I owe a tremendous debt to my personal teacher, Paul Bertholy. In addition to his several Training Programs, he instilled many verbal nuggets that, to this day, I pass down to my own students. Most especially, I demand that they repeat out loud certain words and phrases during lessons, as did he.
"When missing a shot never scold yourself, but punish yourself with a conditioning program pertinent to the correction of the fault."
Personally, I say, "Punish yourself with a conditioning drill."
For example, today I was working with Sean Elliott, New Jersey State Junior Champion and long-time student of Bill Castner, Master PGA Professional. The ball went left.
"What was the problem, Sean?"
"Plane?"
"I agree. What is your punishment?"
"Start Down Waggles?"
"You got it. From the Top, gimme two or three. And when you're done, take the motion through the Downstroke and Release. And from there, through Impact and Follow-Through. Finally, take the entire On Line Motion to the Finish. Can you do that for me?"
No answer.
Just the prescribed motions.
And then the CRACK!!! of perfect compression and a ball sent screaming toward the target.
This is when Mr. Pennick would say...
"Sean, I hope that made you as happy as it did me."
And it did.
Ahh Start Down waggles.....I still 'punish' myself by doing them all the time. Its usually takes about a couple of pracitce swings and bang everything falls back into place again. I just need to remind myself to do it all the time though.
How are Sean and Bill doing with their GOLF Strokes nowadays?
Alex
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