So in an earlier post, I asked the question “how do you find the information that applies to you?”  This is an extremely important question to answer if you want to improve.  I also believe that it is the reason why many people fail when trying to implement changes to their swing – no matter what school of thought.  One Plane.  Two Plane.  Stack and Tilt.  Golf Machine.  It doesn’t matter.  The biggest mistake I see is that people think they need to get every single element correct.   Start on page 1 and begin implementing.  Stop when you get to the end.  Given the fact that you can maybe work on 2-3 things at any one time, I couldn’t imagine how long it would take to get it all correct.   Not only that, the journey is most likely a painful one.

In fact, I saw a post on our forums related to this a couple weeks ago.   The poster asked a question about the order in which he needed to work on elements in his swing.  Does he start with the address?  Backswing?  Downswing?   He then goes on to make an interesting observation in a later post.  He says “Come to think of it, the process can't really be linear--it's dynamic.”  Bingo!

The Right Information at the Right Time

The biggest key to working “dynamically” is to understand two things:

1. What is the area of most importance in your swing AT THIS POINT IN TIME?
2. What specific pieces of information (content) are needed to be APPLIED TO YOU?

Failure to understand these two things can lead to changes that are not only unnecessary, they could be damaging.  It is highly unlikely that your current golf swing has only one or two things that are wrong with it.  Sorry, but it is reality.  Heck, even some TOUR players have more than a couple things wrong.  You may have a few things that don’t work properly, but if you can find your biggest swing fault and improve, not perfect, the fault you will see improvement.   Once your biggest fault is a strength and you have ownership, it is time to improve your next biggest fault.  And so on.  This logic gives you the ability to improve continuously. 

So if you have a few things wrong, where do you start?  How many things do you try and fix at once?  Great questions.  It does you almost no good whatsoever to understand every single thing right now.  You might start to feel overwhelmed or struggle to figure out the order in which to attack them.  So the first thing that we set out to do with every student is to get them focused on the important things RIGHT NOW.  Further, we only want the student focused on the most important ones to get them to hit the next ball better than the last.  That’s all.  We only want them focused on the right information at that point in time.  Doing so will produce IMMEDIATE results.  Immediate as in the next ball in the bucket.  Ask anyone who has attended a golf school or been a test student at a certification.  It isn’t magic.  It is simply finding the right thing to fix right now. 

Applicability versus Application

Another way to look at this is to understand the difference between what applies to you and whether or not you are executing it properly.  Sometimes even the right information can be applied incorrectly.  I know from my own personal experience I have taken good information and applied it to the point that I “overcooked it” a little.  A good example of this is the imagery of “starting a lawnmower” on the backswing.  I’ve seen folks talk about this concept and try and apply it with no success.  Is it bad information?  No.  Does it help everyone?  Absolutely not!  If good information isn’t working, there are usually two reasons for it.

The first could be the application of it.  Does everyone start a lawnmower the same way?  Of course not.  When you pull start a lawnmower, some people may pull straight behind them.  Others may pull away from their body a little bit.  Some pull straight up.  Some pull more horizontally.  So what did Sam Snead mean when he said he felt a little like he was starting a lawnmower in the backswing?  Maybe it would be good to find out.  Also, maybe you need to pull it, but just pull it a specific way.

The second is the applicability of it.  Do you know why this information is important?  Do you understand what specific swing fault it addresses?  Do you have this fault?  All good questions.  It would be a terrible thing to try this backswing action if you don’t even have that particular swing fault.  Take something away that is correct and you will get worse. 

A Never Ending Process

The last point I will make is that this process of improvement is never ending.  Get comfortable with it.  Own the process.  Own the result.  But don’t think of it as a bad thing.  I am not aware of anyone firing a golf instructor because they got too good.  The better you are at the process of improvement, the faster you will improve.  Even the best in the world realize it is never ending.  The best players never stop this process.  Further, the best instructors follow the same process in their teachings.  I am not aware of a golf instructor who decided to stop learning because they have it all figured out.  In fact, the best ones are the ones that realize that they don’t.

Creating a Tool to Help

Maybe we can’t leap to pure autonomy of learning for a student just yet.  But is every student in a situation where they must always rely on an instructor to help them get better?  Instructors can’t be present 24/7.  They aren’t there every time you practice.  They aren’t there when you play.  So we asked ourselves the question “Is there any way we can help them continuously learn and improve on their own at times?”  We set out to develop tools to get the student closer.  To make independent practice more productive.  To make changes more effective.  To make improvement much faster.   The goal isn’t to decrease reliance or time spent with an instructor.  It is to make that time more productive.  Our goal was to simply use technology to develop a tool that enables the student to improve faster guided by an instructor.

The Player Profile

So you have already seen a demonstration of the Matrix in the last blog post.  If you’re a Certified Instructor, you’ve even worked with it.  As you may have read, we knew quickly that the Matrix was best in the hands of an instructor.  We also quickly knew we needed a complementary tool for the student.  So we developed the “Player Profile” or “MyProfile” solution.  It is an extremely powerful game improvement tool.  It is completely customized to you and your game.  It is set up for you by your instructor and helps you practice independently and more effectively.  It also is a wonderful tool to help you learn more about the instructional concepts that apply to your swing and your game. 

That last part is important.  We aren’t interested in our students understanding every component of the golf swing and golf swing theory.  There is very limited value in that.  Besides, we have other mechanisms for that like books, DVDs, etc.  For the Player Profile, we simply want the student to hit the next ball better.  Improvement.  We want the student to own their golf swing, not every golf swing in existence.

So what can it do?  Here are some things that you can do with the Player Profile:

• Watch video on swing faults and correct motion.  Jim Hardy and the Plane Truth team provide a video library that describes each of the swing faults that you and your instructor have identified as improvement areas.
• See your +’s and –‘s. Through our ground breaking Plane Truth Information Matrix and the Plane Truth System of +’s and –‘s, you will see a personal view as to how the mistakes in your swing add up to an overall swing shape. 
• Personalized Drill Vault. Your Vault contains videos of specific fixes for each of your faults. These videos are taken from the Plane Truth Information Matrix, the largest single source of organized golf instruction on the internet. Currently, it contains over 300 different videos (and growing). 
• Online Lessons and Voiceovers. Your Certified Instructor can provide you with detailed take-home analysis from your in-person or online lessons. You can also send these lesson videos to your mobile phone.
• Store and manage your notes. Now you can store, review and print notes from your practice and play in one centralized location. 
• Customized Practice Planning and Goal Setting. Use our simple framework to create goals and guide your practice and improvement.

Here is a short video showing these features.

One other important thing about the tool is that it is completely web browser-based.  It works on any PC or Mac with an internet connection.  This means that we can continually improve it and add new features based on the feedback from our students and instructors.  So if you are a subscriber, we’ll continually bug you for your feedback!  We’ve invested a lot of time and effort to build something that we think you’ll find valuable.  But even more importantly, it is something that we can make better.  Just like the golf swing, it isn’t perfect but we’ll never stop trying to improve it!

In the coming weeks, we will roll this out via our online lesson program.  In the meantime, feel free to ask any and all questions in the comments section below.  I'll try and answer them all...