November 2011www.insidegolf.com.au54 instruction ........................................

LeeHarringtonThere are the four areas that make or break a golfer’s performance and improvement possibilities.

The first is God-given TALeNT which cannot be learnt or bought. The second is TeChNIQUe which can be learnt and honed throughout your golfing life. The third is TeChNOLOGY which can certainly make up for the insufficiencies and inconsistencies within the ball striking arena.The fourth is TeMPO, which when harnessed can mask technique problems within the swing.

Let’s treat talent as a given and move to technique and technology. My husband and I have been golf coaches for over 15 years and are amazed at the new technology available to us. We recently went to the US to seek out these new inventions and were amazed with several new products that make it easier than ever before to improve your swing. We were so impressed with one particular product that we brought it home with us to the Gold Coast to use in our Golf Schools. The system is called Swing Model. Through this product, Technology is making technique flaws more and more visible to everyday players and elite players alike.

This program models your ideal swing for your body type based on the top players on tour. You cannot swing it like Jason Day if you’re 50 years old and overweight, but this program makes allowances for your physical capacity and build and makes the best possible model.

Once the computer has this ideal model for you, it then overlays your actual swing over the top of the model. It breaks the swing into 10 positions

from set up to finish and lets you work on each section at your own pace and with extreme detail. each lesson is retrievable from the website server with comments and drills to help train the positions. The program then fits the ideal club make, model and measurements for you, from every major brand on the market, and also gives you your ideal ball choice for irons and woods.

The other part of technology is the ease of use of the modern equipment and its ability to adjust for your deficiencies. Yes, those adjustable and draw-biased attributes in equipment do work, but I would much rather fix your swing than create a problem with weight distribution in a driver head. The reason being, if you can adjust one club, it will play very different to the rest of the set. This is the one thing I don’t like about modern equipment. Most

amateurs don’t have a matching set of clubs and therefore need a different swing with each club. Shaft weights, flex points, flexes, torques, swing weights and lengths are not consistent from brand to brand or model to model. You just cannot put the same swing on different brands and models and get the same flight result.

The final T, Tempo, or the time duration consistency of each swing is the undeniable ‘x’ factor that holds golfers’ games together when technique makes them fail. A simple answer to improve this is to use a small metronome attached to your hat when practicing and keep within the same beats with each shot, or simply count ‘one and two’ with an emphasis on ‘and’ as the transition from end of backswing to start of the downswing.

Golf has never been easier to improve.

The 4 T’s – Talent, Technique, Technology & Tempo

Lee harrington is a PGA Member and is also the Development Officer at Golf Queensland. her passion for teaching and an eye for detail is recognised in her reputation as a leading female teacher in Australia. Lee’s experience in teaching provide a basis for programs delivered The Golf School, a Queensland-based teaching facility. Lee teaches at the Gold Coast Carrara weekly. www.thegolfschool.com.au. email: admin@thegolfschool.com.au, or phone (07) 5596 3373.

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Handling distractionsAnneRolloDOeS this sound familiar?

You’re playing well and it starts to rain. You hate the rain. everything gets wet. You get flustered. Then you hit a bad shot and start to get frustrated, your game goes south and you end up turning a potentially nice round into a disaster.

Or....You’re playing well when play starts to get slow. You hate slow play. It drives you insane. You get frustrated and your score starts to reflect your frustrations.

Or....You’re playing well but the person you are playing with loves a chat. You hate people that talk while you play. You don’t want to be rude so you say nothing but you start getting frustrated and your game goes to pieces.

There are loads of distractions when you play golf. Being a good golfer involves an ‘extra skill’: not letting these things bother you. Tune it out and keep concentrating. Fewer excuses means more good scores.

Make a mental note to not be put off by anything. Stay upbeat, stay positive and look at the bright side of everything. It might take some practise but you could even go a step further and use it in your favour, each time something comes up to annoy you, turn it around and use it to make you focus better and stay in the concentration zone.

Do what the pros do and hone that ‘extra skill’ needed for consistently good scores.

Anne rollo is an ALPG golf professional, and author of ‘Passport to great golf ’, an ‘On Course Guide’ to help your game. Visit www.fixmygolfswing.com.au.