Opettelen pelaamaan golfia

I have been invited to blog at Finnish golf association's homepage http://www.golf.fi/portal/golfliitto/golflehti/blogit/golfia_median_avulla/ I am very happy about the possibility - I don't know why? It's more work, but I hope I will get feedback on some ideas about golf. This blog will continue - for a while at least, but it just might do to GTO. GTO is www.golf-tuition-online.com and I am at the forum there very often.

I have a inflammation in my ring fingers tendon. Probable from too much golf:-) I make a support to my right wrist to keep my ring finger still. BUT I could not resist the temptation of going to the range to practice some short irons. The fixed right wrist helped my swing very much. I was more relaxed and I could do a good hip rotation before contact.

Golf is 90 % mental. Well, after playing 2 - 4 rounds of 9 holes every day, I think it's also physical. Not just mental:-) Looks like golf is all about accepting ones own abilities and fighting own demands or fears. I remember the fear of bad impact - not hitting the ball well. (It was yesterday). First it was at the range - when I learned to hit the ball there - then I was thinking of missing the ball at a practice round. Next it will be competition. Once you win your fear, you fill find something new to be afraid of. (And finally it will be fear of making a good round:-) Or fear of loosing you perfect swing? When today was an incredible practice round. I was mentally in control. I did not hit too hard and felt like I could control the base of my swing. I felt like I was playing golf - not shooting lottery shots and wondering where fill my ball end up. I am not saying that every shot was perfect. I lost 3 balls. BUT the feeling was good. (Signed up for a 3 person scramble competit...

I had a back operation few years ago and my left leg in not fully recovered. I am training my core and things are getting better. For golf core muscles are important, but it's often difficult to evaluate the fitness of your core. One very good way is to check your balance. Core muscles and hip keeps you in balance. For accuracy in golf balance is also very important. Next tip is provided by Mike Pedersen, Founder of www.golf-trainer.com "Here's an exercise you can do to improve this. While standing pick up one foot and bend that knee. Look straight ahead, but close your eyes and see how long you can hold it. If it's for 10 seconds or less - not good. Need to work on it. If you can hold for 30 seconds or longer than start making small golf swings on one leg. This will definitely be a challenge but will greatly improve your balance during your swing. In no-time you'll be swinging under control and hitting the kind of shots you're capable of." Best thing is y...

Handicap shows the development of skills in golf. For next summer to drop my handicap I have made some goals. I cannot get playing before end of May: May hcp 41 June hcp 18,5 July hcp 12,5 August hcp 9,5 September hcp 8 I think this is the way it might go:-)

I feel like a pro! Just tested the first time my PEI and it's impressive 13%. Shooting 10 balls from 70 meters the average distance to the hole was under 9 meters. Every ball would have stayed on the green! Well this was under practice - and shooting ten balls from the same place and from a range. Not from grass. I think that the PEI should be more like 7 % in situations like this. I am sure that after practicing a month I will get my Pitching wedges PEI under 10% and other iron clubs too.

Just read about Dave Pelz PEI (Percentage error index). It's much like the exercise I was thinking to do this summer - hit 10 balls and see how close to the target I can get them. PEI is the same thing, but you just calculate the error % from the length of the shot. Looks like pro's have a PEI from 7 to 9 % and with a wedge from 15 to 20 %. (That's in a competition. I'm measuring just practice situations.) From Pelz stats you can read that wedge is one of the most impartant tools you need to master to score well! It's wedge - not putter or driver!!! Hannu

This is my backward. I should be practicing chipping! Looks like it will take a while until our golf course opens.

I played three round in different courses in Spain. Last round was 95 and would drop my handicap down to 29 - if it was accepted in Finland. I learned a lot in Spain and most important lesson was to practice more. I cannot hit a ball to a target line - as I was hoping. An other thing to watch is that I get very nervous in the beginning of the round. Well, It's about one month and then driving range will open here in Jyvaskyla and about 6 weeks, I get to play. I looks like my goal to drop my handicap from 47 to 7 is very demanding! - But I am not giving it up. We will see in September - October how did I manage.

I will leave for Spain day after tomorrow. I'm playing with my brother in three different places: La Marquesa, Las Ramblas and Altorreal. Looking very much forward in seeing how my new swing works. Can I stay calm? What is it like hitting from grass and not from a perfect lie like in practicing range. And I am very uncertain with distance control. I think I have found the target line - most of the shots:-) I always have a feeling that I am going to play great rounds - like in tv tournaments. I just can help it - and even though the score is terrible I remember one or two great shots. If I didn't keep a score I would be sure that I have played like a professional.

Okay, here's one tip from "one pro", again:-) Try to play with golfers that have a lower hcd than you have. You learn by watching them play. So today I played in OSIM Singapore Masters - I was playing in front of my TV - swinged after Mamat, Dougherty and the others...

