Golf Blog by The Orlando Golf Blogger

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Over the weekend, I had the opportunity (whilst doing laundry for nine hours… yeah, we’re a little behind ) to watch Dr. Gio Valiante’s Fearless Golf – Mastering the Mental Game.

Dr. Gio is a golf psychologist and currently serves as a professor at Rollins College here in Winter Park, FL. He’s also a mental game consultant for the Golf channel, Golf Digest and UF. In addition, he’s worked with many players on the PGA tour, including Camilo Villegas, Stuart Appleby, Justin Leonard, Chris Dimarco, Chad Campbell, Jack and Gary Nicklaus, Heath Slocum, Notah Begay III, Charles Howell III, Tommy Armour III, Bryce Molder, Matt Kuchar, Davis Love III and more.

All of his research, study and philosophies on the mental game were bundled together and put into a three DVD set called Fearless Golf.

The DVD gives you some good insight into why your body and mind reacts to stressful situations the way it does. Dr. Gio’s primary philosophy and the basis for the DVD is that whether conscious or subconscious, the reason we play the way we do sometimes is our reaction to something that we all experience, fear.

I don’t want to give anything away, but, he brought up some really interesting points to consider. One of my favorite was the way we associate memories to emotions and how whenever we’re in a similar situation, we recall those memories and thus recall those emotions which we then begin to fear the outcome (should the emotion and experience be negative).

Confusing? Well, lets say you’re chipping from about 30 yards out. When you make contact with the ball, you take a huge divot and the ball travels three yards and goes into a bunker. You get pretty angry(justifiable ) at yourself because of the shank. The memory of the shank, coupled with the strong negative emotion, forms a pretty strong imprint in your mind and the next time you’re in a similar situation, you recall that experience and you begin to fear the outcome of the shot which with the way your body responds to fear makes an unfavorable shot more likely. Although this seems pretty obvious, it’s something that I’ve never considered.

It’s kind of crazy,  but a lot of the fear we feel goes into the way we grip our clubs and thus affect the outcome of our shots. Dr. Gio gives some good tips on how to recognize this and drills to overcome it. There’s also a big emphasis put on the pre-shot routine and clearing the mind at various stages of the round.

Although at times, the DVD was a little dry and classroom educational video-ish there is a ton of good info to be found as well appearances by many of the PGA Tour players Dr. Gio has helped.

What I really liked about Fearless Golf is that although there’s a lot of info passed on in the DVD, Dr. Gio boils it down to only a handful of teachable points that are easy to remember and easy to improve on.

If you’ve watched the DVDs, I’d like to hear your thoughts on it.

I was supposed to post this on Monday, sorry for the delay!

This week’s prize is a $30 gift card to Dicks Sporting Goods.

Dicks Sporting goods is trying to get the word out about their signature golf services, which include services like grip installation, shaft installation, custom club fitting, special ordering and PGA trade-in network.

Presently, Dicks Sporting Goods is offering 50% off golf club regripping.

If you get a second, go to the website and check out some of the services they offer.

This week’s winner is Nick Del Ponzo from 4 Kids Golf Academy.

Congratulations Nick! Any idea what you’re going to use the gift card on?

Thanks everyone for reading and signing up for the newsletter!!

-Dave

Today’s Orlando Golf Lesson is “How to Hit a Punch Shot” or “Knockdown Shot.”

A punch or knockdown shot is a shot played with a very low trajectory, usually to avoid interference from tree branches when a player is hitting from the woods. Similar to the knock-down, it can also be used to avoid high winds.

The setup is relatively simple.

• Place the ball towards the back of your stance near your back foot
• Shift your weight forward
• Move your hands forward so that you decrease the angle of the clubface
• Choke down on the club close to where the grip meets the shaft
• Take a normal swing, stopping about 3/4 of the way to the top
• Keep your hands ahead through impact
• Stop the follow through 3/4 way to the top

I’ve often read that this is an “advanced” shot and mid-high handicappers don’t need to focus on it. I completely disagree I think for us hackers this would be a great addition to the arsenal. Think about it… Who spends the most of their time in the trees?

Here’s a couple videos I found to help illustrate the shot.

I really like this shot for a couple of different reasons…although typically, you’ll use 3I-8I for a punch shot, you can use pretty much any club in the bag.

It’s a shot that has significant room for error. What I mean is, if your body is aimed at the target and you hit a bad shot, there’s a good chance its still heading in the right direction and you’re still going to be moving the ball in a forward direction.

Hope you’ve learned something useful today!

What’s your take on the punch shot?

-Dave

Holy busy Friday!

I’m going to change the format a bit today and instead of a long post on a single topic, I’m going to a long post a couple of different topics.

First things first. Everyone’s Favorite Golf Ball, the Top Flight Gamer Ball is on sale at GolfSmith. They’re running a special 2 for $35! Not a bad deal at all! You can pick em up in the store or online. If you’re looking to buy, click the image below so I’ll make like $.20 cents from it

If you haven’t heard about this ball, it’s a super sweet, relatively inexpensive Golf Ball. It received a gold rating on the Golf Digest 2009 Golf Ball Hotlist. Click the link below to read about it.

Golf Digest Golf Ball Hotlist 2009 – Top Flite Gamer

and here’s a slightly dated, yet still relevant review of the ball.

Top-Flite Gamer Golf Ball

If you play or if you’ve played this ball, I’d like to hear what you think about it.

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I’ve just started reading Carl Hiaasen’s newest book called “The Downhill Lie.” I’m not very far into it, but I can tell already it’s going to be an interesting read. Within the first couple pages, there comes a scene where two guys are using golf clubs to hit toads off their front porch!

Stay tuned for a full review!

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Golf Tip of the Day – Be mindful of the leading shoulder

Recently, I’ve been hitting an unusually high number of fat shots. The divot was starting about two inches behind the ball instead of infront of it. With a little help from the world famouns Brendon Elliott, I soon realized that I was dipping my lead shoulder during my back swing.

This bad habit started when I was attempting to hone my weight shift. By emphasizing my weight shift to my back foot on my back swing I was inadvertantly dipping my lead shoulder which lead to some seriously screwed up shots. I’ve thus begun correcting this oversight but it did cost me some strokes.

So, if you’re experiencing some fat shots and can’t figure out why, you might be dropping that lead shoulder on your backswing. When you’re on the range, concentrate on keeping the shoulder up and twist more with your upper body.

Just my two cents.

Happy Friday!

-Dave