Beginner's Mind

 Present Moment Golf

www.presentmomentgolf.com

In eastern philosophy they have a concept that they refer to as beginner's mind.  The basic idea of this concept is that a mind filled with preconceived ideas about how something works is closed to alternate possibilities.  An individual who is a beginner in an activity is generally more open to new ideas and testing out a number of possible solutions to a problem.

If you pick up a copy of a golf magazine or tune into the Golf Channel, you are likely to be exposed to a multitude of various theories, training aids and keys to make your golf game better.  With this huge amount of contrasting information, it can be easy to fall into a place of quickly dismissing concepts that don't fit into our preconceived idea about the game of golf.

I am not encouraging you to blindly accept anyone's truth about the golf swing or your life as being "the truth".  However, when a teacher comes into your life, I encourage you to drop your preconceived ideas about how things work and listen to that teacher with "beginner's mind".  Fully open yourself to that which is being presented to you.  Ask questions, search for clarification, and seek understanding.  When you have allowed this information to enter into your being, without the blockade of your preconceived notions, then you can begin the process of putting these new ideas through the "test kitchen" of your own experience.

Through this "trying on for size" process, we are assured of growing and learning about ourselves.  Even if we were to totally discard the tenets of the teaching we received, there would still be opportunities to gain clarity about our own philosophy.

Contact Steven Miller, M.A. to inquire about setting up your Golf Retreat with Present Moment Golf. Visit the website at www.presentmomentgolf.com

Get a Grip: Supporting the Lever

“Yeah, I always felt like a man’s grip on his club just like a man’s grip on his world” 
 -Bagger Vance

 from “The Legend of Bagger Vance”

I’ve heard of a number of teaching pros who simply will not change a person’s grip.  They know that if they do, they unravel all the pieces of the puzzle that the individual has used to compensate for their improper grip over the years.  I, on the other hand, believe that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing well.  Personally, I would rather struggle initially with a change if I know that in the long-term it will produce the best results in my life.  That being said, I frequently find myself wishing I was not so keen on doing things the proper way, especially during the inefficient moments of awkwardness that follow making a change in this direction.

I preface talking about the grip with these statements because it is such a fundamental part of the golf swing.  Your connection to the club determines much of what will follow and how the rest of your body relates to the golf club.  When you change the grip, you change everything.

Sam Snead said, “Hold the club as if you had a little baby bird in your hand”.  The most common question I get asked from my students when they hear this statement is, “If I held it like that, wouldn’t the club just fly right out of my hands?”  It is an understandable concern and the reason most folks hold the club far too tightly.  This fear of losing control of the club is a reasonable thing, considering the damage a flung golf club could do.  However, once you understand the purpose of the lever in your non-dominant hand, you can begin to feel what Sam Snead was talking about with his little baby bird metaphor.

The Lever

There is a bone at the inside base of the hand.  When you are typing at your keyboard, you are most likely resting on that bone.  To create the proper lever in the top hand of the grip, you are going to want this bone directly on top of the club.  Using this bone and the last three fingers of the hand, you should be able to bounce the club up in front of you simply by cocking your wrist.  That lever is the key to low grip pressure.  If you don’t have the lever, you will have to use tension in your fingers and arms to manipulate the club.  With the lever, you can relax, knowing that the club is under your control without the need for choking it to death.

Bringing the Hands Together

The basic idea of the grip is to get the hands as close together as possible so that they become one unit instead of two opposing forces.  There are three ways that you can hold the club properly.  Which one you choose will have a lot to do with the size of your hands and the relative comfort of fitting your hands together.  Please note that comfort does not exactly equal comfortable.  When most people put their hands on the club properly for the first time they usually say, “Wow….this feels…weird/awkward/terrible/different/awful/etc.”.   Because of the angles involved and the rotational nature of the golf swing, very little about the game comes naturally to us.  Our general instinct is to think in straight lines and this game is far from being linear.  Comfort in this instance has more to do with the lack of pain involved with repeating the same grip over and over again.

