Welcome to the Grind

[iacas]

I called a friend the other day and asked that he keep the conversation between me and him, because what I wanted to talk about was something that does not really seem to be en vogue these days. I won't share anything that he said except to say that he largely agreed with my take on this.

It's become popular for golf instructors to recommend a lot of "exploratory self-organization." For example, you may hear them say something like:

• If you're hitting the ball off the toe, spray foot powder on your clubface and learn how to hit it off the heel, then use what you've learned to find the center of the face more often.
• If your low point is behind or right at the ball instead of a few inches in front of it, stick a tee in the ground behind the ball and learn to miss the tee but still hit the ground, or put the tee in front and make the club dig it out of the ground.
• If you're hitting a slice, learn to hit a hook, then learn to back do that less until you hit the draw you want.

These are what I could call "skill-building" exercises. The goal is to "explore" and "self-organize" to basically teach yourself. The problem I have is that a golfer left to teach himself will often solve the problem sub-optimally. Furthermore, as you may know, I view your actual technique as a baseline, with the skill building off of that.

I like building skills, and they have their role in your game development. For example, I don't need to hit a 50-yard cut with my 3W very often, but when I need it it's good to know I can probably pull it off. I've hit that shot on the range now and then, and I know how to change things up enough to hit it. But… my technique — my baseline — is also pretty high.

But tell a golfer who is over the top, leaving their weight on their back foot, and flipping the heck out of the club in hitting fat and thin slices to just learn how to hit a hook through exploratory self organization and external cues… and he'll almost certainly learn to do it in a "bad" way (if he learns to do it at all). He might solve the problem by leaving his weight back more, early extending, and rolling his hands over aggressively. Does the ball hook? Maybe. Is it the right way to hit that kind of shot? Rarely.

To put it another way: the golfer given a set of constraints will often solve the problem in a non-desirable or less-than-optimal way. In achieving one task, they may lead themselves down a problematic path in another area that could have been avoided if they were given the answer and were shown how to change the habit.

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I love the quote above: "He didn't get bored with the repetition that you need to be great."

Your current golf swing is a habit. You perform it almost exactly the same every time you swing it — that's why you're the golfer you are. Golfers often say they want to be "more consistent," but they already are:

Many of you here know that I'm a big fan of:

• slow motion rehearsals.
• exaggeration of the feels that you need to improve your mechanics, your technique.

Habits are hard to break, particularly when they occur while you're not looking (your arms, the club, etc. spend a lot of time outside your immediate field of view), at 80+ MPH, and in less than a second and a half. If you've been playing for even a few years, you might have already made "your swing" tens of thousands of times, or hundreds of thousands. You won't need to swing just as many times to change the habit, but you're not going to change it in 20 or 30, either.

The road to substantial improvement is long and has its share of brief departures, setbacks, moments of frustration, small breakthroughs, and tens, hundreds, often thousands of swings.

Welcome to the Grind.

Welcome to the Repetition. May you not get bored.

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When the pandemic hit in March 2020, I'd already been working hard on my game since late 2019. The pandemic gave me even more time to work, and work I did. For about five months, worked on a few things. I worked slowly and with massive exaggeration. I used mirrors, recorded video, set up some light training aids like sticks and traffic cones and other unobtrusive things.

And I worked.

Hard.

In March and April, with little else to do (except film my series) and no lessons to teach, I would go to Golf Evolution and spend four hours there. I might practice for only 2 ½ or 3 hours in that time, playing on my phone or something the rest of the time, but I worked. Slowly. Exaggeratedly.

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Walk up and down the range of a PGA Tour stop and you're going to see a few things.

• Lots of training aids.
• Video recording.
• Exaggeration.
• Slow motion rehearsals.
• Instructors.
• Trackman/FlightScope/GCQuads.
• Repetition.

You won't see many guys spraying the face to see if he's hitting it flush, you won't see many hitting a big hook followed by a tight cut. You won't see guys taking one swing where they roll it way inside, and then another where they keep the clubhead outside of their hands going back. They don't do much self-organization: they all tend to know what two or three things they're working to keep in their performance window.

These guys know what it takes to get better. When they're practicing (not warming up), it's a bit of a grind. It's a lot of repetition. They'll hit a shot, look at the result, maybe look at the video or their launch monitor. Maybe adjust a training aid or alignment stick. They'll make some exaggerated moves, talk with their coach or caddie, then they'll do it again.

You get the picture.

There are not really any shortcuts, yet your body and brain will seek them out whenever possible.

Resist.

Embrace the grind. Embrace the repetition.

