Joe,
What would you consider to be a perfect round of golf?
Zeke
Hi Zeke,
It depends how picky you want to be. A purist might say you have to shoot 18 for 18 holes, but obviously that is not very realistic. Is a perfect game in baseball one where the pitcher struck everyone out on 3 pitches? That is not realistic either, so no matter how you got the batter out, it is still a perfect game even if every batter hit long fly balls and your fielders made 27 acrobatic catches. In golf do you have to hit every fairway, hit every green, and make every putt? Well, that would be nice, but also not realistic. A more reasonable person might say shooting their best score would be perfect for them. Even then, no matter how good a player is, they can shoot their best round ever and still say there were a few more putts that they could have made. So absolute perfection is an unrealistic goal. Instead, look at it in terms of “expectations” vs. “successes” or “good feelings” about having achieved something. Jody thinks it is perfect just to get a date with the beverage cart girl (this goal still eludes him). So what are reasonable expectations? For most people, and there are exceptions, unless you play every day, you should not ever expect to shoot in the 60’s. Unless you play more than once per week, you should not expect to shoot in the 70’s. If you play less than once per week, you should not expect to break 90. Those who play only once or twice per month should be happy to break 100. So what brings the good feelings of success? If you have never broken 100, but that is your goal, it is a success and a perfectly good feeling when you finally do it. Even if your score was not your best, but you won a match, that’s a success and a perfectly good feeling. If you don’t have a match, create your own against the course. If you had more good holes than bad holes, you won. If you hit more fairways and / or greens than you missed, you won. If you one-putted more times than you 3-putted, you won. If you avoided lost balls or penalty strokes, you won. Feel good about any successes like these. Even if you did not accomplish any of these things, your misadventures can always get a few laughs during the recap of the round afterwards with your friends. Laughter is the best medicine, a good feeling, and if you and your friends had a good time, what can be more perfect than that?
Joe
Question for the Evil Twin:
Jody, are you good looking?
Answer: The beverage cart girl has voted me 2nd best looking out of all the members. (note from Joe – all the other members tied for first)
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Joe,
Every time I have a few good rounds, just when I think I am permanently improved, another slump occurs. How do you explain that?
Serj
Hello Serj,
Someone once said the likelihood of repeating a good score is inversely proportional to how many people you tell about it. Everybody gets slumps in every sport. Our body movements involve hundreds of muscles trying to work together. Every day, each one of these muscles gets stronger or weaker, bigger or smaller, depending on how you use them in your daily activities. On any given day, the sum of these muscle changes will have a greater or lesser effect on your swing without you realizing it. So are we all doomed to mediocrity? No, you can reduce their frequency and their severity by adopting a daily exercise routine to strengthen certain muscles, and to induce “motor muscle memory”. You have to train your swing muscles to behave in a consistent manner. The Body Golf tapes have exercises specifically for golfers. If it were simply a matter of knowing all the right moves, then everyone should be able to play just as well left handed or right handed. The reason most of us cannot is motor muscle memory. This goes for everything in life, not just golf. Just like playing a musical instrument, you have to practice in order to be consistently good. The more you practice the right moves, the better you get. While inducing motor muscle memory, make sure you are training you muscles with the CORRECT moves, because if you induce incorrect moves, they will be much harder to “undo” once your muscles are trained to behave that way.
Joe
Every time I have a few good rounds, just when I think I am permanently improved, another slump occurs. How do you explain that?
Serj
Hello Serj,
Someone once said the likelihood of repeating a good score is inversely proportional to how many people you tell about it. Everybody gets slumps in every sport. Our body movements involve hundreds of muscles trying to work together. Every day, each one of these muscles gets stronger or weaker, bigger or smaller, depending on how you use them in your daily activities. On any given day, the sum of these muscle changes will have a greater or lesser effect on your swing without you realizing it. So are we all doomed to mediocrity? No, you can reduce their frequency and their severity by adopting a daily exercise routine to strengthen certain muscles, and to induce “motor muscle memory”. You have to train your swing muscles to behave in a consistent manner. The Body Golf tapes have exercises specifically for golfers. If it were simply a matter of knowing all the right moves, then everyone should be able to play just as well left handed or right handed. The reason most of us cannot is motor muscle memory. This goes for everything in life, not just golf. Just like playing a musical instrument, you have to practice in order to be consistently good. The more you practice the right moves, the better you get. While inducing motor muscle memory, make sure you are training you muscles with the CORRECT moves, because if you induce incorrect moves, they will be much harder to “undo” once your muscles are trained to behave that way.
Joe
Sunday, June 12, 2005
Joe. How do you hit "through" the ball?Thanks in advance.
Dean
Hi Dean,
The idea is to continue accelerating smoothly all the way into the follow thru. If you don’t do this, you may “quit” on the shot too soon. Many people have a beautiful practice swing because there is no ball to stare at, but when the ball is there, it tells your mind “hit me, hit me”, and that seems to change the way you swing, instead of just executing the same smooth practice swing while the ball just happens to be in the way. Usually if you have proper weight shift on the downswing, you will hit through the ball without having to think about it. A good drill for this would be the “double clubber” as shown in the Body Golf videos.
Joe
Dean
Hi Dean,
The idea is to continue accelerating smoothly all the way into the follow thru. If you don’t do this, you may “quit” on the shot too soon. Many people have a beautiful practice swing because there is no ball to stare at, but when the ball is there, it tells your mind “hit me, hit me”, and that seems to change the way you swing, instead of just executing the same smooth practice swing while the ball just happens to be in the way. Usually if you have proper weight shift on the downswing, you will hit through the ball without having to think about it. A good drill for this would be the “double clubber” as shown in the Body Golf videos.
Joe