The hands should be oriented with the palms facing each other, one palm pointing down the target line and the other pointing directly away from the target line.

10-finger grip/Baseball grip

Usually recommended for individuals with smaller hands

Basically the idea here is to get the hands as close together as possible without connecting the hands in any way. 

Interlocking Grip

Used by Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods…pretty good company to keep

The pointer finger of the non-dominant hand and the pinky of the dominant hand wrap around one another at the base of the finger

Overlapping Grip

Used by the majority of professional golfers

The pinky of the dominant hand wraps over the top of the knuckle of the pointer finger on the non-dominant hand.

Experiment with each of these grips to determine which one feels right for you.

Supporting Underneath in the Fingers of the Dominant Hand

Most players put their dominant hand on the club in a way that they feel “in control” with that hand.  Again, there is nothing natural about the game of golf.  What we want to do with the dominant hand is to neutralize it.  Basically, for most players this will mean making the grip in this hand “weaker” and in more of a supportive role to eliminate the tendency to “use” this hand in the swing.

To get the bottom/dominant hand into this supportive position, hold the club on the pad of the middle part of your fingers (next one down from the tip).  Here is where we really can feel Sam Snead’s metaphor.  In this position, the dominant hand is barely even holding onto the club. 

The purpose of this hand is to support the club from underneath.  Remember the hinge we created with the lever in the non-dominant hand?  The dominant hand only assists in supporting the cocking motion of the wrist.  It does not push from one side to the other.  If you hit a big slice in your golf swing, I can tell you that you are pushing with one hand against the other, trying to go in a straight line….again, there is nothing straight about this game.

Summary

Create a lever in your non-dominant hand

Bring the hands as close together as possible

Palms facing each other

Support underneath in the fingers of the dominant hand

Light Grip pressure

Not sure if you’re doing it correctly?  I encourage you to send me a picture or video of your grip at presentmomentgolf@gmail.com.  I will give you the feedback to help get things neutralized and working in harmony in your grip, the most fundamental part of the game of golf.

Rhythm versus Tempo: Golf as a Dance

Rhythm and tempo are two concepts that are easily confused with each other.  In this entry the difference between the two will be explained and strategies will be offered for how to practice playing in rhythm and to find the tempo that works best for your personality and biorhythms.

Rhythm is the steady beat of the drum.  In music this would be represented by the time signature of the piece of music.  In my opinion, golf is best played in a waltzing 3/4 time signature.  That would be 3 beats on the backswing and 3 beats to the finish of the swing.  The emphasis is on the first beat of the measure as we take the club away and again upon impact with the golf ball on the downswing.  Good rhythm is a constant in all great golfers.  When they are playing at their best, you may notice that even the pro's pre-shot routines have the same rhythmic qualities as their regular swing, making the playing of the game look like an artful, effortless dance.

This rhythm, that shows up in everything we do, is a wonderful byproduct of being "in the zone".  When we have gotten out of our thinking mind and have centered in on the trusting, confident, still center of our mind, things tend to fall into a graceful rhythm with a tempo that fits our individuality.

This leads into the concept of tempo.  Whereas all great players have great rhythm, the tempo or speed of that rhythm varies greatly from player to player.  In music we would use the concept of beats per minute (bpm) to determine how rapidly we would tap out the beats in a measure.  To practice a particular piece, a musician might use a metronome calibrated to the correct tempo to help them find the right pacing of the piece. 

In determining the bpm of the swing, it is important to note that we are taking about the space in time between the start of the backswing and the moment of impact.  We are basically measuring the time it takes to get from the start of a measure (the "1" of the counting) to another.

The 1-2-3, 1-2-3 of a professional golf swing can range from 75 bpms (Fred Couples' swing registers close to this tempo) all the way up to 120bpms (Brandt Snedeker comes to mind in this range).  That is a wide range of difference in two of the best players in the modern era. 

