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Teaching Times November
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Teaching Times - October 2017
With so many people traveling for golf in this beautiful time of year, we thought this would be the perfect time publish our travel issue of Teaching Times Digest. In this issue we will cover how to bring your game to other courses. Golf is all about making adjustments for the conditions and there is no greater adjustment than playing a course with which you are unfamiliar in a state or country with which you are unfamiliar. Let’s dive in so you can make sure that you are able to make adjustments quickly and succinctly.
Lesson Opportunities at Lake Valley
Tyler’s Fall Distance control Seminars
Time to dial in those distances! EVERY FRIDAY in NOVEMBER at 4:00 PM we will gather on the driving range to hone one of the most important aspects of the golf swing. We will cover everything that changes how far the ball flies from environmental factors like altitude and temperature to swing factors like club head speed, loft and spin. Each week will focus on a different part of the game.
· Week 1 (11/3)– Short game inside 40 yards
· Week 2 (11/10)– Short game from 40 – 70 yards
· Week 3 (11/17) – Full swing irons and how to control them
· Week 4 (11/24) – Distance control for putting
Sign up by emailing [email protected].
Sessions are $25 each or $75 for all 4.
Participants: 6 max, 3 minimum
Coaches Corner
Phil Mickelson’s Distance Factors
Many of you have probably seen at least one episode of Golf Channel’s new hit talk show Feherty. If not, I would highly recommend checking it out. Click the video link below for an excerpt with Phil Mickelson describing all of the factors he includes when figuring out the distance of a shot. These factors include:
temperature ● altitude ●wind ● time of day ●water between the ball and face ● length of the grass ● type of grass ● whether the ball is sitting on grass that is down grain or into the grain ● whether he is choking down on the club ● if the ball is sitting up or down in the grass●
The list goes on from there. . . it is worth mentioning that Phil has a very specific ‘reference’ or stock distance for each club which takes a lot of repetition and practice over a very long career. Not that anyone expects the average golfer to take all of this into account, but it should impress upon all of our readers that there are so many factors that go into figuring out each shot. When you play in conditions that you are not used to keep this stuff in mind!
Target Golf vs Desert Golf: What’s the difference?
Many people who travel over winter choose Arizona as their destination. There is an idea that desert golf is target golf and that’s why it is different from playing courses in Colorado. The reality is that Target Golf and Desert Golf are 2 different styles of golf course and the below article from Colorado Avid Golfer explains how. . .
Heeding the architectural nuances of “desert” and “target” golf can be the difference between a casual afternoon on the links or a harrowing, three-sleeve root canal. Here are the basics:
Desert designs generally offer players generous tee-ball landing areas, with approaches to the flag more demanding and less forgiving. Grass is often planted tee to green, but in increasingly narrowing proportions.
Target golf, made infamous in the wild Sonoran Desert surrounds of Arizona, is likened to aerial hopscotch — play is across expansive natural cross-hazards, canyons and arroyos, usually from one lushly grassed “island” to another.
The dramatic design styles appear throughout the Southwest, and have been ingeniously tweaked to tame Hawaii’s balata-slicing lava fields. Here is a six-pack sampling of some of our favorites:
TARGET
La Quinta Resort & Club, Mountain Course, La Quinta, CA. Regarded among the best and more playable works of Pete Dye, the routing plays in and around the massive rock outcroppings of the Santa Rosa Mountains. Course is superbly conditioned, with yawning pot bunkers, abundant water and lightning-fast, undulating greens.
Oasis Golf Club, Mesquite, NV. Box canyons, immense boulder formations, towering stone ridges, rain-smoothed arroyos and eye-popping elevation changes approaching 200 feet define this popular gem designed by Arnold Palmer and Ed Seay. Most holes offer eight tee boxes, scoring big on the flexibility/playability scale.
