"It is not the will to win that matters, everyone has that.
It is the will to prepare to win that matters." - Paul "Bear" Bryant
Tom's Featured Tip: Phil's Victory Keys: Commitment and Distance
Lesson Comments: What Students Have To Say
Sponsors & Affiliates:
The Divot Board
The Rypstick
SuperSpeedGolf.com
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Plum Creek Driving Range
Buying a sponsored product through any of my affiliate links helps support this free newsletter, and I only affiliate with excellent products that I use myself. Thanks, Tom
Click here to buy The Divot Board to drastically improve your ball-striking. Combine your Divot Board practice and putting practice with the included putting lesson drills, and watch your scoring improve!.
Use your club or hand to re-set the board after your strike
Click here to buy now for outstanding Ball-Striking practice feedback
BONUS: when you buy through my newsletter link above, you'll also receive free access to my Putting Lesson Videos ($50 value) which cover: The Elevated Aimline Drill, The Squareness Awareness Drill, The Aimline Accuracy Drill, The Stock Putting Stroke Drill, The Barrier Drill, The Short Putt Channel Drill, and more.
Train with a Rypstick to improve your swing speed and gain more distance off the tee. The versatility of three different swing weights in one club makes the Rypstick your swing speed training aid of choice.
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Phil's Victory Keys: Commitment and Distance
For simplicity, all advice on actual swings or drills is provided from a right handed perspective.
The Divot Board
This is the most useful ball striking development training aid that I own.
Phil's Victory Keys: Commitment and Distance
I hope you all were able to watch Phil Mickelson defeat the course as well as father time by being the oldest player to ever win a major, when he won the PGA Tournament last Sunday. It was awesome to see the new, leaner Mickleson stare down Brooks Koepka during the final round.
I saw two major keypoints in his performance - commitment and distance, that we all can use as motivation for our own performance.
Commitment
Just before he teed off on hole 7, Tim Mickleson, Phil's brother and caddy, told him that he had been swinging tentatively.
Phil listened to his brother, and from hole 7 on (hole 7 was a perfect tee shot) he committed mentally and physically to his swing.
Our takeaway from that is to deliberately remind yourself to swing freely with commitment on our shots. It may be easier said than done for most of us who have quite a few swing keys bouncing through our brain, but we need to do out best to try to commit to each swing and swing freely - that means not aiming or directing our swing.
Let it go, to gain control you need to give up control. For what it's worth, it took me years to really understand that.
Distance
Phil kept up with, and occasionally surpassed Brooks Koepka off the tee, no small feat.
How did he do it?
- He added a 47.5 inch shaft to his low lofted driver and swung up at the ball. If you read my newsletter regularly,
I have mentioned a few times that since I switched to a 48" shaft on my driver (longest allowable under the rules) I picked up
significant distance off the tee. No surprise that Phil decided to try that out at his older age to see if it could help
off the tee and it obviously did.
- He has been training harder than ever before, and has gained enough strength to handle the rigors of swing speed training.
Not only swing training, we're talking diet, strength and flexibility training as well. He also
played 45 hole practice rounds regularly to work on his endurance for 18 hole rounds for four days straight.
Phil had a swing speed training stick from SuperSpeedGolf.com in his bag at the range last weekend.
It obviously all paid off huge.
Our takeaway from that is:
- Equipment can make a difference. Golf is a game of discovery. Try out a longer driver shaft to discover if it works
for you. It did for me.
- Get stronger then work on your swing speed. I say get stronger first, because if you are doing your swing speed training intensely, you could get injured if your body can't support the stress.
Here were their key findings:
- You can see the same increases in swing speed swinging one club 6-10% lighter than your driver 30 times as you can
swinging 3 clubs almost 100 times
- NO STATISTICAL difference exists on swing speed gains over a 6-8 week period between swinging 3 sticks almost 100
times 2x/wk OR only 1 stick 30 times 2x/wk
- Using a 20% lighter or 5% heavier stick DECREASED golfers swing speed
- It appears respecting the need for glycolytic rest (2-3 min every 10 swings) is beneficial to maximize club speed gains with fewer swings
That's the only thing that I would take a slight exception to. I personally do the 30 swings twice per week with the rest period, but before I do the fast swings I do a couple sets of moderate speed swings with a heavier practice stick just to work on my full swing motion limits. It's not so taxing that it detracts from the energy needed for the full speed swings.