I needed some extra motivation to practice my swing in our living room. Swinging at an imaginary ball is okay for a while, but ... it's dull. I found an old pillow. I thought it might work as an impact bag, but it is little too heavy. To not to break my clubs I started to swing so that I only sweepped the surface very little. This is a very good exercise! It develops a very good control of distance to ground. To sweep the surface so that you can hear a sound but the pillow hardly moves is challenging for me. And it makes swinging feel like swinging with a ball - there is something in stake. I know if I succeeded or not. Also this gives an clue about how clubhead speed affects on impact. Swinging faster tends to create a thick impact.

Looks like learning golf is one of those never ending journeys we have in our life. I have learned about my self that I need continues feedback of progress to be motivated on something like this. Like loosing weight - I have to weigh my self every morning to stick to my goal. Otherwise I will start gaining weight. During the past year I have lost 25 kg, this works for me. For golf I need a similar kind of feedback of progress. I don't think that following the drop of my handicap is the right qualifier. At the moment a simple solution would be to check that I have done my practice swings. 100 swings a day until the summer range opens. One pro suggested a drill: try to hit 10 balls as close as possible to each other. Count the difference in meters and follow up on your progress during the summer. This might be a good thing to do one a week? Shooting with short irons about 100 meters. It would be nice to get all balls in a 10 meter circle?

Today is my 48. birthday. For my birthday I just finished 11 email lessons of golf with Lawrie Montague at Golf Academy. http://www.golf-school-australia.com Get the lessons! I'll add a quotation from Lawrie's email: "Thankyou for your comments on my lesson series and you're right the lessons are simple and for good reason, golf instruction tends to be ambiguous and complicated, and really it's not that difficult to learn how to hit better, more consistent golf shots and ultimately lower your scores. Hannu as long as you truly develop an understanding about what you are trying to do and then follow-up with consistent thoughtful action golf becomes less of a mystery. Good luck to you and your adventures in golf and please let me know how you're travelling down the track." Consider this a "slice" of my birthday cake to you:-) Hannu - learning and living (Modified from McLuhan's "learning a living)

Picture is from Las Ramblas Range and my father is showing me how he swings a 5 wood. It's very important to be motivated - and very difficult to keep it up. First big question is what is the driving force behind ones motivation. Why play golf? For me it's probably need of attention and need to prove to my self that I am "good". (I can learn to play golf in one season - better than average golfers can in their life time. Well, I know I am cheating - I practice, more than others.) So how to keep being motivated? By creating small steps - like two weeks in Spain. It's a good opportunity to test my current skills. Next step would be opening May. I get to play outside and I have also a body composition and physical condition test on May. (I get to know my body fat and VO2max). For June, July and August I am think of local competitions. Final step is September and it does not need an extra motivation. Then I'll know if the project has increased my skills enough. Ve...

Just realized that if I do 100 swings a day, I can make 10 000 swings before the greens will open in Jyvaskyla, Finland. I can do the 10 000 swings, but probably I can hit only about 1000 golf balls. I visit the range only once a week. But if I use my shots carefully concentrate on each ball, I think that is enough to learn a solid, basic swing. I am sure that I know most of the basics. Now I just need to get the right touch and feel to the swing. Just a feeling about golf as a social game - it might be so that people are together, but still just concentrating on them self? We all have our own goals and play an individual game. So golf might resemble our society a lot more than I first realized. This must be why the game appeals to middle aged males like me. Also someone said that one should talk too much during a round - so that's easy/natural for Finns, too.

I have been looking at pro's swing and realized that I cannot copy them. Well, not straight away anyhow. I don't have the physical capacities that professional golfers have to perform there swing. This means that I cannot copy the postures or even movements from a swing of a professional golfer. I need to understand the principals that affect the swing and do it with what I have - the way I can move. What will happen is, that I will get more flexible and muscles needed in golf will become stronger and after a while I need to modify my swing - and slowly it will mould it a swing that looks more like a professional movement - or "nice and easy" - effortless and balanced with a flow, smoothness in it. Well, I started golf few months ago and will be 48 next week. There is a possibility that my swing might never look like a professional players coordination - they have played the game from very young. When you learn a natural smoothness - a kind of natural coordination of ...

I am trying to learn golf and one big challenge is to learn to hit the ball the way that suites you best. I think I found a swing that is mine. http://koti.tnnet.fi/net73/swing_hannu3.wmv Next thing is to automated, learn it so that I can do it upside down. (Not the same swing, but variations of it for each situation.) Learning a swing is getting to know it and feel it.

