WHERE DID YOUR GAME GO?????

A Mysterious Disappearance

I contend there is a scientific explanation for the mysterious disappearance of performance that golfers experience when – for no apparent reason – they lose their game. The disintegration process involves tiny micro-changes that at some point sum up to ruin your swing.

Small increments that destroy us are well known. Before it was outlawed in England there was a penalty called "pressing" that was carried out by piling small stones, one at a time, on the victim’s chest until s/he was crushed to death. Brutal yes but had you stumbled on a ‘pressing’ you could have figured out quickly the ultimate result. But  stumble on the beginnings of a hurricane and you would not know it because the causes of a hurricane in no way resemble the final effect i.e. small, micro flutters in the atmosphere in South America producing 100 mph winds in Miami. And here-in lays the reason why it is so difficult to predict a hurricane more than two weeks out -- because the cause [the initial system condition] doesn’t look much like the end result.  

And as difficult as it is to predict hurricanes it is even more difficult to predict when your golf game is going south. Suppose your game was like a hurricane where the destructive force began with small flutters. You pay no real attention to these harbingers even though some are things you have been told many times. Still you ignore them because they are not directly related to ‘the Big Dog’ -- your golf swing. Proper breathing, slowing everything you do under pressure, focusing on the target, and things like a correct pre-game practice session are mere pre-swing flutters that most golfers give only lip service. And what of aim? Another lip service item -- 95% of golfers screw up aim -- the same with ball position, weight distribution, and shoulder alignment.  If you are like most golfers The Swing is the Thing – just get up there any old way and hit it – but you’d better hurry just a bit more than usual because there is a hurricane coming.

More next week on the flutters that precede the storm including one you probably don’t know about because it comes directly from your gut rather than your brain.

IS IT TOO MUCH

Hogan Rolls Over in His Grave

“All I did is get on each tee and wait until (Edmondson – his caddy) told me what to do,” said PGA TOUR player Ryan Palmer. “He told me what side of the tee box to get on, and what side he wanted me to be on, what target he wanted me to hit, and it was my job to hit the shot.”

Palmer played well at the Byron Nelson Championship using this approach losing in a playoff but in my opinion being so other-directed is not good in golf.

Takeaway: Self-reliance is a mindset and under pressure you gather information rather than ask for advice.

Jack Burke Jr. –

“A lot of the kids on the tour nowadays hire instructors, so they aren't really thinking for themselves about their technique and how to improve.  They don't trust themselves and when things start going badly, they have nowhere to turn.  In the middle of a round, they can't call their coach to come over and give them a tip.

But they can ask their caddy

Fitness and It's Effects

On the Other Side of Fitness

It seems puzzling that Johnny Miller who won the US Open in 1973 beat everyone including Jack Nicklaus for three years and then disappeared. David Duvall rose to number one then poof, he was gone. Sergio Garcia was a wonder kin but now shows only flashes of his former brilliance. Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson fought for second best for years but now are random performers given their prodigious talent. And of course Tiger dominated for nine years and now he’s abdicated his place at the top.

What is the connecting thread here? Each of these players changed their body drastically – some through injury, and some through intent in the mistaken view that they were providing themselves with an upgrade.

 Changed Body = Changed Game

Els injured his knee, put on weight and lost his touch; Mickelson contracted psoriatic arthritis which can affect your sense of how your body is arranged in space while Garcia, Duval and Miller worked out hard and changed their body distribution of balance – Duval went from schmoo to svelte and lost his feel. And Woods of course changed his body with an intense body building routine that made him look buff at the beach but buff is only good at an ‘after-majors-win’ party. In a counter-intuitive slam life often tosses out, Tigers new upper body strength tore up his knee. And in this ‘muscle is good’ world the Kenny Perry story is not unique. He dropped forty pounds and put on some muscle looking for an upgrade to first class -- instead he lost his game – and he admits it!

"I hired a personal trainer. I actually did last year go from 235 to 199 in weight.  I was working out diligently six days week.  Went to a nutritionist and really watched my diet.  I actually played worse…I was lifting heavy bulk weight and getter heavy.  I should have been working on lengthening my muscles, getting longer, looser, more flexible."

This first-class-to-coach downgrade Perry suffered seems to defy a common sense that says working out is good and all things being equal ‘strongest machine wins” until you revisit the old, but very true adage, ‘if it aint’ broke don’t fix it.” You design your work out/diet to keep what you have once you have it.

Gary Player, the father of the fitness in golf revolution, stayed in shape to keep what he already had. His goal was longevity. Most have to work to keep it while some like Sam Snead were naturally fit for golf. Snead’s famous comment on working out was “I never lifted anything heavier than a petticoat” but he could still kick the top of a door frame with his foot at 70 years old. Tom Weiskopf at 6’3” 190 pounds admitted he couldn’t bench 100 lbs. yet he was one of golf’s longest hitters in the day of mega-long Jack Nicklaus. And the longevity of ‘paunchy’ Ray Floyd as the press called him [even in his 20ties] is the gold standard – from 1961 to 1992 [31 years.] Paunchy Ray won 22 tournaments with his final win in 1992 at the age of 49. He also won on the Senior Tour later that season to become the first player to win on both tours in the same year.

The Takeaway: There are three things your work out should provide 1] you feel better 2] you look better 3] you play better and if you’re a golfer don’t leave out #3.

Next: what actually happens when you change your body.

How is your putting?

A few years ago Dr. Ralph Mann at Grand Cypress resort in Fla. studied a number of the world's best putters and found some interesting things.

Here is a summary:

Regardless of the length of the putt [they measured four foot, eight foot, 16 foot and 32 foot putts] the completion time of the strokes are exactly the same.

