If a child is to become an elite player the absolute most important thing they can learn is to love the game. This is the first lesson of golf. Without passion, development is not possible. Becoming a great player demands hard work, sacrifice, and a dedication that would not exist if the child did not absolutely love to play the game. A kid must want to go chip and putt instead of play on the computer or goof off with friends. This type of dedication is only possible through passion. Great teachers of young children are not judged by how well they are able to teach the grip, stance, or swing plane. Truly great teachers of kids know how to inspire a passion and love for the game that propels a player towards greatness.
Tiger Woods truly loved golf as a child - as can be seen in this light-hearted look at him "winning the Open Championship".
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
A very efficient performance
While this epic putt locked it up for Tiger again, be reminded that he wouldn't have even been close to winning if he wasn't able to save strokes after making mistakes at 14 (plugged in bunker), 16 (pitch out from rough), 18 the day before (up and down for bogey from 140 - no pushups), 1 on the first day (pitch in from 30 yards), and many other great up and downs. His ability to play efficiently and save strokes is what gave him a chance to win.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Get Out of Bed and Get Better
A great Nike commercial. Wake up! Get the course or gym and get better!
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Planning for Development
One of my favorite quotations of all time is by Dr. Bob Rotella: "Those with great dreams can achieve great things". This is absolutely true. If you want to be a great player, you have no chance of doing that unless you dream of becoming a great player.
However, your dream is just your foundation. You also need to have a well developed plan for how you are going to improve and get to where you want to go. Too many junior players simply go through the year aimlessly practicing without an idea of how their practice on that day will fit into an overall plan for development. You need to have a specific plan for what parts of your game you are trying to work on over time, and how you will do it. What in your swing needs work? What part of your mental game are you trying to get better at? What short game shots do great players have that you don't, and that you will try to acquire? How will will you make improvements? Do you have a coach that you trust? Do you have planned practice time for each area of your game? How will you know if you are making improvements? How will you measure improvements?
Great players have always made long term plans outlining how they would work on their games. Jack Nicklaus started every season by planning how he would peak for the majors, and practiced accordingly. He worked on his fundamentals at the beginning of the year to knock off the rust, and then started working on hitting a draw to get ready for the Masters.
It's not good enough just to dream big and work hard. You need to dream big, plan smart, and work hard to execute your plan.
However, your dream is just your foundation. You also need to have a well developed plan for how you are going to improve and get to where you want to go. Too many junior players simply go through the year aimlessly practicing without an idea of how their practice on that day will fit into an overall plan for development. You need to have a specific plan for what parts of your game you are trying to work on over time, and how you will do it. What in your swing needs work? What part of your mental game are you trying to get better at? What short game shots do great players have that you don't, and that you will try to acquire? How will will you make improvements? Do you have a coach that you trust? Do you have planned practice time for each area of your game? How will you know if you are making improvements? How will you measure improvements?
Great players have always made long term plans outlining how they would work on their games. Jack Nicklaus started every season by planning how he would peak for the majors, and practiced accordingly. He worked on his fundamentals at the beginning of the year to knock off the rust, and then started working on hitting a draw to get ready for the Masters.
It's not good enough just to dream big and work hard. You need to dream big, plan smart, and work hard to execute your plan.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Starting A New Season
For most of North America, the months of March and April represent the start of the golf season. Especially for those who were unable to vacation or compete in the southern states over the winter, the next few weeks are a time to knock the rust off of your game and get back into the routine of training and practicing for high level golf. Here are a few tips:
1. Get your touch and feel back first. You probably won't hit your best shots immediately at the beginning of the year. Most of your poor shots will be the result of bad timing and tempo, which come back by focusing on feel. Aside from checking your setup, you should resist the temptation to work on your mechanics for a couple of weeks.
2. Keep your expectations realistic. Most of your important competitive events will be in June, July, and August. Use the spring to prepare for those events.
3. Check your distances - they may be different from last year, especially if you have been working out over the winter (or if you have grown).
4. Establish proper work habits early in the year. Develop good routines for practicing your short game, putting, and long game that you can rely on for the entire season.
6. Plan your schedule well in advance. Especially if you are a junior player, make sure that you have your schedule and travel plans established. Plan your training so that you can 'peak' for the right weeks.
