FOCUS ON ONE SKILL AT A TIME. Long Game v Short Game. “They are two completely different skill sets. In the long game, you are trying to create velocity allied with directional skills. In the short game, you are essentially trying to learn how to take the speed OFF the clubface to get it to spin and land softly.”
Two utterly different release patterns.
The Science of Practice – The First 20 Hours.
I was listening to a fascinating book lately called “The First 20 Hours” by Josh Kaufman in which the author is attempting to learn six different subjects with the application of twenty hours of practice each. They were wide-ranging from playing the Ukulele to windsurfing. He references golf on a number of occasions, and after listening to his journey, it is evident that golf is one of the more difficult past times to learn. The biggest problem is the amount of completely different skill sets that are required to be a competent player and the variance in each skill. For example, the physics of playing a bunker shot differ completely from driving a golf ball from a tee. So, in essence, when you venture to the driving range for your first lesson, you are completing a small percentage of the task in hand! I know of two coaches who make an excellent living just teaching putting alone! But in saying that, Josh had a number of principles or rules that he followed to achieve his different tasks and they do indeed pertain to golf as well. Let’s take a look!
Choose something you love
His first rule was to choose something you love, or think you would love to do. This would be top of my list when advising anyone who wanted to take up playing golf. The game is hard enough to learn without having a degree of passion for it. Fortunately, it tends to have a drug/sugar addiction attached to it, so most golfers tend to get hooked early and develop a love/hate relationship with the game. One of the biggest mistakes I see new players making is associating being good at another sport with being good at golf. It can help but is not a guarantee of success. They say love is blind and that is a problem with starting to learn golf, it’s a minefield, and you need a map!
Focus on one skill at a time
This is, without doubt, the single best piece of advice I could give you when starting to learn how to play golf. Break the game into its different parts and pick one, to begin with, master that to whatever level you aspire to and move on. You need to become a polymath at golf, learn each skill to a competent level, not mastery. You can always revisit the scene of the crime later. Golf has many different layers, but at a base level, the following skill sets need to be conquered, (1) Driving the golf ball from a tee. (2) Long iron/fairway wood shots (3) Short irons plus pitching (4) Short game around the green, chipping and bunker play. (5) Putting. It is rare to meet the golfer who has mastered both long and short game techniques. They are two completely different skill sets. In the long game, you are trying to create velocity allied with directional skills. In the short game, you are essentially trying to learn how to take the speed OFF the club to get it to spin and land softly. Two utterly different release patterns. Try figuring that out on your own!
Define how good you want to be?
I think this is a misunderstood and often neglected part of the equation when you decide to take up golf. What skill level would make you happy? Be realistic. As a natural progression, the better the standard, the more work will be needed. Do you have the time, resources, finance, fitness levels and are injury free to realistically achieve your goals? This is so important when starting out as aiming too high will lead to inevitable disappointment. Finding your level, having a plan to get to that level is crucial. You can always trade up later on if you so wish.
Break the skill into subskills
Alluding to focusing on one skill at a time, break that skill down into its component parts. So, let’s take bunker play as a skill set. First port of call in subskills is set up, understanding the physics of why the ball goes up when the club goes down. Most beginner players try and lift or help the ball out, this, as you have probably figured out, is a recipe for disaster. Next after learning the correct set up to get the ball out every time, you might move onto slopes, learning how to play from uphill, downhill and side slopes. Finally, the technique changes needed for short bunker shots and longer shots (including fairway bunkers.) This is a problem I see golfers encounter regularly. They will come in for a lesson and mention, (as an aside!) “we might have a look at bunker play for ten minutes at the end of the lesson?” Try and at least understand the battle you are facing before going to war.
Obtain critical tools
Sounds pretty obvious but we are not just talking about golf clubs here. Do you have somewhere to practice? Are the facilities such that when the going gets tough, it won’t be a factor in you quitting? Try and find a friend to join you on your journey to the fully exempt status on the PGA Tour and the walk up Magnolia Drive. Remember you don’t need the latest trampoline technology from PXG or even a full set of clubs to get started. If you can afford to join a club, that will help in terms of support, and there is nothing like getting out to play 18 holes to encourage you to practice more.
Eliminate barriers to practice
Even the best will in the world will be tested if you don’t block off time to practice. “I must make time to practice during the week,” this is a complete misnomer. You cannot make time, there are only so many hours in a day, if you do not allocate a specific time on a specific day, it will get lost in the hurly-burly of life! We all have a limited amount of willpower each day, use it wisely! Trying to fit in practice after a day of stress leaves your willpower stores depleted. Trying to learn a motor pattern while in the best of form is a tough call, with the willpower needle showing red, it is nigh impossible not to get frustrated and give up early. Learning motor patterns for a golf swing is the same as learning to ride a bicycle backward. Now you have the idea! Make practice time a priority, not a chore to be added to the list of “to do.”
