I ended the previous email with:
The part of your brain responsible for understanding language (read golf theory) has no input into the part of the brain that performs the motion.
Bang! When I learned this I nearly fell off my chair.
Blindly trying to tell ourselves that we must swing back smoothly, cock our wrists, swing on plane, shift our weight, transition, release our forearms and then follow-through is meaningless chatter.
It just doesn’t work. And when you think for a second, it makes sense. It doesn’t work because if it did you wouldn’t be reading this. You’d be playing much better and consistently. There wouldn’t be any frustrated and confused golfers. We’d all be playing well.
Let’s go deeper for a second.
Think back to a time when you were playing well. Maybe your best round or some sort of purple patch you were on.
Were you thinking lots, trying hard and throwing lots of technical instruction into your brain?
Or
Were you having one of those magical moments where time stands still (or slows down), you saw things more clearly and for whatever reason, your mind was calm?
If you’re not being one of those difficult people who never like to be wrong, the answer is obvious.
You’re not thinking so much. You’re playing the game. You’re free. And if I can be so bold, you’re playing golf YOUR way.
Great. Now we’re getting somewhere.
One more thing.
Human evolution continues because of one key thing.
We learned to walk before we could talk. Think about this for a second...
What would the human race be like if we learned to walk in the same way we tried to play golf?
"Not like that Johnny! You have to shift your weight like this"
"Stop falling down! You’re moving your head. You need to practice these drills"
"You need more lessons. You just can’t get this walking thing. I’m calling in coach Smith"
It’s quite funny really. But this is HOW we learn golf. We are trying to break the confines of our human learning system by forcing it to learn in a way that it’s not designed.
Add in negative self-talk, "I’m hopeless", "I always duff the shot", "I can’t play" then there really is little wonder that so many golfers struggle to hit the ball and why any sort of consistency is miles off.
Is there a better way to golf your ball?
You bet there is. And it doesn’t require any God-given talent (because you already have it) and you don’t need to retire from work and go full-time golfer (because long practice hours are unnecessary).
I’m 100% certain that if you can grasp what I’m about to tell you, then you will improve your golf. It’s a bit like the overweight person who starts eating well and exercising, they will lose weight.
There are no other options.
If you resist the message - and try and add all the other crap into your system, good results can’t happen. You’ll be stuck.
Consistent golf is dependent on simplicity. You need to make things cleaner.
I know I know. You know about KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) and you’ve been told a thousand times by 100’s of instructors that you must simplify.
But. And this is huge. You haven’t been shown HOW to do it. You can’t keep adding in swing tips and new theories and expect to get anywhere. This isn’t going to work.You need a better plan.
Everything should be made as simple as possible, not simpler.
Albert Einstein
If you can stop what you’ve been doing all this time and adopt a slightly different strategy, you’ll do just fine.
You’ll get better results without all the heartache. You’ll get an improved performance with far less effort. It’s a kind of mechanical advantage, but this time it’s sort of mental too. You’ll walk off the course with more energy. Golf won’t be so much a grind.