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.
3. My body movement consist of three "individual elements":
a) hip-leg action
b) shoulder-arm action
c) wrist action
Different shots have a different amount of these elements - like putting has almost no wrist action and hip-leg action. An accurate approach with an iron from 50 - 60 meters has no wrists, but has some amount of legs and about 50% of shoulder-arm action.
Important is that I can build all my shots by variation of these elements. These are fundamental parts in evaluation of my shot. Evaluation goes like this:
1) Was the balance okay?
2) Was the movement, postures okay, did I make a good contact to the ball?
3) What happened with a-b-c?
I can use the ball flight path, divot and my feeling of the shot to evaluate what happened. So feedback is the key for improving my shots and practice is how you get feedback. Problem is that we have a long winter and hitting a ball is expensive in winter time.
One way to practice would be to isolate different elements like:
a) just hit the ball ( or push it) by using your hips and legs. (No movement anywhere else.
b) only shoulders - chipping?
c) only wrists... A hinge and a flat wrist exercise. (Preferably in a correct impact posture?
Why only three elements???
That is the only amount I can handle. And even these one at a time. To get some progress I need to focus on simple elements.
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.
3. My body movement consist of three "individual elements":
a) hip-leg action
b) shoulder-arm action
c) wrist action
Different shots have a different amount of these elements - like putting has almost no wrist action and hip-leg action. An accurate approach with an iron from 50 - 60 meters has no wrists, but has some amount of legs and about 50% of shoulder-arm action.
Important is that I can build all my shots by variation of these elements. These are fundamental parts in evaluation of my shot. Evaluation goes like this:
1) Was the balance okay?
2) Was the movement, postures okay, did I make a good contact to the ball?
3) What happened with a-b-c?
I can use the ball flight path, divot and my feeling of the shot to evaluate what happened. So feedback is the key for improving my shots and practice is how you get feedback. Problem is that we have a long winter and hitting a ball is expensive in winter time.
One way to practice would be to isolate different elements like:
a) just hit the ball ( or push it) by using your hips and legs. (No movement anywhere else.
b) only shoulders - chipping?
c) only wrists... A hinge and a flat wrist exercise. (Preferably in a correct impact posture?
Why only three elements???
That is the only amount I can handle. And even these one at a time. To get some progress I need to focus on simple elements.