Meet Dan, he’s 36 and works in recruitment. Dan came to G60 with limited golf experience. In his short time playing golf he had managed to get his handicap to 21 but was struggling with his game and felt like he had hit a plateau with his improvement. His previous approach was taking a private lesson every 4-6 weeks, playing golf at the weekend and occasionally hitting the driving range during the week. Dan was getting more and more frustrated with his game so he knew he had to change the way he was doing things.
When he signed up, Dan was keen on making some changes to elevate his levels during the next year and beyond. We assessed his game and gave him an improvement plan. This plan started with building his swing and changing his movement. This can be a daunting task at first but once we explained that it happens in small increments over a period of time, Dan was fully on board. Changing your technique is not always necessary, but after his initial game assessment, we decided that ball striking and swing was a priority. This would help Dan break through his plateau and start enjoying the game more.
Over the next couple of months, Dan took the time to focus on developing a better technique. The improved technique would allow him to strike the ball more centrally and hit the ball further and straighter. He was in the building phase of our program. During this phase there is a heavy technique focus, with lots of block practice and feedback from the coach. We explained that scores are not important in this phase. Dan took this on board and decided to take himself away from playing club competitions during this phase. He put his full focus into changing his technique.
Dan took advantage of unlimited online feedback and support. He would practice the new movement at home, at the range, at the office….wherever he could! Dan got in touch with his coach several times a week, and attended our supervised practice sessions where we could keep an eye on his progress and offer advice to help him through.
After around 3 months, the small changes we had implemented with Dan each week had started turning into bigger changes. His swing had become much more efficient and effective. He had transformed his inconsistent striking, a lack of distance and poor club face control. He was now able to hit high draws and felt like he had ingrained the movement nicely.
Now it was time to move him into our maintenance phase. After a few months of hard work, he was ready to start varying his practice drills and type of practice. Instead of hitting balls into a net and working on movement with no ball hitting at home, we got Dan attending our short game sessions, playing lots of golf and taking part in competitions to test his new skills. We made sure we kept an eye on his technique during this time to prevent regression.
At this point, his scores started really improving and his handicap came tumbling down. Just by turning up, having fun and competing under pressure in our group sessions, he was improving fast and learning how to implement his new skills in a game-like environment.
Once we had a sustained period of success with the new technique, and were really confident it had been properly ingrained, we shifted the focus onto performance. Dan had been with G60 for around 9-10 months and he had reached our performance phase. In this phase, we put much less focus on technique, because we know that thinking about it doesn’t help you score/perform well on the course. Instead, the focus was now on learning course management skills, shot shaping, short game and putting. We really emphasised the importance of practising under pressure with Dan. He had a great group of golf mates who he met through G60. This would ultimately help to develop his competitive edge and ability to perform under pressure.
18 months on, Dan now plays off a handicap of 4.1. This is just an incredible transformation. He is unrecognisable from the 21 handicapper who started with G60. Dan stuck to the 3 P Pledge, Plan, Practice, Persevere, and had a great understanding of the process of learning/improvement. We have helped Dan get to a point where he owns his swing, and has a great understanding of what works for him on the golf course.
If you understand the process of learning, regularly attend our sessions and stick to the plan, these results are entirely possible for you too. If you're not a G60 member already, why not apply to join (button below) and we'll have a chat about how we can truly improve your game.