You guys are great. Really into the Golfing Machine. What a treat.
Gettin' Better is one of the best topics placed on the forum.
I have given more than a dozen books to friends only to get
dissapointed to find that they speed read the book and never
go back to it for referance. I hear all the answeres, have to refer
to other chapters to much or to technical. I try to encourage
the Homer Kelly principles but most golfers try only a little and only
on the course. Then they watch the Golf Channel and want to
try something entirely different from The Golfing Machine. I am
sure that you Guys have faced the experience. I must admit that
I read the book 9 times, over the years, before the Lynn Blake
Forum came into existance. I had a hard time with the reading. What a revolution! When the Forum came into exsistance, what a change. Unfourtainly many Golfers are not savy enough to use the internet forum
and therefore cannot gain the enthusiam to go forward with The
Golfing Machine.
One of my favorite passages from the book is "Demanding that Golf
instruction be kept simple does not make it simple--only incomplete
and inaffective". I guess the main reason that I like the range over
playing is that to much time is wasted playing a round. A common
question at Lynn's clinics is, Would you guys rather go on the
course and play or would you rather stay here and work on your
swing. Normally I see about half to two thirds go out to play.
Maybe they want to see if they can take what they learned to course?
For me, I would much rather spend the valuable time learing more
form Lynn, Tedd and Jeff. I print a lot of the posts and make books
out of them. I can take the books to the range and go through all
the points, hitting balls to test the threads and find out how they
relate to the overall swing. I cannot make a full study on the
course playing. I guess, that if I find the secret, I will play more?
I would much prefer to learn ball striking rather than trying to
lower my scores through course management. Another passage,
Hogan said, "never hit a shot on the course that you have not
practiced on the Range".
Like said in a movie," you guys are not great, you are better than
that". Thanks for all your input.
Yeah...I second that motion. The yeaahhboyz have it!
This is the primary reason why I would be keeping you company on the range soaking up some real teachin': They are truth brokers. I have said it several times before, but repetition of the truth is just amplification.
The lowest round I ever shot was a **. I remember the hangover i had the next day! Not becasue of some revelry and fermented beverages, but rather because I had no freakin idea how I did it! The next round out was much like the ones I had played just before my flash of brilliance...just OK. Outside of the luck involved in shooting low I knew that I could not articulate a description in words, or even in a feel that could be recalled. After some back slapping, I scurried off to the range to keep my fragile ballon aloft! POP!!! I am not ashamed to admit that my eyes misted up...OK... I cried like big fat baby! This scene after shooting **! IT (the alignments and the lag pressure) started to recoil in fear of all the bubble gum tips I had filed, and was now running through!
Number one key to playing good golf was shared with me by a 4 time British Open winner. "You must always be free of tension, Master!" Tension is a mental thing. The "truth will set you free" even if you fail to comply you are never technically lost, just a bit out of joint. That lost feeling is what I have never really liked...not faulty compliance. Lost = tension. Found = free!
I'm on vacation...can't your tell?
I believe that having a clue on the range increases my appetite to play.
I think this is one of the most interesting threads on this forum. I have enjoyed reading.
I too am trying to "get better" and can see myself in all of these posts. Some people seem to just naturally know how to "get on top" of the game, own it, even. Seems kind of innate somehow, either you got it or you don't. I got the skills, but puting it all together is fleeting. Par one day 79 the next three months later haven't broken 80. It turns around play great for a couple of weeks then it starts all over. Always around 80, just can't get over the hump and stay there score wise.
I too have enjoyed this thread! We do all that we do (and we do more than most, I think) to get that frikkin ball into the frikkin hole in numbers that at least resemble our potential!
I played with an up and coming young collegiate player today. He four putted the 4th green (horse shoeing consecutive putts!) I thought he was going to throw up! I recognized the “look” The look that says that I am playing for people other than myself (and 2 other strangers at that.) His rep was on the line…he was probably thinking “these guys are probably thinking that I am such a hack etc.” Well the wheels came off on the next hole and he was fit to be tied. So I sidled up to him coach-like and communicated the following (all of it based on personal experience.)
NEVER be surprised by ANYTHING that happens on a golf course…it suggests that you do not get it
Sure way to fail at anything is to make your highest motive quest ACCEPTANCE. You gotta have a lot of I don’t give a crap about what others think in order to be good
You take what you can get, or if you prefer, what the course gives you. That never precludes your level best effort
The course is your daily opponent
If you do not grind on a ten foot putt for bogey, you have not yet learned that a stroke is a stroke is a stroke.
Never allow one round to define what caliber of player you can be. By extention 10 individual rounds STILL cannot define what caliber of player you can be.
Sink your heart and soul into PREPARATION. When you tee it up determine to do the following:
Play each hole with a plan
Pick a specific target
Observe ALL rules and etiquette
Keep you grooves and ball clean
Shake your playing partner’s hands (with hat removed)
Add ‘em up
You gotta be able to say to paraphrase Arry Vardon “That sir, was my best for the day“ …or something to that effect
If anything is worth doing it is worth doing poorly, right?
I was able to convey all of this because as is often the case it took us 5 hours to get around!
