The QATSPY Golfer’s Sports Page: Golf Swing Tips
By: Charles W. Boatright
A Baseball-Style Self-Coaching Technique Used on the Golf Course
In my ESPY Golf APP blog on August 21, 2015, I discussed a condition that we all have experienced at one time called “Driving Hypnosis.” This condition occurs when a driver leisurely drives down a scenic highway, and the driver’s conscious mind relaxes to a point where the driver doesn’t remember passing certain landmarks along the route or stretches of the highway.
Driving Hypnosis usually occurs when the driver focuses the conscious mind on a particular objective other than driving the vehicle, which causes the conscious mind to naturally relax, a critical component in golf. This causes the subconscious mind to heighten its influence, which controls all the automatic responses, the driver’s muscle memory.
The subconscious mind takes over the majority of the driving responsibilities. This is one of three conditions that must take place, where the conscious and subconscious minds are focused on two totally different situations. This causes Driving Hypnosis to occur. Focusing is an important self-coaching technique that the golfer needs to work on to see improvement.
While Driving Hypnosis is an unsafe condition for driving a vehicle down the highway, this serves as an excellent self-coaching technique for driving a golf ball down the fairway. This type of self-coaching technique has a 90 percent retention rate, as compared to regular golf lessons with approximately 20 percent of retention.The ESPY APP self-coaching technique develops the same essential muscle memory to increase the golfer’s retention rate, based on skills learned from other sports, like baseball.
Learning retention is one of the major obstacles that the average golfer has to overcome, by using another sport to overcome these obstacles. The typical golf lesson, the starting point, does little to address the golfer’s subconscious mind’s development and retention. The golfer’s subconscious mind is what the golfer depends on to execute their golf swing on the golf course.
Statistics of the Average Golfer and Why a New Approach of Coaching Golf is Needed
To understand the problem and need to develop a new coaching technique or approach to instructional golf, let’s look at some current statistics about the average golfer and why the number of golfers have been declining during the past years. Especially take note of the first statistic, as the average age of a golfer continues to rise. The average golfer:
• Is 46 years old (this has increased since 1970)
• Practices 1.183 hours per week (17 minutes a day, 4-times per week)
• Has played golf for 23 years
• Can hit 4.5 greens in regulation per round (that’s 250 hitting average in baseball)
• Plays 46 rounds per year
• Takes 4 hours to play a round of golf
• Has an average score of 95 per round
• Takes 2 golf lessons per month
• Loses 1.3 balls per round
(28.6 million golfers in the USA are over the age of six.)
(The average beginner golfer’s score is 108.)
(Facts provided from the National Golf Foundation of America)
Here is what stands out to me in these statistics: the average golfer is 46 years old, the length of time the average golfer has played golf (23 years), their golf score (95), their practice time of 1.183 hours per week, the average beginner score of 108, they take 2 lessons per month, and the average golfer started playing golf at age 23. The average age also indicates that we haven’t introduced new golfers to the game of golf in the past decade. One other factor for the increase in the average age is that baby boomers are retiring.
How to Improve the Retention Rate Among Golfers Using a Self-Coaching Technique
If my initial goal were to shoot in the low 80’s and my ultimate goal was to shoot in the upper to mid-70’s, then based on these statistics above, I need to find a new approach to my golf lessons and coaching technique.
The golfer needs to restructure their lesson and practice sessions similar to a scrimmage-type football practice. If they do not, don’t expect these statistics to improve. The self-coaching technique in my book The ESPY Golf Swing Coach creates a muscle memory, similar to a baseball-style golf swing that most golfers can almost perform in their sleep. The self-coaching technique is based on Apperception, or APP for short.
ESPY APP Self-coaching technique takes advantage of the golfer’s natural biomechanics used in another sport to create POWER and SPEED in their golf swing. If we could realize the same results while standing in the batter’s box or on the tee box, we would see significant improvements in our golf game and these statistics.
