Is Your Golf Game In Season or Off Season

The Answer is - not the middle of July. The Question – When should you be practicing to get better so you play your best Golf in July? For many Golfers, the next few months are the time you should be working on your golf game to improve. Unfortunately, many Golfers in the US, Canada and Europe don’t use this time effectively.

If you’re waiting for your season to start – you’re waiting too long. Players have two seasons – Off Season and The Season. Monkeys unfortunately have just one season – The Season.

Now this might not make much sense to a lot of Golfers because The Season is the only way they know how to do it. The frustrated Golfer is trying to improve too much at the same time that they’re trying to play. And because of this – more frustration is produced every year during The Season. Yet, even though this frustration is repeated yearly – the Monkey continues to do the same routine over and over expecting to eventually see – different, more improved Results.

The Player isn’t trying to learn anything new during The Season – they did most of their learning and improving during the Off Season.

The Monkey is putting too much pressure on themselves to improve from round to round by trying to combine learning, practicing and improvement in each round of golf. The Monkey is going from swing to swing hoping and wishing to improve something they could’ve improved during the Off Season. That’s why the Frustrated Golfer is continually finding inconsistency on the golf course round after round and year after year.

The Player has spent their Off Season learning, practicing and improving so that all they need to do each round during The Season is to make their PLAN to play to their Strengths and away from their Weaknesses. By being able to focus primarily on their PLAN, as opposed to thinking about their golf swing on every swing – the Player is free from tension, anxiety, and the pressure of trying to do everything correct on every golf swing. And without all these swing thoughts - the Player becomes more consistent.

Think about it this way - Why would you start practicing your game during the time you should be maintaining your game? And that’s a statement many Golfers won’t understand because they’ve never thought of it that way. In other words – Is spending The Season learning and practicing to play better going to help you to play better during The Season?


No, all it will do is frustrate you like it has in the past. The best way is to learn and practice in the Off Season so you just need to maintain during The Season. And when you’re focused on maintaining during The Season – you’ll actually be improving because all you’re worried about is repeating the swing you worked on. As opposed to the Monkey that’s trying out new things every round of golf.


Take Professional Baseball for example. Before their season starts, they have Spring Training for a couple of months so that they can get ready for The Season. This is where all the teams come down to Florida or Arizona to practice and play exhibition games to get ready.


Though, even before Pitchers and Catchers report – the majority of the Players are learning, practicing and improving at home during the Off Season. Not every Baseball Player lives in Florida, Arizona or California, where they can go outside to practice every day. Yet, they find ways to improve before their season starts. Then during The Season – Players are just maintaining what they have – which actually helps them to improve as the season goes on.


A Rod (Alex Rodriguez of the NY Yankees and the best Baseball Player on the Planet), doesn’t work on or try to learn his swing during The Season. He does that work during the Off Season – so that during The Season, he can concentrate on just swinging the bat without thought. You should do the same with your golf swing.


‘Thinkers are Stinkers’


How should you practice during the Off Season? When’s the last time you did 5 push-ups? When’s the last time you did a putting drill in your house? When’s the last time you practiced your swing using Swing Drills in your house? Or are you waiting until your golf season starts?


Which way do you think the Player does it? Do you think they wait until The Season to improve? Or do you think that they use the Off Season to improve so that they’re playing their best golf all summer?

Which way do you think the Monkey does it?


The Monkey keeps their clubs in the closet until late Spring or until they make a Golf Trip to Florida or Arizona for 4 days of golf. Then once late Spring arrives – they start to practice and play. Unfortunately, many Golfers don’t have the time to go practice, so they combine their learning, practicing and playing into the same round of golf. Can you say – ‘Huge Mistake’?


This is where the Monkey continually runs into trouble – Learning, Practicing and Playing can’t be combined to produce a good round of golf. Many of the Golfers frustrations come from the fact that on the golf course you’re trying to practice your swing. Yet, any successful Player will tell you that the less you’re practicing your swing during a round of golf – the more successful your shot will be.


