Why don't golf lessons work ?

I've been a golf Professional all of my working life and spoke to thousands of golfers over the years, one thing that's always intrigued me is a golfers thinking, why Don't Golf Lessons work? To be brief, it's simple (CONFLICT)  or in the Words of "positive impact golf coaches" belief system. 

 

A secret hidden part of your brain that stops things happening, it's so powerful that it will stop you flying, stop you jumping off a cliff and in all truth keep you alive, but is it stopping you thriving? 

I've given thousands of lessons over the years and the ones who are open minded to change often succeed and the ones who nod their head but walk away saying to themselves that won't work for me never attempt to make a change. This really confused me until I learnt about Belief systems.

But what exactly are they and how can you change? Well, it's simple questioning that highlights them, then it's a matter of convincing a person that they might not be right and proving that there might be another way. 

So how do I do this when coaching somebody? I always start with this question ( if I were a complete beginner and for some reason my set up and grip seemed ok what hints and tip would you give me to help with my swing? ) this generally highlights a persons knowledge of the swing and more importantly gives me an understanding of their belief system. 

commonly, 3 things quoted back to me are " you must keep your head down"  "you have to keep your left arm straight" and " keep your front foot flat on the floor" 

So are they factually true or are they old wives tales? Well the best way to find out is try hitting the ball with your eyes closed, allow your left arm to bend and allow your left ankle to come off the ground in the backswing and see what happens. 

Just because things are always said doesn't mean they are true!! 

A very famous coach once said to me, don't get frustrated get curious. Don't accept something that's always said because in doing so it becomes your belief system and by god that's difficult to change. 

Next time you play golf or visit a driving range be aware of your thoughts, try new things out of curiosity and see what happens. 

If you'd like to chat through this in more detail feel free to call me or send me an email 

Happy golfing 

Julianmellorgolfschool.co.uk

07595 157452

Julianmellorpga@icloud.com

Stoneleigh deer park golf club 

Coventry 

How to discover THE EASIEST SWING IN GOLF

Since becoming a fully Qualified Positive Impact Golf Coach, I would say I've become somewhat of a Senior Golf Specialist. The learning has been incredible and the realisation of asking a senior golfer to move like a younger person is simply unrealistic . 

Traditional golf coaches who don't Specialise in this area could be doing more harm than good with their students. 

So what, you may ask do Positive Impact Golf Coaches do different? 

"We retain the Complexity and pass on the Simplicity" 

Realistically, senior golfers aren't going to practise much, so everything we ask them to do needs to be easy to do, uncomplicated and above all achievable.  

We start with a series of questions that are aimed at understanding a persons belief system, we want understand what maybe holding a golfer back so that the information that follows is impactful. 

One of the biggest killers of a golf swing is TENSION, we must reduce this before any changes can be made, if you score your tension on a scale of 1-10 , 10 being the tightest you can hold a club, you need to be at 5 or under, TENSION causes muscles to shorten thus reducing potential movement. TIGHT muscles move slower and reduce club head speed resulting in an increased amount of effort to hit the ball and tiredness further on in the round.

We coach 6 main PRINCIPLES and 3 DEADLY DONT'S

The 6 principles are:- 

Turning

Weight shift 

Rhythm 

Coordination 

Balance 

Souplesse 

Let me explain a little bit more about the 6 main principle.

TURNING - quite simply your body turns right and your body turns left if your right handed

WEIGHT SHIFT - form the address position as you turn your weight shifts on to your right side and when you turn in the opposite direction your weight shifts on to your left side.

RHYTHM - We all have our own natural rhythm and we ask our pupils to maintain theirs, being too fast or too slow will affect the rest of the swing,

COORDINATION - this is about coordinating the movement of the club with the movement of the body , if one is too fast or too slow you will struggle to match these two component parts. So commonly golfers don't do the first two things correctly resulting in poor coordination. 

BALANCE - This is so important in the golf swing, next time you hit some shots try holding your finish until the ball stops rolling, this gives you time to be ware of your balance and if you feel you lose yours put yourself back in balance so that your mind knows how this feels, eventually you'll naturally end up in balance. 

SOUPLESSE - this is quite simple suppleness, holding too much tension in your address position will suffocate suppleness , try to remain relaxed during your set up & swing and watch as you see the yards you've lost reappear.  

The 3 DEADLY DONT'S are. 

DON'T KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN.

DON'T KEEP YOUR LEFT ARM STRAIGHT. ( if your right handed , reverse if your left handed) 

DON'T KEEP YOU FRONT HEEL ON THE GROUND.

