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.  

Eight Steps to Drinking a Glass of Water Part #3

Step Three: Developing a Thirst

After you have selected what depth of glass and type of water, you are on your way to “drinking a glass of water”.  The third advantage you must "consider" is to develop the desire to drink, or as we say, “gathering up the thirst”.     There are many ways to which the drinker can acquire a thirst.  If you are not into exercising perhaps I may suggest eating Japanese or Chinese cuisine... but before doing so make sure to consult your physician.  If you are suffering from high-blood pressure may I suggest low sodium soy sauce.   It is a good alternative to the sodium content of regular soy sauce, but none-the-less it will produce a whopping parchedness.  For other ways and vices to induce the required thirst consult my book, How to Dehydrate, by Jim McCabe.  

Eight Steps to Drinking a glass of water Part #2

Step Two: Picking a Water

  In the early days of competitive drinking - it wasn’t cost effective to practice drinking with anything other than regular tap water.  With the pollutants of the day, acid rain, pesticide contamination and carcongens that seep into the water table it is almost mandatory these days to pick a good spring water, if not purified water.  Do not forget, purified water doesn’t have any minerals as well as contaminants so when drinking a purified water you may want to supplement these missing minerals.  Spring water seems to be the natural alternative so try and find a reputable company.  

BEWARE:There are many companies that claim to be “pure” spring water that capitalize on the better known waters by imitating, emulating and copying the labels of more reputable companies.   A list of the more reputable bottling companies can be found in the appendix of Rules and Regulations of the NDA, which can be purchased at your local pub, brewery or water plant near you.   Because of obvious legal reprocussions the NDA cannot dissuade anyone from purchasing waters from these disreputable companies.  Believe me, you don’t want to muddy your shoes with these rain by night companies so my advice is to keep away.   A red flag should immediately go up when noticing a bottling company claiming to produce spring water from New Jersey. I once knew a fellow to have claimed to have only drunk from such ponds in Jersey or New York and alas as you can imagine he is no longer with us.   He is serving time in the New York Penitentury for the Criminally Insane.  

KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN DAMN IT!

Eric’s Story:

Eric is a tree climber for a local tree service.  He hits balls a couple times a week at the range I work at.  We  became friends after a few sessions.  One day he is hitting the ball all over the place and says as I’m passing him by. ..”damn it Tom, no matter what I do I can't seem to keep my head down”,  I yelled while still waking by.., “maybe your body knows better than your brain?”

An hour later he palms me a twenty and says, “drinks are one me, tonight.”

I ask, “What happened?”

He said, "I stopped trying to keep my head down and let it do whatever it wanted and my ball just straightened out."

"Remarkable." 

Eight steps to drinking a glass of water

Step One: Equipment

In order to “drink a glass of water” you must first have the proper equipment.  If you are short in stature, weighing less than 140 lbs., you might want consider starting with something like an 8 oz. glass.  If you are over 140 lbs., you might have better success practicing with a 12 to 16 oz. glass; that is unless you’ve just gone for a healthy run or a brisk walk or a work out at the gym and then it is acceptable and even advisable to use up to a 24 oz. glass.    This practice comes in handy especially when drinking against the heavy-hitting drinkers of today.  

After you have established the proper equipment it is time to discuss what kind of water you should be drinking.  Remember, when competitive drinking began the original members of the NDA (National Drinking Association) started out using Whiskey and Scotch...that is until the great Russian drinker Vladimir Condroitin entered the scene in the late fifties to have become the greatest drinker of all time.   His preference of libation as you could imagine was good ol’homemade distilled Vodka.   Since then and because hardly anyone could finish the competition, practice as you may, in 1973 it was established that no spirits or libation of any kind could be used for competitive drinking.  As a result since then some of the greatest modern day drinkers have used merely simple tap water when drinking in competition, but of course that was before the advent of distilleries and water purifiers.  

The Trigger Finger and the right Thumb...

THE TRIGGER FINGER AND THE RIGHT THUMB

WHAT DOES THE TYPICAL GOLFER DO?  

Place the right thumb straight down the middle of the shaft.  

The thumb straight down the shaft increases grip pressure,

THE MECHANICS: THERE IS LITTLE INSTRUCTION. 

WHAT IS NATURAL: A space forms between the middle and index fingers. The index finger and thumb do not touch.  

