Bringing YOUR 'anaesthetised' putting back to life

ONE of my fondest memories of working with top players was of time spent with Darren Clarke just prior to him winning his second World Golf Championship in Akron. We really seemed to hit on something with his putting.

Possibly the most 'mental' aspect to golf is actually rolling the ball into the cup. In terms of actual physical demands on your body and co-ordination putting doesn't rank too high. As the old saying goes 'my grandmother could have holed that!' and in many ways she probably could because physically the task is relatively small.

Ask you granny to pummel the ball 300 yards off the tee however and we have a bit more of a problem. Yet in terms of the mind we have a completely different degree of difficulty. The greatest ball striker of all time Ben Hogan was driven to distraction by his inability to hole apparently simple putts.

That pressure-filled task of rolling the ball into the hole on the last green, be that for The Open or to break 90 for the first time affects us all. But first let's work backwards. I would like you to think of what you currently do on the putting green just before you go out to play a round of golf, that vital 10 to 20-minute period of time that I consider crucial to the way that you will perform in the day ahead of you.

I would like you to consider what this period of time is actually all about. What purpose does this exercise actual fulfil? Or are you doing what we have often talked about and going through the same ritual as everybody else, just because everybody else does that.

For me, that period should fulfil two vital goals. One, you should leave the practice putting green with ENHANCED feel for the greens for that day and, two, you should have increased your confidence in your ability to HOLE out from short range.
If you leave the putting green with those two goals fulfilled then you have spent your time wisely.

But is that what actually happens to you or have you just spent those vital minutes going through your normal INEFECTIVE motions? How many balls do you take onto the practice green with you? Do you take more than one? How many balls do you roll at the hole that actually miss? How much time do you spend just hitting putts from 15 to 20 feet?

If you are like the majority of golfers you will probably be nodding your head in answer to those questions and if you are that is GREAT because you are almost certainly wasting your time! It's great because it gives you a tremendous opportunity to look at this particular habit and ask if it truly works. Do you actually go out with the two goals previously mentioned of increased confidence in holing out and enhanced feel.

If you don't then you can look now to do something totally different that may just transform your scoring. After all how many golfers hit a great shot with a long iron to the 1st but come away with a bogey due to a three putt? Then after the game they look at what happenned at the end of their round and try to work out how shots went missing.

Let's look at 'feel' ­ a word I hear constantly during my work ­ first. It's one I think few truly understand its meaning.
My definition is: the ability of your body to respond to the information given to it by your eyes. Specific examples include a footballer looking up, picking out a team-mate running into space and then sending a 40-yard diagonal ball to his feet on the run.

We look at the wastepaper basket, roll-up the piece of paper and throw it straight in. Our body has the ability to respond to information given by the eyes in terms of moving or throwing objects. Now the big difference between putting and some of the actions I have just mentioned is the green itself ­the pace of which varies on a daily basis.

So if feel is about our body responding to information supplied by the eyes and the critical variable in golf is the green then what we need to give our brain information about is the green. When you go onto the practice putting green and send the ball to the hole your brain is drawn towards THE HOLE. Every putt you hit simply will register in the brain as IN or MISSED. At a subtle level, your brain is NOT receiving information about the critical variable which is the pace of the green.

If you send more than one ball from the same spot on the putting green prior to play unfortunately you are playing BOWLS not golf! Here's how to radically improve your feel before you go out to play.

Take ONE ball with you and stroke some long putts to the fringe by taking one look at the fringe with your goal being to get the ball to rest exactly on the cut of grass. Do this from several completely different locations and each time your ball will either finish ON, LONG or SHORT.

Do this process again but this time without looking up call out internally LONG, SHORT or ON. Then take a look and see if your call was correct. What is this doing? You are putting all of your sense receptors on high alert, you are truly tuning into your feel, no longer is the goal to get the ball into the hole which cuts of the sense of feel, the game now is to
actually sense what is going on. It's like the difference between someone who knows nothing about wine and who just drinks red or white and a connoisseur, someone whose senses are so finely tuned to the subtle differences in the smell and the taste of a good wine, their senses are on high alert.

Most people's putting senses have been dulled to the point of being anaesthetised because they have mixed up the goal of holing the putt with developing feel and touch. As you do this before you play you are arming your brain and body the
information it needs to deal with the challenges out on the course. You have an incredible piece of machinery resting between your two ears but you have to give it clear instructions otherwise your results will continue to disappoint.

DO you wish to gain an 'in depth' knowledge of the 'secrets' of sports psychology? As a coach or player what would it be like to have four days of learning and then gain a Diploma in Sports Psychology?

Dr Karl Morris will host four-day training in central Manchester between November 24 and 27. Call 01925 764053 or visit www.golf-brain.com for details.