New Direction Details

Mother found the last post interesting, and "well presented!"  So there is that.  She also wanted some follow up as to how well it all worked.


For the last few rounds I've just been just playing and not trying to alter my technique.  That plays into the theory that your mind knows what to do; just get out of your way and let it happen.

I must report that for the most part this is working quite well.  My driver has been much better.  My iron play has not diminished -- it was already very good.  My putting is good and I'm happy with it.   More on that below.

The only thing that has gotten worse has been my chipping.  And because of the odd bladed pitch, I'm seeing many more double bogeys that I am used to.

To wit, on Wednesday I had three birdies and only managed a 79.  There were 3 doubles that just gutted the scoring. 

Why the short game has become a problem is interesting.  The practice swings where I design my task are quite good.  Nice and fluid with no fear at all, at all.  But there there is some excess body movement in the actual swing that's causing all of the problems.   I'm going to pay a bit more attention and be more trusting.  Mostly the bad chips are due to not being able to let it happen and then I don't swing as freely nor as fast and it all comes apart.  Why is it, o God of golf, that we fear the long hit and are willing to foozle to avoid it?

Putting...  Let's take a step back and discuss what task we want to identify.  It is as simple as "clip the tee below the ball" or do we want to be very trusting and complex and think "I want the ball to start left, then climb and fall off to the right."  Gallwey would suggest that a very complex task is doable. 

I would love to believe that.  I've done that with a couple of drives and made it happen...

But then let's turn to putting.  Not a lot of difficulty here.  We have a very simple club to ball interaction.  We want no curves nor any hit to left or right.  We simply want to putt the ball on some line with a specific pace.

Granted one might have to look at a few details before deciding on those items, but once decided we can, and probably should, create a task of "hit to spot x with pace y."  Then get over the ball, blank the mind and just execute. 

Could we just look at the putt and "feel" the slope and speed and do it?  Gallwey would probably suggest yes.  He doesn't care about your grip or stance, just your willingness to trust your subconscious mind to perform reasonably.  We've all putted a few thousand times and why not trust that database and draw the answer from it?  Would it help you adjust if the greens are off speed due to moisture or length of grass?  Maybe, and again, maybe a trust issue. 

Looking at the last few rounds, where I was trying to be less mechanical and more trusting, I felt very confident over a lot of putts.   I have missed a couple of short ones, but not many.  I suspect that the number of three putts have dropped a little.  The greens I play on are not large so I rarely hit putts from long distances.  I don't feel there are enough data to draw any conclusions here.  Certainly there is nothing monstrous in play, either good or bad.


I would suggest to all of you ardent golfers out there to give this a try.  If you can pull it off, it's very mentally relaxing.  Makes the game more of a fun time than a lot of work.


Next post is on temperature and distance.  I ran across an interesting video on YouTube and I'll pass along some thoughts on that.