Troon North Golf Club, Monument Course, Scottsdale, AZ. Ranked among the top courses in America, this Tom Weiskopf/Jay Morrish collaboration is rife with penal, risk/reward shot values like blind doglegs, sloping, multi-layered greens, narrow bail-outs and long cross-hazards over meandering gulches and washes. One of the better maintained tracks on the planet.
DESERT
Loews Ventana Canyon Resort, Mountain Course, Tucson, AZ. Crafted by Tom Fazio, this environmentally sensitive venue is underscored by tradition-bent shot values, generous fairways, and intimidating, well-guarded approaches that castigate misfires. Players revere the up-close, saguaro cactus-laded views of the Santa Catalina Mountains.
Mauna Lani Resort, North Course, Big Island, HI. Stitched onto black volcanic bedrock, this Robin Nelson design epitomizes desert-style architecture. Tight shot lines and strategic bunkering leave no room for gonzo golf, and testy trade winds add to the course’s dynamics. Respect the pro shop’s warning: Don’t forage the sharp-as-glass lava fields for errant shots.
TPC at The Canyons, Las Vegas, Nevada. Architect Bobby Weed embellished his rugged design with blind tee shots to bi-level fairways, daunting approaches across rattlesnake-infested canyons, and slick, heavily contoured greens. Key local rule: Bordering desert is so punishing, it’s played as a lateral hazard.
Technology Spotlight
Ok, so it’s hard to consider alignment sticks to be ‘technology’ seeing as you can buy them at Home Depot for a couple bucks. Hear me out. . . yes we had sticks before we even had the wheel, but these are among the most useful training aids out there. In fact, mygolfspy.com lists them among the top 5 training aids in 2017. These have nearly unlimited uses whether they are a barrier to keep you on plain or as visual aids to keep a part of your body or club in line with the target.
My Golf Spy says “Whether you choose Tour Sticks, some other made for golf alignment rods or repurposed driveway markers, sticks can be used to square your body to the target line, help keep your swing on plane, or serve as a target marker while you work to control the clubface and start the ball on the desired line.
Versatile enough to travel from the practice tee to the putting green, and inexpensive by any reasonable standard, it’s not the least bit surprising that alignment sticks are far and away your #1 Training Aid.”
USE THEM. If you need help learning the proper uses or simply want another eye for your golf swing, contact one of the Lake Valley coaches and we will give you the help you need.
The Private club Network
Lake Valley is part of a rather exclusive list known as The Private Club Network. Being a part of this means that your membership is more valuable and will allow you to play a myriad of different courses all over the country. If you are traveling this winter, contact the Private Club Network to reserve an affordable tee time at top tier private clubs!
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TEACHING TIMES - JUNE 2017
The Short Game can make you or break you
To continue with the theme from last month, this issue will be all about improving your short game. Last month you were given Dave Pelz Short Game Test to identify your weak points, now that you know what you need to work on, how do you go about working on it? We will answer this question in full throughout this ‘Short’ Issue of Teaching Times Digest.
Right now however, I would like to stress the importance of practicing the short game and how it can indeed make or break your round. Momentum is one of the most important mental principals in all of sports and nothing can affect it more than your short game. If you manage a tough up and down for par to keep the momentum going, that can be way more valuable than a birdie amidst bogeys. On the other hand if you flub a chip when you have good round going, it can absolutely kill your momentum. If you have a good short game, you can swing more freely with your irons; if you swing more freely with your irons, then you can be more confident off the tee. The short game is really the foundation of your full swing confidence.
MY POINT IS: NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT IN A ROUND OF GOLF THAN GETTING UP AND DOWN
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Coaches’ Corner
The Dreaded ‘P’ Word
Unfortunately, PRACTICE is one of the best ways to improve the consistency of your short game.
It seems that the more we repeat a task the more consistent we can produce certain outcomes. This is why there isn’t a single tour player who has only got 100 hours of practice under their belt – it’s simply not enough practice.
Practice helps the signals from the brain to the body fire more effectively and efficiently. Through improvements in neural connections and a process called Myelination (Myelin is the coating in the connection between 2 synapses), our body is better able to do what we want it to.