Balance gives me confidence. It gives a feeling of a rock solid swing that hits the target like a train. Or I think I would feel like that, but I have a problem with my balance. (My back was operated few years ago, and I lost some muscle control from my left leg.) I remembered a good exercise to improve my balance. I stand on one foot! -and close my eyes. I found a lot of the muscles that I have lost by doing the exercise few times. I think this could help other golfers too.

Experiment, but only when training. I don't know if it's good to do on a round. It's not good to do in a competition:-) This truism comes from my latest experience. I had a discussion about a swing and I was sure that it's nothing like shopping wood with an axe - just an up and down movement with my arms. I tried it at the range - from my perfect backswing - I closed my eyes and let my arms drop -> result was a square contact to the ball! It was better on the video when shooting my face, but at the link is also a version shot from the target line. SWING I don't know how well the feeling of dropping my hands can be seen on the video, but for my it is important. In near future I will try to actively do the movement - not just let my hands go - this way I will be hitting the ball - and straight down the target line! By the way - I was dead sure that the idea of "Pulling" with my hip and dropping my arms would not work! BUT it did. I am clad that I had the ...

I keep fit, so I have not thought lot about what how fit do I have to be to play a single digit handicap. Today I did my basic cross country skiing - one hour ( about 13 km). I use "skating style". I modified my training so that I skied at low intensity, but "jumped the up hills". On my track the up hills are short, about 20 - 30 seconds. I think this is one of the best condition exercises for a golfer! In intervals you work your legs and hips and the direction of the push is similar to golf - and you need to watch you balance. Your hands get the right kind of exercise too. You push you skiing poles down like in your swing (though with out the upper torso rotation - just arms down - so you shoulders and lats get the right exercises.) And exercise also develops aerobic condition, but most of all it's your legs and hips that get stronger - if you sprint the up hills. Hannu

Just replied to an email about my understanding of learning golf. While writing I realized that I think of a golf club as an artificial extension of my arm and club face as my fingers or palm of my hand. Learning golf is to learn to use my new arm and feel my fingers. There is nothing new in other parts of my body. My body needs more "training" to perform better, but most of the "learning" needs to be done in sensing my new limb. How do we learn to use our hands? - we work with them and experiment... I have set a goal to drop my hdc 40 strokes. After reading "inner game" I need to revise my goal: "I will learn to know my self and master my movements so well that it will lead to lowering my hdc 40 strokes from current. It's not the result that is important, it's the awareness and concentration - mastering ones own performance." Seems that I would like to be in control of some thing - my own body for starters. Hannu

I just got Tim Gallwey's book - inner game. Looks like we agree on lot of things, but the book also make me thing of lot of new things. Very big on is, that I am not how I perform. If I score under 80 it does not make me good nor does a round of 120 make me unworthy. So why do I want to drop my handicap 40 strokes? It does not make me a better person even I achieve that goal? Well, the dropping of 40 points from my cap, does not make me any better, but the journey to do so - does. I can learn about my self during the process and gain awareness of my self physically and mentally. It might not make me better, but it is an opportunity to grow - learn more about my self. (And it is for me to judge, if this makes me better - or just more conscious about my real life handicaps:-) My reading of Tims message was to gain more awareness - be curious and experiment, and get feedback - most of all from your own senses - the more you use your senses the better. "Calibrate your body", ...

I used my camcorder as practicing my 5 iron. Swing is intentionally slow so that I learn it. (Not the tempo - of course, but the "postures" or rough movements. Here is an example of my current swing . Balance is not stable at the end position. Shot opens a little - often more:-) Basics are there, but need a lot of repetition. My head might be pent a little too much down. In the end of my backswing - I lift my head - maybe my shoulder does not have room enough to turn - and I have to lift my chin up? Hannu - down 40 next golf season

Earlier I divided my golf into: 1) Balance 2) Swing path = hitting square 3) (Legs-hips) + (shoulder-arms) + (wrist) action I have to practice these elements separately or focus to one element during an exercise. My strategy to play (playing with right side... with not actually thinking about the shots during a swing.) To be able to do this drills must support the development of feeling the movement. It is also important to see some results - to get feedback as soon as possible. -Drills for balance are easy to evaluate. -Hitting square needs an impact bag or a box or something -The three elements are A+B+C are the most interesting to get drills for. Legs might do with throwing a medicine ball or a hitting a punching bag with my elbow. The movement needs to be the same as in a swing - and I need to feel the outcome. Also it is important to get a lot of repetition. (That makes the movement automated - gets it to "muscle memory".) The point I am trying to make is - you need to ...

