Why Henry Hates Golf – The Conclusion

If you have not read Part I or II of ‘Why Henry Hates Golf’, you may be asking yourself “Who is Henry?” Henry is a frustrated Golfer and is in need of some helpful advice about the game of golf. If you missed Part I or II and would like to read how we got to this point, email InstructorForLife@GolfMadeSimple.com , type ‘Why Henry Hates Golf’ in the subject line and we’ll email you the first two parts. So we left off last week’s ‘Why Henry Hates Golf’ speaking about how to get the golf ball up in the air. The common fallacy in golf is that you need to get underneath the golf ball to get it up in the air. And if you try to get underneath the golf ball – you’re probably going to either hit behind the golf ball (meaning the ground before the golf ball – which is never good to do, unless you’re in a sand bunker next to the green) or you’re going to avoid hitting the ground by compensating in some way that will have you hitting the top of the golf ball. How do I know that most Golfers are trying to get underneath the golf ball? Because that’s what they tell me they’re trying to do. Either I ask the Golfer – “Where on the golf ball do you need to hit with your club to make it go up in the air?” And the answer 7 out of 8 times is “underneath it”. Or I hear the Golfer on the golf course say – “I didn’t get underneath that one!” after they hit a topped shot that is skidding down the fairway. Unfortunately, many Golfers have heard the phrase – “You need to hit down on the golf ball” – which can be true to a certain extent. However, if you hit straight down on the top of the golf ball, would it go up? No, of course not! It would go straight down into the ground! So as it often times happens – a Golfer will try hitting down on the golf ball, see horrible results and then abandon that concept forever. Which is unfortunate because although they tried it, it probably wasn’t explained and demonstrated properly to them. You know how the Professionals do it? They hit the golf ball first, and then they hit the ground. Which is a lot different than hitting down on the golf ball. And I’m sure many Golfers have heard that and have even tried to do it. Though, many of the Golfers that have tried to do this have unfortunately failed to get the results they desired. So after a few unsuccessful attempts, we give it up and go back to what we’ve been trying to do before – “I need to get better at getting underneath the Golf Ball.” Why is it so hard to do? Well, I believe that it’s more of not understanding the concept of what makes the golf ball go up in the air, rather than a lack of skill by the Golfer. And it’s understandable that many Golfers don’t understand what makes the golf ball go up since all we hear from most of the Golf Magazines, Golf Channels and Golf Internet Chat Rooms is about the swing plane or how to turn your shoulders for more power or How to Hit a Stinger Shot Like Tiger or stupid concepts like something called a Stack and Tilt (a Stack and What?). Those points might have some value to somebody – well they probably have a lot of value to the person coming up with these gimmicks and selling them to you. But are they helping you? To understand the concept of what makes the golf ball go up in the air – you first need to block out all the other Golf Noise you’re bombarded with – turn-off all The Monkey Talk. Then when you have a clear mind, you can start to understand how hitting the back of the golf ball with your club as it moves forward helps to create the force that will make the golf ball go up. The combination of the Loft (the angle of your clubface), the force of your club moving on a downward angle as it moves forward, the grooves on your club and the backspin – this combination of factors are what make the golf ball go up in the air. “Okay Marc, I understand that concept – how do I do it?” To make sure you hit the golf ball first, before the ground – you shouldn’t have to think about hitting the golf ball first. It’s not like you’re saying to yourself – “OK, I need to guide my golf club into the back of the golf ball as I swing down.” If that’s what you’re thinking, then you’re probably stinking! Being able to hit the golf ball first so that the golf ball goes up in the air can be accomplished if you’re able to control your Center of Gravity. Your Center of Gravity controls the direction of your golf club. And your golf club controls the direction of your golf ball. “Well Marc, how do I learn to control my Center of Gravity?” The best place to start is working with an exceptional Golf Instructor that has achieved positive results for other Golfers while using drills like ‘The Weight on the Front Foot Drill’ and the ‘Stepping Drill’, along with a few other drills that allow you to Feel your golf swing. Henry, I believe you should finally just give in and sign-up for a 3 day GMS program. So Henry signed up and attended a 3 day GMS Program – and now the story of Henry’s golf game has changed its title to ‘Why Henry Loves Golf!’ Believe me, this isn’t a fairy tale – this story is true. Are you ready to change the title of your Golf Story? Go ahead, be a Player! Regards, Marc Solomon – Your Instructor For Life Do you still need to see more about Golf Made Simple? Then click here to see a new video that tells you more about the Golf Made Simple Golfer Improvement Program, along with why we’re so much more valuable and effective than a 30 minute golf lesson.

