Make The Turn Weeky Challenge #31: One-Minute Swing

A big word I like to hammer home during my coaching sessions is "awareness." In golf, awareness means you have a full understanding of what "IS" within your current pattern. You understand exactly what's happening at impact to create your contact and ball flight, as well as how your club and body are acting to produce the existing result. Once you determine what "IS" you can then begin to consider the future of what you'd like your contact and ball flight to be.

The player who is "aware" operates from a position of power. The power to see the truth within their behaviors and the power to make immediate and informed decisions to shift those behaviors to achieve a more desired set of results.

Although there are many ways to diagnose and develop patterns of movement, one of the best you can do on your own is the "One-Minute Swing." It seems like a pretty simple exercise, but one minute of intense focus directed to every inch of your golf swing can be downright exhausting. When producing this challenge, our crew insisted I go through about a dozen takes, filmed from a variety of angles. By completion I'd worked up a full lather and definitely became more tuned into some issues with my swing. The next day I was even a bit sore, which helped me zero in on some areas I needed to improve physically as well.

One of my favorite mantras is, "In order to become different from what you are, you must have an awareness of what you are." When you elevate your awareness for movement, you gain ownership over the process of learning in a way that dramatically accelerates your progress and enjoyment for the game.

Spend a little time working on this surprisingly difficult exercise. You'll be amazed at just how much you can learn in a minute!

BENEFITS

Increased Awareness

Pattern Recognition

Improved Swing Mechanics

Jeff Ritter is the CEO/Founder of__ MTT Performance__. The program operates out of Poppy Hills Golf Course in Pebble Beach, Calif. Follow him on Twitter at @mttgolf*