Learn Like A Pro, Play Like A Pro

 Apply lasting improvements to your golf game

No matter how advanced the best players in the world become, each and every player does something, somehow, someway to make himself or herself better. No two players may practice the same way, or work on the same things, but nary will you find a player who doesn't strive to take his or her game to the next level.

That said, ask yourself a question. When was the last time you strived to make yourself a better player? What have you done recently to start seeing real improvements? If you're like many, you've probably adopted the "hit and hope" method, where instead of practicing and fixing the way you think and how you physically swing the club, you instead repeat the same mistakes and hope for better results.

Well, let's put an end to that method once and for all. Let's look at two ways you can get better. The first is mental, the second is physical, and both combine to help you stop wasting time on the "hit and hope" method and actually apply some lasting improvements to your golf game, just like the pros do.

LEARN TO COIL, NOT TO TWIST
One of the most misunderstood concepts I've seen with my students has to do with how to coil the body on the backswing. Often, when I ask my students for a more powerful coil, I see them twist their body away from the target with little to no torque built up in their body. The top photos show what that looks like, and even though I've made a huge coil, I have little power because I didn't do anything to leverage my upper body against my lower body.

Check out my lower body here. I've turned so much that my right knee buckled. Despite the effort this position takes to achieve, it's not a good one.

To develop a better coil, I want you to turn your upper body twice as far as your hips on the backswing, and keep your knees facing the golf ball (yes, the left one should bend) to ensure you aren't overtwisting the lower body. Finally, keep your spine leaning toward the ball. Don't get upright.

This is more like it! My upper body has turned against my lower body, which has only turned about half as far as my shoulders. This is how the pros do it. Keep that back leg rigid!

Reference Resource: http://www.golftipsmag.com/instruction/faults-and-fixes/lessons/learn-like-a-pro-play-like-a-pro-best-of-2014.html

Short shots that will help you gain confidence and shoot lower scores

In case you haven't noticed by now, the fastest way to lower scores comes from having a tidy short game, specifically, a strong ability to hit effective chip and pitch shots from around the green. There's also a residual effect from having a good short game. When you chip well, you don't feel pressured to hit every green, which ironically, leads to hitting more greens! Let's look at a handful of short shots that will help you gain confidence and shoot lower scores.

BETTER CHIPPING

I'll tell you this, I've shot some pretty decent scores in my day, and some of them I did while hitting less than 50% of the greens. Sometimes, I've even been well below that 50% number and still managed to salvage some decent scores.

The key is having good technique. If you look at the sequence on the opposite page, you can see the classic "chicken wing" position post-impact. This happens when the mind and body both feel the need to lift the ball up, instead of allowing the loft of the wedge to do the work on its own. In this photo, check out how low the clubhead is post-impact. See how low it is? That's what you want for solid chipping contact. There's no lifting or pulling up with the hands—not ever, actually.

TRY THIS

You've maybe tried some unorthodox putting grips to help cure the putting yips, but have you ever tried one with your chips? The key to better chipping is quiet hands and wrists, and using an unusual putting grip like the one you see here actually can help you. Grip the club with your normal left-hand grip, and then put your right hand to the side and tuck the grip into the fold of the thumb and index finger. You can't get cutesy with the hands using this grip, and you'll quickly feel what a proper chip stroke feels like. 

Reference Resource: http://www.golftipsmag.com/instruction/short-game/lessons/short-game-success.html

Want to improve your swing power? Two keys to a better golf swing

Many good players have very different looking golf swings, but they all have two things in common during their impact position:

Good players retain wrist-cock through the impact zone, as well as maintain a strong solid base during the hitting area. These two areas of the golf swing set the good player apart from the high-handicapper.

Strong solid base upon impact: To create power during a golf swing, golfers need to have a solid base as they strike the ball. In all sports, a solid base creates power.

When a boxer throws a punch, it starts with the power in the lower body. As they start to punch, they step off their back foot and throw their weight into the direction of the punch. The legs are slightly bent, but there is tension within them, which helps keep the lower body in a powerful position.

The same tension in the lower body should be maintained during the impact position in the golf swing. Currently we hear this concerning Tiger Woods upon his return from reconstructive knee surgery. Before his recent surgery he could not maintain a sold base as he moved to his left side during impact. Golf analysts now describe his lower body action as much improved because of his solid leg action.

Proper wrist-cock maintains lag, increases power: To create lag, the left wrist needs to be bowed upon impact allowing the hands to be slightly ahead of the ball upon impact. This causes a late hit, or "lag," which all good players use to create the power in their golf swings.

