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Golf. We're talking is leading
instructors, researchers and players themselves to find what
is actually working. All right, everybody, welcome
back. We have another fun q, a round
table. We are with Adam Young.
John Sherman. We have yet to determine a name
for this Trio of conversation Roundtable.
But welcome back, guys. What's up?
Again, not much today. We are tackling a question
around practice, which atom has I believe written a book on if
I'm not mistaken? What's it called again?
Adam. I don't know.
I think it's the practice blueprint.
Is that right? Yeah, something like that.
Well yeah. You have your own series on it.
Yeah, we're practice. Practice God's out here.
That's guys. Just thought of golf Gods could
be take. That's already taken it for
whatever it takes. Yeah, we can't do that.
Okay, so this is a, this is a simple question and one that I'm
sure we all have gotten or talked about or thought about
and in some point of view, but it's what are your thoughts on
the benefits of blockers? Random practice and I guess we
should start out by clarifying what block and random practice
our, who wants to do that? I want, I want Adam to do it
even though he might not want to Adam you do this.
There is between block and random practice.
Okay, well, block practice is just doing the same thing over
and over and over. Again, like if you scrape and
hit a 7-iron towards the same Target on the same lie, random
practice is much more. We say contextual in that, it
represents the game, there are varying levels of it so you
could change clubs each time. So go from a 79 to a wedge to a
driver just like you would in the real game.
You could change lies each time you could change.
I don't want to say shot shape, you could do that but I don't
think that's a necessary thing. I think that Falls more Under
the Umbrella of variability practice but yeah just changing
targets lies shot type you know wedging chipping.
The anything that makes it more realistic.
Anything that makes it more. Contextual would be random
practice and the research has shown.
There's some studies that show that when a retention test is
done, meaning that a group of people do the practice in a
block or random Manner and then they come back and are asked to
protect Perform at that skill and the retention test that
random has performed better than Block in some of the studies
that have been done going back. I think probably since the 70s
if not if not before and so that's kind of where this
conversation comes from. It's not a golf specific idea to
begin with. This was from you know, Academia
outside of golf just in, you know, motor skill different
skills. And then we're kind of bring
that into golf over the years. And there have been a number of
Papers written on that. We've had some of the experts on
in the past, like Like dr. Tinley Mark, guadagnino lie,
Robert Bjork Etc. Some of these guys really kind
of brought the study to Gulf, which is which is really nice to
actually have them looking at our sport feel really lucky that
they've done research on it and we're able to to learn so much
from it. But there's, there's a little
context, little context for this conversation.
Yeah, you make me, you make an important point in terms of
retention because I think we often get mixed up between
performance and learning. So it's very easy to stand there
with a 7-iron beat them over. Over and over perform like a
God. And think that you've actually
learned something yet, you people know they go on to the
course and they hit it everywhere and they think, where
did my game go? Even in my own game.
If I stand there with track, man beating seven eyes over and over
my proximity to the Target, might be 10, 15 20 foot.
Whereas I know if I actually produce that in a round of golf,
I would be number one on tour and that just doesn't happen
because I wouldn't be here speaking about on his podcast.
If that was the case, come on. Now you would still have Hang
out my. Yeah, I'll I still like he's
literally be playing a colonial right now at this moment, you
know, when it comes to Preparing on that for a round of golf.
If you want to look at, say your shot patterns, for example, and
you want to see what shot patterns you have the you're
going to take on the course, you know I set a little tweet out
the other day saying are your shot patterns are same or
different when you're doing random versus block practice and
75 percent of people said they're different.
So whether they whether they're better or whether they were, so
when you're doing random practice, they are different for
the vast majority of people. So, why would you practice when
you're preparing for a tournament and get a false sense
of what your patterns are? You know, my pattern is much
straighter, I miss fewer left shots.
When I'm doing block, practice and I know from group coaching
as well, that I would watch the people in the group hit these
shots and it'll be hitting great.
And then I clap my hands and say.
All right, everybody gather round.
We're gonna do a little game now.