5. Set goals. A fresh start to the season is a great opportunity to evaluate your motivation and goals. What do you want to accomplish this year? How much work will that take?
1. Get your touch and feel back first. You probably won't hit your best shots immediately at the beginning of the year. Most of your poor shots will be the result of bad timing and tempo, which come back by focusing on feel. Aside from checking your setup, you should resist the temptation to work on your mechanics for a couple of weeks.
2. Keep your expectations realistic. Most of your important competitive events will be in June, July, and August. Use the spring to prepare for those events.
3. Check your distances - they may be different from last year, especially if you have been working out over the winter (or if you have grown).
4. Establish proper work habits early in the year. Develop good routines for practicing your short game, putting, and long game that you can rely on for the entire season.
6. Plan your schedule well in advance. Especially if you are a junior player, make sure that you have your schedule and travel plans established. Plan your training so that you can 'peak' for the right weeks.
5. Set goals. A fresh start to the season is a great opportunity to evaluate your motivation and goals. What do you want to accomplish this year? How much work will that take?
Monday, December 15, 2008
Guided Discovery: The Genius of Earl Woods
Studying the development of Tiger Woods is fascinating, and provides us with a lot of insight about player development in golf. Perhaps the most significant thing we can learn about Tiger's development is the teaching style of Earl Woods.
We know that Earl was a good player - a low handicap amateur - but by no means was he a player of touring pro quality or an outstanding instructor of technique. People often have the misconception that Earl created the Tiger by "programming him for greatness" from a young age - as if he had all the answers and just had tell Tiger what to do, much in the same way that a computer programmer writes code to program a computer.
We know from research that this direct style of teaching is actually not very effective: If you simply tell a child what to do or how to do something, they will not retain what you've told them for very long. If they are just doing what you tell them to do, they don't have to cognitively process it and don't really learn it fully. On the other hand, if a child develops a skill by figuring it out on their own and "discovering" how to perform that skill by themselves they will "own" that skill forever.
What made Earl so effective is how he trained Tiger to develop his skills (especially his mental skills) not by directly telling him what to do, but instead by putting Tiger in situations where he could discover on his own what works. This technique of instruction is called "guided discovery".
Consider the comment that Earl makes at the beginning of this Nike commercial which aired last year: "You don't really instill anything into a child. You encourage the development of it."
The research is fairly conclusive: Kids learn most effectively through guided discovery, if they are put in situations where they can discover skills on their own. The genius of Earl Woods is that he was able to put Tiger in these situations over and over, so that Tiger was able to develop his skills efficiently and own them permanently.
We know that Earl was a good player - a low handicap amateur - but by no means was he a player of touring pro quality or an outstanding instructor of technique. People often have the misconception that Earl created the Tiger by "programming him for greatness" from a young age - as if he had all the answers and just had tell Tiger what to do, much in the same way that a computer programmer writes code to program a computer.
We know from research that this direct style of teaching is actually not very effective: If you simply tell a child what to do or how to do something, they will not retain what you've told them for very long. If they are just doing what you tell them to do, they don't have to cognitively process it and don't really learn it fully. On the other hand, if a child develops a skill by figuring it out on their own and "discovering" how to perform that skill by themselves they will "own" that skill forever.
What made Earl so effective is how he trained Tiger to develop his skills (especially his mental skills) not by directly telling him what to do, but instead by putting Tiger in situations where he could discover on his own what works. This technique of instruction is called "guided discovery".
Consider the comment that Earl makes at the beginning of this Nike commercial which aired last year: "You don't really instill anything into a child. You encourage the development of it."
The research is fairly conclusive: Kids learn most effectively through guided discovery, if they are put in situations where they can discover skills on their own. The genius of Earl Woods is that he was able to put Tiger in these situations over and over, so that Tiger was able to develop his skills efficiently and own them permanently.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
LESS feedback means MORE learning
Research in motor skill learning tells us that people learn tasks best when they are given the LEAST AMOUNT OF FEEDBACK POSSIBLE. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but allow me to explain the research that supports this idea.
A professor at UCLA named Dr. Richard Schmitt did a study where people had to learn a motor task that they had never done before (I can't recall exactly what it was, but it's not really that important - it's the principle that is informative. If fact, pretend as if you were teaching people to putt who had never putted before). He seperated subjects into three groups to practice the motor task, and then they would be tested to see how well they learned the skill.
