Tuesday’s: Putting Principles

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Gary Nicol has teamed up with National Club Golfer, Callaway and Odyssey’s Triple Track ball and putter technology to create a special series of putting videos.

Using techniques from The Lost Art books, co-author Gary Nicol will help you look at putting in a new way. These videos are guaranteed to give all variety of golfers a whole new perspective on the greens.

All of our videos were filmed at Archerfield Links in Gullane.

Thoughtful Thursday – A to Z of playing golf – ATTITUDE

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In my last blog, I started my A to Z of words and concepts which I believe will be helpful in your quest to make playing golf a more enjoyable and rewarding experience.

To follow on from my first piece on “ATTENTION”, I thought it would be appropriate to say a few words on “ATTITUDE”.

We have all played with and perhaps on the odd occasion, been “that” golfer with a really bad attitude. Not just to the game but to life in general.

“A bad attitude is like a flat tyre. You can’t go anywhere or make any progress until you fix it.”

I’m not going to go down the predictable line of attacking everything you do in life with a PMA, positive mental attitude, although that would be preferable to one that stinks!

While positive thinking sounds like a great idea in theory, the reality is that it can and will let you down. “I”m going to play great today. I’m going to hit every fairway and green and hole every single putt I look at!” Fantastic in theory but when did that last happen? Correct, never!

As a direct result, positive thinking goes out the window and is replaced immediately by it’s polar opposite, negative thinking. There is no grey area, no middle ground where you can be a little bit positive. That is like being a little bit pregnant, it just doesn’t work like that.

Thinking positively is hard to do when you fire your opening tee shot out of bounds and three putt the 1st hole for a nine. Your day is ruined and your attitude for the remaining 17 holes is dreadful.

Our attitude to whatever we choose to do is greatly influenced by the questions we ask ourselves. You are probably blissfully unaware of this but golfers tend to ask really, really bad questions. “

“Why do I always hit it OB / top it / slice it / hook it off this tee?”

“Why do I always three putt this green / duff my pitch shots into rather than over the bunker then thin the resultant bunker shot?”

“Why are the greens so slow / fast / full of pitch marks / bumpy? They’re not like that on TV!”

I could go on but I’m sure you get my drift here. If you start looking for bad things, you will find them. Look around you and try to find fault with the decor or environment you are in. Once you start looking, chances are you will start to find things that really annoy or frustrate you. How’s your positive attitude doing now?

Rather than asking negative questions, which tend to lead to negative answers, or enforcing a false positive attitude on yourself, try asking more positive questions.

Is it possible I could have a great day on the course, at work or with my family today? Yes!

Is it possible I could hit the fairway / green and hole the putt for a birdie? Absolutely! Within reason of course.

Is it possible I could appreciate all the hard work the Greenkeepers and clubhouse staff put in to provide us all with an enjoyable experience on the golf course? Yes!

Is it possible that by asking better questions, you might just play better golf and smile a bit more in the process? Yes!

Is it possible that by asking better questions your attitude towards golf or whatever you choose to do at any given moment in time could be beneficial not only to you but to those around you? Yes!

Give it a try, you never know how much more you might get out of yourself today, tomorrow and in the future.

Until next time.

All the best,
Gary Nicol.

Thoughtful Thursday: ATTENTION!

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In a slight departure from my normal Thoughtful Thursday musings, I have decided to challenge myself to creating an A- Z of words I find myself using to help people improve their performance.

While the majority of my time is spent coaching golf, I do spend some time speaking to people in all walks of life and business regarding enhanced performance whatever their endeavour.

Many years ago, when I first started working with my good friend and co-author of The Lost Art” books Karl Morris, I started to understand the importance of “Attention”.

Karl has been banging the drum of the significance of what appears to be a fairly simple word for a long time now and I am eternally grateful that he has.

What you are about to read is from our best selling book – “ The Lost Art Of Putting”.While initially written with putting in mind, we have had feedback from dozens of people around the world about how this simple but profound concept has helped them in a variety of areas of their lives both on and off the golf course.

ATTENTION

What are you doing right now? Yes, you! Are you really here with us? Or are you just glancing at this book and scanning the information waiting to see if you find something that will instantly fix all of your putting issues?

How quickly could you be distracted and taken away from us?What if your phone beeps with another one of those oh-so-important alerts?

Would you be able to stay with us or would we lose you to another video of a cat playing with a ball of string?

Unfortunately, most of us are in a constant state of low-level distraction. Our attention is literally hopping from one thing to another all through the day. Then we attempt to play a game like golf which absolutely demands our attention to be here and now on the task at hand.

What do we find so engaging about things that don’t really engage us? Why do we treat this wonderful piece of machinery we have between our ears with such little respect and more importantly, are we any happier for it?