And they would all stand in front of each other and hit one
shot and then rotate. And so would be a very
pressurized game so much more context, much more random
practice and they shot patterns would be completely different.
You you go from someone hit the sweet spot every time.
They're all sudden shanking, every single one of them, let's
get down to the nitty-gritty here.
And I think that, you know, Adam myself we could go on for four
hours, speaking about the benefits of random practice or
improving your practice and Pretty one-sided discussion.
I think some of the arguments against it arise when folks turn
on the television or head out to a PGA Tour event that's in their
area and they see, you know, a pro with something like a
putting mirror or some kind of drill set up and they hit, you
know, 204 Footers in a row, you know, and they make every one of
them just over and over and over and they come home and they're
talking and they're like, yeah I just you know, I I just got to
do that to build confidence and hit these over and over and over
again. And so you know, and also we
hear stories of people, you know, hitting trash cans full of
golf balls to get really good. They're all the kind of these
stories told through out, which anecdotally we would go like,
while the pros do it. So, you know, why wouldn't I is
that a good place to start kind of that that argument against
Adam? Yeah, I mean, there's all the
obvious correlation versus causation argument, you know,
just because Pros, all wear hats with sponsored logo.
I had doesn't mean if you sponsor an amateur, they're
going to get better. In fact, it might make them
worse because now they're pressurized by the sponsor.
There's also the, what the pros do is that necessarily the best
for them, you know, if you're practicing 10 hours a day, you
can probably get away with a hell of a lot that someone who
only has one hour week can't. Then there's all the scientific
studies which are flawed. They're not perfect, they only
show what they show their very specific, but they all do show
that random practice, performs better when it comes to
retention. Tension tests, not necessarily
performance tests. And ultimately, we are after
learning where after retention, we have to transfer to.
The course, we're not there to be range Pros, some people are
so there's all these different routes that you could go down.
But in fact, I think there are studies now showing that when
prose or really high-level, golfers are given a random
practice protocol. Even the pros improve more than
when they're practicing were blocked.
So even at the highest skill levels, it seems to hold true
especially on Exact wedge tests, where, you know, you've got
energy selection, you know, if you're hitting 60, 90, 70 yards,
and you haven't a very a lot. You have to select the right
shot, which is a huge part of this.
All right, I'll stop talking John.
Do you like jumping? I think a good place to frame it
as. Let's talk about the mistakes
that most golfers are making when they practice.
And I think all of us here, agree from our own personal
experience, and watching other golfers, is that most players
are not really engaged when they practice.
I kind of view it as like these zombie range sessions and I did
them for a very long time myself you know you show up you buy as
many balls as you're going to hit whether it's 50, 80, 100,
and you just kind of go through the motions you're hitting and
you're not really paying attention to much.
You're not paying attention to your target where the ball went,
what your stance was you know, posture all these things and the
trap that most players fall into is that they feel like Okay, I
spent that our at the range. I'm entitled to better golf now
and it's just not that simple. So, in terms of where I fall on
this debate and I don't really know how big of a debating is in
the ad General golf, well, maybe the nerdy golf world.
But so I'm all for engagement in practice and I think that most
players get stuck with blocked practice because that's just
what comes naturally to them. And it's harder for them to
focus and be engaged in that verses.
If you introduce them to a random concept which they're
probably not doing, there's a much better chance that they're
going to be engaged in that and also experience the pressure and
whatever you go through on the golf course to hit that singular
shot. So I'm totally fine with doing
both kinds of practice. I do.
I just think most golfers are overdosed on blocked and start
need to explore more of the random, but I definitely do both
and I try and stay engaged. Either, I just think, you know,
introducing random can open up a nice new door for golfers to
make their time worth it because you know, you do like you said
Adam, you don't have unlimited time to beat balls all week like
a pro does. You might only have a couple of
hours and you want to make it worth it and obviously transfer
those skills to the golf course. So I think random practice could
address the main problem, that plagues a lot of normal players.
You know what, I think it comes down to John, is that as humans?
