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My game suffer from inconsistent shots and moderate to poor distance.
Watching Brandt Snedeker’s pre shot routine during The Masters last weeks Thursday, it occurred to me that he almost didn’t drop a pause to swing the ball after his practise swing. He is really quick, within a second after his practise swing he immediately goes for it. I figured to try it out on the range last Friday. I added some of myself to it and here is what I did.
I select a club, look at the target, walk to the ball and align myself to the target. I make a first full practise swing with my hands and arms totally relaxed, eyes almost closed, making sure I focus on absolutely nothing except my balance and the swoosh sound of the clubhead release. Forget about everything else. I than pause for one second and do the same thing again, full practise swing totally relaxed. In the same one second pause I than take address position and without looking at the target and/or re-aligning just swing away, identical to the two practise swings. I played 36 holes this weekend and used the same routine for every single shot. The result astounded me. Low score (3 over), balls fly straight and far. I overshot the green on two occasions because of the sudden extra distance.
I’ve been into the details of swing mechanics and mental aspects for many years now, reading countless books and threads on GTO about it and practising each and every detail of the swing to the extend sometimes with the help of a teaching pro. But along the way I seem to have forgotten that the swing is the cumulus of these details all to be ignored when standing behind the ball in a game. Yes, do practise these details on the range inorder to ingrain them and built muscle memory with or whitout the help of a pro, but forget about them during the game.
For me I found out that taking too long between my practise swing and my real swing is often killing for the shot. These 5 to 10 seconds allowed all the swing mechanic thoughts and doubts to take over, and the do’s and don’ts to enter my system. It tenses up my muscles and consequently ruins the shot.
I hope it can be helpful for a fellow GTO memeber and that it ends my quest for a solid game.
Cheers
Lester (hcp 8.1)
Watching Brandt Snedeker’s pre shot routine during The Masters last weeks Thursday, it occurred to me that he almost didn’t drop a pause to swing the ball after his practise swing. He is really quick, within a second after his practise swing he immediately goes for it. I figured to try it out on the range last Friday. I added some of myself to it and here is what I did.
I select a club, look at the target, walk to the ball and align myself to the target. I make a first full practise swing with my hands and arms totally relaxed, eyes almost closed, making sure I focus on absolutely nothing except my balance and the swoosh sound of the clubhead release. Forget about everything else. I than pause for one second and do the same thing again, full practise swing totally relaxed. In the same one second pause I than take address position and without looking at the target and/or re-aligning just swing away, identical to the two practise swings. I played 36 holes this weekend and used the same routine for every single shot. The result astounded me. Low score (3 over), balls fly straight and far. I overshot the green on two occasions because of the sudden extra distance.
I’ve been into the details of swing mechanics and mental aspects for many years now, reading countless books and threads on GTO about it and practising each and every detail of the swing to the extend sometimes with the help of a teaching pro. But along the way I seem to have forgotten that the swing is the cumulus of these details all to be ignored when standing behind the ball in a game. Yes, do practise these details on the range inorder to ingrain them and built muscle memory with or whitout the help of a pro, but forget about them during the game.
For me I found out that taking too long between my practise swing and my real swing is often killing for the shot. These 5 to 10 seconds allowed all the swing mechanic thoughts and doubts to take over, and the do’s and don’ts to enter my system. It tenses up my muscles and consequently ruins the shot.
I hope it can be helpful for a fellow GTO memeber and that it ends my quest for a solid game.
Cheers
Lester (hcp 8.1)
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