The Target Principle

This instruction will improve , Your Game With Basic Swing Fundamentals your scoring, guaranteed. Understand and apply the Target Principle and your will be a better golfer , Can the Newer Technology of Clubs Improve Your Score? forever '? period. This is one of the few secrets of golf. , Going to School : How to Select a School

Last week we discussed making a plan for each hole , The Five Concept Swing Principles and every shot. Now we add a more finite piece to the puzzle, your target. Every shot requires a specific, small target.

Target, Target, Target

In real estate there are three things that are important: location, location, location. Golf , Mental Toughness for ers: Avoiding Comfort Zones in also has three things that are important: target, target, target. It's not the swing , The Importance of Clothing and all the other processes that are all important; it's simply the target. Many, if not most, golfers , Putting Causing You Some Problems? see the ball , More Tips On How To Lower Your Score as their target. Do away with that notion. It's important to all golfers , Great Tips to Help You Improve Your Game to know the truth -- the truth that the ball , Unique Mental Challenges for Women Golfers is only the object that is to be delivered to the target. Your target is the spot where you want the ball , Unique Mental Challenges for Women Golfers to end up or to land in order to end up on a predetermined spot.

Higher handicap golfers , How To Improve Your Game have the ball

as the target and the swing , Putting Causing You Some Problems? as the focus

If your target is the ball , Get Moving and Save Strokes you will develop a swing , The Ultimate Training Program that will do little more than hit , Lower Your Score By Playing Position at the ball , Right Leg & Knee and create short, miss-hit and crooked shots. Higher handicap golfers , Going to School : How to Select a School have the ball , and Fishing what have they got in common? as the target and the swing , Mental Toughness for Golfers: Avoiding Comfort Zones in as the focus, with some vague, general idea of where they want the ball , The Importance of Clothing to go. With the ball , The Importance of Clothing as the target you build a wall just beyond the ball, , How To Improve Your Game a wall that hides the real target. Your system functions based on the goal you feed it. Your swing , Why Does a Long Layoff Make You Play Better ? will be one that hits , Unique Mental Challenges for Women Golfers AT the ball, , Do You Need A Travel Bag? with no follow-through because your swing , Do You Need A Travel Bag? has achieved its goal: hitting , Top Tours the ball. , Club Care and Maintenance: How to Keep Your Clubs Looking and Performing Like Brand New

You will have a swing , Going to School : How to Select a School that will deliver the ball , Get Moving and Save Strokes to the target if your target is a place in the distance where you want the ball , and Fishing what have they got in common? to end up. If fear of missing the ball , Practice Isn't Important If dominates your thinking, your only objective is to hit , The Importance of Clothing the ball , Why Exercise Is Crucial In Achieving The Correct Swing (or in reality, to not miss the ball). That becomes your total focus. We are goal-oriented beings. You will always have a goal, so it is important that you have one that really benefits you. Once we agree that the ball , Mental Toughness for Golfers: Avoiding Comfort Zones in is not the target, the target becomes one of the most important aspects of the game , Secrets Of The Avid er of golf. , Top Tours

The best golfers , Increase your Flexibility with These 3 Key Stretches always have a very specific distant target in mind for every shot, during every swing. , Secrets Of The Avid er If your target is where you want the ball , 3 Easy Changes to Shave Strokes from Your Game to go, you will develop a swing , Can the Newer Technology of Clubs Improve Your Score? that will deliver the object (the ball) to the target rather than simply delivering the club , Do You Need A Travel Bag? head to the ball. , Improve Your Game With Basic Swing Fundamentals

I was talking with PGA , The Five Concept Swing Principles Senior Tour Player , Club Care and Maintenance: How to Keep Your Clubs Looking and Performing Like Brand New Bruce Fleisher in the fall of 1999. During our conversation, I mentioned the importance of the target and he commented that since he started playing golf , A Specific Workout Will Energize Your Game as a child all he really tried to do was hit , Putting From the Fringe of the Green the ball , 3 Swing Tips For Instant Results to the target. "Target, target, target, that's all I saw was the target," Bruce told me.

Bruce was saying that good golfers , The Importance of Clothing actually "see" the target while they are swinging. Golf , Putting Causing You Some Problems? doesn't allow you to look at the target while swinging, so you need to memorize exactly where the target is and keep that picture in your mind's eye while swinging. It's a golfer's way of looking at the catcher's glove, the basketball hoop, or the horseshoe pole. Our "system" makes the body function correctly to accomplish the desired goal. So choose your goal well.