‘If you Think, you’ll Stink’


The Player is successful because they practice during the Off Season and then once the season starts – they just PLAN. Their golf game is ready; they don’t need to continually try to improve from game to game. Sure, from time to time, they need to conduct some routine maintenance on their golf swing – but it’s nowhere near the battle that the Monkey is going through every time they hit the golf course.


Why is Tiger so dominate? How can he “not play” for weeks at a time and then come back to tournament play and look at the rest of the Players as if to say “Who's Your Daddy?” Do you think he’s just sitting around the house drinking beer? Trust me; he’s practicing so that when he goes to play a tournament – he doesn’t have to practice – he can just play to his PLAN.


He’s now taking “a few more weeks off”. Which translates into – I may not be in the public eye playing in tournaments – but you can bet that I’m still practicing and working on my body so that I can be even more dominate when I come back.


The Monkey spends their Off Season reading Golf Digest


The Player uses their Off Season to get ready for The Season


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.


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

Click Here To Order DVD

Golfers Are Funny

And I Don’t Mean The Good Kind Of Funny

Click Here To Listen to The Audio Version of Golf Improvement Weekly


‘I’m going to try to the Stack and Tilt. I’ve tried the 8 Step Swing, The X Factor, Slow and Low, Square to Square, along with every other new swing that has come out.


‘I’ve tried video analysis, I’ve tried the new Matt System, I’ve tried Golf Tec, I’ve even tried getting down on my hands and knees to pray.


‘Yet, I still have the same inconsistent golf swing. I’ve spent hundreds – well, thinking about it …. I’ve spent thousands …. well, let’s just put it this way …. my kids inheritance isn’t what it used to be – trying to find something to help me become more consistent.’


We live in a society that thrives on making things simpler. Perfect example: Would you rather use Microsoft Word or go back to loading the paper into a typewriter and then having to go through the hassle of making a simple mistake. (Really, I tried to type mistake wrong to illustrate my point, but Microsoft won’t let me make a mistake even if I wanted to).


Make Life Simple


Yet, the Golfer that’s having a hard time on the golf course seems to be looking for more difficult. We’re actually thinking of changing our company name to Golf Made Difficult, but we feel if we did – there would be too much demand and we wouldn’t be able to keep up with number of Golfers calling and emailing us to help them make complicated swing changes.


So we’ll keep it Golf Made Simple


Why do most people today have their automobiles shift gears automatically as opposed to manually shifting? Why don’t you have a rotary telephone in your house anymore? Do you know anyone that still fiddles with an answering machine that’s hooked up by a cord to your telephone as opposed to voice mail?


Yet, the Golfer isn’t happy until your Instructor sits you down to analyze every movement of your golf swing. The Golfer wants to know everything they’re doing wrong in their swing. ‘You see my right elbow at the top of my swing, is that where it’s supposed to be?’ “Well Mr. Lewis, you’re right, according to our highly advanced technology that can analyze every movement in your golf swing, along with determining if you’re getting enough calcium in your diet – shows that your right elbow is about 2.394 degrees out of place.”


In every aspect of our life, we’re trying to make things ‘Simpler’. We’re trying to use less thought to accomplish difficult tasks. Yet in Golf – the so-called Swing Guru’s are trying to make things more difficult!


An 8 Step Swing? I have difficulty walking and chewing gum at the same time.


To give you an idea on how embarrassed I am about this ‘complicated is better philosophy’ that has hooked Golfers to the point of me relabeling it as ‘Crack for Golfers’ – somebody sent me this amazing comment they found on the Golf Tec website – ‘By primarily working in an indoor, controlled environment, clients can focus on the swing process as opposed to simply relying on ball flight. By ignoring ball flight in some of (the) lessons, clients can avoid reinforcing bad habits.’


Ignoring your ball flight can avoid reinforcing bad habits? Is that a joke? Are they trying to be funny? Don’t tell me they’re serious. That comment may be the #1 reason that company will really mess up your golf swing!


Do I smell Snake Oil?


Technology has helped us create better golf clubs and golf balls. It’s helped to make the golf club out of better materials (from Persimmon Wood and Hickory Shafts to Titanium and Graphite Shafts), along with allowing us to fit you to the correct equipment to match your golf swing.


