Golf Digest Certified Instructor!

golf tip

Tuesday's Tip: Make the Most of Cold Weather Practice

January and February in Kentucky, along with all the other states equal to or further north, are two of the worst golf weather months of the year. So far in 2022 it has been no exception.

Typically, we can expect a handful of days that are generally nice enough to see some time to get on the course or at least practice outdoors. But so far this year has given few of those opportunities.

Despite the weather, this is the time to be working on any technical aspects of your swing. With the guidance of a qualified instructor, you can accomplish a lot by practicing indoors. So what can you do to keep your golf game tuned up during this time of year? Check out some of my suggestions below, and as always I’m here to help you improve your game at the High Performance Golf Academy!

  • Convert your garage or basement into your own practice space. Believe it or not, this can be done on a budget. You can also spare no expense with launch monitors and simulators. Whatever your budget may be, a mat, net, and a space large enough to swing a golf club is all you need to make your own indoor practice area.

  • Spend the time. A phrase I love repeating to my players is practice doesn’t make perfect, it makes permanent! I’m a big believer in quality over quantity, especially when practicing during cold months. 10-15 minutes of practice per day can be all you need to improve this time of year. Assuming of course that the 10-15 minutes you are spending is quality practice.

Speaking of quality practice… here are a few tips to make sure your practice is quality and not a waste of time.

  • Accuracy in your motions. There are no shortage of tips online that can help you self diagnose your swing. But there is no substitute for getting in front of a qualified instructor and undergoing an evaluation (you can book one with me here). Make sure that you are spending the time to work on the things that will make you better. A qualified instructor is the most efficient way to do this.

  • Feedback. All quality practice requires feedback. Below are a few ideas to get the best feedback when you practice:

    • Mirror work. Connecting what you feel with what it looks like is very important when trying to make any change or adjustment to your golf swing. Find a room at home (or make one) that has enough space for you to make slow motion swings in front of a mirror.

    • One of the easiest and most effective forms of feedback during indoor practice is knowing the quality of your contact. If you are lucky enough to have a space to hit golf balls indoors, make sure you know where the ball is hitting the club face. Dr. Scholls foot spray powder is excellent for this.

    • Recording your swing on video is another great way to see if you are achieving the changes you want to make. However, be warned that when using video you will want to pay attention to and use a consistent camera angle. Talk to your instructor on exactly how to do this.

  • More on spending the time: Limit your time to make sure you remain focused. Let’s be honest, practicing indoors during cold weather months can get boring. Mindlessly going through the motions accomplishes very little. When you begin to notice your attention span drifting off, take a break. If you can go 5 to 10 minutes at a time before you lose your focus you’re doing really good.

Are you ready to get the most from your golf game? Click here to access my online lesson book and let’s get started!

Tuesday’s Tip: Managing Expectations

Asking yourself why you play the game of golf is important not just for elite competitive players, but also for the recreation golfer. Many give up on this great game because their expectation level doesn’t meet up with their reality.

Before we go any further, understand that you can change your reality. If you currently struggle to break 100, your reality will not be to shoot under par and win a tournament. But if you put forth a plan to practice and play enough you can start to change that reality so that over time you may be able to break par.

Judge Your Play by Time Spent on the Game

When I say time spent on the game, I don’t necessarily mean that once you’ve played for 30 years you will officially become an expert on golf. Ask any club member that’s played 30 years and they will probably agree. What I do mean is that your expectation level must be set by the overall time spent and quality of your practice.

I’d love to spit out some data that says if you play X amount it will equal Y results. Unfortunately no such data exists. So many factors go into a player’s development that it is impossible to come up with the rate of progress one should have.

The closest thing to it would be the “10,000 hour or 10 years” rule that Malcom Gladwell made famous in his book Outliers, saying that if you spend 10,000 hours or 10 years of deliberate practice you can become a master at that skill. The key is deliberate practice. If you are spending quality time practicing your game then your expectation level can change. If not, then your reality is set.

One of the best ways to know if you’re achieving what you should would be to get with a qualified instructor to evaluate your current skill set and start managing your expectations. You can also begin putting together a plan to improve your skills and begin changing your expectations.

