Lag, those 5 points are excellent, just clarifies so much of your game and teaching to me. Obviously no conflict at all with Gerry’s thoughts here. It’s amazing seeing golfers (including myself) trying to consciously do things on the course, as you say, a time for practice and a time to play. Often you’ll hear musicians practicing before a gig, as apposed to warming up. To quote a great Aussie sax player “if you didn’t bring it with you, you wont find it here!”
Lag
It seems that I hit my submit button at the exact same time that you must have hit yours. Your post was not there when I commenced responding to a post from Jon and, when I hit ‘submit’ it stalled, hung and I had to go again.
I think my response to Jon may clarify my standpoint for yourself and everyone else. I’m not judgmental, I do not try to enforce my will or beliefs on anyone else, I simply present facts that I have assembled, over time, and offer them for serious consideration to anyone who may be interested. If they are totally ignored, it doesn’t make them wrong or of any less value in their own right, and it’s never any skin off my nose.
If those who claim to search for answers blindly adhere to their own existing beliefs, even when they are challenged and proven to be invalid, it’s their loss. They can never find the right answers until they first seek and find the right questions to ask. And when they finally are faced with the right question to ask, they will need the courage to accept the answer that it begets.
As I have said previously, there are few truths that are not inconveniences, to someone.
You may notice in my response to Jon that I decline to justify myself with lists of honours, achievements, academic and/or intellectual standings. I could but I decline to. The facts that I present are either right or they are wrong, as such they must stand on their own legs and prove themselves.
Regards
Gerry
Gerry, thanks for another insightful post…
Everything I teach… I continually find out that it’s nothing new… even if I think for a split second I figured something out on my own… it has yet to happen!
For example, I am a big believer in smaller clubheads, with the weight being properly distributed behind the sweetspot rather than perimeter weighting. In the 1920’s, Bill Mehlhorn was cutting the toes of his clubs and welding them behind the sweetspot. He was considered the premier ball striker of his time. We saw a lot of great irons being made in the 1950’s based upon this concept… the classic MacGregor M85’s M75’s and so forth adhered to this ideology.
The modern lightweight irons that are a questionable craze going on now, seems simply a repeat of 1930’s clubhead design. I have a few sets from that era than are very light in both dead weight and swing weights… around C 3 to C 5… Bobby Jones, Kroflite or Topflite stuff. I actually prefer the heavier hickory stuff from a decade before. These guys were smart men back then, in a lot of ways I think more intuitive about what was really best for the golf ball. f=ma and p=mv have been basic laws for a lot more than the last 50 or 100 years. There is no evidence that even the farthest galaxy millions of light years away is operating under a different set of universal physical laws. Why the modern clubmakers have forgot the “m” in their designs is to me more mysterious than the dark side of the moon.
Ok, I’m a little concerned how the words biomechanics and biomechanical function is being put into context on this forum.
The word researched and how this word is being expressed. There’s difference in reading literature and being heavily involved do a hands on research project on a topic. Particularly biomechanics.
I’m concerned that people here are using beliefs and opinions about biomechanincs, also biomechanical function and mixing these up with mechanics.
Please your making our lives harder to educate the truth about biomechanics.
We research measure human motion day in and day out using 3D motion analysis. We are a 3D motion analysis company and been do this for 20 years. Measuring human motion in sports and daily activities. Golf being a primary focus we have tested 10’s of thousands of golf swings. Using EMG, force and motion data.
We train PGA memebers,doctors, physios and health care industries about 3D motion analysis, biomechanics, biomechanical function and how the body moves anatomically. We teach these people how to measure and train biomechanical function.
A muscles has to be trained, this is not a motor skill training, mechanics is motor skill training.
Using various techniques you train muscles to perform a motion or activity. You look at anatomically how the body is designed to move and how the body wants to move in motion.
for example a golf swing, you build a model how the body moves anatomically in the golfswing. You measure a huge population and work out in what sequence the body moves in to create create power and speed.
You then look at how the muscles actively fire in this motion and in this sequence.
