More than twenty years ago, we found a vital clue to the mental game. It was previously unnoticed. We put in in a book and called it "Golf's Best Kept Secret." For reasons we haven't been able to determine, that clue remains largely unobserved. At best, it certainly does not appear to have been understood. If it was not discarded, it has been shrugged off by professionals, players, teachers and mental game gurus, alike. We even have a video news clip of Bob Murphy listening to Bobby Brue tell about it and then laughing afterward. Even Murphy didn't hear and understand.
Meanwhile we built KeyGolf around the principles associated with that vital clue. KeyClip is our communications tool and from time to time we may use it to point to relevant people and groups available on the world wide web that make the most sense and supply the most help to players, instructors and coaches. For now, we will use it to illuminate our own mission, which includes a revival of Golf's Best Kept Secret, thanks to the wonders of computers and eBooks.
We can point to that mission with an analogy, by referring to a "COMBINATION to the LOCK " on the way the game is learned and played.
The "lock" analogy requires recognizing two sides to the same coin. Locks work both sides of the street. Locks keep in what's "good" and keep out what's "bad." Applied to golf, that may require hearing, seeing, and understanding that there is more to learning and playing than has been traditionally believed to be the case. Among other things, we found that since psychology and physiology rarely "talk" to each other, a lot gets missed in what is really going on in our game. Those two bodies of knowledge have traditionally been held apart by their "keepers," apparently for "fraternal" reasons, each holding the other in semi-disdain.
Most "player-talk" argues and claims that "all of us" intend to play on automatic. But, if you listen carefully, you hear an expectation to achieve automatic capability by merely spending a lot of time "on the range" trying to repeat, and therefore, "groove" a swing. "Just hit a lot of balls." The thought process, of course, is that will "lock it in." If it really happened that way, the only worry would be "how good is the lock?" And we would expect an awful lot of players (who beat balls incessantly) to have all the problems solved. In other words, once the swing is mastered, what is there that requires so much added time on the practice range with a "learning" mission? What it looks like, however, is that players just outright become forgetful overnight. How many people practice driving their cars before they back out of the driveway? How many practice riding a bike, even if they haven't ridden for awhile, before hitting the trail? None. But golfers typically go straightway to the practice tee before playing to see if their swings survived last night's sleep.
Is learning (that which makes it all the way to the the habit level) so feeble and fickle that it sticks for some things, but not others? It will work for driving a car but not for driving a golf ball? Good thing we don't have that much trouble remembering how to walk, put on our clothes, write our names and all those other good things we learned when we were young? How come they stay with us through life? If you only play once a year, that's one thing. But if you play regularly, it may be time to ask yourself why it's so hard to keep the swing going. Maybe, just maybe, it's the kind and quality of the "lock" being used.
.......Time
In Again......
KeyGolf's content, method, and implementation are based on principles that support UNLOCKING the bindings that tend to prevent players from getting their games from the practice tee to the golf course, INTACT.
That means adding information
that has been missing. It also means revising what has been
misunderstood. Without those two steps, it will be impossible to
"go from the third level of learning to the fourth, and
highest level." The third level is for skills only.The
fourth is where skills are transformed into habits. Only at the
fourth level can a player be on automatic, and most players have
not been able to move beyond the third level - yet. We see that
in the practice of beating balls hoping to "groove" the
swing. That's third level stuff. There is no automatic there.
At KeyGolf, we help players learn...
*How to understand what's involved in developing Skills
*How to tell when skills are finished
*How to turn skills into Habits
*How to play from Habit - Going on Automatic - It's not what most think it is
*How to Practice Systematically - with clear goals and objectives - for habit development
*How to Manage your Thoughts for both Pre-shot Planning and Execution - they are DIFFERENT
*How to understand "within yourself" and play there - that's not what most think it is, either
To have a confirmed picture of what "within yourself" means, you may want the advantage of a relaible profile. You will find a Response Form Here
*That's only a beginning. We leave the rest of the curriculum to the moment of truth - when we face each other in the training room or on the tee.
Continue Here for more information
Revised 05-05-04