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The Mueller Golf Report
At long last - it's here! The Robert Mueller Golf Report, a comprehensive and complete investigation of all that is golf. Did you think he was solely focusing on collusion & conspiracy in politics and government in D.C.? Ah, there is more to it, fellow chasers of the little white (or fluorescent) ball; and our beloved sport in its current state sorely needs a gatekeeper as well.
The truths about practice, playing and shooting lower scores. The swing, course management and mental myths. The oh-precious poop, people. You ready? Sure you can handle it (like a long carry over water)? Oh, and be careful about what you click on to follow - there might be some factual bombshells that your eyes & ears just are not ready for.
Ready or not............................................................................. (CS cliff-notes just below - to help with information, facts and data that may have been redacted, or lack actual meaning for your golf game)
The key to good golf is ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------blah blaha blhabblahblahb-----------??????????????????????------------------------------------------------------------------
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The truth about hitting it farther is ---------------------------
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CS - channeling my inner Jack Nicholson: can you handle the truth?
- Swing the golf club faster, right from the get go. Yes, that's right - even in the backswing. Not buying it? Then you too are stuck in the golf swing belief system from the days of the Nixon administration... Click on Colonel Jessup's image below for the truth (as opposed to someone's theory, model or belief).
- In order to swing the stick you are holding faster, you must hold it firmer. No, not by tensing your entire upper body and arms like the mug above, but by securing your fingers and hands around the end you are holding. Strengthening those parts, a la a Tour player, would eventually allow you to hold the handle securely, with little pressure or effort. But until then - hold on tight if you want the thing in your hand to move fast...
- Swing your arms faster to move the club (that you are now holding more securely) faster. The stick is not attached to your pelvis/hips, nor to your torso/chest. Is it? Those parts respond to the swinging of the arms. Suspect (see the look on Special Counselor Mueller's face up top)? I understand. Now.... take a golf ball and throw it - however you like, sidearm or overhead - as far as you can. Next, throw one from a simulated top of the backswing position, at a spot on the ground where the ball to be struck would be situated. Film it (with your dumbphone, as I recommended in my last post).
Whatcha notice? Where was the energy, pressure and force? What did the rest of your body (pelvis and torso, specfically) do?
Truth about the planet
Alas, if we could only get Jack to scream about what's happening to the planet... You know, where all your favorite golf parks (and children, critters, and friends) live.
Can you handle it? Or do you prefer to run off, hide & ignore the issue (that strategy doesn't work very well when there's an issue with your golf game, BTW). Click on any of the pristine settings below, for some facts about natural world on Mother Earth.
Sorry - nothing redact here. No Chinese hoax or some supposed expert's hypothesis. Rather, a three-year study done by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform On Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). It's expected to run to over 8,000 pages, and is being compiled by more than 500 experts in 50 countries.
Practice
Do you practice a lot, yet see no results on the course? Alas, practice doesn't make perfect, it makes ----------------------------
Ask yourself: why do you practice in the first place? Hopefully, so that what it is you are learning (oh, and learning isn't about getting the answer 'right,' it's about figuring out how to solve the problem) lasts, and transfers to the golf course. Here's the secret: ---
CS - channeling my inner Sully: "Can we get serious now?"
You miss the 'secret' link above? If so (I'm a slow learner as well..), click on Tom Hanks as Sully, just below.
- Seriously? Do you think the computer simulations you are experiencing in a sterile, void-of-consequence environment have anything to do with what happens in an actual round of golf? Most practice (with the exception of learning something brand new) is indeed like: "Be cool. Just hit another striped ball - like you're going back to pick up the milk." Yet when it's time to play the game, it looks more like a Thunderbird air show, doesn't it now?
- Seriously? "Experiencing for the first time," boys and girls, how does that grab you? And how ya gonna deal with that? Lemme warn you: a round of golf is an adventure waiting to happen, and you must be preparing for the inevitability of every, and anything. There will come moments in a round where you "lose both engines at a low altitude," (think: missing a short putt, back to back stubbed/sculled chips, making a BIG number, and the like) trust me. If you have not experienced/dealt with such situations before, nor have not been advised/trained on how to respond to adversity in a positive manner, you too gonna crash?
- Seriously? When's the last time you got 17 tries on the golf course to get it right? Not even under the new rules... Why then, do you give yourself so many reps in practice with the same club, to the same target? Does this look like some sort of blue-screen computerized video game, where the #'s, data and stats tell you how to play?
Please remember: you are human, hence prone to error. Yet your 'humanness' has also blessed you with abilities far beyond that of a machine... Incredible adaptability. Masterful compensation skills. Brilliant and creative puzzle solving talents. Hard-wired instinct and intuition, if you'd only let them all come out and play...
That's why I developed the Train2Trust programs. Click below for some ideas - or to schedule.
