Welcome

Welcome to "Better Golfing" - the site for the golfing community at large.
Whether you have just started playing golf or whether you are an accomplished player this site is for you.
In this website I plan to give you some honest opinions on equipment but more importantly give you a reality check on YOU. You are different to me and you are different to Tiger.
With some honest opinion and advice, the correct basic equipment and a little bit of practice we will get you on the road to Better Golfing!

Better Golfing - Simply.

With "Better Golfing" I hope to get you to relax about the game of golf, enjoy it to the best of your ability, accept your limitations, retain your competitive edge and celebrate your achievements. We need to learn to enjoy to the full those days when "everything goes right" and accept the times when "absolutley nothing you do works". I welcome your participation by way of anectodes, questions and opinions - please contribute freely. With your input I hope to make this a place where we can all enjoy the game more and all move on to "Better Golfing".

Let's Talk Golf!

Golf is probably the most mysterious game of all and is pretty unique in many aspects. First and foremost it is a game that involves a static ball. In most other games the ball is moving at a high speed and the participants either have to hit, catch, kick, dodge, steer or guide it somewhere. There are no two golf courses that are the same, and all golf course are altered daily by moving the teeing ground and or moving the pin location. No two shots ARE EVER the same. Participants have an array of up to 14 clubs to choose from for each shot. It is a game where the partcipant is the referee. The game relies on the honesty of each golfer to ensure the rules are adhered to. How unique is that? Golf is played year round - weather permitting. There are only 34 rules in golf. These 34 rules and the various definitions cover any situation that may arise in the course of a round of golf.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Does Practice Make Perfect?

That's an interesting question and I always thought the answer was .....well obviously "yes".
However I have just come back for a 3 day "Continued Professional Development" course conducted by head coach Bill Abbott of the European Golf Teachers Federation.

It was a fascinating three days of intensive learning in which we learned the following:
Day1. Video Analysis - using cause and effect teaching.
Day2. Advanced Short Game Coaching and
Day3. Putting Bio mechanics.

I will cover the full course in more detail at a later stage

One of the most striking things that came out of this to me is that practice does not make perfect.

Practice makes permanent.

So if you are practising (no matter what it is) you are simply creating a habit.
The problem lies in the fact that we often practice bad habits. The more we practice them the more permanent they become.
This was brought home to all of the participants at the course on day 1 when Bill put the video on us and showed us some of the bad habits we have picked up (and practised) over the years!
Of particular interest was the very bad postures we had got into which felt comfortable to each of us but which were in fact contributing to inconsistent shots. Inconsistency leads to all sorts of issues and results in bad scores.

Over the next few weeks I will be talking more about this and I will also be conducting some experiments with live "guinea pigs" - I will be applying what we learned to real live golfers.
But first I have to replace my bad habits with good habits so I have been out on the range and the chipping green for a couple of hours each day. I'll be doing this for few more weeks before I will be ready to pass on what I have learned.

I intend taking on 3 pupils and can guarantee that I will reduce their handicaps by at least 3-5 shots just by working on their short game. Their progress (or lack thereof) will be reported here so you can follow along and hopefully participate.

Keep your eye on this blog to see how this all develops.