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. 

  
  

How do I play relaxed golf guest blog by Brian Sparks

In France a few years ago, a doctor had a coaching session with me and, two days later, I met him outside the clubhouse after he had just played 9 holes. After saying hello, he immediately asked me a question. “Brian, are you a professeur of golf or a professeur of relaxation?”

This guy was very tense, stiff and static so the lesson had focused on helping him to understand the limitations he was putting on his swing by applying the 3DDs as was so often the case in France. It was interesting and instructive for me to hear his summary of the benefits of the lesson. The most important thing he had taken from the session was to be more relaxed.

How many golfers play a relaxed game of golf? Isn’t that what most people play the game for, to have some fun in their leisure time playing a game they love?

Well, from what I’ve seen over the many years I’ve watched and studied golfers around the world it’s exactly the opposite. Instead of using golf as a relaxing antidote to the tensions and pressures of life, people often develop their golf to become yet another source of stress.

As a PIG coach you will understand this scenario only too well: the feet rooted to the ground, the head fixed, the arms held rigidly straight and the hands gripping the club excessively hard in order to gain maximum control of the club. By helping golfers to understand and feel the negative consequences of this way of swinging a club you will already help them to make great progress towards a relaxed game. Even more, encouraging them to go to extremes of movement and relaxation can provide them with surprising insights in that letting go of imagined control can actually lead to more control and sometimes more distance.

Here are a few more ideas to help you in this process.

1. Nearly all meditation sessions such as Yoga commence with a couple of deep breaths. Breathing is the first piece of the jigsaw of a relaxed body. Oxygen flows through the blood stream to our hearts and brains and we immediately feel more relaxed.

The wrong type of concentration or, indeed, too much concentration can easily turn into tension. As Tim Gallwey wrote in his first book, The Inner Game of Tennis, trying hard is a questionable virtue for exactly that reason; it tends to limit our breathing and intake of oxygen.

Our muscles also benefit from the oxygen that helps them to relax. To be effective, a golf swing or any throwing action requires your muscles to be relaxed, long and  elastic. When they are tight and short the brain recognizes the limitation put on them and reacts by increasing effort.

This is the major explanation for our students telling us that they hit the ball as far if not further when they reduce effort levels. Additionally, they feel less tired after a round of golf and seniors, in particular, find their golfing lives extended (for which they will love their PIG coach!).

So, taking a couple of deep breaths before each shot is a simple way of helping any golfer perform better, be that on a drive or a putt. The brain is also a muscle and will benefit from being more physically relaxed. Science is beginning to show that a tense brain produces the emotion that we are doing something difficult whereas a relaxed brain sends the message that we are doing something easy, irrespective of the task in hand.

If you look at a torso from shoulders to hips there are 3 levels of breathing;

1. Low in the abdomen
2. Middle in the diaphragm 3. High in the upper chest

3. Relates to thinking so when your breathing is shallow and you are thinking a lot this is where it will be coming from. It will not produce high levels of oxygen intake.

2. Will be better than 3 but still nowhere near the maximum possible levels available to you.

1. Filling this are of your body first will allow you to go on in one breath to fill 2 then 3 for total intake efficiency.

Optimum breathing proceeds in 3 parts:

1. a)  Start each breath by imaging a vertical pump in your stomach that can expand upwards and downwards. The first action is to expand this pump in a downward direction, as this will open the bottom of your breathing apparatus.

2. b)  Allow your diaphragm to expand as if the upward motion of the pump is now engaged.

3. c)  Let the air into your chest until it starts to open up your shoulders

I once suffered badly from stress when I took over the management of a club in France. I was under great pressure to rewrite all the club literature, revamp the entire running of the club, arrange marketing and promotion of membership, interview new staff and still do my coaching. I worked so hard and so fast that I literally had no time to breathe. I had such a  bad headache that I thought I was developing a brain tumour. As soon as I started my breathing exercises it disappeared.

As many great golfers do, notably Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson, shaking your arms, shoulders and hands as part of your re-shot routine helps to rid yourself of tension.

