Why do we find a move that seems so easy to the professionals so incredibly difficult to perform?
Recently it was discovered that psychologists believe that we learn differently as adults than we do when we were children. And I believe this may be the key to explaining why we have such a difficult time of it.
The large majority of professional golfers will have taken up golf when they were kids – Tiger Woods was swinging a club well at 3!
But, I would imagine the majority of amateur golfers took golf up when either in their late teens, early twenties or even later in life – as adults.
The psychologists believe that as children we learn from repeating the model that we see – we know that kids are very trusting of what they are told. Yes, they ask lots of questions but they trust the answers given. They see, and are told, and DO.
Now as adults we learn differently. We have already formed opinions about how the world is and how things operate. So when we learn something new we actually test it against the rules that we have already built up in our heads as to what is right and wrong.
Unfortunately for us, the golf swing is actually illogical to our adult minds. That’s where the problem stems from. In our heads we can’t actually accept or believe that that is how the golf swing works. We then trust our instinct and test it against our rules and go back to what we believe is logical.
Here is what is illogical about the golf swing:
A Golf Swing without Effort = A Powerful 300 yard drive
It’s been said before that the secret to the pros swing is that it achieves ‘Power WITHOUT Effort – how illogical is that!
It’s a bit like saying we’re going on a 200 mile car journey, but we’re not going to turn the engine on! No ones going to believe you.
That’s how our brains interpret it – we think there’s no way you can hit a golf ball 300 yards without LOTS of effort.
So next time we coil up on the backswing our brain tells our muscles ‘right guys we need plenty of effort if we’re going to send this ball long and straight’.
Pro’s do actually put effort into their swings to get the ball to go that far (look at Tiger Woods face just before impact and you’ll see what I mean) BUT they put it in at a completely different point in the swing to amateur golfers. They also know the technique that allows them to produce such great results – and it doesn’t involve power, certainly not how the amateur golfer understands it.
Amateur golfers think you need to start the golf swing powerfully BUT the pro golfers know that you put the effort in at the bottom of the swing.If you try and take this point on board this will start the process of adjusting your mind.
This post is an abridged excerpt from the book Golf Swing Eureka by Jon Barrett