Are You a Monkey or a Player?

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Why do we call a frustrated Golfer a Monkey? It has nothing to do with one’s ability. It has to do with how a Golfer goes about learning. I’ve seen Monkey’s that shoot in the low 80’s and I’ve seen Players that are just starting to break 100. The difference is that the Monkey will become frustrated because they’re in the same scoring range for an extended period of time – while the Player is excited because they’re seeing improvement every time they step on the golf course.

The Monkey uses the same bad habits over and over expecting to improve. The Monkey continually goes to the practice range without a PLAN banging ball after ball in rapid fire succession expecting to hit straighter shots. The Monkey hits their 3 wood for their second shot on every Par 5 regardless of the situation expecting to get closer to the green. The Monkey tries every new tip and gimmick hoping to find something magical.

The Player on the other hand has a PLAN. They know what the Strengths and Weaknesses of their golf swing are. They know how to practice their Driver. They know how to practice their fairway woods. They know how to practice their wedges to create backspin. They know how to practice their putting for 45 minutes without it becoming as boring as watching paint dry.

What’s the difference between a Monkey and a Player? It’s how they go about learning to play better. The Monkey gets stuck in a scoring range and then will try anything in desperation to start improving again – though often times they become more and more frustrated. The Player sees and feels continual improvement – the Player often has other Golfers asking them how they’ve improved so fast.

For example: when the Monkey wants to improve their Driver; they go to the driving range to hit ball after ball towards the middle of the range. And this Golfer will often hit the ball well enough to feel that they had improved. Yet, the next time on the golf course – reality sets in – and you’re not hitting youir Driver as well as you did on the driving range.

Why does this happen so frequently to the Monkey? Why can the Monkey hit it so well on the range and then when they go to the golf course ….. well, let’s just say it doesn’t go as well. While the Player often hits their Driver as well and in fact, many times they even hit their Driver better on the golf course.

When the Player wants to improve their Driver; they also can go to the driving range. Though, they have a PLAN that they’ll stick with. Part of that PLAN is that the middle of the range isn’t a target. Why? Because the middle of the driving range isn’t as defined as the golf course. When’s the last time you saw a fairway with the middle as wide as the middle of the driving range? Also, when have you ever seen the middle of a driving range include water, trees, fairway bunkers and other assorted distractions such as houses?

The Player hits their Driver to different targets just like they do on the golf course. And the Player that’s really taking their game to the next level is the Player that makes their targets on the driving range – smaller than the targets that they’ll see on the golf course. The Monkey does the complete opposite by making a target on the driving range that’s over twice as big as the target they’ll have on the golf course.

No wonder the Monkey gets frustrated on the golf course!

The Player uses a PLAN to make ‘fairways’ on the driving range. I say ‘fairways’ as opposed to the ‘fairway’ because as the Monkey just keeps hitting to the middle of the range – the Player is constantly changing their targets. Why? Well, is every golf hole straight and over 100 yards wide like the driving range?

You have the talent to be a Player. You know it and I know it. The problem is that you might be going at it like a Monkey.

The Monkey will read the above and say ‘I know what I’m doing, I’m so close to improving – I just need to hit more balls and I’ll improve’

The Player knows that Tiger, Annika, Jack, Lorena and every successful Player has a PLAN that doesn’t include just banging golf ball after golf ball into the middle of the driving range.

Are you happy with your progress? Do you have a PLAN other than just banging ball after ball into the middle of the driving range?

Go ahead, Be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com



By the way – Golf Made Simple has just completed our first DVD. After years and years and offers upon offers from people that wanted to produce a DVD for us – we decided we wanted to do it our own way. We’ve created a DVD for Players, as opposed to all the other Monkey stuff that’s already out there.

Our DVD - How To Improve Your Golf Swing Indoors – is improvement GMS Style. What’s GMS Style? It’s a Results Based Approach as opposed to a Theories and Assumptions Based Approach.

This program was designed for Golfers that might not be able to get to the practice area as much as they want. And with Winter coming up for many Golfers – where you might not be able to go outside to practice – this program is perfect.

If you’re frustrated with such Monkey Problems such as ‘coming over the top’, ‘swinging outside in’, ‘casting’, falling back when you swing, 3 putting or not making enough 1 putts, coming out of posture, along with losing control of your club as you swing – then this DVD is for you!


Click here to order our new DVD - How To Improve Your Golf Swing Indoors


The DVD is divided into 3 parts: First, we go outside and speak about a swing fault that you might be experiencing; Second, we move inside and talk about why that swing fault is happening, along with prescribing a drill that you can practice inside to improve your golf swing; then Third, we stay inside to work on an exercise that will make you stronger so that you'll be more able to fix this swing fault, along with gaining better control of your golf swing.

