Entry 24.7

What really matters in the golf swing? What are the fundamentals? If you have taken any of the Teaching and Coaching class from the PGA, you should know the ball flight laws. If not, you will learn them soon. They aren’t hard to learn. There’s only a few of them. But are they really the fundamentals? Or as laws are they something completely different. I lean towards the idea that they are something completely different. As a law, they can’t change. They are included automatically into every golf shot. Fundamentals are different. They are something that you learn and can apply or misapply. If you talk to a bunch of teaching professionals, you may hear the fundamentals in the form of the acronym “GASP”. Grip, Aim, Stance, Posture. Four very important parts of the golf swing. But are they truly the fundamentals?

On Monday, the 23rd of September, I attended the Piedmont Chapter Teaching Seminar. Two of the speakers posed this question to the room. Are Grip, Aim, Stance, and Posture the true fundamentals of the golf swing? Their answer was no. They then proceeded to share pictures of professional and high-level amateur players showing that they all have some type of variation to all four elements. They then provided the dictionary definition from Oxford Languages: “forming a necessary base or core; of central importance” and “a central or primary rule or principle on which something is based.” They then interpreted the definition as “principles/skills with no margin for deviation”. A few years ago, that statement would have caused me to stop listening. If you start off a presentation or written thought with a flawed proposition, then the rest of what you say is flawed is how I used to think. Now I understand that there is always something that I can learn.

We are working with humans and with humans, there is ALWAYS deviation. “Humans are messy” is one of my favorite sayings of all time because its so true. If we look at motor learning, which is what we are doing with the golf swing, humans need variation to learn effectively. The more variation that is included (within reason and done purposefully), the faster and more precise humans can learn. Here’s an example which we can all relate to. Player is striping on the range with near perfect form and then ventures out onto the course. Twelve lost balls later he or she comes slumping in, head down, shoulders drooping and says “I don’t get it. I was hitting it perfectly on the range.” I can tell you right now that I have been that guy before. I’m what some might call “stubborn”, “strong-willed” or “thick skulled”. I knew from experience that trying to have the same motion for every performance was impossible. In a practical sense I have probably learned that lesson more times that I care to count. As a sniper, I had to come to grips that there are too many variables to take into account in a combat situation and that I was going to miss sometimes. In training, those misses were so important to me learning how to do it correctly so that when I was in a combat situation, I was able to manage those variables to the extent that I could but when I missed, I could automatically understand what causes the miss, adjust and reengage. Then was did my obstinate, hardheaded self do when I got to Methodist? I tried to make my golf swing perfect so I would never miss. When smart people do dumb things right? I knew the principle. I had taught the principle. And when it was time for me to apply it in a new situation what did I do? I ignored the principle. Talk about feeling like an idiot when I finally realized I was going down the wrong path.

So why is variation so important to humans when it comes to motor learning? Well as you will also cover in your PGA manuals, block versus variable (or random) practice is vital to motor learning. Variability in motor learning can be defined as “fluctuations in movement during a task’s performance.” When we are young and early in the learning process, those variables are going to be many and the bandwidth of the variation is going to be very wide. As we practice and get better, the variables may diminish in size, but they never go away. And we don’t want them to. If they did, we would all move with herky-jerky movements because those variables help us smooth out the motion. It also makes the motion more accurate. Some of the major benefits of variables are:

Increased motor exploration

External focus of attention

Greater dependency on NMDA receptors

When we practice and are learning to hit a new shot, we must explore how to create the necessary motion to change the interaction between the club, ball and ground. You can be told what you need to do, but how you do it and how you feel it are personal. Increased motor exploration helps us find the best motor solution for the task at hand. This is the same for us as golfer’s as it was when we learned how to crawl, walk, run, swim, etc. We just had to keep trying and keep failing. Every attempt we get better and better at it until we no longer have to think about it and for the most part, we don’t ever get it wrong (except for those floor ninjas that pop up every once in a while, and trip you for no good reason at all and it usually makes you look dumb when you look back to see what you tripped on and the answer is nothing). Variables also help start moving our focus from internal to external. An external focus of attention has been proven to be superior to an internal focus when it comes to physical performance. The farther the locus of attention travels away from you, the more superior the results. When learning, we think internally about how to move, when to move and where to move to. But as we get better and adapt, we no longer have to take this into account. This is why you can walk up and down stairs without issues (well except for the stair ninjas, those guys are brutal especially when headed down the stairs and the sneak attack comes at the top of the stairs while your hands are full). The final benefit is the most scientifically named one but don’t let it trip you up. If you care read the next sentence and if you don’t skip it. N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors are glutamate-gated ion channels in the brain that play a key role in learning, memory, and other brain functions. All the fancy lingo just says that these are the brain’s primary excitatory neurotransmitter. So, the more of them we have involved the better. How do we get more of them involved? That’s right. Variables. We need them. So rather that try to limit them, embrace them.

Now we circle back to the very beginning. Are Grip, Aim, Posture, and Alignment really the fundamentals in golf? Or are the fundamentals something that requires zero deviation? Well since Grip, Aim, Stance, and Posture all create the necessary base on which our motion is founded, then yes, I do believe them to be the fundamentals by definition. Now Seth and Martin aren’t wrong and the material they covered was excellent, but I think they were wrong. Only because the three fundamentals they presented were just as variable as the ones they stated are not the fundamentals. Possibly even more so. And if we get Grip, Aim, Stance and Posture correct, we set ourselves up for success to get the fundamentals they presented correct. One of my favorite people to learn from in the golf world is Mike Adams. Mike has a simple phrase “Setup writes the script”. Think about it and comes up with your own answer. What do you believe are the fundamentals in golf? At the end of the day, that’s what really matters.