practice makes perfect

Unsolicited advice.  I dish it out all the time... can't lie.  Random stuff, what roads to take after 5 PM, what curling shoes are best, how to pass the 8th grade, why you need Amazon prime.  When it comes to the golf course it's like men can't stop with the advice.  Choke down, choke up, feet wider, feet more narrow, stand closer, stand back a bit, arms loser, firmer grip, loosen the grip... rapid fire, unsolicited, I'm gonna punch you if you don't stop talking, advice.  So how's a girl to deal?  Here is some... uh, unsolicited advice on how to deal with it on the range and more importantly, in the middle of a round. :)

This week has been tough.  I'm trying to really working on making good contact, leading with the left wrist but not breaking the hinge, and finishing with weight transfer to make the ball go straight with good loft.  That's a lot of stuff to work on.  However, because I practice and practiced and practiced my set up I'm fining it easier to work on what I want.  That's been my deal all week - everything is off to the right though.  Shank freaking central.  Shaw Shank Redemption.  It's bad news.  Brad and I went to the driving range and he was determined to make this work for me.  So he starts talking, moving me around, do this, do that.  Bla bla bla.  This is why I have a pro.  The best thing to do is remember what your coach told you.  If the person you are with tells you something your pro told you take it as a good reminder.  If they say something that helps you understand something your pro already told you... great, it will only help to hear it in another way and maybe it will help make it stick.  If they start saying something that contradicts something your pro told you just gently tell the advice giving man, no.  Case in point.  I need to keep my feet shoulder distance - even a touch more.  My shoulders are really wide - wider than my hips for sure.  It looks funny to have my feet that far apart but I need to have them that way at this point because it helps with my hip rotation.  Brad didn't like it.  I just said, hey Brad, it's something I'm working on with John because bla bla bla.  He says okay and we move on.  In the end he helped remind me of some things I needed to be working on and I'm not hitting balls off to the right nearly as much.  It's good to get out and practice with different people.  It makes practice more fun and it helps me get used to golfing with more people so I'm less nervous in the tee box.  

Story two...  we had our tournament of champions yesterday at Bixby.  We still drew names and I got Brad's friend Brandon.  He and I have played together before and I could tell he was a bit disappointed that we drew the same number.  I knew he thought he had a good chance of winning with the right partner and that partner probably wasn't me.  We were one of the first groups to tee off.  I did my set up, took a deep breath, tried to calm my nerves and gave it a sold hit.  Right.  Right into the trees.  I pulled my tee, and walked back to my bag, tossed in the stupid six iron, threw my bag on my back and started down the fairway.  This was not how I wanted to start my round.  I could feel my body was tense, my heart was beating fast and I even felt a little numb and shaky.  CRAP.  I wanted a good first shot and I wanted to impress my partner.  I know Brandon is super competitive and I knew he wanted a chance to win.  Right away he started giving me advice, how to play, what the strategy was, not to let the other pair with us get in our heads.  Important to have fun... all this bull.  I walked up to my bad shot, picked my ball up and said, "Listen.  Take some of your own advice.  Just be cool and let's have a good game."  We did and he had nothing else to say to me about my swing  I shaped up after that and didn't have too many bad shots.  In fact, I golfed really well and we had a solid ham and egg game finishing -1.   Be firm about what you're working on and don't let anyone work you up or get in your business.

A Yogi's Guide to Golf

I had my swing analysis the day before I played 18.  You may be thinking... bad idea.  It was probably a bad idea but in the end it really wasn't.  I scored a 48 on the back 9 which is more in line with how I golfed in about August.  Well before anyone had the chance to put a lot of bad ideas in my head about my swing I was doing pretty well.  Okay okay okay...  so I wasn't doing very well and 48 it's that great...  In fact, even this summer I was sucking but not too bad.  Even blind squirrels find nuts... am I right?

Look how cheeky I am here!  I won closest to the pin on hole 2 at Bixby the first time I played Comedy Golf.  Used my 8 iron over the lake.  Boom.  

I think actually blind squirrels don't last long in the wild and they forget where their nuts are.  Not wanting to be that squirrel or... ahem.... guy at the driving range hacking away thinking he's hot shit I did what I should have done months ago and got my swing looked at.  It is shocking.  It's actually horrifying.  It's shock therapy.  Oh you think your swing is good!?!?!  ZAP!  Hit her with the video!  The good news is John puts up with my slow learning abilities and I do make progress.  And seeing yourself do it wrong on video after he tells you it's wrong and then you do it again anyhow?  Yeah, that shit works.  My address is a million times better.  The funny thing is all the things I've learned from my other sports sort of apply here.  The only thing now is I wish I had played something that involved a stick an a ball....  Here is my Yogi's Guide to the Address.  Lord knows maybe some day I'll write the Yogi's Guide to Golf.  Hot sales in SoCal.  Just sayin. 

Flat Back

No more hunch back like an old man.  The key here is plugging the shoulders as in the set up for full wheel (Urdhva Dhanurasana).  You will also then want to draw the shoulder blades down the back.  This brings the shoulders away from the ears and allows (girls tip) your left arm to rest to the left of your left breast.  The right arm is slightly bent and has more room because of the slight spinal tilt to the right.   This simple move of drawing the shoulders down the back and plugging the shoulders in also gives stability to your core and stops the club from being disconnected.  The added bonus is suddenly our arms are not glued together like the LAPD has us.  Extra bonus if you ditch the death grip on the club.  Look how much progress we've made so far!

Arms

No more reaching for the golf ball - arms hang over the toes now.  With feet shoulder width apart - seriously double check this.  Are they really shoulder width apart?  You should feel the weight come into the center of your feet and they should feel grounded.  As with any standing pose.. let's take Uttanasana or standing forward fold into consideration for a moment, all four corners of the feet are grounded and it's necessary to stay balanced as you fold down or come back up into Mountain Pose or you would tip over.  The same holds true here. The core engages and it feels as though you are just looking over the edge of a building.  When the club is held the butt of the club should point towards your left hip.  

Legs and Low Back

Although to this point it's all coming together and feels right I find myself having to still check two items.  One is I feel I really need to get into a squat.  Wrong!  Maybe it's just too many years of squats and Chair Pose (Ukatasana) but I feel like a really athletic address somehow includes getting my hips down too low.  This takes away our good balance - the knees bend just until the quads start to engage - not very much!  The hinge we are looking for is at the hips.  The low back also needs to be flat.  This comes with core engagement as well.  As in Chair Pose it's natural to want to dump the in the low spine and the "guts hang" as my Thursday lunch instructor says.  It does you no good to dump in the lower back.  You want it to be strong and supportive in your swing so remember, "Guts in! Guts in!"  Engage your lower back and transverse abdominals.  Tuck your pelvis floor in and you're good to go.   

Speaking of yoga - here is a fun new pose I learned today!  Demonstrated by the beautiful Sunina.  I can bet mine was not as lovely.  Check her out here - she has a really nice yoga blog.

So much was wrong now so much is right and that's not even the whole of it.  We're getting there friends.  Just these small changes while thinking about finishing and sweeping the club away made all but one of my drives on the back nine smoking fairway hitting beauties on Saturday.