Dancing and Golf

About 2 years ago my wife and I took up dancing. I had absolutely no previous dance experience.

I like to be good at what I do.

I have wasted a considerable amount of time WISHING I was better, WATCHING good dancers and STUDYING the dance. West Coast Swing is our dance of choice.

Last week I started video taping my dance. I saw what I really looked like! It is worlds apart from what I thought I looked like.

I have many dancing friends who "play at it" but don't put much directed "work at it."

The truth is funny. We can STUDY it or we can DO it.

Those good at golf or dancing do the same thing...they know exactly what to do and they spend a considerable amount of time doing it. Not wishing, not reading about it, not thinking they somehow deserve to magically be better.

Jim

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YOUR GOLF IQ

Have you heard that inside the bony mass, hereafter referred to as the "skull", lives a 3 pound gray blob that resembles chewed up bubble gum & is wired with 100 billion neurons? Within this wad of bubble gum we can locate and identify the part that drives your golf swing. We could call it the mother board. We could call it anything we want or name it after our family mutt, Rover. In the interest of being politically correct and not offend anyone we should call it by its given name, not Phil, not Sam, not Ben, not Tiger but Cerebellum (some sort of Latin influence here). No need to haggle over whether this is a first or last name. Liberace is a complete name. Do you care if Tiger has a last name?

So we interview this Latin guy, Cerebellum. And we ask him what he would like to see us do differently to ___you know___to improve our golf game. Did you catch the key word? No? It was "DIFFERENTLY". We are told that...If we continue to do the same thing and expect different results___ that's a sign of insanity.

First, we notice that he is aggravated with us. Why? What the heck did we do so terribly wrong? For openers he sez we flood him with information that is 99.999% useless. (Remember, he is only responsible for the motor skill stuff and has no clue what to do with analytics and statistics). ..And he says, that's not the bad part! How so, we ask? He continues **If the information we've been dumping on him was simply of no value, neutral, and had no side effects....fine. But...Warning....it is not fine. Our golf health is at great risk!

You see, there are no gates, no blocks, no walls that prevent bad stuff, that grows bad habits, from passing into the sanctum of this incredible motor control mechanism. So complicated and sophisticated is this device that our top brainy scientists are not sure how this contraption works.

OK...we got off the subject.. . . . . How can we befriend this mechanism so it will work in our favor or favour if you prefer. Let's ask This Wizard of Golfdom. First, thing he implores, is that we stop throwing useless babble at it. Leave it alone. OZ informs us that since the golf swing only takes 2 seconds...It does NOT need a ANY MORE information than is absolutely necessary.

You see. . ..being a people pleazer, the Cerebellum grabs all we send it. Whoops! Here's the bad part. It doesn't know the difference between a good tip and a bad tip so it records everything and tries to apply every bit of information we toss it's way! .....To help us out?
What it really wishes we would do is STOP. Leave it the hell alone and let it work with the basics that have made great golfers great. So simple, just copy!

2 Seconds and the golf swing is history. The ball is gone...lands on the fairway or green or lake or out of bounds...but it's gone

We have the choice to follow our Cerebellum's advice and keep it simple, eschewing the nonsense the Golf Industry tries to shove down our throats for their profit...NOT OURS!.

OK, spill the beans Mr. C., What can we do to make a humongous difference in our golf? Elementary Watson, we need to have the correct back swing and follow through and in between these points we need to have a relatively still head which glues everything together. Done! When these factors exist, billions of neurons fire at the exact nano second and presto...look at that ball fly! Can you count? Only 3 Factors, Not 3 Zillion.

OR_______we can continue to ignore Mr. C's advice, continue to play lousy golf and make fools of ourselves for another season & another season. Your choice, Not mine!
"Anything else?" we ask before it's too late and our clubs end up in the lake? "Simple," the rear part of our brain dishes out. "Throw away your golf magazines, stop taking golf lessons, turn off the golf channel & and tell your well meaning golf buddies with their opinions on what you should do with your golf swing____ to go jump in the lake full of rusty golf clubs.

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GOLF PRO, FRIEND or FOE?

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.

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Welcome To Golf's Anti-Pro

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....!!!

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