The down swing time is roughly half of the back swing time, showing that the player is accelerating the blade through impact.

As an example, on a four foot putt by Greg Norman the back swing took .62 seconds, the down swing .3 seconds, the total completion time .92 seconds.  For the 32 foot putt, the back swing took .63 seconds, the down swing .29 seconds, for a .92 completion time.

All of the professionals measured consistently produced a follow-through distance almost twice as large as the back swing distance again due to acceleration.

The  Model set-up:

The feet were about 12 inches apart at the toes with the front foot drawn back an inch from the target line; the ball is two inches inside the front big toe and 10 inches out from the foot; the eyes are positioned about two inches inside the ball, contradicting instruction that tells you to have your eyes directly over the ball; the weight is toward the heels and evenly distributed, again contradicting that most of the weight should be on the front side.

Please remember that these are averages so individuals differ. 

 

The Model Putting Stroke:

Is predominantly straight back and straight through, a pendulum-type motion that stays on the line as long as possible.  The recommendation is to putt with the arms and the shoulders [not the wrists] thereby creating the motion of the club by using a tilting of the shoulders. Over-using the wrists open and closes the clubface and this leads to slapping at the ball.  The lower body does not move much at all.

 

The key is returning the putter face to its address position at impact with the putter face perpendicular to the arc of the stroke.  This makes the stroke as simple as possible with fewer chances for error.

A Drill 

Stroke the putt by taking the putter back to your right toe, and then through the ball, to actually twice the distance. Use tees to create gates to guide the putter. Do this for all distances until you develop a feel of how much back swing you need for each length putt.  Then practice putting to the hole, focusing only on the right distance.  You can actually learn to putt this way out on the golf course.  It's a great way to get your backswing under control and to get the relationships between the backswing and the follow through correct every time. 

IS THIS FOR YOU??????

What Will the USGA Say About Elective Amputation?

Dr. Yoseph Bar-Cohen of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, has developed the technology of "artificial muscles" on robots for use in a NASA rover that may be sent to an asteroid. The muscles are composed of layers of flexible plastic strips that work in waves like human fingers when the current is turned on. Bar-Cohen thinks that in the future artificial muscles will be used in humans here on earth. Similar technology is growing at a rapid pace.

Suppose a brain chip could be implanted that would allow you to play better golf. You could get a sharper set of eyes, or swallow a device made with nano technology that lives in your blood stream and perfectly controls your stress level, flooding you with adrenaline for long drives and steadying your nerves for the three footers.  Steroids, testosterone and other drugs are on the ‘do not do’ list but how about these technologies – and what about artificial limbs?

Fast-forward to the year 2016 when golf is in the Olympics and countries worldwide have spent years pulling out all the stops. And suppose there is a prosthetic golf leg available that the owner could alternatively program for a golf swing followed by a natural stride.  What about a pair of bionic hands that produce an always perfect, vice-like hold on the club? Here is the question: If the artificial prosthesis forces the golfer to swing correctly but there is no medical reason for the operation --would the golfer be allowed to play? Think all of this is just science fiction - think again!

An Austrian man voluntarily had his hand amputated so he could be fitted with a bionic limb. The surgery is the second elective amputation to be performed by Viennese surgeon Professor Oskar Aszmann.  Bionic hands move in response to signals from the brain modulated by sensors in the forearm.

Would a golfer go as far as ‘elective amputation” to improve a golf game? It’s not out of the question. I know of a 32 year old woman golfer who underwent breast reduction surgery because her instructor mentioned that her chest caused her to pick the club up.

My sense is that the important issue in golf in the years to come will not be about nonconforming equipment but nonconforming players. From the dart throwing constable in the movie "Young Frankenstein" to the 70ties TV series, the Six Million Dollar Man” we've had a love affair with our bionic hero's. But the question is when they become real -- will the USGA/PGA let them play golf?

Would Hogan Approve?

Hogan Rolls Over in His Grave

“All I did is get on each tee and wait until (Edmondson – his caddy) told me what to do,” said PGA TOUR player Ryan Palmer. “He told me what side of the tee box to get on, and what side he wanted me to be on, what target he wanted me to hit, and it was my job to hit the shot.”

Palmer played well at the Byron Nelson Championship using this approach losing in a playoff but in my opinion being so other-directed is not good in golf.

Takeaway: Self-reliance is a mindset and under pressure you gather information rather than ask for advice.

Jack Burke Jr. –

“A lot of the kids on the tour nowadays hire instructors, so they aren't really thinking for themselves about their technique and how to improve.  They don't trust themselves and when things start going badly, they have nowhere to turn.  In the middle of a round, they can't call their coach to come over and give them a tip.

But they can ask their caddy

DO YOU HAVE GEOMETRY?

Geometry

Think you don’t know a lot about geometry? Then think again because the human brain has been using geometry to figure things out for 1.4 million years. Research by Véronique Izard, a psychologist at the Descartes campus of the University of Paris says geometry is an intuitive as part of our DNA. The skill of figuring out every day geometry requires no formal training and it is cross-cultural -- both modern and primitive.

“I would say that this means Euclidean geometry is probably universal to all human beings,” she said. “We find people grasping concepts of geometry that go beyond the perceivable.”

Takeaway: Golf, whatever else it is, is a game of geometry – the relationship of lines and arcs. So what makes golf so hard if golfers have an intuited sense of Euclidian geometry? That’s an easy one – most golfers are so tied up in swing mechanics that they can’t possibly let their brain work out the Point A to Point B geometry problems. If you’re playing ‘golf swing’ instead of ‘golf’ you’re bound to flunk golf geometry 101 every time you tee it up.