The Lost Art of Golf Podcast – Line and pace
In the fourth episode in the series, Gary, Karl and Dan discuss the importance of line and pace and how you should think about it when on the greens.
Winning Golf Podcast: Gary Nicol – Performance Principles
Gary Nicol joined Mark Pearson on the Winning Golf podcast to discuss a variety of topics surround performance principles.
The Lost Art of Golf Podcast – What Questions Should You Ask?
In their third podcast Gary, Karl and Dan discuss what questions you should ask yourself as a golfer and what questions professional golfers will ask themselves in order to improve on the greens.
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The Lost Art of Golf Podcast – The Power of Attention
In their second lockdown podcast Gary, Karl and Dan discuss the power of attention and how you can use it during this difficult time.
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Are we asking good questions?
What would make you a happier, more complete, more satisfied golfer, or person for that matter?
Pretty much every golfer I have met over the last thirty plus years of coaching wants to play better golf, shoot lower scores and enjoy their time on the golf course.
They all have different motivating factors, from beating their golf buddies on a Sunday morning to reducing their handicaps to winning tournaments on the world’s professional tours. Everyone has their own reasons.
Those who achieve their goals tend to have a plan and stick to it. That plan generally includes an element of flexibility but by and large, it is adhered to. I could bore you with a thousand motivational quotes and cliches about those who fail to plan, plan to fail etc… but I’m sure you’ve heard them all before.
Having a plan is great but before you even think about formulating one, take time to think about exactly what it is you feel you need to do to in order to achieve your goals.
Do you need to turn your shoulders more in your backswing? Improve your kinematic sequence? Create better ground reaction forces or any number of technical and or physical changes.
OR, do you quite simply need to learn how to control your golf ball and your attention better on the golf course?
I recently saw something on social media that literally made me shake my head. A golfer had posted a slow motion swing for whatever reason, there was no explanation, just a swing. There was no cry for help, no “what do you think?” Nothing.
However, someone who had viewed it then asked a coach for his thoughts, which were – “No increase in lead hip hinge in transition therefore making it difficult for lead arm to pull downward also probably increasing secondary spine therefore catapulting trail arm way from torso through release.”
At no point did the coach ask what the player what he was working on or paying attention to. More importantly, what he was trying to do with the golf ball! Was he trying to hit it high or low? Was his intention to hit a fade, draw or straight shot? Without that vital information, forming an opinion based on aesthetics is a very dangerous thing to do. Not to mention the fact that the player wasn’t asked if he was carrying an injury or if he had any physical restrictions or limitations. As a result, lots of assumptions were made.
It is all too easy to jump in way too quickly with an opinion based on “the look” of a swing. Until we know what any given player’s INTENTION is on any given shot, offering advice is not what I would consider to be a wise move.
Even if the aforementioned player had asked for thoughts or advice, surely the question should be “What is wrong with my shots?” NOT “What is wrong with my swing?”
Ask 50 golf coaches what is wrong with your swing and you will get 50 different answers and opinions. As if you weren’t confused enough already!
During this period of lockdown, you have probably watched dozens of YouTube videos of hundreds of “swings”, all with a commentary claiming to have the fix for all your faults. The silver bullet for all your woes.
How many of these videos focused on what the ball was doing and how many were clear on the intention for the shot? My suspicion would be that very few mentioned either.
If you were to ask “What is wrong with my shots?”, at the very least, you can start to deal in facts rather than opinions. Surely that has to be a better baseline to form any kind of improvement plan going forward.
Until we can all put our golf shoes on and drag our clubs out of enforced hibernation, think about what you would like from your golf game when we do get the green light.
Do yourself a favour and ask what is wrong with your shots. Are they finishing left or right of your intended target? Are they finishing short or are you hitting the ball too far? (rhetorical question).
Stop asking what is wrong with your swing. If you are asking that question, you are assuming there is something fundamentally flawed with it. That may or not be the case but trust me, if coaching golf for over three decades has taught me anything, it is that there is not one way to swing the golf club and create the shots you desire. We are all different and should be proud of who we are. Golf swings are like fingerprints, unique. Embrace that.
My advice would be that if you do want to play better golf and have more fun along the way, from a plan based on facts not opinions. Seek out a coach you trust to join you on your journey. Someone who will help guide to guide you along the way.
Someone who will not only ask better questions but encourage you to do the same.
