You need three things:

1. YOUR BRAIN-An understanding of what to do. You get this from someone like me who has an eye for the simple idea of what physical movement will improve things. Easy to figure out for someone who knows what they are doing.

2. YOUR BODY-The ability to perform this movement. With very few exceptions, everyone has this ability. Aside from a complicated body contortion (usually wrong anyway) or an injury preventing the movement, this movement from #1 should be simple enough to perform. Again, very simple concept.

3. Communication between #1 and #2. This is the hard part and this is where the hard work and trial and error comes in.

Most people teach that diagnosing the problem is a complicated process of finding all of the faults that aren’t lining up the swing according to an arbitrary standard, then the fix is easy. Manipulate the club and body into all of these “correct positions.”

I find this ridiculous. If you know what you are looking at, diagnosing the biggest fault getting in the way of a player is one simple things at a time. Where the hard part comes in is finding #3. How the brain communicates the proper thought/feel that produces the change in motor activity.

Everyone has different levels of body control and different ways of interpreting information.

You as a golfer, in order to get better, do not need a laundry list of swing thoughts, body movements and positions. You as the golfer need to find the proper way to communicate one single change to your body.

For instance…I see a student who takes the club too far inside creating a poor wrist hinge, lifts the arms and makes the backswing too long and then comes over the top and casts it with very little lower body rotation. A very common laundry list of problems.

I do not talk each position of the golf swing and right shoulder this and left hip that and try and fix all those flaws. You fix the first 2 feet of the takeaway and see what else gets fixed.

So now we have #1, not so far inside off the ball…simple. Can pretty much any person do this? Of course, so we have #2.

Now we get to #3. I can use the entire band with on the internet to list all of the feels and thoughts that will get the club going back straighter the first 2 feet. I can get fresh with the student and show them how it feels.

It is up to the student to find the proper communication between his brain and his body that produces this small, but important motor activity change. He may find it on the first try, he may find it on the 23rd try, but finding the proper language for the mind and body to come together in a simple and natural way is the key to getting better at golf…and no amount of more knee flexion, upper and lower cog talk with less left forearm pronation at P2 is going to help.

Keeping the left elbow pointed at the chest longer. That is the kind of communication that will improve the swing and lower the scores.