Hello fellow members, I think I have a good one for you all.
I found Saguto golf after watching one of Tom's videos about keeping the left arm straight and putting more weight on the left side. These two changes transformed my golf swing and game, which is why I became a member. Since finding this secret sauce I have practiced diligently almost every day for over a month hitting anywhere form 50 to 200+ practice shots into a net or using practice balls in the yard. The problem is our conscious minds can only think of one thing at a time so while my swing has improved and I am hitting the ball better than any time in my life, it’s not fully ingrained into my subconscious and my old habits tend to creep in.
Which brings me to the point of this post. I read the book Peak, by Anders Eircsson and in that book he discusses how we learn and what it takes to become an expert at something - oh and BTW, contrary to popular belief, the science has shown people are not born with a special "talent" they are not "gifted" they just practiced more, or more importantly - better, to become experts. One of the main concepts to making learning more effective is something called “deliberate practice”, which in basic terms is practicing with a purpose. Your mind can learn better and quicker using deliberate practice techniques. I learned about the book Peak and fundamentals of deliberate practice through another golf instructor and know, through my own experience, it is a very effective methodology.
But…I had forgotten about the book and deliberate practice when I first started implementing these swing changes. Since then I have come up with a plan to use deliberate practice so I can learn better and faster. And since I find it more natural to keep my left arm straight, I am going to start with keeping the weight on my left side and have created a deliberate practice plan to get this swing component ingrained into my subconscious mind.
One concept of deliberate practice is to create examples for our brain of what you want to achieve, or in the case of the golf swing….feel, and examples of what you do not want to feel. Sort of like a Goldilocks method I guess you could say. Studies have shown it can take up to 1000+ repetitions or more before something is ingrained into our subconscious minds. To that end, using the Goldilocks method each practice cycle will have three components or swings;
1) One swing with way to much weight on my left side - so really exaggerated
Tell myself (brain) that is too much
2) One swing with no weight on my left side, again very exaggerated
Tell myself that is not enough
3) One swing with 60% of my weight on my left side – which is what I want to feel….my goal
Tell my self this is just right
These are all done without a ball which is really important.
I plan to do 300 repetitions of this (so yeah 900 swings), probably over a two or three day period. Since I am not using a ball I can also do them indoors (with a short iron so I don’t hit my ceiling). Once I hit the 300 I am going to do 200 more cycles, but add a ball on the third (good) swing. Once I get this down I will move on to keeping my left arm straight. Not sure yet on the three Goldilocks steps, but I can probably cut down on the number of cycles since I found it more natural to keep my left arm straight. Depending on how significant the change is for you or how much you are struggling, you can add or reduce the number of cycles, however, based on my experience I would not recommend less than 200. If you see some improvement, but still have an occasional slip, do more cycles.
I also have a swing thought I use which is to pause slightly at the top of my backswing. When I do it just seems to really help me with my timing. I will probably use a deliberate practice method for this one too, but for now I use it on the course as my single swing thought and put the rest of my swing on automatic. My goal is to have no swing thoughts so I can focus on visualizing the shot or the target – which for me is the best swing thought.
Anyway fellow members, I thought I would share that with you all. I have read other posts from members who are struggling with falling back into their old way of swinging. Since S&T is such a significantly different feel, deliberate practice could be a real good method to help make the change(s) second nature, easier and faster. I hope you find this valuable.
Cheers,
AE
@alan_edwards Thanks for sharing your journey with us Alan. It puts the human perspective in the game. I’ve probably hit about a bazillion golf balls at the driving range and into my backyard net. The longer time I’ve spent learning Tom’s method the easier the game has become to me. I have found that the most important aspect to getting better at this game is not necessarily practice by itself. It’s remembering that this is just a game and to have fun. Keep it crispy Alan!