Why You Need This:

In this video, you’ll learn how to hit laser irons and more greens by exploring The Schema Theory.

This is the 5th video in my bonus course Secret Science to Improve Faster Than Anyone Around You…

And it centers on how your body learns new motions.

The discussion does get a little nerdy, but I break down it down into easy-to-understand points so you can start implementing the lessons into your training.

The Schema Theory for Motor Learning

Hey, I told you it’d get a little nerdy 🙂

Essentially, this theory states that your mind has a mental map of what you’re going to do before you even start the swing…

And your mind tries to direct your body to get the desired result.

Here’s how the Schema Theory applies to top pros…

The best players in the world have lots of mental maps.

Uphill lie?

No problem. They have the map in their minds that they can tap into to hit a good shot.

Need to hit a low stinger?

No problem. Again, they know what to do.

Less skilled players (pretty much the rest of us), have fewer mental maps.

See where I’m going with this?

To improve your game, you need to develop more mental maps…

Or to say it simply, add more shots to your arsenal.

In the video, I’ll walk you through variability training so you can see how to develop mental maps for different types of shots.

Watch this video now to put more shots into your comfort zone!

What's Covered: How To Level Up Your Improvement

Golf Pros Featured:

Instructors Featured: Clay Ballard    

Video Duration: 14:52

Video Transcription:

Hi guys, welcome back. I’ve got a really cool video for you on how your body actually learns, how we learn new motions, and how we can get really, really consistent.

I’m going to over the hard science here at the first, but don’t worry about getting bogged down in the details, and maybe some of the phrases that I use.

I’m going to simplify it for you later in the video. Then I’m going to tie it back in with what we’ve already done in this series.

What this is called is called the Schema Theory for Motor Learning. Basically, what this says is your brain has kind of a mental map of what it’s going to do before it ever makes a swing, and then it tries to recreate that to get the desired result.

So think about it this way, if you close your eyes, you walk right up to the ball, you don’t think at all, open your eyes and swing, what type of ball flight are you going to get?

For many players out there that’s going to be a fade, maybe you won’t get as much distance as you’d like to have. If that’s your kind of go-to schematic, your schema, your mental map that you have in your mind that allows you to hit that type of shot.

You probably, if somebody said, “Hey, I’m going to bet you $1,000, and you’ve got to hit this one. You can pick any kind of shot you want to, what shot it’s going to be?”

You’re probably going to use that go-to shot. Maybe not be the prettiest one in the world, but that’s going to be the one that you can repeat.

What that’s saying is, you have a really strong map, a really strong image, a really strong kind of play in your mind before you ever swing that’s going to get you that kind of result.

With good players, or with really great players, pro players, what it means is they have tons of maps in their mind. If they get on an uphill lie, let’s imagine we have a ball that’s way above my feet and I’m trying to hit off that. They’ve already done it thousands of times, they have a mental map for that.

If we have a downhill lie, if we have a ball that’s sitting up really nice and fluffy, if we have a ball that’s really tight on hard pan.

We have these mental maps or mental kind of schematics, think of it that way, that are going to allow us to analyze the situation, adjust our feeling, our tempo, our timing, our rhythm, whatever we need to adjust, and then repeat that and actually get a pretty good shot.

Probably tempo and timing isn’t the best example there, because that’s going to be pretty consistent, what they’ve found in most players.

But they’re adjusting ball position, stance, weight distribution, and what you’re going to feel, they’re adjusting that mental schematic to fit the situation to get the desired shot.

The real key here is what we talked about earlier, which is variability training. We’ve got to put ourselves in a lot of different situations, hit different types of shots, and that way we develop those mental maps.

If we just go out to the driving range, get a big bucket of balls, toss them over on the ground and start hitting the same shot over and over again, that one mental map may be pretty good, but as soon as things get off track, it’s going to completely fall apart.

Let’s actually go over a drill of how I’d practice this. Today I’ve got my FlightScope radar set up here, le me make sure it’s good to go.

What it’s going to do for me is it’s going to track my ball and I’m just going to hit a shot, I’m going toward the tree right there in the middle of the fairway, way out in the distance.

Let’s just see what happens. I’m not going to think much, I’m just going to make a swing. I actually haven’t hit a single practice swing, haven’t done a single shot at all today, so we’re going to see what my go-to mental map is.

There you go, first swing on the day. Overdrew it a little bit, wasn’t the prettiest shot in the world, but usually I play a draw. That’s kind of my go-to mental map.

Now the problem with that is, if things get a little off track, that one drew over into the left side of the fairway, almost into the rough.

When things go off track, maybe I get that to go a little bit too much. Maybe I hook one, or a start to block one out to the right.

That’s because on this video, or this FlightScope data, we’re seeing that my club path 2.8, 2.7 to the right and my face to the target was 2.4 to the left.

That’s basically an inside out, that’s a draw type motion. I’m swinging out to the right, my face is closing down a little bit, and I’m hitting a little bit of a draw.

