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Blogs / Tim's Tee Time / September 2008 / T Cubed Blog

T Cubed Blog

It’s that time of year...again! The transition period...when the weather starts to cool, when the leaves on the Aspens start to turn...and when it’s time to put away the summer toys and start digging through the storage unit, your garage, whatever, to find your winter sports gear! But wait...before you put away those golf clubs that had a tendency to misbehave at points  throughout the golf season, do me a favor and grab your six iron. See, you’re going to need an extra tool to help manage knocking down the icicles from the entryway to the front door this year. If you thought last winter was rough (doom and gloom noises in the background of your mind please)... ... ...

In all honesty, you’re going to work on getting all of your money you lost this summer on the golf course back by working on your golf swing this winter! OK, how many of you just did the mental scratching of your head bit, wondering, did Tim miss his morning coffee or something? I mean, there’s going to be snow on the ground, the golf courses are closed, I can’t hit golf balls unless I hop in the SUV and drive 10 plus hours to one of the desert locations south and west of me. Well, I’ve got news for you...I did miss my morning coffee (I don’t drink the stuff) and I’m still serious about working on your swing this winter. You see, we’ve found that a higher percentage of our clientele at the David Leadbetter Golf Academies around the world see improvements with their golf swings when they try to make changes away from the golf ball. I mean, if you can’t physically make that change without a golf ball in the way...how are you EVER going to do it with the golf ball in the way, trying to hit to a tight hole location, over water, with drinks on the line with your buddies, or who’s going to take the trash out for the week with your significant other??? Plus, it almost makes the R.O.T. effect completely disappear. You know... Results Oriented Thinking. The golf ball really doesn’t tell you if your MOTION has improved...all it tells you is have you squared up your clubface on a path towards the target while hitting the right part of the golf ball. A perfect example is Jim Furyk’s motion. While we all want Jim’s results, most of us aren’t talented enough to have that many moving parts in our golf swing and execute good golf shots. So, we try to improve our motion so that we have less tendencies to manage or compensate for.

So how do you improve your game over the winter months? Identify your swing flaws from a trained professional. Find a teaching professional (I’m available...but you’ll have to make a 5000 mile trip to the island of Maui) with a video camera who can help you identify your tendencies...because you do have tendencies that blend into every single part of your golf game. Ask you buddies...if you have an over the top swing, does it disappear when you hit a good shot...or is it gone when you take out your favorite driver versus your hated 8 iron...or did it take a break when you hit your 4th shot out of the bunker? The most likely answer to all of these questions is no...it was present for each one of those shots. After you’ve identified that swing flaw, find a drill, a cure if you will, to help you make your swing more efficient. Train that drill 3 times a week, for 15 minutes a day, in front of a mirror. Yes, I did say in front of a mirror. What you’ll find very quickly is that you need immediate feed back to make sure what you’re feeling matches up to what you’re doing...especially during the initial stages. Do it SLOWLY first to build awareness of the different feelings it produces throughout your motion. Close your eyes for a swing or two to enhance those feelings...check again visually to make sure you’re not reverting back to your old form. Eventually add speed to your swings while checking the more efficient positioning of your motion. Work like crazy for the winter so that this new motion becomes second nature. You’ll find that your training over the winter months will pay off. You won’t have to think much about your new swing when it’s time to put it in front of a golf ball because you’ve trained the correct motion all winter. Your friends will wonder two things...one, didn’t we spend the entire winter skiing together up on the mountain, so how the heck did this golf swing get so good, and two, this is going to be one LONG summer for my wallet!

Tim Mitchell is a Certified Instructor for the David Leadbetter Golf Academy.  He spends his winter months at the Wailea Golf Club on the beautiful island of Maui and his summer season at the Red Sky Golf Club just west of Vail, Colorado.  He has been rated as one of the                      Top five teachers in the state of Hawaii by Golf Digest.