Two of my favorite reading materials are the daily newspaper and the weekly edition of Golfweek Magazine. Golfweek is more about player information, and the stats list for all of the professional, amateur, collegiate and junior golf tours. Golfweek also contains all the money and world ranking lists for all these tours. Now it even includes some instruction pieces, featuring the teacher and the student, highlighting the problems and the corrections.
I am reading the December 12 ' 19, 2009 Golfweek issue which heavily discusses and disseminates the PGA and LPGA Qualifying Schools and introduces the qualifiers to the golf world. One article, starting on page 40 and ending on page 45, really caught my attention. It is titled, 'Number Crunching: 2009'¦Ups & Downs,' which highlights and details the players on the PGA and LPGA Tour that made the biggest climb up or down the world rankings in 09 and why it happened. Page 40 has a half red arrow (for hot) in the left column pointing up, and in the right column the other half is a blue arrow (for cold) pointing down. The next 2 pages have a full shaded red up arrow in the middle, and the last 3 pages have a blue down shadow arrow in the middle of them.
The up players featured are the PGA Tour's Hunter Mahan, Zack Johnson, Sean O'Hair and Craig Bowden of the Nationwide Tour. The LPGA Tour's up players featured are Mina Harigae and Allison Hanna. For most of the players improvement was mostly accredited to improved driving or putting. Most of those who improved putting admitted to being good ball strikers and that making more putts took them up another level.
The down players for the PGA Tour are Anthony Kim, who cited injury as the primary reason for his fall. Adam Scott fell and he said he didn't really know why but figured it was likely poor posture affecting his swing. The article said, 'His driving was atrocious (he ranked 148th) and so were other phases of his game (162nd in greens in regulation, 177th in putting).' Adam is quoted ad saying, 'I have to get back to basics.' Stuart Appleby is also listed on this page assessing his problem as, 'I was getting so results oriented. I just need to relax and play the game and get into one shot at a time.' Parker McLachlin made swing changes, starting the day after his first win, looking 'for a better and more efficient way to swing the club.' He had a tough year with his changes, falling 385 spots to 509 in the world rankings. Dicky Pride fell 478 spots to # 753 and attributed it to driving, injury and more.
The LPGA had only 1 representative, Dorothy Delasin, on the down list.She fell 237 spots in the World rankings to # 430. Her story is the one I really am focusing on for this article and is the basis for the title. The article starts, 'Delasin had a better shot of finding Waldo than a fairway. Left. Right. The LPGA Rookie of the Year had no idea which way her ball was headed. She tried to incorporate swing changes but said her 'MUSCLE MEMORY' wouldn't cooperate. Two different swings resulted in 16 missed cuts and $0 in earnings. She scored 80 or higher in 11 of her 32 rounds.' Naturally, she had to go back to LPGA Q School the first time in 10 years and shot 90 in the first round. She told her brother, who was caddying for her, 'Maybe I should just aim for the water ' then it won't go in
The article goes on to reveal that, 'Delasin insists that if she played in short game tournaments, she'd win every week. She tied for 150th in fairways hit (43.5%) and T -148 in Greens hit (50%). It's hard to explain how a former US Women's Amateur and US Girls' Junior Champion can loose her way so severely. Delasin points to instruction.'
The article states that after four victories in her first four years on tour that Delasin, in an effort to gain consistency, changed swing coaches. Before that, her father, Arsenio, had been her only instructor. Delasin Says, 'If I knew then what I know now, I would not have done it. Maybe I should go back to (my father).'
Hello Dorothy'¦GO Back! And Run'¦don't walk! I am not saying this just because her first and only teacher was her dad. No matter who it was, what they worked on made her a champion and together they can get it back.
This changing teacher issue and driver and swing problems for Dorothy is not the ultimate reason for this article as the title states. It has something to do with the mind in swinging and playing. Let me state the clue, which is in the first paragraph. 'The LPGA Rookie of the Year had no idea which way her ball was headed. She tried to incorporate swing changes but said her muscle memory wouldn't cooperate.' My point and topic today is this concept of Muscle Memory. What triggered me to write this, since I have written a few articles on muscle memory, is this misrepresentation of muscle memory for learning motion skills. That's not what really happens. There is no such thing as muscle memory. There is 'MENTAL MEMORY.'
Muscles do not have a brain and, in fact, only move because the brain sends impulses to them, telling the muscles what, when and how to move. This happens from the brain, the mind, learning first and foremost to comprehend and understand what happens in swinging a club to hit a golf ball:What has to happen, Why does it have to happen, and How do you make it happen. That is why I spend so much time in lessons, in my videos and in articles discussing the physics of the what and why of the movement needed for a club to hit a ball solid and straight. Once we know and understand the motion needed, then we have to know and understand the physiology of HOW the body moves to produce the motion needed to swing to hit the ball solid and straight.
The point here to learning a swing is simple. As long as golfers believe in muscle memory, focusing on that which does not exist, they will have problems learning and remembering a swing. And their problems will be exacerbated. Learning a swing like the rotational swing that has a high potential for error, they are also learning a swing that has a high degree of stress and strain.
What triggered me to write this, addressing muscle memory, was watching the CBS evening news the same evening I read about Delasin. One of the feature stories concerning medicine was about a man being fitted with a robotic hand. I 'Binged' it this morning. (Note: In case you didn't know, 'bing' is Microsoft's answer to Google. I didn't know it either… until my new son-in-law pointed it out to me.) and it and came up with this article that refers to the TV news story.
Click here to read the full story on CBS News (a new tab, (or window) will open).
ROME, Dec. 2, 2009
Man Said to Control Robotic Hand with Mind
Scientists Say Amputee Could Feel Sensations in Artificial Limb and Control it with his Thoughts
(AP) A robotic hand has been successfully connected to an amputee, allowing him to feel sensations in the artificial limb and control it with his thoughts, a group of European scientists said Wednesday.
The experiment lasted a month, and the scientists say it was the first time a patient has been able to make complex movements using his mind to control a biomechanic hand connected to his nervous system.
The Italian-led team said at a news conference Wednesday in Rome that last year it implanted electrodes into the arm of the patient who had lost his left hand and forearm in a car accident.
The prosthetic was not implanted on the patient, only connected through the electrodes. During the news conference, video was shown of 26-year-old Pierpaolo Petruzziello as he concentrated to give orders to the hand placed next to him.
“It's a matter of mind, of concentration,” Petruzziello said. “When you think of it as your hand and forearm, it all becomes easier.”
Learning a golf swing is like adding 1 + 1 + 2. You have to understand it and remember it in the mind. Learning any physical movement is no different. It is all in the mind, where knowledge is learned and understood and stored for future use. When movement is involved, all the movement begins by the mind sending the message impulses to the muscles to move correctly for the desired swing. Start swinging with your mind learning the swing, not your muscles. The degree and speed of your improvement may shock you.
Turn your hands, arms and body movement to work the same as Mr. Petruzziello controls his robotic hand. Like him, you will experience that your mind is what has control of what matters.
The Surge!