As Graeme McDowell once told his performance coach Karl Morris, my trusted friend and co-author of The Lost Art Of Putting and The Lost Art Of Playing Golf, “Questions are indeed the answer.”
In short, ask better questions and you will come up with better answers.
Until next time, take care and when we as golfers around the world do get back out playing and competing on a regular basis, be prepared to ask better questions.
Doing so might just liberate you from the maelstrom of confusing and conflicting technical information that could well be hindering your progress and enjoyment.
In the meantime, you might want to check out – https://thelostartofgolf.com/
The Lost Art of Golf Podcast – What’s your story?
In the their first lockdown podcast, Gary Nicol, Karl Morris and Dan Murphy discuss a variety of topics surrounding the game of golf including why golfer’s are fascinated with putting and what each golfer’s story should be.
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Visualisation, a closer look
At the time of writing, the UK is in virtual lockdown as we hope to limit the spread of this dreadful virus that has gripped the world.
Golf courses and driving ranges are closed and I personally believe that is absolutely the right thing to do, social distancing is not to be taken lightly. However, this means that all of us who love to be out on the golf course currently can’t play the game we love or even hit balls on the range.
Ordinarily at this time of year, we would be looking forward to watching The Masters on TV, drawing inspiration from the world’s best players to spur us on for the coming season.
That obviously won’t be the case this year but that doesn’t mean you can’t work on your game at this distressing and uncertain time.
Ask anyone who has ever played this great game and they will tell you that golf is largely a game played very much in the mind.
If we all know that, why do we spend a disproportionate amount of time working on the physical side rather than developing the mental skills required to play your best.
Splitting the fairway with your best drive, knocking the flag out with iron shots and holing putts are clearly hugely rewarding and satisfying but at the moment, they are sadly out of reach for us all until we can all get back out on the course.
In the meantime, I’d like to talk a bit about the power of visualisation and how it can benefit not only your golf game but your life in general.
When you read, hear or talk about visualisation in golf, the reference is more often than not, linked directly and solely to swings or shots. While I am a great believer in creating a very clear image of the shot you are about to play or create, if you dig a little deeper on this subject, there is so much more we can learn about visualisation.
In a book I recently read called “Coaching For Performance” by Sir John Whitmore, I came across a fascinating exercise relating to visualisation. Sir John doesn’t reference golf specifically in this exercise, so I have adapted it slightly to put it into a golfing context.
Sit in your favourite armchair and close your eyes. Feel your feet on the ground beneath them. Focus on your breathing, become aware of the rise and fall of your breath.
In your imagination, transport yourself to your favourite golf hole or course.
- Imagine you are a bystander watching yourself play golf.
- What does that version of you look like?
- Do you look like you have just stepped out of a display case in the Pro shop or do you look like you got dressed in the dark?
- Are you happy or distressed, smiling or frowning?
- Do you look confident and relaxed or does your facial expression suggest you have just locked eyes with the grim reaper?
- How do you carry yourself as you walk down the fairway? Head up or head down?
- How do you react when you realise that your third shot on the par four 1st hole requires a delicate pitch shot over a bunker?
- Do you view this shot as an opportunity or an obstacle?
- Can you see the ball plugging in the face of the bunker or can you see it landing exactly where you intended it to as it rolls to within a few inches of the hole for an easy par?
- As you walk to the next tee, are you staring at your shoes shaking your head, mumbling to yourself about how you dodged a bullet there, or are you looking up, taking in your surroundings while sharing a joke with your playing companions?
- Would you like to meet / spend time with / play golf with this person?
Ask yourself these questions and see what images form in your mind’s eye.
While this exercise may sound a little odd and very different to what you read in most “coaching manuals”, please do not underestimate the power of how you view yourself. “Your Story” is vitally important and will be massively influential on your behaviour and attitude. So much so, Karl Morris and I dedicated an entire chapter to “Your Story” in our best selling book “The Lost Art Of Putting”.
If your perception of you as a golfer and / or as a person for whom everything is hard work and a struggle, chances are that you will live your life accordingly. Golf and life will be tough.
Conversely, if the character playing the lead role in “Your Story” is a person who has everything under control and can’t wait for the next challenge, chances are you will play out the role you have imagined or visualised. Golf and life might still be difficult at times, but the confident, capable you will be ready to deal with whatever comes your way.
As my late father used to say, “You can go through life two down with three holes to play or two up with three to play, the choice is yours.”
