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One Under Par
Volume 5, number 1.

A Newsletter from KeyGolf.....April, 2004

[Editor's Note and Comment:
We are moving to counter the spam problem with which we are all familiar. This issue will be found on our web-site, with the address sent to our subscribers in a normal email with a clickable link. It's too bad that a few, unscupulous idiots want to play games with something as useful and vital as the internet and email, but so it goes. This is our part in the interest of fighting back.

Also, part of the content this month involves an excerpt from our first book - "Golf's Best Kept Secret" - published in the 80's. It has been out of print for several years, and we dispaired of re-publishing. But we have found an alternative. So we are painstakingly working to put it back into circulation electronically. Chapter 12 from that "old" book is included here. The rest of the issue is just what it is.]

The New Master Phil

It was a great Masters! That's the message seen and heard since Philly Mick “got the green.” Golfers generally know, however, that it is very difficult to put one shot, one event, one player, or one of anything in this game that can finally, unequivocally be labeled “The Greatest.”

Still, it was great to see Phil Mickelson come into his own. And how did he do that? Especially after so many turns and tries. What follows here can, and perhaps will be, debated, but here is at least one reliable view. And there is no “tongue-in-cheek,” either accidental or intended.

Watching players over the last 21 years since I began to see the connection between behavior style and learning and playing this game, it has become clear that, without a profile to verify what I see, I can be looking at the “mask,” or “bent” version of who a player really is, or I can, with time, see more of the “real” person than even the player him or herself.

In observing Phil (I first saw him play when he was in his teens, in the same tournament with my youngest son), I always saw him as a combination of Craftsman and Persuader. For those unfamiliar with the four styles, that combo shows a “picture” of warmth, family, steadiness, consistency, stability, tenacity, patience and a kind of calmness that goes with the Craftsman. Also present is assertiveness, passion, power, excitement, creativeness, defiance, freedom, changeableness, and a kind of scattered approach to things that goes with the Persuader.

None of the above are “optional,” or learned. Such traits come as part of our birth right and we are all different – no two have I ever seen exactly alike. Not even twins. In Phil's case, I had a hard time telling which of those two trait sets had the lead in his life. Last year, it seemed clear that the Persuader was taking the lead. He was all over the place with his game, his scoring, his life. (“Army golf” is a Persuader's benchmark – as in John Daly).

This year shows a noticeable difference – his game, his scoring and his life. What is clear, that was not so previously, is that he finally has come home to roost where his style has it's basic strength. He played the Master's “within his style.” (Or, if you will, “within himself”). He is a Craftsman, with fairly prominent Persuader secondary traits (that's where is he gets the great short game), but the Craftsman is the one who showed up in style for the Master's this year. And in case, you missed it, the strong family orientation of the Craftsman was apparent as he walked off from the final hole. A Persuader would have “played” to the gallery first. Phil has that presence, too, but it took second to Amy and the kids. I hope you saw him with Jay Leno. If there was any previous doubt, it was erased there. Phil needs to stick with his Craftsman

If he stays with that, he'll win a ton, especially since Tiger appears to be struggling with his own style, notwithstanding that Jim McClain thinks it is his swing plane. But that's another story!

Chapter 12
MAPPING YOUR OWN GAME (written in the early 1980's)

The profile is like a road map. If we know where we are, where we want to go, have a clearly marked route to follow and a reliable vehicle, it is highly predictable that we will make a safe and comfortable trip, even if there's a bump or two along the way. On the other hand, if we don't know where we are, even if we know where we want to go, or if we have no clearly marked route to follow, at best we are apt to fall victim to considerable wandering –sometimes from hazard to hazard.

In the Spring of 1985, the Tennessee Tech (Cookeville, TN) golf team was getting ready for its season, having come off a mediocre 1984. Their coach, Bobby Nichols, brought his players to my home course in Georgia for a pre-season practice session and a "go" at the process of identifying and understanding the teams' individual styles of play. As we got into the "picture" of each player, it became apparent to Bobby that he needed to alter his coaching methods with them to pace the variations in their different styles. It also became apparent to the players that they could not expect or try to play exactly alike.

To shorten a long story, that year Tech had a successful season, climaxed by winning the Tennessee Intercollegiate Championship and their number one player won the individual TIC title.

After recalling this story, I called Bobby to verify that my perception was in agreement with his. He told me that as far as it went it was OK, but it didn't go far enough. He reported that his 1986-87 team had 3 collegiate titles, 2 runners-up, and 2 third place finishes, and indicated that his knowledge of styles had contributed greatly to that success. You can draw your own conclusions.

If there are many players out there applying style knowledge to the development of their mental and manual skills, it isn't evident. Clearly, "default" is more in control than predetermination. A few people have provided feedback on their successes with a playing style approach to the mental side of the game, but it's new enough that a data base is just beginning to be possible. But then, the Wright brothers didn't have much feedback or experience-based data when they showed up at Kitty Hawk either, and look what emerged from the persistence they spawned from theory!

