Use what you've got Golf...

A buddy of mine asked my what my website was about and what it was I was selling.

He wrote me out a list of questions:

What are the five most important things that you know about golf and golf instruction that can make joe blow a better player?



1. I know how to get Joe blow to get himself feedback each and every time concerning contact and direction.
2. I know how to look at the ball athletically rather than mechanically (and that makes all the difference). The use of the eyes in the golf swing. Before, during and after the swing. This in itself could do in all golf instruction as we know it. You've seen the affects it has had on people's swings. You know this stuff works!
3. I know that practicing to hit the ball straight is about as useless as taking golf lessons from a pro correcting you every time you miss hit a shot. Traditional golf instruction teaches incompetence. It brings out frustration.
4. I know how to access existing skills they can use to play golf from any sport, immediately.
5. I know how to show you how to use what you have.
6.I know that the average Joe's potential is dependent upon hand-eye coordination and not technique and I know how to bring that potential out without mentioning gol, golf mechanics or taking them to the video (although it is sometimes useful).
*I do it with a sense of humor and Actual passion.

7.I told him that I have real knowledge of what is going on which is that "most people are not in their bodies" and that the now traditional teachings do everything to get them out of their bodeis. That traditional teaching teached to the mind and not the body. It teaches linearly and not wholistically.

*I continued....I have a unique ability to communicate this information on paper and on film and in person.

 What is it exactly that you are selling?

8. I am selling short cuts.
What are people buying?

*People do not have the money or the time to waste or to put in the necessary 10,000 hours to get good at golf...

What is the product?

The Products are UnGolf Products to improve your golf.

The products are non-mechanical, non-technical non-golf instruction.
I teach the person wha they know already. What they already know how to do well.

I then show them how to get out of the way and allow it to happen, naturally and without the burden of
mechanical perfection.

What is it exactly that you are selling?

I am selling a promise. I promise they will improve their golf gamse when they realize they already know what they are doing.
I can reveal that truth through my products.

What are people buying?

They are buying something tangible that will enable them to achieve their dreams of becoming a better golfer.
My products will give it to them.

What is the product?

Every product I have is there to get them out of their minds and into their senses.

Every product, including my actual "golf instruction" is designed to get them out of the students head and to integrate the feeling or sensation into their consciousness so they then can allow it to go into their unconscious. 
Read the Barkley excerpt.

My products are achieved through their previous participation as an athlete, a student, a teacher an observer a human being.

It is their birth right to be able to hit a ball with a stick toward a target. 

I e-mailed these answers to him and he replied later that day.

He said, "now that's what I'm talking about." He continued, "that's how I should tailor my website." He said, "there is No-BS. No- holding back. No hedging."

I agree.

Frank and the video of his swing

Frank a sheet metal worker had taken a few golf lessons. Each lesson went the same, I would give my instruction and then Gus his friend would give him either his version of my lesson or tell him ten mechanical things to do.
One day Frank walks into the shop and tells me that he had seen pictures of his swing and that it looked terrible. He said, his club would come straight up and it looked like he wasn’t taking the club away long enough, said he was going to try and take the club away slow and low for the first foot.
O.K., “I said, how long do you intend to do that? How many buckets of balls are you going to hit in next few weeks to fix that pesky problem?
“I hit a few buckets a week”.
Did you know that according to the PGA it takes up to forty- hours to change muscle-memory? Three buckets a week would take you over twelve weeks to accomplish that. What are you going to do when you forget to do it?
“I won’t forget to do it”, he said.
“How do you know if you are doing it correct if you don’t have the camera on you videoing every shot you take? How do you know if you are not correcting one thing and screwing up another?”
A mechanic named Bob was listening in. I turned to Bob and asked, “If I looked at an engine or listened to an engine would I be able to determine what is wrong or right with my car”.
Bob said, “you should be able too”.
I told Bob, “I’m not a mechanic”, and that, “I didn’t understand the first thing about such things.”
Bob said, “well, then you might have a problem”.
I said, “Bob would it be easier for me, as a layman, to feel the performance of the car rather than trying to fix something I know little of? Isn’t it easier to tell if the car is out of alignment then it might be to determine any real malfunction of the vehicle?
Frank understood where I was going but then again Frank likes to tinker with “things”, you could see it in his eyes.
Oh well?