We naturally kind of go to what's most comfortable Or
what's, you know, easiest for us.
And doing a kind of, that kind of block practice where we do
improve during that session, right?
We can hit our 7-iron a little bit better.
By the end, we can hit our driver a little bit straighter,
maybe, and we see that, and we go towards that.
The problem is that when we look at the research, like Adam
mentioned earlier, the performance versus learning
that's from a guy named dr. Robert bureaucratic.
California and talking about how actually, we learn when we make
mistakes. So it's this really
Uncomfortable place of his we don't want to make a mistake,
right? Like, and with him on the Range,
I don't want to look bad next to these people that I might know,
potentially, right? And so I think a lot of this,
just good comes down to we haven't been educated on it.
So we do what's most comfortable for us and it comes down to a
lot of times with an education thing like and that's what I get
so passionate about is that there's a lot of really smart
people out there that have spent the time and done the research.
You know, like Adam you've you know, you've looked into All
this, you've tested this out, you've put in so much work in
this and now it's just about spreading that message because
people just they don't know and that's why they just follow
along with the stereotype. Yeah, I mean just as I'm not
anti technical, I'm not anti block either, there are certain
things that I think it's valuable for.
I still want to see more research on it.
But you know, for me I'd say what is the main value in random
practice? And for me, it's it's that act
of forgetting, I think Mike Hebron is someone Talks about
that. Maybe if I think about the
preparation skills that go in to see a chip shot, right?
If you stand in Hitler's, a Chip Shot, you've got to assess the
lie, you know, you can't hit the same shot.
If that ball sitting down versus sitting out, you've got access
or select the shot type. You're going to have more shaft
lean the shaft lean. What club you're going to use
your going to get the chip and run as high stopper little
spinner you're gonna have the face open what are the green
conditions as well? Every time you face a new shot,
you'll basically have the Make a prediction.
So how hard is this green? What is this line going to take,
is going to curve left by how much, and then you have to go
through the act of doing a couple of practice swings, too,
kind of recall, the speed control all the energy needed
for that swing and then you have to execute.
Now, if you're doing random practice, you have to go through
that process every single time, but if you do block practice,
you only have to go through that.
Once the next one is, just a, you don't have to assess the
line out. You don't have to make a
prediction on the break because, you know it, you've seen it.
So you're losing. Those predictive skills.
You're losing those preparation skills or your at least not
practicing those preparation skills.
So for me when it comes to tornament prayer, random is
going to be a big part of that and let's face it like golf.
Technically is a random game other than like your tee shots.
You are faced with a random situation every time, whether
it's the LIE, the Wind the elevation change.
You're not facing the same challenge.
You are on a driving range mat, that has a perfectly flat lie
and you don't have to worry about chunking, the ball.
It's just not the same scenario not that you can't build skills
in that scenario. But when you really think about
golf, it's a random series of events that you have to react to
and plan in the moment and execute.
Well, you said that Joe and the would build skills I think
that's that's probably a key with Block versus random is See,
I see blocked practice, as more of a building thing, you're
building something new potentially, you're creating a
new motor program whereas random practice is more about accessing
what you already own. So you know if you want to make
a golfer better if you want to make them achieve new potential,
if you want to take them from a 20 and the cap to the scratch,
they might have to do a lot of block practice because they
going to have to make mode changes are going to have to get
used to those things. But if you've got a 20 or let's
say, a 10 handicap will keeps going On the course and playing
like a 20 handicap. They're not accept accessing the
skills, they already own. So let's help them with random
practice to improve the access of the already own skills.
One caveat to that is that it hasn't been proven yet, but
blocked practice is better for building.
Even so I intuitively believe it is, which goes with the blocked
block crowd, but it wouldn't surprise me if it came out and
said, you know what, when creating a brand-new motor
program, random practices The for that as well.
Wouldn't surprise me? Would it be helpful if I gave
like a scenario of how I practice like short game and
kind of give it overview of how I switch between blocked and
random. I think I wrote an article about
this, about a month and a half ago.