Using a Self-Coaching Technique to Improve the Golfer’s Game
The First Tee, state golf associations, the P.J. Boatwright Internships (5th cousin), and other programs are excellent means to get new people involved in the sport of golf. These programs provide a better structure than directive, demo-lecture-type golf lessons. Typical coaching techniques have a low retention rate (20 percent at best) and are one-dimensional. A better approach is a self-coaching technique using an existing skill, for example, the baseball-style golf swing. This would allow the golfer to improve:
• their own game,
• at their own pace
• at their own time.
• The way the golfer can replicate the same conditions during practice as course play.
The Self-Coaching technique of using a baseball-style golf swing approach provides the golfer with the ability to recognize and take advantage of an existing technique that they have learned at a young age. The golfer can take the baseball-style golf swing and convince the subconscious mind to apply these techniques to their golf swing.
Apperception, or ESPY APP, allows the golfer to take their baseball-style golf swing from the batter’s box and apply these techniques to the tee box. I can personally attest to standing in the batter’s box and not experiencing the same issues of nerves and overthinking as I do standing on the tee box. So I invested seven years in The Xerox Box Golf Project to see how I could take techniques from the baseball-style golf swing to the tee box and the golf course.
During my seven-year analysis, that I dubbed The Xerox Box Golf Project, (from 2007 to 2014) of the golf swing, I discovered a unique advantage, the self-coaching technique provided by using the baseball-style golf swing. This incorporates three muscles in the forearm, hand, and wrists: the Brachio-Radialis, Thenars, and the Pronator Quadratus muscles to initiate my golf swing.
I like to think I have a pair of virtual boxing gloves on to preset my wristbands in my golf swing. Essentially, I’m trading in my golf glove for a pair of boxing gloves. The boxing gloves synchronize my lower forearms with my wrists and hands. The wristbands consist of the lower forearms, wrists, and the hands.
NOTE: The wrist isn’t where one would wear a wristwatch; this is the lower forearm. The wrists are located just below the wristbands on the boxing gloves, shown above.
The boxing gloves integrate the hands, wrists, and lower forearms to allow the golfer to sync the elbows with the shoulders. I cannot stress the Pronator Quadratus and the Thenars (Thenar and Hypothenar) enough in the golf swing. The Thenars are the hand’s most muscular and dexterous muscle that come in direct contact with the golf club handle. This provides the golfer with a turbocharger component in their golf swing.
In my Xerox Box Golf Project analysis, I found that the left thumb (for the right-hander) represented the handle of the club, while the right thumb represents the clubface, great for creating shape shots. By the golfer performing two simple maneuvers, the Syncing and Presetting element, the golfer is able to use the baseball-style golf swing to lock the left thumb onto the correct swing plane.
SYNC/PRESET is a great and simple muscle memory exercise for the golfer to initiate their golf swing, that every batter has used. The Pronator Quadratus muscles in the golfer’s lower forearm are the golfer’s Target muscles.
The golfer can develop this simple muscle memory of SYNC/PRESET, on and off the golf course, with the target muscles, even at their desk or in their living room. With some refinements, the golfer can use a very familiar maneuver in the baseball swing to establish the SYNC/PRESET element to the LOCK Position, noted in the photograph below. This allows the golfer to assume a baseball stance that is more proactive and that the subconscious mind recognizes. This recognition develops the golfer’s confidence.
From the LOCK Position, the only thing left to do is for the golfer is to take the handle of the club up to the top of the golf swing, along the correct swing plane, from the SYNC/PRESET or LOCK Position. Pretty simple, but a very effective ESPY APP golf swing technique to use on the golf course.
The swing plane is also designated by the left thumb and a certain part of the shoulder. But, the BIG SECRET MOVE is to properly set the Pronator Quadratus muscles, the wristbands on the boxing glove. If you use a virtual pair of boxing gloves as if the gloves are gripping the handle of the club, you will identify these two muscles from the illustration below. Also, make special notation of the red line between the two wristbands and where they cross the lower forearms.
The 405- Training Drill, A Self-Coaching Technique Used to Build a Consistent Golf Swing
The 405- Training Drill uses the SYNC/PRESET maneuvers in the baseball-style golf swing to develop the golfer’s muscle memory. This offers the golfer a great mental image to create enormous power and speed, with control, on a consistent basis. The major advantage of the ESPY Golf Swing technique is that 80 percent of the golf swing is completed with just the SYNC/PRESET maneuvers shown in the illustration to the left.