* * * * * * * * * * * *

The moral of the story:

Remember the movie staring Tom Cruise, Rolling Thunder, he didn’t know a thing about cars but he knew how to drive fast. As a player, it might be better to think of yourself as the driver of the car rather than the mechanic. Beside, didn’t Cruise get the girl?

The Trappings of Mechanically based cause and effects golf lessons.

Question: What is a pro really doing through CAUSAL approach to golf lessons?

Answer: Manipulating the structure of your body to produce "the proper swing path", to “time” the clubface to meet the ball squarely. When the Golf Professional adjusts timing through mechanics without telling the student how to do it or what is happening S/he leaves the student dependent on endless adjustments.

The problem with this logic: the professional did not learn this way. S/he was born to do it, to hit a golf ball with a stick toward a target, in the same way you were born to be a computer analyst, a doctor, a sleezy lawyer, a writer, a painter, a truck drivier, a carpenter.

-You do not have the Professionals athleticism
-You do not have the Professionals timing and rhythm.
-You do not have the Professionals talent
-You do not have the Professionals hand-eye coordination
-You do not have the Professionals work ethic
-You do not have as much time to put into the game of golf as did the professional.

BUT most golf professionals TREAT YOU AS IF YOU DO!

And it is not because they are trying to take advantage of you...they just don’t know any better. They don’t have the training I do in NLP or Hypnosis.

I am sincerely sorry, but unlike what the NIKE commercial may say;

you are not Tiger Woods!

So then what do you have to do..,What do we have to do? What does a golf professional have to do to get you to hit the ball better, to play better golf?

Show you how the tools work, the tools being:

The Clubs
The Ball
The Course
and you...that’s right the pro has to show you how you work; what your habits are, what the path of least resistence is...in your particular instance and then...


Talk your language. It does you little good if the only one that understands anything in said during the lesson is the pro.

Just because the pro knows how doesn’t mean he can communicate how he does it.

More about this later...you can just read something my buddy Twenty Twenty wrote for me a few days ago... tomorrow or the next day.

just checked out my google analytics...

I find all this 'stuff' fascinating. I have gotten over a hundred hits on my website and only one sale.
Most people and especially internet marketeers would find that number maybe a little skinny.
I find it more than a bit humorous.

Here is the throw down:

I have a challenge for you. Let's say you go to my site because you are curious about who the ungolf pro is or what the ungolf pro is all about and you look around and quench your curiosity. That is fine.
I have little issue with it.

Actually, I have little issue with what any of you do.

Just like when giving private sessions of golf to my clientel I am not attached to the outcome.
One of the many things I have leaned from playing golf.

non-attachment.

Now, if you are interested in playing better golf. If you are a baseball player and want to play better golf and are too cheap to buy this $12 product then I can't help but laugh because it would be the best thing you eve did for your golf game.

The lessons are simple and they are doable.

I would place this type of communication against anyone in the world.

Hey, my fantasy golf lesson is with Charles Barkley. I would not fix him as would all the other golf professionals.
That is just not where my head is at.

I am not into fixing anyone. God knows how many golf professionals not to mention girlfriends have attempted to fix me.

Just frustrates the hell out of me.

What I would do is talk to him.
Notice what his tendencies are...
and move to the path of least resistence.

That's the best anyone can do.

Look at what Hank Haney put Charles through.

A matter of fact, if anyone knows Charles Barkley I will bet $10,000 I can show Charles how he works best so that he can play competent golf in one session. The session would be no less than 1 hour and no more then 3 hours.

I am not into torture after all. I am a golf pro not Vlad the Impailer.

But I degress...

If you are into learning about golf and you are a baseball player than go to my webpage and download the free lessons and try them out.