Other than Bobby Nichols at Tennessee Tech, only Scott Harrill, Professional at Ford's Colony in Williamsburg, Virginia, and Marc Brady, Professional at the Country Club at Edisto in South Carolina, have reported effective results both in teaching and playing the game. There have been much larger numbers of people who have appeared to "see" the potential, but only a few have stayed with it over enough time to condition their habits. We'll come back to that shortly.

Even with insufficient practice time to firm up new, stable habits, I've enjoyed some success myself. Two of my sons, Erich and Brent, have done much better. They practiced more and started earlier. But the three of us have been the beneficiaries of osmosis, too. I've worked steadily with the styles for a long time and my boys have been exposed to style information and concepts throughout their learning and developing years. We've had the opportunity to internalize and "own" the information and ensuing principles to a point at which it's part of the WAY WE THINK rather than something we merely think about. That's a CRITICAL point in the mental game, too, and a concern that is more fully covered as you read on.

Comparatively speaking, I learned the game "late in life." When I finally went looking for some help (typically Drivers don't think they need any, so it was a while before I did that!), those who taught me tried to slow me down. At least, that's what they said, what I heard, and what I tried to do. What they were really attempting was to help me find the proper PACE for MY swing. But twenty-five years ago, few of us understood little, if anything at all about behavior styles and their influence on what we do.

More recently, both in practice (Drivers don't do that much either!) and play, instead of standing over the shot, slowly getting set, taking a practice swing, focusing attention on my swing or the target, I do all that ahead of time, behind the ball. Then I walk up, set up quickly and hit -- almost in one continuous motion. My swing still has tempo, but it's initiated more quickly. I'm getting more extension through the ball, better release, and greater consistency in distance and direction. You may be tempted to lay that off to mechanics, but I've known and studied them for a long time, too. The reality is that I'm taking my knowledge of mechanics, which is already stored in habit, and putting it in MY FRAME OF REFERENCE, leading to more effective results. Now, I'm working on using already familiar manual skills in sync with my own style. It reduces the experimentation that interrupts habit formation. My thinking doesn't fly from one place to another. There is less to "remember." And my focus of attention is easier to manage. Now, all that other "junk" isn't jamming my swing and release.

The mental side of the game rests in the QUIET, CONFIDENT MIND. The QUIET MIND comes from containing the range of thinking by focusing on a single image from personal playing style DURING shot-making. The CONFIDENT MIND results from simultaneous practice of manual and mental skills within a blended framework of reliable knowledge of swing mechanics and individual playing style BEFORE shot-making. All four must be practiced with an eye to molding them together. That forms a complete and integrated frame of reference from which the swing can be set in motion and released consistently with the least possible distortion.

I still have considerable practice time left to "install" a new habit that steadily paces my style. The old one is still alive and kicking, especially under pressure, but I'm gaining on it. One thing is very clear. The result is much more effective when I "go with my own flow" than it is when I "buck the tide." For me, a "faster" pace is better than a "slower" one. Making the takeaway "low and slow" may be good advice for some, but not for all. It depends on your normal playing style.

Let's be sure we're as clear as we can be, however. We are not saying that a Driver cannot slow down or a Craftsman speed up. The PRINCIPLE is that it is more effective to pace your own style than not to. The POINT is that we need to learn to pace our styles DELIBERATELY, rather than mereIy backing into letting circumstances, conditions or the playing actions around us regulate our pace.

When you know your style, you can adjust to conditions and circumstances by your own design and command, when it's necessary. That kind of adjustment is effective and seldom gets wracked by over-extension. You never have to adjust by default to a guidance system run by the "seat of your pants." That kind of adjustment is futile, uncertain and has no capacity for improvement. At best, and with luck, it's a stop-gap. At worst, it's bewildering and may require a whole new "set of wheels."

Once the shot leaves the clubface, it's too late to change it. Being able to pace your own style reduces the likelihood of poor shot-option choices, subsequent misclubbing and altered swing mechanics. Occasionally, the best of players may fall into an adjustment trap, even with superior habits. When that happens, being able to pace your style can make the difference between an extra stroke and two or three bad holes. Knowing your own style makes for more immediate and accurate diagnosis, and pacing puts a stopper in the bottIe labled "Chain Reaction."

Making adjustments in anything requires a clear context. If you don't have a frame of reference, you never know how great or small an alteration needs to be. Worse, you can't know whether to repeat it or not, unless you get lucky. Sometimes, the "best" solutions don't work the first time. Sometimes, the "worst" ones do. If the REAL ONE doesn't stand up, you can never determine what to repeat, or when to repeat it.

Making adjustments IN CONTEXT is the only way that makes any sense. We've learned the half of the context found in swing mechanics. Personal playing style is the half we haven't discovered. The opportunity hasn't been there. Half a context may be "better than none." (It must be. That's what we've been using forever.) But the WHOLE is better than HALF. By even the most meager standards, that's worth some effort, and now the opportunity is present.

It will cut into the "bleeding heart" syndrome, though, because much of what has been a mystery will be uncovered and no longer available for prolonged commiseration, sympathy and threats of "giving up the game" over an extra brew in the 19th hole. "Wondering" what happened won't be any fun any more. So if you're not ready to give that up, don't change a thing.

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