Micro Lesson? It will change you!
Have your golfing partners or pro diagnosed your swing for you? “Oh yea, you’re over-the-top every time”, “stop casting”, ” you’re swaying again”. Even when you know what you do “wrong” you can’t stop yourself? After enough of this you just decide that you can’t change, you’ll always be a slicer, or inconsistent. You give up! I see it all the time…but there is a remedy, a way to change your swing permanently for the better…
Micro lesson is a newly coined phrase that refers to a shortened, hyper-focused golf lesson that helps a golfer learn specific vital motions essential to an efficient swing. The micro is short, 20-25 minutes in duration and has the student focus on a key element of the motion that is not properly timed or deficient in some manner.
To put this in context, let’s use the example of the senior player that is losing distance with his driver. This player (determined through video and radar analysis) is starting the downward motion with the shoulders and rotating them, instead of starting from the ground up.(like the throwing motion) The rotation of the shoulder creates a leftward path of the club and a descending blow which is a distance killer with the driver. (see Trackman comparisons of up/down attack angles on distance)
The root cause or deficient motion that reduces distance is not that the shoulders are rotating but when. So, in order for things to change for this golfer must learn how to change the sequence of his motion. Only when the efficient sequence is identified and understood can the golfer learn it, in the context of his golf swing. Because the golf swing is a fluid, balanced motion of the club in a big circle, the act of simply thinking of trying to change it isn’t enough to learn it to the level of automatic and dependable. Enter the Micro-lesson…
I will generally have the student slow the motions of his swing way down and focus on becoming more aware of the feelings that correspond to beginning the strike by using imagery and motions that are comfortable and automatic to them. In this example, we may toss a few golf balls to feel the proper sequence that they already successfully employ, automatically. (step, then throw) The intensity of this focus practice may not immediately show up in the golf swing, but learning takes time. The brain needs to make the connection between the automatic nature of throwing a ball and the initial movement of the strike.
Wintertime here in Indiana or the offseason wherever you are is the ideal time to break your swing down and do maintenance on it so that when March or April come around you are ready to hit the ground running!