Practice produces changes in the brain which help us become better at a skill.
However, don’t forget that we need adaptability. Practicing only a single shot with a single club from a flat lie (AKA the driving range or a pile of balls on the short game area) over and over may not produce your desired improvement.
Golf is the only sport where it is normal and acceptable to practice easier than we play. Most golfers will hit one shot to the white flag, pull the next ball over to a perfect lie and hit another to the white flag. . . WHY? This is a tremendous waste of time; once we get out to the course we have an infinite variety of shots demanded but only a few that we have actually practiced with any consistency. A good practice session for short game will include hundreds of different shots (different trajectories, lies, distances and even different clubs). Even doing this for 3 hours a day, you will still face shots on the course that you have never tried. If there is only one thing you take away from this issue, let it be this: We need to practice inconsistent situations to be better prepared for the most inconsistent playing field in all of sports; the golf course. The greater the variety of shots you practice, the better prepared you will be to take that skill to the course, which is where it really matters.
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Lesson Opportunities at Lake Valley
Come and Try our New Wedge Range!
I would like to take this opportunity to thank our head professional, Cameron Morton, for turning the driving range into a versatile practice area which can cater to all ability levels and now provides a larger variety of target options. In the past month, we have added target posts, nets, and most importantly, a “WEDGE RANGE”. This is an area on both sides of the south end of the range that has 3 small cement plates (9 square feet) at 25, 50 and 75 yards.
These targets can be used in many ways but, right here, right now, I will give you a practice game that is sure to increase your feel with the wedges from inside 75 yards. I call this the elevator game.
Elevator Game – hit 3 balls with each of your 3 different wedges to each of the 3 targets. If you’re doing it properly, each club will hit the ball at a slightly different trajectory (3 levels of the elevator). Keep track of how many you get to land on the cement palates out of the 27 balls. Even if you get zero the first time, your goal for the next time you do it can be one, then two the time after that. This way you can see yourself get better and track your progress while increasing your feel and adding pressure to your practice. Doing this every day or every time you practice will make you a better wedge player.
*Note – if you have the ability to change the trajectory with the same wedge, try that as well. If not, try playing with different ball positions and see if that changes the ball flight (I bet it will).
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Technology Spotlight
For a long time, most specialty wedges have been cast, until Mizuno changed the game last year with the S5 Wedge, which was forged. If there was one drawback to this, it was that the wedge simply wore down faster. But now, with the Mizuno T7, you can have the best of both worlds as the forged 1025 steel head has been infused with Boron to make it stronger and the grooves longer lasting. The overall T7 teardrop head shape and size is similar to the T5 with the major difference being the removal of the channel in the back of the head to give the T7 a classic blade style. This is a classic blade of the past that is brought into the future through the use of the Boron Steel blend. Hit it out of the middle and the feel is firm but good. Stray a little and your fingers will start to know about it on a cold day as the cushioning of the MP-T5 and the more forgiving S5 provide a little more luxurious ride compared to the tight suspension and rigid feel of the T7.The face features the same Quad Cut grooves as before, with wider shallow grooves in the higher lofts of 54° upwards and deeper narrower grooves in the lower lofts from 53° downwards. The T7 comes in a choice of White Satin or Blue IP finish that we first saw on the S5. It is proving very popular and accounts for around half of sales, but it will wear off on the sole after around 30 shots or so.
We have theses wedges in our demo bags so please come give them a try!
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Teaching Times May 2017 “Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you are capable.” -John Wooden, Basketball Hall of Fame player / coach
Dedicating to P3 Thinking
A technique developed by Dr. Robin Vealey, P3 thinking requires discipline in your mental preparation before, during and after a round. The three Ps stand for Purposeful, Productive and Possibility thinking.
Purposeful: Have a purpose and an intention in your approach to the round as well as each shot.
