Most of my students come to me with lofty goals. "I want to be more consistent", is the most common. But there are several others, "get the ball in the air, be a better putter, just hit the ball" ...... all kinds of results focused goals.
Rarely have I had a student that looked for more personal consistency. Like, "I would like to develop a better setup or pre shot or practice schedule." Or, "I want to learn to apply my energy at the right time and place in my swing instead of feeling like I am just trying to kill it."
I think the dream student for any coach would be the one asking for something like, "I want to learn how to apply my efforts in a way that will produce the kind of scores I believe I am capable of shooting."
So now we can look at effort across a much larger and more colorful palate. What is the mental effort needed? Not just on the practice tee or the golf course, but all day everyday. And of course it's not merely mental but physical, emotional and maybe even a bit spiritual.
How can you practice being calm and focused? How can you learn to visualize the shape, tempo, and grace of a golf swing, your golf swing? How can you practice all day everyday having positive expectancy? Why wouldn't you want to practice those things all the time?
So this brings us to your next practice session. Pick some very specific things to apply your effort towards. For 15 minutes apply all your effort towards maintaining club lag or owning a pre shot routine. 10 minutes of perfect effort on rhythm. 10 minutes learning to hit the sweet spot of your putter.
All your effort; physical, mental and emotional is aimed at that one goal. If your effort is focused on rhythm do you need to know where the ball went? Do you need a ball at all? All that should fill your senses at the end of the swing is a clear understanding of your rhythm.
Try it. It's much harder and significantly more powerful than you think.
