Focus on the ‘target’

As a coach, it is great to see anyone you have been working with demonstrate real improvement through the application of your coaching philosophy.

Last weekend, two of my junior students, who have been having lessons for over a year, turned up as normal for their weekly tuition. The boys, aged five and ten, wowed me with their performances and attitudes and reminded me of a couple of concepts that everyone should try to apply to their golf.

Firstly, the five-year-old reminded me of how narrowing your attention focus can help produce fantastically accurate results. Naturally, at five, there is a fair bit of hitting and missing, focusing and then switching off! However, when we started playing ‘rugby’ golf, where he has to hit balls through two sticks representing goal posts 15 yards in front of him, his attention was captured.

The idea of the game is that once he hits a proper golf shot that flies through the ‘goal’, we narrow the posts for the next level.

Amazingly, even at such a young age, he got totally immersed in the idea of the ‘target’ and proceeded to successfully hit balls through the posts until they were less than a yard wide.

The lesson here is that you should always be focused intently on exactly where you want the ball to go because if you have a specific target and just miss it, you are never going to be too far away!

In a similar way, the 10-year-old demonstrated the importance of having an exact landing area in mind for all short game shots.

Initially, when hitting pitch shots over a bunker to a tight pin, his results were as inconsistent as you would expect. However, once we had walked onto the green, discussed the idea of flight versus roll, took into account the slope and marked out a specific point where he wanted to land the ball, that all changed.

There was a dramatic improvement in his accuracy and he was soon rewarded when he holed one of his shots for his first ‘hole in one’! Strangely, his response pleased me more than the shot. After the briefest of celebrations, he coolly asked me to remove that ball (and two others that were already in there) from the hole to make room for the rest he was going to hit in!

In summary, if you want to be accurate on the golf course, you have got to be totally into the idea of the target.

Just before you hit your shot, stare at the target so that it is the last thing in your mind. In addition, be specific, be positive and believe that you are going to hit the shot you want, just like these two juniors!

For more information on the adult and junior golf coaching services offered at Awali Golf Club, please contact me on 39761873 or visit www.awaligolfclub.com