November 5, 2025 • 32 mins
Practicing — and how you practice — can be one of the biggest drivers of improvement in your golf game…or one of the biggest roadblocks. Inspired by the idea that it’s often the process that fails, not the player, Claude explores why adopting a “No Blame” approach to practice can unlock more growth, more confidence, and better results.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's the son of a Butch podcast. I'm your host,
Claude Harmon. So I'm always trying to figure out different
ways i can try and talk about practice because I
think a lot of players get stuck in that practice world.
And I think practicing and the way you practice can
be a massive, massive part of your development and your
(00:24):
improvement as a golfer, but I also think it can
be at times just a disaster. So it was an
idea that I wanted to try and just kind of
float this idea, and the idea was the no blame
practice environment, and I kind of came up with this
from looking at some things. So Total Wolf is the
(00:44):
team principal for Mercedes Formula One.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yeah, that's a huge, huge job.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
So when I look at coaches and I look at
people running things, I'm always trying to figure out, you know,
what I can learn from them. And one of Toto's
kind of principles of the way that he operates is
he says, in most cases, it's the process that's failed,
not the person. And I think golfers more than in
any other sport one. I think it's because it's it's
(01:10):
an individual sport. But I think golfers just they beat
themselves up and they're really really hard on themselves. So
their practice environment becomes kind of an internal war zone
with themselves. I think most golfers practice in a way
that's kind of designed to make them fail. So what
(01:32):
do I mean by that? So you're working on a
swing change, you go to the range, try something to
take a lesson, whatever, go on YouTube, whatever you're trying
to work on in your golf swing. Most golfers go
to the driving range. They've got something they're going to
try and work on in their golf swing, get three
bad shots and they just they're out.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
They bail.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
It's not working, or they're working on something in the
technique phase, but they're immediately doing it in a performance
type way. And again, in trying to explain that a
little bit better, it's a little bit like you're trying
to learn how to speak French, and on day two
(02:15):
you're surprised you can't give an entire presentation in French,
because obviously you're trying to learn French. But on day
two you're going to try and give a presentation in
a language that you don't really know, you don't understand,
you don't really have a big vocabulary.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
You don't really know.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
So I think, don't be so hard on yourself and
try and create a better environment that isn't so much
based on fear and those fear components are I think
most golfers look at every bad shot they hit on
the range as evidence that they're a bad golfer or
(02:53):
that they're getting worse right, And so what that does
is is it makes it really hard to stick with changes.
You try something but doesn't feel right, so you just
throw it out and get rid of it. And I
think that's what sends people back to things that they
know feels that feel comfortable, and a lot of times
that's sending you back to things that you know don't work,
(03:15):
that you don't have any data that supports that what
you're doing in your golf swing is working. And I
think most golfers look at their practice and think they
have to be absolutely perfect in their practice.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
What they don't think is, okay, maybe I use my.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Practice for kind of experimentation and setting up in your
practice sessions the ability to fail right, saying Okay, maybe
what I'm doing is failing.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Maybe I'm not failing right.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Maybe it's not that you're untalented and that you don't
know what you're doing. Maybe it's just the practice structure
you've set up just isn't working. So whenever I'm looking
at golf swings and looking at what people are doing,
you know, in their golf game, I'm always thinking about, Okay,
we've got three kind of buckets that we're going to
(04:11):
be in. We're going to be in technique phase, where
we're working on what we're doing from a technique standpoint.
We're going to be working in the transfer phase where
we're trying to take some of the things that we're
working on in the technique phase or bucket, and then
we're going to add some targets and try and hit
some shots, but we're still kind of experimenting. It's still
(04:32):
not going to feel perfect. You're still not going to
do it perfect every time. And then there's the execution phase,
which is the performance side of things. So I think
if you start to think in terms of kind of
what phase you're in, are you working on something technical
or are you trying to blend technique with a little
(04:54):
bit of.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
You know, execution.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
That's kind of that transfer phase where you're trying to
take some of the stuff you're working on, and then
you're going to say, okay, let me try and blend
that into targets and scoring, and then there's just pure performance, right,
pure execution. And I think you have to give yourself
some time frames. I think that can be really really important.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I've said this before.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
I think one of the only negative things about the
Tiger era and the things that Tiger Woods did is
he made it fashionable to change your golf swing. If
you look at you know, he wins the Masters in
nineteen ninety seven, it's working with my dad, which harmon
at the time. They spend the next couple of years
kind of changing his golf swing to make it better.
(05:43):
Comes out two thousand and kind of has that kind
of golden years of that everybody kind of looks at
as the Tiger Golden years, you know, wins a bunch
of majors, then rinces my dad goes to Hank Haney,
changed his golf swing, has an enormous amount of success.
I mean, the win rate was through the roof, winning majors,
(06:04):
he's easily the best player in the game. Then goes
to work with Sean Foley, changed his golf swing completely again,
then goes to work with Chris Como changes golf swing
completely again. So I think one of the things that
Tiger made fashionable and made people think was viable is
(06:24):
having these.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Massive, massive swing changes.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
But like I said, my dad and Tiger made the
decision to change their golf swing after nineteen ninety seven.
I mean that process took almost three years. I mean,
he's the most talented golfer on the planet, he's one
of the most talented athletes on the planet. He's one
of the most iconic athletes and greatest athletes of all time,
and took almost three years to make those changes.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I was around for that.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
I watched that. I watched him struggle. I watched, you know,
the changes they were going to make. I watched how
they made the changes and stuff. And so most people
go to a golf lesson, they pay a golf instructor,
the instructor gives some stuff to work on, They go
back home, they try it, maybe for one practice session,
and if it doesn't work.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
They just bail out.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
And you know, I hear people sometimes say, how you've
been playing well. I am't playing good because I took
a lesson, and you know they look at that like
they're surprised by that, right, But that's you being in
the technique phase, right, that's you being in the technique bucket.
That's not you being in the performance an execution bucket.
And I think most golfers just they expect changes to
(07:35):
be almost instantaneous. You know, it's almost like you feel like, Okay,
I'm paying someone to take a golf lesson from and
because I'm paying them, that golf lesson should be the
end all, be all and everything that instructor tells me
to do, I should be able to implement one hundred
percent immediately. It should work on every single golf swing.
