Pre Season Golf Starts Now

Now that frost delays here in the north are creeping closer and closer to lunchtime, it is time to admit that the 2012 golf season is just about over.  So as we are at the end of the year, it is time to reflect, analyze and plan.  Reflect on how this last season went, analyze what areas of the game need to be improved and plan how to make 2013 a better year.  The time to do this is now. I always talk to students about the winter in New England being the Pre-Season, not the Off Season.   The worst thing you can do is put the clubs away until the course opens in the spring.  This is wasting valuable time as well as giving away your golf fitness level.

So this week, please go through the following process to start getting ready for the upcoming season.

1. Did I have goals for 2012 and did I meet them?
   1. If you did meet your goals, did you get what you wanted out of it?
   2. If you did not meet your goals, why?

i.      Were they unrealistic?

ii.      Did you have a plan to make these goals attainable?

1. What area of the game was I best at?
   1. Divide golf into segments

i.      Full Swing

ii.      Partial Shots (Chips, Pitches)

iii.      Putting

iv.      Specialty Shots (Bunker Play, Trouble Shots)

v.      Course Management/Mental Game

1. What part of the game was my biggest weakness?
2. What part of the game can I improve to create the biggest positive impact on my game for next year?
   1. Keep in mind, hitting the driver further in many cases will have little to no impact on your score.
   2. Be sure to understand the breakdown of shots in a round of golf.

i.      14 driver swings in a round at most

ii.      40% of your shots are with a putter

iii.      Roughly 2/3 of your shots will be less than a full swing

1. What are my goals for 2013?
   1. Are they attainable?
   2. How will you achieve them?
   3. Do you have the time to dedicate in order to achieve them?
   4. What help do you need to achieve them?

Next year will be my 24^th season in the golf business.  Every Spring I hear people saying “This is my year! I am going to play better!”  If you wait until the spring to start your improvement plan, you are short changing yourself.  Use this winter to put a plan in place and by the time the courses open in the spring you will already be a better player.

Find out about Winter Coaching Packages from ConnorGolf

”Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” – Will Rogers

Get an Evaluation & Do Something Good for Your Community

Over the next month or so, I will be offering a tremendous deal.  For $30 you can get a 30-minute full swing evaluation.  Here’s the cool part.  In addition to being half-price (my usual rate is $60 for a half-hour) the $30 fee goes directly to camp courant!  I don’t make a penny, you get an evaluation of your full swing and the Camp gets $30 from anyone wishing to partake in the offer.

Why am I doing this?

1.  Hartford’s Camp Courant is a tremendous program that sends as many as 1,200 under-privileged children from the City of Hartford, CT to a summer camp each year.  “The goal of the summer day camp program at Camp Courant is to give children ages 5 through 12 from Hartford the opportunity to learn about themselves, their community and their world in a natural, safe environment all while enjoying fresh air and the company of peers, friends and supportive adults.”  The above quote comes directly from their website which you should visit here http://campcourant.org  In addition to the camp, for older children, ages 13 – 15, Camp Courant offers an enriching year round program that focuses on developing leadership skills, self-confidence, financial literacy, stress management and career preparation.

 

All of this is at no expense to the children or their families.  Clearly, this cannot be done for free. So this program is an opportunity for me to draw some attention to the camp, all the good they do, and direct some funds their way.

 

1. I am also running this promotion to help you, the golfer.  This is a low cost way for you to get to see how you can become a better golfer.  So many golfers are quite frankly afraid to take a lesson because they feel they will have to change every part of their swing, spend months practicing before they see any signs of progress etc.  Golf Instruction and development does not have to be an overhaul!  When we look at some of the winners on world-wide tours, we notice that different peoples swing look, well, different.  Yet they all possess the required skills to be good players.  That is my goal for you.  All golf swings do not have to look the same, they just need to produce the results.  In this evaluation you and I can discover and prioritize what changes we can make in order to create the biggest possible improvement.  From the evaluation you will have a clear and concise picture of the plan for improvement.  By next Spring, you will be a much better player!