The 'Shanks'
There - I said it... Hoselitis. Pitch outs. "El Hosel" south of the border (but clubs, golf balls and courses don't have borders, remember?) Four in a row and you're back to the same place you started. Yikes!!!
Ah, something people (along with the yips - that's in another fact & researched-based report I've been creating, BTW...) don't like to discuss.
Solutions? First - like with all on the links and in life - find the cause. And here's a hint or two:
All 'mental?' You are now, 'cause something physical broke down, and now your confidence is broken. Open clubface? Bull
Click on my man 'Red,' for some timeless lessons from "Shawshank Redemption," just below. For he in fact has many an answer, to many a query - let alone when you miss the clubface...
- "Rehabilitated?" Red doesn't know what that word means, much like you may not know what some of the fancy, "I'm trying to impress you" words or terms mean coming from an instructor. You know what I mean?
Albert Einstein did:
"If you can't explain it simply, you don't really understand it well enough."
'Nuff said.
- Are you sorry for what you did - hitting the golf ball off the part of the club that joins the shaft to the head? Regretful? I mean - how effing stupid & bad can you be? How friggin' hard is it to hit the damn ball somewhere on the clubface, anyway?
Right? That's the little voice that pops up when you misfire, on the course, and in life? Take a page out of Red's book, ASAP: he wants to go back and talk to the young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime (aka your hoselrocket). Talk some sense into him, tell him the way things are.
Well, here are the way things are after you've done your best, and things didn't turn out quite right: have some understanding, some compassion and forgiveness for yourself, if you have the peace of mind attained only through self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you are capable (thank you, Coach Wooden).
- But you can't go back and hit that shot over, can you now? It's long gone - like the kid Red used to be. So now what? "Stamp the form that says you're going to continue to hit shanks (or chunks or blades)?" Nope, I'm gonna let you out of your own short shot penitentiary, "Sonny." Stop wasting your time...
- Missing the center part of the clubface? First check your overall distance from ball, ball position, and how much space you have between the butt of the club and the inside of your left thigh (half a fist's width, approx).
- Put your coccis (how's that for a fancy word - impressed? :)) - tailbone/bum - against a wall (no glass walls, please) and make some practice swings making sure the clubhead doesn't bang into the wall in the backswing, nor on the follow through. On a short-ish swing, this will help to get the club swinging on an acceptable path, and help with centering your contact.
- Can you feel the earth under your feet? Or are you stuck in some Michael Jackson-era moon-boots that look and feel more like ski boots, designed for a World Cup downhill race? If so, click on the pair below from my cronies with Nike Skateboard (you'll immediately reconnect to the planet). Find where your pressure/weight is from heel to toe - and make sure it stays there as you swing (no 'tipping forward' onto your tootsies, please!) Place a golf shaft underfoot (mid-foot, please) to reinforce this feeling.
Would it help?
Great question. Rudolph Abel (click above) had an answer to whether worrying helps his cause (life or death) - what about you when it comes to your golf? Maybe you're worrying too much - and that's not helping performance. Trying to hard instead of trusting. Too careful instead of being a little reckless. Forcing the issue instead of finding & understanding the facts, and proceeding with a plan.
Bottom line: is what you are doing with your swing, head and game helping, or not? And, have you given it the appropriate time, attention and focus - or are you looking for some magical quick fix to counter your years of dysfunctional mental, emotional and physical patterns?
Voilà the treasured needle in the haystack re golf guidance, and mastering this game: you must find
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Got it? Make sense? Crystal clear, right?
You think Mueller's other reports (yep, there's more than 1...) have been long in coming? How about spending 45 years as a player and student of the game, three decades teaching & coaching, and the heavens above only know how much time, energy, and resources learning how to help students play better golf, and enjoy the experience more? That's the case of yours truly, pictured below, in his post St. Paddy's Day green. Still searching, curious, and ever-learning.
Catch a recent podcast I did with fellow Guinness World Record Holder (fastest single hole of golf) and rock star athlete and fitness/wellness consultant, Brad Kearns, by clicking below.
So here's the finale of the Mueller Golf Report: blah blah blah
Can you commit to the process? If so, you will like the results. Or did you think improving at anything was like 'Amazon Prime Now?' If so, chew on the quote at the bottom of your screen...
Coaching & Guidance
 
Here to help you get started on your path to progress.
One-day golf schools, Train2Trust practice gatherings (schedules coming soon...), and individual lessons.
At Eugene Country Club, or a golf park near you.
Christopher@ChristopherSmithGolf.com
CSmith@EugeneCountryClub.com
"The myth of the overnight success is just that, a myth - the flower doesn't just go from bud to blossom in one spritely burst and yet, as a culture, we're disinterested in the tedium of the blossoming." But that's where all the real magic unfolds in the making of our character and our destiny."
- - Debbie Millman
Best,
~ CS ~
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