One constant with the whole alternate reality that we're all experiencing is that we just don't know what's around the corner. Are we due to have a second spike and further lockdown?, are we going to have further relaxations of the measures sooner rather than later? Are we going to be able to meet up with 3 other people outside the household and therefore be able to play in 4-balls? So many members have commented as to how nice it's been to be able to play with a guaranteed tee-off time and to be able to plan their day as virtually every round has been taking 3 hours. Once we are allowed to move to 4-balls it would be great to be able to keep the pace of play as free as it has been. In many cases slow play is either because golfers simply try too hard and take too long with multiple practice swings and all the unnecessary fluff that doesn't actually help, or because they get caught up in being methodical. For example, it's fine to take your time and clean your club, check the yardage, write your score etc if you're the last one to tee off, but if you're the first one you need to get going and leave that until after your shot. Simple fixes to keep everyone playing at a reasonable pace and happy. Of course Professional golfers are also to blame for slow play, watching some of the golf on TV is definately not speedy and I see quite a few golfers who have been coached to adopt a drawn out pre-shot routine which I would usually see as being another example of trying too hard, I like players to just "get on with it." If you watched my Facebook video series you'll know that I have the same philosophy with coaching - the aim is to hit the 'next ball better' and not need to practice and spend countless hours in order to get something to work. As long as we make a steep impact shallower, or a shallow impact steeper, the ball flight will immediately improve and in so doing the golfers understanding of what they should and shouldn't do also improves, providing long term improvement. It was nice to get back out coaching this week and I witnessed some fantastic quick improvements. In terms of COVID procedures for coaching, I'm conducting 30 minute lessons, booked on the hour which gives me time to pick the balls up and clean anything that's required before the next lesson. It's easy to coach from 2 meters away as I use ball flight and divot (or sound at the moment) to diagnose faults and don't need to get close to show a video or anything like that. If you'd like to book in for any help with your game, or to have something to focus on as you play your next games, just let me know. Happily we can open for club-fittings from the 15th June and the Pro Shop will be open for retail at that time as well - at the moment we're only open for help, bookings and click and collects. Very shortly these newsletters will be bedecked with pictures once again, whilst my editor has been furloughed, I've not had the time to add pictures and just added this text, so it will get all 'pretty' again soon. |