All these other complicated swing techniques that are based upon you copying Jim McLean’s 8-Step Swing or the Golf Tec model swing or the Stack and Shank … ahhh, I mean the Stack and Tilt swing - hasn’t helped anybody (I have ever met) swing better. It might make a Golfer feel better that at least they’re doing something to try to improve – but has it helped your swing to improve to the point that your scores have gotten better?


So why over the last two weeks have I gotten into the whole gimmick swing, video analysis, you better be careful what you do next to improve your golf swing - rap? Because it’s that time of year that millions of Golfers can’t go outside to play – so they feel the next best thing is to sign-up to take golf lessons at one of those video simulator places that you can get your swing analyzed, or wile away your time with a book that explains 8 different swing moves you need to master or get on a Golf Internet Chat room that’s filled with closeted, anonymous Golf Gurus with nicknames such as Golf Genius that are looked up to like Rock Stars to frustrated, desperate Golfers that will do anything not to be frustrated anymore.


My question is – Do you know anyone that has signed up for a 6 lesson Golf Tec series and taken all 6 lessons? On the other hand – Do you know anyone that has signed up for a 6 lessons series and only taken 4 or 5 lessons? Why is that so commonplace? Well, they bait you in with promises of Glory – and after the 4th week, when you’re so confused that you’re scared to swing the golf club back because you’re thinking about everything you’re doing wrong and how you want to make sure that you do it correct – something deep down inside says to you – ‘this stinks!’


‘This is too complicated, why am I making it so hard on myself?’


The Monkey is constantly swinging from vine to vine looking for answers – unfortunately they believe that the more difficult the vine is – the better it is for their golf swing


The Player just Tick Tocks and smiles


Are you swinging vine to vine as you grit your teeth or are you smiling?


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.



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

Video Analysis For Your Golf Swing

Click Here To Listen to The Audio Version of Golf Improvement Weekly



So the Golfer said to me – “I want to get my swing on video so I can see what I’m doing wrong. I want to compare my swing side by side to a PGA Tour Player’s swing to see what I need to correct.”


And I said to myself – Here’s another Golfer that’s about to take a drive down the infamously long road of Frustrated Golfer Lane. For some Golfers this road never ends – it just goes on and on and on until they either quit or just accept their fate of not being a good Golfer (or as some frustrated Golfers would call themselves – I’m just a hack).


The use of video is like the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes – nobody has the guts to stand-up and say that they actually got worse using video analysis. Though in reality – I have yet to see a Golfer improve their score after having video analysis – yet have seen hundreds of Golfers that have gotten worse. Golfers are scared to tell others that, gasp – I didn’t improve afterwards. They think that everybody must improve with video and if you don’t – well, you must be an inadequate, untalented Golfer that has no hope of improving.


Why is video bad for you?


Think of it this way – Instead of wanting to hit your Driver like Tiger Woods, you desperately wanted to be able to dunk a basketball. So you signed up for the Michael Jordan School of Dunk, to learn how to slam dunk a basketball through the hoop like the greatest of all time.


So you’re off to go to The School of Dunk to learn. They start off by watching you dribble the basketball, do a few lay-ups to the basket and then test your jumping skills. Next, they video you trying to dunk a basketball through a hoop 10 feet from the ground; – just like a Golfer getting a video of themselves trying to hit their Driver 300 yards. And on your first attempt, you’re not able to dunk the ball, though you do catch the bottom of the net.


Now you begin the comparison – So they split the television screen with one side having a picture of you and the other side being a picture of Michael Jordan. They then start running the tape and we see some major differences – as you’re stepping towards the basket, the strides of your steps are 4 feet apart; while Jordan’s are 7 feet apart. As you jump to the basket, you jump from 3 feet away; while Jordan takes off from 12 feet away.


You then get into the mechanics of the dunk. When you jump, you bend your knees at a 65 degree angle and Jordan at a 90 degree angle. They have also found that as you jump that your posture is bent over about 10 degrees more than Jordan. So they tell you that you need to bend your knees more when you jump, along with thinking about your posture while you’re thinking about your knees.