Understand and Use Basic Statistics

Do you know many greens in regulation (GIR) you average hitting when you play? What about fairways hit? Your percentage you get up and down for par? Or the number of putts your average per round?

For most golfers this is simply too much to keep up with or worry about when you’re playing. And if you’re expectations level is low, then by all means continue. But if you find yourself questioning your abilities or getting mad because you think you should be doing better, then you need to start paying attention to your stats.

One of the most basic reasons to know your stats is so you can easily compare what you do with the best players in the world on the PGA or LPGA Tours. The number of stats available for each professional players is extremely detailed and published for free to see by anyone.

The most obvious reason to keep your stats is so that you can take them to an instructor and begin putting a plan together to start improving. What can be measured can be improved so be more diligent in keeping track of your current statistics and give your self another way to see your improvement.

NOTE - It should be noted that statistics are not the “end all, be all” for your golf game. They are simply a tool. For example, the average number of putts stat is possibly the most worthless stat in golf because it is directly tied to your ability to hit greens in regulation. Learning to keep a strokes gained putting stat is much more valuable.

Remember… It’s Just a Game!

The most important thing that everyone should remember (except for those that do it for a living) is that golf is a game! By keeping your expectations in line with the reality of your skill set will free you up to enjoy the game of golf from start to finish.

At the end of the day I think it should be every golfer’s goal to walk off the golf course feeling good about the time they just spent. Don’t worry about score, especially when you’re playing a recreational round of golf!

If you feel like you are struggling to align your expectations with your skills you can schedule a session with me by clicking here and we will work together to get the most from your game.



Tuesday's Tip: Most Important Skill to Improve Putting

Helping golfers improve their putting is a passion of mine. I firmly believe that just about anyone can be a good putter, and many can become great. But that doesn't mean that putting is easy. Yes… the physical skills required to be a great putter may be very different (and less strenuous) than having to bomb a drive 300 yards down the middle of a fairway. But putting presents its own unique challenges that seem to affect every player a little differently.

Keeping in mind that there is seemingly no “one way” to become a great putter, I wanted to share with you what I believe is the most important skill that will be required in order for you to improve putting to any degree.

SPEED CONTROL (aka distance control)

Speed control is so important because it not only helps you get closer to the hole, it will determine your read of the green.

Now that I am AimPoint Certified (click here to learn more about that) I have an even deeper understanding to how closely connected reading the green and controlling your speed is. It is so closely connected, that many AimPoint clinics will combine their green reading class with a speed control class.

The bottom line is this… you can’t effectively read greens if your speed control is off. And I’m not talking about blasting a 10 footer 5 feet past the hole. Your speed control will need to be way more precise than that if you want to make more putts.

How precise should you try to be? First of all you need to divide your putts into 2 categories:

20’ and Closer

  • Your goal when you are 20’ and closer is to make sure you hit a putt with enough speed that if it misses, the ball will travel past the hole at least 12-24 inches (check out the picture that came along with this post). Anything shorter or longer than that and you risk over or under reading your putt.

Outside 20’

  • Your goal when you are outside 20’ is to simply make sure the ball can stop within 10% of the overall length of the putt from the hole. For example; if you have a 30’ putt, the ball should stop within 1.5’ short or 1.5’ long of the hole (adding up to 3’). Just think of how many of your 3-putts will go away if you could accomplish this! Even from 60 feet… you’re just trying to get 3 feet short or 3 feel long of the hole!

To summarize, it is forgivable to leave putts outside 20’ just short of the hole. However, it is not forgivable to leave putts 20’ and in short of the hole. So the next time you are on the practice green, see how good you are at making the ball stop within the parameters above. Hint: golf tees are an excellent tool to help indicate where the ball should go if it’s not in the hole.

Knowing how long your putt is before you hit it is important for many reasons. If you keep stats (correctly) you will always need to know the length of your first putt so that you can calculate your make percentages (as well as determine your effectiveness in your approach shots/chipping and pitching). Knowing this information is important so that you can set your expectation level correctly and so you can begin prioritizing your practices to strengthen any weaknesses.