1. Whilst addressing the ball, keep moving, stay in motion. It is far more difficult to start the backswing from a completely static, stationary and frozen address position. Personally, I like to feel that my motor is already turning and that all I have to do is let the clutch slip and away I go. (Slipping the clutch is the English way of describing how to pull away in a car that has a manual gearbox).

2. Hold a club at the butt end with your thumb and index finger, about a foot (30cms) off the ground. Set it in motion with your other hand so that it swings like a pendulum. It will move in a very rhythmic way, slowing down at each extremity of its arc before accelerating naturally as it swings back down. Once it has moved through a couple of arcs, start moving your feet in time with the movement of the club keeping a close synchronisation between you and the club.

   Now accelerate the movement until the speed gets so great that the synchronicity completely disappears. This is what happens when you swing too quickly especially in the transition at the end of the backswing and start of the downswing.

3. Try hitting some shots with the softest possible grip and with the softest, arms you can manage (even let your arms bend excessively) just to see and feel what happens. In the first instance, try this with some short shots before going to a longer club.

4. To help golfers to feel the consequences of tension try this out with them:
   Ask them to hold a 7-iron or similar club out in front of them at chest height and to grip it as tightly as they possibly can. At the same time, ask them to hold their arms as straight and as rigidly as possible. Now tap a golf ball on the face of their club.

   Now do the same again asking them to grip the club as softly as they can without dropping the club. Add that you want their arms and shoulders to be as relaxed as possible also. Now tap the ball on the face again.

   Some people get it straight away as they feel the ball more softly and hear the sound change. Others take a bit longer but the effect on them is that they now have a specific reason to let go of debilitating tension and some understanding of how tension affects ball striking and feel.

   This exercise is called ‘FEELX.’ 

   PIG coaches regularly help golfers to strike the ball more sweetly by helping them to reduce tension. This is another area where they will gain great satisfaction and confidence in their own ability.

   As identified in the Postive Impact Golf book, Tension is the golfer’s number 1 enemy! 

13 proven steps to Golfing Success

13 proven steps to success in life and your Golf 

Hello and thanks for taking time to read this, the steps I'm going to talk about can be used in any part of your life not just golf, I'd love to say that I've come up with them all ,but I have been greatly influenced by a man called Earl Nightingale. 

Ok, let's go through them in order, firstly I'll list them, then I'll go into a little more detail on each one. 

1) Desire

2) Faith

3) Auto Suggestion 

4) Specialised knowledge

5) Imagination

6) Organised planning 

7) Decision making

8) Persistence

9) Master mind group

10) Enthusiasm 

11) Subconscious mind

12) Your Brain 

13)  6th Sense 

Some of the above will make sense but there maybe some that don't so I'll attempt to piece them all together for you. 

1) Desire , What is it you desire? Is it to lower your handicap? swap your slice for a draw? To play consistently? You wouldn't have the desire unless you were capable of achieving it. Write down what it is you desire and read it on a regular basis, Fix in your mind what you want, What will It give you if you achieve it ? Set a Date when you want it by, Create a plan, Start it today and Write down a statement when and how you will achieve it. 

2) Faith , affirmations are a scientifically proven method of improving your faith, without this you will be influenced by others who will take you off course. Do everything you can to justify your faith and don't let it waver.  

3) Auto suggestion , close your eyes and repeat what you want to achieve, what you are prepared to do to achieve it? And believe in your own ability. Constantly motivate success in your head, if you've found a person who gives you the confidence to achieve keep listening to them. 

4) specialised knowledge , to really succeed you will need specialised knowledge, if you are a golfer seek out a professional whom you believe in and stick with that person, pride yourself in gaining knowledge and write it down so you don't forget it, learn as much as you can and don't listen to people who think they know what they are on about, only to people who do know what they are on about.

5) Imagination , your Imagination is your internal workshop where anything can be created, this is the best place to make changes as there are no limitations in your mind, everything that has ever been achieved has started with imagination . 

6) Organised planning , Write down In hard copy exactly what you have planned, and how you will achieve it, always do more than you say you will and never underestimate the power of self discipline. 

