THE QATSPY GOLFER
A great video series on the golf swing that I have watched was produced by Mr. Eddie Merrins, The Little Pro, entitled Swing The Handle, not the club. It keeps the golfer’s attention focused on a small area of the golfer’s swing where they have the most direct control over which is a very positive image, the handle of the club. While this is a good video series, it only explores the top portion of the Triad Learning Pyramid, referring to the WHAT TO DO part.
The best approach to improve a golfer’s swing and overall golf game is a basic training approach that documents each sequential process covering WHAT (the fundamental techniques are), WHY (the techniques work to provide an advantage to the golfer), and HOW (the techniques are set up in a step-by-step format), or a self-coaching process, This is the HOW IT’S DONE process, the base of the pyramid including practice and self-coaching process. The incremental-coaching process allows the golfer to break down the golf swing into individual elements (SYNCH, PROTRACT, and YAW) and work on each element during practice for a more consistent and repeatable golf swing. The self-coaching strategy allows the golfer to retain 90 percent of what he/she learns because of continuous, incremental improvement, compare this with only 20 percent retention rate from typical golf lessons based on WHAT TO DO.
A great example of WHY is Quadratic Equations, I asked a high school mathematics teacher in my Freshman year why the quadratic equation was always equal to zero (0); and why there were two answers. She was unable to explain this reason for zero and the two answers. During my first year of college, attending Engineering school, the text book that I used for Analytic Geometry explained that zero represented no slope; and the two answers represented the minimum and maximum range of the wave function. Zero slope means the sin wave has level off and is either trending upwards or downwards.
In the learning process of trying to understand a topic, if the person can go beyond just pursuing the WHAT and understand the WHY and HOW, their learning and retention rate will increase by a factor 4.5, or 450 percent. This is exactly what occurs in a self-coaching process of how my book laid-out. Even if you take golf lessons, you still need to develop a self-coaching strategy. This will allow you to work on your own techniques between lessons and understand the process better.
The typical golf lessons are presented in a demo-lecture format, where the golfer’s attention focuses on WHAT TO DO. There is little time to retain WHY and HOW to perform the particular technique covered in the lesson. Without documentation of the lessons or the golfer taking really good detail notes, the golfer can only retain about 20 percent of information within two days of the lessons and that drops to less than 15 percent after a week of the lesson.
As indicated by the Triad Learning Pyramid, the biggest advantage to self-coaching approach that my book is setup on is that it increases the golfer’s retention rate up to 90 percent. But there are other benefits that are just as significant listed below:
- Self-coaching will become an automatic subconscious response for the golfer.
- There is less conflict between the golfer’s subconscious and conscious mind in a self-coaching format.
- The golfer has more confidence, due to a prescribed order of elements, with checkpoints, to gain experience.
- Self-coaching allows the golfer to resolve problems faster, both on and off the golf course. Even Nick Faldo noted this.
- The self-coached golfer has a greater understanding of WHAT, WHY, and HOW to perform a consistent golf swing.
Outline to the self-coaching Triad Pyramid process:
Stage No. 1 WHAT– Analyze and ID the elements required in the golf swing (Reading, Visual analysis and research).
Stage No. 2 WHY– *Demo and prove why each element works or doesn’t work and document the results of both.
Stage No. 3 HOW– Figure out how each element works and develop a practice-to-play game plan to implement them.
(*) NOTE: I personally spent seven years (from 2007 to 2014) gathering, analyzing, going through time-elapse photography, and reading to comparing the baseball swing with the golf swing; and documenting all my results. I filled three Xerox boxes full of results where two were labeled “THIS DOES NOT WORK” and one partial filled Xerox box that was labeled “THIS WORKS.” The box labeled “THIS WORKS” became the basis of my book, The ESPY Golf Swing Coach.
The ESPY Golf Swing Coach is based on a similar process that Colonel George Robert Hall used, while being held as a P.O.W. at the Hanoi Hilton for seven-and-a-half years http://goo.gl/W1jAuC. Colonel Hall maintained his four handicap using his mentalization by virtually performing each element of his golf swing each and every day in his seven-and-a-half foot by seven-and-a-half foot prison cell, that he called his Pebble Beach. Due to the self-coaching approach, Colonel Hall’s subconscious mind was able to replicate his routine so well that six weeks after his release, he shot his handicap of four (4) at the Greater New Orleans P.O.W Pro-Am Open in March of 1973. Incredible performance on such a large stage! Colonel Hall was released in February of 1973. I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Colonel Hall. I live in Madison, MS and Colonel Hall lived in Hattiesburg, MS about 80 miles south of Madison.