Even if you make only one step toward your final goal, it's forward progress.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

It took Tiger Woods — the greatest to ever play the game — over a year to make his swing changes. Yes, his standards were higher than yours will be, but he's also really good. If it took Tiger Woods a year or more to make a change, working at it for hours per day, it's going to take you awhile, too. I've been working on similar things for nearly a decade. That's okay, because if I look back at my swings from 2009… I'm shocked at what I see. I've made a bunch of progress, but it's all been slow. There have been moments of clarity, mini breakthroughs, but even those require repetition to lock in. You might progress faster or slower. You might work for a few years and only get halfway to where you thought you'd be… but that's halfway better than where you started.

It takes willpower. Fortitude.

Learn to love it. Don't get bored with the repetition. Squeeze it for all it's worth.

Keep notes. Record and label your videos. Delight in the steps you take in the right direction. Be mindful of other things popping up, especially if you've dealt with them before and can dispatch of them quickly.

But learn to grind. This is the way.

[saevel25]

This reminded me of this quote…

You got to raise your baseline to the level of your goals if you want to reach them. I 100% agree you have to enjoy the process. That is even part of learning optimally and getting better. 

[iacas]

That made me laugh, @saevel25, because I have this screenshot in my recent list:

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Also, everyone… if you like this post, please do three things:

1.  Like it or give it a reaction.
2. Add a comment of your own. Argue, agree, share your experience, whatever.
3. Consider joining us in the “5 Minutes Daily” topic.

[darthweasel]

my primary thought is probably a bit pedantic but the word "grind" is one I have personally come to try to avoid. If it is truly a "grind" that limits the improvement...as books such as The Practice of Practice and others I likely should reference point out, when practice is miserable the ceiling for improvement is low. One famous musician was quoted as saying something along the lines of "I have never practiced a day in my life because I enjoyed the process. Learning the scales..." and so forth, words like that and he went on. His point was he enjoyed practice, he enjoyed the feeling of improvement and that fueled his improvement. 

When you said "learn to love it" that was the golden ticket to my thinking. The underlying point is turning the practice into something a person enjoys will allow those repetitive drills and movements to matter. If it is a grind, though...much less so.

I believe one of your other points ties into the oft-quoted "practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect".  100% true that practicing poor technique will not lead to improvement.

It does however lead to a certain cognitive dissonance for me with some of the stuff recommended. Saw a Padraig Harrington video where he was talking about if he wanted to shape the ball a certain direction he would exaggerate it in his practice swings. That is something I have always struggled with. I am not trying to learn how to brush my hip as he was doing on his practice swing. Don't want the brain insulating those neurological pathways as a success. yet that is something shown to do many times by successful people. But that risks being on a tangent so I will tap out here. 

[phillyk]

I was told about a lesson from Carl Welty.  He had a tour player of some kind come in.  Carl took a video of his swing and they sat in the studio.  Carl didn’t say anything, he simply queued the tape and the specific sequence. The student asked questions, but Carl didn’t talk. He just played the sequence until the student figured it out. That was it.

If the student knows their swing and the swing from the perspective of their coach, then sometimes self exploration works.  I’m not saying self explore from the beginning.  I think once you have that baseline at a good point, figuring things out on your own is good.

12 hours ago, iacas said:

That's okay, because if I look back at my swings from 2009… I'm shocked at what I see. I've made a bunch of progress, but it's all been slow.

I saw my swing in the 2017 Newport video recap and laughed.  I remember thinking at the event that my swing was just fine.  I feel I’ve come a long way.  Makes me wonder what the swing will look like in another 5 years.  I’ve been working on the same set of swing thoughts for several months now and it may take years to get it down.

Grinding it out may sound extreme but there are many ways to make it enjoyable.  It doesn’t have to be swinging away on the range or in a studio.  

[iacas]

7 hours ago, darthweasel said:

my primary thought is probably a bit pedantic but the word "grind" is one I have personally come to try to avoid. If it is truly a "grind" that limits the improvement...as books such as The Practice of Practice and others I likely should reference point out, when practice is miserable the ceiling for improvement is low.

Thanks for your feedback.

I think where we get off track with each other is that you're holding on to your definition of "grind" as being absolutely and always a "negative" or something.

Grinding doesn't have to be miserable. You acknowledge that I mean this when you quote me saying "learn to love it" or something, but that's the point: I thoroughly enjoy rounds where I'm "grinding." Tiger has said similar things, and you know he revels in those rounds. It takes determination and willpower, a stick-to-it-iveness, etc. That's the "grind" part, the willpower, but it can be perfectly enjoyable the vast majority of the time.

