What are the Do’s and Don’ts of taking a golf lesson?

World class instructor Hank Haney with Charles Barkley.
Photo by Associated Press

As golf season gets ramped up, many of us will be investing in lessons in an effort to improve.  High handicappers right down to touring professionals all benefit from formal instruction.  I took my first lesson of the season last weekend and have scheduled a series every two weeks for the balance of the spring.  I’m reminded of a few Do’s and Don’ts when taking lessons:

Do:

1. When you sign up for lessons, ensure your instructor has the “PGA” acronym after his/her name.  Some courses and training facilities employ instructors or managers who give golf lessons at a discounted price.  If they aren’t PGA certified, don’t go for it.  Membership in the Professional Golfers Association is an indicator that your instructor has spent the necessary time in the business, has been formally trained on how to teach, and has given many lessons.
2. Prior to or during your first lesson, set clear expectations with your instructor.  Let them know your skill level, current handicap (if you keep one), what your goals are, and how much time you have to devote to practice.  You may get a completely different lesson if you indicate you plan on practicing every day, compared to if you can only devote one day per week.
3. During instruction, ask questions!  Your level of engagement will often get you a better lesson.  Golf pros are human.  They get bored at work too and often perform better when fully engaged with their students.  If something doesn’t feel right or if you’re getting it and enjoying the success, dialog it.
4. Take full swing lessons outdoors on the range.  Some instructors will teach at indoor facilities and you can make improvements using a simulator, but there is no substitute for seeing actual ball flight.  Sometimes what feels good on a simulator may not be the shot pattern you want.
5. At the completion of your lesson, reiterate with your instructor two or three key points that you’re going to work on until the next lesson.
6. Practice between lessons.  Sometimes during a lesson, you may perform poorly because the changes you’re making are difficult to implement.  Try and get out multiple times between lessons and reinforce what you’ve been shown, and do it at your own pace.  Often, you will “get it” during practice, because you’re able to take your time and you won’t feel like you’re being watched.
7. World class instructor Hank Haney advocates taking 100 swings per day in your back yard.  Do this even if you can’t hit balls and try to feel the change you’re working on.  It’s the fastest way to ingrain the new feel.

Don’t:

1. Try and change too much at once.  Learning can be confusing, and we learn best by focusing on one concept at a time.  Sometimes even a seasoned professional will give you too much to think about.  The pro wants you to succeed and if the first or second swing change doesn’t immediately work, they can introduce more in an effort to find something that resonates.  When this happens, tell your pro you’d like to focus on one concept and ask what that should be.
2. Play the day after a lesson and expect to score well.  Your mind will be in mechanical mode and you will be playing “golf swing” not golf.  Forget your score and just focus on enjoying your time in the outdoors and trying to focus on the changes you’re trying to implement.
3. Seek swing tips from your inexperienced playing partners.  Best to stick with your pro’s advice and remember the old axiom, “Amateurs teach amateurs to play like amateurs.”
4. Fail to practice between lessons and then claim you got a bad lesson when the changes don’t work on the golf course.
5. Forget about short game and putting.  Instruction is not all about full swing, although the vast majority of lessons are given on the practice tee.  Ask your professional about a short game lesson or if they’ll take you out on the course and play a few holes to help you with your course management.

Got any more Do’s and Don’ts?  Please share and good luck if you’re taking lessons.  Play well!

Eliminating My Big Miss – The Hank Haney Experiment

I am 1,100 swings into my Hank Haney experiment.  To review, Haney recommends for the time challenged golfer, to take 100 practice swings per day in your back yard (merely a 15 minute time commitment).  In week one I took the first 500 with a 5-iron.  In week two, I split the balance between a 5-iron and driver.  The last couple of sessions I have felt particularly strong and enjoyed some excellent rhythm and a confidence boost.

Yesterday, I changed things up and went to the range in the afternoon to see actual ball flight with the 5-iron and driver.  Smother hooking 40 balls will humbly reminded you why golf is such a damn hard game.  Just when I thought I was on to something good the pendulum of bad habits swung in my direction.  I left the practice tee discouraged but knew that I had a round to play the next day, and figured I’d better work some short game.  I finished up with a pretty good session on the practice putting green.