(07:59):
It should never feel weird. There should be no kind
of embedding of it. I shouldn't have to take time
to do it. I should just be able to take
a golf lesson. The instructor says, hey, your grip's a
little bit too weak. That face is a little bit open.
Then you come over it. That's why you're slicing it.
So we're going to strengthen your grip and we're going
to try and get that club face in a little
bit better position. And that's going to help contact and
(08:21):
that's going to help you slice it left. And if
that doesn't happen, almost instantaneously, people just throw it out
because they think, oh, well, it's not working, and so
it's a constant setting you up to fail. So give
yourself the opportunity and ask yourself, what are you trying
to do right? Are you trying to play? Are you
(08:42):
trying to practice? And if you're trying to practice, what
are you trying to practice? How long have you been
practicing that? How long are you willing to practice that?
And create an environment where in your practice sessions it's
okay to make mistakes, it's okay to fail well, it's
okay for you to not hit great shots, it's okay
(09:04):
for you to struggle that struggle when you're trying to
work on your technique and you're trying to work on
your golf swing, I think is hugely important to help
make these changes transfer from the range into a performance
competitive situation. So anytime you're making a swing change or
(09:27):
working on some things in your golf swing, maybe try
and set up this type of scenario. Give yourself the
next three to four practice sessions to experiment, to work
on these changes, to where Okay, my ballflight and the
outcome isn't the goal here. The goal here is what
(09:48):
is the process that I need to go through to
make these changes? And how can I set up some
positive expectations for what I'm trying to do. If I'm
trying to change my grip, that's going to take some time.
Allow yourself in practice, if you're trying to implement changes
in your golf swing, allow yourself to say, yeah, it's
(10:11):
supposed to feel weird, it's supposed to feel different. My
dad said, once again, I'll go back to Tiger. Tiger
was making a change. They were trying to get the
club face some less of a closed position, trying to
get it in a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Neutral position at the top.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Tiger felt like it was trying he was trying to
get the club face way more open.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
They were doing some.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Changes to Tiger's grip to where they were trying to
get him to weaken his grip, and so I remember
my dad asking him, Tiger was, you know, trying to
weaken his left hand grip to where it was not
quite as strong, not as many knuckles on the top,
get it a little bit more to the side, which
they felt was going to get that club in a
better position, and you know, he was hitting a few balls,
(10:56):
you know, probably was hitting balls with a little bit
weaker grip for about a half an hour or and
my dad said, how's it feel And Tiger says, it
feels pretty good, And my dad said, well, that means
you're not doing it. So anytime you're making a change
in your golf swing posture, alignment, takeaway, top of backswing, downswing, impact, grip,
(11:17):
whatever those changes are, they should feel weird, they should
feel different. In reality, they should feel bad. I mean,
it shouldn't feel good. And if it feels good really
really quickly, you need some data to be able to
tell you, okay, am I making these change. So if
(11:37):
you're trying to make some changes to your grip, if
you're trying to make some changes technically to your backswing positions,
use video so that you can give yourself that feedback
so that you say, oh, okay, well I'm trying to
get the club a little bit square at the top,
a little bit less open, and let me take some videos.
(11:58):
Because it feels pretty good. I feel like I'm in
a much squarre position. Take some down the line videos.
Or if you're trying to change your grip, take some
videos of your grip or something and then look at
it and you'll be able to pretty much instantaneously say, oh, okay, well,
I mean it feels like the golf club is in
a much different position.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
But it's not.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
And then I think that's where people bail out, right,
they don't set up those parameters in their practice if
it doesn't work immediately. If the shot, well, so you're
trying to get out of slicing the golf ball. You're
trying to change the path of the golf club from
being excessively from out to in, trying to get it
to feel like it's a little bit more into out, and.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
You're slicing the golf ball. The holy grail of that
is hitting a draw.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
If you're not hitting a draw in ten shots, if
you're not hitting a draw in an hour, again, you're
going to bail out on it. So thinking about it
differently and saying, Okay, I'm going to the range today,
I'm going to work on some of the things that
I was working on and the lesson I got, or
some of the things that I'm going to try to
make some changes in my golf swing and say to myself, Okay,
(13:03):
this range session, this practice session is going to feel
probably going to feel bad, and give yourself permission to
have it feel bad. Give yourself to say, okay, listen,
I'm probably not going to hit a lot of great
shots today because I'm trying to make some pretty big changes.
So I'm not really going to evaluate what's going on
with every single shot. I'm going to try and use
some video. If I'm working on positions in my golf swing,
(13:26):
I'm going to try and look at, you know, do
the work that I want to try and do, and
then take a look at it. And then as opposed
to analyzing the result of the shot, Let's say you're
trying to make a change to your backs when you're
trying to have the golf club be a little bit
less outside, a little bit more on the inside. You're
(13:47):
trying to maybe change your grip a little get a
little bit stronger, You're trying to feel that club face
a little bit more square, a little bit less open
at the top. So then rather than analyze every swing
on was it solid, was the result perfect?
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Was you know, did it take you know?
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Was it straight out of the middle of the club,
face all of the performance bucket things that you're worried about.
Say to yourself, listen, how much on that swing did
I commit to the changes that I was working on?
Speaker 2 (14:18):
And you know what, I'm going to.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Make ten swings now with this swing thought to try
and change or put the golf club in this position.
And at the end of the ten swings, say, listen,
did I for these ten swings, did I really stay
with and focus on this move that I'm trying to make?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Right?
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Did I commit through these ten swings even when it
felt a little bit uncomfortable? Was I able to stop
adjusting on every shot and stick with one concept? Did
I stay with the idea of working on my technique
as opposed to my brain jumping immediately towards execute and performance.
(15:02):
So if you're able to do that in your practice sessions,
those are definite, definite wins. Right, the commitment to the change,
the commitment to the fact that it is going to
feel uncomfortable. And then using technology, whether you're looking you know,
if you have the luxury to get on a launch monitor,
(15:23):
if you're able to look at the path, you know
one thing, and I've talked about this in other episodes.
If you are lucky enough to be able to work
on a launch monitor, and you're working on a path
that's really really excessive one direction, you're out to in
or into out, whatever those path numbers are, whatever those
face numbers are.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
You know, look at those numbers.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
And let's say, you know, I had a player the
other day come in, and you know he was pretty
good cutting across the golf ball from out to in.