Too many times have players come in complaining about their putting, only to find out that they are statistically almost as good as the PGA Tour! After all, the make percentages on tour are very easy to find (i.e. the make percentage from 8 feet is about 50%) so in order to strengthen your mental toughness on the greens, you should probably know what putts you should be making.

Will improving your speed control directly lead to you making more putts? Maybe! Especially if your current speed control skills are lacking. Otherwise, sharpening your skill of speed control on the greens will then make the other two skills (1) reading the green and (2) hitting your line, much more useful.

Do you need help with your speed control? Come visit me at the High Performance Golf Academy and I can promise you’ll get what you need to begin improving immediately.
,

Tuesday's Tip: Thoughts to Improve Putting

,

Are you a good putter?

How you answer this question will say a lot about your current ability (obviously) but also your potential. I’m going to go on a limb and say that never in the history of the game has there been a great putter that thought they were bad. I’ll even go a step further and say that there’s also never been a bad putter that thought they were great.

I know that’s subjective and impossible to measure, but my point is that the stronger your belief that you are a great putter, the more likely you can become one. There are many players out there that may underestimate how good they are. And there’s a few bad ones that think they’re not so bad. What is important is that the first step in becoming a great putter is to simply believe you can be one.

So enough mumbo jumbo of how to think about yourself… what else do you have to do in order to be a great putter?

Putting requires you to be good at three skills and three skills only:

  1. Reading the Green

  2. Hitting Your Line

  3. Speed Control

Over the last 6 years I have been using Science and Motion’s Sam Putt Lab to help players identify what is making it difficult for them to hit their line and/or control their speed. Now, with AimPoint Express in my toolbox, I can help players complete their quest to putting greatness by showing them an extremely simple and effective way to read a green.

As much as I’d love to spell it all out for you here in this article, I’m contractually not allowed to do so. That being said, make sure you are on the lookout for AimPoint Express clinics that will be exclusively hosted by your’s truly at the High Performance Golf Academy.

I realize how boring putting is to most players, especially recreational golfers. But for those of you that care about your score, I would encourage you to let me help you improve your putting now! And if you’ve never used AimPoint Express, there’s low hanging fruit that you can pick to get that improvement going very soon.

Tuesday's Tip: Hit the Center of the Clubface More Often

Why is it that golf can be so addicting? Answers can vary to that question, but a phrase that is often repeated in our academy goes something like this:

“That shot felt great! That’s why I keep playing!”

99.9% of the time a phrase like that is spoken, the player is simply referring to how great it felt that the ball hit the center of the club face. Hopefully you’ve experienced this at least a few times as a golfer, but hitting the center of the club makes so many other worries sometimes melt away.

I’ve even seen players hit it right in the screws (aka the center of the clubface) and the ball travel wildly off line and still feel overwhelmingly positive about the shot. So how can we increase the number of times the ball hits the center of the club? Try some of the tips I’ve picked up over the years the next time you go out for a practice session:

Know where the ball is hitting the face.

  • Having quality feedback is necessary for any form of practice to be effective. Therefore, having the feedback of knowing where the ball hit the club face is very important. The most obvious, and the form of feedback most players rely on, is feel/sound. This can be a misleading form of feedback since many clubs on the market today are designed to increase forgiveness (meaning you can miss the “sweet spot” and it still sounds and feels good). Since we can’t smell or taste center contact, that only leaves visual feedback. Here are some ways to make sure you can visually see your contact:

    • Dr. Scholl’s foot spray/power (most recommended and pictured above)

    • Impact tape/stickers

    • Simply keep your club clean and you can usually see where contact was made after each shot.

What is your impact pattern?

  • This is a question that any good instructor is going to ask or will be trying to find out very early in a lesson. Typically, impact patterns fall into the following categories:

    • Heal, toe, or center contact

    • Low, middle, or high contact (high contact usually limited to drivers)

    • Roaming contact (a.k.a. no obvious pattern)

How do you change your impact pattern?

  • If you’re reading this, you probably don’t need me to tell you that if your pattern is center contact, there’s no need for change. Otherwise, what are some things you can do to improve your impact pattern?

