You don't want to improve? I don't believe you!

Have you ever met a golfer who does not want to improve their game or their score?

I have met a few that claim they don't, but they still get upset and frustrated on the golf course. This shows me that they still care and do not want to perform poorly.

Don't be this guy!

I believe deep down everyone playing the game would like to hit better shots and shoot better scores. It's just the nature of competition and sport. So, why do you think the average golfer refuses to take a golf lesson or take them consistently?

Lets look into it...

99% of PGA Tour players, Web.com, European Tour, and collegiate players have a golf instructor they they see regularly. Regularly means whether they are swinging it great or terribly. Why? Their instructor usually knows the player very well and has a great idea of what the players swing faults and tendencies are. Good instructors have a knack for remembering golf swing and lessons from a long time ago which makes each session with a student productive and efficient.

If PGA Tour players are relying on experts to help them keep their swing in shape, why do you think you can handle it yourself?

Excuse #1: I know my swing and can fix myself...

Everyday I hear our members come off the range and say, "I just figured it out!" I can help but ask them what they did to figure it out because it almost always makes me giggle a little bit. Most answers are something like, "I moved my ball position forward a little and started striping it", or "I had to keep my head down longer cause I was looking up."

What I hear is, "I tried so many things, that one finally worked and I hit 2 good shots in a row." The fact is, they got lucky by distracting their mind enough to make a couple decent swings, but they did not improve their overall mechanics. They will try to take it on the course and will find that they swing fix they found doesn't work as well as they had hoped. That is why they are right back on the range the next day searching for the next key that 'figures it out' that day.

In order to improve your game, golfers need to make a commitment to change their swing. The ball flight cannot change if impact remains the same. Usually there are some fundamental flaws that prevent a golfer from making a effective impact position and that is why teaching professionals have jobs. It is very hard to diagnose yourself as you hit. The things you do and the things you feel are often far different from each other, and you need a set of trained eyes to guide you.

Excuse #2: I study the swing, so I know what to do...

Your judgement is clouded by golf magazine articles and the free advice your buddy gave you yesterday. I'm sad to say it, but none of these are tips and fixes are created for you. Magazine articles just want to sound interesting so people will read them (no, they are not directed at you personally no matter how much you may think so). And your buddy is likely just telling you what worked for him at one point when he hit the same kind of shot (do you have the same swing as him? No, it won't work).

Developing a relationship with your instructor is very important. Have them on speed dial on your phone, communicate with them often. Odds are they love their job, and will talk about your swing with you whenever and wherever you need some help.

Many times, a student of mine can simply call me and tell me what the ball flight looks like and what they feel in their swing. I know immediately know what the problem and know what thoughts to tell them that will get them back on track. Having someone on your side that knows your game and swing inside and out is a huge advantage over your golfing buddies.

Excuse #3: Its expensive…

The only other reason would have to be price. But if you talk to your instructor, you can find a plan that fits your budget and your goals. Plus, you'll get all the money back eventually by winning it off your buddies or buying less Pro-Vs from the golf shop. Not to mention you'll have more fun on the course, which is PRICELESS!

So, stop taking bad advise from yourself, your buddies and magazines and start improving your game. Develop a relationship with you pro and keep communication with them and with a some good practice they will keep you on the path to better golf!

Be more like this guy!

'Like'
my Facebook page: www.facebook.com/chadmoscovicgolf
and
check out my website: www.chadmoscovicgolf.com

2013 Junior Golf Leader Award, Student Successes and Random Golf Thoughts

I'm honored and happy to announce that I have won the 2013 Northern Texas PGA Junior Golf Leader Award for our chapter. I have a lot of pride in my juniors and my program, and its great to get recognition for what I do. What makes it even better is that I love what I do and I would never change my job for anything, so getting this award for doing what I love is just awesome.

Next step is to win the same award for the entire North Texas section. That decision will be made soon, so hopefully its good news!

I have had several junior golfers make big breakthroughs this summer. Several have won individual tournaments and a few of my older high schoolers are talking with college programs about playing for them. Its a exciting time at the club and I am constantly reminded by member and employees at the club that they have never seen this many junior golfers out during a summer or throughout the year.

One of my personal goals is to be a better motivator for my juniors. Golf is the hardest game in the world and is never mastered. Improving takes time, patience, discipline, endurance, guidance, instruction and a great plan. I want all my juniors to be motivated to be the best they can be, and to do that they need to practice consistently.

A great instructor, buddy and teammate (in college) of mine found that research shows people who can practice consecutive days in a row will improve significantly more than those who practice once is a while or every other day. The basic premise is that 14 days (2 weeks) of consecutive practice will produce better results than 14 days spaced out over a month. Your body and brain have the ability to remember feels and thoughts throughout your practice that helps you maintain and progress in your practice. By taking days off between practice sessions, you body and mind forget what they are working on and the little ideas that help you progress.

