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Golf instruction“Why Can’t I Stop Doing that?” By Allen AvakianAllen Avakian, Directorof Instruction, ImpactPerformance LearningCenterVirtually every golfer or studentthat I have encounteredover the last 26 years has utteredthat phrase about some part oftheir game. Whether it is a “slice”,“hook”, “top” etc. that bedevilsthem, they are frustrated by their inabilityto overcome a vexing repetitivemistake.I believe there are two primaryreasons for these phenomena. Thefirst is how our brains functionwhen trying to perform a motorskill. The second is that their instructionmodel does not allow themto realize the cause of their bad, orfor that matter, good shots.Nobel Prize winning ColumbiaUniversity neuroscientist Dr. EricKandel states that whenever anyonetries to perform a motor movementtheir brain forms an internal“schema” or picture about how toperform it.The brain is very set on thisschema, or picture, and The brainthen tries to execute that schemaand get some rudimentary feedbackwill not leave it even if you are notsuccessful in your attempt to perform.The subconscious motor sensorysystem does not work in thenegative and essentially does notlearn from “mistakes”. It will onlymake minor modifications to its pictureas it will not see its picture as“wrong.” In golf it might be a minormovement of the ball forward orback in your stance or a slight gripchange to alter the face angle.The only way to improve inmotor skills is performance. Whenthe ball goes where you want it, andfar enough, you get a pleasurablesensation. This alerts thebrain that the last movementis necessary to accomplishyour task and itwill try to do that again togive you pleasure. Theshort of this long story isthat until you can figureout a way to perform consistentlywell, you are infor a long day on thecourse or practice tee.The fastest way that to do thatis to be task oriented in your attemptsand to have an absolutelycertain knowledge of what happened,good or bad, on any shot.Why task oriented? Humans are particularlyadept at learning from atool and task perspective. Here isthe tool, here is how you use it, nowgo get better with it.Modern golf instruction, however,is much more oriented tolearning by “form”. There is aswing, and if you could do it perfectlyyou could hit perfect shots.This method provides little in theway of feedback because as the oldgolf saying goes; “it never lookslike it feels, and it never feels like itlooks.”I believe that if you know yourtask (which part of the ball to hitand in what direction), and howyour tool (golf club) works anyonecan start to determine what happenedon any given shot. You canthen either correct, or continue onwith what you are doing to producegood shots.Golf is relatively easy. You justhave to think that what is necessaryto makethe clubfunctionto its utmostisa goodidea andthe rightthing todo.Allen Avakian is the Director ofImpact Performance Golf LearningCenter located at Charles t. MyersGolf Club. Contact Allen at 704-608-0485.18 - www.CarolinaGolfJournal.Com - Summer 2011_____________________________________________________________