One day, out of the blue, my college golf coach brought us into a classroom on the 4th floor. We never met on the 4th floor before. He stood at the chalkboard and drew a flight of stairs, a bunch of steps. He added a stick figure at the top of the stairs. Then he said, "please write down, in great detail, how exactly you would walk down a long flight of stairs, in enough detail to train someone who never walked down a flight of stairs". He added, "I want to know about knee movement, weight transfer, where the arms are in relation to the body, swinging forward and back or not, where your eyes are looking, if your head is bent over looking down or not, etc".
Though the team was perplexed, everyone proceeded to write down the required movements, in detail, then each person presented their summary of "instructions" for comment. Some argued that A happens before B, D before B, etc. There was some intensity as people felt strongly about their "method". Some guys had sketches and diagrams for knee movements and even went so far as to demonstrate their precise movements.
Then the coach said, "Ok, Dave, come with me". Dave and Coach left the room and after about two minutes or so the Coach came back into the room without Dave. Then the coach called another guy and they left, then Coach came back without him too. Then the Coach called me. I'm thinking "maybe the guys who didn't come back were cut from the team?". The coach took me to the top of the stairs down the hall from the room and said, "Ok, I want you to walk down this flight of stairs based upon the detailed instructions you presented, and don't hold onto the railing because you should be an expert at this".
Guess what? After the third step, I grabbed the railing! The Coach laughed and said, "you too!!". Then he said, "get out to the field with the other guys".
He gathered us on the range and said "your golf swing takes about as long as moving down the first step or two of the stairwell for which all of you experts panicked and grabbed the railing". He added "who here was comfortable trying to think of every move to walk down those stairs?" Nobody raised their hand. Then he said, "Ok, while many things we do require some form of thought, we can't possibly think of every single detail required in a golf swing. If you do, your brain will grab that railing during your swing". "You guys cannot have more than one or two thoughts".
The moral of the story was to stop over-thinking while playing golf and narrow down a series of movements into one or two condensed thoughts.
Hi again today I played a 9 hole round My HC is 19.4 today all come together I shot 6 par and3 bogeys, I had 5 birdy puts . Thank again Tom Sagutu 👍💪😀⛳🇧🇻
Thank you I just have to continue with my shorth game ,,,👍😀💪
Great story! I think your comment about lacking the confidence to go "all in" on S&T, meaning you felt more comfortable to retain elements of your "old swing" along with elements of S&T is probably (at least in my opinion) the #1 reason people say they "tried S&T" but it "didn't work" for them.
In reality, they didn't really try because their brain wouldn't allow them to let go of their old swing habit(s) and as such, they believed they could sprinkle in some S&T into a flawed swing and somehow all would be well. Actually, they ended up creating a weird "hybrid swing" that was worse than when they started.
The fundamentals of S&T are fairly easy to learn which I believe throws people off because they've been told "golf is hard", "you need to hit millions of balls to be any good". Whenever I hear these statements I remind them of the Junior Drive Chip & Putt contests where 9-year-olds are hitting 200-yard drives, and they started golf when they were 7 years old. Or remind them that Tiger Woods was on the Merv Griffin show when he was 2 years old demonstrating a perfect golf swing.
The one thing I have found is the golf swing and brain need time to adjust to each other. This adjustment reminds me of when I was learning to play the piano. One day out of nowhere, after an incredible about of frustration, my left hand started cooperating to play the bass clef notes and chords. I could not tell my left hand to perform, it simply happened out of nowhere. That said, music notes require consistent execution for which notes define a specific correct fingering method of execution. That's why playing scales help folks play songs.
As I've stated before, the learning process for piano is similar to S&T because there's a certain path (with some playable deviations of course) to swing the golf club...certain positions and sequential movements. No matter how weird they feel, the movements must be consistently practiced and performed properly, otherwise, the brain will become confused and not adjust to the desired movements. Tom's drills are like playing piano scales. The drills help define the baseline movements to play a song or swing a club. If the baseline fundamentals are not in place, the body (fingers for piano) gets out of position and everything goes to pot because the efficiency of correct baseline movements (fingering for piano) is lost.