7) Make Decisions, make them promptly and change them slowly - stick with your decision and don't take forever to make decisions as often you'll talk yourself out of doing something. All great achievers make quick decisions and change them slowly unlike the majority of people. Don't mistake opinions for Decisions, Opinions are cheap and not always worthy. 

8) Persistence  , The Power of will. This is where Men are separated from Boys.  it's a state of mind which can be cultivated, it's habit forming and needs to be maintained, why do you think people are able to achieve great things ? There are thousands of examples which spring to mind, if you've been shown something and it doesn't happen straight away be persistent with it , it's only delay; your mind and body getting used to it. No person has ever achieved without this vital ingredient. 

9) Power of a master mind group which is 2 or more people, a group creates stimulating ideas and creates thoughts that as an individual might not have, pick your group with great care, and work on a common purpose. 

10) Enthusiasm , this is an invisible drive that can't be broken, when you have a vision for what you want and a plan of how to achieve it everything is possible. 

11) subconscious mind, all of your senses impact on your subconscious if you want to achieve greatness, seeing, feeling, touching, hearing and smelling successes will 

Plant ideas in your mind and your subconscious will draw on your infinite intelligence, hand your subconscious desires, give it a clear picture and watch what happens, follow your sudden ideas and remember it works 24/7 all by itself. 

12) Brain, the most powerful force the world has ever known , it consists of 14 billion cells that all work  for you , give it a  job and it will do it no questions asked. It's free and never turns up late for work , you carry it everywhere, it's doesn't require payment but it does need feeding constantly. 

13) 6th  Sense , once you've mastered the first 12 this sense will become activate, it's responsible for creative imagination , it's an instinct ,it creates  hunches and inspirations , we all have it but don't recognise it , trust it and watch the power of it change your world. 

Remember we are all entitled to opinions and thoughts but if you manage your thoughts in the right way anything is possible . 

I hope this has helped inspire you to take action and you achieve all you want out of life. 

Happy Golfing and a Happy life . 

Julian Mellor PGA Professional 

Positive Impact Golf Coach 

Stoneleigh Deer Park Golf Club 

Julianmellorpga@icloud.com 

07595 157452 

 

Are golfers afraid ?

Are golfers afraid of going over the back of greens ? 

For a long time I've been thinking of different reasons why so many golfer come up short on their approach shots into greens. 

Is there a simple reason or is it more complex? 

Let's look into this a little deeper and ask ourselves a few questions? 

Is a shot from the back of a green any more difficult than a shot from the front ? 

How many bunkers do you see at the back of greens compared to the front? 

How many yards is there generally from the front to the back? If we generally hit 10 yards different between each iron then I would imagine it's at least 2 clubs different from front to back on average!! Do we take into account ground conditions? 

I've had the good fortune to play and Coach all life , I love to take clients on the course as this is where the truth is unveiled, I'm going to take an educated guess and would say that 85/95 % of amateur golfers come up short of the pin and very often short of the green, but why? 

With modern technology we don't really have an excuses of miss judging the distance!! Is it our ego that causes the problem? Or could it be fear? Fear of the unknown or fear of losing a ball? 

Another thing is trajectory , the height you hit the ball really determines where you need to land the ball , if the flight of your ball is low and you like to see the ball running on to the green then you really need to consider ground conditions, especially when the ground is saturated as it is now in the UK. 

So how about this for an idea , we all like to play games on the course so why not keep a separate score , you get 2 points if your pin high, - 1 if your short  the pin on an approach shot and +1 if your past the flag , I don't think it would take too long to see a pattern emerge do you!! 

I truly believe that any golfer who consistently hits the ball pin high or past will out score anyone who comes up short of the pin, I for one have never had to play a plugged ball on a green but I have defiantly had some awkward lies in front bunkers  

Please bear this in mind next time you play and let me know how you get on, feel free to leave comments 

Happy Golfing 

Julian Mellor PGA Professional

Positive Impact Golf Coach

Julianmellorpga@icloud.com

07595157452

Why going on a Programme really works

I would just like to explain why my 12 month Guaranteed Improvement Programme is working.