This difference can be traced down to biorhythms.  Each of us has an inner drummer that is beating out the rhythm of our daily lives.  We walk and talk and move with this unique biorhythm throughout the day without much deliberation or conscious thought.  It is simply the way we move through the world that feels right to us.

Fred Couples saunters through the world while Brandt Snedeker, for example, struts.

Finding your Tempo

#1
There are numerous apps for the smartphone that offer a metronome feature.  The one I use on my phone is the Mobile Metronome app.  I would recommend downloading an app like this to help you determine the tempo that works best for your game.

#2
Once you have a metronome in hand, try this exercise.  Next time you are out for a walk and find yourself falling into a nice, comfortable stride that feels natural and comfortable for you, pull out your metronome and zero in on the pacing of your steps.  Every time your foot hits the ground, that is a beat.  On the Mobile Metronome app you can tap out the beat of your walk and it will give you a beats per minute calculation.

#3
Have you ever found a piece of music that just feels right to you?  When you hear it, it just feels good in your body.  Next time you notice a piece of music that speaks to you on a rhythmic level, pull out your metronome and see if you can tap out the tempo of the music.  Does it fit into your natural walking tempo?  If it does, you have probably found your ideal golf swing tempo.

#4
Experiment with different tempos in your practice.  Take your metronome to the driving range and putting green.  (Ideally, we would have the same tempo on putting that we do on our driver swing).  Go to extremes.  Try going at 75 bpms and then take it all the way up to 120 bpms.  From there you can zero in on the number that feels natural and most like your swing.

#5
Create a playlist of songs that fit your ideal tempo and listen to those songs with some headphones while you practice.

#6
Once you have found your tempo, practice it in everything you do.  See if you can make your movements in the pre-shot routine fall into the rhythm of this tempo.  Consider each shot to be a song that you play over and over again, just as a musician does to master a piece of music.

#7
Incorporate your rhythm into the space in between your shots.  See if you can stay rhythmic in everything you do, including your walking and talking during the round. 


See if you can incorporate your ideal rhythmic tempo into your life outside of the golf course.  The more we get into our biorhythm, the more we smoothly and gracefully move through our lives "in the zone".  Enjoy the discovery process of finding your tempo and discovering the rhythm of the game of golf.

Present Moment Golf Goes Mobile

Present Moment Golf is officially mobile.  I'm coming to you today from Fredericksburg, VA on my way up to Belgrade, Maine to teach at the Maine Golf and Tennis Academy with Kenny Knox for the summer.

Thank you to the following people for helping to bring the "Present Moment Golf Mobile" (Shaggy) into great shape for the trip and making this mobile golf instruction business possible....

Levi Cunningham - Thank you Levi for all your many hours of help in overhauling the engine and for all your support....while working two jobs!!

Jason Price - Thank you Jason for taking the time to come out and help Levi on your time off, which I know is incredibly precious.

James Cunningham - Thank you James for all your hard work helping your brother get the RV rolling down the road.  The picture I have of you passed out, sleeping with containers of transmission fluid, tells the story of your hard work.

Gary Dennings - Thank you for your expertise and for allowing us to use your garage to rebuild the engine.  That pizza we ordered should be arriving any minute now.

Jerry Boulia (Jerry's Garage in Havelock) - Thank you Jerry for all your hard work in bringing it all together at the last minute.  I am so glad I found the right guy for the job. 

The Kershners (Will, Bonnie, Abby and Hannah) - Thank you for all your support and for helping me to clean and decorate the RV.  You definitely helped to make it feel like a home.

I'm out here "Living the Dream"....or as my niece says, "Living a Dream" :)

Off to Maine!

Steve Miller

Trust the Process

I've been listening closely to a lot of post-competition interviews from the pros in golf and in other sports.  In those interviews, I've noticed a theme that comes up over and over again from athletes who are at the top of their sport.  It sounds something like this...

"I'm just going through my process and staying in the present moment".

Process is considered the series of actions (physical, mental and emotional) that are involved in a routine.  Great players all have a routine that they undertake before every action.  This routine fits their individual personality and tempo.  They focus intently on how well they produce this routine instead of putting all of their energy (and anxiety) on the result of the action they are about to undertake.