Now I am one of those players who generally plays like he practices, and the prospect of teeing it up a day after facing down a bucket full of Big Misses felt like crossing the U-boat infested Atlantic Ocean in an unarmed merchant ship.  I was dreading the surfacing of the Big Miss and can’t remember being less unenthusiastic about the prospects of playing a weekend round of golf.

I arrived at the course early this morning and headed immediately to the range, and figured it’s best to face your fears head on.  The warm-up was pretty good and I maybe saw five Big Misses out of 40 swings; a much smaller percentage, but just enough to keep the threat lurking.  Incidentally, I was hit by this same swing malfunction about a month ago in another pre-round warm-up, but a playing partner spotted my physical error and helped me with a band-aid fix before play, so I was armed with this little bit of knowledge.

I piped my tee shot on #1 but The Big Miss surfaced on the #2 tee shot.  Somehow I managed to save bogey and then it mysteriously disappeared and I played the rest of the front nine and the first two holes on the back striking it solid and straight.  Then BAM!  Four Big Misses in a row led to two straight double bogeys (the second of which was nearly a triple), and I though I was done for the day.  I stabilized with the band-aid and managed to birdie #16 and #17 with some solid swings and limped in without killing anyone, and carded a six-over 77.  Despite the strong finish, I am questioning the wisdom of the daily practice swings.  Should I continue if there’s a chance that I’m practicing a mechanical fault with no ball flight feedback?   I did hit 11 GIR last weekend and 12 in today’s round, which is over my season average of eight.  Maybe it’s working and I can’t see the forest of incremental progress from the trees?

Any thoughts or recommendations to stay the course or abandon for something else?

When You Are In “The Zone” How Did You Get There?

Try to think back to the last time you were in “The Zone.”  What was common about your time in with previous times?  Is it possible to recapture it on demand?  In golf, as in all of sports, most athletes have been in The Zone at least once, and the experience is fabulous.  I haven’t been in the zone since a round in September of 2013.  Not that I haven’t played well since then, but being in The Zone is a level above playing well.

Identifying the characteristics of Zone play and duplicating seems like the key to trying to get back with more frequency.  Personally, there are three factors consistent with Zone play.

Excellent ball striking warm-up.  This is probably unique to me because some folks can warm-up poorly and play great.  More common is a good warm-up followed by the inability to take your range swing to the course.  I get a clue that Zone play is possible when I strike it pure during warm ups.  I have never been in The Zone without a great warm-up and rarely play well when warming up poorly.

Supreme confidence with the driver.  Every time I’ve been in The Zone, I’ve been able to stand over every tee shot with the driver and know with complete confidence that I’m going to pound the ball dead straight.  For me, good play, great play, and Zone play all starts with the driver.  Lately, this has been the biggest Zone inhibitor.

Birdie the first hole then relax.  I know it’s just one hole, but when I birdie #1, I feel like I’m playing with house money and it relaxes me.  Being in the zone is usually accompanied by a great feeling of relaxation and calm during the whole round.  I feel totally in control of my game and can play worry free.

I got to thinking about this today because I touched The Zone but did not enter.  Josh at Golf Is Mental wrote a post on going low which resonated and put me in a very good frame of mind.  I took his advice, set a very low target number, warmed up well, birdied my first hole and shot 1-under on the front nine.

A second helper has been this video from Hank Haney.

Hank recommended that for time challenged players such as myself, we commit to taking 100 practice swings every day, which I did all week (with a 5-iron).  My mid-iron game was on the money today and I felt the extra work definitely helped.  Give this a try!  Inconsistency off the tee on the inward half of my round slammed the door on Zone entry, but the 4-over 74 is a good round for me.

This week I’ll split the 100 daily swings between driver and 5-iron in an effort to get more confidence off the tee.  Not saying I’ll get back to The Zone immediately, but the taste today was nice and I feel like I have a plan going forward.

When was the last time you were in the zone and what advice do you have for getting back?

 

Halfway Point Report Card – Golf Is Fun Again!

For the golfing enthusiast, nothing is more frustrating or disheartening than a protracted slump.  I’m 21 rounds into my season (halfway point) and I’m happy to report the game is fun for me again as my first quarter troubles appear to be over.  To recap, I was mired in an epic ball striking quagmire and had failed to hit 10 GIR in any of my first 10 rounds.  But in the last 11 rounds, I’ve hit or exceeded the number seven times.  As The Grateful Golfer would say, “my GAF is high, ” and today I capped the first half with a 1-over 73 which was my best round in my last 30, and my index has dropped to a 4.9.

