Consistency in Golf? Achieve the perception of Control

Consistency in golf is the most sought after trait for any golfer. Ask any teacher - this is what clients want. Consistency and control. Now they are not so easy to come by because they are the fruits of a fully functioning golf swing. Even the best players in the world are inconsistent.

But I see your point. You wish to deliver ball striking that is somewhat similar shot after shot. Now, this is VERY doable.

What you need is a functional mechanical movement. Yes, this sounds very technical, but it’s really what it is all about. Inconsistency comes from your power sources breaking down too early and your blade being out of position. Everything else in your swing is just pure compensation for the above mentioned problems.

So, how to get a functional mechanical movement.

Understanding the WHAT and WHY
A swing model that fits YOU
Change Training - Finding your HOW & KEY DRIVERS
Maintenance Training with Antidote

I’ll walk you through all of these but can already now say that you should read my “How to change your golf swing” guide instead. It’s a deep dive in how I have gone through 4-5 different swing changes and made a clear structure of how you can do it too.

And by the way, my name is Petter Tärbe and I have a history as a decent scratch player, a golf instructor for some years, but first and foremost I’m a huge golf development nerd that loves to pass on what I know.

Understanding the two W’s = WHAT and WHY

Many instructors are told to KISS = Keep It Simple Sxxxxx. This is from my perspective the worst teaching you can provide as an instructor. If the student doesn’t get the WHAT and WHY there will be no subconscious acceptance to perform whatever is proposed.

As mentioned I have gone through a whole bunch of swing changes to find a swing that won’t make my body break down and cause injury. I have been forced to change. But from all these changes this is the most prominent message - understand WHAT you are doing it and WHY it’s important.

For me the dominant factor in my swing for playing injury free golf is to create a synched up aggressive chest rotation from impact to follow through. And I need to do it with minimal tilts because tilts are just bad for me. That’s WHAT & WHY I need to do. Everything is built around this.

A swing model that fits YOU

On TV you see great players like DJ, Tiger, Hovland, Rory etc etc. If you look closely you can see that they have very few similarities in the way they swing the club. It’s almost like they play different sports.

If you start to categorize professional golf swings you will however start to see a pattern.

Step one is to fit your persona to the style of swing (are you a bit “nervous/quick” like John Rahm or tranquil like Dustin Johnson). Some of the swing patterns will be a total mismatch towards your persona.
Step two is to figure out how you feel your golf swing? Are you a golfer that likes to feel everything in your hands or are you more of a body mover?
Step three is to figure out when you are mentally available during the swing. For me, I can’t have any swing thoughts from the top of the backswing to just after the ball is struck, so anything that has the transition as a key component goes out the window for me.

Once you have figured this out you can enter into the territory of technique frameworks. And you need to choose only one framework because advice in one framework can be detrimental for results in another framework. Again, everything here is described in my “How to change your golf swing guide”.

Change Training - finding your HOW and your KEY DRIVERS

You have chosen a swing model that fits your persona and your change style. Now it’s all about digging deep into the framework and understanding it in and out. Yes, this is deep studies but I have laid it all out for you in the Snöleo Golf Academy.

Again, if you don’t get your WHAT & WHY you won’t get the mental acceptance for the change.

Inside of the different frameworks you can start working out HOW to actually accomplish your swing. This is the most sought after layer in golf and quite honestly, most instruction completely misses the point here.

The HOW is about deciphering technical information and making it easy for the brain in thought patterns that makes sense athletically for you. This is what golfers did before we had all kinds of technology. The polar opposite of this is to teach positions. This have never worked, will never work and should be completely erased from golf’s memory (in my humble opinion).

An example. My WHAT & WHY is that I want to create a rotational chest with minimal shoulder tilts through impact so that I’m synched up. HOW I do this is through a feeling of cutting the ball from impact to the follow through. This is my easy on the brain task that fits with my mental availability (again, I can’t think between top of backswing and impact, so I do all of it after the ball is struck from a mental perspective). If I do this in acceleration I will actually create the consistency and the perceived control that so many golfers want. The HOW is pretty much the holy grail of golf in my opinion.

Regarding the KEY DRIVERS it’s all about identifying the stuff that moves all the other stuff. That’s why I ask the question if you are a hands or body style student. For me the key drivers in my framework is to use my left hand / forearm in the backswing to drive my rotation and to feel my hands in a cutting motion in the follow through. These drivers will make my body move. Easy to find? No, but once you do it you will speed up your change process by multiple X. I do my best to decipher the key drivers in each technique framework on Snöleo Golf Academy.

Maintenance training with Antidote

So you have now gone through the steps of change and start playing golf. Here’s the thing. All great players slip in and out of their perfect “striking zone”. This basically means that if you do one style of potent swing thought for too long it will “pull you out of your zone”. Therefore you need to find the antidote to whatever works for you.

An example. I play with a very potent “cut the ball feeling” in my follow through. This is my easiest thought to accomplish my goal of a rotating chest through the ball. If I hit a bucket of balls with full focus on this feel I will have altered my path too much outside in and therefore I must go back to an inside out drill to get myself back to my perfect “striking zone”. Many players throughout history have described this, e.g. Jack Nicklaus basically played a fade in competitive golf but on the driving range he would hit a lot of draws.

Again, we have loads of information about golf from an non KISS-perspective on the Academy. Check it out.

Play well!