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The two goals of a Pre-Shot routine are to get clarity on what shot you want to hit and to have clarity on exactly what the entire swing is going to feel like. If you lack clarity on either of those two aspects, then you are NOT committed to the shot.
Many times, poor shots happen from poor mechanics. But poor mechanics can occur when you have poor commitment. Now you know that poor mechanics really means poor clarity to the shot!
Tags: Mental Game, Concept, Beginner
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This content video is the two goals of a pre-shot routine.
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So while it's great to have solid mechanics, it's just as helpful to have a solid routine
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or a solid mental game approach.
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So in this video, I'm going to cover the two main aspects that you want to make sure
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happen in your pre-shot routine.
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Many golfers come back from either a trip or a tournament and talk about how their mechanics
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broke down.
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And I'll usually talk them through these two key components, just to make sure that they
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are paying attention to the process as well as the swing mechanics.
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Because oftentimes, if you have a poor commitment to the shot, if you have really poor
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focus over the ball and you hit a bad shot, it wasn't so much that you had bad swing mechanics.
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It was that you lacked the emotional commitment to hitting a good shot and therefore the
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mechanics broke down.
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Because if you're not totally committed, you can have extra attention, you could have
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little extra triggers or kind of sway movements to make yourself feel more comfortable.
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There's a lot of things they can go wrong if you're not committed to the shot.
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So in order to get more committed to the shot, the pre-shot routine is designed to cover
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what shot do I want to hit and what am I going to experience or feel over the golf ball?
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And I find that many golfers think through number one.
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So they will figure out what shot do they want to hit?
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They'll stand back here and they'll say, okay, I want it to start over there or so I want
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it to start at that tree.
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It's going to have a little bit of a draw to it.
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I'm going to swing the club at about 85, 80 percent.
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So it's going to land at this part of the green, maybe roll out.
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They'll get pretty detailed as far as factoring in wind and elevation and what club to hit,
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what trajectory, all the key components they go into clearly picking out a shot.
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But then they completely fail on the second piece, which is what is it going to feel
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like or what is the experience going to be like?
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So basically, when you see tour professionals taking their practice wings, they're creating
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the phrase that I really like came from Jordan's speed.
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Say, many at the ball feel of what the ball flight will feel like.
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So basically, it's a many at the ball feel of what's my body going to feel like?
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What are my hands going to feel like?
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What's it going to be like when I execute the shot that hits the ball flight that I want
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to hit?
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And it's very important that you get a hundred percent clear on what you think it's going
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to feel like.
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And then you stick to that commitment all the way through executing the shot or the whole
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time you're in the play box.
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So the word that gets thrown around a lot is you need to be committed to the shot.
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But what I really think that that means is you need to have clarity on what's going to
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happen during the shot.
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What's the swing going to feel like?
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What's the experience going to be like?
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And then get up there and just kind of execute.
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And if you're intellectually committed to the shot that you're going to hit, but you go
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up to the ball kind of wondering, well, what is this going to feel like?
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Am I going to focus on my arms?
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Am I going to focus on my hips?
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Am I going to focus on low point?
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If you haven't made a hundred percent clear commitment to what you're going to focus on when
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you execute the shot, then in my mind you're not committed to the shot yet.
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It's natural that you are going to have a breakdown of mechanics when you're lacking
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a hundred percent commitment.
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So when you're on the course and you're going through your pre shot routine and I do
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recommend that you practice your pre shot routine on the range at least some part of the
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time, especially as you're getting closer and closer to a tournament.
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But let's say you're on the course, you've got the feel of the shot or you got the idea
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of the shot.
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You're going to take enough practice swings so that you can get a clear feel.
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That's what it's going to feel like when the club hits the turf.
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That's what it's going to feel like when the club hits the ball.
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You want this mini strong sensation of what the swing is going to feel like and then your
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goal is to keep distractions away and just focus on executing that same feel.
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If you execute that feel, then it's a good shot regardless of where the outcome is.
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But most of the time, if you have a clear feeling of what it's going to be like over
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the ball, connect it to the ball flight you want to hit and you execute that feel, you're
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likely going to hit a really good shot.