The first group received feedback after every repetition of the exercise (e.g., "No, hold you hands with the thumbs down the shaft", or "yes, that is good, make sure you keep rocking your shoulders without moving your wrists"). These students eventually started performing the exercise fairly well during practice, as you might expect - if you took a beginner and instructed them on how to putt after each putt attempt, they would probably be able to putt reasonably well under your direction.
The second group of subjects received feedback in summary form after every fifteen repetitions (e.g., "Your got better over the last few, just to swing the putter through towards the target and see what happens on the next few"). This group showed some improvements over the practice session, but were not performing as well in practice as the first group.
The third group received no feedback at all. They showed slight improvement during practice time, and but did not perform the skill during practice as well as the other two groups. Again, this isn't surprising since they received no instruction.
Next, the students were tested to see how well they had learned the exercise. They had to perform the task in a test situation - no help from instructors. The researchers were surprised at what they saw. The first group of subjects (the ones who got feedback after every repetition and were doing the best in practice) performed very poorly compared to how they were doing in practice. In fact, they performed SLIGHTLY WORSE on the test than subjects from the third group who had not received any feedback during practice at all. The second group (the subjects who had received occasional feedback) performed the best on the test even though they were getting beaten consistently in practice by the first group.
It's counterintuitive to think that receiving feedback after every repetition could be anything but helpful. However, as it turns out, overdoing the feedback creates a problematic reliance on instructor help that is not available in a testing situation. On the other hand, if feedback is dispensed sparingly and only when necessary, the learner is forced to figure out things on their own. Rather than being spoonfed information, they are forced to discover how to perform the skill effectively. Of course, the occasional feedback they receive is tremendously helpful. The important take-home here is that providing feedback sparingly rather than frequently creates self-sufficiency and mastery of the skill that holds up under test conditions.
The implications of this research for player development in golf are: 1) Don't tell developing juniors the answers. Let them search for it and discover it so they own it later. 2) Over-coaching is as at least as bad as providing no coaching at all.
A professor at UCLA named Dr. Richard Schmitt did a study where people had to learn a motor task that they had never done before (I can't recall exactly what it was, but it's not really that important - it's the principle that is informative. If fact, pretend as if you were teaching people to putt who had never putted before). He seperated subjects into three groups to practice the motor task, and then they would be tested to see how well they learned the skill.
The first group received feedback after every repetition of the exercise (e.g., "No, hold you hands with the thumbs down the shaft", or "yes, that is good, make sure you keep rocking your shoulders without moving your wrists"). These students eventually started performing the exercise fairly well during practice, as you might expect - if you took a beginner and instructed them on how to putt after each putt attempt, they would probably be able to putt reasonably well under your direction.
The second group of subjects received feedback in summary form after every fifteen repetitions (e.g., "Your got better over the last few, just to swing the putter through towards the target and see what happens on the next few"). This group showed some improvements over the practice session, but were not performing as well in practice as the first group.
The third group received no feedback at all. They showed slight improvement during practice time, and but did not perform the skill during practice as well as the other two groups. Again, this isn't surprising since they received no instruction.
Next, the students were tested to see how well they had learned the exercise. They had to perform the task in a test situation - no help from instructors. The researchers were surprised at what they saw. The first group of subjects (the ones who got feedback after every repetition and were doing the best in practice) performed very poorly compared to how they were doing in practice. In fact, they performed SLIGHTLY WORSE on the test than subjects from the third group who had not received any feedback during practice at all. The second group (the subjects who had received occasional feedback) performed the best on the test even though they were getting beaten consistently in practice by the first group.
It's counterintuitive to think that receiving feedback after every repetition could be anything but helpful. However, as it turns out, overdoing the feedback creates a problematic reliance on instructor help that is not available in a testing situation. On the other hand, if feedback is dispensed sparingly and only when necessary, the learner is forced to figure out things on their own. Rather than being spoonfed information, they are forced to discover how to perform the skill effectively. Of course, the occasional feedback they receive is tremendously helpful. The important take-home here is that providing feedback sparingly rather than frequently creates self-sufficiency and mastery of the skill that holds up under test conditions.
The implications of this research for player development in golf are: 1) Don't tell developing juniors the answers. Let them search for it and discover it so they own it later. 2) Over-coaching is as at least as bad as providing no coaching at all.
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