Over the coming weeks, we will probably all have more time on our hands than normal, so please spend that time wisely. Visualise yourself playing golf. Visualise not only the shots you want to play but look closely at how you behave and how you react to these shots you have played in your mind.
Perhaps more importantly, visualise how you are going to act during this testing time and how you plan to live your life when the world regains a level of equilibrium.
Until next time, take care of yourself and those around you, stay safe and fingers crossed, we will all get through this difficult period together.
Further education
In these testing and worrying times, golf may not be at the top of many people’s priority list and understandably so.
I have absolutely no medical background and therefore will not be offering any advice on what precautions to take regarding the corona virus. I think that is best left to the medical experts.
At the time of writing, most golf clubs and courses are still open, although I can’t imagine you will struggle to find a space in the car park over the coming weeks.
With The Masters and various other tournaments on tour around the world being cancelled, it would be easy to think that the golf world has come to a grinding halt. That need not be the case.
You might be of the belief that you can only improve your golf by hitting balls on the range and playing as often as you can. However, experience tells me that the main reason most golfers struggle to make the improvements they crave or desire by making mental rather than physical errors on the course.
Bad shots come from bad thoughts. Not because your backswing was too much in the inside, you didn’t create enough lag in your downswing or that you lifted your head. No, most bad or errant shots happen before you even start your takeaway.
If your intention is to make a a full turn, keep your left arm straight, transfer your eight etc…. you will become almost entirely disconnected from the task at hand, to create a golf shot.
Ask anyone who has played this great game and they will tell you that it is largely a game played in the mind. As Bobby Jones famously said “ Competitive golf is played mainly on a five and a half inch course, the space between your ears.” Wise words indeed.
That being the case, how often do your train your mental skills? Would you even know where to start?
If you are in a position where you have to “self isolate”, which is fast becoming an integral part of our language and lifestyles, why not spend some of that time learning about the mental or human skills required to make golf a more fulfilling and enjoyable experience?
While there are lots of mind numbing YouTube videos on how to swing the club, which are all different, all contradictory and ultimately on the whole, confusing. More importantly, they are very much about what you need to do physically, not mentally.
If watching these videos has helped you become the player you want to be, then carry on watching them. However, if they aren’t having the desired impact, consider broadening your deeper understanding of the game by reading a book or two.
As someone who has probably read more golf books than most, I would like to recommend a few that I believe you will find enjoyable, entertaining and educational.
To help gain an understanding and appreciation of golf course design and architecture, I strongly suggest you pick up a copy of – “The Spirit Of St. Andrews by Alister MacKenzie, which is an absolute gem.
There are hundreds, if not thousands of swing technique books but let’s leave them for the time being.
If you want to get your head in the right place, take a look at – “Golf Is Not A Game Of Perfect” by Dr. Bob Rotella. While the book itself is full of nuggets, simply by understanding that golf is not a game of perfect as the the title suggests, you might start to look at the way you approach the game slightly differently.
If your current approach isn’t paying dividends, check out – “Attention!! The Secret To You Playing Great Golf by Karl Morris. This is a great read and one which will definitely make you rethink some of the concepts associated with golf in particular and life in general.
It would be remiss of me not to mention two of my favourite books which I am more than a little biased about – “The Lost Art Of Putting” and “The Lost Art Of Playing Golf”.
I had the pleasure of co-writing these with my good friend and colleague, the aforementioned Karl Morris. The feedback we receive from readers around the globe on an almost daily basis would suggest that our countless hours of staring at blank screens waiting for words to appear were worth it in the end. If nothing else, it reinforced to Karl and I that if you stick to and enjoy the process, accumulating good days along the way, the end result can be very worthwhile.
If you haven’t already picked up your copies of the first two Lost Art books, visit – thelostartofgolf.com – where you can also purchase digital download videos of both The Lost Art Of Putting and The Lost Art Of Playing Golf.
Until next time, keep playing if you can, stay safe, take care and enjoy furthering your golf education.
Why are people walking away from golf?
As an industry, golf really needs not only to ask this question but spend some time trying to find the real answers.
We have all heard that it takes too long, we have family and work commitments, it costs too much, people aren’t getting any better and no longer enjoying the game. The reasons are many and varied.
While there is no denying that a round of golf can take a ridiculously long time, I don’t really see that as justification for not playing ever again and there is a solution, get a move on!
Golf equipment is expensive but it has never been cheap. Yes people have family and work commitments but hasn’t that always been the case?