One of the most common sayings in the world of golf is "Keep your head down" I believe this has caused more swing faults than any other piece of advice, the art of keeping your head down stops fluent movement in its tracks, I'm going to write a whole blog on this, so you'll fully understand why not to do it and what you should be doing. 

Again another famous saying in the world of golf is "Keep your left arm straight" in order to do this you will automatically create TENSION , and remember tight muscles are short muscles, so many times I've witnessed golfers doing this and become very successful at topping the golf ball, allow your arm to be relaxed, indeed try hitting some balls with a bent left arm and see what happens . 

And finally please don't try and keep your front foot Cemented to the ground, this is not only a bad thing, but it may well cause you to have knee injuries and possible back injuries, there is a thing called the Kinetic chain which starts from the ground up, your ankle is pretty mobile , your knee is fairly stable , your hips are mobile , your lower lumber spine is again fairly stable and your upper spine( T Spine ) is mobile, by allowing your front foot to move freely the Kinetic chain works as it should but if you keep your front foot down your body moves in completely the opposite way to how it should, leading to poor swings and worse still injury.  

I could and will go into more detail on these subjects in future blogs but I wanted to give you a simple understanding of what Positive Impact Golf Coaching is all about. 

So a quick reminder, reduce tension in your set up and swing, allow your body to move freely and please have a quick look at Brian Sparks video so you can see just how easy the Golf Swing can be. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eURbeXGkeCU&sns=em

I hope this Blog inspires you to look at your swing in a different way, and remember you can always improve your swing no matter what your age. If you have any questions on this subject feel free to message me any time. 

Happy Golfing. 😀

Julian Mellor

PGA Professional 

Positive Impact Golf Coach 

www.julianmellorgolfschool.co.uk

07595 157452

Julianmellorpga@icloud.com

http://julianmellorpga.blogspot.co.uk

How do I use my golfing instincts.

Learn to use your Golf instincts, natural rhythm and Coordination to play your best golf.

Before I go into detail try this quick exercise!

1. Write down TARGET on a piece of paper.
2. Crumple the piece of paper into a BALL.
3. Choose a target, such as a WASTE PAPER BIN, and throw the ball into it.

Well Done! you have just performed a sequence of tasks requiring complex physical movements and yet I gave you no instructions on how to do this task nor did I give a description of how to move your arms, your shoulders, your hips or any other part of your body, nevertheless, I'm sure you got it somewhere near or in the bin. It was possible to make all the necessary movements to achieve the desired result by using your instinct, coordination and natural rhythm. 

Striking a golf ball doesn't have to be any more complex than that, when learning to play good golf you must call upon and rely on the natural skills you already possess. With the right practice and guidance you can develop the skills required to play great golf.

Do you possess natural instinct?  have you ever found yourself in a tricky situation on a golf course and played a miraculous recovery shot? I bet you never thought about the mechanics of the swing to pull it off! you used your Instinct.

Another example of using your instinct is when your in two minds as to what club to play, I highly recommend you pull them both out and trust yourself as to which one to use, its very rare you'll be wrong.

Some many golfers never use this fifteenth club in their bag and forget to tune into their 6th sense.

Natural Rhythm and Coordination, these following exercises will help you develop your feel for solid contact with the ball and improve your Coordination and Rhythm. I have written these exercises as if your a right handed golfer, so please swap them around if your left handed.

1. Right hand only drill, hit between 10 - 20 short shots (no more than 30 yards) using your right hand only, do it until you feel that the contact with the ball is perfect.
2. Left hand only, repeat the same exercise using your left hand only. After a few attempts, you should notice it is a lot easier using your right hand.
3. Both hands on the club, feet together. hit anything between 20 to 50 balls doing this simple exercise, it should raise your awareness of your natural Rhythm and Coordination be mindful of your balance and hold your finish until the ball finishes rolling.
4. Find the ball drill, using a 7 iron on a short tee, start with your club about 12 inches in front of the ball and make some full swings attempting to hit the ball, then start with the club 12 inches behind the ball and hit the ball with full swing, and finally hover your club 12 inches above the ball and hit the ball with a full swing, this will help your coordination and allow your natural rhythm to shine through, remember all you have to do is find the ball with the club head.
5. Eyes closed drill, set up to the ball as normal and just before you start your swing close your eyes and see if you can make contact with the ball, I recommend you do this with a relaxed swing to start with.