You know that path was you know, on the bad
swings was in that a seven eight even got up
to somewhat nine degrees, you know, from out to in
to the left, and then the faces is wide open.
(16:00):
So setting up a parameter in that situation, say, okay,
I'm going to spend the next amount of balls, the
next amount of time to try and cut that path
in half. So let's say the path is it eight,
you know, from out to end, so the path is
eight degrees left of my intended target line.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
And say, all right, I'm.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Going to really commit to these feels and positions, and
what I'm going to try and do is work to
try and get that path cut in half and stick
with that, not get it to zero, not get it
to go out to the right and give yourself achievable
goals in your practice sessions and asking yourself, am I
(16:41):
sticking to the changes I'm trying to make? Do I
have a really clear understanding and in my head of
what I'm trying to do, how I'm going about trying
to do that, Because I think that's why a lot
of golfers work on things in their golf swing for
years and it never gets any better, right, and they
(17:02):
never really commit to the changes because they've always got
kind of one foot in the old pattern, because the
old pattern is what you know, and the old pattern,
I guess is somewhat comfortable. And what ends up happening
is you skip from the technique phase where you're working
(17:22):
on specific things in your golf swing, and you immediately
skip the transfer to where you're going to work on
the technique, and then the transfer phases you're trying to
work on Okay, let me work on these fields, but
then you know, adding targets or adding you know.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Some shapes that I want to hit, and so you
kind of you're in the.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Technique phase and you immediately want to go to execution
and performance. And that's why it's hard, and you never
really get into a kind of transfer or middle stage,
and so having a no blame environment where you're not
beating yourself up, actually gives you the permission to make
(18:08):
that change. So it's kind of like the phrase short
term pain, long term gain, temporary discomfort, permanent improvement. So
if you're constantly looking for your golf swing to be comfortable,
it's really really hard to make real improvements and for
(18:29):
the real improvements to stick. Nick Saban, one of my heroes,
He always would talk about focus on executing the task,
not the outcome, and if you do that, the outcome
can come and somewhat take care of itself. So in
the technique phrase, the task is to try and create
(18:53):
new movement patterns. In the transfer phase, the task is
committing to those changes with the target, and in the
execution phase, the task is performing those under pressure. And
it's that constant figuring out what kind of phase or
(19:14):
bucket that you're in. And I just think a lot
of players really struggle with that technical or technique stage.
They think that's going to be easy, they think that's
going to be fun. They don't think there's struggle, and
that's just not the case, and so creating a really
(19:38):
safe environment for yourself to say, Okay, I really want
these changes in my golf swing to stick.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Right.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Everybody says that, So I always look at the technique
phrase or the technique stage.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Of your golf swing.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
As you want to lose weight, you want to get
in shape, So you're going to go to the gym
and you're just going to try and be consistent with
how many times a week you go to there. So
let's say you're going to try and lose some weight.
It's really really important to you. You kind of want
to change the way you look. The first part of
that is, you know, coming up with an exercise program
(20:18):
that you can commit to, right, if that's one day
a week, if it's two days a week, it's three
days a week, some.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
People it's five days a week.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
But in those initial stages of trying to lose weight,
you're just trying to get some consistency, right. So let's
say you're just going to try and get on the treadmill,
you know, a couple days a week, and if you
do that a couple of days a week, you start
to see some results. It's not gonna be comfortable. It's
not gonna be perfect. It's probably going to be a
little bit of a grind.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
But once you.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Start to see a little bit of success, then maybe
you up it to three days a week and see
if you could go to the gym Monday, Wednesday, Friday,
get on a treadmill, do some cardio, walking for thirty minutes,
jogging for whatever that is. That's never going to be easy.
You're gonna have days where you feel good. You're gonna
have days where you feel bad. You're gonna have days
(21:08):
where your body feels good. You're gonna have days where
your body feels bad. You're gonna have days where you
really don't want to work out, but it's important to you,
so you're gonna try and do it. You're gonna have
days where real life is going to get in the
way and you have to skip a workout, so then
you've got to try and add one. But looking at
the range as kind of the gym, and you've just
(21:28):
got to get in in there and do the work
and commit to the changes that you are going to
try and make. Those are the technical changes you're going
to try and make, and if you can stick with
the technical phases and roll with the punches and know
that the technical phases are going to and the techniques
(21:50):
you're working on aren't always going to feel good, and
you are going to struggle.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
But that's the goal of it, right. The goal of
it is to struggle. The goal of it is to
make mistakes. The goal of it is.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
To try and not be perfect and expect it to
be perfect. And if you can do that long enough
and get comfortable with the changes that you're making, then
you can kind of move into that second stage of transfer,
to where you say to yourself, Okay, I'm still working
on my golf swing. I'm still working on creating these
new patterns, but I'm starting to see some better results.
(22:27):
The shots are starting to feel more solid. I'm starting
to see some positive things here. So now, while I'm
still working on those, I'm going to start to say, Okay,
in the technique phase, I wasn't really worried about where
the golf ball was going. Right, When I wasn't really
worried about aiming at anything, it was very much I
(22:47):
was setting up drills and stations and just working on fields.
Maybe I was in a simulator or hitting golf balls
into an end. One of the great ways I think
to stay in this technical phase is to take ball
flight away, hit balls in a simulator, hit balls into
a net. We're finding that a lot where even in
(23:08):
our indoor studios, we've got a net, and rather than
having players be so worried about where the golf ball's
ending up, what the outcome is, and all of those
things that happen when you put targets in front of people,
taking that completely away, you're just hitting golf balls into
a net which is right in front of you, so
(23:29):
you're not going to be able to see what the
ball flight's doing, how far it's gone, any of those things,
and taking the outcome completely away and just doing it
into a net. And I think sometimes there's a tremendous
amount of power in that because we're taking away that
expectation and that outcome and we can't really see where
the golf ball's going. We can't really see the outcome,
(23:51):
and it allows us to basically focus on these technical things,
these mechanical things that we're trying to change in our
golf swing and make and kind of get those two
embed to where you're able to use technology, launch monitors,
force plates three D. But the one technology I think
(24:13):
everybody has readily available to them when you're making technical
changes is video. So when I'm looking at a golfer's
golf swing and I'm making technical changes, what I'm always
trying to do is do things so that in a
very very short time gap the player can see something
very very different. Visually. I can show them, hey, remember
this is where you were when you started. Split the
(24:35):
screen and say this is where the backswing was. It
was really really on the outside, that grip was really
really weak, that face was really open. Take a look
at these swings here side by side. Now you can
see that golf swings looking in a much better position,
not as outside, it's going back a little bit.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
What you feel like is way inside. It's a little
bit more kind of neutral right now.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
And let's just keep working on our drills and our
feels and stuff like that, and where it is situation
hitting into a net to where we're not going to
see what the outcome is, right, And then once the
positions look good and once you feel a little bit
less strange and you've done the work, you know how
many range sessions is that? Give yourself a month give yourself. However,
(25:19):
many times you have the availability to practice. But definitely
don't think that you're going to go to the gym
and you're trying to lose weight and in a month
you're going to be able to go buy a brand
new wardrobe because you've shrunk in size and all of
your clothes no longer fits. Right, that is going to
(25:41):
take time. I always say this when you're making swing changes.