Productive: Focus in the “now” moment, and attune yourself to the “task at hand.” Have a short memory for poorly played shots and a long memory for successes. “Let go” of self-criticism, guilt over “failing a partner” and any thought that intrudes on your ability to “be here now.” Keep your thinking constructive, useful and centered on the present, and keep swing thoughts simple, employing a fixed-point concentration on “how” you will execute “this” swing.
Possibility: Shape each shot in your mind. You not only recognize a clear target or landing area, you also plan for it. Factors are likely to include how we’re striking the ball that day, the weather, and course conditions. Possibility thinking, however, never involves anticipating a score or even calculating numbers during the round.
Dave Pelz Short Game Test
When it comes to success around the greens, one of the most important pieces to the puzzle is the ability to recognize the areas where you are confident and skilled as well as the areas that need improving. Dave Pelz (a leading shortgame coach who works with various tour pros) has developed a system to identify these strong and weak aspects of the shortgame. It is a fairly simple test where you hit 10 shots from various locations around the green. See below for the scorecard and assessment of your “short game handicap”.
Use this system as a starting point to identify the best and worst parts of your short game. From there, you will know exactly what needs work and what simply needs to be maintained. As a final note, make sure that you don’t neglect the parts of the game in which you are confident. One of the biggest mistakes a player can make is to spend a lot of time on their weaknesses and let their strengths fall by the wayside. Maintain your strengths, improve your weaknesses.
Lesson Opportunities
Understanding your Vokey Wedge Grind
Many of us carry the famous Vokey wedges, but how many of us truly understand what makes them work so well? Below is a summary of what each grind classification is good for so that you may better understand your own clubs.
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A kid grows up a lot faster on the golf course. Golf teaches you how to behave
Jack Nicklaus
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Teaching Times April 2017 - The KiDssue (Kid Issue)
The Genius Of PLAY
The difference between these photographs: one is a great learning environment for kids, the other . . . not so much
The genius of play is a term coined by Michael Hebron (mentioned in the last issue) which describes how important it is to
play to learn
and not
learn to play
The distinct difference between the two is simply how it has been framed in our head. Play to learn makes us believe that we can learn a game by playing first with the details coming later. This concept is incredibly important when introducing a child to the game. If a kid is at play, learning and growth increase esponentially. PLAY with your kids, don’t allow yourself to get overly technical with swing mechanics, those will come on their own as long as they are playing and having fun.
What is ‘right’ for your Jr. Golfer?
From our Head Professional, Cameron Morton: I suggest that you assess your child’s game and desire to improve first and then decide what might work best. To help you organize your thoughts you should consider the 3 levels below and accurately assess your child as you begin to develop a plan.
Level 1 - Beginner with a desire to learn and try out the game. Frequent, simple one on one 30 minute sessions are great for this as well as group clinics such as our PGA Junior League and PGA Sports Academy.
Level 2 - Experienced player with a desire to improve but not a lot of time to practice or somebody who simply wants to play a lot of golf with their buddies and when doing so play slightly better than them. Playing lessons, green reading lessons, club and putter fittings, distance measurements (to figure out exactly how far each club goes) are just some of the things we offer which will help you achieve this goal as they don’t require any technique change or practice.
Level 3 - Experienced golfer who enjoys practicing and is serious about improvements and has clear goals in place of playing in and competing for championships. Lesson packages and season long coaching are the way to go here. We will do everything from dialing in your distances, to creating weekly practice schedules, to tracking your statistics. This option requires a decent time commitment from both coach and player and has limited spots available.
Footnote: All 3 of Lake Valley’s professionals are now certified by US KIDS GOLF; the leader in junior golf equipment and coaching. There is no better place to have your child learn the game than at Lake Valley Golf Club. There is more information on US Kids in the Technology Spotlight section of this issue.
Understanding Growth Spurts
Growth spurts are unavoidable. All children go through them, and these changes in body proportions drastically affect the coordination abilities of a child.
