I was coaching at one of our half day clinics recently, had arrived early, and bumped into one of our students in the car park. As we started to chat it soon became clear that here was yet another golf nutter! His garage full of training aids, DVDs and videos and his brain just as crammed, with confusion. It was all too obvious that he was suffering, as so many do, with complete overload of information. Like so many who find themselves going in ever decreasing circles over how to hit the golf ball, he no longer had any idea of what he was supposed to be trying to do! Once upon a time, he had played off a handicap of five. By the time he arrived in the car park that morning, he was seven shots worse off and going nowhere fast…….

This is the kind of story I hear over and over again. The golfer’s mind is in burnout, his body no longer able to respond with any confidence or conviction. It is like having a form of golfing madness and is a scenario that has probably applied to most players at some time during their careers. Logic, control, belief are all history. Long-term sustainable improvement is impossible, when there is continual experimentation going on in the individual’s head and he is listening to different methods and ideas.

In any other walk of life, be it a hobby or career, you set a goal and work towards it step by step, building on a set of fundamentals, rules or laws previously laid down. The route towards whichever goal you have selected will have been defined, it will almost be like following a path, from which, occasionally you may stray, but the path will always be there to guide and direct you towards that eventual goal.

However, one thing you will expect and take for granted is a very definite improvement as you progress along the path, moving ever closer to the eventual goal. Having done your homework or the regularly stipulated practice sessions you were set, you would start to get hacked off if progress was slow, non-existent or in fact going nowhere at all. How then does this happen so frequently within the game of golf? How do some players make it look so easy yet the vast majority struggle or feel like they are not achieving anything like  
their full potential or, indeed, end up as basket cases?

One of the major causes of confusion is because the golf business has not laid down basic, correct swing laws, which in turn has led to a proliferation of well-meaning but often technically wrong data and information. Who or what can the golfer trust? How can they sift through the morass of conflicting detail concerning the golf swing and actually get to the real point of it all? Hours and hours of hitting balls month after month, can be not only hugely frustrating but downright destructive, when the work being put in is based on false fixes and wrong guidance. Yet we know from other sports and pastimes that properly defined routes to success can be followed. Which is what we have done at  
SWINGBUILD. We know that if the practice is focused, if the individual is working on creating the very same correct moves that ALL good players perform, then in a fraction of that previously wasted time, the student can make real improvement. More importantly, we can help them to feel like they can keep improving, that they can get better and better. They understand their swing and when something starts to go wrong as it does even with the very best, they have the knowledge to heal themselves....not head off down another road to golfing madness!

Students leave our clinics enlightened, not weighed down with yet more conflicting data. Too many potentially fine golfers give up the game - or at least give up trying - because they can't handle the turmoil that goes on inside their head, every time they pull a club out of the bag and take aim. Golf has mysticism about it and at SWINGBUILD we love the magic of the game as much if not more than anybody. But we also believe that the mechanical act of striking a ball successfully can become one of enjoyment and of art when the  
proper process if followed, the SWINGBUILD process.

Every other sport or pastime seems to have clearly defined routes to success. Visit one of our coaching sessions for instance, and discover that you don't have to be a magician, to become brilliant at golf. You just need the method - the correct method.