What’s the fix?  I believe the early slump was caused by infrequency of play/practice and as readers of this page know, I’ve been struggling with my golf/life balance and have been trying to get enough reps in to remain effective.  A solution seems to be at hand, though.

I’m still playing only 18 holes per week, but have added a critical practice nine in early on Saturday mornings at my local executive course.  Normally, I get out early enough to play by myself and have borrowed a technique (two ball – best ball scramble) I think I saw on Hank Haney’s show.  The key in this game is to take two shots from every spot and play your best ball until holed.  With two shots at every green, albeit short executive length holes, I fill my scorecard with dots (for GIRs) and hitting greens becomes a habit.  I’ve learned there is no substitute for striking shots and watching the ball land on the putting surface time and again.  As a result, my ball striking  during the 18 hole rounds has improved as a I expect to hit more greens.  The practice nine only takes about 1.5 hours and I sometimes follow up with some putting and light chipping, but when I’m on the course, I make sure to take my share of extra short game shots at every opportunity.  Normally, I’m home by 10:30 a.m. (before half the household is even awake), and am not even missed.  Throw in three 15-minute chipping and putting sessions on my weekly commute home, and I’ve got a recipe that works because I’ve got my hands on clubs in one aspect or another FIVE DAYS PER WEEK!

The little 15-minute practices are invaluable and give me a great measure of satisfaction when I pull off shots during rounds that I’ve worked on during the week.  Today, I was 5 for 6 on green-side up and downs, using techniques honed during the afternoon commute.

So, get your hands on the clubs as often as you can in a way that allows you to fulfill your responsibilities to everything else in your life, and when you practice, try to get in enough work where you see balls flying at flagsticks onto actual greens.  Hopefully, it works for you as it has for me.  Good luck and please share any time-saving practice tips you’ve had success with.  Thanks!

Try The Nine-Shot Drill For Confidence

Hank Haney and Tiger Woods
From zimbio.com

It was 55 degrees and sunny today; perfect time to resume working on my golf game.  I went to the range and tried out the Nine-Shot drill which I had just learned about in The Big Miss.  This is the drill used by Tiger Woods while under the tutelage of swing coach Hank Haney.  Nine-Shot works you through a swing matrix for high, low, and medium trajectories with fades, draws, and straight shots.  There are nine different combinations and the thought is to rotate through every club in the bag.  Hitting all 13 clubs would take a significant amount of time and concentration so I modified the drill to accommodate a 50-ball range session.

Not having hit a ball since November 10, I found the drill difficult because I was rusty, but beneficial because my ability to concentrate was better than during a boring old range session.  There was an unintended side-benefit as well.  There are several ways you can approach this drill but I elected to order my shots by first hitting medium-straight and then going to high and finally low, and then worked the same order for the draws and fades.  I did not try to mix the draws and fades and to keep this as simple as possible I only varied my alignment and ball position and did nothing with grip or swing speed.  Using a PW, 8-iron, 6-iron, 4-iron, and driver, I rotated through 45 balls and hit a five ball warm up with my PW.

The Nine-Shots
From rotarygolf.com

The unintended side benefit was that by changing ball position and alignment, I was able to correct a swing flaw.  While trying to hit the draws with the 8-iron, I smother hooked a couple and when I switched to a fade, my shots flew straight.  This information indicated, I was taking the club back too far to the inside.  I made the adjustment and contact improved immediately.

I also decided that next time I’m switching out the Driver for a 3WD.  Hitting low cuts and draws with the Driver is just too difficult, and it’s easier to curve a ball with the 3WD because of the increased loft.

This drill requires discipline when you hit a bad shot.  The natural tendency is to rake another ball and try the same shot, but I steeled myself to just move to the next shot.  I found this alleviated frustration as there was no urgent need to fix; just move on.  The potential is excellent to use this for pre-game warm-up as well.  Trying the nine different ball flights should allow you to settle on a comfortable one for your round.

The Nine-Shot passed the smoke test today.  It’s going to be 65 tomorrow and 70 on Sunday; perfect to fully develop the concept.  Good luck if you give it a try!

