Swing Tips

"Your muscles work off images sent from your eyes. Your muscles will hit the shot, but like a pilot in the fog, they can only respond to the information you send them. The MOST powerful information is an image, a picture. A good picture produces feel and feel produces trust".

"First you must SEE,

second you FEEL,

third you TRUST."

"Trust is the epitome of golf. It is the freedom to swing and let go. Great athletes compete best when they are free. Trust is earned. It is earned by feel, and feel is earned by seeing."

"Golf is a game played to memory. We look away from the hole, and then move the ball to a memory, a picture that is imprinted in our minds."

From Golf's Sacred Journey-Seven Days in Utopia by:

David L. Cook, Phd.

" We all need a philosophy if we hope to improve our technique, and the following may give you a clearer picture on how to set out on that course. It is practically a physical impossibility to swing exactly like Hogan ( or any other golfer), or even to create an overall Hoganesque swing look. Hogans swing evolved to its ultimate details and look as a result of the changes he introduced during his career after sheer hard work, experimentation, and persistence. He was his own laboratory, testing, failing at times, but always keeping his goals in mind. He had a plan, a long-term plan.

Unless you exercise discretion and work in an organized fashion, you may hurt your game if you try to make wholesale swing changes. Always bear in mind that one swing does not fit all, and that you must build your theories and swing keys around your own needs and requirements. That's what Hogan did and it's what every golfer at his or her own level should do."

What do all of these experiences have in common?

1. Learning to take your first steps
2. Learning what to do on your first day of school
3. Learning how to ride a 2 wheel bike

The Answer - Fear of failing

But what WAS the real outcome?

1. You feared your first steps, you fell down several times.....but you LEARNED how to walk, improving that skill thru repetition - YOU SUCCEEDED

2. You were afraid of making new friends or being away from home and your parents...but you went again on Tuesday , you LEARNED how to make friends and found that your parents were home when you got back , again thru repetition - YOU SUCCEEDED

3. You feared that without those training wheels you would fall, and u did.....but you got back on and with someone's help LEARNED how to balance and pedal that bike, again improving through perseverance, patience and repetition - YOU SUCCEEDED

The fear of failing has been present in your life since you were young, and as long as you attempt new things, the possibility of failure will also be there.

Then why is the fear of learning GOLF so different than learning to walk, ride a bike or your first day of school. Do you think it's really harder?

If you really want to learn the golf swing and learn the "deceptively simple" game of golf you must:

1. Not be afraid to take professional instruction and learn or unlearn things, because you will succeed

2. Not be afraid of the "you are going to get worse before you get better" syndrome, because you may (get worse), but you will learn and you will succeed.

3. Do not fear the results of where the ball may or may not go. A suggestion would be for the student to go thru their routine and be fearless and just hit the crap out of the ball. You can be sure that little white sphere will go some where, not always where you want; but as you practice and persevere you will begin to bear the fruits and NOT fear the fruits of your labor. YOU WILL SUCCEED!

Golf is not for everyone, however, most everyone is for golf. Why; because it looks simple, but the beauty is in the fact that it is not, it's deceptive and elusive, but not impossible.

Do you think that it's harder than taking your first step, or your first day of school or your first attempt at riding a bike? It's not!

But if you are someone who plays and complains about their inability to ever get better, because they don't have the patience or the time or the desire to practice or, or, or - DON"T!

Why not instead think about being fearless and taking "another first step", maybe you will fall down but if you have patience, and persevere you will keep learning and eventually succeed and be gliding along on 2 wheels or 4 wheels down the middle of the fairway.