Create fast feedback loops
Regular readers to my blog will be aware that the best feedback loop you can have when learning golf is a good coach. The problem with golf is you are trying to solve a problem (the golf swing, which is a dynamic movement) using a static image. You, the player can only have a limited field of vision when addressing the ball, this is why you see players in ranges looking at various positions in the swing. They are static positions. Without someone to guide you as you swing it is tough to get the feedback needed to improve. Video analysis will also help as you get to see your swing, but nothing beats having a trained eye to cue you in the right direction. The emotional support of someone who is invested in your progress helps when you are struggling. Finding the right coach for you is key. Word of mouth and reviews, especially client reviews, are the best source of information to help you decide. Check to see if your coach teaches a particular style of swing? If so, avoid like the plaque. Golfers create power in three distinct ways, lateral (sway/sliders), spinners (rotation) and thrusters (vertical). If your coach tries to teach a one swing fits all? Run Forest Run!
Quantity and speed trump quality
A caveat here if I may. I wholeheartedly agree that (to use a Tiger Woods ‘ism) “Reps” are needed to learn motor patterns and thus improve at golf. Short bursts on the clock as Josh would put it are the way to go, having a defined number of balls to complete a defined task. But a certain level of quality is needed. I think there is a happy medium when learning golf, I have found the most productive way to encourage my students to learn is by giving them a limited number of drills to perform in between lessons. I get them to video themselves doing them, and I check them and give feedback. This means when they attend a week later, I know they can perform the drill, and we can move on. Think of building a wall in lego, one brick at a time. This constant feedback makes learning so much easier; the video analysis they receive after each lesson builds into a library of learning. They now have some chance of making sense of the swing as they can see through video, feel through my audio cues and as I always try to encourage them that it is a “voyage of discovery” for the pupil. At the end of the day, they must have a sense of how the move feels (subskill) within the swing (skill.) Once this is achieved, repetition of the motor pattern is the only way forward, little and often being better than a long period as the brain gets bored. Did you ever stand in a range and hit the ball like a pro to start with but then wander off into, “I wonder if I try this will I hit it better?” That’s the brain getting bored. You leave the range hitting it terribly!
Growth mindset v Fixed mindset
The Queen of Learning, Dr. Carol Dweck, a Stanford professor came up with the theory of a Growth Mindset v a Fixed Mindset. In a fixed mindset, people believe that you can only learn so much and that we are limited as we grow older to learn things. In a growth mindset, anything is possible in terms of learning. This is because of plasticity, the brain is ever-changing
and can always learn, at any age. Her research in this field is groundbreaking. If you perform ten reps in a motor pattern, Dr. Dweck will argue that if you complete one excellent shot, one very poor shot and a serious of so-called in between shots of differing quality, that this is perfect learning. Her theory is called Errorful Learning, and it is something I have used every single day since I started teaching golf. It works, but the problem is that it takes a specific type of student to buy into this type of learning where mistakes are welcomed as a feedback mechanism. Young people are brought up with the sound of “don’t do this and don’t do that” from their parents throughout their lives. They are at an age where they don’t want to make mistakes and appear foolish. This is a significant barrier to learning golf; you have to make mistakes to learn effectively. It is how you process these mistakes that will determine your success. Watch the children at your golf course play during the summer, they go round and round, playing from dawn to dusk. Repetition on a grand scale. They watch their peers, they make mistakes, the ones that succeed work it out. They unwittingly are embracing the struggle as they know no better. Errorful learning on a grand scale. This is the essence of rapid skill acquisition.
Thank you for taking the time to read! It is appreciated. Follow our Ryder Cup Captain at our dedicated Ryder Cup page and over at his website. Finally, don’t forget to sign up for my FREE monthly digital magazine plus a charity Kindle book for Xmas which this year is being produced for “Goal”. Finally, you also have a chance to win a dozen Titleist Pro V1’s each & every month. Tadhg.
Tadhg Harrington is a full time, professional golf instructor, and owner of the Harrington Golf Academy, based in Dublin, Ireland. He is a graduate of the Titleist Performance Institute and Setanta College. He is the eldest brother of three-time time Major Champion, Padraig Harrington.
He succeeds, employing empathy, passion and exceptional customer service, teaching above the noise, the quick tips, and the latest fads and is truly unique in the Irish golf industry.
The Harrington Golf Academy provides long term coaching programs designed to bring sensory processing to motor learning skills. Tadhg teaches the long game at Drynam Park Golf Centre and short game at Roganstown GC. His business partner, Ex European Tour Player, Rebecca Codd, also teaches full time at Drynam Park Golf Centre.