Showing posts with label Technique. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technique. Show all posts

Friday, June 21, 2013

News from the Summit - 9 (and last!)





Notes from Dr. Paul Schempp, PGA Teaching & Coaching Summit Presentation - A professor and the director of the sport instruction research laboratory at the University of Georgia. Dr. Schempp's message, supported by more than a decade of research into the characteristics and development of expertise, applies to individuals and organizations in business, education, and sport.







If you are passionate enough and willing enough to pay the price, you will get it done. “You can’t think and hit at the same time” (Yogi Berra). Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, be in the precious present moment.


  • Learn about relationships in your game. Love is a decision, not an emotion. Care, be responsible and respect as a player and as a coach. Have a game plan. Be motivated and motivate others.
  • Have a game plan. If you really want to get better, you need a plan. Experts plan 60% or more of the time. Purpose-Goals-Actions-Implement-Evaluate-Adjust. Goals should keep in mind enjoyment, finances, exercise and work.  Experts are much quicker to abandon a plan if it’s not working.
  • Learn what motivates you. Fear and reward are temporary.  SELF MOTIVATION is more permanent. Create an environment in which mastery can be achieved.  Experts motive by showing students what they CAN BE.  Use sport as a vehicle. The students are the passengers. Golf instructors: “I don’t teach golf. I teach people to play golf.”




Notes from an excellent presentation by LPGA Tour Player Stacy Lewis and Coach Joe Hallett





  • It’s normal to start to doubt yourself if you’ve done well and you start hitting a few bad shots.  Talk yourself through step by step. Let your body take over and quiet your mind. Golf shots don’t have to be perfect. They just have to be good enough to get it done.
  • Stacy has the ability to do what she does based on her workouts. She was diagnosed with scoliosis at age 11, has had 5 vertebrae fused and isn’t physically strong enough to do was Joe wanted so they increased her core strength workouts to 6/week. Stacy practiced 6 months of chipping and putting during surgery recovery. 70% of her practice is now short game and putting and course play. She said it doesn’t matter if she can’t do it the course. She also eats enough protein every morning.   
  • Stacy uses AimPoint and went from 88th to 3rd in putting stats on Tour. She knows her reads are correct and works mostly on speed. She also thinks that her putts always have a good chance of going in.   
Stacy says “Golf isn’t everything. You need hobbies. There are highs and lows all over. You need something to get away to and need balance in life. Commit to your craft.”  Not every putt will go in.
  • Joe works to keep players inside their performance patterns knowing they will navigate to their weaknesses. It’s inevitable. Nothing is a fix in golf, it’s about management. Always give a player movement, don’t take movement away or try to stop movement.  Look to complete rather than compete.

Friday, June 14, 2013

Notes from the Summit - 8



Notes from Michael Breed, PGA Teaching & Coaching Summit Presentation on Branding…
-PGA Golf Professional and Golf Channel Instructor         http://michaelbreed.com/


  • How will you brand yourself, even if working as an employee for a company? There are 6.8 billion people in the world. 5.1B have cell phones. 4.2B have toothbrushes, 1.2B use Facebook, 1B have SmartPhones. 91% of adults use Facebook monthly. 98% of adults ages 18-24 use Facebook monthly. How will you get your message across about who you are, what you offer?
  • Think about logo / name (colors, size), bragging about yourself a little, being honest, a tag line, knowing subject matter, clear writing skills, appearance (colors, manners, polished shoes), plans of action (what steps and when, have motion with direction), preservation (links and leverage), 3rd party Recognition (90% trust peer recognition, 14% trust ads).
  • The average person has a 7-second attention span. A goldfish has an 8-second attention span. Limit your message, make it worth it. (He also mentioned that’s one of the reasons he’s so fast-paced on the Show… he can only roam 25 feet  from where he was standing as the average person loses interest in speakers who wander… interesting data on good speaking habits!)



Notes from Speaker Panel with Todd Anderson, Mike Bender, Randy Smith, Chuck Cook and Martin Hall


  • Focus more on ball flight than body parts and mechanics. Use Trackman for fitting and some teaching. Technology is great but can be overwhelming. Don’t lose yourself in the data and small picture. Have balance. Use video carefully. 
  • Use feedback and exaggeration. Work with training stations.
  • If there isn’t any power to develop (no chance at increasing distance), work a lot on short game.  Justin Leonard is 100-125 less on than other on driving distance but still won some big events with his short game.
  • No re-building. Use what a person has and can do. Great players will make mistakes. Keep it simple. Worst mistake is to make a reclamation on the Tuesday before the U.S. Open.
  • Todd Anderson’s Drill: Play for a Wedge Score, a Regular Score and a Short Game Score.
  • Mike Bender’s Drill: To stop a slice, move the impact bag out to the right (for a right-handed golfer).
  • Randy Smith’s Drill:  To stop chicken wings, play ball in the front of the stance and make divots.

Friday, June 7, 2013

Notes from the Summit - 7



Notes from Dr. Stephen Norris PGA Teaching & Coaching Summit
- The director of sport physiology & strategic planning at the Canadian Sport Centre Calgary, Norris is a consultant for Canada's Winter Olympic sports teams. He also is an adjunct assistant professor of applied physiology within the Human Performance Laboratory (HPL) at the University of Calgary. In addition to his working with several national sports teams, Norris teaches and supervises graduate students specializing in applied physiology and sport science.

