Dry Shooting a Basketball and How it Relates To The Golfswing.....uh Maybe

I found this little piece in cyberspace and I have no idea how. The gentleman who authored this piece  refers to himself in the third person as "Dr. Putt". He is also apparently a college professor. His command of the english language leaves me in the dust. He also has some pretty astute observations on Tiger, bio-mechanics, and what else? Putting. At the very minimal risk of plagiarism I am filing this dis-claimer:

Dear Mr. Dr. Putt,

Please know that out of respect to your sage wisdom and knowledge, I want to make it clear that since you haven't produced a newsletter post since the fall of 2010 I am taking the liberty of passing along your information as a service to my clients with whom I'm sure will appreciate your efforts.

Sincerest Regards
RAM ;-)

Now that we've got that out of the way, hopefully some of you will remember, that from time to time I have mentioned a gentleman in Oregon that offers what he calls Tai Chi Golf. This is where a practice swing is broken down into four separate parts:

1. Address to P3 or 9:00
2. P3 to Top or P4
3. Top to Impact or P7
4. Impact to Finish

Each segment should take 15 seconds to complete and the entire swing should take one minute. It sounds simple. But this instructor prescribes 20 reps per day. If you have never done yoga, this would be in my opinion the closest thing to Golf Yoga that I know of. Just one rep is tough. Imagine 20!  My understanding is that 20 Tai Chi swings is equal to 1000 reps making contact with a ball. The benefit is that there is no negative feedback to clutter the process and at the risk of using the notorious cliche, extreme "muscle memory" production. I think the real bio-mechanical term is myelin intake. Don't quote me on that, just look it up for yourself ;-) But you get the point. The brain basically remembers what you want it to remember. If you choose to reinforce negative thoughts and emotions after every less than perfect shot, then I'll guaran-darn-tee that's what you'll recall under pressure. But if you visualize positive outcomes and emotions then that's what dominates your thought process in times of stress and anxiety. Trust me, this is coming from a guy that has lived it. ;-(

Anyway here it is.

Dry Shooting in Basketball and Dry Swinging in Golf by Dr. Putt

As Dr. Putt's readers know, he is a basketball junkie who still plays ball several times each week with coaches, faculty, and an ever changing collection of students on the college campus where he teaches. He also reads all that he can about basketball thoery--this year studying the "flex offense" that the women's team runs at his school. But Dr. Putt digresses--back to the point. Some time ago he ran across a study comparing the results of two groups practicing free throws, one group with a ball and a groups without a ball--dry shooting. He has also noted that a number of the really great foul shooters dry shoot before every foul shot. In particular, Steve Nash. His dry shot is not just with the arms, as do many, but a complete shot using arms and legs just as he would with a ball. A practice swing, if you will.

So practice swings are a good idea. Dr. Putt has written about that before. But here is the point that we might consider this year as we tune up our swings. We practice too much with a ball and too little without a ball. We can improve more if we spend at least equal time practicing dry swings without the ball. This allows us to focus on how the swing feels, be aware of where the clubface is, complete the swing and finish in balance. Watching the ball distracts us from all these things.

So next time you go to the range, take only half as many balls as you usually do. Spend 5 minutes practice swinging before you even hit your first ball. Then take 3-4 complete practice swings between every real shot. Note whether the real swing felt like your practice swing--that should be your goal. Dr. Putt will bet that the results will be better than just beating balls, as we all too often do.