The athlete always has an awareness of the ball , Going to School : How to Select a School and its exact location. To the observer it may appear that the golf , Top Tours professional is looking at the ball , Increase your Flexibility with These 3 Key Stretches part of the time. That is not actually true. We 'look'? with our eyes, but we 'see'? with our minds. That's why the caption of the picture on the previous page is 'Looking at the ball , More Tips On How To Lower Your Score (so it seems) but seeing the target.'?

If you keep the picture of the goal (the target) in mind, your system will respond to that picture and will make every attempt to deliver the ball , Putting Causing You Some Problems? to your target. Your system will micromanage your body to create the motion necessary to get the job done. Isn't it nice that you no longer have to do the micromanaging? That's the way your system is set up, and you should let it work to your advantage. With no distant target, your system gets lost and the ball , Increase your Flexibility with These 3 Key Stretches becomes the target. Your swing , Top Tours breaks down and your shot is not what you want.

It is important to comment on the 'Nicklaus'? aiming technique. , Bags: What To Choose This technique , 3 Swing Tips For Instant Results is to pick out a small, noticeable bit of something on the ground twelve inches in front of the ball, , History - A Female Perspective in line with the distant target. The idea is to 'square up'? the club , Free Games face to the bit of something and thus have the club , The Importance of Clothing face correctly aimed at the distant target.

I've seen golfers , Putting Causing You Some Problems? employ this technique, , Big Trouble many times to their disadvantage. They have become so enamored with 'aiming'? at the twelve-inch spot that the spot has become their target. Once they have determined their distant target, they spend the remaining pre-swing time aiming the club , The Power Of Your Core and The Swing at the spot on the ground. They never look at the distant target again! The real target no longer exists to them. This is almost the same as having the ball , Why Exercise Is Crucial In Achieving The Correct Swing as their target. They have built the 'wall,'? not at the ball, , The Perfect Swing but twelve inches in front of the ball. , Lower Your Score By Playing Position

The distant target must be the clear picture and the focus of your mind. You can certainly use the 'Nicklaus'? technique , Slice - An Easy Fix for aiming the club, , Improve Your Game With Basic Swing Fundamentals but be careful that the spot on the ground does not become your target.

Young people don't need swing , Secrets Of The Avid er instruction. They just need a club, , Free Games some balls , 3 Easy Changes to Shave Strokes from Your Game and a pine cone or some other small target to hit , Teenagers Top The Leader Board At The Women's US Open the ball , Teenagers Top The Leader Board At The Women's US Open to. They will develop the correct swing , Big Trouble with no instruction. As if we needed another good reason to never grow up.... Seeing the target is an important point and it needs to be stated another way. Blind people play golf. , Putting From the Fringe of the Green Imagine yourself as a blind golfer , Increase your Flexibility with These 3 Key Stretches hitting a shot to a green. , More Tips On How To Lower Your Score Your caddie has helped you address the ball. , More Tips On How To Lower Your Score Now he describes your target in detail: the distance, the size of the green, , Practice Isn't Important If the undulations of the ground, the position of the pin, uphill or downhill, the location of the bunkers and water, etc. As a blind golfer, , Master One Distance to Improve your what will you focus on as you make your swing? It will certainly be the target area, not the ball. , The Athletic Motion of The Swing Should the process be any different because you can see?

If you go away with only

one thing from this book,

make it the target concept.

Let's take the target concept from the general to the specific so that you can incorporate it into your game. , Top Tours Standing on the tee , Going to School : How to Select a School trying to hit , Unique Mental Challenges for Women Golfers a 50 yard-wide fairway , The Five Concept Swing Principles is really tough because it's too wide; there is no defined target. You'll miss the fairway , The Importance of Clothing most of the time. Narrow the target to a tree trunk and you'll still miss the tree trunk most of the time, but you'll easily be in the chosen side of the fairway. , Great Tips to Help You Improve Your Game

As you stand on the tee , Free Games I ask you about your plan and your target. The plan is important; the target is a key component of the plan. It makes the plan possible. The whole concept of target is very important in golf, , Why Does a Long Layoff Make You Play Better ? just as it is in other sports.

