Five, count 'em, FIVE decades OR...if you're keeping score(that's 2 1/2 score) have taught me that there are basically two general types of golfers. GROUP I: those who watch a golf swing, let it hard wire directly into their own motor skills, have zero interest in the technical side and rewire their own swings in effect...they represent the 1% with pretty, effective, consistent, & powerful golf swings. Please find below words from a student who definitely fits in this elite group. Group I.
In part..."Jim, I so wanted to have the silky smooth swing that you have but could never get over the hump. I would always revert back to the bad habits that had been learned over a lifetime. I would tell myself that it just can't be as easy as Jim says it is! The breakthrough came when I started reading a book on THINKING. How changing our thoughts can change our reality. I felt brand new and full of energy! I pulled an "all-nighter" with your videos. Only this time... without the sound. I watched your swing over and over and over again. Jim, it was like I was actually "seeing" the swing for the first time. I went out and practiced the "swing" and to my absolute amazement...beautiful golf shots. Crisp, clean, pure contact. My mind wanted to tell me that it was a fluke but my thinking has changed. I am a golfer with a smooth, powerful, and beautiful swing. Thank you, Jim." Marlon Glenn, Inkster, MI.
Group II...Then there are those poor souls that can't take YES for an answer. Who insist that everything is complicated, complex, the Sun is fixin to burn out, and the sky is falling. They want all the ridiculous and non pertinent details that the man with the great golf swing never considered in the first place. This group invariably comes from an engineering, technical, academic, think inside the box, someone has to tell them when & how to PEE....background. It is very difficult to convenience this group that the great swings are simply copied by watching. You should try reaching this group of hard of hearing, sightless, lost at sea urchins...banging your head against a brick wall won't help one bit!
This group will forever have swings that appear contrived, robotic, and artificial. These golfers are incapable of swimming down stream or riding the horse the same way the horse wants to go. Rewiring for this group is very difficult, they speak a different language. Screaming louder and louder "where's the bathroom" to someone that speaks only Swahili is futile. Better, find a bush, quick. The information is right there in front of their face but their eyes are slammed shut and they have ear plugs...they flatly refuse to "learn the language....break the code" "watch & do..Keep it Simple" ...as Marlon, the golfer above, did.
This Group II Group, W-A-S-T-E their time searching for some mysterious secret somewhere beyond how a 7 year old will simply watch and copy. It can be very exasperating for both the instructor and the student if one decides that a great golf swing is acquired from the same technical approach an engineer would use. It's possible all the angels in heaven will never change their minds. It is so simple but these bull-headed mules refuse to budge. What to do? Brain surgery, hypnosis, threatening their life?...who knows?
The best way is the lazy man's way. "Hell, I don't have time for all the technical mechanics garbage. Show me a great swing and I will steal it"!
Warning.... YOU.... are wasting your valuable time with Group II!.. They're wired weird. You'll have better luck teaching a squirrel how to play the harmonica.
Jim McLellan, "The Anti-Pro"
My creed goes something like this: Keep it simple, stick to the basics, practice consistently with enthusiasm and intensity, use logic, be creative and intuitive, be confident in your applications, be happy and deal with your misery. Be real. Stop fussing. There are absolutely no secrets. Nothing's new. Collect the necessary information and get to work. The clutter of intelligence, the waste of words describing a simple thing, the superior heaps of decaying mental rubbish surrounding our game is EVERYWHERE. The sensible applications of the basics to YOUR GAME is simple.. not necessarily EASY....You actually have to get off your can and do it....But, at the end of the day you will have the feeling that it is, indeed, SIMPLE! There are people out there who have read so much they think they actually know something. The learning's not in the reading,... it's in the doing.
Inspired by & in harmony with Dave Draper
http://www.davedraper.com/
Sam Snead, when asked how he found his elegant, graceful, fabulous golf swing replied ___"It's just like hitting a rock with a stick." Sam didn't know a computer from a fishing pole___but he finished in 1st place 185 times, 2nd place 63 times and 3rd place 54 times. Sam finished in the top ten 358 times and in the top twenty-five 473 times. In 1954, he won his third and final Masters after defeating Ben Hogan in a memorable 18 hole playoff, and in 1959 he shot a world record 59 in a USGA sanctioned golf tournament. Sam didn't fall for the complicated version of the golf swing___ how 'bout you?
Thinking about taking a lesson to improve your game? Confused about where to start your search for "Mr. Right" THE teaching pro? Will the high profile instructor have more to offer? What if you can actually get a lesson from an award winning pro recently featured on the cover of a golf mag? Better yet, how about a "coach" of one of the top tournament players?