To me, it is a little bit like you're trying
to get in shape. So beginning of the year, you say, hey, listen,
and a little weight over the holidays, you know, Thanksgiving, Christmas,
New Year, and I want to try and get back
in the gym and loose a weight. So I'm going
to get back in three days a week. I'm going
to try and do, you know, twenty thirty minutes on
(26:01):
the treadmill and just start there, right, and see if
I can do that for a month. I'm not even
gonna lift any weights, right, I'm just gonna get on
an elliptical, whether I'm walking on a treadmill, whether I'm jogging,
whether I'm doing an elliptical, spin bike, whatever it is, right,
go to some classes. Whatever I guarantee you after about
a month to two months, someone is going to say
(26:23):
to you, hey, have you been working out? And you're
going to say, yeah, I have been, and they'll say, eh,
you look different. Or you're going to put on a
pair of jeans or shirt or something and it's going
to feel different. Right, it's gonna fit better. You don't
actively watch yourself do that, right, You're not watching yourself
(26:43):
every single day, but you're sticking to You're trying to
create a new pattern. You're trying to create a new habit,
and over time, if you stick with that, the math
is the math. You will lose weight, you will look differently,
you will feel differently.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
So giving and creating that.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
No judgment, no fear environment to say, Okay, I'm going
to go to the range today. It's probably not going
to be great because I am making some changes, but
I'm going to evaluate this practice session when I'm done,
and the only thing I'm really going to ask myself
is did I commit to the changes that I was
(27:26):
trying to make?
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Did I struggle?
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Did it feel kind of dirty and messy and you know,
chaotic at times? And was I able to use some
technology mainly visually technolog if you're working on positions, set
your phone up on a tripod, take some videos, look
at them, and then say, okay, that gives me a
(27:51):
really good gauge on what I'm trying to do for
my next practice session. But allowing for experimenting, allowing for
ideas and concepts, and say, okay, I'm going to try
and cycle through these three or four thoughts that I'm
going to try to have to get my backswing in
(28:12):
a better position or a club face and a better
position and stuff.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
But don't be.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Afraid to fail right and set up an environment that
is about discovery, not about outcome, not about certainly not
about perfection. And I think it's easier than to give
yourself some timelines and say, okay, let me do this
for a month and see where I am in a month.
If that's you know, if I can practice once a week,
(28:37):
if I can practice you know, a couple times a week,
you know whatever, and then look at it. If it's
starting to feel better and you feel like you've done
the work, then say, okay, now I'm going to go
into this next practice session for the next couple of weeks,
and I'm going to try and get a little bit
into the transfer staged where I'm going to try and
(28:57):
continue some of the things that I'm working on in
my golf swing. It's still going to be somewhat experimentation,
but I'm also going to add in aiming at some targets.
I'm going to set some alignment sticks down. I'm going
to pick out some specific targets. That isn't going to
be execution yet, that isn't going to be perfect yet,
That isn't going to be strictly about the outcome. You're
(29:20):
still going to be failing in that stage. Right in
that transfer stage, You're still going to be making some mistakes.
It's probably not always going to be perfect. But I
do think that if you can give yourself some time
guidelines to get into these phases and then say, all right,
you know, I really feel like my backswing's in a
different position. I've got some data points visually on video
(29:44):
to show me that it's in a better position. I
feel like the golf club's in a better spot at
the top. I feel like my grip is better. I've
taken some video and I can see that it's better.
Then maybe you go back for another lesson with your instructor,
your coach and say, hey, listen, I've been working on
this and feel like it's better and would like to
now try and transfer that and get into the transfer
(30:06):
stage of starting to incorporate some targets, starting to have
my alignment be consistent all of those things, and then
embed the changes in transfer stage and then say all right,
now I'm going to take it to the course and
see if I can go to the course with not
a ton of swing thoughts. Focus on outcomes, focus on results,
(30:29):
focus on scoring, focus on you know, getting the golf
ball in the hole in the least amount of shots.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
And you know, you'll find which of.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
These stages the technical stage, the transfer stage, and the
performance execution stage, you know, being able to identify which
one of those that you're in. You know, from a
competitive standpoint, we're trying to get players into execution and
performance and get them out of technique and get them
(30:59):
focusing on transferring what they're doing from the driving range
into a performance situation. But don't always blame yourself, right,
don't always blame the person. Look at the process and
look at how you're trying to achieve the outcome. You're
trying to achieve, and don't be afraid to fail, don't
(31:22):
be afraid to experiment in your technique practice stages. I
think it's hugely, hugely important for that development. And you know,
at a later date, I'm just going to do an
entire podcast on this kind of transfer, on this technique
transfer and execution phase, because that's kind of the world
(31:44):
that I live in with players as we're trying to
work on some things, get them to feel more comfortable
with that on the range once we get targets involved,
and then trying to say, okay, let's just see if
we can go play now and get out of thinking
of all of these swing thoughts. But creating this no
blame practice space, this safe space where you know you're
(32:06):
going to make mistakes. It's okay to make mistakes. You're
not Mistakes don't mean that you're a bad golfer. Mistakes
don't mean that you don't get it, that you've lost it,
that you're getting worse. Allowing yourself the time and the
opportunity to fail, which I think will help you commit
(32:29):
and embed these changes in the long term and for
the future. So the no blame practice environment great reviews,
Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks everyone for listening.