The golfer setting the SYNC/PRESET maneuvers correctly should be able to glance down and see the forearms, wrists, and hands in the SYNC/PRESET-Lock Position. I like to take advantage of this time to pause in order to create the tempo component in my golf swing. This allows me to go from a passive position at the address into a proactive advantage.
This provides a tremendous advantage to the golfer to relax their conscious mind and take stress off the core body (e.g., shoulders, lower back, and knees). This is compared to a driver caught in a traffic jam, frustrated and tensed; as opposed to a driver on a scenic highway and actively driving and relaxed.
I presented my book to a golf instructor in Arkansas who reviewed the book and commented that the ESPY Golf Swing technique was a fundamentally sound approach! This book offers a new APPROACH of Apperception, based on a self-coaching technique to the golfer as already learned on their own, called incremental learning!
Even Ken Duke, David Duval, Marco Dawson, Angela Standford, Ben Hogan, and my cousin, P.J. Boatwright, Jr. used this preset method in their golf swings. Ken Duke and David Duval were both interviewed on Golf Channel, demonstrating the PRESET maneuver as a vital part of their golf swing sequence. The ESPY Golf Swing Coach encourages the average golfer to SYNC/PRESET their wristbands to improve their confidence and consistency in their golf swing.
The ESPY Golf Swing technique answers the big question of HOW to preset the wristbands! The SYNC/PRESET approach from the baseball-style golf swing provides the golfer the ability to complete 80 percent of their golf swing, with a 90 percent retention rate. This incorporates the golfer’s mental horsepower from their subconscious memory to develop muscle memory. Nothing can replace the positive effect of establishing the correct muscle memory and confidence in your golf swing!
The SYNC/PRESET allows the golfer to use a very established baseball-style golf swing technique to set the key muscles in the wristbands, shown below. This is the turbocharged component that the golfer can use to provide POWER and SPEED through impact. The Thenars, Pronators Quadratus, and Brachio-Radialis are the only muscles that are able to provide the turbocharger component.
The wristbands are capable of transferring the power developed in the lower and upper body to the forearms and club handle at impact. Just by using the wristbands in the ESPY APP, the golfer can learn and commit to retaining 90 percent of the golf swing technique just by using the SYNC/PRESET maneuvers to swing the handle of the golf club.
NOTE: This was what Mr. Eddie Merrins was referring to in his videos series entitled Swing the Handle, not the club. The only component not covered in his series was the biomechanics of HOW!
In my book, The ESPY Golf Swing Coach, I developed the 405- Training Drill using a golf baton that takes the golfer through the biomechanics. This is a drill for the golfer who has limited practice time on the range, like a few hours a week, due to work schedules.
Using the 405- Training Drill, the average golfer can benefit just as much from the golf baton in their spare time and by hitting special practice balls for 15 minutes in their backyard than by spending hours on the range. The golfer could spend five hours, hitting 300 regular golf balls on the practice range each week and still not get the benefits that the 405- Training Drill provides.
The 405- Training Drill, in Section 7 of my book, can be combined with your routine fitness program, similar to the CASPER workout in Section 20 of my book. This type of combining fitness and the 405- Training Drill routine can condition the mind to treat your golf swing sequence as a second nature workout routine. Exercises seem to register better than golf swing practice alone can, and one reason is due to the focus factor.
When I exercise, my subconscious mind is engaged and retains information better. I don’t refer to my 405 as a practice, but a Training Drill. One reason the training approach is more effective in your golf swing mental routine is because it allows the conscious mind to focus, instead of think. The 405- Training Drill sequence with the golf baton training provides repetition to the golfer by hard wiring three simple maneuvers into the golfer’s subconscious mind of SYNC, PRESET, and YAW.
Remember Bobby Jones’ quote that supports the mental part of the golfer’s game- Golf is a game that is played on a five-inch course – the distance between your ears.
