Hi everyone, As a golfer who is still very competitive, and therefore still constantly looking to improve, I find it quite easy to use my own experiences to advise other golfers. That's not particularly in reference to technique, which I do of course teach regularly, but more about when to really set about your game and how to do it. I've said in my emails before about the need to understand how we learn and the processes involved but I think there are also some even more basic things that I have found over the years. The biggest improvements I ever made in my game was when I was regularly, and I mean four or five times a week, going onto the golf course and working out what I was doing there. This is not in competition and that is a very important point to stress. I am talking about on my own or with someone else but not in a serious match. It needs to be in a situation where you are not scared to try things and to put into practise what you may have been learning on the range. In fact that is the biggest tell to me, that someone is not doing anything like this. How many times have you heard, or said yourself, 'I'm hitting it great at the range but not on the course' or something very similar? It's not difficult to make changes and hit balls on the range with no golf course in front of you, where a mistake means you just pull over another ball. You HAVE to take these ideas and feelings to the course and put them into practise until you are completely confident in them. If you don't and you just turn up at the next medal you will instantly revert to your normal practises the moment a shot goes wrong. I know because I've done it. Now, of course, life gets in the way for many of us and we just don't have the time to get onto the course as often as we would like. In this situation you have to accept that getting better will take longer. However, if you want to improve then you still can, but you may have to use those Sunday medals and other competitions as practise. What this teaches us is that you have to stick to what you are trying. If you were on the course on your own you would drop another ball if you hit a bad one and try to perfect the shot. You can't do that on Sunday but you can try it again on the next shot. The point is you must stick to your changes and feelings. There is a school of thought that says you should hit lots of balls with a new movement and that you shouldn't need to think about it when you play - your muscles will remember eventually and your swing will change. Well, I'm not saying that can't work but I do think it's only possible if you hit thousands and thousands of balls. For most of us that muscle memory will have to be built while we play so we get back to that idea of sticking to ideas. As uncomfortable as it feels sometimes, you will have to play like that until the confidence comes. That might mean using a few rounds to achieve this but it is essential. My own golf has been up and down this year and I can put that down to not playing enough. Having my indoor studio means I hit lots of balls working on my swing thoughts but I simply have not been putting that into practise enough on the course. That is something I intend to change over the winter and into next year. As I said a few weeks ago our season more or less grinds to a halt at the end of September, apart from the odd small event, so it is now that I look forward to next year, and you can do the same. Now is the time to get a clear idea of what you want to change and how you want to be swinging and playing next year so that you can use the quiet times to put it into practise. The same as last year, I am offering various packages and options for lessons, including on course playing lessons which, I believe, are invaluable. A 40 minute lesson is just £30, which can be indoors or out, or you can have 3 for £79 or 4 for £99. This is slightly different from last year but the big plus is that we can use any two of these lessons for a full 9 hole playing lesson. That means that £99 would get you a 9 hole lesson and then two 40 minute sessions working on the issues we found on the course. This is to me the best way to go about things and exactly how I would do it myself. If you would like to book or chat to me about these options please call the shop, click the button below, or pop in anytime.
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