So, for a very long time, I struggled with distance control
on like, those those in between wedge shots, and I mean by, like
30 to 70 yards. So my first step was is like, I
needed to learn a technique that I Could rely on for those
distances, whether it's a 30, 40, 50, 60, or 70 yd wedge shot.
I would hone those distances and have to repeat them until I
could feel like. Okay, that's my 60-yard swing,
that's my 40-yard swing. And to be honest I got that
template from Reading Dave, pelts, his short game Bible a
long time ago and is clock system.
So I spent a lot of time like hitting that 50 yard shot over
and over again. That's 70 yard shot over and
over again till I feel it. But then at the same time I
would then at the end of Practice session test myself
saying, like, whether it's like a launch, I have a scotch track
launch monitor at home. So like I would do the random
thing. It calls out a number and like,
try and hit 63 yards, try and hit 42 yards, try and hit it. 72
yards. So I'm going back and forth
between repeating the distance and then testing myself.
And I felt like that helped solve one of the biggest
problems in my game or I would say if you're out in the
practice area on your Of course, even in your backyard giving
myself all different types of lies and the rough.
So changing that variable and trying to hit that shot over and
over again or just throwing it down and see what happens.
So like I think we're short game because those are distance
control is such a huge thing and you really are changing things.
All the time, you have to like recall, a distance and a
trajectory going back and forth between the two has helped me.
Personally, I think that's, that's right, on point, I think.
Interesting facet and all of this is like, Adam mentioned is
time spent. I think a lot of times I think
about self-discovery. Some of the words that come to
mind and out of your familiar though, you know, like a
constraints based approach ecological Dynamics Theory.
There's some of the stuff we've done podcast on this, in the
past but like like what you're talking about there?
John? I wonder, you know, my questions
was if you had unlimited time, would you best retain us, if you
Self discovered this on your own where you went out and created a
game, where you had to go figure it out, how you are going to do
this, and if that would be more beneficial in the long run,
although it take longer. Am I making any sense?
Adam, is that I do. I mean, I'm interpreting it in
my own way, but I personally wouldn't have discovered random
practice. If I hadn't read the science.
Because because of that performance versus learning
thing, I would have stuck in Block practice because I would
have Felt better with it. I would have formed better with
it and not it is only when I understood that difference, it
was like a light bulb going off. It's like, oh wait there.
Yeah, learn it. But performing in for in
practice, doesn't necessarily mean.
You're actually retaining any of it and the act of forgetting and
then trying to remember it, that's what creates the
retention, and that's why random practice makes sense and then I
started doing it more study see and benefits from it.
So I don't know if I would have discovered it myself.
Elf organically. Yeah, what do you think in
John's case their did? What do you think about doing
that block to get down that this idea of?
Alright, I'm going to go to, you know, what 9:00?
And that's 65 yards. Again, intuitively that makes
sense. I think we would all probably go
towards. I even after reading the blog
versus random debate, my only question on that is.
What if you just dump your random all the time?
You would have made more mistakes.
You probably would have felt like you were learning less but
we don't know what. Left even doing that building
stage, where you're building these different distances.
Well, if you've done the pelts method, just varying it, you
know, going from 40 to 60 to 70. Yeah.
I think along the way how I've always practices, I'm always,
like I'm always paying attention to what the golf ball is doing
and working backwards. So I'm always looking at what's
going on, I'm saying, like, oh, what could I do differently that
time to react to that? So, I don't know if you would
classify that as like, all right?
You know, sometimes I've experimented with, like grip
change. Changes over the years to see
how it would affect my ball flight.
But I'm always like, I've always felt like I work backwards from
what the ball is doing and if I have to you know potentially
like is it my alignment? Is it my grip or something like
that? Or is it you know a lot of other
things like I've always been like an experimenter in general
especially when I was a kid, I used to go in the yard and just
like smack balls around and see what I crazy things I could do
with it. So I'm all for like taking time
out of your session and trying to do like, Sometimes I'm
struggling hooking the ball. I try and hit like an enormous
slice or just like experiment with what that feels like to
help may be neutralized. What's making me hook?