See if they work. If they do not then stop right there, do not pass go, do not collect $200, but if they do then do yourself a favor and buy the books.

12 bucks isn't going to change my life. 12 bucks just might change your golf game and how you perceive the world.

ciao

Golf Sessions Vs. Golf Lessons

While giving a 14 year old student of mine a golf lesson she blurted out something about, Perfect practice makes a perfect swing or whatever that axiom is...

So I laugh and being the sensitive girl she is says, what’s the matter you don’t believe in that?

I said, No, but there is way too much wrong with that idea.

She said, Like what?

I said, For one.., you cannot see yourself so...

And then unless you feel what you are working on...but then there is another axiom, “feel and real or often different” so...

The other is that is takes repsonsibility off of the instructor. I have actually heard a pro say something like this to a student: Well, if you didn’t practice perfectly or enough or whatever then the onus is on you not the instructor.

And then she says, “information is power”.

I laughed.

She siad, “What you don’t believe in that either?”

I said, “No that is a wonderful idea but axioms usually end at then end of the sentence where the period is.”

She questioned what I meant. She asked what I meant.

I said, with axioms, just like with most advice the action usually doesn’t move beyond the flapping of the lips; and they are soon forgotten or cloud or manipulate the issue.
Just like, you need to practice perfectly. What you need to do is to have fun and feel.

Then we felt the clubhead throughout the swing and...good things happened.

Barkley and The Golf Channel

Professional Athletes take unconventional golf lessons.  How is it that skilled athletes - who possess natural athletic ability - are continually humbled by the game of golf?   It is because traditional golf instruction dismisses, for the most part, the athletes existing knowledge base and skill set of their sport to focus instead on the mechanics of the golf swing.  The result is little improvement ...much frustration. 

Skilled athletes are the most frustrated because they have difficulty understanding why their talent, athleticism, drive and focus in their sport is not playing out on the golf course.  An athletic person possess all the skills they need to improve, yet they’ll never reach their potential because no one is properly guiding them with the information framed in a common language that allows them to discover how well they can play while using what they already know on an athletic intuitive level.   

Concept: A professional athlete takes a golf lesson where I show them howtheir personal knowledge of their sport translates into golf basics.  We begin each show with the profile of the athlete, their experience as a golfer, and then what they think of golf compared to their sport. We show the emotion of their experience.  They talk about their “problems”.  They hit a couple shots to show where they  are in their experience as a golfer.  We all relate with their experience. We feel for them.. they can even play a few holes. Then I come in and just talk to them about what is similar from their sport in to golf.  Think of it as a kind of “The Dog Whisperer” for famous athletes and regular people having difficulty making the transition to “golf competence”. 

My name is Thomas Pranio and I am a Certified NeuroLinguistic Programming Practitioner ( NLP is the science of excellence).  I have worked with the likes of Otis Anderson (football), Jay Williams (basketball), Gary Gait (lacrosse), Jerry Cooney (boxing), and Carl Banks (football).  In describing my method of drawing out the athletes knowledge Otis Anderson said, “You teach golf like a football coach teaches football, you take what the person already has and improves on it.”   Gary Gait (considered the Michael Jordon of Lacrosse) said, “It was easy to understand and apply on the golf course.  The best part...it was so simple and fast.”  Boxing legend Jerry Cooney said, “If you were my size I’d knock you out!” 

I am the author of Golf for Baseball Players, Beyond the (Golf) Ball, and Virtual Golf.   You can see my books at: www.lulu.com/blacktailpress.  I am in the process of negotiating with New Chapter Press to author a seven book series of Golf for Athletes, which includes; Golf for...baseball, hockey, soccer, lacrosse, tennis, basketball, and football.  It is my goal to get any athlete to make the transition from their sport to “Golf Competence”.   

The name of the program can be something like: Golf for Professional Athletes, or The Golf Whisperer, or The Wow Experience!  Personally I like The Golf Whisperer. 

