Opettelen pelaamaan golfia

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...