    • Check your pre-swing fundamentals

      • Anyone that has come to see me for a full swing lesson will tell you that I will not let you get away with a poor grip or setup. Especially if you have a roaming impact pattern, there may be an issue with how you are gripping the club, and/or positioning your body (alignment and posture)

    • Focus on your finish

      • One of the first things we teach beginner golfers, whether they are juniors or adults, is how to swing through to a balanced finish. There is a really good reason why every good player you see has a similar looking end to their swing. The major key elements to a good finish would be to make sure your entire body is facing the target, weight is 99.9% on your left foot (RH golfer), and your club is behind your head. These are very basic suggestions, so feel free to pick your favorite professional golfer and copy their finish!

    • Drills

P.S.

This isn’t just about full swing! Controlling where the golf ball is hitting the club face is just as important in chipping, pitching, and putting.

End of The Week Tip: Use Rhythm to Manage Distance Control on the Greens

 

Every Friday I will be posting a new golf tip here on my blog. Feel free to comment, ask questions, and especially make suggestions for future topics in the comment section below.

Managing the distance of your putts is the #1 factor in becoming a good putter. You could be the best green reader in the world and know how to start your putt on the exact line you wish every time, but if your speed is bad, the putt will likely not go in.

There are a couple different things that need to happen in order to roll a putt with the correct speed. Making solid contact with the ball, or more importantly consistent contact (on the same spot of the putter every time) is one key that must not be overlooked. 

Another key that most good putters have is consistent rhythm. The rhythm you swing the putter allows you to make a consistent stroke and be a better judge for how fast the ball will come off of the putter face.

To improve your rhythm, try the following:

  • Sync your stroke with a metronome. Begin by setting the metronome between 70-80 beats per minute (bpm) and match the "tick-tock" sounds from the metronome to your putter going back and through. You can adjust the tempo up or down to match what feels comfortable.
  • No metronome? No problem. Simply swing the putter back and through over and over with out stopping and you will settle on a consistent rhythm. By changing the length and speed of the swing you can increase or decrease the length the ball will travel.
  • The ladder drill. Between a defined area marked with 2 tees about 5-10 feet apart, see how many balls you can stop in that area with each ball traveling slightly past the one before it. If your defined area is 10 feet long and you are 15 feet from the area, try to fit 7 balls or more.
  • Visit me for a Sam Putt Lab evaluation. Not only will we be able to evaluate the rhythm of your stroke, but we will be able to pinpoint which area of the stroke gives you the most trouble.

Want to learn more? Click on the "About" tab to find out! 

Developing an Efficient Golf Swing

Happy New Year!! Be looking forward to more tips in 2017!!

An efficient golf swing is exactly what you think it would be: a swing that requires minimum effort and has repeatability.  All elite level golfers have repeatability in their swing because they have developed efficiency in their golf swing.

With the help of 3D motion technology like K-Vest, learning how to build an efficient golf swing is much more attainable for your everyday golfer.  Here are a few things I’ve learned from K-Vest that will help you build an efficient golf swing:

·       Develop the correct kinematic sequence.  Kinematic sequence is the order in which different parts of your body move throughout the swing.  K-Vest focuses on three main areas: lower body, upper body, and the club.  For example, a correct downswing sequence begins with the lower body, then upper body, followed by the golf club.  A great way to feel a good sequence is to make a throwing motion.  When you throw an object, pay attention to which part of your body moves first (i.e. step toward the target with your lower body, turn the upper body, and release your arm).

·       Master your posture.  Efficient golf swings require solid fundamentals.  K-Vest actually measures the angles your upper and lower body makes in your posture and compares them to a range of tour player averages.  To guarantee you’re posture is good, you will need feedback.  K-Vest provides great feedback, but so will video, a mirror, or your golf instructor that can tell you if your posture is good or not.

·       Swing within yourself, then train to improve.  Most golfers will have physical limitations that will affect their ability to make efficient swings.  Strength and flexibility are 2 factors that can limit most players.  Use balance as your guide to make efficient golf swings.  If you find yourself off balance at any point throughout the swing, chances are you’re over-swinging.  If you want to improve your strength and flexibility so you can make more aggressive swings, get with a TPI (Titleist Performance Institute) certified instructor and train your body to make the swing of your dreams!