A lot of the research I have seen shows that telling someone HOW to do a task is a terrible way to get them to retain and own the task. In the research the idea of teaching by "corrections" (fixing a golfer and telling them to swing to a model) is very low for retention or for motor learning in general. I started to wonder, what would a golf lesson with ZERO corrections look like?

After teaching for years using a conventional "faults and fixes" method, Golf Coach Marcus Bell from Doncaster, England now teaches without explicit instructions. Meaning that to get someone to fix a swing fault or just generally improve he will change the constraints of the practice, introduce more chaos to the challenge and have the golfer self organize a better motor solution. Never telling the golfer HOW to overcome the constraint. 

Whenever I put up some kind of post of myself practicing trying to improve my impact, a lot of  people comment that I should not be "chasing a position". Well, leading the club through impact (rather than having the club pass your hands before impact) not only looks cool it also gives the golfer a HUGE mechanical advantage!

Recently Dr. Sasho MacKenzie (the world's leading golf biomechanics expert) used his state of the art computer system to do forward dynamics modeling to see the difference in a LAG IMPACT and a FLIP IMPACT. 

He then added very small variations (similar to a normal human muscle timing variations) to all the muscles involved in the golf swing and ran the simulation of a flipped impact 1000 times and a lag impact 1000 times and found that the lag impact was VASTLY MORE CONSISTENT than the flipped impact.

The results were so stark that anyone who is not actively doing everything they can to make sure the hands are leading the clubhead through the shot (on all shots short and long) is simply not doing what they need to do to get better. 

So what I am working on in my full swing has become very simple

• LEADING though impact (hands leading club consistently through the impact zone.)
• FACE ANGLE
• STRIKE QUALITY (AKA Low point control)
• HEAD LEVEL CHANGE (My personal flaw that I think directly effects how much leading I am getting through impact) 
• CLUBHEAD SPEED (doing Sunday and Tuesday Night BBG Speed workouts)

Frequent BBG Guest BERTIE CORDLE, did his own study of 450 golfers and found that 84 percent of Amateur Golfers hit the ball with a flipped impact and. Stunningly he also found that 51 percent of pros (mixed with club pros and tour pros) hit the ball with a flipped impact. 

BOCIERRI GOLF tested the DST golf Impact line and found that golfers who consistently practiced with the DST impact line improved their distance and accuracy. 

So it's all there.

• Sasho proved that a lag impact is crucial to being able to hit the ball where you want.
• ​Bertie Documented that nearly all club golfers have this problem. (If you look closer at the picture the number of bad impacts raises from 84 to 92 percent)
• Bocierri Golf showed that the DST products help improve this critical component of an effective golf swing.

A word about the few PGA Tour pros that earn money and sometimes even win with (perhaps despite of) a flip impact position. Look into the strokes gained tee to green, around the green and putting stats and you'll see where they are making their career. It's not from ball striking.

Finally, consider the golfer thinking about turning pro.

If getting on the PGA Tour is like an ant climbing this.

Then getting on the PGA Tour with a flipped impact is like an ant climbing this. 

Possibly doable but a hell of a task.

​The papers referenced here are on the front page of http://www.dstgolf.com
to get any of their products like the Compressor use the Promo CODE "dstbebettergolf" to get 15% off. 

Practice vlog with Xander and I. First of all it's a big win to get Xander to have focused practice for 50 minutes. That alone makes the cards a proven method for improvement (X said it was fun). Beyond that I think this could be the best way of improving for plateaued or stuck golfers.

​What moves would you add to the deck?

This is my (probably incorrect) summary of the study mentioned above. 30 golfers with an obvious swing fault were studied.

10 GOLFER CONTROL GROUP (They didn't get better)

10 GOLFER CORRECTION GROUP (Told to "correct there issue by leaning away from the error, they didn't get much better)

10 GOLFER EXAGGERATED GROUP (These golfers who were told to OVERDO their swing fault, improved DIRECTION and BALL SPEED the most!)

You can hear more about it here on this Podcast 

Using a great device here called Live View Golf. Go to LIVEVIEWGOLF.com and use PROMO CODE "BEBETTER" for a great discount. 

Basically you are practicing ALL AROUND the target to teach your mind to self organize to the best motor solution.

"Differential Learning" is a new approach to Motor Learning for sports out of Germany that is having some exciting results in  studies.

It is a bit complicated to explain but generally it is the idea that to learn something you should practice with EXTREME variation with a consistent goal. The differential learning people say that practicing something on the perfect path of what you want to learn simply doesn't work (it makes you better while you are practicing but you end up retaining NOTHING)  and you should actually practice on the extreme ends of the goal and make your brain find a motor solution to these extreme problems. The brain will then learn the most efficient way to do the task and it will better learn the task even without difficult variations. The retention is very high as well. 

This PODCAST explains it better. 

The creator of differential learning is Dr. Wolfgang Schollhorn who I have corresponded with a bit. He has helped a lot of soccer teams in Germany and Portugal and I think Shotput and Speed Skaters as well. Very little with golf from what I can find. I sent this message to him. It is my idea of how to use differential learning to improve a full swing.I am waiting for his reply.

This video is me putting the cards to use for the first time.

In that video, notice how even with all the different swings, the swings at p6 (last time the club is parallel to the ground before impact) look VERY similar. That is the point. Making the brain find different ways to get to the same spot.

THANKS FOR WATCHING. We are putting some effort into incorporating this into a future Be Better Golf School.

If you would like more info or have a suggestion on a location. Let me know 
Contactbebettergolf@gmail.com

Forget ROTATION, that causes so many problems and adds basically zero speed (internal rotation) that is basically twisting or spinning.  Mike says just two hard pushes at the right time will result in a ton of rotation and give you a lot speed and control.

I filmed a new video series with Mike Malaska at Superstition Mountain Arizona that looks a lot different than other golf videos you'll see on youtube.

I have been searching scientific studies about getting better at oglf and came across a very interesting study that said golfers who watch VISUALLY GUIDED instructional videos. GET better at golf at a much faster rate than both a control group and a group with out the visual guides. 

What that means is that when you highlight certain areas of the golf swing and focus people's attention there, it helps their bodies and brains understand what to do much faster. 

HERE IS THE STUDY 

So I bought a full body orange suit and keyed out certain sections. In the picture above we were talking about the use of the right arm in golf swing. This should help golfers focus on some key areas of the swing. Technically it didn't work out perfectly but you get the point. Next time I do this I'll do it the opposite way where I will where a certain color ON the part I want to highlight and boost that in post (see picture below highlighting the lower body)

Also I realize now that I really need a helper or assistant on these shoots, it's just too much to do by myself because something always comes back a little messed up. in this case the microphones failed halfway through the shoot.