One Under Par

A Newsletter from KeyGolf.....February, 2003

[We could not resist a preamble to this issue of our Newsletter. While going through a final edit, we heard Peter Kostis make the following remark at the Bob Hope Chrysler - (They are finding out that they) "have to try hard to not try hard." Our comment is, "That's a real barn-burner." Clearly Kostis must not have heard about anxiety as it relates to anything, let alone golf. All you have to do is "try hard" and you will bust your bubble with some degree of anxiety. That's like "Don't look at the sand bunker." You have to see it first in order "not to see it," and the damage is done. We wish that somewhere along the way, commentators would do a little research before they blunder into poorly judged and misleading statements.

Later, Jim Nance said (David Duval) "doesn't look like he's having fun." Jim needs to understand behavior styles. David is just doing what his style calls for. Whether that's "fun" or not, David would have to say. We've watched him play since his junior years back in the 80's. He was the same then. That's his style.] from the Ed. Now on to the content for the month.

Vital Habits for Golf

We read and hear much about the "need" for stressing fundamentals in learning golf, as in Ben Hogan's "Five," we suppose.

Not that Hogan's way is the only one, but surely if a golfer put the actions he described in his book into habit, any player would likely do fairly well at the game. Of course, the same could be said for several other classics on golf. Which leaves us with a rather profound question. Why is it that so many search for a great game plan, and having found it, proceed to try to "lock it in" but never seem to quite get the job finished? Being human probably explains part of it, but not all.

What is so curious about the unfinished business so evident in golf is its contrast with other things we do. There is a huge number of things we do regularly by habit. On a daily basis, those things are connected to most everything we do in life. Notice that we do not have to "learn" them (again) every time we get ready to use them. The implication, then, is that for one reason or another, either we are not getting our habits built in golf or we have so much anxiety about what we are trying to do that even if habits are formed, they may not come out to play. (You've heard us say, many times, "Golfers tend to rush to the range before they play to see if their swings survived last night's sleep.").

What is remarkable about the recurring messages involving the main-frames of golf is how rarely the word "habit" gets mentioned. For golf, the two expressions most used are "skill" and "muscle memory" when referring to process developmental goals. Both of those are misleading. Skill is the ancestor of habit, but different from it, and muscle memory is no more than a "hip" disguise for the meaning of the word "habit," or as some use it, an apologetic "synonym" for physiological muscle conditioning. Muscle conditioning is not the same as habit development, albeit, an important part of building the game.

If you choose to pursue the idea and essence of a "skill," you will likely create a mental picture (and, hence, an objective) that prejudices your opportunity to form useful habits. You may finally come upon a habit or two, but you aren't likely to know it, and that's no better than useless. If you chase "muscle memory," which is usually done via a recipe that simply urges repetition and practice (but most often lacks definition of what to repeat and how to practice) the best you can hope for is strengthened muscles. If you did equate that to building a repeatable swing, take note that it doesn't work that way. It may support a repeatable swing, but you still need the habits that the conditioning supports. And even if habits should form in default, unless you understand how the automatic principle works, you may find yourself playing with a locked up storehouse.

Of course, somewhere along the way, the "habit word" may slip out, in connection with grip, stance, posture, alignment, ball position, swing plane, takeaway, impact position and finish. But who takes the idea of habit development seriously? Or if it appears to be taken seriously, one only has to be a careful (educated) observer to notice that the operant mental image is apt to be stuck on "skill," not "habit."

The need for golfers to develop habits is fundamental and elementary. Without them, one can never say "I was on auto pilot," and have it mean anything, other than one of those days that everything worked "right." If you asked that person how is was done, he/she wouldn't be able to explain it. Countless times, the commentator asks the tour player "What happened today that you played so well?" The response invariably is "I really don't know what happened, I just got in a groove. I only hope I can keep it going." And how many times did the player "keep it going?"

You can't play effectively on automatic without habits and you can't elevate skills to the habit level without understanding how automatic works and how to put yourself there. You may, if you understand the principle, play on automatic without pre-determined habits, but that will leave you vulnerable to whatever your system may have created by default. That can come out on almost any scale. It may be comforting for a player to say "I was on automatic today," but that may be no more than a cliche, unless the process has been thoroughly mastered by the speaker.

