Swing assessment session

[Imurg]

Good Luck Murph - hope it all comes together.

But I'm with Snelly on this one - having to do all that thinking on the Course would blow what little mind I have left!
Maybe I'm lucky in that I can switch the concentration on and off so even the 7 iron lay-ups don't need "thinking" about - I just switch the concentration on and most of the time it just happens.

 

[JT77]

I think what justone said about thinking is right, imurg, you and snelly, must pick a target to go for, you perhaps dont realise you do, I think it is called unconscious competence, where you do it without thinking, what I think Murph is doing is trying to get to that stage, and in order to do so, he would have to go through the consciously thinking part, to make sure he is focused.

 

[Piece]

Here's a very interesting extract from a recent Rory interview about thought processes:

"instead of thinking 'if I can birdie this one I might get one back', I changed to thinking 'it's 165 to front, 170 to pin with a bit of wind, so I need to hit this type of shot'. Just go through the same process for every shot and then the outcome will take care of itself".

 

[rickg]

Did he say if he could do anything about your limp wrists??

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I was talking to a local pro on twitter about my short game woes and I think he's summed it up nicely
Most short game issues come from not deciding what you want the ball to do first. You can't create something without making an image first!

I guess its the same with all shots. If you don't know where you are aiming or how you want to play the shot you've got no chance of executing

 

[Region3]

For those that don't believe in 'seeing' the shot before you play it, do you do it reading putts?

I never imagine the shot on anything much off the green, but once I'm crouching down behind the line of my putt I take a guess at a line then imagine the ball on that line and how much it would break, then trial and error move my line little bits until I see the ball going in the hole.

Anyone else do that?

 

[JustOne]

once I'm crouching down behind the line of my putt I take a guess at a line then imagine the ball on that line and how much it would break, then trial and error move my line little bits until I see the ball going in the hole.

Anyone else do that?

Yep, I also know that there's 4" of break to play with so there's a tolerance for read error if you take out a little break and hit it firm (where possible).

AND ....I normally get a better read from behind the hole as I can picture the ball rolling up towards me and the hole much clearer...and cos I'm closer to the hole I can see the last bit of break much better than being 20 foot away behind my ball.

I normally look at the left edge and ask myself "if hit the ball here will it go in" and then the same for the right edge. If the putt is over 20ft I just have a quick glance and try to get a feel for the pace a bit more.


I'm also in the process of forcing myself to be more specific with my chipping, not just where I want it to land but where I want to leave the ball and will I give it a look in the hole on the way past.... and of course I'm still messing about with my driver and enjoying doing so

 

[USER1999]

Did he say if he could do anything about your limp wrists??

He never said he was a miracle worker.

 

[MadAdey]

I see a couple of sceptical views on here. I am with Murph and his Pro. You have got to see the shot you want to play. A couple of people have hit it on the head though about low handicap players do it a lot quicker as they know their abilities and how there going to hit the ball.

 

[Bash]

A great post Murph. Anything longer than an 8 iron and I'm over the ball concentrating on how to NOT pull it left. It's probably all about getting too many unneccessary thoughts out of your head and having the confidence (through practice) to be able to get over the ball and actually SEE the shot. Will be watching eagerly for updates on how this pans out for you. Well done again matey. A very interesting read

 

[Snelly]

Was wondering if you would post Snelly.

I agree to an extent with you, but from where I am standing, you have some talent for the game that I do not. As a result, I need to make it up somewhere, hopefully here.

Time will tell.

I have read a very good book recently on the myth of talent. It is called Bounce and is by Matthew Syed. I believe you would get more out of reading this than your current lesson programme in fact. It is a very worthwhile read.

In terms of your point about talent, I support the argument that I am (possibly) a better player than you because I have played for more hours than you in those crucial formative years. Find any kid that played 3-10 rounds (actual rounds and not practice range time) of golf a week between the ages of 10 and 16 and it is a safe bet that they are a good player 20 years on, provided that they continued to play the game in some minor way or another. Same for other sports too.

That is why I can play a good round today. Nothing to do with lessons, equipment, launch angles, percentages, trackman analysis or swing thoughts. Just thousands of hours of purposeful practice at a stage when the body, mind and golfing brain is developmental. In essence, it hard codes an understanding of what to do when you pick up a club and need to hit it in a given direction. It is easy to do as it has been done so many times before.

No help to you of course as you try and improve things but interesting all the same. I sincerely hope that your programme of tuition helps in some way but still maintain that if you picked the area of your game that is the weakest and practiced as much as you can on it, then it would improve slowly but surely.

I think your game is pretty sound anyway and in the limited games we have played, I recall that your bad shots seem to come from when your tempo speeds up. Like most people really. Get the timing right and all will be well as your golf is good on it's day and you putt like Luke! Just timing. Tempo is the key I would bet.

Cheers,


Snelly.