It's the Son of a Butch podcast
It's the son of a Butch podcast. I'm your host,
Claude Harmon. So I'm always trying to figure out different
ways i can try and talk about practice because I
think a lot of players get stuck in that practice world.
And I think practicing and the way you practice can
be a massive, massive part of your development and your
(00:24):
improvement as a golfer, but I also think it can
be at times just a disaster. So it was an
idea that I wanted to try and just kind of
float this idea, and the idea was the no blame
practice environment, and I kind of came up with this
from looking at some things. So Total Wolf is the
(00:44):
team principal for Mercedes Formula One.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yeah, that's a huge, huge job.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
So when I look at coaches and I look at
people running things, I'm always trying to figure out, you know,
what I can learn from them. And one of Toto's
kind of principles of the way that he operates is
he says, in most cases, it's the process that's failed,
not the person. And I think golfers more than in
any other sport one. I think it's because it's it's
(01:10):
an individual sport. But I think golfers just they beat
themselves up and they're really really hard on themselves. So
their practice environment becomes kind of an internal war zone
with themselves. I think most golfers practice in a way
that's kind of designed to make them fail. So what
(01:32):
do I mean by that? So you're working on a
swing change, you go to the range, try something to
take a lesson, whatever, go on YouTube, whatever you're trying
to work on in your golf swing. Most golfers go
to the driving range. They've got something they're going to
try and work on in their golf swing, get three
bad shots and they just they're out.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
They bail.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
It's not working, or they're working on something in the
technique phase, but they're immediately doing it in a performance
type way. And again, in trying to explain that a
little bit better, it's a little bit like you're trying
to learn how to speak French, and on day two
(02:15):
you're surprised you can't give an entire presentation in French,
because obviously you're trying to learn French. But on day
two you're going to try and give a presentation in
a language that you don't really know, you don't understand,
you don't really have a big vocabulary.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
You don't really know.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
So I think, don't be so hard on yourself and
try and create a better environment that isn't so much
based on fear and those fear components are I think
most golfers look at every bad shot they hit on
the range as evidence that they're a bad golfer or
(02:53):
that they're getting worse right, And so what that does
is is it makes it really hard to stick with changes.
You try something but doesn't feel right, so you just
throw it out and get rid of it. And I
think that's what sends people back to things that they
know feels that feel comfortable, and a lot of times
that's sending you back to things that you know don't work,
(03:15):
that you don't have any data that supports that what
you're doing in your golf swing is working. And I
think most golfers look at their practice and think they
have to be absolutely perfect in their practice.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
What they don't think is, okay, maybe I use my.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Practice for kind of experimentation and setting up in your
practice sessions the ability to fail right, saying Okay, maybe
what I'm doing is failing.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Maybe I'm not failing right.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Maybe it's not that you're untalented and that you don't
know what you're doing. Maybe it's just the practice structure
you've set up just isn't working. So whenever I'm looking
at golf swings and looking at what people are doing,
you know, in their golf game, I'm always thinking about, Okay,
we've got three kind of buckets that we're going to
(04:11):
be in. We're going to be in technique phase, where
we're working on what we're doing from a technique standpoint.
We're going to be working in the transfer phase where
we're trying to take some of the things that we're
working on in the technique phase or bucket, and then
we're going to add some targets and try and hit
some shots, but we're still kind of experimenting. It's still
(04:32):
not going to feel perfect. You're still not going to
do it perfect every time. And then there's the execution phase,
which is the performance side of things. So I think
if you start to think in terms of kind of
what phase you're in, are you working on something technical
or are you trying to blend technique with a little
(04:54):
bit of.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
You know, execution.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
That's kind of that transfer phase where you're trying to
take some of the stuff you're working on, and then
you're going to say, okay, let me try and blend
that into targets and scoring, and then there's just pure performance, right,
pure execution. And I think you have to give yourself
some time frames. I think that can be really really important.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I've said this before.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
I think one of the only negative things about the
Tiger era and the things that Tiger Woods did is
he made it fashionable to change your golf swing. If
you look at you know, he wins the Masters in
nineteen ninety seven, it's working with my dad, which harmon
at the time. They spend the next couple of years
kind of changing his golf swing to make it better.
(05:43):
Comes out two thousand and kind of has that kind
of golden years of that everybody kind of looks at
as the Tiger Golden years, you know, wins a bunch
of majors, then rinces my dad goes to Hank Haney,
changed his golf swing, has an enormous amount of success.
I mean, the win rate was through the roof, winning majors,
(06:04):
he's easily the best player in the game. Then goes
to work with Sean Foley, changed his golf swing completely again,
then goes to work with Chris Como changes golf swing
completely again. So I think one of the things that
Tiger made fashionable and made people think was viable is
(06:24):
having these.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Massive, massive swing changes.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
But like I said, my dad and Tiger made the
decision to change their golf swing after nineteen ninety seven.
I mean that process took almost three years. I mean,
he's the most talented golfer on the planet, he's one
of the most talented athletes on the planet. He's one
of the most iconic athletes and greatest athletes of all time,
and took almost three years to make those changes.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I was around for that.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
I watched that. I watched him struggle. I watched, you know,
the changes they were going to make. I watched how
they made the changes and stuff. And so most people
go to a golf lesson, they pay a golf instructor,
the instructor gives some stuff to work on, They go
back home, they try it, maybe for one practice session,
and if it doesn't work.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
They just bail out.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
And you know, I hear people sometimes say, how you've
been playing well. I am't playing good because I took
a lesson, and you know they look at that like
they're surprised by that, right, But that's you being in
the technique phase, right, that's you being in the technique bucket.
That's not you being in the performance an execution bucket.
And I think most golfers just they expect changes to
(07:35):
be almost instantaneous. You know, it's almost like you feel like, Okay,
I'm paying someone to take a golf lesson from and
because I'm paying them, that golf lesson should be the
end all, be all and everything that instructor tells me
to do, I should be able to implement one hundred
percent immediately. It should work on every single golf swing.
(07:59):
It should never feel weird. There should be no kind
of embedding of it. I shouldn't have to take time
to do it. I should just be able to take
a golf lesson. The instructor says, hey, your grip's a
little bit too weak. That face is a little bit open.
Then you come over it. That's why you're slicing it.
