The Virtue of Being a Stupid Monkey (and How it can Help Your Golf Game)

Best advice you have given.

Here is a question Erik, folks like myself (IT guys) are very weak in the "stupid monkey, George Jetson" motif. It would require us quieting our minds and basically shutting down the advanced function of our brains.

Its almost like we need to get drunk to quiet our minds to a single thought, versus going into over analytical mode.

Ya know?

Yes, for the most part the initial post is right on. The only gotcha that I can see is that having learned as much as I have about the swing I now know how much bad instruction is out there. If you are a golfer blindly following one of these poor instructors you will likely not improve and/or get really frustrated.

I fall into the spend too much time learning category but it has helped me to a point and probably hurt me as well. I have definitely gotten better. Before all the research and blindly following what pros taught me I was about 10 or 9 and today with some better instruction and more knowledge 6 or 4.

Likely might have had better improvement if I had good instruction and worked piece by piece but truth is I was never going to be a PGA Touring pro.

So... You're telling me that with a lobotomy or two, a couple bottles of moonshine, and a few concussions, I'd have what it takes to get on tour?

I went to 2 different ranges today, entirely unaware of this thread. At the first, which we'll call the "control" range, my home course where I have unlimited balls, I hit the ball like crap. I moved to different sides of the range, took breaks, tried hitting a fade instead, changed all sorts of small things. I hit some shots fine and some turned out OK, but very few were the high power draw I'm usually going for. I couldn't make good contact for anything. I went to the green and ended up hitting one good pitch shot, but it went into the hole I wasn't aiming at. Not happy.

So I started putting and basically had to do nothing but aim, and I made more 10+ footers in 20 minutes than I usually make in an hour, and only missed a few short ones. This is in part due to the lack of conscious thought and the fact the greens were perfect and well known to me. OK, I thought, I just need to get out and play this weekend to make myself work it out, and rely on my putting to shoot a decent score. I thought about what obvious thing I was missing to mess everything up, especially the topped shots... When I was hitting the ball really well I usually have the ball way forward and hit it with a big weight shift. I moved it back inch by inch to try and make better contact and draw it, but instead of making my swing steeper it made it narrower and no longer long enough to square up or get up to speed. I was still topping the ball and wasn't making divots, so I knew it couldn't be the answer.

I had a friend who wanted to go to the range for the first time today, so I brought him to the one I had a coupon for, which we'll call the "experimental" range. I hate the range there, it's beat up, mats only, and the balls never get washed let alone replaced, plus it's into constant wind and there are no real targets. But since it's close and all, I brought him there. I tried to point him in the right direction but decided not to give him more than one or two swing thoughts. I decided to just screw around, and after a couple shots to demonstrate things, I moved the ball way up in my stance and just bust it, not trying consciously to get the shaft to lean forward or the club delofted or force it into position. Just make a huge arc and not try to stay over the ball or anything. Put the ball too far forward and do whatever it takes to get after it, even if I need to take a step forwards.

So I ended up hitting the best iron shots I've hit in over a week, high and straight with a controlled draw. I hit a couple drivers into the woods out the back, which few people can do as it's a 250+ carry into the wind with very bad balls and rough the whole way, and even got my short irons polished up which I couldn't hit for my life this morning. Even hit some very nice pitches with a club I hate around the greens.

I'd say I had more of a playing, social mindset compared to practicing alone, and I had to mention a few very basic pointers that dropped my IQ 50 points just to think about them. I also happened to read Hank Haney's tweet about how you should get the "face more closed and the path more right" to draw rather than fade. (I guess he thinks hitting hooks is a good idea) I guess all that in fact made me stupider and less analytical. At any rate, this limited data seems to support the fact that thought is bad for playing good golf.

So of course my friend repaid my good fortune by breaking my old 3 wood shaft at the hosel. Free alignment rod. Somehow I knew that would happen, as I've seen another friend who hit balls for the first time do the same thing at the same range to my buddy's 3 wood last year. Luckily I decided not to bring my titanium mizuno 3 wood because I didn't want it to get damaged on the mats... I actually told him I didn't care if he broke my extra clubs beforehand, though.

I don't like what you have to say -- and I'm never going to do it myself, because that's just not the way I am, and I'm OK with that even to the ultimate detriment of my golf game, and my goodness this is a long interjection -- but accept that you are most probably right.

Good topic. It's interesting to hear your opinion on the PGA players, but it makes sense. I'm one that fell into that trap, but I'm afraid it was inevitable. I'm that way by nature, not just in order to get my swing fixed. When doing math, science or something similar, I'm always looking for the recipe for finding the solution. The solution in itself is not that interesting. I always want to understand what I am doing. At this point, I can't really get rid of what I know, but I like using Evolvr and just doing what they want me to do. I'm sure it's possible to combine knowledge with a practice regime where you focus on one thing at the time, but it's not easy. Being aware of the issue and consciously consider it is in my opinion a good thing. If you don't know that you might be overthinking things and using too much knowledge to the detriment of your swing, you could be in for some trouble. If you, however, read this thread, realize the potential for a problem and try to avoid it, you're probably better suited at avoiding it.