7 hours ago, darthweasel said:

One famous musician was quoted as saying something along the lines of "I have never practiced a day in my life because I enjoyed the process. Learning the scales..." and so forth, words like that and he went on. His point was he enjoyed practice, he enjoyed the feeling of improvement and that fueled his improvement.

Yeah… enjoyment doesn't mean it's not a grind. The Major League Baseball schedule is a grind, but there are umpires and fans and players and equipment managers who love it.

7 hours ago, darthweasel said:

When you said "learn to love it" that was the golden ticket to my thinking. The underlying point is turning the practice into something a person enjoys will allow those repetitive drills and movements to matter. If it is a grind, though...much less so.

See, like I said, I feel like you're so attached to your definition of "grind" as including "negative" that you're not reading it as I'm using it.

7 hours ago, darthweasel said:

I believe one of your other points ties into the oft-quoted "practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect".  100% true that practicing poor technique will not lead to improvement.

I mean, if you slice the ball, you can learn something, maybe, about yourself or your swing if you learn to hook the ball. But I think it's limited, particularly if the way you learn to hit a draw or a hook is a "bad" way.

7 hours ago, darthweasel said:

It does however lead to a certain cognitive dissonance for me with some of the stuff recommended. Saw a Padraig Harrington video where he was talking about if he wanted to shape the ball a certain direction he would exaggerate it in his practice swings.

Well, first, I've never said "don't work on building skills." I've never said "don't do any self discovery type practices" either.

Second, you're not a multiple major winner (I saw the same segment, I think), so you shouldn't really be trying to shape the ball all that much. 😀 Not for normal golf shots.

7 hours ago, phillyk said:

If the student knows their swing and the swing from the perspective of their coach, then sometimes self exploration works.  I’m not saying self explore from the beginning.  I think once you have that baseline at a good point, figuring things out on your own is good.

Yes, it can be. Absolutely.

7 hours ago, phillyk said:

I’ve been working on the same set of swing thoughts for several months now and it may take years to get it down. 

Might be true, yes.

7 hours ago, phillyk said:

Grinding it out may sound extreme but there are many ways to make it enjoyable.  It doesn’t have to be swinging away on the range or in a studio.  

Many ways, yes. Definitely.

Today I used my HackMotion and watched the graphs. I learned a bit, but at the end of the day… I was working on basically the same things on which I'm always working.

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Also, to add a few points:

• This post is mostly for the people who want to get really good. If you're currently shooting in the 90s, and you aspire only to shoot in the 80s, you can get there without grinding for months or years. This is for the guy or gal who wants to shoot in the 70s… or 60s.
• What you work on might change over time. If you have three priorities, as you work on one, it might fall down and become a lower priority item. So, you might not be grinding on the same thing for the whole time you're dropping your index.
• I think I had a third point I thought of today, but I'll edit or post again if I think of it, as it escapes me at the moment.

[Vinsk]

I believe golf itself is a grind. In my opinion it’s the most difficult sport to achieve one’s expectations once they start the game. It’s humbling to say the least.

Yet we carry on with drills, videos, and always look for a better day. That one crisp shot brings us back. Call it a grind? I’m in.

[iacas]

[GolfLug]

Great OP and follow ups. I am glad it was bumped or I would have missed it altogether.

I cannot agree more with the grind aspect of learning. We all learn differently and some of us are so heavily conditioned to go through life continuously evaluating cause and effect in every aspect and also to our own detriment continuously adjusting accordingly. Lot of it is unconscious and lot of it is deliberate. In other words, we tend to be too smart for own good. 

I have learned this year to much improved practice habits (goodish... in comparison to previous habits, not great.. I admit) that breaking into a new levels takes repetition until you cannot do something any other way but the one way. Our own distractions and soft commitments make this very difficult but therein lies the challenge. 

Honestly it seems to be the only true 'secret' of the golf swing. 

Edited November 23, 2022 by GolfLug

[Big Lex]

I agree...it's repetition that's needed, oodles of it.

I see your point about the self-organization idea, but I do think that becoming good at a complex motor skill requires alot of personal exploration. A teacher can guide and show you what something should look like, but you have to figure out what it feels like to you. Taking a lesson is only helpful if you can actually learn how to do the thing you were taught, and in the end it may not feel like what it did that first time you did it in the lesson. This is what I have found so hard in golf. One day, you feel a certain thing, and you get good results from it. The next day, you think you are feeling the same thing, and you start getting bad results.

I've always assumed this meant that I just wasn't sensitive enough to what I was actually feeling.

My ballroom dance teacher (elite, national champion level) says that if you don't practice certain skills daily, you basically never learn them, because they fade quickly, and when you try again, you basically have to learn from almost the beginning again. 