When you are focused on the result, you will experience great highs and agonizing lows.  The experience tends to be one of exhaustion as you are constantly in the place of fear and anxiety over what might happen and what those possible results might mean to you.

On the other hand, athletes who are focused on their process can sometimes be hard to read from the exterior.  It can be hard to tell if they just snap-hooked a shot into the woods or made a 90-foot putt.  They react much less to the result of what has happened.  They seem balanced and more "in the middle" when they are playing their sport.  They derive their satisfaction in the discipline they show in carrying out their "pre-shot" routine.  By not being emotionally tied to the result, they are able to remain in the calm, centered place where they can more readily have access to being "in the zone" and where they can notice subtleties about themselves, making it an ongoing growth and learning process.

These players tend to not "shout for joy" as much, but they do tend to have a contented smile on their faces much more than the average golfer when they play the game.  Golfers that come to mind are Matt Kuchar and Fred Couples.  These are the kind of guys who keep their contented saunter around the golf course going, regardless of the exterior circumstances.  A good example of this is a time when Fred Couples made one of the greatest pars ever at the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass in the Players Championship in 1999.  Fred hit his first shot just a little short of his intended target and it ended up in the water.  If you watch Fred's reaction, there is not much of one at all.  He simply stepped up and hit another one....into the hole on the fly.  The greatest example of the cool customer that is Freddy occurred after he dunked his par shot.  With a smile, he just walked along about the same way he did after his initial shot went into the water....no big deal.

You can tell when a player is tied to the results on the practice range.  There is an immediate emotional reaction to their poor shots and they quickly reach for the next ball, before the previous ball has finished rolling.  These players, so caught up in their emotional reaction to the golf shot they have just hit, are missing the golden opportunity to learn from what just happened.  Players who are instead focused on the process will calmly evaluate their routine and take a moment to notice what is happening to cause their issue.  They possess self-awareness and self-knowledge and are able to learn from what has just transpired to cause their poor result.  These two players look completely different when they practice and when they play.

If you don't currently have a 20 to 30 second "pre-shot" routine that feels comfortable and revolves around relaxation and rhythm, I suggest that it should be your main priority as a player to establish such a routine.  Create it consciously now and take the time to break down the details of your routine to what is important, comfortable and personal for you.  Then, practice your routine and only your routine for an extended period of time.  Train yourself when you practice to let go of the results and to focus on the process of your routine.  We want to be able to have this positive habit in place so that when the "chips are down" and we find ourselves in a place where there is the potential for having anxiety arise about the result of any given shot, we can return to our training on focusing on process to guide us through.

Here are some elements to a routine that you might consider consciously including in your pre-shot routine.

- Commitment to your decision (club, kind of shot, etc.)
- Fundamentals (grip, posture, alignment, ball position)
- Relaxation
- Rhythm (throughout the entire routine)
- Positive Visualization
- Waggle
- Trigger that starts the action
- Commitment to being detached from the result...regardless of the result.  (Hint: If you are having an emotional reaction to the result...you are tied to that result.)

Enjoy the process of creating your process.  After some time, discipline and practice, this routine should feel like a trusted friend and as comfortable as house slippers.

For help in consciously creating such a process, feel free to visit my website at www.presentmomentgolf.com to schedule a Sports Psychology Coaching session.

Steven Miller, M.A.
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Generally, It Gets Worse before it Gets Better

I am a big believer in telling it as it is.  I would rather deliver the truth of things and help people to deal with these realities than to make false promises to try and cushion the blow.

When you make a change in golf... and in life, it takes work and you may actually get worse or struggle more initially than you did before you made the change.  In our modern-day world, that is fast-paced and generally encourages us to find quick fixes for our problems, these initial setbacks can unconsciously encourage us to get "stuck" in our current strategies in what we are doing.  For a lot of us, it is just easier to deal with the lackluster results of things than invest in the cure for what ails us.