Continued here:
Why Henry Hates Golf – The Conclusion

Why Henry Hates Golf Part II!

Why Henry Hates Golf Part II! “Well Henry, first you’ll need to find where your strengths and weaknesses are in order to really know where you need to practice.” “Marc I know what my strengths and weaknesses are; that’s easy. My short game is the strongest part of my game. And my driver is my weakest. I can pretty much chip on to the green and 2-putt every time. I just have trouble hitting the fairways. If I can hit more fairways, my scores will drop instantly!” Henry said. I could see Henry starting to get the look of dreaming of what it would be like to hit the golf ball great every time. “Henry, before we just say that the strong part of your game is your short game and your weak point is your driving, let’s do some games and see what the results show us.” Henry answered before my lips stopped moving like he was waiting for me to stop talking. “There’s no need, my Driver is definitely 100% of the problem. If I can hit it consistently, I can score in the low 80’s. Let’s just start there. Whenever I’ve been to a golf lesson, we just started hitting golf balls with a 7-iron and moved into the Driver after about 15 minutes. Why don’t we just start there?” “We could just start there, but that hasn’t helped you in the past has it?” I asked Henry in a semi-sarcastic voice. “Well, it helped a little,” Henry, whispered. “I guess I got better for a little bit, but it didn’t last long. Did that Pro and I work on the wrong thing in my golf swing?” Henry asked. “Maybe we should’ve worked more on the swing plane of my golf swing. Marc are we going to put my swing on video to work on the swing plane?” “Henry, if you want to start to see improvement, you must start looking at golf improvement in a different way. We need to start calling everything you did before today as ‘your past’ and everything starting now as ‘your present’. The way you’ve been going about trying to play better golf in ‘your past’ has not worked. It has brought you mostly aggravation and disappointment because you haven’t played up to your expectations and people you know that you should beat, are beating you routinely.” I continued, “Keep this thought in your mind – The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results. If you adapt this quote to golf, it’s what you and 1000’s of Golfers like you are doing – Practicing the same things over and over and expecting to see improvements. In order to see improvements in your game you must start practicing smarter. You must find what your weaknesses truly are. Most Golfers that I see assume they know what their weaknesses are – yet in reality, what they think are their weaknesses are their really strengths! So they spend most of their time practicing their strengths, instead of practicing their weaknesses. That’s one reason they don’t improve.” “So you are saying that although I feel my weakness is my driving, that my driving is probably my strength? And that my short game is my weakness? OK, so let’s start! Where do we go from here?” Henry asked. “We are going to start with your ball striking” I said. “What club, 7-iron?” Henry asked. “Henry, lets start with your sand wedge.” Henry in a somewhat puzzled voice asked, “Sand Wedge? Are we going in the sand?” “No Henry, we aren’t going in the sand. We’re going to test your ball striking with your sand wedge. The thought being, if you can’t hit your sand wedge solid from 15 yards off the green with a short stroke, what are the chances of you hitting a solid 5-iron from 175-yards onto the green?” I continued as we walked towards the practice green, “I want you to hit these 10 balls into that box I made on the green.” I had already made what we call ‘The Box’, by putting 4-Bamboo Sticks in the ground around the hole. Each Stick is placed 6-feet from the hole and it makes the shape of a square. “Henry, when you can hit 7 out of 10 golf balls into The Box, we’ll move on. But, we’ll continue to practice trying until you can get 7 out of 10 in The Box. The thought being, if you’re not hitting the ball consistent enough to get 7 into box from 15 yards away, what are your chances of consistently hitting a 5-iron or driver solid on a full swing?” “Well Marc, that’s a fair assessment.” “Henry, before we start, I want to give you some statistics of the results of a few levels of Golfers because if you don’t know what’s expected of you and don’t have goals to shoot for, it’s very hard to get to the next level. The average 90-shooter gets 4 in the box. The average 80-shooter gets 8 in the box and the average 2-handicap gets 10 in the box and 1 in the hole.” Henry started chipping: The 1st chip was short of The Box, 2nd long, 3rd in The Box. 4th was short, 5th was short, 6th in The Box. 7th short, 8th in The Box, 9th short and 10th in The Box. “Henry, lets look at your results so we can see where we need to go next. You had 4 in the box, 5 short and 1 long. What does that tell you?” “Marc it says that I need to practice my chipping. It also