Ok so here is a question: If even bad golfers repeat their swings consistently - which I agree they do - why don't we get consistent shot results? Why is my disperson 80 yards, and a tour pro's is 25 yards, if both of us repeat our swings? We must be varying _something_ alot more than they are. What is it? 

[iacas]

23 minutes ago, Big Lex said:

I see your point about the self-organization idea, but I do think that becoming good at a complex motor skill requires alot of personal exploration. A teacher can guide and show you what something should look like, but you have to figure out what it feels like to you.

Two points to that:

1. That's generally not what "self organization" is. Self organization as I'm talking about it here, and as used by many on Golf Twitter (etc.), is "oh, you're hitting a slice? Learn to hit a hook and then work back toward the middle." It's often not guided by a coach/instructor, hence, "self."
2. A teacher should do more than "show you what something should look like." He should help you explore (it's not self, it's guided exploration) and make you aware of the boundaries or windows.

25 minutes ago, Big Lex said:

My ballroom dance teacher (elite, national champion level) says that if you don't practice certain skills daily, you basically never learn them, because they fade quickly, and when you try again, you basically have to learn from almost the beginning again. 

Agreed.

26 minutes ago, Big Lex said:

Ok so here is a question: If even bad golfers repeat their swings consistently - which I agree they do - why don't we get consistent shot results?

You do. Your definition of "consistent" just stinks.

Your results simply aren't precise. But golfers aren't out there hitting basically random types of shots all the time.

Beyond that, golf requires such precision, that 2° or 1cm difference here or there produce vastly different results, but the swings are still consistent.

26 minutes ago, Big Lex said:

We must be varying _something_ alot more than they are. What is it? 

The tiny things: face angle, path, contact location (with the ground and the ball)… And even among those, it's mostly face angle and contact location, as path tends to be pretty consistent.

Some golfers put themselves in bad spots where, for example, their trail elbow gets too far stuck and so when it "thrusts out" they can shank it or flush it, or the face angle can change quite a bit from the thrust, so they hit what seem like very different shots. But the pattern is the same.

[dennyjones]

I can relate to the grind because of my music background.   I didn't start playing music at full speed, it was tedious, repetitive, sometimes very boring but with patience and persistence dividends were eventually received.   

Very great topic.   I'll come back to this frequently as a reminder of what is needed to improve. 

[iacas]

21 hours ago, dennyjones said:

I can relate to the grind because of my music background.   I didn't start playing music at full speed, it was tedious, repetitive, sometimes very boring but with patience and persistence dividends were eventually received.   

Very great topic.   I'll come back to this frequently as a reminder of what is needed to improve. 

Musicians tend to be very good at practicing.

[Phil McGleno]

Let us see:

Random practice promoted hard-Check.

It is like he read your list above-And is just sending it out like gospel.

[cedrictheo]

I love the grind. I learned to love it from Mr. O’Grady. We would show up at sunrise and leave at sunset every single day of a MORAD school. Wish he’d let me go to another one.

 

I do a 90 minute to 2 hour session everyday. 30 minutes mechanics. 30 minutes measured practice hitting to targets and measuring proximity… Then 30 - 60 minutes either on mechanics again or playing a simulated round.

[iacas]

Here's a video of me practicing from earlier today:

The video is 12 minutes long, and yes, I spend a little time walking over to the mat after starting the video, and away from the mat after "finishing." I hit nine balls during this 12:00.

You may notice a few things:

• I check my grip fairly often.
• I check the balance in my feet now and then.
• I have mirrors in front of me and down the line. I check them relatively often.
• This shirt bugs me a little bit in the left shoulder. 😉
• It's 1:48 before I hit my first ball.
• I walk out to collect balls twice. This is intentional - it lets me process what I've been doing a little.
• I exaggerate a few things. Right arm stuff at 3:55 and 4:30, a right foot or thigh thing at 9:50…
• The ball is almost irrelevant. I might make a whole swing looking at my hands or in the mirror, and then just hitting the ball.

This is a bit of a grind, but it doesn't mean it's boring or "negative."

You don't grow when you're comfortable.

[Denny Bang Bang]

A phrase I really like related to “grinding”… is “embrace the suck”.  Going through something difficult sometimes results in very positive experiences and outcomes.

[Vinsk]

That’s actually motivating to me @iacas. Did you ever struggle with keeping your lead arm straight? I’ve done so many repetitions with this and seems the instant I go beyond 1/2 speed it bends. What’s hard for me is how it totally feels straight, just like when I’m going slow. Yet video shows I’m bending the hell out of it every time.