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Bob Rotella and the Mental Game of Golf

The mental game is really not utilized by the amateur player, when there is a lot to learn for us. For example, when I’m playing with my friends, it’s really easy to get into their heads. I can say something like “ah, you’re just not playing that well today” or “this course is playing crazy hard today” or a good one is “we better hurry up”. Then I laugh inside. They’re toast! Hahaha! Well, I’m kidding really. I don’t say that stuff to friends…much J But it isn’t hard to get into people’s heads.

There are a few really good books that are great if you want to explore the mental game. Dr. Bob Rotella has been writing books about the golf psyche for years. His books are concise, to the point, and easy to understand. Then you just have to take the knowledge to the course…which is easier said than done. It takes practice. But as with anything I been able to accomplish in golf, I find that if I concentrate on one thing at a time, such as one chapter in one of his books, it’s a lot easier to engrain those changes.

Dr. Rotella has an impressive body of work including a CD collection for those of you who like to learn that way, but his most noteable book is probably “Golf is Not a Game of Perfect”. The book strives to teach players how to prepare for each shot, how to think through each shot, and how to react to the outcome. It’s a great book and it’ll help you score better. It’s like they say, golf is ninety percent mental. And the other 10 percent is mental.

I usually know my psyche is messed up on the greens. When I’ve got a five footer for par and I get over the put and pull it, I know I’m not trusting my game or my stroke. Ugh! I hate it! Oh well, I’ll keep working. Maybe I’ll read “Putting Out Of Your Mind”…

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Tiger Woods DVD’s are awesome!

I’m a Tiger fan. I’ve heard different points of view, like “you hate him or love him”, but I’m a fan. I always have been. Even if you’re one of those people that doesn’t like him, you have to respect him. You have to respect what he’s done, not only with his own career, but for the game. Player winnings are higher than they’ve ever been. More people watch tournaments when he’s playing and even more when he’s near the top of the leaderboard. He’s the highest paid athlete in the world and his philanthropy is just as tremendous. How did he get this way? Is it his work ethic? His mental toughness? Pure talent? He may be the only person that can tell us, but he’ll be analyzed by golfers and athletes for generations to come.

With my obvious admiration of the man, it’s easy to see why I was so excited when this three dvd collection hit the market. I was one of the first to have it. I’ve watched the story and his swings over and over. It even helped my swing to watch. I especially noticed my timing improve when I watched his swing before practicing.

Here’s part of the official description:
Tiger: The Authorized DVD Collection is the real deal: a comprehensive three-part biography of the world’s most famous golfer, narrated by Laurence Fishburne and anchored by interviews with Woods himself, his father and mother, and others. The first part, “Tiger’s Prowl: His Life” (85 minutes), summarizes his early life, with home movies of him swinging a club as a toddler, his 1975 TV appearance with Bob Hope on The Mike Douglas Show, his U.S. Juniors and U.S. Amateur championships, his time at Stanford, and discussion of his multiracial heritage and how he got his nickname. The second part, “Tiger’s Prey: His Majors” (75 minutes) is the best, with less time devoted to talking-head interviews and more to golf footage. From his first major win at the 1997 Masters to the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black, Woods either dominates the field by several strokes or shows his steely will to win, such as when he outlasts the surprising Bob May at the 2000 PGA Championship. But it hasn’t all been easy for Tiger, and the segment also covers his struggles in 2004, his second straight year without winning a major tournament. The last part, “Tiger’s Prints: His Legacy” (65 minutes), might seem premature considering Woods was still under 30 at the time of this 2004 documentary, but there’s no doubt that he has already had a major impact on the game…

There are a few videos about Tiger Woods, but this is the most complete. It really only gets to 2004 and a lot has happened since then, but it’s a pretty great collection of his feats. Of course, at the time I’m writing this, he’s about to come back from knee surgery after winning the US Open on a torn ACL, so there much more to chronicle. But if you want more Tiger or know someone who does, I’d recommend this DVD set. Enjoy.

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Tour Tempo

When I lived in San Diego, I played golf year around. I tinkered with my swing quite a bit while I was there and one book I found interesting was Tour Tempo, by John Novosel and John Garrity. It was a very interesting concept and it improved my swing.

The idea is that every tour player has a rhythm to their swing. In fact, the ratio of backswing to downswing are the same for all players even if they swing faster or slower. The book goes on to help you develop this same rhythm. It does this using music, counting, and a few other techniques.

It was really an interesting concept and the reasoning behind it isn’t very clear, but it worked for me. Some think the tour tempo shortens the swing, or promotes a smoother transition, or just gives people a more consistent swing though. In any case, it wasn’t hard to do and I downloaded some music to listen to before and during practice. It really helped. It gave me a consistent rhythm to think about during the swing and something to emulate while on the golf course. It made my swing more repeatable. It even improved my swing when I tried to give it a little extra. When I swung harder, I tried to keep the same rhythm, just faster. That helped, too.

All in all, it was a worthwhile exercise and it helped me break 80. Try it!

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The Plane Truth, One plane or two?

When I moved to San Diego, I needed a golf coach. I liked my previous one and I liked having someone look at my swing with a critical eye. I found someone, but the interesting thing was that he had a different philosophy than my previous coach. He taught the one plane swing and my previous coach taught the more upright two plane swing. About that time, I had heard about the book The Plane Truth by Jim Hardy

The Plane Truth compared the two swings, but generally supported the one plane swing. The book is a great comparison of the two swings. It goes through both swings and breaks them down from the setup to follow through. The most important benefit of this book is that it helped me wade through the various tips in magazines and on TV. It helps differentiate which bits of advice are suitable for the one plane or the two plane swing. That made it a lot easier to decide what to work on at the driving range.

When I first learned to golf, my natural swing was a little flatter and more of a one plane swing. However, when I started taking lessons in Honolulu, my coach had me move more toward the modern two plane swing. I used it pretty well, but seemed to plateau. As a result, I considered moving back more toward my natural swing. For the most part, I hit the ball great. I was longer and even broke 80! Unfortunately, it wasn’t all easy. There were a few difficulties, especially with the encouragement to adopt a ‘flying elbow’ type of move.

I still use some of the important philosophies of the one plane swing, but I had to move away from my coach. It’s pretty tough to change your swing based on a book. In any case, the book was a useful read no matter which swing plane you choose or which one your coach wants you to adopt.

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Sky Caddie

Imagine my excitement when I ripped the beautiful wrapping of my Christmas gift and revealed a brand new Sky Caddie SG2! It was a fantastic day! I knew I’d be taking that to the course and all my friends would be so jealous! It was great! So I immediately opened it and plugged it in to the computer. With Sky Caddie, you pay for the unit and for a subscription to the various courses. You can sign up for courses in your state, the country, or the world. I signed up for all courses across the country. Of course, the unit didn’t have enough memory for all the courses, but I found the ones I wanted online and downloaded them to the unit.

On the course, it was great. There are some courses that aren’t mapped out completely and you just get distances to the center of the green. You may not get distances to bunkers or trees or water on those courses. But there are lots of courses that are completely mapped out and can give you all this information. It really helps with shot selection. By knowing the exact yardage, it gave me a lot of confidence with each shot. And very importantly, when I was hitting from the adjacent fairway or the rough, I was still able to get accurate distances to the green. It was a huge help and I couldn’t play without my Sky Caddie.

These days there are even more updated versions with more capabilities. More courses are mapped out with detail. As an amateur, sometimes I get really wrapped up in my swing, but in reality course management and the short game are possibly more important for scoring. The Sky Caddie really helps with these aspects of the game. And it’s so cool to show people!