At age 2, a child’s legs make up 2/5 of their body. By age 7, their legs are now 1/2 of their body.
At age 7, a child’s arms are 2.75/6 of their body, but by age 14 their arms are 3/7 of their body.
Imagine if I added 3 inches to your arms and asked you to swing a golf club. Your swing would be all over the place. Of course, a child’s arms do not lengthen 3 inches overnight, but the growth process affects coordination and movement skills. Furthermore, when bones grow quicker than muscles, subsequently stretching and stressing the tissue, a child’s abilities can also be affected.
Don’t make growth spurts harder on children than they already are by expecting them to maintain the same level of performance they had before their growth spurt. It won’t be long before your child is feeling confident in his or her body again.
With anything in life, there becomes a time when performance plateaus and the journey to the next level may not be as quick as the previous journey. For example, reducing your handicap from 28 to 20 may have been reasonably easy, but the lower your handicap got the harder it was to reduce it, right? For a child, a common plateau occurs when they cannot hit the ball any farther. And in most cases, we need to wait for a child to get stronger before worrying about more distance.
Like periods of growth spurts, there will also be long periods of no growth, where a child’s strength may not increase for a period of months. So, if your child is struggling with gaining distance, do not get over concerned and let their bodies grow. To me, this is another great example of times when development supersedes instant success. While there may be no instant successes of hitting the ball farther, other valuable sport and life skills can be developed during this time, such as work ethic, team work, goal setting and important social skills, to name a few.
The relative age effect discusses the chronological age (how many years old the child is) and the biological age (actually how old/developed their body is).
Let’s say an 8-year-old named Billy and an 8-year-old named Johnny play against each other. Johnny might hit it 30 yards past Billy off the tee, but Billy’s relative age is only 6. Chances are, Billy won’t be 30 yards behind Johnny for long.
Research has shown that a child’s movement skills are heavily related to their ability to process information. For that reason, it’s common that young children can sometimes not grasp new movements, despite all our efforts to help.
In this case, we have to allow time for a child’s mental abilities to improve before expecting any changes in movement. Moreover, a young child is often more interested in looking at the clouds than listening to your swing tips. So quit the advice and let them play, fail and learn.
When was the last time a top athlete thanked their parents for their coaching? That rarely happens, but they almost always thank their parents for their support. As parents and coaches, we must understand that the development of a child is a highly diverse process and crucially, it is not always about golf. Sport is a great tool to help children develop in a variety of ways, and it is important not to judge them on only their sporting skill. So the next time you’re frustrated with the development of your junior golfer, remember all the reasons they could be struggling.
Success does not follow a straight-line pattern.
A child has no control over growth spurts, which can dramatically hinder their performance.
Performance plateaus again cannot be avoided in some areas of the game. Remember, there isn’t one world-class athlete who hasn’t hit a performance plateau. What’s the worry?
A 6-year-old can hardly add 12 and 15 together, so it makes sense that they won’t always understand the leg, knee and arm positions of the golf swing.
Developing your child into a well-rounded, respectful and mannered individual is most important.
Remember that as parents, you are there to support… not coach.
On a final note, if you want your child to become the best golfer in the world (and they better share that goal), understand that you have 20+ years to achieve it. Believe me, there is little value in being the best 10-year-old golfer in the world.
Technology Spotlight - US Kids Golf
When young players play with clubs that fit, they quickly develop golf swings that will last a lifetime. The proper club length and weight are keys to solid fundamentals, and that's why players are fit into U.S. Kids Golf clubs based on height, not age. US Kids has three lines of golf clubs that are designed to offer options for every skill set: Yard Club, Ultralight, and Tour Series.
US Kids has a unique fitting system to ensure that every junior golfer gets clubs that are properly fit for them. It is as simple as knowing how tall you are; there are 9 different sizes in the yard club and Ultralight Series and 5 sizes in the Tour Series.