My training as a therapist introduced me to the concept of "it gets worse before it gets better".  When people come to therapy, they are generally needing help to get "unstuck".  Their strategies for dealing with the challenges in life are no longer working and they need guidance on how they can unlock this energy, allowing their abilities to be healthy, balanced and centered that they were born with to be unblocked.

At first, when you work with someone on unblocking things, the crutches that have served them to get by (which have also gotten them stuck) are removed.  This can be scary and generally clients will struggle mightily at first without those crutches.  A therapist knows that this is the work of therapy.  They are prepared for this struggle and they work with their clients to manage these pangs of change in a healthy and productive way.  The therapist has faith, having gone through this process with clients before, that they will emerge on the other side in a better place than prior to making the change.  Without this individual who can hold the faith in getting to that place, it is common for people to remain stuck.  They run up against the difficulty of making the change and they fall back into their "stuck" ways rather rapidly. 

The main job of the therapist is to hold onto this faith when the student has lost all of theirs.  A therapist offers this rock-solid faith in the natural healing process that every human being possesses as their birthright.  They support their clients, give them skills to manage the anxiety and stress of the change and help them to slowly work toward the goals that were set forth at the beginning of therapy.

All of this is true of a golf instructor as well.

When a person comes for golf lessons, generally speaking there is something major that needs to be changed.  When you make a fundamental change, all of the previous adjustments you have made to hit the golf ball will no longer work.  For example, when you change the grip, everything changes and the way you swung the club will no longer produce the same result as it did before.

Many tips that amateurs and even a number of pros give are merely band-aids for a problem.  They make things better for a short time but they do not address the fundamental issue that is at the base of things.

I do not believe in quick fixes or putting band-aids on major wounds in a golf game.  If you are looking for that, please find another instructor to work with you.  My training is in helping people make fundamental changes to their golf games and their lives and supporting them through the challenges and difficulty of making those changes.

Any change worth making is worth the struggle to make the change.  I have gone through this process enough myself and worked with enough people making these fundamental changes to have developed my own faith in the process of change.

There have been a number of times that my students have come up to me after a few lessons and said something to the effect of, "It is really tempting for me to go back to the old swing right now".  When I first started teaching, this kind of statement would freak me out.  I would think to myself, "Oh no!  I have messed them up.  I don't know what I'm doing, etc."  However, after this initial wave of freaking out had passed, I mustered enough belief that what I was teaching them was the right path that I was able to forge forward with them in the new direction, despite these initial doubts.  After doing this hundreds of times, I began to develop a stronger and stronger belief in what I was teaching.

Hundreds of successful attempts at something will do wonders for your ability to have faith in anything.

With many years of practice, I believe my skill at holding faith in the long-term success of making fundamental changes has become one of my highest skills.  My clients reap the benefit of this work I have done in that they can have their moments of doubting the change they are making and I am able to take that in stride and know that it is just part of making a significant and important change in golf....and in life.

*GOLF INSTRUCTION SCHEDULE UPDATE*

I am very excited to announce that I will be working with 3-time PGA winner Kenny Knox at The Maine Golf and Tennis Academy in Belgrade, ME this summer (June-August).

Kenny Knox holds records on the PGA Tour for fewest putts for 9 holes (8), fewest putts for 18 holes (18) and fewest putts for 72 holes (93). I am thrilled to have the chance to work with a short game wizard like Kenny.

The Maine Golf and Tennis Academy is the Sports Illustrated #1 ranked golf camp in America! They offer a full driving range, a 5-hole par 3 course on site, a short game practice area with bunkers and putting green and the best in video instruction equipment. In addition, campers will have access to Belgrade Lakes Golf Course, one of the best golf courses in all of Maine.

If you have a young person who is passionate about golf and would be excited about working with Kenny and myself, along with the opportunity to become friends with young people from around the world with a similar passion for the game of golf, contact me for further details.

Steven Miller, M.A.
presentmomentgolf@gmail.com
 (303) 551-5924 
www.presentmomentgolf.com