SIMON EDWARDS

THE EASY WAY TO BETTER GOLF...

WRITTEN BY SIMON EDWARDS PGA PROFESSIONAL & JACK NICKLAUS GOLF SCHOOL MASTER INSTRUCTOR

Welcome to a new instruction series that will dispel a lot of myths that surround the game of golf and the way it is generally taught.
Conventional instruction in books, magazines and on line is very valuable information but it is based on the techniques and strategies of the best players in the world.
Unfortunately, the majority of amateur golfers do not have the time or the inclination to spend eight hours a day working on complex techniques and body positions that these articles try to explain.

My whole philosophy revolves around making the game simpler and easier to learn as it is based around the golf club and a swinging motion that the body will respond to as opposed to putting the body in a set of positions and then trying to find the ball with the club.

RULE ONE
YOUR BODY WILL RESPOND TO THE CLUB.

The entire golf equipment industry is attempting to make golf clubs that return to the correct position at impact with the minimum of resistance.
Millions of research and development dollars are spent each year in this quest but then the clubs are placed in the hands of players who have very little idea about what the club head is doing throughout the swing and less idea what it is doing at impact.

DRILL ONE
This drill is a great place to start for two reasons. The first is that it lets you feel the weight of the club head and secondly proves the point that if you focus on what the club is doing your body will respond to allow you to perform any task you ask it to do (with a little practice).

i. With your dominant hand place a 7 iron on your index finger so that the shaft is vertical and you can balance it. (Picture 1).
ii. Focus your attention on the head of the club and see how long you can balance the club for. After a while you will get much better at this and you will be able to do it longer each time.
iii. Next, rebalance the club but this time focus on the finger that you are balancing the club on. It is next to impossible to balance the club for any prolonged period of time, as you will quickly find out.

The whole point behind this simple exercise is that it highlights the whole philosophy that I teach by.
If you focus on the head of the club you can balance the club because your body will subconsciously respond to any movement the club makes.
Your brain will allow your body to make the necessary adjustments to retain the balance of the club without any conscious thought or body movement.
If you focus on your finger then you have no idea what the head of the club is doing and the act of balancing becomes much harder.

The lesson is this. When you play golf with conventional instruction you focus on body positions and lose sight of where the club is, (looking at your finger instead of the club head). With my teaching philosophy you will start to understand where the face and head are and be able to apply it to the ball correctly.

The best player in the world, Tiger Woods, is quoted as saying, “I’ve learned to trust my subconscious. My instincts have never lied to me.”

This state is what we are trying to achieve. To become unconsciously competent and play great golf as opposed to consciously incompetent and get worse no matter how hard you practice.

DRILL TWO

FOUR LEVELS OF LEARNING GOLF

At the Jack Nicklaus Golf Schools where I had the great honour of working alongside Mr. Nicklaus and Jim Flick, one of the greatest instructors of all time we used to do this exercise at the start of every golf school programme.

Find a piece of blank paper and a pen and sign your name as you have done a thousand times.
Underneath this try and make an exact copy but do it slowly. Take as much time as you need.
Next take the pen in your other hand and try to copy your signature as closely as possible.
Then lastly with the pen still in your “wrong” hand write your name as rapidly as you would with your correct hand. (Picture 2)

This simple exercise illustrates perfectly the four levels of learning golf.

Level 4 where you signed your name with your wrong hand and the outcome was awful we will call NONCONSCIOUS INCOMPETENCE. There really is no need to elaborate.

Level 3 where you put some time and thought into it but where the result was still pretty pathetic represents CONSCIOUS INCOMPETENCE. Your competent mind is fully in charge here but your physical skills are woeful.

Level 2 the painstaking copy of your normal signature is a big leap forward. We call this CONSCIOUS COMPETENCE because your mind is running the show and your physical skills are evident.

Level 1 the most natural of the four signatures and the one you did with the least conscious thought illustrates NONCONSCIOUS COMPETENCE.

Now take a look at the differences between levels one and two.

My guess is that your level 2 signature looks pretty good but a little rigid. The lines will be a little darker. That is because you pressed a little heavier, which means your grip pressure was a little tighter. Level 1 is smoother, more flowing and natural.

I hope you can see where I am going with this. My guess is this that most people reading this are somewhere between levels 2 & 3 in their golf games. Probably some who are starting out are at level 4.

My goal and I hope it’s yours is to get you to level 1.

The final part of this first lesson is going to give you the best chance of feeling the club head as you swing it.
We are going to find out how tension affects how well we can play the game.

Have you ever seen the Olympic final of the 100m?

If you have ever seen the face on view, as the athletes are running straight towards the camera, you will notice how relaxed their face muscles are. They are so relaxed that they move up and down with the rhythm of each stride.

Any athletic pursuit or any game we attempt to play is done better in a relaxed state as opposed to a heightened state of tension.

The phrase “Choke” or “Bottled it” have nothing to do with a drop in athletic performance but an increase in tension and self imposed pressure.

We need to find a solution to this issue without resorting to complicated technical thoughts.

DRILL THREE

HOW LIGHT OR HOW TIGHT!!!

This last drill will tell you how much tension is best for golfing peak performance.

Again, take your seven iron and hold it with your normal grip with the shaft in a vertical position. (Picture 3).

Relax your arms so that you are barely holding the club. Within the parameters we are working within we will call this tension level 1. You should feel no tension in your arms as all the weight of the club is balanced through the shaft.
This is not enough pressure to control the club and return the face back to impact square.

Now slowly let the club fall forward until the club shaft is horizontal. You will feel your forearms tighten and the weight of the club increase. This is tension level 5. (PICTURE)

This is way too much grip pressure and arm tension for you to swing the club freely and play to your full potential.

Next take the club back up to a 45 degree angle (PICTURE).

You will feel the club lighten slightly and the pressure in your arms decrease. This is level 3, the perfect state with which to play golf well.

My guess is that you play golf more towards level 5 and maybe above and then wonder why your golf is not improving.
Great golf is played in a relaxed state which makes level 3 the perfect pressure level with which to play the game.

Now hit some shots with these 3 levels of grip and arm pressure and see how the results differ. Hit 10 shots at level 1 where you are barely holding the club. This is too light and the results will be poor. Then hit 10 at level 5 holding the club as tightly as you can and notice the results.

Then hit 10 at level 3 and notice the difference. Make sure that your grip and arm pressure is the same in the downswing as in the backswing as the most common error in players is that the backswing is relaxed but then as they change direction everything tightens and poor shots occur.

I really hope that this first article explains a little about how I feel golf should be taught and played.

In the following months we will discover more about how to play a more natural game and produce results faster than with conventional instruction.

Simon Edwards is available for individual and group tuition at the Ryder Cup Wales Centre of Excellence in Wrexham.

To contact Simon to book an appointment please call 07803 905213 at any time.