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TRAINING TO WIN IN GOLF
It’s coming to that part of the season where the big tournaments are at their finales. This makes it a nice time to discuss the idea of tournament preparation.
Go to any range, anywhere in the World and you will see the same thing – hordes of golfers working on their swings. After all, isn’t that all we can work on?
Not at all.
I think (know) that golfers forget that the golf swing is just a tool – it’s a tool to help you play the game. But “playing the game” is a skill in itself that is separate from the actual swing – and this article will explore that (and offer solutions).
NOW IS NOT THE TIME
Apart from certain exceptional circumstances, pre-tournament prep is not the time for major swing overhauls.
Sure, tweaks, tune-ups, polishing – all good stuff. But if you are going to pull out a brand new movement pattern right before the big day – good luck to you.
Motor learning takes time – even if the new movement is better on the range, there is not enough time to put in the reps to make it automatic enough, comfortable enough, repeatable enough to be of use to you.
Pre-tournament, that’s where we often have to say;
This is what I have now, how can I make better use of it?”
Don’t train for a race in the Audi R8 (left) and then jump into an F1 car a week before. Even if the car is an upgrade, you won’t be used to the intricacies of how it handles. Similarly, changing your swing before an event is a gamble that you shouldn’t be willing to take.
PLAYING SKILLS
Golf has so many skills which determine how well you play/score – the list would be huge if I mentioned them all. Rather, I am going to mention a few which I feel are important during tournament prep.
But before we go, I can tell you this – beating thousands of balls on the range tends not to improve any of these skills. This is why “simulation training” is vital.
STRATEGY BUILDING
Imagine a player who hits 10 drives down a fairway and their pattern looks like this;
In the above example, the player aimed for the middle of the fairway. They hit the fairway 50% of the time, but end up on the beach 40% of the time (costing them 2 shots each time).
Sure, this player could try to overhaul their swing to straighten out that pattern. However, if the same player were to aim at the left side of the fairway, they now increase their fairways hit by 20% AND they would hit 40% less hazard-shots.
This is an example of a strategic intervention – one that all good players use.
No, it’s not “wrong” to use strategy to mitigate the patterns in your shots (notice I didn’t say “errors”). It’s a perfect example of how we “play” the game, versus playing golf swing (where someone tries to change the swing to make the patterns more neutral).
Don’t believe me, here are two quotes
You gotta dance with who ya brung (Sam Snead, referring to how he rather plays with the shot shape he brings to the day, rather than trying to change it during the course of play)
And
If I find I’m having a day where most of my shots are over-cutting (going right), I’ll go to the right side of the tee-box, aim left, so if it cuts it will still be in the fairway. (Tiger Woods)
In fact, players who try to change their swings to neutralize the patterns usually end up opening up both sides of the golf course. In an attempt to do it the perceived “correct way”, you end up playing worse than if you had used strategy interventions.
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