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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. 

Tags: Practice Strategies, Concept, Intermediate

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This concept video is a feeling starting to emerge.

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One of my favorite questions to ask towards the end of the lesson is a feeling starting

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to emerge.

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Usually the scenario is this if we've done something that's very different.

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Let's say they're used to kind of flipping like this and we're working more on the

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motorcycle and kind of getting more width in the falter.

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It could be a very different movement pattern than they're used to.

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Often times students in person or some even through the website will ask, well what would

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it feel like if I do it?

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And my honest answer is I have absolutely no idea.

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I can offer suggestions as far as what other students have felt.

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But at least once a month, once every couple weeks, someone will describe a movement

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in a way that completely surprises me.

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And so I've given up on trying to guess what it's going to feel like.

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Instead, my goal is to get you to design a drill to design a station so that you can do it

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enough times that a feeling will start to emerge.

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Usually that could take 70 balls, 100 balls, 300 balls.

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But if you do enough reps correctly, a feeling will emerge.

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And then what you can do is test out that feeling over subsequent practices or back-to-back days.

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If it's a really strong feeling, it will last multiple days.

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But no one feeling is going to last forever.

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So what's more important than having the right feeling is having the right set of drills

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for your game so that when something gets off, you can do a few drills and get a new feeling

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to accomplish the same position or the same movement pattern that gives you the right results.

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Because the positions and the physics of how we hit the ball, that's not going to change day to day.

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But your feelings can change quite dramatically.

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So instead of trying to guess what it's going to feel like,

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no, where you're trying to go.

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So set up a really good station, focus on your checkpoints, some of these little details,

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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.

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That's the first step in being able to take it to the course,

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especially if you're more of a feel golfer, is you have to do enough to let the feel show up.

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Instead of just thinking, hey, this is probably what it's going to feel like.

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This can almost be more important when I have golfers who I get to do the right movement,

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and their answer or their first comment is, well, that doesn't feel right.

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It doesn't feel good.

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And so usually what I'll do then is I'll show them on video that, hey, look,

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it's doing what you were asking you wanted to do.

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We're making better contact or we're slightly off because of a set complimentary piece.

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But we're making progress, and it doesn't feel comfortable yet, because you haven't done enough reps.

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So the general idea in this video is that as you do more reps,

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if you have proper feedback in your in the right area,

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you'll develop feels that will help you to take what could be really clunky and kind of awkward

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and turn it into something very fluid and very efficient.

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One of my favorite stories about that comes more from the Marshall Arts,

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where they talk about making the punch the circle smaller.

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So when a beginner is learning to throw a punch,

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oftentimes there's a really excessive movement to coordinate all the muscles and deliver the blow.

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And as you practice, that punch gets smaller and smaller to where it's no longer,

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you know, swinging over this big pattern,

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it's now a very refined movement creating the same amount of speed.

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As you do more and more reps, if it's a good drill for you,

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you will hit better and better until you have a feel.

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As you do more with that feel, it'll solidify into something that will help coordinate your overall swing.

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So don't get too caught up trying to find the perfect feel.

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Instead, try to find the perfect drill where you're able to feel some of these key movements.

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Once you've felt these movements enough times, I promise you a feel will emerge.

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