Enclosed is a video taken of a golf lesson with one of my baseball player/gofers.

I hope you find is as interesting to watch as it was to participate in...Dan is a complete beginner and in the time it would take to fly from New Jersey to Orlando he became a “Competent Golfer”.   He broke ninety his first time out!  

Understand that it wouldn’t make a difference which sport or activity the learner would come from because it is a matter of taking established information and translating it into a language they understand.  Baseball appears to be the obvious sport to make that transfer but some other sports which are just as easy:  Hockey, Soccer, Lacrosse, Soccer, Boxing and Cricket. 

How Does This Process Work?

By using the established knowledge and skills set the athlete golfer bypass having to learn something anew...

The way in which we normally learn a new skill set is by going through the four stages of  learning:

Unconscious Incompetence 

Conscious Incompetence

Conscious Competence 

Unconscious Competence 

By showing The Athlete how they work through their sport rather than teaching golf basics and mechanics from the beginning they are able to skip the first three stages of learning  and go straight to the fourth stage, Unconscious Competence. 

The theory behind this learning is... it is assumed the student already understands what they are doing, they already know how to hit a ball with a stick toward a target... they just have to be reminded of what they know, and remember.    Once the negative trance of miscommunication (verbal mechanical teachings) is taken away they realize they work just fine and that is when the fun begins.  By making the proper analogy appropriate to their awareness the athlete/golfer experiences immediate “Unconscious Golf Competence”.   It is what many have called a “WOW Experience!” 

*I suggest the first episode, i.e., if you can arrange it, to be with Charles Barkley.

You can say Charles Barkley is a bit of a fantasy lesson for me, it would be a kind of Holy Grail of golf lessons especially when I know it would take all of about one hour to straighten him out. 

Imagine for a moment Charles on a lesson tee with me...a bit of hard nosed, cranky golf pro/NLP Practitioner and I explain golf in a manner that makes sense to Sir Charles and he begins to strike the ball without a hitch.   The only person on the line here is me!   Actually, I am in a no lose situation.   He’s had several of the top 100 teaching professionals try and help him and they cannot because they are teaching him from a left-brain approach.   Charles Barkley is a right-brian kinesthetic and everyone teaching him is a left-brain visual, Faldo, Tiger, Butch, Hank...whomever.   

Not only aren’t they speaking his language in a very basic way they are teaching him the mechanics of the swing which will only harm his ability to get out of his way.  In a way these instructors are reinforcing his ineffective embarrassing behaviors.   

quick tip...

I am out at a party last night and I get into a conversation with Mark, a Financial planner that tells me he "sucks at golf"...that he had taken lessons before and the pro straightened him out for the day but then he couldn't reproduce it. 

I explained that was a typical experience with taking lessons and that most people will not get much out of even a series of lessons unless they are extremely talented or put in an incredible amount of time to improve, basing their learning on developing muscle memory.

He asked if there were an alternative to lessons like that to which I claimed yes. 

I asked him if he'd ever played baseball.

He said yes.

I said, here's an example.  When a professional directs you to "hit down and thru the ball" most people do not know what exactly it is the professional is talking about even when the student has played for years.  

It is a matter of a complex equivalence in the phrase: "down and thru". 

What is down and thru for me might be different for you or anybody else so...

Where does that leave us?

You play baseball I said so if I asked you to hit a grounder down the third base line do you think you could do it?   

He said, yes.

I said, that is the equivolent to hitting down and thru in golf.

He perked up.

I gave several other examples.   I said, if you hit the ball to the right what does the typical golf professional do?   He tries to get you to hit the ball straight.    I do not....I get the student to hit the ball as far left as possible, because if you know how to hit the ball to the right and try to hit the ball straight there is a constant struggle but if you remember how to hit the ball left then straight in somewhere in between.  

If you hit the ball to the opposite field then you have to learn to pull the ball.  That takes all of about ten minutes....then you have the option between right, left and straight. 

Of course there is a little more to it, which is why he is coming to see me next week for some time.