Now those numbers aren’t bad. Anything under 3 is really good. Anything under 2 is fantastic. The best players in the world try to keep it under 3 most of the time as far as right or left.

So now if I’m trying to build my mental maps, if I’m trying to build these multiple schematics in my mind, so that when I step up to the first hole, let’s imagine that maybe I go a little too far.

Maybe I’m 4 or 5 out to the right, and all of a sudden that ball starts to hook out of bounds, I don’t want to do that all day. I’ve got to adjust, I’ve got to play into a different mental map to straighten that ball out.

Now, we would be at the range here and let’s try to hit a few fades. So my go-to is a draw, my secondary shot, or the shot that maybe wouldn’t be my main one, but it would be one that I can tie in to would be a bit more than a fade.

In this shot, I’m going to try to swing a bit more to the left. Get my path moving to the left instead of to the right like it was on the first one.

I’m going to have that face a little bit open to my path, and then from there I’m going to have a little bit of a fade. So if I do this correctly, I’m going to see a path that’s slightly to the left, and a face that’s a little bit open to that. So let’s try that out.

Usually when I’m doing this, a put the ball a little bit more up in my stance, I’ll open my stance slightly, and then I’m going to feel like I’m going ahead, I’m letting that club release.

I’m letting the club release toward the target this way, like we talk about in our Straight-Line Release, but I’m not going to let the face turn on over as much, it’s not going to rotate quite as much around.

So I’m lined up a little bit left, feel like I’m swinging left, what I’m doing here is I’m kind of tying into a different mental image before I ever make a swing.

Let’s go ahead and try one out and see how that plays out. There we go, a little bit of a fade. Probably overdid that one a little bit. That one actually went down the right side of the fairway. Let’s see what the FlightScope radar says here.

So on my club path, 3.7 to the left. So did exactly what I wanted it to do. The first one was 2.8 to the right, the second one was 3.7 to the left. Then my face was too open, 6° to the right.

That’s just telling me that my face was just a little bit too open. That’s why it’s kind of in the edge of the fairway, wasn’t my perfectly hit best shot. But that’s OK, I’m just going to adjust until I get that ball to fade a little bit down the middle of the fairway.

Now here’s one of the things that is kind of controversial. Now when we’re first trying to learn this, let’s imagine let’s take another ball up there. Let’s say that I’m trying to hit that draw. Most players out there, their go-to kind of mental map is a fade.

Let’s say I’m trying to hit that draw. I want to get this ball, this club to come more inside out. I want to get the club face to rotate on around to come to the outside of the ball, that way I can hit that draw as I’m coming through there.

Well, when we’re first starting out, we can kind of pause and go slow motion. Maybe I’ll have my club move through impact really slow motion. I’ll feel the face turning on over.

That can be a really good advantage to do the same thing over and over, to get those reps in doing the same motion repeatedly to get that foundation laid for it so I can feel just what the general idea is for how I’m coming through the ball.

Now the tougher part with this is after we get that overall foundation, we kind of know the general idea of what we’re trying to do. Now we have to take it up to full speed.

So I’ve done some slow motion swings to get the overall idea, but I’ve got to go to full speed. What they’ve found through a lot of research is that athletes, whether it’s in golf or other sports, they use kind of that same rhythm and same tempo with all of their different types of shots.

If I’m an NBA 3-point shooter, I’m going to use the same rhythm whether I’m shooting a 10-foot shot or a 30-foot shot.

In golf, if I’m hitting my draw, or I’m hitting my fade, I’m going to use that same overall rhythm whether I’m hitting either one of those shots. So I’ve got to tie into that rhythm.

The way I’m going to do this is before I swing, I’m going to create a mental map, a mental picture that I’m going to feel of what that draw is going to feel like. It’s going to be in full speed before I ever make a swing.

I’m visualizing, this is why we talk about visualization so much. I’m visualizing exactly what that’s going to feel like to hit that draw.

Once I feel like I’m really good at that, or have a good clear picture, then I’m going to make the swing and I’m going to look at the result.

One of the things that really helps with this is giving yourself a visual cue that allows for this. This is called the Speed Trap made by EyeLine Golf.

I like this training aid, it can actually help you to really speed up this process. I’m going to put these little foam sticks down – oops, I did the wrong way. Let’s go the other way real quick.

I’m going to put these foam sticks down, and what this does is now it creates kind of a gate or a path that I’m going to be swinging through. By setting up this way, that naturally gives me a visual.

Well this is going to be a lot easier to swing this club if I’m coming a little bit more inside out. If I switch those two red pieces, it would be easier to come this way.

If I start to come over the top here, I’m going to crash into these, knock them off this plastic piece here, and this is actually a hard plastic. You can hit it full speed with a swing, it’s not going to break it. It’s a great training, it’s giving me that visual again to do this.

Now the incorrect way to do this, to create that mental map would be I’ve done some slow-motion swings to get the general idea, but what I don’t want to do is forever be working on pausing, and going into positions, and going really slow, and never building up to where I’m going full speed.

