Hi Everyone

It's been a very hectic last few weeks of airports, hotels and golf courses, so it's felt like I was back playing on the European tour!!! The reality is I've been coaching on tour and even though many of the players faces have changed since I last played on tour in the 2000 season, it's been amazing to say hello to many of the same faces as well.

It appears that the more things change the more things stay the same and the European tour is certainly a case in point. So many of the same caddies are out on tour as from my day, alongside the familiar faces working for the tour and behind the scenes on the physio bus and making the players travel arrangements.

So what's the latest news from the tour and who looks like the new Tiger???

Well, things have moved on quite dramatically for the players in terms of equipment advances and technology, there are a few players taking there own TRACKMAN out on tour and measuring all their distances and spin rates. It used to be case not long ago that the equipment rep manufacturers would just stand next to you as you trialled a club and just eyeball any improvement the club made, now it seems like 'old hat' to do that and the players have access to very specific distance and spin rate results.

I can thoroughly recommend the use of TRACKMAN to anyone seriously interested in improving their golf and would certainly advise anyone to find out where they can get a session on this system.

There does seem to be a younger element to the tour now (but maybe that's just me getting OLD!!!) there are perhaps 10 to 15 really young guys with very good looking games, and quite a few of them are British or European. Check out, Horsey, Willet, Goya, Benson, Ramsey and Grace

One of the most alarming things I noticed was the way in which the majority of guys still practise. There's still a strong culture on tour of 'one club' practise, hitting the same shot time after time to the same target. Looking back it was something I did alot of and perhaps because I did it I can recognise the worth that type of practise gave me. The reality is it has some worth but if I was going to advise anyone on tour as to what sort of practise they should be doing it would be along the lines of 'one club, one shot' at a time.

If you think about it, we all marvel at Tigers great attributes to play this game. The most outstanding attribute I think he has is his mind and his ability to focus when playing badly (for him). When we play golf, we have perhaps 70, 80, 90, or 100 (depending on your score) opportunities to focus on the shot we want to hit. That process from arriving at the ball to deciding the shot you want to hit, to hitting the ball, lasts around 45 secs to 1 minute. So if you shot 75 last weekend you would of had around 75 minutes to really concentrate on your golf.

The ability Tiger has is to really use this time well to have a great routine that brings calm into his mind and a clarity that brings a commitment from him for the shot he's chosen and a confidence to bring it off.

WHERE DOES THAT COME FROM?????

Well, I think it comes from a certain amount of time Tiger spends practising in a way that makes his routine and focus stronger and so enables him to trust himself more and thus have more confidence to hit the shot.

When I used to practise on tour, it was very much a 'scape and hit' type practise.

What do I mean by that? Well simply put I used to scrape a ball towards me, hit it in the general direction I was hitting in and then do the same again. Generally I was working on a swing feel and what I hoped was I was 'ingraining' the feel so that I would 'perfect my move' and thus my swing.

I think there is some place for this but I think it's more through habit than proven results that most players still practise like this. It would be a great experiment to ban all tour players from 'scraping and hitting' for 1 month and only allow them to hit 30 shots per practise session, 'scraping and hitting' and follow a strict one club, one shot policy for the rest of their practise and see if their results changed for the better!!!!

Infact that's inspired me so much I'm off to hit some shots and work on my golf game rather than my golf swing!!

Good golfing

Paul

Hi Paul

As usual, an interesting article!

It would be nice to know who you are coaching and what are you working on ?

I like the idea of only 30 minutes practice. Have you read the book the Game before the Game by Pia Nilsson ? She also advocates only 30 mins practice. Indeed practice to play golf...not to play golf swing. Also, work out what are the 3 things that would most improve your golf..and just focus on those! Simple!

Cheers

Pete

Hi Pete

Good to hear from you and I'm glad you liked the article.

Who I'm working with is top secret....but I can tell you his initials are TW and he wears red on a Sunday!!!!!!!!!!! Only joking but that would be pretty cool if that ever happened!!

The couple of players who I was 'helping' last week where Lee Slattery and Phil Price, for now with both players it's pretty informal as a relationship between me and them has to be developed, but they both made the cut and did ok at the weekend, so we'll see what happens over the coming months.

One of the things alot of people wouldn't think was true of tour pro's and coaching is that they like things that work quick!!!

Now I 'm sure all of you reading this have had lessons or friends who've had lessons and wanted from the lesson something that works 'quickly' to turn your game around, infact there's probably nothing worse when going for a lesson than hearing the pro say " Well there's a few things to work on, and you might get worse before you get better but we'll have you playing better in a couple of months"!!!

A lot of club golfers just don't have the time for these types of lessons and changes and live their golfing lives with a mixture of quick fix tips because of the lack of time to change.

Now most people wouldn't realise this but most tour pro's are pretty similar, you might think because it's their career, they would have a pretty clear plan of swing/skill improvement when they take lessons and practise their golf.

Well in an ideal world they would do this, but in a results game like tournament golf, time is a very large luxury.

Imagine this, a tour player starts the season, playing ok and working with a new coach on his game, changes are made to his swing and things seem good, optimism is high on what they're working on.

Four months later, the most important part of the season is approaching (May through September) and the player has missed the last 5 cuts and has been hitting the ball terribly for a few weeks.

What does the player do? Does he change things or does he keep with it?

What ever the player chooses he needs results very quickly and often around the PGA Championship at Wentworth, the scenario I've created above is a very real one for perhaps 20 or 30 tour players and changes are made, sometimes it's the caddie that gets sacked, sometimes the clubs or sometimes the coach.

The reality is that most tour players don't get the luxury of time during a season so they need lessons that sometimes are quick fixes, which get them playing well and building confidence quickly.

So the next time you go for a lesson and you come away thinking that you're not sure you've got the time to make the changes the pro suggests, don't feel bad there's plenty of tour pros feeling very similar.

What are Pricey and Slatts working on? Well simple stuff really, Pricey was trying to not hook it and Slatts was trying to feel like he could hook it!!!!!!!

That's the nature of golf, especially on tour it's different things for different people but in a months time they could be working on the opposite!!

Cheers

Paul