New Jack Swing – The Mental
I travelled up to Derby to meet with Mark Shervill, top Zenjin PGA professional, to get the coaching cracking. I’d been waiting for this moment for the past four months, and I have to admit I was struggling to contain my beaming smile.
So what better way to wipe the smug look from my face than discover that I’m short of a car for the week and forced to hit the London underground with a large carry case and 30,000 screw-faced commuters, surprisingly not too appreciative of a fresh faced lad ready for a relaxing round of golf.
For anyone who finds themselves in this unfortunate situation, I will be posting a secret sign that engages fellow golf punks in the near vicinity to spring into action and help negotiate the uncompromising London crowds…. It could work!
Luckily when I got there Mark managed to calm my underground anger with a cuppa and a chat about Spurs leaky defence, before zipping us off to Worksop Golf Club. Let the games begin.
Teacher
Mark Shervill
What does he know?
P.G.A Professional, a master practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and a Zen Master
What’s his angle?
Communication is key. Mark actively works to ensure his message is not misinterpreted by his students. He’s also a strong believer in utilising the body’s natural energy and explains how our actions can channel this energy.
What’s he saying?
“Blending the Mind and Body to produce a unique learning experience enables us to unlock your hidden potential and release the positive golfer within.”
What are we working on?
How to tap into that ‘ ready to perform state’.
Equipment used
Golf balls
A leader board (a training aid)
A football
Drill
Set up with 8 golf balls and a football 20 yards in front on me.
Pretend that each shot was the final shot in to the British Open and go through pre-shot routine. Before I hit each one he would tell me what type of shot he wanted me to play (cut/draw, high/low and with what club), after each shot I walked out to the football and on the way back I rated out of 10 how committed I was to the shot.
Result
I rated my commitment to the shot - including my pre shot routine, my visualisation of the shot, the accuracy of my target, my concentration level and how ready I was to play the shot- the amazing thing was that the highest score I could give myself was a 7, meaning I was only 70% ready to play the shot. This really put things in to perspective.
What are we working on?
Cut down on wasted shots.
Drill
Count how many ‘anyway’ shots I hit in the round. By this I mean how many shots I hit when I’m not 100% sure of what I was doing, or didn’t feel comfortable over the shot, but hit it anyway.
The Theory
This equates to how many shots I am potentially throwing away each round. As how can I be angry about a shot that I wasn’t prepared for?
2 ½ hours went by in a flash in what was a captivating and productive session. At the end of the lesson we then met up with two other members of Zenjins elite squad, Jonathan Smart, who is the youngest player on the Europro tour and Sam Robinson a Rookie on the Alps tour.
We headed out on to the course for seven holes before the day came to an end. In spite of it being a friendly relaxed game I was keen not to look foolish in front of these extremely talented golfers and focused on the task in hand.
And although they joked that it is all I would write about, I have to mention that I did smash my opening drive a good 20 yards past theirs (get in there my son!) on the 1st and managed to beat them both in the few holes we squeezed in, though mark drained a good putt on the last to pip me by one (revenge will be sweet Mark!)
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To check out the first stage of Jack’s golfing odyssey click here...
10/23/2007 4:00:03 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00) 
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