As good as the Drills are – and they are good – the exercise portion is what makes this DVD shine even more. Each exercise is paired with a swing fault and swing drill so that you can work on the part of your body that might be causing the swing fault to happen.

All the exercises are divided into 3 categories – 1st category: for people that really haven’t been physically active in a while, but want to start so that they can improve their golf swing; 2nd category: for people that have done some training, are in pretty good shape, but want to get into more golf specific workouts; and the 3rd category: for serious athletes that want to take their workouts to the next level.

The beauty of the program is that you can work at your level and then when you start to see progress – you can progress to the next level. Click here to order our new DVD - How To Improve Your Golf Swing Indoors.

And as a bonus – we’re including free shipping thru December 31st, 2007

Your Golf Game in 2008

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Did you achieve the goals you set for yourself on the golf course this year? Was your goal to break 100 or 90 or 80 or 70? Or maybe you didn’t set a goal?

Unfortunately, year in and year out – I hear Golfers that aren’t happy with their golf game say that they get stuck within a range of scores that regardless of what they try – they can’t get out of that range. You have the 100 Golfer that can’t seem to get lower than 102. You have the 95 Golfer that every once in a while is so close to breaking 90 – but something happens on hole 13 or 14 that causes you to make an 8 on an easy Par 4 that stops your momentum and bumps you up back into your scoring range.

And you have the Golfer that can break 90 once in a while – but usually finds their score hovering between 88 and 95 – thus labeling themselves as the infamous ‘Bogey Golfer’.

To break through to the next level of Golf, you need to make a goal and commit to it. Now, when I say goal, I don’t mean that it’s as easy as you saying – ‘My goal for 2008 is to break 90 every time I play.’ And as popular a goal as this is for millions of Golfers every year – what percentage do you think actually achieve their goal? Unfortunately, not too many because your goals shouldn’t be score influenced.

The goal could be – ‘Well, in the past, I’ve spent 95% of my practice time on the driving range. This coming year I’m going to spend only 50% of my time on the driving range and 50% of my time on and around the green.’

Why is this a good goal?

Because if in the past you’ve been stuck with the same scores - though, you continue to practice the same way you’ve always practiced (spending the majority of your time on the driving range) – why would your scores be any different next year? If you’re scores are the same from year to year and you practice the same way year to year – it’s no wonder you don’t see the improvement you’re looking for year to year.

Maybe it’s time to switch things around because as Albert Einstein said – ‘The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results’. Golf Made Simple has adapted that saying to say – ‘The definition of an insane Golfer is doing the same thing over and over again hoping for better results’.

Do you know any insane Golfers?

So maybe your goal shouldn’t be about score. I don’t believe that Tiger Woods has a scoring goal. I don’t believe he’s saying that his goal in the Masters is to break 65 each round. I would believe his goal is to win the Masters – but I don’t believe he’ll be focused on score. He’ll be focused on his PLAN.

Most likely he’s saying – ‘Well my goal is to work to improve my performance in the sand bunker. Because in the 2007 Masters I only got out of the sand and made my next putt for par on 2 out of 7 chances. And considering that I was only 2 shots away from being in a playoff or 3 shots from winning – I only really needed to have made 2 or 3 better shots out of the sand to have won another Masters Title. So my goal this winter is to become a better player out of the sand.’

Now, how’s that different from your goal of breaking a certain score? Well, I can guarantee that Tiger will make Par from the bunker at the 2008 Masters at a higher rate than the 28% he made in 2007. Anyone want to bet me on this?

Your scores on the golf course – meaning the 100 or 90 or 80 that you’re using as a measuring stick are determined by how you Drive the golf ball, hit your iron shots, putt the golf ball, hit your wedges, play out of the sand, stick to playing to your Strengths and away from your Weaknesses on the golf course, along with how you control your emotions on the golf course.

So instead of making your goal based on score – why not make your goal to improve one of the above.

At the 2007 Masters, Tiger scored 73, 74, 72, 72 - to end his 4 rounds at 3 over par – whereas the winner Zach Johnson was 1 over Par. If Tiger now makes his goal in 2008 about improving his score to scoring 72 each round (which would’ve won the 2007 Masters), will that goal help him to succeed as much as if he made his goal to improve his sand shots around the green?


‘Play to your PLAN – don’t plan for your score’

If your goal for 2008 is score oriented – you might see the same results you’ve seen in years past. Though, if your goal is focused on improving your weaknesses (like Tiger’s PLAN in the sand bunker will be) – then your scores will improve.