The ESPY Golf Swing technique is similar to the process Colonel George Robert Hall used to maintain his muscle memory as a P.O.W. Colonel Hall practiced his golf swing in his seven-and-a-half foot square cell that he referred to as his Pebble Beach at the Hanoi Hilton for seven-and-a-half years. Hanoi Hilton was a North Vietnam prison where American P.O.W.’s were kept. He was able to maintain his sanity and handicap of four (4) during his time as a POW. Read more of his story http://goo.gl/W1jAuC.
To develop your own self-coaching technique and baseball-style golf swing sequence, purchase your copy of The ESPY Golf Swing Coach from the links below, or visit your local bookstore:
My book can also be purchased at Edwin Watts Golf Store in Jackson, Mississippi. Phone No. 601-956-8784
820 East County Line Road, Ridgeland, MS 39157
My book can also be purchased on-line at:
Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble
Health and Fitness Program Golf Exercise for Power
This book is based on a self-coaching forum (ASPEN Pyramid) that provides the beginner and advanced single-digit handicap golfer with a safe, ergonomic classic golf swing for more power and control, without debilitating injuries that are common with some modern-day golf swings. As part of the ESPY Golf Swing Coach is a workout program designed especially for golfers and an effective diet program detailed below.
Please take advantage of my SR-925 Diet Program, where I lost 6 inches in my waist in 3- months (FREE of CHARGE) with the CASPER Workout Program, detailed in Section 20 of my book, great golf swing workout:
One component in my CASPER Workout Program that I follow is using a Medicine Ball to perform what I call Stocking the Shelves, illustrated below in the figure:
Please include an exercise routine in your weekly schedule.
ESPY Golf Swing Coach- ESPY App Developing the golfer’s Rhythm w/o creating the golfer’s Blues.
Also, learning The ESPY Golf Swing Coach process is an excellent way to develop Rhythm without experiencing the Blues in your golf game for confidence; learn how to take your baseball-style swing from the batter’s box to the tee box.
THE LOCKER ROOM a source for golf tips
Golfer’s Locker Room for learning and applying Simple Golf Swing Tips.
Please visit “The Locker Room” for an Index of all my golf articles to improve your golf game and life. Discover how you can take your baseball swing from the batter’s box to the tee box.
Learn How to take your baseball-style golf swing from the batter’s box to the tee box.
For Comments or questions please contact me at 1-888-514-1228 Mon – Fri from 9 am to 4 pm CT Zone.
A Recommendation for your Golf Game:
I would like to recommend an interesting radio program that I regularly listen to from my home state Arkansas on my I-Heart Radio app on KARN 102.9 FM station, out of Little Rock, AR. They air a golf show called Arkansas Fairways and Greens, at 7:00 AM CT each Saturday morning, hosted by Bob Steel, and co-hosted by Jay Fox and Charles Crowson. Bob occasionally as has his guess Alex Myers with Golf Digest and Ron Sirak with Golf Channel. I was interviewed on his show about my book, The ESPY Golf Swing Coach. This show is worth tuning into for golf news and information.
Jay Fox is an Administrator with Arkansas State Golf Association that discuss amateur golf and rules of the game.
Check out my full library of BLOGS @ www.espygolfapp.com/blog or purchase your copy of “The ESPY Golf Swing Coach” @ www.espygolfapp.com/store.
Facebook – The QATSPY Golf Approach
Twitter – @cwboatright
Google+ – ESPY Golf Swing Coach
YouTube – ESPY Golf Swing Coach
Once you learn WHY, you don’t forget HOW!
YouTube Videos:
https://youtu.be/ZGVNrIw_wlo (Cam & Cam-over elements)
https://youtu.be/K2FDHZ3AX9w (Figuring your proper swing plane)
https://youtu.be/TO82PMO6G8M (Developing muscle memory)
Two decisions that you can make for yourself and your kids are to get a copy of my book and place the book and a golf club into their hands. You will never look back, but only forward. You will not miss with this for yourself and/or your kids.
Until next time– Be Synched, Tee-to-Green, with The ESPY Golf Swing!