I've been running my G I P for 7 months now and I can't tell you how much I've learnt about teaching and making my pupils better at playing golf. 

Its a little like doing case studies, whilst I've been helping my clients I've also had the chance to see what happens to golfers when they are taught something new, let me explain. 

first I video their swings and we chat through the things we are about to change and why , we then apply the changes and I encourage them to go away and practise. Now quite commonly golfers book a course of say 5 lessons we work though their changes ,  they go away and within the space of 4 to 6 weeks after playing, their swing reverts back to what I call their default movement and nothing has changed. 

My 12 month programme guarantees at least 1 1/2 hours tuition every month and up to 4 hours , this allows time to really fix golf swings permanently, it seems to take about 6 months before the old swing faults disappear and the new ones become the norm , which has been quite a surprise to me, one of the main reasons for this is a lack of practise , and don't think playing 5 rounds a week is practise. A typical professional on tour would be hitting balls for at least 4 hours a day. Im not suggesting that golfers should start doing this because I know full well that they haven't got the time nor would they enjoy doing it , but if you expect your swing to change without working on it then you'll be sadly mistaken. 

Because of the constant work my clients put in every month on their whole golf game they are now beginning to reap their rewards, I've had one guy shot his lowest round ever which was level par 72 his pervious best was 76, another has constantly started to shoot 3 or 4 better than his handicap week in week out, others have won tournaments they never thought possible, and without exception they are all thoroughly enjoying their golf and being on the programme. 

Before I finish I just want you to have a think about this, To play your best golf you probably won't do it without Professional help. Analyse your whole game not just the bits your good at , the things to look at are

. Rules and how to apply them

. The Equipment you use 

. Course management , this would take into account playing the right shots at the right time.

. Driving

. Fairway woods

. Long irons

. Rescue clubs

. Mid irons

. Short irons

. Pitching

. Chipping

. Bunker shots including fairway bunkers shots

. Long putting

. Short putts

. What food and drink you take in during your round

. Your mental attitude on and off the course

. Your physical fitness and is their anything you could and should be doing

So you can see, taking all of the above info into consideration it would take much more than a couple of golf lessons to improve your whole game and achieve your goals. 

If this blog has made you nod your head and make you realise the things you could be doing to become a better golfer then why not have a chat with your local PGA professional and see how you could work together or failing that contact me for more details I'm based in Coventry and I'm always happy have a coffee and a chat 

Don't wait act today

Julian Mellor PGA Professional 

Positive Impact Golf Coach

Stoneleigh Deer Park Golf Club

Julianmellorpga@icloud.com

07595 157452 

How do I stop topping the ball ( guest Blog by Brian Sparks)

What Topping Can Do To You

Do you know a golfer who has never ‘topped’ a ball? Do you know anyone who didn’t completely miss the ball occasionally the first few times they had a go? I have seen a few but they are certainly a rare breed. I know I missed the odd ball and topped my fair share of shots when I started to play.

Most people are particularly sensitive to what they do and to what happens to them when they commence a new activity. In golf, our first attempts are often less than fantastic. Debilitating negative self-images start invading our minds at this early and vulnerable stage.

Making a fool of yourself in front of your friends and colleagues is not likely to fill you with enthusiasm for the game! In fact, at that time, it bears no resemblance to a ‘game’ at all and can be quite demoralising. I wonder how many prospective golfers ever make it past this initial meeting with the intricacies of hitting a little innocent and inoffensive ball. Now, I might be exaggerating but my comments are based on some factual experience. Just last week I coached two different ladies on the same afternoon who will both play much better golf when they accept that they are normally gifted at it and not as useless as they think. They are in their sixties and play off twenty-seven and thirty-five handicaps. Both used the following term to describe how they feel on the course when hitting a bad shot, “I feel so stupid.” Yet they are very intelligent, successful women who swing the club quite well but suffer from a lack of confidence. They are far from being stupid.