High-handicapper golfers tend to do the opposite by releasing the hands early instead of having the hands ahead of the ball upon impact. They collapse the left wrist causing the club head to move past the hands before impact. This scooping action creates a tremendous loss of power resulting in loss of distance with the driver and miss-hits with the irons.

To create a late hit, your hands need to arrive at impact before the club head. The best way to achieve this position is to practice hitting balls with a heavy club.

The heavy "practice club" forces your hands to lead the club head through the hitting area. It also is a great way to build up your strength and swing speed, creating additional power. Try it. It works!

Reference Resource: http://www.worldgolf.com/golf-instruction/improve-your-swing-power-10339.htm

Inside the Golfer's Mind

Golf is a game of confidence and competence. I am not about to tell anyone that a player who lacks physical skills can transform overnight into a winner by changing his thinking. If you trust a bad swing, it's still going to produce bad shots. (Though it will produce fewer of them than if you don't trust it.) You have to attain a level of physical competence to play well.

Having said that, I believe it's impossible to overestimate the importance of the mind in golf. There is no such thing as "muscle memory." Your muscles have no capacity to remember anything. Memory resides in your head. Therefore, no matter how long you practice a golf swing, no matter how skilled you become, your muscles alone can't remember it and execute it when the need arises on the golf course. Your muscles and the rest of your body are controlled by your mind. Unless your mind is functioning well when you play golf, your muscles are going to flounder. If your head is filled with bad thoughts, your scorecard is going to be full of bad strokes.

Having control of your mind and using it properly can separate you from the competition, whether it's at your club or on the PGA Tour. I believe every golfer has the potential to be much better than he or she is, and that using the mind is one essential way to improve. You will never know if you have the ability to be the best player in the world, or the best player in your club, unless you commit yourself to developing both your physical and mental skills.

1. Play to play great. Don't play not to play poorly.

There's a fine line between playing to play great and playing recklessly. Reckless players hit driver off virtually every tee. They fire at sucker pins they have no business aiming at, because they're convinced that's what playing to play great is all about. It isn't. Golfers who are playing to play great love a great drive more than they fear the rough. They like making putts more than they care about three-putting. They love chipping it in more than they loathe not getting up and down. But they may have a conservative strategy for certain holes. The conservative strategy is what permits them to always make a confident, even cocky swing. When the moment is right, when they've got a scoring club in their hands, they take dead aim at the hole. But only when the moment is right.

Players who play to play great understand that good can be the enemy of great. They know that if they get too concerned about not being bad, they might not free themselves up enough to be great. They don't care very much about making cuts or top-20 finishes. They play to win.

‘Every golfer has the potential to be much better than he or she is, and using the mind is one essential way to improve.’

If they do this, they control their destiny as a golfer. I want clients to understand this. They have free will. The choices they make with that free will determine the quality of their golf game and the quality of their lives. If you consistently make the right choices, you're destined for greatness. I'm not suggesting that this means you're going to win all the Grand Slam tournaments or all your club events or even all your Saturday-morning nassaus. I'm saying that if you make the right choices, you will someday look back on your life, or that part of your life that was devoted to golf, and say, "Wow! That was great."

2. Love the challenge of the day, whatever it may be.

Golf is a game of mistakes and unpredictable fortune. If it were not, no one would ever miss a fairway, a green or a putt. On top of that, there would be no sudden gusts of wind, no unfortunate bounces, no imperfections in the turf. Every ball would go exactly where you wanted it to go, and the winning score in a golf tournament would be something like 50 strokes per round.

If you truly love golf, you must love the fact that no one shoots 50, that golf is an inherently imperfect game. If you spend your time fighting the fact that golf is a game of mistakes and trying to make it a game of perfect shots, you're really saying that you don't like golf. You want it to be some other game--billiards, maybe. No one has ever perfected golf--not Ben Hogan, not Jack Nicklaus, not Annika Sorenstam. I don't believe anyone ever will.

Golfers who understand and love the game accept it rather than fight it. They realize the essence of golf is reacting well to inevitable mistakes and misfortunes. They know they can separate themselves from their competition not by perfecting their games but by constantly striving to improve. I tell players that if there's one thing they should always be proud of in their games, it's how well they react to mistakes. I tell them that they will never have complete control of the golf ball. But they can control their attitudes.

3. Get out of results and get into process.

There's a goal that I speak of often. It's called a "process goal." Success comes from patiently and persistently doing the right things over and over. Process goals are the "to-do lists" of players striving for excellence. The process is what gives you a chance to find out how good you can be.

Here, for instance, is a set of process goals for a round of golf. If you follow them, you'll give yourself your best chance to find out how well you can play in that particular round:

Reference Resource:  http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-instruction/mental-game/rotella