This system makes it easy for you as a parent to know exactly the length of clubs your child needs. We can even take it a step further and measure their swing speed to find out if they need the Tour Series (A stiffer and heavier set offered in 51,54,57,60 and 63 inch sizes). Lake Valley has not one, BUT THREE USKG Certified Coaches to help you and your future tour star to get the right clubs for them.
#teachingtimes#Jrgolf2017#PGAJuniorLeague#Kidssue#Spring#littlegolfers#bestplacetolearn#geniusofplay
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Find a good teacher that will keep the game fun. Work hard and don't be afraid to have success or disappointment. That is what golf is all about.
Paula Creamer
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Teaching Times March 2017
Golf’s five Physical Basics
What needs to happen for a golf swing to be effective? Is there really one correct way to swing a golf club? OF COURSE NOT!! Look at the picture below of some of the top players in the world. What similarities do you see? Differences? There are as many ways to swing the club as there are golfers in the world, but there are a few unequivocal parts of the game that will always be the same no matter what technology or new teaching theories surface. Michael Hebron (mentioned in past Teaching Times) has deduced that there are 5 main components of golf that are basic, easy to understand and will never change.
1. The Design of the Club: At address, golf clubs are angled up from the ground on a roof like inclined angle, with the grip angled forward of the club head. Golfers should do their best to return the shaft through impact parallel to the lie angle that it occupied at address with the club head behind the grip end.
2. Standing inside the target line: Because golfers stand inside the ball and are holding a club that comes up from the ground on a roof-like inclined angle, normally the most efficient motion a golfer can make with the club, moves it’s shaft, head and face on an arc (not a straight line) that does not travel outside the target line in the backswing or downswing.
3. Golf Balls are Compressible: It is useful for golfers to realize that golf balls are compressible, and the alignment and application of on-plane force should be compressing the ball, not moving it, with a swing that keeps the clubface behind their hands through impact.
4. Timing and Balance: These are core elements of efficient swings. It is useful to feel that the swing does not make any sudden jumps or over-accelerates the club at any time during the swing. There should be a feeling that the hands and the right shoulder are traveling at the same rate of rotation during the swing.
5. The Field of Play, and Ever Changing Playing Conditions: The conditions of the shot at hand (uphill, downhill, wind, etc.) determines the appropriate ball flight, alignment and application of force, and swing motion that will produce predictable outcomes. Form follows function.
Lesson Opportunities at Lake Valley
ONLINE LESSON SCHEDULING IS AVAILABLE!!
As a Lake Valley member, you have the ability to reserve your coaching session through our website. If you go to the Golf tab, on the lessons page, there will be a link that says “Online Lesson Booking”. You will be directed to a third party website called USchedule. There you can choose your coach, lesson type and the date/time of the lesson. Here is the link for anyone interested in booking immediately: http://lakevalley.uschedule.com/OnlineAppointments.aspx
This is a great tool to make your lesson scheduling quick and easy. We do hope that anyone interested in coaching will take this opportunity.
Coaches’ Corner
The Reality of Effective ‘Swing Thoughts’
Very recently, an 8 year study has been completed by a man named Dr. Noel Rousseau (click link for more about Rousseau) which was aimed at figuring out what the best focus is for players during a golf swing. You can read the full study HERE, but we are going to bust this myth once and for all.
Most people have, at one time or another, heard that thinking too much about the swing will lead to ‘paralysis through analysis’. It follows logically to contrast this crippling experience of extreme conscious control with our retrospective reflections of moments of peak performance, which often seem to be effortless and without the inner chatter/self-instruction that accompanies the rest of our golf experience. These self-report experiences relate well to typical descriptions of FLOW state with automaticity being considered a heavily contributing factor. This will lead most to say to themselves “don’t think about your swing, just play” on the golf course.
Optimal performance may seem to occur when conscious thought is at its lowest, but Dr. Rousseau’s study has found that the opposite causality does not hold true; merely reducing swing thought will not lead to peak performance. It is not so simple as to think or not to think, it depends on the skill of the golfer, how they process information, the task at hand and the pressure of the situation.