Knowing their negative self-images, can you imagine how they react to playing in front of other golfers? Are they likely to move freely with an air of authority or are they more likely to look a little shy and make inhibited and nervous movements? The answer is that they will find great improvement in their shots when they have the confidence to move MORE. With the aid of ‘La Danse du Golf’ both ladies are making good progress and are already displaying more of the six basic elements. What they both need is the confidence to make those better swings when they play on the course with other players. They both now understand the effects of Timothy Gallwey’s Self One and Self Two inner conversations and are gradually learning to trust their Self Two’s. They are also filling their positive boxes and letting go of the negative ones just as Michelle did so successfully.

 The first hurdle to get over when you start to play this game is to know that your ball will consistently get off the ground. When you stand over every shot with the feeling that you are likely to hit it well and get it up in the air your confidence will grow. Whilst it is likely that beginners will top the ball quite regularly, there is no reason why this shouldn’t disappear after a while. Now, this may be a few weeks or a few months and it is important to know that even pros can top the odd one.

What Really Causes Topping

Let’s have a closer look at how a golf ball is topped. The word ‘topped’ is significant because it means that the club has contacted the top of the ball. If the club doesn’t contact the ball under its centre-line or equator it won’t fly up in the air. There are 4 major causes of this problem:

1. Tension in hands and arms. Try the following experiment. Hold a 7-iron at your side with the head of the club touching the ground beside your feet. You should hold it very lightly and your arm should hang loosely with your shoulder low and relaxed. Now, see what happens when your hand tightens on the grip and your arm and shoulder stiffen with this effort. The club comes off the ground! Have you lifted your head? No.

2. Your head comes up but not because it moved in an effort to look up early. Why would you do that? After all, the main focus is on hitting the ball so why would you be looking anywhere else? No, the whole body has been forced up because its natural path through the shot has been blocked by the intention to keep your head down. Your golfing partners see your head coming up because the head in golf obsesses us all. What they don’t see is the whole body moving up, the weight not moving forward and your legs straightening. Top golfers keep their centre of gravity at a constant height until well after impact. Top golfers don’t try to keep their heads down. In all the years I’ve played tournament golf I’ve never heard a fellow pro tell another player that he lifted his head! Tony Jacklin was interviewed on Radio 5 Live shortly after his book was published in 2008. He was asked what was the worst tip he’d ever been given. He didn’t hesitate in answering, “Keep my head down!”

3. The distance between your body’s centre and the club head is too short to pick up the bottom of the ball because you have un-cocked your wrists too late as you approach impact. You will remember the troubles I suffered by working hard on the ‘late hit.’ Well, I even got to the stage where my 3-wood tee shots were often topped and could shoot off at right angles. Most embarrassing for a young tournament player!

4. Many topped shots are actually just shots that don’t get up in the air and come off the shank or hosel. Please read the section regarding the cure for this, the 2BX. It is essential for golfers to understand what has happened. Most of them are so concerned with ‘why did it happen’ that they fail to analyse poor shots correctly.

    Please bear in mind that you don’t have to hit down to get the ball flying. All you need is the club to be low enough to get under the line on the ball, i.e. the equator of the ball, and that it is moving forward at some speed. Personally, I rarely ask players to hit down as this concept produces the wrong type of movement that will compromise your ability to turn freely through the shot and finish the movement correctly. I will talk to you later in this chapter about the importance of finishing the golf swing well.

   In over 30 years of studying videos and watching average golfers I have rarely seen anyone topping the ball because they looked up too early. The only players I’ve seen do this are several pros and low handicap amateurs and it doesn’t stop them hitting great shots consistently.

   Tension is generally at the core of most ills in golf and nowhere is this more damaging than when it gets into your muscles and joints. When we concentrate too much, or concentrate in the wrong way, tension often creeps into the shoulders. I’m sure you’ve experienced this when driving your car or concentrating on the computer screen and have to lower and relax them from time to time. In golf, tension stiffens and shortens our muscles and leads to topping, shanking, i.e. hitting the ball off the heel of an iron, and general excesses in the effort required to hit the ball.

   As a fault it is one of the most devious, as it doesn’t always show itself to the spectator. Two swings may look identical, even under the magnifying glass of slow motion and still frame video images, but hidden tension can make one of them top the ball whilst the other can produce a great shot