My job is to help you.
Improve faster
Play better
Have more fun
The better your results... the more I love my job.
There are a lot of pieces of the puzzle when it comes to helping you.
Mental
Physical
Psychological
Concepts
Analogies
Exercises
Everything needs to be communicated in a way that's easy for you to understand and relate to your experiences.
One of the biggest pieces of the results puzzle is... change.
You can't improve if you don't change.
You can't reach your goals if you don't make changes.
You can't keep doing what you're comfortable with and expect to improve and reach your goals.
It would be great if making changes was easy... but it's not.
It takes understanding.
It takes time.
It takes effort.
It takes awareness.
It takes dedication.
One of my main goals as coach is to try to help you make changes effectively.
This means the changes take as little time as possible.
They take as little effort as possible.
They cause as little frustration as possible.
And especially that the changes hold up under pressure when it matters most.
Over the next week or so I'm going to share some of the keys to making sure your changes come about as efficiently as possible.
Minimum time.
Minimum effort.
But you still need to dedicate time and effort to getting the job done.
The first step to making a efficient change is understanding exactly how to change an old pattern into a new pattern.
In order to do that I need to explode an old myth.
Muscle Memory.
There is no such thing as Muscle Memory.
Multiple research science studies have proven that muscles have no memory.
Muscle movements can be changed instantly.
It is the electrical impulses from your brain to your muscles that create the patterns in your swing/game.
Which means when you want to change from an old pattern that you don't like to a new pattern that you really want... You need to change the electrical impulses from your brain to your body.
Which means efficient change always starts in your brain not in your muscles.
Why is it important to know this?
Because if you think hitting balls at the range will change your movement patterns... you're in for a lot of frustration.
It is only when you change the visual images and the feel impulses in your brain... that you change the patterns of your swing.
It has been proven by neuromuscular research that you can train your muscles to move in a different way just by using your mind... When you know how to do it and you do it with consistency, quality and intensity (spoiler alert for upcoming posts! 🙂)
You don't need to be a neuroscientist and be able to understand all the details of how neural pathways work like rivers of electricity to your muscles.
You just need to know that the accuracy and the clarity of the signals you're sending from your brain has much more effect on your ability to make a change... than the sheer volume of repetitions that you do.
When I want to make changes to my own golf swing... I will spend two weeks or more just visualizing the change with my eyes closed and without a club before attempting to hit a shot using the change.
I have found over the years the more time I spend seeing the change and feeling the change without hitting shots... The quicker I can make the change when I do start hitting shots.
So what's the big takeaway from this post?
If the change you want to make is not clear in your mind and you don't have accurate feel awareness in your body... You will struggle with change.
All learned movements begin in your brain.
When you want to change a learned movement... take the time to change what it looks like in your brain before you try to hit shots.
You will save yourself a lot of wasted swings and a lot of frustration when the change doesn't hold up under pressure.
The next post will be about the formula that helps you make sure change happens as quickly and effectively as possible.
Make sure to check back!
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