In case you are not a recent lottery winner, you may have to keep your search close to home. Are you a member of a swanky country club in your area? Should you sign up with the aloof instructor with the alligator shoes, alpaca sweater, silver "toup" courtesy of The Men's Hair Club, gold neck chain, and yellow Palm Beach slacks. You know the guy - parks his red Lamborghini in that spot marked for the "head golf professional" ten paces from the pro shop door. Some "dope" accidentally parked there last year and no one has seen him since.
If not among the "country club set" you may have to settle for an instructor at a semi-private course or a muni or an "open to the public" track. Where does your "perfect" golf pro reside or hide? You have heard of golf pros anointed by Saint PGA? Perchance these gifted individuals can wave their magic wand over your troubled swing. Some golf pro who is not a member of this fine organization, who teaches at a run down driving range couldn't be worth his salt or yours either for that matter...Or could he/she? The driving range. You know the one that is family owned where you drive off rubber mats. Sure, the place "or joint" surrounded by tall "chicken wire" fences protecting the neighborhood from dimpled missiles. Mom or Pop sells you a bucket of balls, if they are not in the back room unloading a batch of freshly scrubbed balls from their vintage Maytag washing machine. And, get this, because no real golf pro would be caught dead associating with this dump, Mom and Pop double as the friendly instructors.
To keep you from dozing lets jump to other venues of instruction information. Why not a Wonderful Golf School in some palm tree infested paradise? Spend a week, and your children's college education "green," and sign up for a series of lessons. Boy, will the boys back home be surprised when you show up with your new swing!!! And your wife?....happy as a little kid eating paste...with all her shopping bargains crammed in your 4-door Jalopy.
Let's see, where else? Yeah, the Internet....Is this the lowest of the low? Can't these so called golf pros get a "real job"....as Mom used to say. So you scoot your swivel close to the computer and peer. Pitch after pitch. Book after book. Video after video. Going mad yet? What should you do? Tennis? Nope, same problems or worse. More phony instructors while you run around making a fool of yourself on hot pavement. And your knees? . . can't take it. Worse yet, no carts.
Back to square one. What to do? What should be the criteria? How do YOU limit your search so you can get better before spending time at the "Gate" tryin' to convince Saint Peter that swearing on the golf course is no reason to keep you out.
OK, all right already. This author may be running out of ink and here the last paragraph is approaching at warp speed....So. Your "perfect" golf pro can teach you all you need to know about the golf swing in: NOT a series of costly, take out a second mortgage, lessons…. Not 3 or 4 eye openers to reveal secrets known only to the Aztec Indians, BUT ....here it comes and you are not programmed to believe this, a GOOD golf instructor can teach you all you need to know about YOUR golf swing in approximately, .......drum roll please.......15 minutes!!!
So where is the right scoop?
Not at the CC, or in a golf magazine, or on the Goof Channel, or from 95% Of the PGA pros, or from your playing partner who can't break an egg with his swing. 95% of this mis-advice will set your swing in a tail spin .
"Holy verboseness Red Ryder" another paragraph.
The "boys' on the cover of a golf magazine, the coach of a tour star, Mr. Big shot at the CC, or the instructor nominated by the Red Cross as Teacher of the Year, are most likely better at marketing than helping you find your swing. How about Mom or Pop at the range?. .Most probably…An excellent choice. What about Uncle Harry the scratch player? How about saving your coin, play a LOT of golf with Uncle Hank copy his swing, his rhythm, his way of taking that five mile hike with low numbers recorded on the score card?
This phenomenon we call the golf swing takes less than two seconds. There are a few "KEY FACTORS" involved in a great golf swing. From there, loyal reader, 95% of perfecting your perfect swing is PRACTICING those Key Factors.
Hang on to your hats, fasten your seatbelts___The golfer's Anti-Pro, more specifically, YOUR Anti-Pro, is coming to town!!!
Who is the Anti-Pro, you ask? A no nonsense/common sense golf instructor who has studied the effects of golf instruction for over 50 years. Interested in what he found?
***MOST golf instruction will do more harm than good!!! How much is MOST??... It is likely that over 90% of golfers/students trade substantial money for ridiculous "tips" that are practiced and then become "bad" habits. Students become frustrated, confused and quit golf, thinking they are NOT smart enough or talented enough for the game. It's not the students fault!!! . Less than 5% of all golf "instructors" are gifted enough to impact positive benefits for their students, the remaining 95% should be flipping burgers at some fast food diner.***
Stay tuned....!!!
