How do you practice? Think about it for a moment… are you leaving the golf course better, the same, or worse after each session?
If you don’t know… or your score hasn’t gone down in the past 3 months – you are probably practicing the wrong way.
ALL OF THE GREAT GOLFERS…
ALL SCRATCH GOLFERS…
ALL OF THEM… use the methods I’m about to reveal to you. If you are looking for the ‘secret’… this is it.
The secret isn’t sexy and it sure isn’t easy… but it’s the TRUTH.
Here are the 5 Fundamentals you should adopt if you want to lower your score quickly and efficiently.
- Adopt the Kaizen Method
- Avoid SOS (shining object syndrome) aka Tips of the Day
- Have a Clear Vision and Blueprint Built on Basics
- Master Before Graduating
- Regress When Struggling
.
Let’s break these down individually now…
Fundamental 1 – The Kaizen Method
I hope to shed a little light on the subject of practice using our Kaizen method that we teach in the Single Digit Blueprint.
If you aren’t familiar with Kaizen, it’s a technique used to overcome the fight or flight thinking our brains undergo when we overwhelm them with the complexity of golf. Essentially breaking the game into bite-sized chunks so you can progress and kill the overwhelm.
You can read more about Kaizen here:
Click Link => https://golfaggressive.com/why-i-never-play-the-lottery-and-how-to-break-80/
Fundamental 2- Kick Michael Breed to the Curb
Now, I’ll give some credit to the Tip of the Day Pro’s… but not much. While they do give you tidbits here and there in bite-sized chunks they really aren’t providing you ANY VALUE AT ALL.
In fact, they are wasting your time… and you are wasting your time watching random tips that are not delivered in context to YOUR GAME.
Quite simply they are reckless with their shotgun approach to the game of golf. They are LYING TO YOU when they promise a better game.
“It’s not me, it’s you” ~ You to Michael Breed
You WON’T GET ANY BETTER practicing random sh*t.
Tip of the day shows are addicting because you get excited at the hope of the ONE TIP that’s going to awaken your game.
Well… it’s been how long since you’ve been reading Tip of the Day Magazines and watching Tip of the Day TV shows… and how’s your game? Better or worse or the same?
And that’s where I’ll begin by telling you to STOP falling for the magic pill approach. It DOESN’T WORK.
Here’s what does work…
Fundamental 3 – Develop a CLEAR Blueprint Built Upon Strong Fundamentals
A blueprint that covers a sound foundation and works its way outward.
Forget about backswing positions and how to begin your downswing… that’s right, FORGET THEM!
The game begins from the ground up… and that’s where you should build your game from… every aspect from irons to drivers to wedges to putters and sand shots… it all starts at the ground and works up from there.
It drives me crazy watching Michael Breed (I’m sure he’s a great guy) teach random sh*t, it’s rapid fire… It’s confusing, it’s not aimed for YOUR personal game, it’s meant to capture the golfers who want the magic pill….
…and I know that’s not you, or you wouldn’t subscribe to Rich and I’s golf newsletter.
When I dramatically dropped my golf scores over a period of 6 months when I was a teenager, it was because I dumped the Tip of the Day mentality and followed a well designed blueprint.
My blueprint focused on Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons… and wisdom from Harvey Penick.
I must have read Hogan’s book at least 50 times over the years… and there are nuggets in each sentence if you pay careful attention. Some wisdom won’t reveal itself to you until many years later… kind of like watching Caddyshack, you catch things you never noticed before.
I built my blueprint focusing on painstaking attention to my grip, my stance, my alignment. THE BASICS.
I put tape on my bedroom floor and I practiced over and over and over the boring aspects of the setup and alignment.
What occurred over a very short period of time was magical. My score began to drop, my shots narrowed closer to the target, my confidence grew, and I got BETTER.
Fundamental 4 – Master Before Graduating
The only rule I had was that I must be able to MASTER or come close to MASTERING the task at hand. To be real, I wasn’t striving for perfection. I was striving for a full understanding of what it felt like, what it looked like in a mirror, and how I could groove a smooth swing.
I was not allowed to move on or lose focus until I had completed a basic mastery of the fundamental I was working on.
If you suffer from SOS (Shiny Object Syndrome) you will find this particularly difficult… and one of our authors on Golf Aggressive struggles with this even today… I won’t mention any names, but Robert Phillips struggles with staying on task to improve.
It is human nature to want to improve rapidly and graduate to the more exciting things in golf… however, this is EXACTLY why golfers never break 90 or 80… or even 100!
Quite simply, the basics must be mastered and revisited at the beginning of each session if you want to get better at golf.
It sounds boring and maybe it is… and maybe it can be frustrating… but a house built on shaky ground is going to fall down and be useless.
Fundamental 5 – Regress When Struggling
Yep… when thing’s go in the sh*tter it’s time to regress and go backwards.
The best approach is to start from the very beginning all over again.
Check your grip, posture, stance, weight balance, alignment… once the foundation is solid hit a few shots. It’s important you build a benchmark for yourself.
When you are striking the ball well, have a record of your setup, your grip, your alignment, your takeaway and so on.
I actually keep notes on my phone when I’m striking the ball well. Filled with the feels and mental cues I am using that day.
It also helps to have someone video your swing.
Now getting to that point is going to take some work… and we cover that in Fundamental 4 – Master Before Graduating.
Essentially, you are building your game from the ground up… and when you are struggling you return to the beginning. If you don’t know what those fundamentals should look or feel like, hire a PGA Pro for a session or two to line you out. Record the lesson and watch it back later until it all becomes second nature… or join the Single Digit Blueprint and we can take a look at your video’s and provide some guidance.
That covers the 5 Fundamentals of Practice… but that’s just the outline.
Tomorrow, we’ll put some meat on the bone and talk about how to stack GTG’s (Greasing the Groove), Specific Drills, and Pressure Testing from all of our Challenges to build a comprehensive practice regimen you can use to get that score heading in the right direction.
Tomorrow, we will put together an outline you can use to build your own Blueprint.
Christian Henning
Onnit Academy Certified Trainer