So I don’t want to be out on the course really getting in my mind, thinking about all these different pausing and positions, and all that kind of stuff. I want to trust that the practice I did on the range created those good mental maps that I can tie into.

I’m going to set this down, the Speed Trap down here, and let’s go ahead before I ever swing, I’m going to visualize me coming inside out, hitting that nice draw, and we’ll see if I can get that good inside-out path in a nice draw down the middle of the fairway this time, instead of the left side of the fairway.

There we go, right down the middle on that one. That was about a five-yard, maybe a little bit more, draw than that, but that was a perfect shot.

We’re going to see here with my path on that shot, that was just right down the middle. Overdid it a little bit, because I had this visual feedback. My path was 7.3 to the right and my face was 6.7 left. So I’m exaggerating a little bit with this, because it gave me such a mental feedback, but that’s OK.

Let’s change it the other way, and let’s go to our fade-type swing. Now that I have these set up this way, that’s going to promote more of an outside in or fade type of a swing, now the gate’s going this way.

If I was to come inside I’d whack into those red pieces, and this is really going to make it easy to get more of a fade type of motion. Let’s try that out.

Again, before I’m ever swinging, I’m creating that mental map in my mind full speed exactly what’s going on there, and then we’re going to hit a fade. Let’s try this one out.

Just a little bit down the right side, not a bad shot though. Let’s see what that says on my flight scope. Kind of down the right edge of the fairway. My club path was .3° left, so again that was good. It was going to the left. My face, again, was a little bit open.

So maybe I would work on my mental picture for what the face is doing as I continue to practice here. Everybody has something they can improve on.

Let’s take this video back to the beginning and kind of tie this in with what we’re doing. If we want to learn, we talked about in the first video, we have to adjust the way our brain is wired.

By working on different types of shots, even if you’re a 20 handicapper, working on hitting fades, working on hitting draws, what I’m doing is I’m creating a very clear mental map of the different types of shots.

As I start to practice those, my brain actually rewires itself so it can get a good feel for what is left, what is right, and then how to get that all straightened out so I can hit the nice, straight shot.

Then we’re going into the three rings. The learning zone, as I start to work on these shots some of these are going to be in my comfort zone, I’m going to feel really good with them.

But I’m forcing myself to get outside of my comfort zone and hit the shots that I’m not quite as comfortable with, that I wouldn’t normally do on the course. That’s getting me in my learning zone and outside of my comfort zone.

On the third piece, the deliberate practice, we’ve got a way to measure it. We’re trying to see, am I hitting a fade, am I hitting a draw, I can easily see if I’m doing this correctly or not and I’m changing that mental picture in my mind to make this happen.

That’s getting to deliberate practice and I’m increasingly make it more and more difficult. We could use a different club, we could make the target smaller, just like we talked about in that video, but I’m really focusing on building new pathways, building new mental maps to be able to improve.

Now to recap what we don’t want to do. I don’t want to get all in my mind and be thinking about just positions and be out on the course doing all these very intricate things with technique, and really get kind of bogged down. I want to create that full mental picture before I ever swing.

I’m back here visualizing, I’m imagining my draw out there, and I have that mental picture in my mind, and then when I get up to the ball I’m just going to let that happen.

When I practice, that’s when I’m getting outside the comfort zone. When I’m playing, I’m just getting that mental picture, and I’m letting it happen. I’m going to trust that I’m going to do the hard work when I’m out there practicing to let that go.

The more mental maps, the more kind of schematics you have in your mind of what types of shots you want to hit, not only fades and draws, but thin lies, really tall grassy thick rough lies, uphill slopes, downhill slopes, those are all going to help you to play really well.

The cool thing about this that we talked about in the very beginning, the last thing I’ll leave you with here. It’s not just about hitting fades and draws.

Let’s imagine that I went out for the very first couple holes and I started to hook the ball a little bit, and I know I’m coming too far inside out. Well all I’m going to do, since now I have a variety of mental maps to play off of, I’m starting to hook the ball. I’m coming too far inside out.

All I’m going to do is I’m going to change up the mental map. I’m going to think OK, I’m going to hit a little bit of a fade shot here.

I’m going to have that picture in my mind, I’m going to feel exactly what that feels like. I’ve practiced this on the range many times, and then I’m just going to fire and let that happen.

There we go, right down the middle even though I may have thought about a little bit of a fade, because I was hooking that straightened it out and I got a nice, straight shot.

That was the best of all there, let’s see how that one did. Felt like a good path, yeah, 2.1 to the right path. That’s my go-to draw shot, 1.2 left with the face, that’s absolutely perfect, and 226 carry with a hybrid. I’m definitely happy with that.

So work on those mental maps, those pictures, the more of them you get, the better you’re going to be. Practice the schema theory, tie that in with everything you do, and you’re going to play the best golf of your life. I’ll see you guys soon.