The sequence is called a kinetic link
You then build training techniques through research and testing to train each segment to move and create speed for the sequence. You train the muscle groups how to actively function in each segment.
When you test a golfer each athlete has different biomechanical and co-ordintion break down, you need to build a program individual for the breakdowns to to improve power production or kinetic link.
Biomechanics is the physics and power production of the golfswing. (neuromechanics)
Mechanics is inter graded for ball control, accuracy etc.(motor skill training)
We must all understand the human body is designed to move a certain way anatomically, our body creates speed a certain way. When the body and muscles are trained this is becomes automatic, when you swing a club it happens your body knows what to do. It’s called neuromechanics.
Please as a researcher, I’m asking to use your choice of words carefully and stick to real measured science, remove beliefs and opinions. Please don’t mix mechanics with biomechanics. They inter grade although worlds apart.
Our goal is to educate consumers real science and understand how the human body moves and functions,we provide techniques how to train the human body.
It makes life harder to present the truth when we add beliefs and opinions to real measured science. Please stick to the real measured science
Kind Regards
Bio
Gerry,
Ideas are welcome here… if I can gain one iota of fresh insight (I’m sure much more than that) from anyone’s thoughts, theories, postulates or other insanities, I am all the better for it. I think many here will echo a similar disposition.
No Dogma here…
The day I realize a better way to teach my student modules is the day I re shoot them or add supplementary videos as I already have… to add further support or clarify my wrongs… the faster I do it… the better.
Should we grab some of your iseek posts and bring them over here for introspective examination? I know there was some really deep and compelling subject matter there… before we were so rudely interrupted by the former home of this thread. 
BIG EGOS AGAIN; NEW STUFF ONLY PLEASE. 
Gerry - you are totally off in your take on my views. Couldn’t be more off in fact, as Lag gently suggested. I too try to look at golf and golf theory and teaching as objectively as I possibly can. I completed a research project on golf in 1990, that began almost 25 years earlier. I don’t come from a background of traditional golf teaching, not by a long shot. I believe that the best golf shots as Lag said, are one complete athletic flowing motion, with a mind and body working together. I also teach one single focal point mentally per swing and have done so to many thousands of actual golfers in our award-winning golf schools for the past 16 years.
I also know that it is possible to make very small and subtle compensations during the first half of the downswing, but as I said, only for advanced players with strong mental focus, good golf swing fundamentals, and a strong mind/body connection. I can hit a low, medium or high trajectory shot - sometimes! - in response to a verbal cue given by one of my assistants as I reach the top of my backswing. I can also hit a pull, push or straight ball doing the same drill. So on that count, you are simply incorrect. I have seen several trick shot artists do a similar drill.
I referred to Tigers amazing ability to come to a complete stop in the P3 or Halfway down position - admittedly a very difficult thing to do, but he does it. I explained why I thought the Search test was seriously flawed. I don’t buy into your basic premise of “hold and release”. I cannot fathom why you think I believe that but any one who has been to one of my three, four or eight day golf swing boot camp schools would laugh out loud at that part of your post. I understand very well what occurs on the downswing of a good players motion. It is not even remotely what you described. We are operating from radically different starting premises. Nothing wrong with that. There is always room for reasonable debate here.
Bio,
I couldn’t agree more… let’s nail down a definition of biomechanics that we can all agree upon… whatever that may be… so we are talking on the same page and language. This debate is all too hauntingly familiar!
Really clear definitions of mechanics, biomechanics, plyometrics or any other scientific terms need to be fully spelled out in plain understandable English, since this is clearly an English based website.
Arnie? can you pull a vault file on this one? lol
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(used with a sing. verb) The study of the mechanics of a living body, especially of the forces exerted by muscles and gravity on the skeletal structure.
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(used with a pl. verb) The mechanics of a part or function of a living body, such as of the heart or of locomotion.
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The study of the anatomical principles of movement. Biomechanical applications on the computer employ stick modeling to analyze the movement of athletes as well as racing horses.