So we're going to strengthen your grip and we're going
to try and get that club face in a little
bit better position. And that's going to help contact and
(08:21):
that's going to help you slice it left. And if
that doesn't happen, almost instantaneously, people just throw it out
because they think, oh, well, it's not working, and so
it's a constant setting you up to fail. So give
yourself the opportunity and ask yourself, what are you trying
to do right? Are you trying to play? Are you
(08:42):
trying to practice? And if you're trying to practice, what
are you trying to practice? How long have you been
practicing that? How long are you willing to practice that?
And create an environment where in your practice sessions it's
okay to make mistakes, it's okay to fail well, it's
okay for you to not hit great shots, it's okay
(09:04):
for you to struggle that struggle when you're trying to
work on your technique and you're trying to work on
your golf swing, I think is hugely important to help
make these changes transfer from the range into a performance
competitive situation. So anytime you're making a swing change or
(09:27):
working on some things in your golf swing, maybe try
and set up this type of scenario. Give yourself the
next three to four practice sessions to experiment, to work
on these changes, to where Okay, my ballflight and the
outcome isn't the goal here. The goal here is what
(09:48):
is the process that I need to go through to
make these changes? And how can I set up some
positive expectations for what I'm trying to do. If I'm
trying to change my grip, that's going to take some time.
Allow yourself in practice, if you're trying to implement changes
in your golf swing, allow yourself to say, yeah, it's
(10:11):
supposed to feel weird, it's supposed to feel different. My
dad said, once again, I'll go back to Tiger. Tiger
was making a change. They were trying to get the
club face some less of a closed position, trying to
get it in a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Neutral position at the top.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Tiger felt like it was trying he was trying to
get the club face way more open.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
They were doing some.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Changes to Tiger's grip to where they were trying to
get him to weaken his grip, and so I remember
my dad asking him, Tiger was, you know, trying to
weaken his left hand grip to where it was not
quite as strong, not as many knuckles on the top,
get it a little bit more to the side, which
they felt was going to get that club in a
better position, and you know, he was hitting a few balls,
(10:56):
you know, probably was hitting balls with a little bit
weaker grip for about a half an hour or and
my dad said, how's it feel And Tiger says, it
feels pretty good, And my dad said, well, that means
you're not doing it. So anytime you're making a change
in your golf swing posture, alignment, takeaway, top of backswing, downswing, impact, grip,
(11:17):
whatever those changes are, they should feel weird, they should
feel different. In reality, they should feel bad. I mean,
it shouldn't feel good. And if it feels good really
really quickly, you need some data to be able to
tell you, okay, am I making these change. So if
(11:37):
you're trying to make some changes to your grip, if
you're trying to make some changes technically to your backswing positions,
use video so that you can give yourself that feedback
so that you say, oh, okay, well I'm trying to
get the club a little bit square at the top,
a little bit less open, and let me take some videos.
(11:58):
Because it feels pretty good. I feel like I'm in
a much squarre position. Take some down the line videos.
Or if you're trying to change your grip, take some
videos of your grip or something and then look at
it and you'll be able to pretty much instantaneously say, oh, okay, well,
I mean it feels like the golf club is in
a much different position.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
But it's not.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
And then I think that's where people bail out, right,
they don't set up those parameters in their practice if
it doesn't work immediately. If the shot, well, so you're
trying to get out of slicing the golf ball. You're
trying to change the path of the golf club from
being excessively from out to in, trying to get it
to feel like it's a little bit more into out, and.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
You're slicing the golf ball. The holy grail of that
is hitting a draw.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
If you're not hitting a draw in ten shots, if
you're not hitting a draw in an hour, again, you're
going to bail out on it. So thinking about it
differently and saying, Okay, I'm going to the range today,
I'm going to work on some of the things that
I was working on and the lesson I got, or
some of the things that I'm going to try to
make some changes in my golf swing and say to myself, Okay,
(13:03):
this range session, this practice session is going to feel
probably going to feel bad, and give yourself permission to
have it feel bad. Give yourself to say, okay, listen,
I'm probably not going to hit a lot of great
shots today because I'm trying to make some pretty big changes.
So I'm not really going to evaluate what's going on
with every single shot. I'm going to try and use
some video. If I'm working on positions in my golf swing,
(13:26):
I'm going to try and look at, you know, do
the work that I want to try and do, and
then take a look at it. And then as opposed
to analyzing the result of the shot, Let's say you're
trying to make a change to your backs when you're
trying to have the golf club be a little bit
less outside, a little bit more on the inside. You're
(13:47):
trying to maybe change your grip a little get a
little bit stronger, You're trying to feel that club face
a little bit more square, a little bit less open
at the top. So then rather than analyze every swing
on was it solid, was the result perfect?
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Was you know, did it take you know?
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Was it straight out of the middle of the club,
face all of the performance bucket things that you're worried about.
Say to yourself, listen, how much on that swing did
I commit to the changes that I was working on?
Speaker 2 (14:18):
And you know what, I'm going to.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Make ten swings now with this swing thought to try
and change or put the golf club in this position.
And at the end of the ten swings, say, listen,
did I for these ten swings, did I really stay
with and focus on this move that I'm trying to make?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Right?
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Did I commit through these ten swings even when it
felt a little bit uncomfortable? Was I able to stop
adjusting on every shot and stick with one concept? Did
I stay with the idea of working on my technique
as opposed to my brain jumping immediately towards execute and performance.
(15:02):
So if you're able to do that in your practice sessions,
those are definite, definite wins. Right, the commitment to the change,
the commitment to the fact that it is going to
feel uncomfortable. And then using technology, whether you're looking you know,
if you have the luxury to get on a launch monitor,
(15:23):
if you're able to look at the path, you know
one thing, and I've talked about this in other episodes.
If you are lucky enough to be able to work
on a launch monitor, and you're working on a path
that's really really excessive one direction, you're out to in
or into out, whatever those path numbers are, whatever those
face numbers are.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
You know, look at those numbers.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
And let's say, you know, I had a player the
other day come in, and you know he was pretty
good cutting across the golf ball from out to in.
You know that path was you know, on the bad
swings was in that a seven eight even got up
to somewhat nine degrees, you know, from out to in
to the left, and then the faces is wide open.