shows that half my balls where not just short of the hole, but short of the box and the front of the box is a good 7-feet short of the hole. The ones in the box are pretty good and I could probably putt those into the hole. But, that says I am only getting up-n-down 4 out of 10 times from just off the green. Do you see this often from people that think their short game is the best part of their game?” Henry asked, even though he knew what my answer would be. “Without a doubt. And we play this game not only for your short game and seeing how many times you can get up-n-down, but it also tells us about your ball striking. We can’t forget that if 5 of your balls are more than 7-feet short, 4 are in the box and 1 is more than 7 feet long, from such a short distance, how can you expect to be consistent with longer more difficult clubs from longer more difficult distances?” “So Marc, what you’re saying is that I need to practice more around the greens, until I become more consistent with the sand wedge before I start practicing my other clubs?” Henry offered. “Yes, but I think you’ll improve and be moving on to the next clubs faster than you think. Karate has done a much better job than golf has in letting the participants play to their skill level.” Henry blurted out, “Karate!?” “Yes Henry, Karate. In Karate you’re given a belt according to your skill level. The lower belts like a white belt knows his or her skill level isn’t as high as a black belts skill level, so you practice skills that will get you to the next level which is yellow. Then when you are a yellow, you practice skills that will help you move on to an orange belt, and then so on up to a black belt. But, a white, yellow or orange for that matter, know they can’t do the same things as a black belt. If they did, they’d probably end up hurting themselves. So their practice is set-up to help them work on their way up the order of belts.” “So Marc, are you saying that I am a white belt that is trying to play like a black belt? And that that has been hurting my progress?” Henry offered. “Henry, you’re the best! Yes, that’s what I’m saying. We watch golf on television and we see Tiger hitting a 3-wood from 250-yards from the green and we think we should play the same shot as Tiger. But, Tiger is a Black Belt.” Henry interjected with laughter “Tiger’s probably a 10th degree Black Belt in golf terms!” “Henry, you’re right. You on the other hand are probably a Yellow Belt in golf. You shouldn’t be trying to practice the same stuff as Tiger. You need to practice the things that’ll get you to be an Orange Belt, which is the equivalent of a high 80’s shooter. And that’s what we’re going to speak about right now!” “Henry, what makes the golf ball go up in the air? ” Henry answered, “loft.” “Yes Henry, loft is part of the answer, but what makes the golf ball go up and stay up?” “Getting underneath the golf ball?” Henry said with a semi-puzzled look. “Not really” I said. “My thought is this – If you don’t know what truly makes the golf ball go up in the air, how are you going to be able to do it consistently? What makes the golf ball go consistently up in the air for every club, not just the sand wedge, but every club is…” Look for the solution that will help Henry become a more consistent Golfer in next week’s Golf Made Simple Golf Improvement Weekly as Marc outlines what it takes to become more consistent and confident. Go ahead, be a Player! Your Instructor For Life Click here to see a new video that tells you more about the Golf Made Simple Golfer Improvement Program, along with why we’re so much more valuable and effective than a 30 minute golf lesson. A Special Bonus! This week we’re giving you a link to watch a segment of the GMS DVD – How To Improve Your Golf Swing Indoors – which is now the “#1 Selling Golf Swing DVD on Amazon.com”. And as we know that many of you have already purchased this DVD – and some may have actually taken the plastic wrapper off the case and popped it into your DVD player – it would be a good refresher to watch this clip again. This clip shows two GMS Swing Drills – The Belly Swing Drill and the Modified Belly Swing Drill. Then, after the demonstration of the two swing drills, we go into the exercise that accompanies these Drills – push-ups for 3 different levels. In fact – Dr. Z, from Calgary, Alberta, Canada (he’s traveled to see GMS in Palm Springs twice), recommends the DVD to his patients even if they’re not Golfers. He tells them – “Listen, since you don’t play golf – just fast forward through the golf drills. The exercises are excellent and they will really strengthen your core and relieve a lot of your back pain.” To view a segment that covers the Belly Swing Drill and Modified Belly Swing Drill, along with 3 different levels of Push-ups, email us at: pushup@golfmadesimple.com with the words ‘World Golf’ in the subject line to receive a link and password to access the video segment from our DVD. “#1 Selling Golf Swing DVD on Amazon.com”

Continued here:
Why Henry Hates Golf Part II!