Two of my students, Jordan and Kyler are a great example. They had high school tryouts today and have been working with me all summer (in my academy) with little practice in between trainings. Ten days before tryouts, they made a pact with me that they would practice for the next 10 days in a row for 5 hours per day in order to get ready for tryouts. I made them a detailed practice plan to follow to make sure they practiced with a purpose and structure. For the most part, they made it to the course everyday (even in pouring rain and 100+ heat) to practice their 5 hours. I am so impressed with them, and I knew they would perform well in their tryouts.

Last year, Kyler had trouble keeping his scored in the 90's with a good round being high 90's and a bad round having no real ceiling (scary). Jordan has been improving consistently for a while, had a career low of 89 in last years high school season but had an average somewhere in the mid to high 90's. Today, at Oak Hollow Golf Course, Jordan shot a new career low 87 and made her Varsity team. Kyler shot a career low 85 and made his JV team. He is on his way to Varsity next year and Jordan has now expressed some interest in playing golf in some capacity in college.

Its amazing what a little determination and commitment will do for your golf game.

I saw a great quote recently that really sums it all up:

"If it's important enough to you, you will find a way. If it's not, you will find an excuse"

All of my juniors tell me they want to get better at golf. They all do, just by being in my academy and getting time with me. But the ones who really want to be good will go the extra mile and put in the 20-30 hours per week it takes to really be great!

Great job to Jordan and Kyler!

Also, Jordan texted me after her round. After congratulating her, I said "Take a day off tomorrow, you deserve it." She texted me back "hahahaha nope, my chipping needs work." That is dedication and she has the internal motivation needed to be a great player. I'm excited for her this year.

Golf is Fun!

A Note From The Head Pro

Eldorado Country Club Head Golf Pro - Scott McClinton was kind enough to teach my juniors for a session while I was away at the TPI seminars. He wanted me to share this note with you:

"Coach Chad has spent the last few days in San Diego attending the Titleist TPI training, getting some great knowledge about the golf swing, golf fitness, and just being a better instructor.  Good for him!  While he was away, I got the opportunity to substitute coach for one of his academy classes.  I just want to say to the parents and to Coach Chad how impressed I was with the academy players.  Their attitudes were some of the best I have seen out of any junior golfers I have coached;  Very positive, very driven, very respectful, and very polite.  It was an awesome experience that was both fun, and rewarding for me.  Great job to those juniors; keep it up, I see LOTS of promise, and great job to Coach Chad for helping mold some great young men and women.  (Tori, Maddie, Jordan, Ryan, Kevin, and Logan – great job gang!)"

Thanks Scott!

TPI Experience - Golf Fitness

This past weekend, I attended a TPI seminar. TPI stands for Titleist Performance Institute and is a way to look at the golf swing that is not normally done. I normally look at a golf swing by recognizing ball flight flaws then looking at the body and how it works to determine what to do to fix that flaw. TPI does this process but almost exactly backwards. 

Each player is taken through a physical assessment that will give the instructor knowledge of how their body is limited in the ability to swing into certain positions in the golf swing. From the results of this test, we can determine how those limitations will effect your swing and cause swing faults that will affect the ball flight. I learned techniques to identify these limitations and also how to help fix them so the player can make more efficient swings. The process is called a screening, and it takes a player through every necessary motion the body has to be put in if they want to have a perfectly efficient swing. Very few people can pass the entire screening, but it acts as a baseline for possible fitness work and a platform for me to know how to teach that individual.

I also learned many techniques that I can use with my students as a warm-up each day so that they are prepared to swing and play their best. Stretching and warming up properly is under-rated by golfers these days. Making sure your body is ready to handle a 80-100 mile per hour swing is very important and will help prevent future injury. 

For my adult students, this will help me assess motions and positions in your swing that you are just not physically capable of hitting, and allow me to prescribe workouts to fix that imbalance or work around it as an instructor. There is nothing wrong with having a limitation in your body, but the best results will come when I know about them and can then work around them. 

For my junior students, academy and summer camps, I have learned the value of having a body that can handle a golf swing and all its essential positions. I will be including more athletic activities as well as a warm-up program for all my juniors. Junior camps (Spring Break and Summer) will be VERY fun and full of exercises designed to develop the entire body (coordination, flexibility and strength) as well as learn great golf fundamentals and skills. 

I am excited to use the new information I have learned this past week I can definitely see the benefits in my own game as well as my students. My quest for new knowledge about the golf swing never stops, and this was a great step into the fitness and body movement characteristics of the golf swing.

The philosophy for TPI is: "We don't believe there is one way to swing a club; we believe there are an infinite number of ways to swing a club. But we do believe there is one efficient way for everyone to swing a club and it is based on what they can physically do."

If you are interested in getting a screening (testing your body for proper golf positions) please let me know!

Finding YOUR Instructor

Dr. Bob Rotella’s five keys to finding the right instructor.

1. Find an instructor who has had success teaching golfers of your ability, age, sex and commitment level. Some teachers prefer (and are at their best) working with really good players, high-handicappers, men, women, kids or seniors. Ask potential teachers what type of golfers they regularly teach and even talk to a few students if you can.

2. Select a teacher who is close to where you live or work and has the time and energy to give you the attention you want. If you have to drive a long way to take your lesson, you might not stay with it. Also, you want to avoid teachers who are overbooked and might rush through a lesson with you.