So I don't know if that would fall under the random part of
it, but like it's an experimentation thing, like
challenging myself and through that process, like I'm trying to
solve the problem of my ball flight.
I'm working backwards that's been, my own quirky way of doing
it and how I've arrived up my own golf game, I didn't know
what I was doing at the time growing up or even through the
years, but that's how I felt like I built.
To bring out to the golf course. I love that Adam.
I'm curious your take on that kind of awareness drill where,
you know, intentionally trying to hit a huge slice at a huge
hook, things like Tempo intentionally, you know, going
Tempo. 50% 110% intentionally aiming left of your target line
aiming, right? I love these awareness drills
for people because a lot of people have such a lack of
awareness because they never try anything different.
They just do the same thing over and over.
Yeah, I think that's the core like if We're the core problem,
we're trying to address here. Is like most golfers are doing
the same thing over and over again.
Unusually are not happy with the results.
So what we're trying to do here is take you out of that pattern,
give you suggestions on how to how to get out of that rut and
what you can do. So, you know, the continue with
the experimentation thing, but I think that's like the problem
we're trying to solve here anything.
I'd say we're doing the same thing over and over, is that
even when we are in that block practice mode, we're still
making on-the-fly adjustments, they might be more conscious for
some people. Might be less conscious but, you
know, even if I, if I'm in Block practice mode, I am hitting
straighter shots than I normally would because somewhere
unconsciously. If I hit one left, I know the
feeling of neutralizing that and it's a stage was unconscious now
and I think that's why random practice is better for me
because it makes those adjustments more conscious.
So say, for example, I hit a shot in Block practice.
I hit it left, the next one, it's just automatic.
It's like, I'm this. Such a short period of time
between shots that the adjustment is already inbuilt
into my motor program. Whereas, if I hit one left in
random practice and I have to step back out, then I have to
hit a wedge shot. Then I have to get my 79 and
come back in again. Now, I have to remember I have
to remember that I hit that last shot left and I have to make a
prediction that though this show might go left as well.
Then I have to make a conscious intervention and say do I want
to try Just this shot before it even happens, you know, on the
prediction that is going left. And then I have to even say, how
much of an adjustment do I want to make?
It's all on, it's much more of a conscious process when you're
doing random practice, whereas, like I said, Blok, practice or
low way effectively in the science, doing the same thing
over and over again. We are constantly tinkering and
try and do certain things. It's just, it's more of an
unconscious process, and that's why I think blocked can these
are Obviously benefits to it. You're going to get better if
you do blocked, or are you going to get better than if you did
the same amount of reps random or even the same amount of time
random. So if someone want to have
someone, you know, came to you and said, Adam, like I've been
doing this block thing, my whole golf career without realizing it
and I want to start doing random practice.
Can you give like some tangible examples of like, you know, if
you were at the range for 3045 minutes, something like that,
what would you tell them to do that?
You would think it's Our bread and butter random practice I
suppose. I would start with varying
levels depending on the player. If they are really solid
mentally, you might shove them into full random practice mode.
So changing clubs, changing targets, changing shot type.
So that would be the most difficult form, but then is the
most representative and they'd have to understand the
performance versus learning thing.
Because if they start doing random, they start hitting it
worse. They're going to think.
Well, I'm just Go go to block practice.
Whereas if they understand it, if they understand that they
might perform worse then they're more likely to stick through
that. But yeah it might be a case of I
might select a target for them so he's got a left side boundary
right side boundary and I would say all right you're going to
hit a driver down there. If successful you move to a
wedge down the same Target if successful you move to a 7-iron
down the Target and then if you get all three successfully you
win a point. So there are loads of it.
Such a simple thing, but there's quantification, there's
pressure, they could, even if they struggle with the driver,
they can make the drive the last shot so that, you know, the as
they about to win that point, they're feeling the pressure.
