Have you ever made a perfect shot? Can you remember what you were thinking?
Most of my students answer “Yes” to the first question and “I do not remember” to the second. These answers tell me that the student has developed enough muscle memory to abandon swing mechanics for a second and a half and just hit the damn ball!
All golfers, at all skill levels, have hit shots that felt effortless, both physically and mentally. Our goal is to help you discover the formula to recreate those perfect shots.
do you know the axiom “Only perfect practice makes perfect”? Logic is foolproof, but how does simply recognizing the concept help you improve?
Suppose the average large cube consists of eighty balls. How many of those would be perfect shots? Would twenty be reasonable? If a quarter of the shots are perfect, seventy-five percent are various degrees of “misses.” In the final analysis, you are actually rehearsing your mistakes.
The next logical step would be to try to correct faulty swing mechanics.
After firing a dozen shots, he’s convinced the problem is fixed. Walking to the first tee with complete confidence, you take a practice swing or two, run through your mental checklist, and… cut the shot out of bounds.
Does this sound familiar to you?
Developing effective muscle memory is a three-stage process. Depending on your progression, you’ll either struggle to get past the nineties or allow your muscle memory to take over and easily score in the low eighties. Let’s take a look at the first stage.
First stage: stop practicing. Tea “Only perfect practice makes perfect.” axiom does not refer to hitting balls on the driving range. The first step is to feel the essential positions found in each constant swing, without worrying about the results.
How can we ensure a perfect practice? It’s the same process you followed when you learned to drive a car.
There are four essential positions found in every effective golf swing. In stage one, you want to rehearse these positions in slow motion for two minutes every day until they start to feel natural. The process can take from two weeks to a month. The secret is to make this daily rehearsal a habit.
Just a warning; it is not enough to understand the positions. You have to get a feel for going beyond the mechanics of the swing.
In the following article, we look at the four key positions found in every effective swing. These positions are the essential causes underlying each outcome. The more you rehearse these essential positions, the sooner you will develop optimal muscle memory and play better with less effort.
Thank you for reading!