What has gone so wrong with the simple ability just to be present in something for a period of time?

In his wonderful book, “The Hijacking of the American Mind”, Robert Lustig explains how we can gain a rush of the neurotransmitter, dopamine to the brain when we go on Facebook and get a like.

The problem being, dopamine can become addictive. We crave the hit it gives us and like all addictions, we need more and more to fuel the sense of need. It is as if our brain begins to crave these short-term hits and fixes of instant social media gratification. The more we get, the more we want. But what price are we paying for this?

This craving for attention from others and the distraction this causes actually plays havoc with the attention that really matters – your own attention to what is truly important to you.

Lustig talks about the difference between dopamine and serotonin.Dopamine is the pleasure driver and the more we get the more we want. Serotonin however, is more of a driver of happiness and contentment. Serotonin paradoxically, isn’t an instant hit but tends to create a sense of satisfaction because you have been absorbed in a challenging activity like a gym session, solving a complex problem or being fully engaged in a practice session.

The reason we mention this is we firmly believe great putting and indeed great golf, comes from your ability to pay attention.
I hope you found this little excerpt helpful, even if you don’t have issues with your putting (which puts you in the minority) or even if you don’t play golf.

Whatever you choose to do in life for business or pleasure, please be aware of the power of attention and pay it the respect it deserves.

Until next time, have fun, take care and do your best to make every day a good one.

Gary Nicol.

Thoughtful Thursday: Collin Morikawa, the major champion who played to learn.

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We may have had to wait a long time for the first Major Championship of 2020 but it was certainly worth all the anticipation.

Personally, I didn’t manage to see the back 9 live, way past my bedtime, but I have since seen it on catch up. If a dramatic ending to a Major Championship is your thing, you would not have been disappointed. What a finish!

I think I am correct in saying that at one point there were seven players tied for the lead and it would have taken a braver man than I to predict the winner at that point.

As we all now know, Collin Morikawa emerged triumphant and his only minor blip on Sunday was almost dropping the famous Wanamaker Trophy during the prize giving.

He showed such amazing maturity and composure all week, so much so that is would be easy to forget that despite having won three times on the PGA Tour already, including a Major, he has only been a Pro for 14 months. Astonishing.

Much has been said about Morikawa having only missed one cut in his professional career so far and made his first 22 consecutive cuts, a feat surpassed only by Tiger Woods. That in itself is some achievement.

Over and above that, he is one of only 4 players to have won the PGA by the age of 23. The others being Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus. Pretty lofty company.

The young man from Los Angeles is a former number one ranked amateur in the world but beyond that, until recently, I knew very little of his background. That was until I listened to a podcast hosted by my good friend and co-author of “The Lost Art” books Karl Morris.
Karl’s guest on this particular podcast was Rick Sessinghaus who has coached Morikawa since he was 8 years old.

During the 44 minute podcast, Rick talked in depth about how most of their coaching and learning was done on the golf course, not on the driving range trying to perfect backswing positions. For those of you who know me, you will understand that this was music to my ears. Sweet music at that.

Sessinghaus, who is a Certified Mind Factor coach (something else we have in common) talked about how the young Collin played to learn rather than learned to play. Again, that resonated strongly with me as I have been banging on about it for years!

From what I could gather from the podcast, Sessinghaus wanted the young Morikawa to learn how to adapt and adjust to the ever changing environment that the golf course provides every time we step on the first tee. He taught him how to be creative and that golf is not about making the same swing time after time but hitting the right shot at the right time, whatever that particular shot may be.
He also taught him about decision making, course management, the mental aspect of playing golf as well as the basic fundamentals. Essentially he created a fantastic environment to enable him to learn how to play golf on the golf course, something that all and I do mean all golf coaches should encourage their students to do.

Play to learn not learn to play. Something I strongly recommend everyone who plays golf should consider.
Morikawa is now being touted as the next big thing in golf by some and who am I to say he won’t be. Time will tell. I do however know that golf at the highest level appears to be in very good hands and with two more Majors to look forward to this year, it will certainly be interesting to see if the young guns continue to walk away with the silverware or whether some of the more seasoned campaigners will have something to say about that.

Either way, this year’s US Open and Masters will no doubt make for exciting viewing despite the lack of spectators or “patrons”.

To find out more about Collin Morikawa and his coach Rick Sessinghaus, check out Karl Morris and his Brain Booster podcast, which is always well worth a listen.

Until next time. Take care, have fun and keep on playing to learn.

Gary Nicol

Start from Scratch Podcast: Karl Morris

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What do you get when you put one of the best golf psychologists in the game and Joshua Griffiths the self-proclaimed Mental Maestro together on a Zoom call?

Karl Morris had the privilege of joining the Start from Scratch podcast to discuss a variety of great topics that will help your golf game.

Click here to listen.