  • Neural peaks @ ages 10-15. Expose kids to as many stimuli as possible that include pressure sensitivity, weight transfer (explain vs. sensation of doing), rhythm, Music/Dance.  
  • Hormonal development  affects muscle mass and growth spurts. Be very careful with kids doing conditioning and strength training.  
  • Girls peak between ages 13-16 and boys 14-18. Ages 12-16 need activity. Continue working with loading forces (brittle bones, fracture periods, check on bone mineral density).  
  • Ages 5-8 require movement skills, rhythm, running, kicking, jumping.  
  • Ages 10-18 need to be patient and understand the process.
  • Kids need to understand and develop physical literacy. Interacting with the ground (golf), water (in, on, unstable surfaces), snow/ice (skateboard), air (moving through space, torso rotation, how body is linked). 
     Gave example of Damian Walters and how many golfers want to be able to do this is the golf world without the training. What kind of training is required to produce what we want?  http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=damian+walters&mid=DEE0347728B2E7F37007DEE0347728B2E7F37007&view=detail&FORM=VIRE6
  • Practice is relentless.
  • A 6 year old is not half of a 12 year old. Growth is not linear. Time on a task: spend 1 hour to get 2 hours in competition. Be careful of use. Work hard vs. just being good. Play work other activities and don’t just focus on one.
  • Improve by Design, not by Chance. Get totally comfortable with environment. Challenge the norm.  Relentless, purposeful practice while having fun. Excellence is an achieved by training and habituation. High performance, world class, world leading.    
  • What do you need to do to achieve a consistency of performance?  Perform under pressure, deliver results. Lay down expectation. Perform on demand anytime, any place, any condition. No 2nd chances.

Friday, May 31, 2013

Notes from the Summit - 6



Notes from Time Kremer, PGA Teaching & Coaching Summit Presentation -Visionary Peak Performance Consultant
  • Pre-existing emotion affects conditioning. What we see is what we already believe to be true.  Unless we believe/imagine success, it can’t happen. Change the picture.
  • What if every tee shot always went in the hole… it wouldn’t be as challenging. Quantum Physics meets the Law of Attraction. We get what we focus on, not what we want. (I found this to be true the morning after the speech as I was tossing something out in the trash and thought “Wouldn’t it be funny if my key card fell in there at the same time?” and low and behold, it sure did after I had forgotten about that!).
  • If it was only physical talent and hard work, golf would be easier. Rearrange your emotional paradigm. Imagine the future as if it’s a done deal. Work out your imagination 5 minutes before you go to sleep and 5 minutes after you sleep (less left-brain awareness/control going on).
  • Let things go if it doesn’t feel right. Don’t get so locked into problems that you can’t see the solutions. Shift your focus to what your desire, not what you don’t desire.
  • What we believe is what we see. We need to be in positive states of emotion and receptive.  Move towards what we want and stop giving energy to what we don’t want. ‘Disemotional energy scale.’ We get sloppy with emotions.
  • DETACH (learn to allow/accept), SHIFT (already doing well, move up) and EMBRACE (keep it going)

Notes from Ian Poulter, PGA Teaching & Coaching Summit Presentation…
-PGA Tour Professional & European Tour Professional
  • In the 2 weeks before the Ryder Cup, he practiced a total of 15 minutes of putting. He does not like a lot of tweaking, mechanics and high tech. He is a feel player. Ian doesn’t putt to a spot. He putts on a visualized line. He sees the hole in his peripheral vision and sees the line faster when the pressure is on. He stays intense but focuses on the line. During one key putt at the 2012 Ryder Cup, “I felt very, very confident I was going to make it.”  He never asked “What happens if I miss?” but instead asked himself “How crazy will my teammates be when I make it?” Many golfers don’t want to feel the pressure. You have to want that position. He knows he’ll never miss a 3’ putt!
  • Ian works on different shots at the range and in short game practice. All games and challenges, less mechanics. Betting is good and one-on-one is the best. 
  • A great amount of respect goes to Ian for his clothing line, his interest in growing the game through youth golf and his genuine and honest attitude about life

Friday, May 24, 2013

Notes from the Summit - 5



Over the next few articles, I will be conveying information learned from attending the PGA Teaching & Coaching Summit in Orlando, Florida earlier this year.  There were many of the great’s among the top teachers on hand… enjoy the seminar highlights!

Notes from Peter Draovitch, PGA Teaching & Coaching Summit Presentation -Physical Therapist, Special Surgery


  • Internal hip rotation decreases with ages, lumbar spine pain increases with age
  • If you have what works at the right time, check that out and make notes!
  • Recreational golfers need to work on posture, trunk stability and movement. Functional Movement Skills are important before sport specific skills.


Notes from Coach Bobby Bowden, PGA Teaching & Coaching Summit Presentation -Popular FSU Football Coach and motivational speaker

  • Loyalty and knowing how to win make a great coach. A leader is a problem solver. If you’re good, you’re expecting something bad to happen. If you’re bad, you’re expecting something good to happen. It’s just going to happen. It’s the way life goes and is character building.  (Just play golf, good and bad will happen. Reduce expectation and just play).
  • The repetitions one needs to get good are huge.
  • Be a continuous learner. Instead of saying “What I should have done…”, say “What I learned that I’ll do from this experience…”
  • Those who you are leading need to be self-motivated. Do they depend on you to practice or can they work on their own?