So you spend hours upon hours practicing what you saw yourself doing wrong on the video. And then you go to the local basketball court to try and dunk the ball. You line-up with the ball in your hand, you look at the basket, you start to move towards the basket concentrating on doing it exactly as Michael Jordan had done, and as you get towards the basket, you start to jump from 12 feet away just as Jordan had and ….. you don’t even come close to dunking. You actually don’t even come close to reaching the bottom of the net.


Why didn’t you dunk?


Why couldn’t you even reach the bottom of the net this time? You watched what you did wrong on the video, you watched what Jordan did correct, and you practiced. Well, you’re 55 years old, 5 feet 7 inches tall, spend most of your day sitting behind a desk, spend more time on your Blackberry than you do on the court, have a bad back and just started playing basketball about 4 years ago. While Jordan is 6 feet 6 inches tall, has spent 41 of his 44 years devoted to the game of basketball, is a 6 time MVP and could be the greatest Athlete ever.


What makes a Golfer think that if they can watch Tiger, or as the brilliant marketers of video analysis put it: ‘we’ll compare you to someone that has a comparable body type as you’ – what makes you think that’s going to help you?


Listen, you could join the Spud Webb School of Dunk – Spud Webb was a real Professional Basketball Player that was 5 feet 6 inches tall that could dunk a basketball – try to copy Spud’s dunking movements and still fail. You could be the same 5 feet 6 inches tall and still not be able to jump as high as Spud. So having a video comparison with a PGA Tour Player of similar size is just as ridiculous.


The thought of video analysis helping you to swing better is absurd. If you’re being compared to Tom Kite and trying to do the things he’s doing – how’s that going to help you? Why won’t you hit the golf ball better? Well, even though you’re the same height, weight, physique as Tom – he’s been playing golf for 40 something years on a competitive level. He’s practiced 7 days a week for 8 hours a day over those years – what makes you think that by watching a video of him swing next to your swing will allow you do the same as his body?


You can practice getting into the same swing positions as Kite for hours upon hours – yet there are more factors that go into hitting a golf ball any where near his level. One – practicing swing positions has nothing to do with improved swing motion – you can’t practice positions and think that it’s equivalent to swing motion; Two – are your golf muscles as trained as Tom’s – he may not look like an athlete, but his muscles have been conditioned for the last 40 years to work with his swing; are your golf muscles going to learn to work like Tom’s by watching a video of his swing; Three – Tom has hit millions of good shots that has given him true confidence that he can hit the golf ball well on a consistent basis – you’ve hit millions of bad shots that has had the opposite effect.

Video Analysis is really a silly concept when it comes to Golf Improvement!


Does seeing everything you’re doing wrong in your golf swing help you to hit the golf ball better? No, it actually helps you to hit the golf ball worse because now you’re thinking of everything you’re doing wrong in your swing on every swing. Video Analysis is the negative approach to improvement. Video Analysis is the ‘I have to get worse before I get better approach’ – which in reality is: ‘I got worse and as of yet, have not gotten any better!’

So how is video analysis negative if so many Golfers are trying it? Well, I’m still waiting to hear from a Golfer that has gotten their swing analyzed and then improved 6 to 11 strokes. Yet, on the other hand, I’ve heard from 100’s of Golfers that have had their swing analyzed and have promptly had their scores get 6 to 11 strokes worse.



Theories and Assumptions (which is the marketing mumbo jumbo that Monkey Digest and the Monkey Channel use to lure desperate Golfers to sell magazines and attract viewers) say’s that if you get video analysis – you’ll improve. Though, Results (which is reality) show that Golfers are getting worse after video analysis. Would you rather depend on Results or Theories and Assumptions to help you to finally have a consistent golf swing that will have you feeling more confident on the golf course?


The Monkey believes others have improved with video because other Monkeys are too scared to say that video didn’t help them because they don’t want to be scorned by other Monkeys by saying that the Emperor is standing naked in front of you


The Player looks at Results and actually doesn’t care what the Monkeys think – they’d rather think like a Player


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.



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