Why Henry Hates Golf!

“I hate this game! I hate it! Why do I play this stupid game? I quit – I’m never playing again!” Henry blasted himself. I heard Henry as he was walking to his car and wondered why he was so down on himself. Henry is a hard worker, I see him at least once a week hitting balls on the practice range. I’ll be going to the first tee with a Golf Made Simple class to do our on-course Instruction and there will be Henry banging balls on the practice range – one after another – “looking for the magic”. I approached Henry and asked – “What is wrong? Why do you hate golf? The last time I saw you practicing on the range, you had a smile on your face and you gave me the thumbs up.” Henry says, “Marc, I’m so frustrated with this game. I put everything I got into trying to play better. And just when I think I got it, I go out on the course, like I did today. I…I…I…I go out and embarrass myself. I get so mad by the 7th or 8th hole that I can’t even bring myself to play the back 9 holes.” “Henry those are the words of a frustrated golfer – or should I say – The words of a frustrated golfer that knows he could do better than he is doing. Do you really hate golf? Or are your expectations too high for your present skill level? I find it extremely important to truly know what your skill level is and then understand – ‘OK, this is what I score, at this point if I get upset at myself for every little mistake I make, I will never allow myself to get better!” Henry usually scores between 92 and 102 (except for the occasional ‘blow-up round’ where he scores around 107, but he also has rounds where his 1 mulligan a side allows him to stay in the high 90’s). Henry has a deep desire to break 90 for the first time. And on top of that, he has the desire to score in the low 80’s every time he plays. These are very admirable goals. So I said – “Henry, these are fantastic goals. And I know you’ll achieve them. First, we need to outline what aspects of your game you need to improve to reach these goals. Too many times Golfers feel as though if they go to the driving range once a week to hit golf balls, they should expect to get better.” “But Marc,” Henry said, “Isn’t hitting the ball better, the key to lower scores?” If I go to the range once a week, I should be able to hit one or two buckets and learn to hit the ball straight. This way I will soon be in the low 80’s.” “Henry, how long have you been trying to score in the low 80’s?” “For about 5 years”, Henry answered. “Henry, how long have you had the routine of going to the range and trying to hit the ball straight?” I could tell Henry could see where I was going by the bashful smile on his face. “Well Marc, I’ve been doing this on and off for 2 or 3 years. Is this not enough? Do I need to go to the range more often?” “Henry, before we say you need to go to the range more often, tell me what you do when you go to the range? What’s your routine? What’s your PLAN?” Henry looks at me and with a confused look in his eyes and says, “What do you mean by PLAN? I go out and hit golf balls and try to make them go straight down the middle. If I want to hit the ball better, I need to learn to hit the ball straight! If I can’t do that, I’ll never score in the low 80’s.” “ What I mean by PLAN is – what are you doing to learn to hit the ball straight? The key to playing better golf has many factors involved. And consistency is a factor.” “Yes, that’s what I want – consistency! That’s what I’m practicing – hitting the ball consistently straight. That’s why I go to the range!” Henry interrupted. “OK Henry, I understand. But, let’s look at a way we can put some consistency into your practice time. Many Golfers feel that if they pound ball after ball after ball, they will get it. I wish it were that easy. I’ve been around many great Players in my life and if there’s one thing they all have in common, it’s that they come to the practice range with a PLAN in their head on what they want to accomplish. “See most Golfers expect to go out to the range and learn to hit the ball straight in that one session. The better Players know that isn’t going to happen. They go to work on one thing at a time. They go to the range with the thought of working on one small aspect of their swing only – and it isn’t just trying to hit the ball