I am going to highlight what I feel like are the 5 Pillars of Performance in this blog. These Pillars are areas that every player needs to understand to take their game to the next level. The deeper the understanding, the better the player.
Understanding your Mechanics< In order for you to reach your full potential you must understand, at least at a basic level, how your body moves the club throughout your swing. Every player is different, has different limitations, different athletic ability, different strength, different flexibility, I could go on and on but I think you get the point. This is why you need to understand how YOU move and what YOUR club is doing throughout YOUR swing. The videos you are watching on YOUTUBE and TIKTOK and not based on YOU. You need a quality lesson with real time video analysis and data to start to understand this. It takes time to start to understand the cause and effect, but I believe every golfer can do it.
Know the Ball Flight Laws< How the ball flies is based on physics, and in physics there are laws. In golf, we call them the Ball Flight Laws. The only way you will change how your ball is flying through the air, is to first know why it flies the way it flies to begin with. Once again getting a lesson with a radar is a great start. There are a ton of videos on the internet that explain them in great detail. It may seem overwhelming when you first start to learn, but with time you will understand them at a high level. When you do, you will never have to ask “Why’d that ball just do that”? again!
Know Your WHY< Why do you play this game? Why do you want to be better? Why do you want to practice? We all play the game for different reasons, it’s one of the things that I love about the game. I think it is extremely important for every player to identify why they are playing the game and what they are trying to get from the game. If a player is simply playing the game to get outside and enjoy a nice evening with their friends, they need to have very different expectations than a player who is trying to get a college scholarship. There is nothing wrong with wanting either of those examples, but you must know your Why if you want to perform your best in either scenario.
Emotional IQ< This is most important Pillar in my opinion, and it’s the one that is studied and worked on by players. Every single movement, decision and action that we take as human beings is controlled by our emotions. In the golf swing there are a few moving parts and pieces lol and they are absolutely controlled by your emotional state during that swing. This is why the hardest shot in golf is always the shot right after a terrible one! Your emotions are going crazy, you’re calling yourself every name in the book, telling yourself not to hit it here, or don’t shank it!!!!! It is extremely difficult in that state to execute a golf swing that will produce a good shot. You must advance your EQ (emotional intelligence) to find ways to get your emotions under control after those bad shots. This is how you will save your round!
Know how to Prepare< Once you have an understanding of those pillars, you then need to know how to prepare or practice. One of the reasons golfers never get better, is because they don’t know how to practice and prepare for the game. Golf is a weird sport, every golf course is different and every hole on every golf course is different! We also don’t practice it on the field we play it on. We don’t play golf on a driving range! You must get on the golf course and play if you want to get better! Depending on your WHY, your level of MECHANICS, your understanding of the BALL FLIGHT LAWS, and your EQ will determine how you need to prepare. Make no mistake, if you want to shoot your lowest score ever, there is more that goes into that than just going out and hitting a bucket of balls and rolling a few 10 footers on the practice green before the round.