So rather than hide from what we suffer from actually confronting
what we suffer from helps us through it and he's a nice book,
Viktor Frankl Man's Search. For meaning that talks about,
that going really deep here now, are we?
But yeah, it's just it's the random stuff here.
I think you hit on an Oughtn't point there, atom, which is
almost layer. I think this is such a layered
conversation like block and random as such the tip of the
iceberg of this that it's hard to talk about it in concrete
terms. Like yes random yes block kind
of you know, like this is not a black and white kind of thing.
Like because another aspect of you touched on like going
through the mental aspect of, there's a problem here in front
of you. You have to go through all that
problem solving to get to the solution and then try to execute
that solution and then reflect on that, right?
The other You just also hit on was coming in with a plan of
things to do, right? Like how many golfers come I
think? This is probably one of the
biggest things. How many golfers come into any
practice session with any kind of plan, right?
The plan is to hit golf balls and try to hit them straight for
most golfers which as we just talked about, is probably not
where the Learning Happens, unfortunately.
So I mean, for myself, even I know this stuff, like it's very
different. Like, I don't keep a journal of,
you know, kind of a practice plan and don't come in with,
with plans necessarily and I know No, that's a problem and I
think it's something a lot of golfers struggle with because
you just get reactive and then you, you start, you know, down
your swing tips search. Pretty pretty quickly.
I think, at at the bare minimum, you know, sometimes we assume
that people might know more than they do about this topic, but
like, I think a lot of golfers when they go to the range and I
probably did this for a really long time myself.
Like, if you, if you pull them aside, be like, where are you
trying to hit that ball? They would say like, oh, oh,
There. And they're like, where's over
there? You're like, I don't know.
Just out there. And when I always talk about
like, working from my ball, flight backwards, like if I'm
not engaged in where I'm trying to actually land the ball and
seeing what's happening and paying attention to what the
golf ball is doing in relation to my target, then I have, I
believe, zero chance of fixing it, or working it working on
building skills and getting better.
Because like, there's no intention, right?
Like, every golf. Shot you hit on the course, like
you're probably going to be choosing a Target.
So I think a lot of golfers like just need to take the first step
of like maybe going through a routine before they hit each
ball at the range, sometimes, placing the bucket of balls
behind you. So you're like forced to
actually like, pick it up, walk back, take a second and refocus
and actually think about where you're hitting the ball and what
you're trying to do just taking that one simple step of really
it's a step of discipline. I believe could really make a
world. Difference?
Right from there. And then, you know, making start
introducing, like, all right, hit a driver, then a 7-iron,
then a pitching wedge and just go through cycle.
All the targets on the Range try and play a game with yourself
but no matter what. Even if it's random, you're
going to have to stop yourself and think about what you're
doing and pay attention to. What the ball did is I don't
think you have any chance of getting better.
If you don't have that even basic level of Engagement, even
something you said about picking a Target, I wrote a blog post
about three years ago. Four years ago Ago on a guy who
I watched and he's a twenty handicapper, and he's hitting
these shots. And I'm just, I'm looking as
patent and thinking, there's no way this guy is off 20 and then
I asked him that question. What's your Target?
And he looked at me and said, I haven't got a Target, which is
crazy, right? Some people do this, some of you
practice without it. So I gave him a Target out into
the distance and he stood back walked in and then he looked
like a 30 handicapper didn't even look like a 20 handicapper
anymore. So it's amazing how A locus of
attention where we place our attention can change, depending
on what type of practice were doing.
Now, I asked that player. So what were you thinking of?
Before I pick the target for you and he said, well, I was
thinking of my swing or as I can remember exactly what he said,
but it's something more internal and then when I picked a target
for him he started thinking of the Target and the way I see
motor programs, it's almost like Pavlov's dogs in that our motor.
Programs are attached, very strongly to what we are
thinking. Going about, if you give someone
a Target Focus, they might produce one motor pattern might
be a shank pattern and then you give them an internal focus, and
they might be able to produce a more centered strike pattern.
Does that make sense to you guys?
