A 10% Theory
By Michael Hebron
When it comes to making long term progress, unfortunately learning-to-play approaches to progress
often have golfers spending 90% of their training time on just 10% of what can make a golfer good, or
even great. Make your own list of all the elements that you believe can make a good golfer. What makes
Tiger Woods, Annika Sorenstam, and Lorena Ochoa great golfers? What made Jack Nicklaus, Lee
Trevino, and Ben Hogan great?
If the list of elements that makes golfers good is accurate, it will not be a short list. We could start a list
with their swing, and then add imagination, emotional control, ability to focus, physical strength, flexibility,
short game skills, reasoning powers, deduction skills, eyesight, organization skills, memory, self-discipline,
past experience, self-confidence, training schedule, and I could go on. Note that the golf swing was only
one of the elements on the list of what can make a golfer good or great (and not the most important).
Unfortunately, many golfers are spending 90% of their time with less than 10% of what can make a golfer
good; their golf swing. After Padraig Harrington won the 2008 PGA Championship he said, “A fantastic
win, but I did not have my golf swing this week.”
When a golfer swings and the results is an unwanted outcome (below their current potential), it has
little to do with their physical ability to swing the club, and more to do with how efficient all the other
elements on our list are. This holds true for high and low handicap golfers as well as professionals. We all
know golfers with less than classic golf swings who play good golf, and professionals who win when they
do not have their “A” game. “Tiger didn’t think about his swing. His sole mission was to hit the ball at the
target” said Tiger’s first coach, Rudy Duran. This is an example of true engagement with learning.
Playing-to-learn approaches to progress are similar to being a general manager who is taking a wide
focus to enhance every element that can support reaching optimum potential. On the other hand, learning-
to-play approaches have a much narrower view, such as focusing only on the golf swing. For example, a
learning-to-play approach in golf might be one that uses technical details about the golf swing, how-to
directions to fix the golf swing, or expert models to copy a golf swing. But golf is not a game called “golf
swing,” it’s a game of playing golf.
When playing golf for perfection, or trying for a certain score, it’s unlikely that you will ever be happy on
the course. Becoming a competent golfer does not require mastering lots of technical knowledge or
developing a perfect swing. “You have to care, but you can’t care about the results.” (Loren Roberts) The
fifteenth club in our bag is the forget it club. Tom Lehman, winner of 19 tournaments on the PGA Tour,
and the 1996 British Open said he came out of a long putting slump because of the simple insight that the
brain can’t process two thoughts. “I’d had all this stuff in mind about the break, speed, and the stroke.
Now my mantra is “roll it into middle of the hole.” (Golf Digest, May 2008.)
What to do vs. How to
I have found that golfers who are playful with insights into basic core information for what-to-do with a
golf club make more progress than golfers who are trying to copy how-to directions for moving their body.
In brain-compatible learning environments, basic core concepts that are just in the ballpark, (not
technically perfect details) are used for making progress. Natural actions or responses such as; “Just
shoot the ball up,” or “Just swing the bat,” or “Just swing the weight of the golf club,” without following
specific details about how to do it, is the suggestion here (based on science of learning). It is always the
environment (not the technical details from a perceived expert) that puts forward basic core information.
For example: the weather dictates what to wear. In business, what to do is based on the needs of the
customer. A doctor does not decide what to do next (how best to use the core information gained in
medical school) until the patient is examined. A lawyer does not decide what to do with what they know
about the law until they know the details of the case they are working on. To be fully informed, just be
aware of the environment; it is the only true catalyst of creative playful learning.
For golfers, awareness of the conditions of the shot they are about to play (up hill, down hill, into the
wind, down wind, left to right, right to left, etc.) is clearly the most useful model for determining what to do
with the golf club. This approach is far superior to applying technical details of an expert model, or how-to
directions for moving the body. Everything works best when it responds efficiently to the environment.
Copyright 2009, Michael Hebron, Learning Golf Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Neuro Learning for golf and Neurogolf Learning are trademarks of Learning Golf, Inc.