(16:00):
So setting up a parameter in that situation, say, okay,
I'm going to spend the next amount of balls, the
next amount of time to try and cut that path
in half. So let's say the path is it eight,
you know, from out to end, so the path is
eight degrees left of my intended target line.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
And say, all right, I'm.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Going to really commit to these feels and positions, and
what I'm going to try and do is work to
try and get that path cut in half and stick
with that, not get it to zero, not get it
to go out to the right and give yourself achievable
goals in your practice sessions and asking yourself, am I
(16:41):
sticking to the changes I'm trying to make? Do I
have a really clear understanding and in my head of
what I'm trying to do, how I'm going about trying
to do that, Because I think that's why a lot
of golfers work on things in their golf swing for
years and it never gets any better, right, and they
(17:02):
never really commit to the changes because they've always got
kind of one foot in the old pattern, because the
old pattern is what you know, and the old pattern,
I guess is somewhat comfortable. And what ends up happening
is you skip from the technique phase where you're working
(17:22):
on specific things in your golf swing, and you immediately
skip the transfer to where you're going to work on
the technique, and then the transfer phases you're trying to
work on Okay, let me work on these fields, but
then you know, adding targets or adding you know.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Some shapes that I want to hit, and so you
kind of you're in the.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Technique phase and you immediately want to go to execution
and performance. And that's why it's hard, and you never
really get into a kind of transfer or middle stage,
and so having a no blame environment where you're not
beating yourself up, actually gives you the permission to make
(18:08):
that change. So it's kind of like the phrase short
term pain, long term gain, temporary discomfort, permanent improvement. So
if you're constantly looking for your golf swing to be comfortable,
it's really really hard to make real improvements and for
(18:29):
the real improvements to stick. Nick Saban, one of my heroes,
He always would talk about focus on executing the task,
not the outcome, and if you do that, the outcome
can come and somewhat take care of itself. So in
the technique phrase, the task is to try and create
(18:53):
new movement patterns. In the transfer phase, the task is
committing to those changes with the target, and in the
execution phase, the task is performing those under pressure. And
it's that constant figuring out what kind of phase or
(19:14):
bucket that you're in. And I just think a lot
of players really struggle with that technical or technique stage.
They think that's going to be easy, they think that's
going to be fun. They don't think there's struggle, and
that's just not the case, and so creating a really
(19:38):
safe environment for yourself to say, Okay, I really want
these changes in my golf swing to stick.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Right.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Everybody says that, So I always look at the technique
phrase or the technique stage.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Of your golf swing.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
As you want to lose weight, you want to get
in shape, So you're going to go to the gym
and you're just going to try and be consistent with
how many times a week you go to there. So
let's say you're going to try and lose some weight.
It's really really important to you. You kind of want
to change the way you look. The first part of
that is, you know, coming up with an exercise program
(20:18):
that you can commit to, right, if that's one day
a week, if it's two days a week, it's three
days a week, some.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
People it's five days a week.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
But in those initial stages of trying to lose weight,
you're just trying to get some consistency, right. So let's
say you're just going to try and get on the treadmill,
you know, a couple days a week, and if you
do that a couple of days a week, you start
to see some results. It's not gonna be comfortable. It's
not gonna be perfect. It's probably going to be a
little bit of a grind.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
But once you.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Start to see a little bit of success, then maybe
you up it to three days a week and see
if you could go to the gym Monday, Wednesday, Friday,
get on a treadmill, do some cardio, walking for thirty minutes,
jogging for whatever that is. That's never going to be easy.
You're gonna have days where you feel good. You're gonna
have days where you feel bad. You're gonna have days
(21:08):
where your body feels good. You're gonna have days where
your body feels bad. You're gonna have days where you
really don't want to work out, but it's important to you,
so you're gonna try and do it. You're gonna have
days where real life is going to get in the
way and you have to skip a workout, so then
you've got to try and add one. But looking at
the range as kind of the gym, and you've just
(21:28):
got to get in in there and do the work
and commit to the changes that you are going to
try and make. Those are the technical changes you're going
to try and make, and if you can stick with
the technical phases and roll with the punches and know
that the technical phases are going to and the techniques
(21:50):
you're working on aren't always going to feel good, and
you are going to struggle.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
But that's the goal of it, right. The goal of
it is to struggle. The goal of it is to
make mistakes. The goal of it is.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
To try and not be perfect and expect it to
be perfect. And if you can do that long enough
and get comfortable with the changes that you're making, then
you can kind of move into that second stage of transfer,
to where you say to yourself, Okay, I'm still working
on my golf swing. I'm still working on creating these
new patterns, but I'm starting to see some better results.
(22:27):
The shots are starting to feel more solid. I'm starting
to see some positive things here. So now, while I'm
still working on those, I'm going to start to say, Okay,
in the technique phase, I wasn't really worried about where
the golf ball was going. Right, When I wasn't really
worried about aiming at anything, it was very much I
(22:47):
was setting up drills and stations and just working on fields.
Maybe I was in a simulator or hitting golf balls
into an end. One of the great ways I think
to stay in this technical phase is to take ball
flight away, hit balls in a simulator, hit balls into
a net. We're finding that a lot where even in
(23:08):
our indoor studios, we've got a net, and rather than
having players be so worried about where the golf ball's
ending up, what the outcome is, and all of those
things that happen when you put targets in front of people,
taking that completely away, you're just hitting golf balls into
a net which is right in front of you, so
(23:29):
you're not going to be able to see what the
ball flight's doing, how far it's gone, any of those things,
and taking the outcome completely away and just doing it
into a net. And I think sometimes there's a tremendous
amount of power in that because we're taking away that
expectation and that outcome and we can't really see where
the golf ball's going. We can't really see the outcome,
(23:51):
and it allows us to basically focus on these technical things,
these mechanical things that we're trying to change in our
golf swing and make and kind of get those two
embed to where you're able to use technology, launch monitors,
force plates three D. But the one technology I think
(24:13):
everybody has readily available to them when you're making technical
changes is video. So when I'm looking at a golfer's
golf swing and I'm making technical changes, what I'm always
trying to do is do things so that in a
very very short time gap the player can see something
very very different. Visually. I can show them, hey, remember
this is where you were when you started. Split the
(24:35):
screen and say this is where the backswing was. It
was really really on the outside, that grip was really
really weak, that face was really open. Take a look
at these swings here side by side. Now you can
see that golf swings looking in a much better position,
not as outside, it's going back a little bit.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
What you feel like is way inside. It's a little
bit more kind of neutral right now.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
And let's just keep working on our drills and our
feels and stuff like that, and where it is situation
hitting into a net to where we're not going to
see what the outcome is, right, And then once the
positions look good and once you feel a little bit
less strange and you've done the work, you know how
many range sessions is that? Give yourself a month give yourself. However,
(25:19):
many times you have the availability to practice. But definitely
don't think that you're going to go to the gym
and you're trying to lose weight and in a month
you're going to be able to go buy a brand
new wardrobe because you've shrunk in size and all of
your clothes no longer fits. Right, that is going to
(25:41):
take time. I always say this when you're making swing changes.