Take me up on my offer!  I am offering a limited number of these sessions but I would like to fill all of them.  You can go to my website to reserve your spot.

One Stone – Two Birds

Improving your putting stroke won’t make you hit more fairways with a driver.  Correcting your “over the top” move with the long clubs will not help you become a better green reader.  When we think about the game of golf we can break it down into separate pieces.  Let’s say:

• Full Swing
• Partial Swing/Short Game
• Putting
• Mental game/Course Management

While there may be different parts of the game, you do have a chance to work on one skill that will benefit you in two areas. Specifically, becoming better at pitch shots, will improve your full swing.  In essence, a pitch shot, that soft landing 40 or 50 yarder is nothing more than a smaller and therefore slower version of your full swing.  Well if there is ever a chance to get multiple benefits from working on one skill, why would you not take advantage of that?

So what are the skills that we need to be good at hitting pitch shots close to the hole?

1. Posture, Grip, Aim. 
2. Solid contact.  If you sometime hit the ball thin, sometimes solid and occasionally fat, you will not be able to control the trajectory or the distance of the shot. Without Solid Contact the rest of the skills listed here won’t help you.
3. Clubface control.  The ball’s initial direction is dependent mostly on where the clubface is looking at the time of impact.  If your pitch shots tend to fly short and right of your target, or long and left you have a clubface issue.
4. Length/speed of the swing.  Because you need to control the distance of the shot, you will need to have a good ability to vary the length of the swing and the speed of the club as it goes through impact.

If you look at the first three skills that are required to be  a good pitcher, they would also be some of the basic skills needed to be a good ball striker with the long clubs. 

One Stone          Two Birds            Go Practice Your Pitching

Is It Over or Beginning

In-season and pre-season golf training are not the same!  During the golf season many golfers are apprehensive to make big changes to the mechanics of their swing.  In many cases, you are right in thinking so.  It is not uncommon for a change to take months to become habit.

Think of in-season training as fine-tuning whatever your current skill base is.  On the other hand, pre-season training is the time to improve and broaden your skill base.  How do we do this when the courses are closing and the snow is approaching?  Well I am glad you asked! Establish a goal for next year.  Then create a plan to achieve that goal.  Remember, a Goal without a Plan is only a Wish.

1. Get in “golf shape.”  Many of my students “workout.”  I encourage and am thankful that these students are in good physical condition.  However, a general exercise program will not get your body in the specific condition we need to have in order to posses a powerful, repeatable and injury free swing.  The winter is the time to get started.  In order to assure that you are using your exercise time to best prepare you for better golf, you should start with an assessment.  A simple assessment will allow you, your instructor and your trainer to understand what areas of your body need either more stability or more mobility.
2. Get an MRI of your golf swing.  Similar to the fitness process, this starts with an assessment.  The place to start is with an assessment.  Video is great and I still use it with students daily.  However, 2-Dimension video is limited an unfortunately sometimes vague as a diagnostic tool.  Think of video as an x-ray and 3-D as an MRI.  Both have their place but one sees a lot more.  Capturing data of your golf swing using  3-D technology gives a very precise view of your golf swing.  From this we can pinpoint and prioritize where your problems are coming from.  Furthermore, by using 3-D as a starting point, we can track your progress during the pre-season to assure that you are on track with your improvement plan.
3. Get to work.  Now that you have a goal, a physical assessment and a complete diagnosis of your current swing, it is time to put your plan in place.  Prioritize the steps to reach your goal and start down the road towards improvement.

Most importantly, don’t wait!  I hear far too often that golfers are going to wait until next year, or after the Holidays.  Until you establish your current fitness and mechanics baseline it is impossible to know what the steps of the improvement plan are going to be.  Rather than putting things off, start this month.