Tag Archives: golf infographic

Friggin’ Brain

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One of the ironies of golf is that you have to really use your brain, but it can also can kill your game. Learning how and when to use it is the key to good golf. The brain and the body should have a dialogue. However, if your brain is speaking when the body should be swinging, you’re gonna’ play bad golf. After their best rounds, all golfers say the same thing: “I wasn’t thinking about anything. I just let is happen.” Turning off the brain at the right time is crucial.

Standing over the ball at address for more than a few seconds rarely produces good results. If you linger over the ball on any golf shot, all your brain is doing is creating doubt and fear. I know, I know. You’re going through a check-list of all the things that you need to remember before you swing. While running through your mental list of to-do’s may seem like a positive, this practice is actually sabotaging your game.

Concentrating harder does not equate to better results. The opposite is actually true. If you let yourself be an athlete over the ball and turn your brain off during the swing you will have better results. You’ll swing more freely and you’ll have a lot more fun.

Scientists have determined that the brain can only think about one thing at a time. The key is to distract the brain from from thinking about golf while in the address position. In fact, Golfpsych, one of the top mental training programs employed by tour pros, recommends that many of their golfers think about anything other than golf between shots. Sometimes even while over shots.

Vision 54, another golf mental training program, teaches golfers to cross what they call the “commitment line.” You can think about technical things while you are behind the ball, but once you are over the ball you must rely on your athletic skill and intution. If while over the ball you start having technical thoughts you must then step away from the ball, clear your mind and start your pre-shot routine again.

What we need is a little self-hypnosis. When you drive your car to work you don’t think about what you’re doing or how it happens very often because we’ve done it thousands of times. Poof, you magically arrive without much conscious effort. You just let it happen. Your mind was elsewhere. You were on auto-pilot.

I like to have my golfers swing the club as soon as possible after they address the ball, not allowing time for the brain to do bad things. Brandt Snedecker does this. He commits, steps in and hits it. I work with many of my students to  determine the ideal amount of time it takes for them to get comfortable and then swing. On the range, I count out loud to train them on their timing. At first, most of them feel rushed, and you may, too. This makes sense, because almost everyone takes too long over the ball. As a coach I work together with my players to shorten their time.

While I count the player will settle into the shot. He sets his feet; sometimes there is a waggle of the club or a tug on the shirt. Each golfer has his own unique way of addressing the ball. I will count slowly, “5… 4… 3… 2… 1.” When I say, “one,” it is time to pull the trigger. Ready or not. Boom! Players are always amazed at how much more frequently they hit the ball great, once they employ the countdown. They quickly realize all of the prep work they used to do was no help at all. If fact, it hurt them! This is a very liberating discovery. Greatness was there all the time, hiding behind that friggtin’ brain.

The countdown is a great pre-shot routine to adopt because if your brain is busy counting, you are not thinking about your swing, or O.B., or hazards, or score. Thinking about that stuff keeps you from playing your best. The countdown helps get you into auto-pilot mode.

Get over the ball. Tell your brain to shut up. And swing! Make sure you yell, “Boom!” while the ball is screaming through the air.

Each month I will be doing another piece about the Friggin’ Brain.

Thanks for following. If you find this helps you please come back I’d love to hear your comments!

Putting with Loft

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It seems the Bump-and-Run shot has been forgotten for the most part but my golfers find it easy to learn and wildly effective in tournament play. I had Hall-of-Fame college coach Ed Cottrell teach it to me my first year coaching. I always wished I had known about it when I was a college golfer. I considered myself to be very good around the greens but if I had had this shot in my arsenal I would have been amazing! B&R addressHe called it, “putting with loft.” It’s so easy and effective that all of my golfers see their up-and-in percentage go way up almost instantly after learning it. They think it’s magic. Once you learn how to play the bump and run and learn your distances with each club, you’ll be amazed at how many more shots you make from off the green and how much more often you leave yourself a tap-in. The beauty of this shot is that you learn one shot and use it for multiple clubs. I require all of my golfers to learn how to play this shot with everything from their lob wedge down to their 6 iron.

Note: the Bump-and-Run is intended to be played when you are 2-6 paces off the putting surface with nothing between you and the green.

Here’s how you do it:

B&R set up down lineSet-Up:

Feet are very close together if not touching. Ball is placed off of back foot, weight is mostly on the front foot. Sternum is ahead of the ball. This will position the hands ahead of the ball and give forward lean in the shaft. Notice how the lead wrist is perfectly flat and there is a straight line extending all the way from the shoulder to the clubhead. Also notice how close he stands to the ball – his hands just about touching his thigh.

B&R back

Backswing:

With little to no wrist-hinge take the club back. The lower body should remain quiet. The hands should go no farther than the back edge of your leg. The distance of your backswing will determine how far the ball will go. You need to be consistent with this position to get consistent results. It will feel like a very short stroke at first but after a little practice you should have no problem finishing your backswing here.

B&R through copy

Follow-through:

B&R through down lineFinish with the clubhead low. Notice the wrist remains straight. The butt-end of the club is in alignment with the sternum indicating that the there is no “flipping”of the clubhead. Another sign that you have not “flipped” the clubhead through the shot is by checking the position of the clubhead. The face should be “looking” right at the target.

If you have questions about this shot please leave your comments and I will be glad to respond.

Are you a Chump or a Champ ?

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Here’s a situation that I have seen a million times over the years that can save or ruin a round.

A player has short–sided himself as shown by the yellow X in the lower left. The pin is tucked on the left side of the green with just a few paces from the left edge of the green. In this situation a golfer needs to decide, am I going to be a Chump or a Champ?

I have found most amateur golfers fall into the trap that they need to fit the ball in the very small area between the edge of the green and the hole. He wants to like the Pros. The player then of course tries to get too cute or doesn’t commit to the shot or swing hard enough or the club gets caught up in the rough. He more or less duffs it and ends up hitting again from the same situation or even worse. He’s what I call a CHUMP and his day is about to take an ugly turn.


The second attempt ends up where the first should have, and instead of making a bogie at worst, he ends up with a double or higher. Which most times leads to another mistake being made on one of the very next holes. The round is beginning to unravel.

When you are short sided, there is almost always a mile of green on the other side of the pin! Hence the term, “short-sided.” The only way you can look or feel stupid is by coming up short of the green. Yet most do. I don’t get it! You’d have about a 400% better chance of success if you go past the pin. And you’ll take the big mistake, and number, out of the equation.

The more experienced players on my team always make the smart play. They make sure that the shot gets past the pin. They understand that this is not a time to play aggressively and to take their medicine and if they do lose a shot they’ll have a chance later in the round to make up for it. Over the long run they know it will save them a ton of strokes.

One of the benefits of getting the ball past the pin is that if you miss-hit the shot or decelerate through it, that the shot will still end up on the green.

I always like to think that Johnny Miller is doing play-by-play on me when I’m in those situations. If I hit it past the pin he’d say on air, “that’s really all he had.” If I left it short, Johnny would lay into me saying something like, “Wow, that was really dumb. What was he thinking? Now he’s left with nothing and probably lost the tournament.”

I never want Johnny Miller laying into me.