These drills are designed to take away the thinking part of your brain and allow your natural swing to shine through.

When you are on the course recall the feedback and sensations from these exercises (but not how you did exercises or how you got the results). Practice these exercises regularly and remember to keep in touch with your instinctive sense of feel and coordination.

Your Natural swing will always be more reliable than a Technical one when your under pressure on the golf course, the better your Rhythm the more your swing will Coordinate and the more fun you'll have playing.

I hope these tips help your game and as always, if i can be of assistance don't hesitate to get in touch.

Julian Mellor PGA Professional

Positive Impact Golf Coach

Stoneleigh Deer Park Golf Club nr Coventry

www.julianmellorgolfschool.co.uk

julianmellorpga@icloud.com

07595 157 452

Ex- PGA Tour Player Brandel Chamblee

Hello, thanks for taking time to read this.               

I wanted to share a video with you and I strongly suggest that you spend 7 minutes watching this video in which Brandel Chamblee, a successful US tour player, talks about his controversial ideas about the modern golf swing and current teaching. Now, where have I heard that before!!

He goes on to talk about the famous Ben Hogan book about the 'Modern Fundamentals of Golf' and, not only do I completely agree with his thoughts ion the subject, but I would go further. Having written a book myself I know what it took to write it and to do all the research required to make it valid and credible. I just can't see how a tour player, and especially one famous for the amount of time he spent practicing, could have devoted so much of his time to writing a book. I know just how some of you will react to this but I doubt that he actually wrote it himself. I believe that he undoubtedly had a lot of input but someone else must have done the major work. Let's see what you think after watching the video here.

 

I hope you enjoy watching and feel free to make an comments, please share this as the message is so powerful . 

Happy Golfing 

Julian Mellor 

Positive Impact Golf Coach 

Stoneleigh Deer Park Golf Club 

07595 157452

www.julianmellorgolfschool.co.uk

Why aren't we taught to play golf?

Recently, one of my clients joined a programme that I run and part of that is having a 9 hole assessment round. The idea is that we play and as we go around the course I makes notes of my clients strengths and weaknesses, once the round is completed we sit and have a coffee to chat through my findings and then formulate a schedule to start working on things. 

The chap I was assessing is really into his golf and a joy to spend time with, as we got to the 3rd he found himself in the trees, the lie was awkward with an overhanging brach in front of him, the ground is very soft at this time of year making a running shot very difficult, so I asked him how he was going to approach it!! 

He said without hesitation, I'm going to hit my wedge and hope it goes through the branches and with a bit of luck it might land on the green, ( I wish I had got my camera with me so you could see the difficulty of the shot he was about to play). So I asked him, before you try that shot is there another option? Nope, was his prompt reply, not if I want to go for the pin. 

Ok, what about playing a shot away from the pin I said, there is a gap in the trees if you aim in that direction, play your 6 iron to keep the ball low and your almost guaranteed to finish on the green, why don't you try that shot instead? How come I didn't think of that! came his reply.

 He then went on to say something that really got me thinking. 

"Why are Golfers Not Taught To Play Golf?" 

What a great question, why aren't golfers taught to play golf? Golfers are taught to swing a golf club that's a given, but how many of you reading this were taken on to the golf course by a professional and shown how to play golf? I'm going to have a wild guess and say 1% of you, now I don't mind being told I'm wrong but I bet I'm not far off. 

We have all learnt to play golf by trial and error and by watching others, but how do you know exactly what you should be doing unless you've had some professional help, could this be one of the reasons why it can take such a long time to improve? 

We played 2 further holes and once again he found himself in a testing situation, this time before he selected a club he said what do you think I should do here? We both stood behind the ball and I asked him to see if he could work out two options!! Well if I was playing normally I'd hit my rescue club and see what happened, but now you've made me think and perhaps that wouldn't be the right approach, so what other shot could you play I asked? I suppose I could hit an 8 iron and get it back in play but that would leave me a longer 3rd shot to the green, that's very true, but which is the less risky shot to play? Well the 8 iron is.

As a Positive Impact Coach I don't like telling people what to do as it doesn't give a person an awareness, so what I asked him to do was to play 2 golf balls, one the way he saw the shot and one using the 8 iron, we are going to complete the hole with both balls and see which one produces the best score. 

This is how it went, with his rescue club he swung and topped the ball sending it about 10 yards, he then had another go with the same club and struck it beautiful, so good in fact that it sailed through the fairway and finished in the thick rough on the other side, he then used his sand iron and got it back onto the fairway, form there he chipped it short of the green , chipped on and just missed his put giving him an 8 with that ball. 

