Articles: Becoming a Better Player

10 MORE MISCONCEPTIONS

By Wayne | Articles , Articles: Becoming a Better Player

10 MORE MISCONCEPTIONS 1. “The pros make it look so easy.” Golf instructors hear this one all the time. When the average player gets a chance to see a tour caliber player in person they always marvel at how little energy the quality player seems to expend to hit the ball great distances. “Their swings look so effortless. It’s like they’re not even doing anything.” The poor player takes this illusion, and, not understanding what they are looking at, try to emulate the appearance of ease by making lazy, sloppy movements that begin with bad posture and a loose grip…

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THE TRUTH ABOUT GOLF

By Wayne | Articles , Articles: Becoming a Better Player

Nothing is true. Everything is permitted. Jim Carroll So here it is, right in front of you. 200 yards, elevated tee, wind slightly in your face, pin front right, water surrounding the green. A hard four-iron gets the front third of the green and a chance at a birdie, a Rescue 3 clears the water easily but works to the back of the green and might be too much, plus the green slopes back to front and the back bunker is no good at all. The shot is really the four, although a miss-hit is almost surely wet. The…

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10 Smart Things Golfers Can Do to Help Their Games

By Wayne | Articles , Articles: Becoming a Better Player

“‘How long will it take me to master aikido?’, a prospective student asks. ‘How long do you expect to live?’ is the only respectable response. Ultimately, practice is the path of mastery. If you stay on it long enough, you’ll find it to be a vivid place, with its ups and downs, its challenges and comforts, its surprises, disappointments, and unconditional joys. You’ll take your share of bumps and bruises while traveling–bruises of the ego as well as of the body, mind, and spirit–but it might well turn out to be the most reliable thing in your life. Then, too, it might eventually make you a winner in your chosen field, if that’s what you’re looking for, and then people will refer to you as a master.

Pro Tip of the Week: Iron Swing vs. Driver Swing

By Wayne | Articles: Becoming a Better Player

It would be nice if one swing would work fine for every shot. Certainly, every swing has elements that are similar or even exactly the same, but if you are going to drive the ball well and hit your irons well you are going to have to make adjustments. The key factor here is that with an iron the ball is on the ground (if you’re on a par 3 and can use a tee you should still tee it up low enough to simulate a very good lie in the fairway) while the driver is teed about halfway above the top of the face of the driver, a good inch and a half off the ground.

Pro Tip of the Week: Get Better at Lining Up

By Wayne | Articles: Becoming a Better Player

After teaching for 30 years one thing I can tell you for sure is that the average player is not very good at aiming. Aligning properly for a golf shot is difficult because, unlike shooting a gun or a bow and arrow (or most other activities that require aim) in golf you have to stand to the side of the target line and figure out how to get your body and you club to be square (perpendicular) to that line.

Pro Tip of the Week: Lessons are for Learning New Things

By Wayne | Articles: Becoming a Better Player

One of the problems I have observed over my 30 years of teaching is that a lot of students tend to view a lesson as a “fix” to a particular problem they are experiencing. I have heard the phrase “help me, just don’t change me” enough times to realize that the person who believes this is possible has probably played the game at the same level for many years, the point being that if you want to improve you are going to have to learn some new concepts about the swing or the short game, and you are going to have to try to change what you are doing presently to something better.

The Answer Man

By Wayne | Articles: Becoming a Better Player

I don’t claim to be the definitive source of knowledge when it comes to golf: these answers are opinions gleaned from decades of competitive golf and teaching, and are snapshots of what you would hear from me were you to come to me for a lesson.

The Right Kind of Practice

By Wayne | Articles: Becoming a Better Player

As you begin to read this article stop for a moment and think about where you are with your game. Things could be going very nicely, (you may have recently shot your best-ever round), or you could be mired in a dreadful slump, your handicap stranded on the “up” elevator. Most of us are probably somewhere in between, vacillating from good trend to bad. Whatever the case, we all have questions relating to the same subject- practice. How much should we be practicing? What should we be practicing? Where should we practice? How should we divide our practice time? How…

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Working On It

By Wayne | Articles: Becoming a Better Player

Ask any serious golfer how he or she is playing and you’re bound to hear, in some form or another, the same answer: “I’m working on it”. That one phrase sums up the essential nature of the game. Everyone is always “working on it”. The game demands it. The best player in the world can’t hit a fairway, and when he is asked about his struggles he constantly replies, “I’m working on it, it’s coming, and I feel like I’m moving in the right direction. I like what I’m working on.” The fact that everyone is “working on it” suggests…

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Why is it so Hard to Change?

By Wayne | Articles: Becoming a Better Player

If there is one thing that comes up most often in lessons I give to any level of player it concerns the difficulty in changing from an existing technique that is not providing satisfactory results to one that makes you a better player. This could include work on putting and all the facets involved with making putts (stroke mechanics, green reading ability, speed control, routine, mental approach), work on swing mechanics (how to hit every shot better and more consistently), short game technique (all types of pitches and chips, bunker play, shot selection, visualization), and a general approach to practice…

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