Yeah, I actually think like, there's a disproportionate,
like, I've always, golf is incredibly mental, obviously,
and like, I always look at the 17th at TPC Sawgrass is like the
perfect example of that. Those Pros was at 130 yard shot.
Five, like those guys have would have no issue hitting that
green, or that Target if there was no water around or anything
to like worry about, or all those be like, it would be
automatic, they'd hit that green every time in a practice session
but throw a bunch of water around it and where the pain is
and all of a sudden like it just changes everything for them and
they're hitting disproportionately poor shots,
probably for their normal dispersion on that hole than any
other hole. Just because it's the most
unique mental challenge or One of them in golf probably, like,
I always look at that holes. It's so interesting to me
because like, it just once you change the reference point, you
know, your mind can do some crazy things to your body, and
you can't fit. And I guess my point is that, if
you're not taking that step during practice and you're just
randomly swinging, like there's no pressure on you.
You're just letting your body, you know, free flow and like
that. That's never going to happen on
the golf course. Like you're never going to walk
up to a shot and just be like, I'm just gonna swing and, you
know, I hope you can get to that point but There's always going
to be like more pressure because you got one chance and you're
focusing more on the target at that point.
So yeah, I guess we're trying to get to the point practice where
you're not recreating the golf experience.
Exactly. But you're at least giving
yourself a better chance at dealing with those problems and
practice that you would see on the golf course versus just
winging it and doing nothing special at all.
Definitely, I I've done it where I've let players hit shots
towards 150-yard. Agate and looked at their shop
patterns, and then I've kind of recreated what you were talking
about? The 17th at Sawgrass, by saying
that. Okay, you get a point every time
you hit this 20-yard Square, so you got 20 to 10 yards left, 10
yards, right? 10 yards long, tenured shorts or
20 yards square and you lose three points.
If you miss it or I can even if someone has issues, say someone
comes to me and they say I'm hitting it left, this goes to
court, his point about constraints.
Been spaced learning I would say.
Okay well let's Play a game where you get a point every time
you hit this target, 20 yards, they decide but you lose three,
if you miss it left and you don't lose anything if you miss
it, right? So that starts to evolve the
entire ecosystem of the players or, you know, things like that
are alignment their path. They face their perceptions,
their fears of that left side because they know if you can
visualize this, they know if I miss this left, I'm going to
lose three points. Whereas, if I miss it, right,
there's no loss. I don't gain the point, but I
don't lose. Use and then I say, stand there
until you reach 20 points. So, do you think one of the best
ways to solve this problem for most players would be like some
type of performance game? Yeah, yeah.
That's why would cause like, if you just tell people like, oh,
just rip practice randomly. Like, they don't necessarily
know what that means. And I always view these
performance games as a way to solve that, because it creates
pressure creates that scenario where you are changing targets
every time and you're focusing more on each shot to kind of
solve that problem. Like I've I do it myself more in
the winter. Like I have a, the simulator
thing in my house and like my kids playroom and like I'll just
play around of simulated Golf and to me, that's great random
practice. Because like, I'm playing the
World, Golf Tour and hitting shots.
I'm like Pebble Beach and like, I'm actually like thinking about
what's going on rather than just like slamming, my driver into
the net as hard as I can. Yeah, it's interesting, you
know, on that performance game, there's this whole concept of
like as humans. We either adapt to an
environment and succeed. Over time.
And so, you know, when you create a game, that's really
effective. Hopefully the idea is you get.
So engaged in that game that time goes by really fast, you're
having a ton of fun that it's, you know, appropriate it
challenging and that you learn how to succeed at that game.
If it's a really well structured game, it's going to help your
help your golf game. And so that's what I love about
you know, Adam your your stuff is that a lot of these games to
figure out face control or low Point control stuff like that
that that you A is, it's making people figure it out.
And a lot of times, you know, in that ability to keep going until
they figured out is where that learning that learning is, which
is, which makes it super effective for retention, which
is, which is really what we're looking for.
That would be like, if someone's listening to this and they're
like, how can I get started on this?