As you stand on the tee , Why Exercise Is Crucial In Achieving The Correct Swing and decide on a plan for playing the hole , Using A Fitness Video Will Save Time And Improve Your Game under today's conditions, you need to select a target that makes sense. This target cannot be a broad, vague area. It must be a very specific, narrow target. If your target is a distant tree, hit , Slice - An Easy Fix to the trunk rather than the whole bushy tree. The smaller your target, the more likely you are to hit , The Importance of Clothing it.

Aim small, miss small.

I was working with a student and asked him to hit , Free Games a set of stairs that led to another practice , Teenagers Top The Leader Board At The Women's US Open tee with a 30-yard wedge shot. The stairs were three-feet wide and five-steps high. He kept trying to hit , Improve Your Swing By Improving Your Tempo the whole set of stairs and missed every time. Then I asked him to pick out one step, and then pick out the right or left side of that step. You could see the enormous disbelief on his face when I made him get that specific. Within a few shots he had hit , The Power Of Your Core and The Swing that step. The smaller the target, the more likely you will hit , Great Tips to Help You Improve Your Game it. Aim small, miss small.

As you assume your address position, address the target rather than the ball. , How To Practice Get into your address position, looking more often at the target than the ball. , History - A Female Perspective Most golfers , A Specific Workout Will Energize Your Game address the ball, , Lower Your Score By Playing Position look at the ball , Discover Numerous Putter Types and take a quick glance at the target to see if it has moved. Now, reverse that; set up looking at the target, then glance at the ball. , How To Practice Spend a lot of time looking at the target, then a quick glance at the ball, , Teenagers Top The Leader Board At The Women's US Open then swing. , How To Really Improve The Basic

Concept Golf , Master One Distance to Improve your students are trained to think this way from the moment training , Putting From the Fringe of the Green begins on the putting green. , Bags: What To Choose In order to help them get a feel for the distance, I ask them to look at the hole , Power and Accuracy while they make ten-foot putts. , The Athletic Motion of The Swing At first they look like they have just lost their best friend. After they give it a try, they can't wait to take it on the course; some are still putting that way after several years. It works! With the full swing , How To Improve Your Game it is not physically reasonable to look at the target during the backswing. , More Tips On How To Lower Your Score The neck is not flexible enough to allow us to look at the target and make a full backswing. , A Specific Workout Will Energize Your Game So it is necessary to memorize exactly where the target is and visualize it during the swing. , Short Game Secrets That Will Change the Way You Score from Inside 50 Yards

However, I encourage my students to 'look up'? (to look at the target) as soon as they begin the forward-swing. They don't miss the ball. , Top Tours Instead, they actually deliver the ball , Free Games to the target. Their swing , Mental Toughness for Golfers: Avoiding Comfort Zones in flows naturally to a full finish because their intent is to deliver the ball , Power and Accuracy to the target rather than try to hit , Master One Distance to Improve your the ball. , and Fishing what have they got in common?

I had this target discussion with a left-handed female student who was brand new to the game. , How To Improve Your When we went to the range to hit balls , Putting Causing You Some Problems? she really zeroed in on the target and NEVER looked at the ball. , Putting Causing You Some Problems? She teed up a ball, , Teenagers Top The Leader Board At The Women's US Open set her club , A Specific Workout Will Energize Your Game behind the ball , Do You Need A Travel Bag? and looked at the target and never looked back at the ball. , 5 Keys to Mental Toughness for Junior Golfers She never missed the ball , Do You Need A Travel Bag? and hit , How To Improve Your Game many good shots right at her target.

John Toepel is a Veteran PGA , Do You Need A Travel Bag? Tour Player, , Right Leg & Knee instructor, author, and professional speaker. He is also the discoverer of Concept Golf, , Mental Toughness for ers: Avoiding Comfort Zones in the quickest way to immediate, life-long lasting improvements to anyone's golf game. , Core Flexibility Training Improves Swing Power And Distance To learn more about Concept Golf, , Improve Your Swing By Improving Your Tempo including the most comprehensive golf , 3 Easy Changes to Shave Strokes from Your Game instruction system ever, "The Concept Golf , Using A Fitness Video Will Save Time And Improve Your Game Perfect Shot Making System", please visit http://www.conceptgolf.com/PSMS.htm and Discover the Par Golfer , How To Really Improve The Basic Swing in You!