The Pareto principle and playing better golf

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coachwalls

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If your not familiar with Pareto's principle wiki it. You'll have a better understanding of it than I could hope to convey here. An alternate name of the Pareto Principle, the 80/20 rule, has been applied to a lot of things outside of economics. A very simplified explanation of 80/20 is that 80% of results come from 20% of the effort. Learning new skills is one of the areas that seems to fit the 80/20 rule most of the time.

My question is this, if the 80/20 rule were applied to golf what would the 20% be? Is there 20% of the game that we could focus our practice time on to reach 80% of our potential for shooting our lowest scores? I'm not talking about just having a better swing. I'm talking about what would create the greatest potential for shooting good scores.

Basketball is a much more complicated game than most people realize. During a typical high school season a coach could work on a new skill or fundamental every day of practice and still not hit everyone of the possible skills and fundamentals before the season is over. I've found however that with basketball focusing on a few key individual fundamentals in practice creates the most dramatic improvement in the ability of the team as a whole. The key is to break each skill down to the fundamental movements and focus only on the fundamentals that must be learned to be efficient at that skill. Mastery of any of the skills, if that is even possible, would take many more hours of individual instruction and practice. The net benefit compared to learning the skill and becoming competent at it would be very small. Even elite players get close to mastery of only a very small number of skills.

I can't help but think that there has to be a way to also apply this to golf.
 
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softconsult

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I will set aside real competitive golf and reference my experiences over many, many years playing normal golf. Not with hackers, except customer golf, but rather with a variety of players from scratch to say 15. Clear to me that those players who can putt and can get up and down from seemingly anywhere are players that score better. I would focus the 20% on short game.
 
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Rick Dandy

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Closer would be using 90-6-4.

90% mental relaxation

6% to control the superior athlete body,

4% effort for swing.

PS Falconers make it look easy.
 
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coachwalls

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dbl said:
Sounds like one needs a "team" of golfers.
Click to expand...

Well I do have a team of golfers. I think I should be able to find a few key skills to work on that will improve scoring. After that I would have to find the key fundamentals of each skill.

I think an easy three skills to start with would be getting off of the tee, getting to the green, and getting it in the hole. That would narrow it down to about four clubs, driver (maybe depending on the player), mid iron (again maybe), wedge, and putter. That hard part is there are multiple types of shots for the wedge.

The problem with golf is that it isn't that simple. Things like mental state, weather, lie, pin placement, knowledge of rules, etc., etc. all come into play.

I'm not Dave Pelz nor do I want to be. I would think that some type of statistical breakdown of a round of golf would help to zone in on what skills should be improved to have the biggest impact on scoring. It would obviously have to be overly generalized to fit a majority of golfers. the 80 to 90 shooter would probably be the best skill level of golfer to start with.
 
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art

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coachwalls said:
If your not familiar with Pareto's principle wiki it. You'll have a better understanding of it than I could hope to convey here. An alternate name of the Pareto Principle, the 80/20 rule, has been applied to a lot of things outside of economics. A very simplified explanation of 80/20 is that 80% of results come from 20% of the effort. Learning new skills is one of the areas that seems to fit the 80/20 rule most of the time.

My question is this, if the 80/20 rule were applied to golf what would the 20% be? Is there 20% of the game that we could focus our practice time on to reach 80% of our potential for shooting our lowest scores? I'm not talking about just having a better swing. I'm talking about what would create the greatest potential for shooting good scores.

Basketball is a much more complicated game than most people realize. During a typical high school season a coach could work on a new skill or fundamental every day of practice and still not hit everyone of the possible skills and fundamentals before the season is over. I've found however that with basketball focusing on a few key individual fundamentals in practice creates the most dramatic improvement in the ability of the team as a whole. The key is to break each skill down to the fundamental movements and focus only on the fundamentals that must be learned to be efficient at that skill. Mastery of any of the skills, if that is even possible, would take many more hours of individual instruction and practice. The net benefit compared to learning the skill and becoming competent at it would be very small. Even elite players get close to mastery of only a very small number of skills.

I can't help but think that there has to be a way to also apply this to golf.
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Dear coachwalls,

Thanks for bringing a little more 'applied science' to this truth seeking site with your understanding of the Pareto Principle.

Without any doubt in my mind, the 20% MUST contain attention to at least the establishment and repeatability of at least these 2 areas; (1) TEMPO, and (2) DYNAMIC STABILITY.

Yesterday, I attended the Northern Trust Tournament at Riviera with a golfing friend and his wife. She had never been at a driving range, or seen professional golf in person before. To capture her involvement and interest, I asked her to count to four with 'one' starting with her recognition of the first movement of the club in the back swing. I previously told her to expect 'four' and the sound of the club hitting the ball to happen at the same instant. I also asked her to watch the flight of the golf ball against the beautiful blue sky, and to expect a perfect shot if 'four' and the sound of the strike happened together. If not, I asked her to watch the reaction of the golfer, and then the probable less desirable ball flight.

It took a while with the caliber of these professionals, but the course was playing tough, and as you know after the third round, the leaders were only 7 under , so on an approach shot to #18, she said she heard the crack of the ball way before the count of 4.

