Responding to your shots

What is good for you, might be bad for me. What is bad for me, might be good for you. We all have our own standards. Then there are some absolute shots that are just plain good or just plain bad.

The problem with talking in these terms when you are learning is that it does not provide enough feedback. In other words, the feedback is too gross. For rapid and effective learning the feedback must be more specific.

When you start giving yourself specific feedback in terms of specific distances that the ball missed the target, your learning will speed up. That is a fact. So instead of saying "good" or "bad", say the ball is left or right and short or long of my target. Add some distances to it and you get: 20 yards short, and 30 yards right; 30 yards short, and 20 yards right; 40 short, 15 right.

If you do that over time you will see a pattern to your shots. This pattern tells you what you need to work on. reducing the size of the pattern is progress.

As in the example above, the person was on average 30 yards right of the target, and around 22 yards short of the target. If we knew from what distance these shots were hit, and what club was used we would have some specific data on which to set some practice goals.

Then the next time the golfer played and she averaged 25 yards right and 16 yards short, she would know that she is making progress. The progress may not be fast or large enough but that is another issue.

Now oppose that specific feedback to: "I hit three rotten shots last week with the five iron and I did the same this week". Not much to go on, other then the person can't hit their five iron worth a damn.

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