Book Review: The Big Miss by Hank Haney

Just finished The Big Miss by Hank Haney (Crown Archetype Publishing – 2012) and readers who are looking for an inside look at the world of Tiger Woods need to get this book.  Haney has been criticized for writing a kiss and tell book but I found the insights into the inner workings of Tiger Woods profoundly interesting.  After the well reported sex scandal broke in 2009, Tiger has been so reclusive and withdrawn it’s almost maddening to watch an interview with him and try to learn anything of substance.  His guard is always up and the book digs into some very good detail behind the scenes.  Strangely enough, even Haney admitted that while Tiger often referred to him as his close friend, he often felt shut out as Tiger rarely opened up to him.  But for the casual golf fan, the insights go way beyond what we are fed by the mainstream media.

I had always thought the title of the book referred to the concept of what went wrong (Big Miss) with Tiger’s career after the scandal broke, but the term “Big Miss” is used by both Haney and Tiger to describe a golfer’s worst shot.  That Haney used the term for the book is interesting because it may be prophetic in the higher sense when Tiger’s career is eventually summed up.  Haney doesn’t actually focus much on the scandal and thankfully keeps golf as the subject.

Some of the content I found most interesting:  The work Haney and Tiger did to avoid the ‘Big Miss’ off the tee and how Tiger actually feared using his driver in clutch situations.  It was great to get inside the brain of one of the world’s best golf coaches.  I also found Tiger’s fascination with Navy Seal training interesting and how detrimental it may have been to his career and health at the time.  The section on how his team prepped him for play while on a broken leg at the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in 2008 was fascinating.  A lot went on behind the scenes to make that victory possible that the general public is completely unaware of.  I also found it interesting that Tiger, and many other tour players work on their swing mechanics right up to tournament time, and then between tournament rounds as well.  This is diametrically opposed to the theories of Dr. Bob Rotella, where he espouses removal of as many mechanical thoughts the closer one gets to competition.  I’ve never found it beneficial to work on my swing, or think mechanics that close to playing on the course, but heck, I’m not a touring pro.  Still, you would think that as human beings, we’d be more effective without mechanical approaches at game time.

The only part I didn’t enjoy was the book’s ending where Haney compares his record to that of Butch Harmon as Tiger’s swing coach.  It seems he’s trying to justify the approach he took and the decision to quit when he did.  His analysis of Tiger’s “Big Miss” with his driving is way off too.  At the time the book was written, Tiger had just started working with Sean Foley in 2011 and Haney points to Tiger’s ranking of 186th in Total Driving in 2011 as proof that Foley’s swing changes will not work.  Now I’m no Sean Foley fan because I think his approach is too mechanical, but Tiger’s Total Driving stats were 5th in 2012 and 17th in 2013 which speaks for themselves.

Most of all, we learn in the Big Miss that Tiger has made many significant sacrifices in his life to achieve his level of greatness.  What will be interesting to see when his career is over is if those sacrifices are judged to be worth the ultimate record of accomplishment.  Get the book; it’s a good one.

2014 Winter Golf Tune-Up Plan

Winter Golf
From pga.com

One of my favorite pastimes is reading golf books over the winter and trying to find a nugget to put into play the following season, and this year is no exception.  Two years ago, I made the mistake of reading both the Stan Utley short game book and putting book and putting mechanical changes in place without sufficient runway to practice before implementing in the spring.  Come March, my short game was in ruins.

This year, I am determined not to make mechanical changes but have landed on a practice tip I just love and think will be very beneficial.  Has anyone heard of the 9-shot?  I’m currently reading The Big Miss by Hank Haney, and 9-shot is the drill that he introduced to Tiger Woods to improve his confidence in ball striking.  The drill is to take nine shots with each club in the bag and vary the curve and height pattern on every ball.  Basically, you hit three fades, three draws, and three straight shots and try to hit them with a low, medium, and high trajectory.  My driving range sells buckets of about 50 balls and the thought is to try the drill by warming up with five balls, then hit the remaining 45 in five groups of nine using a PW, 8-iron, 6-iron, 4-iron, and Driver.  I’ve noticed that on days when I warm up well, I’ll try to work the ball on the last few shots and it infuses me with tremendous confidence to be able to curve it on demand.  This drill seems like it will help with concentration and focus on every club in the bag.  Anyone tried the 9-shot?

It’s going to be in the high 50s on Friday and I’ll give it a go and report back.  Gotta love the opportunity to bang some balls outside in the winter.  By the way, a full book review is coming on The Big Miss so don’t miss it!