About a month ago, I posted some suggestions for your winter practice. I was following that plan at the time, but you know how my mind wanders, so I thought I would let you know what is going right now.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to practice approach putting when it\u2019s raining so much and the practice greens are soaked, so most of my putting practice goes on in my back room on a very short-pile carpet–perfect for the task.<\/p>\n
I am firmly committed to the two-putter plan<\/a>. That has me practicing up to ten-foot putts with my face-balanced putter, at least nightly, and whenever I\u2019m home with nothing important to do (which is all the time when I\u2019m home). <\/p>\n When I go to the the range, I bring my sand wedge and my pitching wedge. I pick out a target on the ground and try to drop a ball right on top of it. I don\u2019t pitch to an area. I pitch to a spot. Most of the time it\u2019s a ball lying out there somewhere.<\/p>\n I have been doing this for years at the range, and have developed a sense over that time of what a distance feels like and what I have to do to hit the ball there, just by looking at it. Sometimes I get the ball so close it\u2019s scary. <\/p>\n Not bragging here. If you practice something often enough you get good at it.<\/p>\n As far as the swing goes, I am deep into a new (for me) mental approach to it. <\/p>\n I have written about Gabrielle Wulf\u2019s work<\/a> on the benefit of external focus (in golf, the club) rather than internal focus (the golfer) in learning, improving, and performing.<\/p>\n Now let\u2019s combine that with the Ernest Jones method of \u201cswing the clubhead.\u201d To me, that is an early expression of external focus. By swinging the clubhead, the body will automatically do the right thing.<\/p>\n Well, it\u2019s a bit more complicated than that, but it is on the right track. <\/p>\n I swing a Titleist 20.5\u00b0 fairway wood (975J) in my back room. I take the club back slowly with a gentle push by the left hand. Slow is important because I want to feel the clubhead throughout the swing. If the start is too fast, that feel will not emerge.<\/p>\n The backswing is nothing more than feeling the clubhead move back and up. The forward swing is the same. I feel the clubhead move down, around, and through. <\/p>\n My mind is on nothing else than the clubhead moving. I mentally follow its movement back and forward again. I really have no concept of what my body is doing, because my mind is on something else, so getting stuck on technique is out the window.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t think about hitting the ball, hitting it a long way, hoping I will hit a good shot, or any other irrelevant and destructive thought. It\u2019s just, follow the clubhead.<\/p>\n The results I\u2019m getting are very good. I\u2019m hitting good shots easily.<\/p>\n If you want to try this, I suggest you begin with a sand wedge, because its weight makes the clubhead easy to feel throughout the swing. There is no need to bend way over when you swing it. Stand up in your driver stance and pretend your sand wedge is a short driver. <\/p>\n I have been through a lot with my health in the past six years. I am unable to play golf the way I used to, but that doesn\u2019t mean I can no longer play good golf. It means I have to find a different way. I have growing confidence that this is the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" About a month ago, I posted some suggestions for your winter practice. I was following that plan at the time, but you know how my mind wanders, so I thought I would let you know what is going right now. It\u2019s hard to practice approach putting when it\u2019s raining so much and the practice greens … Continue reading Getting Ready For Spring<\/span>