For senior golfers (and maybe even for younger golfers), I think it's also important to define the physical parameters of your swing mentally and physically, so that your speed swings get to that same point in your backswing.
Here's one more delicious morsel on increasing your swing speed:
Research has shown clearly that simply having golfers perform three countermovement jumps before they swing will increase their club speed immediately. Nervous system potentiation is not rocket science, and there is plenty of literature on it.
If you believe in taking it easier as you get older, you'll get older faster.
Challenge yourself (young and old) and reap the rewards.
Comments: TomTuckerGolf@gmail.com
Love your practice, own your swing, own your health,
Tom
Golf Lessons
I conduct lessons at The Plum Creek Driving Range & Practice Facility
there's a link for Plum Creek info here: http://www.tomtuckergolf.com/
Lessons are available for all ages and skill levels, please contact
me - Tom Tucker - at (716) 474 3005 or email me at TomTuckerGolf@gmail.com
for more information.
Outdoor Lessons Details and Rates:
http://www.tomtuckergolf.com/lessonrates.html
Indoor Lessons Details and Rates:
http://www.tomtuckergolf.com/indoor.html
Testimonials:
http://www.tomtuckergolf.com/testimonials.html
Sponsors and Affiliates
Buying a sponsored product through any of my affiliate links helps support this free newsletter, and I only affiliate with excellent products that I use myself. Thanks, Tom
Train with a Rypstick to improve your swing speed and gain more distance off the tee. If the versatility of three different swing weights in one club appeals to you, this is your swing speed training aid of choice.
Click here Rypstick.com to buy now, and make sure that you enter TOMTUCKERGOLF (case sensitive) in the Discount code box when you check out to receive a 5% discount.
Click here to buy your Divot Board to drastically improve your ball-striking. Combine your Divot Board practice and putting practice with the included putting lesson drills, and watch your scoring improve!.
Use your club or hand to re-set the board after your strike
Click here to buy now for outstanding Ball-Striking practice feedback
BONUS: when you buy through the newsletter link above, you'll also receive free access to my Putting Lesson Videos ($50 value) which cover: The Elevated Aimline Drill, The Squareness Awareness Drill, The Aimline Accuracy Drill, The Stock Putting Stroke Drill, The Barrier Drill, The Short Putt Channel Drill, and more.
Click here SuperSpeedGolf.com to buy this swing speed training aid and increase your distance off the tee.
SuperSpeedGolf.com Buy now and get to work on increasing your swing speed now.
Club Champion Don't waste another dollar on clubs until you've gone through a fitting at Club Champion, 1669 Pittsford Victor Rd., Suite 400, Victor NY 14564. Call Master Fitter & Builder Jeff St. John. PGA work: (585) 978-8513, cell: (585) 831-2292 to schedule your fitting today! Mention my name and you'll get special attention.
The Crocbox Click through for details on the exclusive TomTuckerGolf discount available only to my newsletter readers.
The perfect choice for a discreet practice net in your yard.
Pop it up in 45 seconds, fold it down and close the weatherproof box lid when you're done. Click Through for the exclusive TomTuckerGolf Crocbox Discount .
Plum Creek Driving Range and Simulator Outdoor range and play indoor golf on any of our 40 Simulator Courses. Call 585-993-0930 or email Mark at plumcreek4@rochester.rr.com to reserve time for simulator play or practice!
Batavia Country Club (585) 343-7600 www.bataviacc.com
Great rates, the best greens in WNY.
Golf Digest Four Star rating for public courses to play in New York State.
Tee times online or by phone in season.
FISH FRYS AT BCC and other delicious dinner specials with soup and salad bar - Fridays, 4pm - 9pm
All the best,
Tom Tucker
Teaching Pro, Plum Creek Driving Range & Practice Facility
WGTF ' "Top 100 Golf Teacher"
USGTF Class "A" Teaching Professional
IGPA Certified Golf Psychology Coach
Cell: (716) 474-3005
Email: TomTuckerGolf@gmail.com
http://www.TomTuckerGolf.com
"There are no substitutes in the quest for perfection!"
~ Ben Hogan