Technique, not Effort; Cause, not Effect

[comdpa]

In my limited but enriching teaching sessions with students, I find a common thread that runs between the good students who graduate to greatness and the so-so ones who get mired in mediocrity.

What is the difference?

Per 3-B, "Eons of manhours are lost trying to substitute effort for technique and trying to eliminate effect instead of cause."

Technique is simply: "Skillfulness in the command of fundamentals deriving from practice and familiarity."

Applied in a golf sense, this simply means that we have an effective and efficient golf swing.

Technique stems from proper application of the scientific principles of the golf swing - physics which is the action and geometry which is the motion.

Technique does not and will never arise from applications of seems-as-ifs.

One seems-as-ifs is: "If I swing harder, then the ball must go further." This is giving effort precedence over technique and is the distinguishing hallmark of hackers the world over.

The relationship between effect and cause is one that is rarely understood by some groups of golfers and even instructors.

By way of analogy, a person unknowingly suffering from a brain tumour usually has unexplainable bouts of headaches.

The tumour is the cause but the headache is the manifestation of that malfunction in the head. Taking tons of Tylenol® only serves to provide a brief respite.

In much the same way, a bobbing (3-F-7-D) head which causes a thin/fat shot is simply the manifestation of a breakdown in the lead wrist.

However, if a wrong diagnosis is given, the student/player will be practicing aimlessly on "keeping their head down" with the end result being more thin/fat shots.

The bottomline here is that good players (often with the aid of a good coach) usually become good because they are able to pinpoint the cause and not the effects of the errors in their golf swing.

The hackers stay the way they are because they keep working the effects - much like taking Tylenol® will destroy a brain tumour.

[6bmike]

Nice post, Justin. Your students are in good (educated ) hands.

Your post reminded me of what Ernest Jones said, "You must have worked hard being this bad..." Maybe the art form in instruction is teaching by subtraction rather than by piling on.

Cause and Effect is Newton's Law of Motion.

And much ill fate (the effect-bad shots) is born out of anxiety (the cause- the four snares).

Time to toast a bagel. Why do they taste better on the weekend?

[drewitgolf]

Very nice post comdpa. The belief that effort is power is what keeps us golf pro's in business .

[tongzilla]

Law is cause. Ball behavior – intended or unintended – is effect.

Now that's something for the Golf World to think about.

[mb6606]

Effort <> Lag

[jim_0068]

If your hands are educated and technique is fairly sound, don't fool yourself that extra effort can't create any extra speed otherwise you'll never reach your potential for distance when you need it.