You can learn faster by understanding - or at least trying to understand - what you are doing. For me this means a building a mental image of my golf swing. (And also learning routines to automate some actions.) I like to learn to use my right side of the brain to control my swing, but use my left side - the rational side - for evaluating the situation before and after my shot. To be able to evaluate I need a model to compare with. Model is my understanding of a golf swing. I have looked at many video analysis of top players and I think I get the picture on what a swing looks like. Now it is time to get some inner understanding to the way I control my own swing. 1. Balance tells me an overall message. If balance is okay in address, backswing and end position, it's good news - a good sign. 2. Clubhead is what I am focus on - I will try to imaging how hard should I hit with the cluphead so that the ball flies where I want it to fly. The path should come natural due to body movement....

I read the free e-book that was offered by "Australian High Performance Golf Academy". Nicely build overview of what learning golf is all about. The thought that I got from reading it is, that there are many roads to good golf, but all need work. Practice is the energy moving you forward. AND your consistence or steps you make are the efficiency on how fast you move. For me this means that automated skills are the stones from which I would build my skills. One can concentrate in only one to three things at a time - so we need to master those points and then go ahead. (At least in learning skills.) Golf is much more than swinging a club and other aspects of the game need to be learned too. Mental game, Social game, physical game and strategic game (scoring low).

There is a theory on how brain controls our behavior. Left side is critical, language and logical, Right side is whole, more on space, angles and nonverbal control. You are letting your right side dominate when you don't critique, don't rationalize - just letting the movements flow - like in the zone. What if you could control your thinking? What if you could shift your thinking to right side when ever you like? Play in the zone all the time? I was in the range today and also practiced putting. I tried to use my right side and I think it helped. When I visualized a shot it turned out much better. Also I registered that I have a rotated address position. I had not noticed it earlier - maybe it came from the right side - feedback that my posture is not natural?

I started my design of a learning program on skill but lately I have been thinking of golf as a mental game. Both qualities technical skill and mental strength are important, BUT... To become a good golfer you need to be a person that others like to play with. Golf is fun. It's a social game. You might be judge by a score of a single round, but I more important is to atmosphere you create in the group. If you can help other play well, it will affect your play too. Just a thought...

Merlin method is living your life backwards. Start from what you want to happen and imaging the steps that will lead from your goal to present situation. I have been reading "Golf Tuition Online" and thinking of the mental side of the game as well as how to learn a swing. Golf is very much a mental game. So it is important to take this in account when planning ones development program. Merlin Method has been a tool that I use for planning future (in my work as a project director). Michael Campbell gives a tip to divide the round in to six holes and try to play the best score on each. AND to play each hole from the green to the T. YES. Where do you want to be for the last put. From where do you hit to the green and so on. This is "Merlin Method" in practice. Nothing new there? I have set a goal to drop my HDC from 47 to under 10 next season. I need to think what does this mean. What do I need to be able to play good golf? I can approach this by thinking of the two si...

I found a very interesting set of drills at http://www.progolflesson.com/drills/ (Thanks for Ian for reminding me about "pump it" drill. If I add a drill to chip pennys from a mat, I think I have enough to start practising. Also I think I will use a mirror to check my address and backswing position. I also noticed that I need to stretch my hips and core to get enough rotation. Last time at the range... I noticed that hitting eyes closed was a very good practise. It's a body-mind exercise. You sense your movements better. I did not realize it on the range, but it would be good to to a swing eyes closed after a good swing. You might learn the sensation - feel for that good shot - and remember it easier by repeating it straight away. I am going skiing crosscountry. I think that is a good exercise for shifting weight and also endurance - of course. I am not thinking of golf while I am skiing, but some times I do think about core performance. Skiing is also a core exercise fo...

Next step will be to look for drills and exercises to develop accuracy in my golf swing. Accuracy is the ability to repeat the same movement - and finding a correct swing path. Even though I am not focusing on power, the tempo/rhytm of the swing will affect the accuracy. Accuracy is 1) Swing path (stance, address, take a way, backswing, down swing, impact, follow through and finnishing position). Those are the doddied line. 2) Balance 3) Relaxation, rhytm - "soft hands" 4) grip, "cup" on the wrist So I need to look for drills that help me develop 1) Swing path 2) Balance 3) Natural feel for the swing and club 4) Timing on impact Starting to look after I come back from the range...

Development program for learning to play golf Introduction At the moment my HCD is 47 and I will design a program to drop it under 10 during next summer. This is "learner managed learning", but I need all the help I can get. I started to learn golf last August and got my greencard by training by my self. My understanding about golf comes from internet and television. My golf – what is it all about? Here are six principles that I think are import for me. I don't know how these principles affect my development plan. If the principles are important, they should be present in the development plan. I think that to learn and enjoy golf, I have to think of it from many points of view, like social, mental and physical activity. 1. "Ubuntu" means I am what I am with help of others. Golf is a social game. (Rule is not to instruct others. Even asking advice should be very well thought, BUT we learn from others ANYWAY! 2. "BMAN" = Body, mind, activity and nutritio...