On The Tee with Hank Johnson

Playing while making a swing change!

Playing Through a Swing ChangeQuestion: Should you continue to play during the time you are making a swing change?In my opinion the answer is YES!
I believe that it is very important to continue to play during the time you are making a swing change. To do this you must learn to separate playing and practicing. This is a skill that all good players have so why not learn to make this important mental transition while you are learning your new swing.
In practice you should focus on the details of your swing (the parts) in order to change them. Your swing mechanics become much more important than the quality of the shots you hit. Do it right even if you miss the ball until you no longer miss the ball.

In play, the ONLY thing that matters is the quality of the shot. There are no style points! You really shouldn't think about the parts of your swing while you're playing unless it's in rehearsal prior to actually playing a shot.

When you are playing a shot that matters, you should focus on your target and just "feel" the swing that will make the ball go there.Here iss the process: You use mechanics and swing thoughts to create a "feel" for the whole swing. That's what practice is for. When you play, you use that "feel" of the whole swing to re-create the mechanics. You have to train yourself to mentally switch back and forth between practice and play.On the course, if you find your mind slipping back to mechanical thoughts, use them to rehearse your swing and then use the whole swing "feel" they create to play the shot.In my view, there is no better time to train yourself to flip the mental switch between practice and play than while you are in the process of making a swing change. If you stop playing while you're making the swing change then you’ll have to start learning how to play all over again when you start back.Just remember that the way you use your mind for practicing is totally different from the way you use your mind for playing. The process of switching back and forth between these two mental modes is a learned skill just like your golf swing. Because it's a learned skill, it takes practice. What better time to do this practice than while you're making a swing change.

Thoughts On Taking a Golf Lesson
Plan and commit time for practice following your lesson. In the words of the great Harvey Pennick, Lessons can never take the place of practice; they just make practice more worthwhile.

Select your teacher carefully. The best reflection of a teachers ability is the improvement of their students. Do your homework just like you would if you were choosing a surgeon. The best teacher for you might not be the one most conveniently located or least expensive.
Be prepared to answer four basic questions related to your golf game:
What do you want?
Whats keeping you from having it?
What do you need to change to get it?
Are you willing to do the practice that will be required to change?
Plan to communicate openly with your teacher. After all, you are partners in this project. Make sure you inform your teacher of any physical condition that might affect your golf performance.
Bring your teacher an open mind. Youre not likely to find the truth if youve already made up your mind what it ought to be.
Be willing to work on one thing at a time. Quality instruction is based on the building block concept. A good teacher will expect you to master one assignment before moving on to the next one.
Maintain a written record of the specifics of your lesson for future reference during your practice. Even the great Ben Hogan kept a notebook so he could remember what he was working on from one practice session to the next.
Commit to being your own coach. An effective teacher will give you specific tools to monitor your practice. The major objective for your practice should be to eliminate incorrect repetitions. Just as every skill is enhanced by practice, every bad habit is more deeply ingrained through repetition.

PGA Championship Special
Preparing for Hazeltine!
Prepare yourself mentally and physically
1) Be rested and refreshed
2) Get all distractions taken care of
3) Decide to enjoy the experience

Study the golf course and get to know it intimately
1) Walk the course backwards to evaluate the approaches to the greens and the landing area for your tee shots
2) Get acquainted with the speed of the golf course (ie. Putts, chips, pitches and run up shots)
3) Get a feel for the bunker sand from different types of lies
4) Practice chips and pitches from different lies around the greens

For your yardage book
1) Make sure you have lay up yardages
2) Chart the greens for general breaking patterns
3) Pick a driving target and a driving club for every hole
4) Have a strategy for the play of every hole

During the round
1) Hit the ball in the fairway - be willing to hit whatever club that requires
2) After a poor shot, come up with a conservative plan - the PGA Championship is no place to try to be a hero
3) Be patient no matter what happens, everyone else out there will be struggling too
4) Expect to face more up and down situations
5) Expect to have to make more putts for par than normal
6) Stay focused on what you do want to do. Don’t let your mind wander on to what you want to avoid

Play Within Yourself : What does it mean?
Key: You must know what you can consistently do. ie. What tools do you have in your tool box? You can’t use a tool you don’t have.
You don’t play golf with your BEST shots. You play golf with your AVERAGE shots.
Testing system:
Average fairway is 40 yards wide. Add 10 yards on each side for the "first cut".
Mark this off in your practice area.
Hit 10 balls each with your driver, fairway woods and hybrids and chart the results.
Use data to determine your most effective driving club and most effective long advancement clubs.
On the course, be aware that fairways have narrow areas where they are pinched in by bunkers, cut lines and other features.
The average green is about 20 yards or 60 feet wide at its widest point. It’s also about the same depth from the front to back at its deepest point.
If you have a green this size in your practice area, great! Use it to test yourself from different yardages. If not, then mark off a "green" this size to use for testing yourself. Make it 20 yards wide and 20 yards deep.
Hit 10 shots from 100, 125 and 150 yards with the club you would use on the course. Chart the results.
To play "within yourself", use the data you collect with this testing procedure.
Don’t attempt to hit shots or clubs that you can’t consistently produce acceptable results with.

Risk vs. Reward: Is it REALLY worth it?
You must evaluate:
What will you gain if you are successful?
What will it cost you if you are unsuccessful?
Key: Don’t risk the loss of a stroke unless the reward is the gain of a full stroke.
Go for it or lay up? Don’t make this decision with your ego.
A good rule of thumb, look at the shot related to how many times of 10 you can pull it off. It certainly needs to be more than half the time at least. Tour players would probably want 8 out of 10.
You also need to recognize how bad the unsuccessful ones will be.
The classic examples of a "bad bet" is a player trying to carry the ball over the corner of a dog leg, or hazard, or fairway bunker just to have a shorter shot into the green. In that case, they are risking losing a shot or more without the reward of gaining a shot.
The only time this makes any sense is when it will let them reach the green in one full stroke less.
That’s betting one shot against one shot so it’s a reasonable risk – reward relationship.

Will a gain in distance from the tee really equal lower scores?
It depends on how much yards. 10 – 20 yards? Not much difference at all. 50 more yards? A huge difference if you are really accurate.
Don’t forget that the farther you hit it the straighter you have to hit it.
Try this test the next time you play:
After every tee shot, pick up your ball and take 20 steps IN THE DIRECTION THE BALL WAS GOING. That’s right, if it was headed right, move it 20 yards along that same line. The same if it was going to the left.
You may find that 20 more yards with no improvement in your accuracy might actually make you play worse!
Many players don’t really know how far they hit their clubs. MOST think they hit them farther than they actually do. We’ve proven this time after time with our Trackman system.
Trying to stretch the distance of an approach club, say a 7 iron causes mishits, a loss of accuracy and a wide variation in distance from shot to shot with the same club.
That is why Tour players seldom if ever hit any club as hard as they can. Most go at somewhere around 80% of full speed. They wisely take enough club so they don’t have to swing too hard.
Commit one round of golf to selecting clubs that will let you swing at only 80% of full power and observe the results. I believe you will be pleasantly surprised.