Erik is absolutely correct. I read this post about an hour ago and then went about my normal morning routine, thinking of when I took lessons for the first time back in March. I can't recall once asking the Pro "Why?" If he had said to only use my thumb and pinkie finger to place a ball on a Tee... so be it.

That said, his sugestion of Lighting a candle and placing it on the right hand side Tee marker on all par 5's and any hole with a water carry has been a real game changer for me...

Just a stupid golf monkey!

Explains how you can be on the range and find that zone where you aren't thinking...just setting up and hitting any shot you want. Go out on the course and start over thinking everything and lose that easy feeling.

Zoolander clip...Dance, monkey, dance!

Great post. I agree 100% even though I try to be a smart monkey far too often and it is holding me back. I get side tracked too easily, I'll be working on what my instructor has told me to do and I'll make some self-discovery during the process and start chasing my tail (do monkeys do that?) and eventually lose all contact with what my instructions actually were. It's a fine line between finding the feels that you can associate with the motions you're being asked to practice and being side tracked by something else entirely.

Agree. I'm playing the best golf I've played since focusing on swinging smooth and keeping my left wrist flat via a straight left arm takeaway. A lesson is in order very soon to keep progressing. But uncluttering the mind has helped me.

Call it trust and I am on your page, Erik. In order to follow suit (obey lika a monkey if you will), one needs to see results eventually. When will you publish a thread on patience?

Some just want to know how to tell time and others need to know how to build the watch. Paralysis by analysis has hit us all and I have been my own worst enemy. Then I decided that I don't need to video my swing every week so that I can pick apart style nuances. What I need to do is check in with the camera to monitor progress of the concept I am working on so that I can play decent golf as a weekend warrior. Once I realized by working on a centered turn and starting the downswing in the right sequence, all the "stuff" that I was worrying about took care of itself. My swing is not as pretty as some guys I play with and will never be perfect, but as long as my hands are leading at impact, I hit the ball solidly. At this stage in my life, I want to practice, play, and enjoy it. To keep myself honest, I check in with my instructor every 90 days or so and listen to what he has to say.

About 20 years ago, I had a friend on the PGA Tour that I played 6 rounds with when he was living in South Florida. I remembering asking him for his opinion on my swing. His great wisdom was to "quiet my swing down". It took me years to figure out what he meant but I finally learned that at some point that trying to hit a ball is very different than making a golf swing. He was right of course, but it was not something that he could meaningfully breakdown. He had tempo, balance and grace and shot 29 on the back nine of Doral and I had a swing that looked like a guy getting tasered. I finally realized how important the centered turn was and how swaying, shifting my weight and starting with my shoulders etc. were wrecking my chances of hitting the ball consistently. I worked with several pros that gave me some basics and I was able to get by on this and my athletic ability for quite a while. After my big lay-off, It took an old school pro that had been around the block to see me swing then give me something to work on to make it really sink in. He was the first guy that I committed to working with on a regular basis. Luckily, he knew what needed to be done, and gave me things in small doses. At first I would work on them and then go on my way to something that I thought I needed to work on. It's funny how it always came down to something basic that I was missing, thinking I knew what was best because I was armed with so much golf swing knowledge. It has happened enough times that now I listen and follow his directions without second guessing him. It works out a lot better that way.

Anyway, your point is a good one and it's a reason that I don't get involved in too many swing thread discussions with the exception of my own blog. I don't need to know why it all works and really don't care. I like to think that I know what every good golfer does and that beyond these similarities it can be different (learned that here). Beyond that, there is no reason that I need to make myself crazy (something that I am really good at). What I need to do, is to keep working on my own game and to play more golf.

I confess.. I am not a stupid monkey. And Erik's post buttresses that point perfectly.

In my case, I have to unlearn what I have learned.

So today, I decided I am going to do EXACTLY what my instructors tell me (NO DEVIATIONS). Not 50%, not 25%, and not 75%: 100%.

I am getting that 4% improvement Erik is stressing. I am a bit aggressive (obsessive some would call it), but my intent is not to get better faster... It is to get better perfectly.

So those *ahem* dumb shoulder turning drills are getting a lot of business this week. Sure I feel like a stupid monkey doing them, but my wife (a physiologist) says those dumb drills help your muscles learn what they are supposed to do when the act occurs.

Well, that language thing again. Progress vs. patience. Patience like in be ready to "wait for the good things to come" when doing as you prescribe, work hard and systematic.

Being on golf distance-learning for 18 months was great, but in retrospect I did not fully understand what I have been told to do. That language thing again, plus the lack of knowledge at what to look and check when practicing. In-person training would have been better back then.

Next time I make sure to ask for simpler, understandable orders!

Good things will come, sometimes they just take a while longer. Patience, monkey, focus on one thing at a time...