Tom Tucker teaches all aspects of the golf game at The Plum Creek Driving Range & Practice Facility in Batavia. Tom may be found online at http://www.TomTuckerGolf.com

Last week, I wrote about the evolution of a full swing. I had several questions about
where practice should go after the swing has evolved to an acceptable “one sided miss”
proficiency level.

It’s a little bit difficult to answer that specifically, because it depends greatly on
the students’ actual or perceived weaknesses in their game, so I’ll lay out a few
thoughts and you can pick whatever direction suits you best.

First and foremost, students need to track these statistics (at least) when they
play for score:

Fairways hit
Greens in regulation
Putts per hole
Three Putts per round
Up and Down percentage
Birdies on par 5’s

That gives you a starting point for areas for improvement.

If you don’t have full confidence in your short game and putting, you put a
tremendous amount of pressure on your full iron shots into a green.  Then
negativity starts to flow downhill if you miss the green.

Vince Lombardi once said – “You defeat defeatism with confidence“.

Confidence flows from good practice sessions.

So I always concentrate on various length pitch and chip shots after a
“one sided miss” swing is attained in the students full swing.

Putting is always practiced, so I won’t mention any more on that subject – other
than it’s mechanics first, then the development of a perfect “core” stroke length and
tempo, then “feel” drills. That’s the formula for excellence in putting, don’t vary the
practice sequence.

Mental exercise and concentration also play a role.

I’m currently reading “The Unstoppable Golfer” by Dr. Bob Rotella, the hottest golf
sports psychologist on the planet at the moment. After I’m done I’ll pass along a
few of his pearls of wisdom.

Here’s one – he promotes thinking about your game in the evening as a golf mental
exercise. Thinking about your good shots, visualizing your swing, basically thinking
positive thoughts about various aspects of your game.

Simply watching good swings is also helpful.

I have viewed Al Geiberger’s swing too many times to mention in his famous
Sybervision DVD’s, and now the Stack and Tilt guys got his endorsement,
and they include a Visualization DVD in their Stack and Tilt 2.0 series.

I think I’m developing hypnotic eye burn from watching those swings, but seriously – it
really helps your own swing enormously to sit silently and watch and concentrate.

I’ll close this tip with a “concentration” quote from Yogi Berra:
“What do I think of when I’m concentrating? I don’t know.
I can’t think when I’m concentrating.” 🙂

Enjoy, Tom

 

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