Fortunately for me and my pseudo/applied scientific approach, that was the first shot that she saw the golfer display disappointment/anger, and she tracked the ball flying well right of the trap, and short of the green. So much for an admitted 'kindergarten example' IMO, of the unfortunate result of a breakdown in tempo. But probably of significant interest to John Novesell, and Dr. Robert Grober of "Tour Tempo" and "Sonic Golf" fame (upon which my hypotheses of the crucial importance of 'tempo' is based).

As for the importance of dynamic balance and stability within your 20% observation, the overall collective effects (ie lower body, upper body, and to a lesser extent the left shoulder complex) become very apparent while carefully watching the swing to swing variations of the left foot during the downswing, and thru the follow-thru. For my friends wifes interest, I asked her to watch the variations, if any from the practice swing to the real swing, especially if they were of almost equal intensity. It took a few threesomes, but the first time she enthusiastically reported a great difference in this area, the result was a terrible miss hit.

Again, admittedly simple science, both of these areas, tempo and dynamic imbalance are discernible with 'human sensors', but very much more visible with the digital technology of today.

Finally, I isolate these two areas because IMO, all the other aspects of playing this wonderful game of golf have NO chance of producing satisfying scores until this 20% becomes consistent within the honest capability of the player.

Thanks for listening/reading, and a spot on your 'soap box'.
 
magicmarker

magicmarker

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Outstanding post Art, much appreciated. The two areas you mentioned are all too often overlooked IMO.

Interesting principle, so 20% of the pro golfers are making around 80% of the money, sounds about right to me.
 
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Jim Kobylinski

Super Moderator
I'd say d-plane, if you know what makes the ball do what it does you can apply whatever you want to make the ball go where you want even if it isn't the greatest swing on earth.
 
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SteveT

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coachwalls.... Far be it from me to give you advice on training a high school golf team of decent golfers.

I'm not certain you can isolate a few practice drills to improve a team, because by then each golfer has unique problems that don't fall within a team concept. Each golfer must be individually assessed and their specific problem areas addressed.

For the golfing masses, it's the 90/10 reality.... 90% of the 50+Million golfers cannot break 100... honestly. The remaining 10% are mostly mired in the 90's and cheat.

Another manifestation is that 80% of scoring is done with 20% of the clubs. I have asked friends who golf "why do you carry 14 clubs when you can't play one properly?!"

Intuitively, in my own athletic endeavors and observations over the ages, I suspect the greatest handicap in good golfers is mental strength and capabilities. Bad decisions, wrong attitude, useless emotions, all contribute to lowering performance. Golf IQ?

If you have a team of teenagers, you must understand that they are not mentally mature because their brain structure hasn't fully connected and won't do so until they are in their 20's! They are still children and are trying to learn the whole "gestalt" without being able to analyze and separate the elements of the golfswing. Most are still fun-seekers who are self-centered. Some aren't, but most are psychologically because that's normal human nature.

Given that reality, perhaps the best course is to stress physical conditioning and let the skills flow from that. I guess what I'm suggesting is that swing specific 'drills' may not take hold because the minds and bodies are not willing nor able at that age.

Do you remember what you were like at that age... and do you have the empathy for them, notwithstanding your adult expectations??
 
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Rick Dandy

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80% of problems stem from 20% of the cause.

There is one stat you can use without arrogance: Score

Chart Score Every Hole.

For example:

Bogey is a rebel but has a cause.

Have each player note the cause. i.e. Long game? Short game? Putting?

Very rarely it is putting.

Usually it's long or short game.

Then go to work.
 
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coachwalls

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Jim Kobylinski said:
I'd say d-plane, if you know what makes the ball do what it does you can apply whatever you want to make the ball go where you want even if it isn't the greatest swing on earth.
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Hadn't thought about that Jim. Very interesting idea. I wondering how I could teach that to a high school kid without the aid of a trackman?
 
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coachwalls

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Rick Dandy said:
80% of problems stem from 20% of the cause.

There is one stat you can use without arrogance: Score

Chart Score Every Hole.

For example:

Bogey is a rebel but has a cause.

Have each player note the cause. i.e. Long game? Short game? Putting?

Very rarely it is putting.

Usually it's long or short game.

Then go to work.
Click to expand...

Hey Rick. That's a great thought. In my experience, and maybe I'm starting to zero in on something, most high school players see the bad shot as the cause of a bogie. In reality it's usually the shot they hit next that causes the bogie. I think part of that is because of what SteveT brought up in his post. Most of them lack the maturity, experience, or both to make the correct shot after a bad shot.

So maybe we can pick out a few areas that seem to fit.

In no particular order.

1. 80% of the score is a result of 20% of the clubs in the bag. (maybe it distances and not clubs?)

2. Recovery shots and or decision making.

3. Tempo - I think this could be a really big one for most amatures. How many times have you seen a bad shot from a 90's shooter because the tempo was just horrible?

4. Golf as an athletic move. Steve T talked about physical conditioning and letting skill flow from that. I think he's on to something but haven't wrapped my head around it yet.
 