straight.” I continued – “And the most important part of this routine is they do not venture away from their PLAN for that day. Most regular Golfers will go out to work just on hitting the ball straight. They might magically find something that works for a few swings and softly say to themselves ‘I got it, I got it’, and then just as fast as it appeared, it disappears. Henry, what does this Golfer do next? He starts to tinker with other things to try and recapture those straight shots. Then after a half-hour of tinkering with diminishing results, he leaves the range in frustration hating the game.” “That’s me! That’s me! Have you seen me at the range practicing and getting frustrated?” Henry asked. “Each time I go out to practice, I get ‘it’ – for a few swings. Then it disappears. I hate that!” “Well Henry, this happens to everybody – even the best Players. Though, you know why it doesn’t happen to them as much? Because they come to the practice range with a PLAN and they don’t venture from that PLAN. They stick with it and they don’t expect miracles. They know if they get just a little better every time they practice, that after a few times to the practice range, they will be that much better. But the average Golfer goes to the practice range thinking and expecting to solve all their swing flaws within hitting a few buckets of balls. So they always leave frustrated. How do the best Players leave each practice session? They leave like they accomplished something and can’t wait to practice again. They feel so much more satisfied with themselves than the regular Golfer. And that satisfaction turns into confidence on the golf course!” “I want to practice like that! I want to feel like I am getting better every time I’m on the practice range! I want to become more consistent!” Henry said with so much hope and energy. “Well Henry, first you’ll need to …” Look for the solution that will help Henry become more consistent in next week’s Golf Made Simple – Golf Improvement Weekly – as we outline what it takes to become more consistent and confident. What points were made in this Chapter of “Why Henry Hates Golf!” Set realistic expectations: If you’re scoring between 95 and 105 – it’s great to want to break into the 80’s, but first you need score a 93 before you can score an 89. If you put too much pressure on yourself to have to score 44 on the front nine, you’ll end up with a 49 instead. And knowing that you scored a 49 on the front nine might lead to put too much pressure on yourself to score a 40 on the back. What will happen on the back? Well, by the 15th hole when that 40 is out of reach … you’ll be happy to be walking off the 18th green with a 50-something for the back nine. Strive for small improvements week after week – rather than trying for huge improvements every time you play or practice. Go ahead, be a Player! Regards, Marc Solomon – Your Instructor For Life A Special Bonus! This week we’re giving you a link to watch a segment of the GMS DVD – How To Improve Your Golf Swing Indoors – which is now the “#1 Selling Golf Swing DVD on Amazon.com”. And as we know that many of you have already purchased this DVD – and some may have actually taken the plastic wrapper off the case and popped it into your DVD player – it would be a good refresher to watch this clip again. This clip shows two GMS Swing Drills – The Belly Swing Drill and the Modified Belly Swing Drill. Then, after the demonstration of the two swing drills, we go into the exercise that accompanies these Drills – push-ups for 3 different levels. In fact – Dr. Z, from Calgary, Alberta, Canada (he’s traveled to see GMS in Palm Springs twice), recommends the DVD to his patients even if they’re not Golfers. He tells them – “Listen, since you don’t play golf – just fast forward through the golf drills. The exercises are excellent and they will really strengthen your core and relieve a lot of your back pain.” To view a segment that covers the Belly Swing Drill and Modified Belly Swing Drill, along with 3 different levels of Push-ups, email us at: pushup@golfmadesimple.com with the words ‘World Golf’ in the subject line to receive a link and password to access the video segment from our DVD. “#1 Selling Golf Swing DVD on Amazon.com”

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Why Henry Hates Golf!