Hi I have been trying out Tom Sagutu golf swing for 2 months on the golf ranch with stack and tilt.What should i say i was i frustrated almost all the time.I was almost giving up but i kept it going, and thanks for that 😀 . When I played on the court I did not have self-confidence so it was a mix between my usual golf swing and stack and tilt. For 3 days ago I went straight to the course without hitting balls on the ranch, I have always had a fast golf swing with a lot of arm use and with a natural draw or drawhook. I played a lot god golf but no stability just frustrating. Im hiting about 135 meter carry whit my ordinary swing with the piching wedge. The first tee is about 136 meters to the middle of the green I took a 9iron hit calmly with stack and tilt it just banged it landed on the green with a small draw. On 2 tee iI usually hit a drive but i changed to a 4 iron, hitting a calm shot the ball went a total of 200meters. I had many good strokes on that round especially the iron strokes sit perfectly. but with the driver and the short game didn't not work so well this round. With the driver I pushed every shot very much to the right about 40 to 90 meters from the center but still it went about 210 meter. And the short game i have to practise. I played a round yesterday without warming up on the range, I hit a calm swing with 9 irons on the first tee is 135 meters to the middle an green, I hit 10 meters too far. I had to ask my partner what happened, you hit a calm swing but you hit perfectly he said. This is unbelievable all of a sudden all the pieces fall into place with the irons is a huge game change for me. So now i just hit a golfshot whitout thinking i just play the shot.its amazing how much self-confidence I have gained with my iron club's. That 90% is mental in golf is completely true. from being an over frustrated length oriented thinking 60 year old golfer with back and knee problems have all the pieces fallen into place quite naturally. I can complete an 18 hole round of golf without back and knee pain. I could not do that before, many thanks to Tom Sagutu stack and tilt that has made it possible Sorry for my bad English
I was doing 3 swing thoughts - shoulder to the ball/head still/buttons down. After watching Tom’s crispy episode I am going with only one - buttons down. I find that’s the most important task for me - staying down thru the swing.
I recently adopted “Think Box Play Box”. One of the hardest things I’ve ever done is to NOT think in the play box. Don’t why it’s so hard to not think.
I wanted to add one more quick thing. I play the piano. There are times that I sit down and cannot play a certain piece of music well, one I've already "mastered". I have NO idea why, but it happens. However, I can come back an hour later and play the SAME piece just fine. My point is I think we need to "allow" ourselves some leeway in golf and not get all uptight when we hit some bad shots, or start off poorly. Just stick it out and be happy you can play the game in the first place. Positive and happy mindset goes a LONG way towards better play, and especially putting.
On that subject. Yesterday I played with two unknown guys and my wife. Had some clutter in the first couple of holes, however I had my 1st eagle, along with 2 birdies. Shot 38, a first, on the front. I think I lost my focus on the back, with added swing thoughts. Ended up shooting 57 on the back. Same course last week where I shot a 86. The journey continues.
Thanks! Someday I will post my "walking across a 3-foot wide board" analogy which in my case explained why I would hit well on the range, then out of nowhere some weird swings materialized on the course, and also putting well on the putting green then suddenly the yips attacked me on the course.
Who hasn't experienced the utter frustration of topping a drive off the 1st tee while everyone is watching just after hitting great drives on the range? Or completely botching a 2-foot putt on the course when 20 minutes earlier, we made 20 in a row from 4 feet on the putting green.
Great story, @GolfLivesMatter - thanks so much for sharing!! I'll go ahead and pin it to draw more attention to it.
Please...anyone whose head is cluttered with swing thoughts, read this story first, and then watch yesterday's KFC Club video on this same topic!!
Awesome story! So true. We get in our heads when out on the course. Ok to do that on the range but your story is a great reminder that we need to let it all go when we get on the course.
This is awesome stuff! Thanks for sharing that story!