In short, the study was a bit inconclusive, but one thing is for sure; we cannot make absolute statements like “don’t ever think about your swing on the course”. Each individual must figure out what works best for them, whether it is an external focus, internal focus, auditory/visual or feel; everyone will be different. Working with a good coach to help you define what to think about will be more beneficial than trying to use the latest psychological tip you read in a golf magazine. One of the Lake Valley Coaches will help you define a consistent thought process that will help you both to improve and increase the chance of peak performance.
Technology Spotlight
As promised, this month we are highlighting a training aid that we as professionals can truly believe in and get behind. The Tour Striker Training Aid is a standard length 7 iron with a warped face to make it more difficult to hit. Off center strikes will basically look like a shank coming off the face. This can be helpful in grooving your swing to be more consistent hitting it in the center of clubface. Aids like this tend to be very helpful because the player will not need mechanical thought; they need only to focus on a certain outcome (in this case hitting the center of the face)
The Tour Striker 7 Iron has been created for intermediate to advanced level golfers who are dedicated to practicing and improving their ball contact. It is designed to help you master tour quality impact with full swing golf shots as well as help you gain much better control of your scoring game shots from inside 100 yards and around the greens.
Learn more about the Tour Striker here: http://www.tourstriker.com/videos.aspx
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Progress vs. Performance
From: Trainugly.com
This post was inspired by the afternoon I just spent at UCLA with Elizabeth and Robert Bjork – two of the leading researchers in the world of learning and development.
When we’re faced with a learning experience we have a choice to make:
Are we focused on progress or performance? Getting better or looking good?
Many times our default approach is to focus on performance and outcomes:
Wins and losses
Test scores
The bottom line
Grades
Numbers on the scale
These are all important parts of school, sports, and life.
But.
When they become too precious – when we put too much of an emphasis on performance – progress, growth, and the process can take a backseat:
You can lose a few pounds by not eating for a few days. You meet your goal – but your health and well being suffer.
You can get a good grade by playing it safe and choosing a topic that you already know – or by copying your neighbor – or by stealing the answers – but you’re robbing yourself of learning opportunities.
Your 7th grade basketball team can win more games by letting your 6′ tall post player shoot it on every possession – but in the long run both his development AND the development of his teammates suffer.
In short: the tactics that lead to quick and visible performance and outcomes are usually NOT the best approach to learning and development.
Sure, outcomes and performance can and do matter. It’s ok to want them and it’s ok to chase them.
Just remember that real outcomes and real progress are a reflection of a great process. And if you want want better outcomes it’s all about improving your process – we call this ‘Learning Like a Scientist‘
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Success depends less on strength of body than upon strength of mind and character.
Arnold Palmer
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February Teaching Times
An article from Dr. Bob Rotella
Dr. Rotella is a world renowned sports psychologist and author of golf book greats like Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect. He works with PGA Tour players including Rory Mcllroy, Padraig Harrington and Darren Clarke. Dr. Rotella also works with the Virginia golf programs as a volunteer assistant coach. Internationally known for his work in the area of applied sports psychology, he is consistently recognized as the Top Sports Psychologist in the world. The following is an excerpt from an article he wrote for Golf Digest that we thought would be a great introduction to this month’s Teaching Times.
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.
Lesson Opportunities at Lake Valley
Junior Golf Registration at Lake Valley is NOW OPEN! We have a fantastic program this year with a better teacher to student ratio, an extra hour of time each week, and of course more fun! Whether it is our Junior Sports Academy for 4 to 7 year olds; or the PGA Junior League for ages 8 to 13, whatever your child’s age, we have something for them. There is a load of information on our website about these programs so please visit http://www.lakevalley.com/Golf-Shop/Junior_Golf.aspx. You may also contact Jeff McNair [email protected] for more information or to sign up.
