Click here and enter your email address to watch the full video
Tyler Ferrell is the only person in the world named to Golf Digest's list of Best Young Teachers in America AND its list of Best Golf Fitness Professionals in America. Meet your new instructor.

Subscribe now to watch the full video.

Is A Feeling Starting To Emerge?

This is one of my favorite questions to ask students towards the end of a lesson. To no surprise, I have heard some interesting responses over the years, which has led me to believe that there is truly no wrong answer. Ultimately, the idea is that we need to practice in a way that produces a swing change or improved motor pattern, so that we can then associate a "feel" with that change. If we are lucky, that "feel" may last several rounds or even a few weeks. However, it is undoubtedly going to change over time. Thus, the key is to remember the drills that produced the change without dwelling on achieving the exact "feel" as before. In the end, you may have several different "feels" for the same mechanic, which is part of the fluidity that goes along with being a "feel" player. 

Playlists: Practice Strategies

Tags: Practice Strategies, Concept, Intermediate

00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,000
This concept video is a feeling starting to emerge.

00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:10,000
One of my favorite questions to ask towards the end of the lesson is a feeling starting

00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:11,000
to emerge.

00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:16,000
Usually the scenario is this if we've done something that's very different.

00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:22,000
Let's say they're used to kind of flipping like this and we're working more on the

00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:25,000
motorcycle and kind of getting more width in the falter.

00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:29,000
It could be a very different movement pattern than they're used to.

00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:34,000
Often times students in person or some even through the website will ask, well what would

00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:36,000
it feel like if I do it?

00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:39,000
And my honest answer is I have absolutely no idea.

00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:43,000
I can offer suggestions as far as what other students have felt.

00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:50,000
But at least once a month, once every couple weeks, someone will describe a movement

00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:53,000
in a way that completely surprises me.

00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:57,000
And so I've given up on trying to guess what it's going to feel like.

00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:04,000
Instead, my goal is to get you to design a drill to design a station so that you can do it

00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:08,000
enough times that a feeling will start to emerge.

00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:13,000
Usually that could take 70 balls, 100 balls, 300 balls.

00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:18,000
But if you do enough reps correctly, a feeling will emerge.

00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:26,000
And then what you can do is test out that feeling over subsequent practices or back-to-back days.

00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:29,000
If it's a really strong feeling, it will last multiple days.

00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:32,000
But no one feeling is going to last forever.

00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:38,000
So what's more important than having the right feeling is having the right set of drills

00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:46,000
for your game so that when something gets off, you can do a few drills and get a new feeling

00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:52,000
to accomplish the same position or the same movement pattern that gives you the right results.

00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:57,000
Because the positions and the physics of how we hit the ball, that's not going to change day to day.

00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:00,000
But your feelings can change quite dramatically.

00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:05,000
So instead of trying to guess what it's going to feel like,

00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:07,000
no, where you're trying to go.

00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:12,000
So set up a really good station, focus on your checkpoints, some of these little details,

00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:18,000
and then after you do a bunch of reps, you'll start to get a feeling of what it's like to do it better.

00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:23,000
That's the first step in being able to take it to the course,

00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:28,000
especially if you're more of a feel golfer, is you have to do enough to let the feel show up.

00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:32,000
Instead of just thinking, hey, this is probably what it's going to feel like.

00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:40,000
This can almost be more important when I have golfers who I get to do the right movement,

00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:43,000
and their answer or their first comment is, well, that doesn't feel right.

00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:45,000
It doesn't feel good.

00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:50,000
And so usually what I'll do then is I'll show them on video that, hey, look,

00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:54,000
it's doing what you were asking you wanted to do.

00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:59,000
We're making better contact or we're slightly off because of a set complimentary piece.

00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:05,000
But we're making progress, and it doesn't feel comfortable yet, because you haven't done enough reps.

00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:09,000
So the general idea in this video is that as you do more reps,

00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:12,000
if you have proper feedback in your in the right area,

00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:20,000
you'll develop feels that will help you to take what could be really clunky and kind of awkward

00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:24,000
and turn it into something very fluid and very efficient.

00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:28,000
One of my favorite stories about that comes more from the Marshall Arts,

00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:33,000
where they talk about making the punch the circle smaller.

00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:36,000
So when a beginner is learning to throw a punch,

00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:42,000
oftentimes there's a really excessive movement to coordinate all the muscles and deliver the blow.

00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:48,000
And as you practice, that punch gets smaller and smaller to where it's no longer,

00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:50,000
you know, swinging over this big pattern,

00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:54,000
it's now a very refined movement creating the same amount of speed.

00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:58,000
As you do more and more reps, if it's a good drill for you,

00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:02,000
you will hit better and better until you have a feel.

00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:08,000
As you do more with that feel, it'll solidify into something that will help coordinate your overall swing.

00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:13,000
So don't get too caught up trying to find the perfect feel.

00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:18,000
Instead, try to find the perfect drill where you're able to feel some of these key movements.

00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:24,000
Once you've felt these movements enough times, I promise you a feel will emerge.

Subscribe now for full access to our video library.