By incorporating The 405 Training Drill and self-coaching format in my book, the (right handed) golfer setting the right Thenar pivots at the right ring metacarpal head to CAM, followed by setting the left Thenar right Thenar pivots about the left ring metacarpal head to CAM-OVER in order to preset both wrists as shown in the Figure to the left. The CAM and CAM-OVER allows the golfer to place the club and their left thumb into the Lock position to synch the right elbow with the shoulders. The golfer is able to take advantage of two of the strongest and dexterous muscles in the hand, the hypothenar and thenar. This allows the golfer to activate two of pairs of muscles the Brachio-Radialis and Pronator Quadratus muscles. This helps the right forearm to fire through the ball with amazing amount of power, speed, and control. The Brachio-Radialis muscle is unique in that it can supinate and pronate the forearm and wrist. This muscle is also important for linking the muscles in the lower forearm to the Biceps and Triceps muscles in the upper arm. The golfer is able to synch the forearms and elbows with the shoulders to generate significantly more power and speed through impact than they can imagine. The elbows and shoulders are considered to act as gears by the golfer to produce:
POWER- in the takeaway swing, with the small gear (elbows) turning the large gear (shoulders).
SPEED- during the downswing, with the large gear (shoulders) turning the small gear (elbows).
The speed and power is automatically generated by the golfer’s subconscious mind, there’s No need for the golfer to have to think! This is courtesy of your muscle memory, or your subconscious mind, the Autopilot of your golf swing. Thinking over the shot, is like laying in bed thinking about going sleep; the more you think about going to sleep the less likely you will fall to sleep. Thinking is like insomnia in golf. In order to setup the subconscious mind like Colonel Hall did, the golfer must have a routine and perform the golf swing on a regular basis. The golfer must practice their golf swing NOT until they get IT right, but until they can’t get IT WRONG! Refer to my Blog on driving hypnosis http://goo.gl/Kaoscf
NOTE: The ring metacarpal head and two carpal bones located just above the ring metacarpal head severs as the axes for the CAM and CAM-OVER maneuvers as noted in the diagram to the left. These two maneuvers allows the golfer to synchronize the elbow with the shoulder that is critical in the golf swing.
This is exactly how the baseball batter uses the elbows and shoulders to create the power and speed needed to hit a line-drive up the middle. If you compared The ESPY Golf Swing with that of a typical golf swing, it would be like comparing the ten-speed bicycle performance with the performance of a single-speed bicycle. There’s no comparison!
The ESPY Golf Swing technique uses a pair of boxing gloves, the ten-speed bicycle and the baseball-style swing to develop the self-coaching approach, using a familiar, neuromuscular muscle memory that most of us developed at a young age helps the golfer to apply the ESPY concept. This provides the golfer with a huge advantage. The biggest advantage of The ESPY Golf Swing Coach is that it makes the golf swing simpler to learn and perform because there is only three elements that the golfer has to develop and perform based on a hybrid form of the baseball-style swing. This allows the golfer to take the techniques from the batter’s box and carry these same techniques directly to the tee box, to develop a powerful golf swing with confidence and consistency.
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.
The ESPY Golf Swing Coach– Price for Paperback $15.75 and E-Book $8.99, Hardback is also available on my website: www.espygolfapp.com/store OR your local bookstore and also:
Amazon.com www.amazon.com/The-Espy-Golf-Swing-Coach/product-reviews/1483416356
Barnes & Noble.com http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-espy-golf-swing-coach-charles-w-boatright/1120604749
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)
A Recommendation for your Golf Game:
I would like to recommend a wonderful radio program that I regularly listen to 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 Jay Fox. Bob occasionally has on his show a guest named Shawn Humphries, a Professional Golf Instructor from Dallas, Texas. One thing that Mr. Humphries stresses is the mental part of golf, not focusing on the results but the process.