With the golf season looming, we feel that this would be a good time to keep you up to date with your PGA Professionals’ lesson opportunities. Each has his own prices and philosophy but all are dedicated to making you a better player and making sure you have fun doing it. There will be various clinics throughout the year but for now, here are the individual lesson prices for adults:
Cameron Morton, PGA Head Professional
$60.00 1/2 hour
$100 1 hour
$250 Series of 3
$400 Series of 5
Coaching $200/month
Tyler Winslow, PGA Apprentice
$35.00 1/2 hour
$60 1 hour
$125 Series of 3
$225 Series of 5
Coaching $30/week
Jeff McNair, PGA Apprentice
$40.00 1/2 hour
$65 1 hour
$175 Series of 3
$275 Series of 5
Coaching $150/month
Talk to your professional about individual junior price, playing lessons and much more!
Your body is present, is your mind?
What do you consider to be a solid pre-shot routine? Does it involve a practice swing? Lining up behind the ball? A few waggles of the club? Some people might say that a good routine involves all of these, but PGA Tour pros see it in a very different light. . . The following article will delve into what a solid routine actually feels like. One secret I will let you in on now is that it involves a lot more than what goes on in the time between selecting your club and setting up to the ball.
OSVEA. . . gibberish right? WRONG!! This is an acronym for the basic mental routine all good players go through on every single shot. O.ptions S.peculation V.isualization E.xecution A.cceptance. Let us go through and explain each one of these steps.
· Options: What are the options presented for this shot? Can you hit it right at the flag or should you go for the center of the green? Is the green even a possibility? What club and shot type should you use? Do you lay up to a certain yardage to make your next shot easy? This is the step where every possibility and outcome should be considered.
· Speculation/Selection: This is where you consider the consequences of the option that you chose. Where will this shot leave me? What do I need to focus on? How is this ball going to get to that target? This is also where you must WHOLLY COMMITT to the shot at hand. These first 2 steps will tend to blend together as you speculate upon the options.
· Visualization: Probably the most important step in the entire process is how you visualize the shot you have selected. Everyone has a different way of visualization, but people who are best at it see and feel as much detail as possible. During this process, they feel the elements of weather, the ball coming off the club face, the clothes on their back, the ball flying, bouncing, rolling, etc. Visualizing is like a mental rehearsal of the physical activity and all physical activity happens in the brain first anyways so there is really nothing better you can do for your game than detailed, consistent visualization.
· Execution: This is where a good player lets their mind go quiet and allows their body to do what it is prepared to do. Allowing the swing to happen rather than making the swing happen is the key here. Executing a motor pattern as complex as a golf swing must be a product of autonomy (what most people think of as ‘muscle memory’) and not forced movements.
· Acceptance: Another incredibly important part of this process is understanding that the result of a shot must be accepted absolutely. Once you start brooding about your next shot or about the poor execution of your last, you have taken yourself out of the present moment. It is important to keep your mind in the same place as your body; your body is here, is your mind? People who are skilled at this understand that golf is a game of mistakes and believe that the only shot in existence is the shot at hand. Accept whatever the outcome and you will enjoy your round more and play better golf.
Technology Spotlight
We are very excited about the newest addition to the Lake Valley Golf Shop; the Edel Fitting systems. For those who are not familiar with Edel, they began as a putter manufacturer in 1996 and have been growing ever since. David Edel and his staff are highly acclaimed and hold numerous patents including one for the single length iron set Bryson DeChambeau played last year. We recently acquired Edel’s fitting systems for wedges and putters and will soon be getting the iron one. Once we do we will be the only place in Colorado to all have all three! What this means to you is that we have now have the most comprehensive putter fitting available. For more on the putter fitting click here.
Please take advantage of this technology as many members have already. Almost everyone who has gone through a fitting has immediately seen the benefits. We are confident that it will help you with your golf game.
Everything is totally customizable from colors to stamping and so much more! Come visit us in the shop for more details.
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