Even GREAT Golf Is Not That Hard
Contents
Chapter Page
One First Things First p 1
What's in this chapter?
Using the incredible brain you were born with
Perfection resides in simplicity: the engineer does
not teach the child to walk: the child teaches the
engineer what perfect walking is
The express route to proficiency
Mis-hits: differentiating "golf swing " error
from "operator error." It's not your swing!
Dealing with your subconscious
Difficulties along the way
The REAL secret of the golf swing
is usually omitted from your instruction
Differences in body type--instruction that
fits you -- You can't learn to swing from a model, because
the things that we really do are invisible: the mental
images we follow, our exertions--their intensity,
their sequence, their balance. And perhaps most of all,
the critical subtle nuanced adjustments we must use in our
setup to fit ourselves to our swing, the ways in which we
manage everything we do. ALL of these are simply
invisible. Could you do a double axel on skates by copying
Katerina Witt?
Pitfalls from conventional instruction, conflicts in
tips, advice, and systems
How we need to learn one thing at a time--
golf instruction for real people
Methodology: Form Follows Function
- planning ahead vs. "winging it" and "fixing"
Complexitizing vs. Simplicity: learning via our own
ingenious intuition that "knows more than we do"
Differentiating the whole "swing" from its
essential core, heart, the very DNA of golf--
i.e., THE RELEASE, which it SERVES.
Efficiency in developing your proficiency
Two The Release p 29
What's in this chapter?
Release is where you produce an effortless
EXPLOSION of clubhead speed.
A golf swing made by copying what you see is like
a placebo: it might look good, but it lacks the
active ingredient--an effective release! THE
RELEASE IS THE ACTIVE INGREDIENT.
So the first order of business is: EXACTLY what
it is, and how to do it.
How golfers waste it ; how to time it
for maximum effect
The COLLISION is the object of your release
The magic of the left thumb: an immediate, simple
way to put and keep your swing on plane
Release vs. muscling; release vs. leverage:
the right way to apply force to your club.
Three The Swing p 47
What's in this chapter?
The swing is constructed in service to the release
How does a human body work?
The proportionality and balance of elements in a
swing, vs. exploiting a part at the expense of the whole
Concepts instruct us
Adjusting yourself for ease, naturalness--
how it is done
Preparations before the swing
How to aim: direction control starts now
A simple image that teaches the swing
intuitively and immediately vs. "complexitizing"
Sources of contamination
Where power comes from: how to apply it
The "compound pivot" you don't know that
you already know
Hitting or Swinging?
The object of your focus--impact--and how
it takes care of the details
Learning through exaggeration and trial and error
"Why can't I hit the ball with my practice swing?"
YOU CAN. And here's how!
Get it right at the outset
Four Details p 91
What's in this chapter?
"The Basics" --not just what to do, but why!
-- the grip, the stance, posture, balance,
spine tilt, etc. fitted to your body with your
personal characteristics, guided by their
function: i.e., fitted to you by you because they
are based on what you are going to do
with your body and the club, not because
you are told to do them that way
Mental imagery that controls your motion
Viewing your swing correctly
Slicing and hooking: sidespin -- why, and what
to do about it
Natural physical positions and motions
Feelings--how to understand them for how they
can help you and avoid how they can work
against you
Precision in aim and execution
The forward press: how to produce an
automatic backswing: utilizing your reactivity and
taking advantage of innate dynamic mechanisms
The backswing and loadup
The transition
The downswing
Guiding your swing correctly
Impact
The follow through
Five Ballstriking p 129
What's in this chapter?
It's all about adjustments: understanding what
produces perfect impact: how immediately to produce
a perfect collision with its perfect divot, its
unique sound, and its soaring trajectory
The gifts of information contained in
your mis-hits -- CORRECT diagnosis
How to practice to produce the most
direct, efficient path to proficiency
Direction as a function of ball position
Breaking through the diabolical hoax --
the established culture -- about slices and hooks:
the REAL (one minute) solution to problems
How to practice
Review is mandatory: you don't catch everything
the first time: you learn what you are ready for, and
like the child taking piano lessons every week, each
step makes himself ready for the next lesson. You
didn't know the significance of something in your first
encounter. So it doesn't register then. (When I re-read
Nicklaus's book years after I first got it, I was amazed
how much Jack had learned during that period!).
Six Leftovers p 151
What's in this chapter?
Personal idiosyncrasies are not faults: they are
your special gifts: use your body; it has more
going for it than you realize!
Pitfalls and traps --:
the ghosts in your subconscious
over-swing: what is it, really?
tips from others: contaminating your recipe
manhandling your club
envy of other systems : i.e., the
error of trying to install a Rolls
Royce starter in your Corvette
the pernicious myths of "credentials" and "authorities"
and how they sabotage you
falling back into old habits: "creep"
SUMMARY
Index p 169
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