Confessions of a Hacker – See ball, hit ball
I was watching The PLAYERS Championship over the weekend and in particular, the struggles of Kevin Na. Despite being in contention for the title over the weekend (he led the field after 54 holes), the poor guy had seemingly lost all faith in his swing, judging by the number of times he got halfway through the backswing and then promptly pulled out of the shot. It all became too much on the final day as he posted a 76 to fall out of contention. Any club golfer worth their salt has done likewise at some stage, be it a particular ‘nemesis’ hole, a particular type of shot or a day where you simply cannot keep the ball in play. Some days the mental hurdles feel insurmountable. But how do you get past it?
Let me flip that question around – do you know who doesn’t suffer from such ‘freezes’ or mental hurdles with a golf club in hand? I’ll give you a moment to ponder that……………. time’s up – the answer is little kids. Watch them at a driving range, a pitch and putt course or wherever and you’ll quickly see what I mean.
Little kids don’t feel the burden of expectations, because frankly they don’t know what ‘burden’ or ‘expectations’ even mean. They are far superior to most adult golfers at staying in the moment. An airswing might draw a slightly more concentrated look at the ball for the next attempt, but nothing more. A ball that dribbles along the ground for a few metres or veers off at a 45-degree angle to the target is fine because at the end of the day, that has achieved the stated objective. See ball, hit ball.
A couple of weeks back, CBS (an American TV station) teaching guru Bob Kostis did an analysis of Rory McIlory’s swing, but with an unusual twist – the screen was split in two, with three year-old Rory on the left and tour pro Rory on the right. Older Rory’s swing was naturally more compact and technically sound, but by and large the two sequences were the same. Certainly the ‘vibe’ of both swings was the same – use your arms and shoulders to give the ball a fair old smack, with the body simply turning back and forward naturally to accommodate such a swipe at the ball. See ball, hit ball.
Think about your own game – how often do you get caught up in too many swing thoughts simultaneously? Take it back low, make a full shoulder turn, don’t clear your hips too early, let your weight shift forward on the downswing, etc. Or perhaps even worse, your thoughts are cluttered by the situation on that hole e.g. I need to get up and down here to salvage a bogey, this tee shot needs to find the fairway so that I can get home in two, or whatever. Those thoughts do more to hurt the process of a good shot than to help it.
Golf is a game where so often, less is actually more. Many of us, and perhaps even Kevin Na given his current dilemmas, may benefit from recapturing a piece of our far simpler youth. See ball, hit ball.
Previous ‘Confessions of a Hacker’ columns:
(1) Seeking help, (2) Racking them up, (3) Holding your nerve, (4) Five-foot putts, (5) Letting the Big Dog eat, (6) Slow play, (7) Trust the yardage , (8) Learning from low markers, (9) Learning from high markers, (10) Playing in the sandpit, (11) Shaping your shots, (12) Missing one-foot putts, (13) New sticks, (14) Perspective, (15) Bad company, (16) Practice with purpose