With the second ball and using his 8 iron he played the hole like this, an OK connection hit the ball about 100 yards but critically back on the fairway, he then hit a 6 iron just left of the green but not in any trouble, a relatively simple chip onto the green gave him a chance of a 1 putt, he made a super attempt at holing the putt but it just slipped by, giving him a 6 on the hole. 

So you might say I proved a point but there was something much more powerful that carried on to the next tee, I asked him if he had taken an 8 on the last hole how would be be feeling right now? well I'd be angry; he said, and probably try and smash this tee shot to make up for it, and if you'd made a clever 6, how would that make you feel? I'd be feeling alright, yes calmer and I'd certainly not be trying to smash hell out of this ball. 

We finished the round and sat in the clubhouse for our post round assessment, he had a big smile on his face and said to me, you've showed me something very different today, you taught me that's there's an art to playing golf and that's something I'd never appreciated up until now. 

From my perspective I'd helped him appreciate that there is always another way to approach a shot, hitting a high risk and reward shot often doesn't come off and the outcome on that hole and maybe the rest of your round can be devastating, playing the right shot at the right time is smart golf in my opinion, but how do you know what's right or wrong if you've never been shown? 

If this had made you think about the shots you try, and made you question your decision making why don't you book a playing lesson with a professional,  see if there is a better way you could be playing and don't be afraid to ask lots of questions as you go around, rules are very important and if a situation comes up find out what your options are. I have a simple Philosiphy in life " if I have tooth ache I go to a dentist" I don't ask a friend to help me , seek out professional help and I think you'll agree with me it's the best money you'll ever spend on your golf. 

As always if I can be of any help leave a comment. 

Happy Golfing 

Julian Mellor 

PGA Professional 

Positive Impact Golf Coach 

Julianmellorpga@icloud.com

07595 157452 

How do I choose a golf Coach or a Golf Teacher?

Is there a difference between a Coach and a Teacher? 

The simple answer is there's a Massive difference, so let's look into this subject a little deeper. 

How do you react when you are told to do something? Would you react differently if you were made aware that doing something different would really benefit you?

You see teaching is mainly one sided, the teacher tells you what to do, where as coaching is a two way thing.

I love this quote " Awerness  Cures , trying fails" 

A great coach will have a whole host of clever questions in his armoury, all to make you think differently and create Awerness. 

Here's a simple example of what a coach will do differently to a teacher..

We know that tension is the killer of golf swings, but how would a coach approach this differently to a teacher? 

Teacher  " you look tense, relax a bit " 

Coach  "if on a scale of 1-10 10 being the most tense you could be what number would you give yourself ? " where abouts in your body do you feel most tense? Can you reduce your tension by 1 or 2? How does this feel now? 

By asking a question it involves the other person and gets them to really think about something, creating that awareness. 

Involving a person is so much more powerful that telling someone what to do. For many years I was a teacher, thinking I was doing a good job when in reality I never made the difference I could have done had I known about coaching at a much younger age, I truly believe that anyone who is trying to help another professionally should learn about coaching, the difference is unbelievable. 

If your reading this and thinking of seeking help, make sure you ask the professional if they are a Teacher or a coach, a teacher won't know the difference but a coach will, and if they reply teacher make your apologies and carry on your search for a coach. 

Please don't take my word for this, do some research, have a look on YouTube for a start and look up Timothy Gallway he is one of the best coaches ever, also Fred Shoemaker the practise of practising and Brian Sparks the easiest swing in golf, Brian doesn't speak on his 4 minute video just demonstrates, you get drawn into the simplicity of the swing and begin to notice all that he does which is coaching genius. These people don't tell you what to do, they simply make you aware so that you can make the changes required.

Becoming a Positive Impact Golf Coach is one of the best decisions of my life, being part of a family of coaches has been a game changer, im now certain that I can help any golfer and its given me so much more confidence. There are a lot of brilliantly clever teachers out there who fully understand their subject but are they able to transfer this knowledge in an enjoyable and understandable way? 

From a personal point of view I sought out a so called brilliant teacher,  I was at a  loss with my swing and everything I tried didn't work, the lesson went on for 2 hours, I hit just 4 balls in that time, I don't think I spoke for more than 5 minutes in total and left feeling confused and useless. The teacher seemed helbent on telling me how much he knew about the swing, but didn't seem to worry if my shots got worse. This too me was not an outcome I had expected, and needless to say I never went back for another lesson. 