3. Look for someone who you enjoy spending time with. You might have to take a couple of lessons to find out. Another way is to offer to pay a teacher for half an hour to ask some questions and get better acquainted. You need to find out if you connect.

4. Go for credibility. You can't learn if you don't trust the message. Unlike kids, adults tend to approach lessons with skepticism and question the instruction they receive. Kids are better at trusting what the teacher tells them. Adults could learn from that. If you don't believe in what the teacher is telling you, you're wasting your time.

5. Decide if you want a teacher who is technical and analytical or one who teaches based on feel and visualization. Both methods/philosophies work. But some golfers respond better to one or the other. Discuss your preference with any potential teacher.

All this said, keep in mind that the best instructor in the world might not be the best instructor for YOU. Find an instructor who is successful and you can communicate with and you will have great success!

Committing to Change

There is a saying "keep doing what your doing, and you'll keep getting what you're getting."

As a golf instructor, there is a lot of truth to these words. Students come to us all the time to improve their game (long game, short game, putting, etc) and we have no problem giving help. In every lesson that I give, I see dramatic improvements to ball flight, distance, contact or short game but it is rare to have a follow-up lesson with that same student and be able to pick up right where we left off in the previous lesson.

I understand how hard it is to make a change, I was just like you all when I was learning. I had instructors tell me to make swings and put my body in positions that didn't feel comfortable and didn't feel right to me. But I made myself realize that the reason I came to this professional was to learn and improve. I gave up trying to fix everything on my own, and had to listen and perform what my instructor said no matter what. My golf pro was named Mitch Lowe (PGA), he still teaches to this day in Half Moon Bay, Ca. And to this day, I can attribute my golf swing and a large part of the way I teach to him.

The days of the "quick fix" are fading. Why? Because a quick fix is a temporary solution. As instructors, we would be doing a disservice to you if we gave you a quick fix every time. Our goal is to improve your golf and make you a more consistent and better golfer. All the advise and changes we make are designed to achieve that goal, unless you specify a different goal. That being said, quick fixes are far less awkward when learning, but they are far less effective in producing long term results.

If at anytime during instruction you are confused or don't understand what to do, ASK! If your pro cannot provide a solid reason for why they are making a change, you may want to find a new pro. Its like asking a doctor why he prescribed you a certain medication and he is unable to tell you the reason. That would send a red flag to me for sure! Ask as many questions as you would like, we are there to answer them.

So, if you are looking to get instruction, please see a PGA professional in your area and come in with the right frame of mind. Be willing and committed to change, and you WILL get better.

An example of a great change that resulted in better ball striking immediately. Club was across the line at the top, causing pulls and hooks. He committed to the change and texted me this "74 yesterday with 4 birdies. -1 on the back!" 

Student Success Stories - Melanie

Melanie:
This story is about confidence. Melanie plays on the SMU golf team and was an extremely good junior golfer. She played golf for Baylor before coming to SMU. During her junior year, her play was not up to her standards, she was having trouble getting the ball off the tee and therefore trouble scoring well. When I first played with her she qualified her drives before ever hitting one by saying she has not had confidence in her driver for the past year, hitting drives that are either 180 yard slices or 50 yard smother duck hooks (literally). I didn't really believe her at first, and I laughed the comment off like it was a complete exaggeration. But it wasn't.

I met Melanie while she was working an internship for Century Golf. They manage our property, so she came to help out for a couple months. The first time I watched her swing I was amazed by how much power she created. She hits the ball farther then any woman I have worked with. But she had an obvious (to me) flaw in her swing. For a normal golfer the flaw she had would be manageable, but for a golfer with as much speed as Melanie has the flaw is compounded. For her junior year, her average score was somewhere in the mid-high 80's. She was down on her game and has basically written off her senior year of golf.

We had our first "official lesson" and she told me how many instructors she had gone to that couldn't help her, and most told her it was a mental issue. I didn't think that was true, because I could see the flaw that is causing the shots and knew that if she could fix it her driving would improve. Since her short game was already very good, fixing her driving would change her game completely.

After a few lessons, Melanie started to learn why the golf balls reacts the way it does off the club face, and she started to hit some amazing drives. She practiced very hard for about 6 weeks, working her way through the swing change. After a while, she started putting some great rounds together. Rounds that she said were more like what she used to do (what she expected to do). I could see her confidence rising with each drive that split the fairway.

About a month ago, Melanie qualified to travel for the SMU team. She played amazing golf for three rounds, shooting a combined total of 8-under par including a 65 (course record) in the second round! She won the tournament and beat the previous tournament low total score by 3 strokes. She's now basically guaranteed a travel spot for the rest of the year, and is excited to be competing and hopefully winning more in the rest of her senior year!

She is a prime example of committing to a change in her swing and that change bringing the confidence she needed to play golf like she knows she can. I teach each student the same way, analyzing their game/swing and making and adjustment the the most critical part of the swing that is causing poor performance. It was Melanie who took the change and made it her own. She now has a much better understanding of her golf swing and a lot more confidence when she steps to the tee!