Over the years I have read many books, listened to many experts and tried on my own game ways of improving distance and pace control while putting. It has all been great advice and been a help to either my game or more importantly my pupils game.
Last year I attended a 3 day seminar at the London Club. The speaker was the fantastic US golf coach Mike Hebron. His knowledge and wisdom gave a great insight into how people learn and develop skills. One of the things that I took away from the time there was his idea on the timing of the golf motion.
Many people work on the timing of one/two or tick/tock but he demonstrated to us that the motion should be continuous, describing it as
“oooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnneeeeeee” rather than “one/two”
This really resonated with me and I incorporated it into my coaching after the 3 days.
I totally agreed with his idea that the golf swing has a start and an end, and that is pretty much all we can control. If the swing starts well and finishes well moving in good rhythm/timing then all players would have a great chance of striking the ball well.
To demonstrate this to my pupils I used the comparison of a metronome and a tuning fork. When using the metronome and working on a rhythm of one/two there always seems to be an element of “hit” in the motion.
As soon as we start using the tuning fork and move to the rhythm of “ooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnneeeeeee” the motion changes (for the better!!)
Move your club/arms/body/mass in balance to the tune of “ooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnneeeeeee” and I am sure you feel a difference.
Continuing this idea on, last week I posted my thoughts about the metronome and tuning fork on twitter and one of the coaches (@johngrahamgolf) came back with a great idea. Use a stopwatch to develop awareness of how long the ball is travelling for. I gave this some thought and then tried it with one of my pupils yesterday. One of his issues was on 6ft putts he often left them short. He is going away on holiday today to play golf for 5 days so the last thing I wanted to do was fill his mind with technical jargon and self awareness, so I needed to take a different approach.
We worked on controlling the pace of the ball. I suggested to him that when he left the ball short of the hole it was travelling too slowly, we then simply worked on getting the ball to the hole quicker (NOT a quicker stroke – we never even worked on his technique) Suddenly his ball was making it to the hole, rolling well with a much improved strike. Job done, the bonus was I saw a much improved stroke as well. When leaving all putts short he was using his hands and club only, when he started moving the ball quicker he then made a movement using the club, hands, body in connection. These are the best lessons for me because his performance has improved instantly as well as his technique, yet when he goes out and plays on the course he is not focusing on his technique.
Try this to improve your distance control and strike
- Think of moving the club to the tune of “ooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnneeeeeee” NOT “One/Two”
- Imagine the tuning fork, not the metronome
- When practising roll the ball for a certain period of time across the putting green, how far will the ball travel on a flattish surface for 2 seconds/4 seconds/8 seconds?
- Develop awareness of the speed the ball goes in the hole at, if you are generally short make the ball get to the hole quicker, if you are generally long then make the ball get to the hole slower.
Wok on this with your putting first and then try and extend the thoughts/feelings further away from the green, I look forward to hearing how you get on.
