Learn from Lee Westwood

I had the pleasure of working with Lee Westwood at the beginning of last year. It turned out to be a renaissance year for him as he got back to a level of consistency and winning golf that had been missing for too long.

It became very clear early on that Lee actually needed very little help from me as he has one of the toughest minds in the world of golf.

When Lee gets the opportunity to win a tournament it is very rare that he lets things slip.

His awesome closing round in last year’s British Masters was a display of sustained brilliance in a high-pressure situation.

One area that I feel that Lee did take on board from our work – and which is relevant to all golfers – is that he decided to stop taking too much information from swing coaches.

In the search for the perfect action, much of his natural shot-making capability had been stifled and he had got to the point where he was playing golf swing out on the course as opposed to golf.

Lee started to work on a few (for him) fundamental keys in his game but then got back to creating shots out on the course as opposed to being lost in the search for technical perfection.

The way that the human mind is built really does not allow us to ‘think’ about what we are doing in pressure situations and expect to perform at our best.

To get semi scientific for a moment it is interesting to read what Dr Gregory Mihailof a professor of Neurobiology has to say about this:

“In learning to make a golf swing TWO neurologically relevant points seem very clear.

“First, the movement must be practiced and to be most effective, each repetition should be as close to the desired form as possible.

“Second, the CONSCIOUS cerebral cortex control circuitry needs to be ELIMINATED from the performance of the movement as SOON as is feasible.”

This is science telling us not to fall into the trap that Lee was bright enough to see that he had go into.

The professor is telling us when we practise or take practice swings to make the action as close as possible to the real thing and actively work towards being able to let go of conscious thinking out on the course.

I also had the opportunity recently to meet one of my boyhood heroes, Seve Ballesteros, at a Special Olympics charity day.

The man still has the most incredible aura about him and he transfixed the gathered audience with tales of Open Championships and Ryder Cup battles.

He also mentioned that he too felt that at the end of his career he went down a route of looking for technical perfection.

As a result he took on the advice of too many coaches and interestingly he made the point that towards the end of his playing days the only shots that seemed to come off as he wished were the impossible recovery shots that necessitated that he stop thinking technique and just allowed a shot to be created in his mind.

Please do not think that this article is saying that you shouldn’t take coaching.

Far from it, a poor technique with a good mind is still a poor technique!

What I am saying though is be very careful and avoid the temptation to go from the coach that you know and trust to another one who looks as though he might have the secret.

The secret is that there is no secret!

This game is about working with solid fundamentals technically, physically and mentally.

By its very nature the game will be one of ups and downs but be prepared to ride out the down period by having faith in what you are doing and take a message from both Lee Westwood and Seve Ballesteros by being careful of too much information.