A Humbling Experience

Filed in archive Golf Instruction on April 25, 2007

Courtesy: Canadian golf academy

I never compare myself to a professional golfer. To do so would simply be silly.

But today I am going to do just that, up to a point.

As I had said in a post the other day, I was going to break a long-time habit of not taking a lesson until late in the season.

So, yesterday, I got together with my teacher, Mark Greenwood from Swing Machine Golf Canada.

I figured it would be a tune-up session. "Mark, check my grip, make sure my alignment is good and then let's work on increasing distance, okay?" That sort of lesson.

I thought I probably had some surface rust on a few body panels. Turned out I needed a complete body-on-frame restoration.

Quite a few flaws had crept into my golf swing...

Now I have a first-hand appreciation of what a professional golfer has to go through to make a swing change.

I listened carefully to what Mark said, understood very clearly with my left brain exactly what he was saying and then, when I tried to implement the changes, my body simply replayed the old swing.

It was unbelievable. Neurolinguistic programming and hypnosis were invented for just such moments.

I simply could not do what I wanted to do. Consequently, I felt like an alien holding a 7 iron.

That club, formerly a 150-plus- yard iron under my old and flawed swing was now a 120 yard squibber. Worms rushed for cover.

The professional would implement swing changes more quickly on the range that I was able to yesterday. The pro is attuned to his or her body and swing; that's why a professional golfer is rightly called an athlete.

But slowly, the recommendations that Mark made began to find their way into my swing and after a very generous 90 minute lesson for a one hour rate, Mark said he could see the changes beginning to assimilate themselves.

And so could I. But, boy is it going to take a lot of practice before those changes become automatic and I don't have to think about them on a course!

When teaching professionals talk about "muscle memory", they speak accurately.

The body embraces habit. Habit, of course, is nothing more than an action or thought repeated often enough until it becomes, uh, habit.

I think I'm going to take up semi-permanent residence at a range for a few weeks in order to break those "bad" habits and replace them with the "good" habits.

However, it is going to be worth the short-term pain when I begin reaping that long-term gain!

If you have to make changes to your swing - and, frankly, who among us doesn't - then do so. Your game will be the better for it and it will show in your scores.

Drop a comment off here about swing changes you have made and how tough or easy they were to implement. We'd love to hear what you have to say.