S

SteveT

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coachwalls said:
Hey Rick. That's a great thought. In my experience, and maybe I'm starting to zero in on something, most high school players see the bad shot as the cause of a bogie. In reality it's usually the shot they hit next that causes the bogie. I think part of that is because of what SteveT brought up in his post. Most of them lack the maturity, experience, or both to make the correct shot after a bad shot.
........

4. Golf as an athletic move. Steve T talked about physical conditioning and letting skill flow from that. I think he's on to something but haven't wrapped my head around it yet.
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coachwalls.... No matter what you try to explain to teenagers, very few have the capability to change their physical efforts because their game is in a personal comfort zone. Getting detailed with teenagers will only confuse them because any new drill that is intended to change their golfswing for the better will only depress their game. They can't cope with the concept that they must destroy what is bad and get worse before they can get a lot better. They will rebel against you for "ruining" their swing, which is extremely personal to them... they love themselves and their swing. And then there is their parents, particularly dad who taught everything he knows to his child!!!

You should consider motivating them to strengthen themselves internally, which is what they all want... muscles for more power. Perhaps creating strength 'toning' exercises with say 4-5lb dumbells to improve their deep rotator cuff muscles and external shoulder bulk. Upper arm and forearm strength could also be improved, particularly if you sell them on the idea that their power will increase if they strengthen their rear arm triceps which is used to extend the rear hand into final release.

Leg strength is a must for any athletic effort, and with very short movements of the legs in the golfswing, you must get as much leverage as you can get to shift the body Center of Mass and rotate the hips. I would leave their core muscles alone unless they have bad spinal posture from slouching in school classes and at home watching TV or playing video games with their thumbs. Legs and arm first.. and if you think their core should be strengthened, you should refer them to a personal trainer because core training must be done correctly and maintained properly.

If you want to get slightly scientific about it, try explaining the basics of the body kinetic chain sequencing and how they must be very efficient to generate additional energy for increased clubhead speed... which they all want. Use the Newtonian Physics example of the kinetic equation where :

K.E. = 1/2 Mass x Velocity^2, ..... where V^2 is the speed of the clubhead

IOW, if they want to increase their clubhead speed by 10%, they must generate an extra 21% more kinetic body energy.. which should scare them too. And how do you realize extra energy .... listen to the coach and muscle up!!!

Once you've got them hooked on a personal strengthening and toning regime, slip in the swing changes and drills you think are necessary. It's a carrot and stick sort of strategy to manipulate stubborn teenagers who have a mind of their own. Control the mind and you can control the body and feeelings too. Oppps, maybe I'm telling you how to coach the boys and girls..:eek:
 
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duckjr78

duckjr78

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This is high school golf, so bogeys will happen. The double is the one to avoid.

1. Hit the green with your short game shots (lots of 15-75 yard pitch shot work)
2. Eliminate penalty strokes resulting from your tee shots (find a go-to shot off the tee for each player)

And a wonderful mantra I picked up from my high school coach, "If you make a bogey off the tee, make sure you get it.". It makes the decision making easier as you play the hole after the poor tee shot.

Effort in this 20% of the game will yield good results at the high school level, IMHO.
 
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BrendanC

BrendanC

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I suggest that if you have a team of golfers that all become good drivers of the ball, they will be hard to beat for anyone.

Some points: good driving makes it easy to play bogey golf - driving basically sets up the 'potential score' on a given hole. Good driving = aggression so it is especially important for match play and some team formats.

Also, the drive is the shot over which players have the most control.

The ins and outs of form will vary scores for individuals within the team but good driving across the team will improve the collective score most quickly and easily. Driving is also fun to practice.

Obviously, it is up to you to find out where the most potential for improvement is - i.e. if a player cannot chip at all, he must learn to chip to some extent.

On the broader point, great systems in all sports come from making accurate assumptions about players and their skills at a given moment in time and how they relate to the skills of other teams. You also have to understand the 'culture' and rules of any game, also at any given moment. From there, coaches have to isolate the (often neglected) fundamentals of that particular.

To gain a real edge froma system, you have to zag when everyone else is zigging (e.g. Barcelona see everyone using bigger and strong players and playing 'direct' soccer; their system uses small players and emphasises ball retention over creating goal chances quickly).

The golf example is the 'short game is everything' mantra, which is just assumed to be true by broadcasters, players etc etc etc but nobody has really thought about it enough.

Ridiculous statements like 'X% of your shots take place within 80 yards therefore X, Y and Z follows" by psedo-scientists like Dave Pelz don't help. Pelz use of a scientific 'look' in his incredibly unscientific books is staggering.

Anyway, I suggest that good driving is where the edge is for any team of young golfers.

Richie3Jack has some good points to make on this stuff.
 
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Billy McKinney

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Drive it, wedge it, and putt it.
Teach every kid to Never Slice Again with a driver;
Get their swing bottom forward and not too deep;
Learn Optimal Capture Speed with the putter;
I teach a 'Golf Crash Course' that focuses on these skills. Pure Pareto.
 
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