Academy Blog
Archive for the ‘
Mental Discipline ’ Category
August 24th, 2008
Here’s a bit of Bill’s Achieving Greatness With Goals Part 1 article… click here to view the entire article online at www.GolfFitnessMagazine.com
How many of you actually sat down on January 1st and made a list of New Year’s resolutions, or things that you really wanted to accomplish this coming year? Probably a large percentage of you… if not this year, you have at some point attempted to do so in your past.
What gave you the desire to come up with your New Year’s resolutions? What gave you the motivation to want to sit down and write out on paper the things you wanted to change about yourself, or the things you wanted to accomplish in the coming year?
I’m going to go out on the limb and say that it’s just plain old human nature to want to improve… want to get better than we are right now. We see others succeed and in turn want to do the same. We dream of winning that big golf event down at the club, or someday being the longest hitter in our Saturday morning golf leagues. Or maybe for those golf professionals our there, you dream of someday winning on the LPGA or PGA Tour, or the World Long Drive Championship. Whatever your dream may be, please go ahead and answer question number two for me. How many of you have looked at those New Year’s resolution today? Hmmm… how about this week? Ok then, how about this month? If you answered “I have” to two out of the three questions above, I’m sure you are better today than you were on January 1st. If not, I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t even remember what those resolutions were in the first place.
I’d like to introduce you to the ULTIMATE WEAPON FOR SUCCESS in LIFE and ON THE COURSE.
This great tool has been used by some of golf’s best: Nicklaus, Hogan, and Palmer to name a few. Actually, this secret weapon is used by every single successful person you have ever read about or even heard of. This weapon is called goal setting. Goal setting is used to conquer armies, win major championships, or even just to simply look great at the beach. The ability to set goals is something every one of us already possess, but if practiced and developed will help all of your dreams come true.
Posted in
Goal Setting, Golf Fitness Magazine, Mental Discipline
April 26th, 2008
I just got back from a long practice session with one of my professional players. We were working on distance control with his long pitch shots, and fine tuning his pre-shot routine.
Our session consisted of setting up five golf balls at 30 yards, five balls at 40 yards, five at 50 yards and five at 60 yards. Every single ball, our purpose was to execute a perfect pre-shot routine. To give you some idea of what his pre-shot routine consisted of:
- See the shot you want to hit! (Stand behind the golf ball on line with the hole for a minimum of five seconds. Here is where the player needs to see the entire shot he or she wants to hit)
- Feel the shot you want to hit! (Take a practice stroke to feel the shot you’ve chosen)
- Hit the shot you want to hit! (Once the player gets to the ball, all there is to do is hit the shot with confidence)
This pre-shot routine is incredibly simple, and it helps a player feel completely committed to the shot at hand, which allows for a confident golf swing! On average it took this player roughly 25-30 seconds to see it, feel it, hit it on each shot… and about 10 minutes to hit all twenty golf balls that we set up. Simple enough right? Every single shot hit had a purpose, and every shot was hit with confidence.
Hitting golf balls next to us was a husband and wife couple that were also practicing long pitch shots… each had a bag of golf balls (maybe sixty balls in each bag). Before we got done with our twenty golf balls, both the husband and the wife had already finished each of their bags… between the two of them hitting about 120 golf balls in 10 minutes.
When everyone went to pick up their golf balls, the professionals balls were very tightly packed next to the hole and took about thirty seconds to pick up. The couple had their golf balls spread throughout the entire putting green, and took them about five minutes to pick up. The couple was admiring how well the professional was hitting her pitch shots and decided to practice quicker to see if they could improve their shots at a more rapid pace… didn’t quite happen!
Remember that professionals get to that level through disciplined and organized practice sessions. Make your next practice session full of quality golf shots and challenge yourself to make it as easy as possible to pick your balls up!
Posted in
Goal Setting, Instruction, Mental Discipline, Perfect Practice
April 19th, 2008
Check out Bill’s Golf Fitness Magazine Blog by clicking here. Bill would enjoy hearing your feedback on any of his postings!
Posted in
Bill's Students, Golf Fitness Magazine, Instruction, Mental Discipline, News, Perfect Practice
April 13th, 2008
Yes, I think just about every single one of us golfers love watching the Masters Tournament each and every year… especially Sunday’s final round! How can we not? It’s a masterpiece of a golf course with outstanding competition, tons of amazing golf shots that produce thunderous roars, and many not so great golf shots that make the higher handicap player feel pretty darn good about themselves!
Today though, when you’re kicking back and appreciating all the wonderful things that the Masters Tournament has to offer, I recommend that you take a bit more out of your 2008 Masters experience than just pure enjoyment. Let’s try to learn from watching the greatest golfers in the world attempt to manage, or plot their way around one of the most challenging tests in the game. Course management is crucial if a player wants to have a chance to win at Augusta. Observe how players play away from the pins on certain holes, and how they position themselves off the tee, in order to get the best angles into the greens. It will be interesting to notice which players stay the most patient on the back 9 today see if the less experienced, or those at the top of the leader board without major championship titles, go for pins that they don’t necessarily need to go for… and end up making major mistakes. Many Masters tournaments are lost because of poor decision making under extreme pressure, and many Masters tournaments were won through extreme patience… and maybe just waiting for the others to make the mistakes.
Think about how you can learn to manage yourself around your home golf course better than you have in the past. Could you lower your scores by being more aware of positioning of the tee… do you really need driver on every hole out there? How about those par 5 holes that you can’t reach in two, but can easily reach in three… maybe a 3-wood off the tee would get you out there into a good enough position to set yourself up for a nice birdie or par chance? Ask yourself if you really need to aim at every pin out there… or might playing away from pins, or for that matter not even paying attention to the pins at all, will help you hit more greens in regulation… which in turn would keep me out of trouble and lower my scores a bit.
So here’s a few good examples of certain strategic decisions you’ll see on Championship Sunday at Augusta:
Hole #11 - Any shot you see that’s hit right at this pin is either a mistake or pure in experience. A back left hole location with all the trouble in the world left of the pin. Ben Hogan used to say that he would aim to the right of the green on #11 at Augusta, and if he hit the green at all then it was a mistake. Par is a good score on this hole… even for the greatest players in the world!
Hole #12 - A short par 3 hole, nothing more than an 8 or 9 iron shot… but again, any player you see firing their ball right at this pin is either a fool or incredibly desperate!
Hole #16 - Another par 3 hole. Typically you’ll see players hit their shots well to the right of the pin. In doing this though, if placed deep enough into the back of the green could have the ball funnel right down towards the pin.
Posted in
Course Management, Instruction, Mental Discipline
How many of you actually sat down on January 1st and made a list of New Year’s resolutions, or things that you really wanted to accomplish this coming year? Probably a large percentage of you… if not this year, you have at some point attempted to do so in your past.