Ever since I first saw Seve swing a golf club when I was a kid, I was mesmerised by the beauty of the golf swing. And so were my friends. We’d regularly go to the practice ground with as many balls as we could physically carry and only come back once we were able to wear our blisters with pride! Golf was all in the swing! One friend Ian Keenan, now a Challenge Tour golfer, worked on refining his own, beautiful swing. Others were hugely influenced by David Leadbetter’s work with Nick Faldo at the time, thinking that all of his success was down to his infamous swing changes. So they started re-engineering their swings based on various swing gurus’ “one-size-fits-all” swing methods. Even though it didn’t improve their games much, golf, it seemed, was all about developing the perfect swing.

Twenty or so years on and what’s changed? Whether I’m coaching amateurs or tour pros, I see that very little indeed has changed. I see swings that look well engineered, mechanically sound - sometimes even beautiful! Yet why is it that these great looking swings only SOMETIMES produce great shots? It seems that players try so hard to perfect their swing “positions”, they forget how to play golf! And it happens at every level of the game – have you seen Tiger for the last couple of years? Great potential and millions of hours of practice are being sacrificed every year at the altar of swing technique. I’m not sure whether to scream or cry!

To show you what this obsession does, pretend you’re about to throw a golf ball. Lift your arm up ready to throw it. Focus on where you want your elbow to be, your shoulder turn, wrist positions, head angle, which muscles you’ll use to take your arm back, how to start to bring your arm forward, the speed of wrist release versus body turn etc etc. How long does it take you to throw the ball?! How many of you are even aware of where you’re wanting to throw it to? This process is fine if you’re wanting to learn how to throw and you’ve got a long time to learn it, but useless if you actually want to hit a target. On top of this, a swing focus makes a golfer go “INSIDE”, making thoughts louder and feelings stronger, the quickest route to being distracted, unconfident and disconnected on the golf course.

So why on earth is the perfect swing the holy grail for most golfers?? Is it because, like me when I was younger, players get seduced by it’s beauty? Or is it down to their coaches believing that the technical aspects of consistently delivering the clubface are the best (or only!) way to coach based on what they’ve been taught? Or is the game STILL being hijacked by the attractiveness of the one “correct” way of playing that swing gurus like to offer? Swing is obviously a huge part of the game, but how you deliver that swing when you need to is what counts.

Whatever the reason, if YOUR swing is the most important thing and your target an irritating inconvenience, it’s time to change your focus to the OUTSIDE! Consider this:

A PERFECT SWING ONLY CREATES A PERFECT SHOT WHEN IT'S APPLIED TO A SPECIFIC TARGET

Based on the throwing example, this may make sense to you – you need to know where you’re throwing the ball to. Yet how are you training yourself to play? If you’re like most golfers, a good practice session will be measured by quantity of balls you hit with one or two clubs. Working on your swing as you go you’ll try to get your body into the positions you want and just keep hitting until you get it right. There certainly won’t be any time wasting like stepping behind each shot, visualising, using a routine or mixing up your clubs or targets – this will just get in the way of the important business of tweaking your swing!!

I know I’m being a bit cheeky – a lot of pros do this too, so you’re in good company! Working on your swing is important and it is simpler to do this without having to worry about switching clubs or worrying about any targets. Yet by doing this, you’re not practising golf, your only practising your swing. Golf has long breaks in between shots, it has a mixture of targets and mixture of clubs required to take for each. So a big portion of your practice should reflect this. On the range, imagine you’re on your course. Once you’ve warmed up, play your first shot as though you’re on the first tee. Imagine the fairway in front of you and pick your target and ball flight as you would at the course. Do your routine as you would at the course. Once you’ve played the shot to that target, notice the result, whether it would have finished on the fairway, green, rough, bunker etc. Then play your next shot as though you were playing it from where your drive finished. Again pick your target and shot, select the club for that shot and back into your routine. At the end of each hole score yourself and keep going until you play all 18 “holes”. Try this out every other practice session and keep track of your scores. It’s a great way to apply your beautiful swing to targets, as well as being fantastic for your visualisation skills.

To help you further progress you game, not just your swing, I’m currently giving away FREE mp3’s on the most challenging aspects of the game click here.

Love every shot!

Adam Sprackling

Mental Performance Coach