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Dear all,
We had 7 players out on this hot, 4th of July Weekend and they were alert and ready to learn! I would like to welcome our newest member, Derek Wasko, who has been playing in our USGLL Little League team tournaments for the past 10 weeks and is quite the golfer. The boys welcomed him in earnest and we got down to business! Today’s range work was geared towards Body Awareness, Swing Development, and Moving your body to produce a desired shot. Dan had the boys do 5 Tai Chi Swings using their PW-This may seem easy but to do the swing slowly can be tough! Next we had them use every club in their bags from lowest to highest including driver and they had to have the ball land and stay on the White Flag green about 55 yds. Each shot had to include their full swing and to do this with the longer clubs and woods requited moderating their motion and focus!
Next Dan had cones set up in front of each hitting station and had the boys line up right at their cone. The challenge for these guys was without manipulating the club face, hit 5 shots to the left and 5 to the right by changing body motion only. We discussed the difference of “Over”, “Under” and “Turning”. Some of our players who have done this exercise before we asked them to fine tune it, be more precise, and to try more difficult shots. We had them do 10 more shots alternating over and under with both an iron and their drivers. Finally, Dan asked them to try 6 more shots mixing and matching clubface with body movement to produce shots that curve to the left after starting straight and to the right.
We moved to the Putting Green and the focus was Develop Deep and Undistracted Focus while putting. Dan used Fred Shoemaker’s See the Spot drill. Each player knelt down and watched their ball in the sunlight-Dan asked them to see different things that are on their ball-Once they had a deep focus of this Dan asked them to stare at the bright light on each ball for about 6 seconds-Once finished, they then pulled the ball back towards them and saw a “spot” or dark spot that is actually a reflection from our retinas much like after we stare at a light bulb. We had them now putt to nowhere for a few minutes but staring at the spot after each putt. Activity 2- Putt 5 times to a hole from 20ft-Stare at the spot. After the finished, we asked them if this was helping or not with the outcome of their putts? Some said yes but Cooper and Derek said it made it worse. Dan asked them if they were focused on seeing the spot or making the putt or a combination of both? We went on to Activity 3 and the boys started at 30 ft working down to 5 ft putts-We asked Derek and Cooper to try to stay with focusing on the spot only-no worrying about making the putt-Cooper made 8 out of 10 putts and Derek made 6 out of 10 once her really committed to the exercise-Patrick, Viraj and Alex also made putt after putt-Christian and Ryan also got into the zone and were sinking not only 6 ft putts but 12 ft as well-This drill works once you let go of wanting to “see” the results and just rust the putting stroke.
We finished with a Square Drill around the hole putting contest-The boys had 9 locations of 6 ft putts around a hole. Each boy kept track of each putt made-The finalists with the most putts were Alex-3, Viraj-3, and Cooper making his last putt under pressure-3 to compete for the prize-Sudden Death was they must make to stay in-Viraj and Alex made their first putts but Cooper’s just slid to the left-Our winners were Alex and Viraj.
Have a very Happy 4th of July! We meet next Saturday July 11th for Match Play in Teams on the course-Start time is 3:00-7:00pm.
Dan and Mary
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