And the Monkey understands this - so about this time every year you say - "My New Years Resolution this year is to play better golf."

Great!  Now by saying that it's your Resolution - how close does that make it to happening?  It's almost worthless to say if you don't do anything to back it up.  It's like the guy that gets home after his holiday office party, takes off his shirt as he prepares to take a shower and catches a glimpse of himself in his bathroom mirror after dunking about 32 pieces of shrimp into the bowl of cocktail sauce, washing them down with 5 glasses of Heineken and topping it off with 3 fudge brownies for dessert- "I gotta lose some of this belly!  My New Years Resolution is to lose 25 pounds."

So what happens - the Monkey wakes up the next morning and puts on a pair of sweat pants and goes out for a walk.  Has a salad for lunch and maybe some fish for dinner.  The next day he does the same.  Then New Years Eve comes and he goes out with the intention of eating lightly and having maybe 1 glass of Miller Lite.  At about 11:00 PM, the Monkey is on his 3rd Sausage sandwich from the buffet, 4th bottle of Rolling Rock and is asking the guy next to him - "Hey, where'd you find those fried mushrooms?"  Then next morning too hung-over to walk - the New Years Resolution ends before the New Year even starts!

OK, so you made the decision that 2006 is going to be your best golf year ever.  You're going to play the best golf you have ever played.  So how are you going to make it happen?

And the Monkey says - "Well Marc, I'm going to practice more this coming year than I ever have.  I'm going to make sure that I get out to practice at least twice a week.  And with all that practice, I'm going to play my best golf ever!"

Why do you say that?

Well, if it was as easy as just going to the Driving Range and working on your golf swing - why wouldn't you have always done that before if you wanted to get better?  I mean, haven't you always wanted to get better at golf?  Was there ever a time that you said - "I enjoy struggling to break 90 out on the golf course.  There's no challenge to golf if I could always keep my ball in play and make some more putts."  If all you had to do to get better was go to the driving range a couple times a week, how come the Golfers I see the most at the Driving Range are the ones that are always struggling the most with their swing?

Do you know anybody like that?

So getting back to the idea of telling yourself that you're going to have a glorious 2006 on the Golf Course because you're going to practice more may not be the solution.  Or it could be the solution!  It depends.  It depends on what you're practicing.  It depends on how focused you're practicing is.  It depends on you knowing what your weaknesses are.  It depends on knowing what your strengths are.

What we need to get out in the open is that by just going to the practice range to practice your swing doesn't help you to always get better.  In fact, I don't believe I'd be going out on a limb to say that 6 out of every 8 Monkeys get worse, more confused with their golf swing and increasingly frustrated when they go to the driving range.

Conversely, I believe that 6 out of every 8 Golfers that came to see us (Golf Made Simple) get better everytime they go to the driving range.  Why is it that the Monkeys get worse and the Golfers that come to see us get better?

Because our Golfers have a Practice PLAN!  They learn how to practice.  The Monkeys go out to hit golf balls.  The Players know how to work on the "Feel" of their golf swing.  The Monkeys hit golf ball after golf ball - always trying different things - they're constantly "Fiddling" with their swing.

The Golfers that come to Golf Made Simple have a Practice PLAN that involves a warm-up routine that gets them to "Focus" immediately on "Ball Striking" - making solid contact - even before they start to practice.  The Monkeys go out to hit golf balls.  The Player then moves into working on "Parallel Hands" for 10 minutes after which they hit 10 more balls using their "Tick Tock" - so that their focus is on feeling their swing while keeping their "Pace" consistent.

The Monkeys are hitting more golf balls.  The Player then moves into working on "Riding Hands" while hitting balls to a defined target for 10 minutes.  Then transitioning into their golf swing by hitting 10 balls left and right of their target.  As the Monkey continues to hit golf balls.  The Player then starts to work on "Belly Swings" with their Driver so that they can "Feel" everything moving and working together to produce solid contact (Centerness of Hit) with the golf ball.  As the Monkey continues to "Fiddle" with their swing every shot as they get farther and farther away from what they should be doing.

The Player then goes over to the putting green to set-up their "Box" so they can putt with the tip of their 5-iron and then use their putter to putt with their eyes closed to learn to "Feel" if they're hitting the ball short, past or in the "Box".  As the Monkey throws 3 balls onto the green and putts to a hole.  Then decides to putt to another hole all the way across the green that's in the same direction as the trunk of their car - because practicing putting is boring to them and they'd rather go home.  As the Player has now transitioned into the "Uphill - Downhill Drill" and is loving the challenge of getting 6 out of 8 in and shrinking the "Box".

And as the Player that has learned to practice correctly is learning more and more about their golf swing - the Monkey is making more and more New Years Resolutions about having their best year ever.  As will probably happen next year and the year after that and the year after that until they start to make the excuse that they've tried to get better at golf and just can't - so they're content to always scoring in the 90's or 100's.

Why don't the Players that come to see us have to make New Years Resolutions to play better next year?  Because besides the occasional bad round of golf that every Player including Tiger and Annika is going to have - they always know and "Feel" that they're constantly getting better.  So there's no need for them to say - I'm going to start to really work on my game to become better - that's already a part of their PLAN.

Why is it that every year, we have more and more Golfers come back to see us for their second, third, fourth or even fifth time?  Why is it that we sell out our classes months in advance?  Why is that we need to add a new facility every year to keep up with demand?

Because the Golfers that come to see us get better every year.  Because we help you to understand your game better.  Because we don't give you that recycled, BS Golf Instruction that is worthlessly paraded around the Golf Magazines and Golf Channel.  Golfers that see us get better because you're basing your improvement on "Results" that you can see and "Feel" - as opposed to the "Theories and Assumptions" that you constantly hear by listening to the Monkeys.

Monkeys make Resolutions.

Players already have the Solution!

Who wants to be a Player?

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life