WHAT DO BASEBALL PLAYERS DO?

In THROWING, BATTING and PITCHING, the thumb of the right hand is slightly left on the side of the thumb.   The thumb and index finger counterbalance the object while a third (the middle finger) supports and balances.  Balance is the ultimate goal regardless whether the ball is round or the bat cylindrical. 

DO IN GOLF AS YOU DO IN BASEBALL:

Drill: Get partner, have a game of catch (overhand).  Hold your throwing hand and arm behind your ear then while your cocked, swing your arm around to see.     

Notice: Your thumb, index and middle fingers balance the ball. Your right thumb is along the side of the ball, on its side. 

Now: Place your thumb down the middle of the ball.  Would you ever consider throwing a ball like that?   

Experience: Take the club like a dart or spear near the club head.   Look at your fingers as you balance the club, the thumb, index and middle fingers balance and counterbalance.  The only difference gripping the club near the head and by the grip is the actual grip on the club.   How you grip it is the same.  Slide your fingers down the shaft. This positioning of the right thumb lightens grip pressure, allows feel of club head and shaft, and allows hands and wrists to move freely.

Notice: A gap forms between your middle and index fingers.  This forms what is known as a trigger finger.  The trigger finger helps control the club. 

 

A TRIGGER FINGER is essential for reasons of 

FEEL and TOUCH, 

POWER and CONTROL.

Something I screwed around with a few years ago after reading a book by Robert Masters...

John Lennon wrote the song Imagine after reading on of Master's books. 

The idea for this writing was taken from a book called Neurospeak written by Robert Masters; just like in his book the information is not to be taken on an intellectual level but let the words work as an afterthought.  The idea is to let the words work to let in what is to be let in.   

There is a righty and lefty version of the Neurospeak experiment.  The idea came to me after reading his book on how words influence neurology.  For a more informed 

Ideally one would be in a relaxed position in a chair, sitting with both feet planted on the ground, read the material slowly, each word separate from the others.  Then follow the short instruction afterward.  Either write down or just experience the Neurospeak phenomenon.  

in your imagination focus your attention on the golfball

then focus your attention on the ball and the club head

see the club head above the ball

then expand your awareness from the ball and club head to the shaft

the shaft may be silver or gold or black

see the contrast in colors between the ball, the club head and the shaft

move up the shaft and feel the texture of the grip with your hands

the grip may have a softness to it

it can also be sticky or smooth

go back down the club starting from the grip to the shaft to the club head and notice how they are attached to one another

see the weight of the shaft in your hands

see the texture of the grip in your hands

see the balance of the clubface in your hands

feel the clubface in your imagination

notice how they are separate 

notice how they are one

the club head

the clubface

the shaft and the grip are all separate but they are one

 part of a system

 a whole

the clubface directs the ball 

the club head puts mass behind the hit

 the shaft is a link to the grip

the grip is a  link to your hands

expand your attention beyond the ball beyond the clubface beyond the club head up the shaft toward the grip and into your left hand

the index finger of your left hand feels your texture of your grip and your weight of your club 

you can feel the edge of your clubface with your index finger and thumb of your left hand

you can feel every finger of your left hand you can feel your index finger balancing your club you can feel your texture of your club in your thumb and index finger, you can feel your middle finger of your left hand you can feel your ring finger of your left hand you can feel your pinky of your left hand resting between your index and middle finger of your right hand

focus your attention on your weight of your club head and your shaft and your texture of your grip in your index finger of your left hand

focus your attention on your weight of your club head and your shaft your texture of your grip in your index finger and thumb of your left hand

as your club and your shaft extend into your left hand it becomes part of your left hand

your hand and the club are attached

they are one and the same

you feel your left hand on the club like you feel your wrist attached to your hand 

your left hand and club are attached the way your wrist and hand are attached 

the club head and shaft are part of your left hand

your left hand feels the weight of the club

the club head

the shaft

the grip all have weight 

the club and your left hand are one

the club head 

shaft 

left hand are one

the club and your hands are one like your hands and your wrist are one and your wrist and your forearm are one and your forearm and upper arm are one and your entire arm and shoulder are one

your shoulder is part of your arm is part of your hand is part of your club is part of the system

your shoulder is  your arm is  your hand is  your club is the system

Now go hit a golf shot!