Are you score oriented or PLAN oriented? Make your goals about improving your PLAN and your scores will improve. Make your goals about improving your scores and your frustration will continue.

The Monkey is focused on their score and more times than they’d like to admit, they find a way to mess up during the round and not achieve that score

The Player is focused on their PLAN and usually doesn’t know that they’ve accomplished a better score until the round is complete

How are you going to accomplish your goals in 2008?

Go ahead, Be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com

How To Hit The Golf Ball Farther

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Hitting the golf ball farther should be a priority of yours. If you look at the top Golfers in the world – the majority of them hit the golf ball a good distance. The problem is that many Golfers continually hit bad golf shots because of their quest to hit the golf ball farther.

For the struggling Golfer – hitting the golf ball longer usually comes down to swinging harder. For the Player – hitting the golf ball longer comes down to having an efficient golf swing so that every part of your body is moving together. There’s a huge difference between these two strategies.

Which strategy for distance do you use?

The coordination of your body so that it moves together is more important than your ability to swing hard. I know many Golfers that can swing harder than Tiger Woods – though, there aren’t many that can hit it farther on a more consistent basis.

If you look at the Professional Long Driver Tournaments – Tiger wouldn’t be able to compete with these guys. Their drives in the competition would smoke Tiger’s drives. Yet, on the golf course – Tiger wouldn’t just smoke them – he’d vaporize them!

Who would you rather model your game after?

So why can Tiger hit it so far, yet so consistent? Because over the years of playing he’s been able to coordinate the movements of his body so that he’s become more Symmetrical. He’s been on a quest to have both sides of his body to become equal. Equal in strength – equal in coordination – equal in talent.

The more a Golfer is right-hand dominate or left-hand dominate – the more this Golfer will need to compensate in their golf swing for the less talented hand. Now when I say hand – I don’t just mean your actual hand. A better way of saying it is right-side dominate or left-side dominate.

Meaning if you’re right handed, it doesn’t only mean you’re doing things better with your right hand. It means you’re doing things better with your whole right-side: right hand, right hip, right foot, right leg, right shoulder, etc. It means that your whole right-side is stronger and more coordinated than your left-side.

So the more right-side or left-side dominate you are – the more compensations will be in your golf swing to make up for the weaker, less coordinated side. What type of compensations will you see, well in Monkey Terms – swinging over the top, outside in, picking up, reverse pivoting, lunging, falling back, losing posture, etc., etc., etc. Though at Golf Made Simple we just take all those Monkey Terms, throw them together in a pot and call them Compensations.

Do you have any of these Compensations? Do you want to fix them?

Hopefully you do want to fix your Compensations because ‘Compensations equal Inconsistency’. The more you compensate in your golf swing – the more inconsistent you’ll be on the golf course.

So as Albert Einstein came up with E=MC2; GMS uses C=IC - Compensations equal InConsistency.

The key to hitting the golf ball farther is not to consciously try to swing your golf club harder. The more you do that – the more you’re dominate side will be compensating for your less dominate side and thus fighting each other. The key to hitting the golf ball farther is to have both sides of your body to become more and more equal.

Then as you use Drills designed to make your sides more equal, you’ll see your weaker side starting to improve – along with you starting to see more and more distance on your shots without trying to swing harder. This will be in direct correlation to you becoming more symmetrical – which will do two things:

One – it’ll coordinate your body so that your swing becomes smoother and without your weaker side of your body getting in the way of your stronger side, you’ll be swinging with more power without trying to swing harder. Second – as your weaker side gets stronger, there’ll be less of a need for you to compensate to make up for the weaker side. And less Compensation will allow you to hit the center of the club more often.

How much distance will ‘Centerness of Hit’ add to your Driver? This could range from 10 to 45 yards of instant improvement in yardage. Instant!! Because hitting the center of your club is the number one way to increase distance – yet look at your Driver. Where are all the markings of where you hit the golf ball? Are they in the center?

This is why GMS uses drills such as ‘The Symmetrical Drill’ on Day One of your 3-Day Program with us. And this is why so many Golfers that come to see us are hitting the golf ball farther and more consistent after just 3 days.

The Monkey will try to swing harder on a Par 5 or long Par 4 to get extra distance, but the only extra they get is extra frustrated and extra penalty strokes

The Player has a PLAN to improve both sides of their body on the practice range so that they don’t need to swing harder to get more distance on the golf course

What are you doing for more distance?

Go ahead, Be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com