Without habits, players tend to be left to a "search for it" mode. The search will tend to show itself in conscious form, especially under pressure, and consequently removed from anything described as automatic.

But that is only the beginning. We are faced, all of us, with an additional and sizeable concern. What habits will we need to have? That is, after we have mastered something resembling the principles Hogan talked about. Or Homer Kelley, or Peggy Kirk Bell, or Ernest Jones, or Bobby Jones, or Kathy Whitworth, or Jack Nicklaus, or Gary Player, or Steve Elkington, or Sandra Haynie, or Al Geiberger, or Bob Toski, or Jim McClain, or Carol Mann, or Jim Flick, or any one of several hundred others we could name - all of whom may present a seemingly "different method." They surely have adhered to some set of principles, but may try to teach, via technique, (for the sake of showing a "difference" from others), which could possible leave a student a bit bewildered.

Now what should we listen to? The principles, lads and lassies! The principles! And you will need to hear, especially, Homer Kelley's message that you cannot mix and match, when it comes to principles. Sure you can make some personal choices when it comes to technique, but not with principles.

Having said that, we all need to understand that principles will inform basic skill development, and in turn the skill will "inform" any succeeding mastery, (the habit that is born from the mastered skill). Technique is how you and I, and/or our instructors, interpret, and put into action, a principle, to suit our own personal size, shape, background, behavior style, dexterity and taste, or the instructors' preferences. You cannot teach or learn "technique." Technique is exactly what any of us display when we take on a principle and put it into action. That's part of the individual difference that goes with being human. The affirmation, then, needs to be that no matter who you are in this game, be careful to distinguish between genuine principles and the speciality techniques that will invariably mark each of us.

So now break down the principles into smaller bites, keeping always in mind that the objective is to get to a place that allows you to play every shot effectively on automatic because your habits are well developed. The following is not meant to be an exhaustive list. It illustrates the direction we need to take. It will help, if it does no more than take note of why "band-aid" measures really don't do much for this game. It will also honor the principle that you cannot flit back and forth between manual and automatic in this game. Some things are done completely on manual and some things are done completely on automatic (or need to be). Nothing can be done on semi-atuo or semi-manual. There are no such animals in golf.

We need the following habits, among others, skills first, of course:

• Doing pre-shot planning before each shot.
• Maintaining the same time frame in getting from pre-shot to set-up.
• Incorporating alignment into address, without having to check on it after you get to set-up.
• Keeping the same time-frame at address.
• Moving to execution, again in a constant time-frame.

If we get those things right, they support all of the splendid elements of the actual swing, in whatever proportions you have learned it. You may wonder why all of those need to happen, and in the same time frames. For executing on automatic, habits must be there so as not to cancel the automatic process. If you have to stop and go to manual in the middle of the process, you kill automatic. In addition, the human system simply cannot function consistently if it is being forcibly knee-jerked by a rapidly fluctuating approach. Clutch in, out, back in, back out is not likely to help you drive your car smoothly. It certainly won't help the human system with balance and rhythm as you approach a golf shot either.

In other words, and to be as brief as possible, a player who wishes to be, in reality (to use a currently popular term), on automatic, will need to have all of those skills we have believed to be, and used as important, built into habits, firmly enough so as not to interrupt the flow of what the golfer does, from the moment he/she arrives at the ball until it is in flight to its target. If that same golfer chooses to make all of that specifically effective, that golfer will need to have pre-determined the habit development he/she brings to the course.

If that does not happen, one might as well stay with skills, forget the automatic principle and just keep on doing what we've always done and settle for the result we've always had. As we all know, it hasn't really changed in a very long time.

There's neither magic, nor secret here. Just a set of true principles that can't be ignored, except at a price. Here lies the path to the "zone," the end of the "yips," and to a serious handicap reduction. It is not reserved for only the genetically talented. Even the average player can benefit. May not make it to the tour, but at least to a more satisfying game.

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