If we are to believe manufacturers of golf clubs and balls, the game has never been easier to play. Add in all the social media posts from players and “coaches” alike showing how much improvement player A or student B has made – “look at this position”, you would think we should all be world beaters by now.
Sadly that isn’t the case. Despite better equipment, facilities and technology, golfers on the whole are not getting any better. Worse than that, it would appear people are waking away from the game at an alarming rate.
Results from a recently conducted study in Sweden discovered that the real reason people were putting their clubs away for good (or on eBay) is that they weren’t good enough. I can’t say for sure but I would hazard a guess that Swedes are not unique in that respect.
(Incidentally, the Swedish PGA and Golf Federation have since restructured their coaching philosophy to pay more attention to shots than and human skills swings and participation over perfection.) Well done Sweden!
Who is telling these people they aren’t good enough? Are they reaching that conclusion on their own? Unlikely. So who is to blame?
Perhaps the people or system or culture who are responsible for “teaching / coaching / instructing” them?
As far as I am aware, no one has pointed the finger in that direction thus far. I am not saying for a second that all golf coaching and coaches are bad, far from it. There are some exceptional golf coaches out there.
Unfortunately, there are some pretty poor ones out there as well. When I was growing up and learning to play this great game, you could name all the real, full time coaches in the country on two hands at most. Nowadays, everyone who has access to an iPhone, launch monitor and a range mat is a coach and has their own Academy (which in reality is more often than not, a bay at a driving range).
I recently saw that someone who has just finished their PGA training course is now an “Elite Performance Coach”, claiming to be able to help players of all abilities from beginners to Tour Pros. As impressive as that sounds, they cannot possibly have the knowledge and or experience required to be able to fulfil these fanciful claims.
In addition to the aforementioned iPhone, range mat, launch monitor and “Academy” it would appear one other necessity that no coach worth their salt can do without is a multitude of social media channels to show off how great they are. They use these to post swings and positions of “their players” alongside swing speed numbers and congratulatory messages on great results.
Are they really posting these to congratulate a student on their success or are they using their social media posts to pat themselves on the back? Never has the phrase “Self praise is no praise” been so relevant.
Google golf instruction, coaching, swings or whatever you are looking for, there are literally thousands of golf instructors claiming to have the silver bullet for your every woe.
The number of video tutorials is truly mind boggling. All claiming to have the fix for your fault, the remedy for your pain. They are generally conflicting, complicated, confusing and dare I say by and large crap.
Only last week I heard of an “elite performance coach” (a self appointed title obviously) telling a student to do all sorts of things with his ankles, knees, pelvis etc… which would help get the player’s eyes and various other body parts level through impact – figure that one out.
There was something missing there – at no point did this “elite” coach ask – the player what his intention was for the shot. Surely that has to be established in any coaching / learning session?
Over and above that, there was no mention of the golf club or the golf ball. Call me old fashioned but I would have thought that every single shot ever played on a golf course has involved a club and a ball?!
That being the case, when searching for the “secret” or “magic move” to protect you from bad golf, start by asking better questions.
My good friend and co-author of The Lost Art Of Putting and The Lost Art Of Playing Golf, Karl Morris and I are firm believers in the power of questions. In fact Graeme McDowell, recent winner on the European Tour and a long time client of Karl’s suggested that “Questions are indeed the answer.” Wise man is Graeme.
Stop asking yourself or anyone who is prepared to listen “what is wrong with my swing?” and start asking “what is wrong with my shots?”
Ask about your swing and you will be bombarded with opinions. Ask about your shots and you will be presented with facts.
Be careful about the questions you ask and even more careful about selecting the right person or people you ask these questions.
If you ask any coach what you are doing wrong and they don’t ask about your intention, your thoughts or attention or mention the club and ball, my advice would be to say thanks and walk away. You might just save yourself a lot of time, money and grief and perhaps more importantly, you might not throw your clubs on eBay or in a lake.
Please keep playing and enjoying the greatest game and if in doubt seek out the best advice possible. Coaching is all about the player, not about the coach. I was told many years ago that to be a great coach, you should always prioritise the player’s best interest over your own personal gain. As always, you have a choice, choose wisely.
Gary Nicol, co-author with Karl Morris of the best selling books – The Lost Art Of Putting and The Lost Art Of Playing Golf.
The Brain Booster – Simon Dyson
In his latest Brain Booster podcast, Karl Morris sits down with six-time European Tour winner Simon Dyson about life on tour, what it takes to win and the necessity for rest and recovery in golf.