We hit the range afterward and I introduced to him to the flying wedges! Ah to be a youngster again!
I too have enjoyed this thread! We do all that we do (and we do more than most, I think) to get that frikkin ball into the frikkin hole in numbers that at least resemble our potential!
I played with an up and coming young collegiate player today. He four putted the 4th green (horse shoeing consecutive putts!) I thought he was going to throw up! I recognized the “look” The look that says that I am playing for people other than myself (and 2 other strangers at that.) His rep was on the line…he was probably thinking “these guys are probably thinking that I am such a hack etc.” Well the wheels came off on the next hole and he was fit to be tied. So I sidled up to him coach-like and communicated the following (all of it based on personal experience.)
NEVER be surprised by ANYTHING that happens on a golf course…it suggests that you do not get it
Sure way to fail at anything is to make your highest motive quest ACCEPTANCE. You gotta have a lot of I don’t give a crap about what others think in order to be good
You take what you can get, or if you prefer, what the course gives you. That never precludes your level best effort
The course is your daily opponent
If you do not grind on a ten foot putt for bogey, you have not yet learned that a stroke is a stroke is a stroke.
Never allow one round to define what caliber of player you can be. By extention 10 individual rounds STILL cannot define what caliber of player you can be.
Sink your heart and soul into PREPARATION. When you tee it up determine to do the following:
Play each hole with a plan
Pick a specific target
Observe ALL rules and etiquette
Keep you grooves and ball clean
Shake your playing partner’s hands (with hat removed)
Add ‘em up
You gotta be able to say to paraphrase Arry Vardon “That sir, was my best for the day“ …or something to that effect
If anything is worth doing it is worth doing poorly, right?
I was able to convey all of this because as is often the case it took us 5 hours to get around!
We hit the range afterward and I introduced to him to the flying wedges! Ah to be a youngster again!
You have some good points, Okie, but as for what this youngster needs to focus on during the round, cleaning his clubs may or may not need to be on the list.
When it comes to learning how to score and how to play this game, for the most part, you have to figure it out for yourself. Playing holes with a plan and picking specific targets sounds like really good advice. But if it were that simple, wouldn't everyone be able to play to their potential?
Cleaning the clubs was more tongue in cheek, shouda used a smiley on that one! I mentioned that in the context of his routine. Worked with a sport psychologist some years ago...one of the non conventional recommendations was a "post-shot" routine built around the concept of "acceptance." My post-shot ritual if you will was making sure that the sword went back into the sheath spotless! Another one was pulling on the velcro to take the glove off. The idea being that you have officially moved onto to the next shot.
I am convinced (without hard numbers) that...98% of ALL golfers do not target very well. Primary reason being that they do not actually pick a specific target. Case in point, this kid was teeing em high and cutting loose on everything! By his own admission his target was 325 anywhere on the fairway! If you do not have a very specific target line what are the chances you have a workable plane line? I played a lot of golf in the brain dead hit and hope brigade...it is not the best approach.
You are right that everyone has to figure out how to score themselves. To me that means applying what those with experience suggest...and seeing what works for you. I still use Johnny Millers green lite, red lite dealy
Golf is heavy on process (as is life) Preparation, preparation! Routines are important...even if it means making sure the grooves are usable
Next time you are out playing take a look at all the filthy clubs! Competing has a lot to do with finding every advantage. Another example: I am amazed at how many people simply tee the ball where everyone else has as opposed to using the latitude the rules allow, or they face the way the tee markers are situated, as if they were direction aides. There are a lot of tricks to the trade, as it were. When you play with a kid that flies it 300 yards and has zero fear...you despair when the brain is dormant!
Attention to mind numbing detail is simple, but never easy. A key in daily living is to find the meaning in the menial tasks we perform. You spend years searching out what works...then reality sets in! It is kinda like when you were a teen lapping up the "you can do anything you set your mind to" speeches. Options demand a decision. It is kinda like people trying the latest fad diet. Do you honestly think that people do not know how to lose fat? If they keep enough options pending they have very cleverly abdicated their responsibility to choose. Although a non-choice is a choice, right? The extension to golf is that you gotta make some decisions. How often have you heard the advice to give equal time, if not more, to the short game? How many people you know that know that (even intuitively) and REFUSE to comply. Success is compliance with what IS ?
Why is Tiger so good? In the context of my statements above he has simply made up his mind! Oversimplistic? Perhaps, but that to me is what is at the heart of focus...a sovereign will that is set like flint...unwavering...immovable.
This kid will probably not heed my advice, but that is just because of the cash he had to fork over!
Shake your playing partner’s hands (with hat removed)
What if you have horrible hat head or a surprisingly receded hairline?
__________________
"In my experience, if you stay with the essentials you WILL build a repeatable swing undoubtedly. If you can master the Imperatives you have a champion" (Vikram).
The reason you can't sustain the lag is because you are so eager to make the club move fast (a reaction to the intent of "hitting it far"). So on a full shot you throw it away too early, which doesn't happen for your short chip. (bts)
This scene after shooting **! IT (the alignments and the lag pressure) started to recoil in fear of all the bubble gum tips I had filed, and was now running through! 
?
Hybrid Mode