To me, it is a little bit like you're trying
to get in shape. So beginning of the year, you say, hey, listen,
and a little weight over the holidays, you know, Thanksgiving, Christmas,
New Year, and I want to try and get back
in the gym and loose a weight. So I'm going
to get back in three days a week. I'm going
to try and do, you know, twenty thirty minutes on
(26:01):
the treadmill and just start there, right, and see if
I can do that for a month. I'm not even
gonna lift any weights, right, I'm just gonna get on
an elliptical, whether I'm walking on a treadmill, whether I'm jogging,
whether I'm doing an elliptical, spin bike, whatever it is, right,
go to some classes. Whatever I guarantee you after about
a month to two months, someone is going to say
(26:23):
to you, hey, have you been working out? And you're
going to say, yeah, I have been, and they'll say, eh,
you look different. Or you're going to put on a
pair of jeans or shirt or something and it's going
to feel different. Right, it's gonna fit better. You don't
actively watch yourself do that, right, You're not watching yourself
(26:43):
every single day, but you're sticking to You're trying to
create a new pattern. You're trying to create a new habit,
and over time, if you stick with that, the math
is the math. You will lose weight, you will look differently,
you will feel differently.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
So giving and creating that.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
No judgment, no fear environment to say, Okay, I'm going
to go to the range today. It's probably not going
to be great because I am making some changes, but
I'm going to evaluate this practice session when I'm done,
and the only thing I'm really going to ask myself
is did I commit to the changes that I was
(27:26):
trying to make?
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Did I struggle?
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Did it feel kind of dirty and messy and you know,
chaotic at times? And was I able to use some
technology mainly visually technolog if you're working on positions, set
your phone up on a tripod, take some videos, look
at them, and then say, okay, that gives me a
(27:51):
really good gauge on what I'm trying to do for
my next practice session. But allowing for experimenting, allowing for
ideas and concepts, and say, okay, I'm going to try
and cycle through these three or four thoughts that I'm
going to try to have to get my backswing in
(28:12):
a better position or a club face and a better
position and stuff.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
But don't be.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Afraid to fail right and set up an environment that
is about discovery, not about outcome, not about certainly not
about perfection. And I think it's easier than to give
yourself some timelines and say, okay, let me do this
for a month and see where I am in a month.
If that's you know, if I can practice once a week,
(28:37):
if I can practice you know, a couple times a week,
you know whatever, and then look at it. If it's
starting to feel better and you feel like you've done
the work, then say, okay, now I'm going to go
into this next practice session for the next couple of weeks,
and I'm going to try and get a little bit
into the transfer staged where I'm going to try and
(28:57):
continue some of the things that I'm working on in
my golf swing. It's still going to be somewhat experimentation,
but I'm also going to add in aiming at some targets.
I'm going to set some alignment sticks down. I'm going
to pick out some specific targets. That isn't going to
be execution yet, that isn't going to be perfect yet,
That isn't going to be strictly about the outcome. You're
(29:20):
still going to be failing in that stage. Right in
that transfer stage, You're still going to be making some mistakes.
It's probably not always going to be perfect. But I
do think that if you can give yourself some time
guidelines to get into these phases and then say, all right,
you know, I really feel like my backswing's in a
different position. I've got some data points visually on video
(29:44):
to show me that it's in a better position. I
feel like the golf club's in a better spot at
the top. I feel like my grip is better. I've
taken some video and I can see that it's better.
Then maybe you go back for another lesson with your instructor,
your coach and say, hey, listen, I've been working on
this and feel like it's better and would like to
now try and transfer that and get into the transfer
(30:06):
stage of starting to incorporate some targets, starting to have
my alignment be consistent all of those things, and then
embed the changes in transfer stage and then say all right,
now I'm going to take it to the course and
see if I can go to the course with not
a ton of swing thoughts. Focus on outcomes, focus on results,
(30:29):
focus on scoring, focus on you know, getting the golf
ball in the hole in the least amount of shots.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
And you know, you'll find which of.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
These stages the technical stage, the transfer stage, and the
performance execution stage, you know, being able to identify which
one of those that you're in. You know, from a
competitive standpoint, we're trying to get players into execution and
performance and get them out of technique and get them
(30:59):
focusing on transferring what they're doing from the driving range
into a performance situation. But don't always blame yourself, right,
don't always blame the person. Look at the process and
look at how you're trying to achieve the outcome. You're
trying to achieve, and don't be afraid to fail, don't
(31:22):
be afraid to experiment in your technique practice stages. I
think it's hugely, hugely important for that development. And you know,
at a later date, I'm just going to do an
entire podcast on this kind of transfer, on this technique
transfer and execution phase, because that's kind of the world
(31:44):
that I live in with players as we're trying to
work on some things, get them to feel more comfortable
with that on the range once we get targets involved,
and then trying to say, okay, let's just see if
we can go play now and get out of thinking
of all of these swing thoughts. But creating this no
blame practice space, this safe space where you know you're
(32:06):
going to make mistakes. It's okay to make mistakes. You're
not Mistakes don't mean that you're a bad golfer. Mistakes
don't mean that you don't get it, that you've lost it,
that you're getting worse. Allowing yourself the time and the
opportunity to fail, which I think will help you commit
(32:29):
and embed these changes in the long term and for
the future. So the no blame practice environment great reviews,
Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks everyone for listening.
It's the Son of a Butch podcast
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Ruthie's Table 4
For more than 30 years The River Cafe in London, has been the home-from-home of artists, architects, designers, actors, collectors, writers, activists, and politicians. Michael Caine, Glenn Close, JJ Abrams, Steve McQueen, Victoria and David Beckham, and Lily Allen, are just some of the people who love to call The River Cafe home. On River Cafe Table 4, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers. Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt, and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation. For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/ Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/ Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/ For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.