Just because I live in Jupiter, Florida, where we experience perfect weather all year long, it doesn't mean that I don't know what's happening in other places around the country. As someone who deals with avid and rabid golfers on a daily basis, I know that to a lot of you, the onset of winter signals the end of the golf season.
Back when I started working with golfers in 2000, there weren't a whole lot of golfers working out -- and those who were working out weren't generally doing it in a very golf-centric way. I was among a group of less than a handful of people trying to connect the world of golf with the world of fitness.
I appreciate and am honored that people think that I have a handful of "tips" that I can toss out to help someone's game, but the truth is that "tips" don't work.
Memorial Day and the Fourth of July have come and gone and Labor Day is still about a month and a half away. In theory, this is when you should be playing your best golf. Even with the extra-long winter that a lot of the country experienced, you should have shaken any rust off your game by now. And you still have a few weeks before the dog days of August start to really test your stamina and endurance.
The idea is that you rehearse in your mind what you want to do and then by continuing to imagine yourself doing it, you connect your brain and your intentions to your body and your sports performance. Even when you're away from the course or practice range, you're still able to work on your game by creating the "feel" that you want to have when you swing a club. It's a powerful tool that's worked for a lot of players. There's only one problem: what if your "feel" is wrong?
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking I'm about to go all "Zen and the Art of Putting" on you. But I'm not talking about your doubts and fears and the random thoughts that pop into your mind to distract you from playing well. I'm talking about your actual head. Skull, brain, eyeballs, teeth, and hair.
People are starting to get an idea of what I do when I'm working with players at the Joey D Golf Sports Training Center in Jupiter. There have been pictures and videos and a bunch of articles and blogs I've done. A lot of people have asked me, though, how the work I do on the road differs from what I do when I'm back at HQ. To give you a sense of what a typical day on the Tour is like -- and to give you an idea of how you may want to structure your playing day -- here's what 24 hours on Joey D Street is like.
I talked a lot about grounding yourself and getting in touch with the way your feet interact with the surface below them. I'm guessing that a lot of you -- especially those of you who've met me -- may have thought that was a little bit Zen coming from a guy like me.
I don't look like someone who spends a lot of time contemplating the "Third Eye" and how Chakras get aligned. But even if you're not deeply into yogic ideas, there's no way you can ignore the mind-body connection when it comes to golf.
Despite the fact that the PGA Tour year now officially starts in the fall, a lot of pros still look at the January events in Hawaii and southern California as the real start of the season. And even though they're pros who play golf for a living, if they've taken a few weeks off before heading to a tropical paradise for the Sony Invitational or the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, they still can find themselves slightly out-of-sync with their game.
I talked to Ben Curtis when I was out on the west coast and he admitted to feeling a little bit rusty. Just a small break from playing was enough to take him out of his game.
Does what I do help a swing coach…or does what I do interfere with what a swing coach is trying to accomplish? Do players even need to work with a swing coach or a club pro if they're working with a biomechanics coach?