If this has made you question things in a different way then I think I've done my job, as always if I can be of any help and you want to ask me a question, please feel free to leave a comment 

Happy Golfing 

Julian Mellor 

PGA Professional 

Positive  Impact Golf Coach 

Stoneleigh Deer Park Golf Club 

Julianmellorpga@icloud.com

07595 157 452

How do I stop a shank guest blog by Brian Sparks Positive impact Coach

Many years ago I heard of a study that had been carried out by the golf club manufacturers into the average golfer’s ball striking characteristics. It found that the strike was generally off the toe end of the club. I immediately disagreed as my experience with golfers had mainly been that they hit the ball, especially with irons, towards the heel. In fact, so much so that they often hit a ball that they deemed to be topped or sliced when it had actually come from the heel or hosel of the club.

A surprising number of players have no knowledge or feeling for which part of the club has been in contact with the ball on any given shot, especially a shank. In France, a shank is called a ‘socket’” French players often hit a shank and, in a rather Latin manner, raise their arms in disbelief and horror whilst shouting out loud “SOCKET!”

Other than the fact that the ball shoots off to the right, there is also a particular feel and sound to these shots that most golfers are in complete ignorance of.

There is no doubt that a tendency to strike the ball even slightly towards the low part of the heel is one of the things that erodes a golfer’s confidence in minutes. Here you will see the club in the sort of position that any coach who uses video will have seen many, many times:

From this position it is entirely possible to strike the ball from the middle of the club but another false belief or false instruction, often plays a part in turning this shot into a disaster. That is the idea that the club must go from inside to outside through the impact area. 

I was coaching a player in France who had been to the States a few months previously and had taken a 10-day course with a female teacher. As a result of her teaching his short game was in a dreadful state. He literally couldn’t trike a ball properly with any short shot. He showed me a video of his short game lesson and two things struck me. Firstly, this woman never stopped talking.

Secondly, he started off hitting some nice chips from about 15 yards admittedly with a slightly out to in swing path. She identified this and asked him to go more in to out.

Suddenly he went from hitting some good shots to being incapable of anything other than a shank. Having reviewed this video together, he left our session understanding that she had caused his shanking and that it hadn’t been his fault!

• The truth about shanking is simple as it happens when the club is tracking too far away from the body and gets outside the line. Placing a second ball as per the photo below and attempting to hit the white ball without touching the yellow one soon gets rid of the problem. It is also a great way of improving someone’s ball striking as our confidence disappears at an alarming rate as soon as we strike the ball towards the heel. 

  Centrifugal force will always throw the shaft away from the body in the downswing. It just can’t do the opposite because the body is in the way. This next photo shows the real effect of the shaft getting away from the body.

  Notice how the shaft moves not only away from the player but also in an upward direction. Heeled, shanked shots tend to be hit low on the clubface for this reason. A pure shank, i.e. one completely off the hosel and not even touching the face of the club, doesn’t go up in the air due to there being no loft applied to the ball. Many topped shots by beginners and new golfers are caused by this not, as will not surprise you, the old saying ‘you lifted your head.’

  I agree that you can hit a shank coming from the inside. It suffices only to keep the clubface very open as per the photo below. The more a player has an open face, the more he is likely to shank. 

  

  I want to give you my thoughts on the way iron club design has changed over the years and to give you some insight into an effect of these modifications that even the manufacturers themselves seem not to have noticed. Take a look at this photo of my 9-iron after a practice session in which I struck the ball particularly well. 

  

  In the next photo you will see how iron design has changed over the years. The hosel of the modern club has shortened considerably, the weighting has become peripheral and the toe is much heavier. This has not only moved the sweet spot away from the heel towards the middle and made it bigger but it has also helped to create the capability to hit well-struck shots towards the toe. Being a flat surface, even shots well off the toe can give acceptable results whereas shots towards the heel cannot. 

  

  I believe that 2 aspects combine to produce the shank; 1/ the centrifugal force mentioned earlier and 2/ the fear of missing the ball altogether (i.e. missing it on the inside). I don’t believe that many golfers, especially beginners, are worried about missing it on the outside.

  Anyone who has taught the game of golf will know that analysing the swing of someone who is cursed with the shanks is the most difficult of all situations we face. Generally, when we shank we start to move less. Fear takes hold and we don’t turn or transfer our weight going back. Encouraging people to move more at this time can be tricky. However, the 2BX really does work without having to go down the dark tunnel of swing analysis. I recommend it to you most highly.