Like I would, you know, whether it's like Adams resources or
there's plenty of performance games out there, like that would
be my recommendation is to like approach it find performance
games that challenge you like there's a great short game.
Performance game is called par 18.
We're like you just choose nine Targets on the chipping green
and you're trying to get up and down each time and you register
your score. So you're presented with nine
situations where you have to try and Chip or pitch the ball and
hopefully one pot or two, but at worst and you've got your score
at the end of the round, and you can play that game every week
and keep track of your progress rather than just Now, if you did
have a short game facility, you can access just like smacking
the same sandwich over and over again to the same Target.
That would be. My recommendation is to move
away from that kind of practice to, I think the performance
games like push you in that random scenario where you're
actually like putting real pressure on yourself and it's
and it's just more fun. Like like I tell you when I hit
balls over the winter with the simulator, like I enjoy that way
more than just like hitting balls into a net.
I know not everyone has access to To a simulator.
But like even if you are at the range like playing an imaginary
Golf Course or something like that, it's just more engaging
and more fun. And I think you'll get better
doing that this performance games and there's so many
different layers. You could add on to it.
Random or blocked is just one of them.
A random clubs targets lies shots, whether you doing a 60 or
90 yard shot, but even adding things like observers, you know,
I knew that from group coaching that, you know, just someone
hitting shots on their own. Even if they play in a certain
game, they're going to produce different patterns and So all of
a sudden five or six people that are random watching, I always
tell the anecdote of, I remember hitting shots on the Range in
Spain and just blasting these drivers, big high draws down the
Target and I just, you know, I just felt like a golf God.
And then, I notice behind me that there are a couple of
people watching and I didn't feel any different.
I didn't nothing changed consciously, but then I started
spraying them all over the shop. So it's just that just the
observer effect, right? Schrodinger's golf.
So yeah, adding observers makes it more or realistic
quantification so that we talked about a game where you get a
point. If you hit a Target, you lose
points. If you miss a certain direction
that adds pressure. And if you record those games as
well, if you write down and say right, I scored 100 points today
or 80 out of 100. Today, I'm going to try and beat
that tomorrow. Then there's going to be
pressure. When you start that situation
that very first ball has pressure, and then the emotions
part of it as well. Often we practicing, there are
no emotions. We hit one left.
It's okay, just grab another one.
Whereas, if you're playing a game where you lose three
points, if you hit it left, I've seen people slam their Club into
the ground, which all right isn't great, but it shows the
day they are engaged. Now in the practice, it shows it
means something to them. And if that's who they are and
the golf course they can't shy away from that because then they
never learned a deal with that frustration or the Elysian.
So, all these games that have this quantification is
performance games that John talked about, I call them
transference games because they help you transfer.
Do what you have to the golf course.
I think it's there's so many layers to it.
Well, I feel like we could talk all day on this topic and
there's no doubt that we could, maybe we come back next week and
we, and we share some of our favorite kind of games routines
or habits that, you know, maybe for John and I have helped us
personally, Adam, what you've seen with students what you've
heard about and we can come back and share a few few next time on
that episode. But guys, this has been great,
there's so many things to share and there's so many layers to
this conversation again. We enjoy I really enjoy this and
we could probably do a whole food.
Probably do a Daily Show. Just talking about this.
I guess the real question going to find out is someone going to
listen to that? We got to make it good right.
I hope you. Yeah.
I mean we could go on forever on this stuff and I think like I
think the main point a lot of us I hope I think we're trying to
make is like block is what comes natural to Golfers and we'd want
to push you more towards that random flavor in your practice
just too. Increase your engagement in the
pressure, you put on yourself and I think that's going to give
you a better chance of solving that problem of taking your
skills off the golf course, onto the golf course, that would be
by my final point on that. Because I know that really
pisses people off when they hit a great on the range and then
they can't hit anything close to that on the course.
Yeah, people already do enough. It's just a bummer.
There are no books about practicing golf disappoint.
Yeah there was only one. Alright guys, see you next Week.
Alright, thanks Chase guys.