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Date: circa 1933: the mechanics of biological and especially muscular activity (as in locomotion or exercise)
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The science which deals with the state of motion and rest of organic bodies
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The application of mechanical principles to the human neuro-muscular –skeletal system
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The application of mechanical principles to the study of biological systems
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The application of mechanical laws to living structures, specifically to the locomotor system of the human body
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A science which investigates motion and the action of forces (internal and external), including statics, kinematics, and kinetics that occur during the actions performed by a living organism
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The science that examines the internal and external forces acting on the human body and the effects produced by these forces
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The subdivision of biophysics which is concerned with the study of all biological movements
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the study of body movements and of the forces acting on the musculoskeletal system.
This topic will serve us all much better if we can nail down a definition we can all live with… or come up with a new one is fine, as long as we are all on the same table…
And of course…
Plyometrics:
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Date: 1981: exercise involving repeated rapid stretching and contracting of muscles (as by jumping and rebounding) to increase muscle power
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exercise without weights or machines: a free body movement exercise system using no weights or machines, but emphasizing calisthenics and repeated movements such as jumping high off the ground
plyometrics
n. a type of fast exercise in which the muscles are not allowed to fully contract after being extended, typically involving jumping and bouncing.
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a type of exercise using explosive movements to develop muscular power, esp. bounding, hopping, and jumping
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Plyometrics consist of stimulating the muscles by means of a sudden stretch preceding any voluntary effort. Kinetic energy and weights that are not heavy should be used for this, where the kinetic energy may be accumulated by means of the body or loads dropping form a certain ehight. Plyometrics can now be more rigorously defined as a method of mechanical shock stimulation to force the muscle ot produce as much tension as possible.
Anyway… let’s do all this right this time…!
@ Gerry
Thanks so much for contributing here! I am half way through your book (which I bought on Ebay last week) and I can’t tell you how much the words in it have already helped my golf. It all makes sense!
I have played today and my ball striking was unbelievably good. My usual partner and other players in the foursome couldn’t believe I play off 28. I wasn’t able to do it for the whole game but definitely the mental images you use in the book have helped me understand things about the swing that I had not grasped in the past 2 and half years I’ve been playing.
Some of the things that I knew felt right for me but the Pros I had lessons with said weren’t are in fact right for me (like ball positioning or stance)! THANKS.
Nice to see a civilised golf forum on the internet.
Lag (and anyone else who would care to read this):
Gerry has been trying to get my very left-brained engineer self to become more right brained in my thinking for years. I can say without a fathom of a doubt that the 5 tenets that you wrote above is “exactly” what Gerry believes with regard to the golf swing (and many other pursuits as well).
Cheers,
Scott (Capt. Chaos…very nearly commissioned as Major!) 
Reading the posts here and, in the User Illusion thread about the role of the subconscious in the learning of this complex activity know as golf, got me thinking about its role in a complex activity I learned long ago. It was learning how to fly a helicopter and, the more I thought about it, the more I saw the similarities between the flight school approach and, Lags. Especially in the similarities of what goes first. Before you fly a helicopter, you must first learn to hover it. In golf hover would be learning to hit the Lag Bag. In both cases they start at the point of impact. The difference being in Lag’s world hit it hard and, in the helicopter world hit it ever so softly.
The main problem for the newbie pilot is the same as for the newbie (or just confused) golfer, it’s the correct uasage of lag. In hovering it was dealing with lag in terms of time, as in lag between input and action. The learning of hovering took place at about three feet. In this example I will leave out the problem of applying the correct amount of power (a separate control stick) and, keeping it facing in the intended direction (pedals) and, deal just with the cyclic stick ( a vertical rod between your legs that controls back and forth and side to side movement). The initial learning was all in the conscious area of the brain. Does the word Lag Bag ring a bell? The instructor hands over to you a perfectly still, perfectly obedient machine and, you immediately turn it into whirling bucking bronco. You very quickly realize you have no concept of lag and spend a lot of sweating hours learning what it’s all about. So, when you first attemp to hover, the helicopter starts to drift left and, you dutifully apply right cyclic. The right idea, but nothing happens. -the lag effect. Since nothing happens, you apply more right and, about that time your first move kicks in and, you are now dealing with two rights and no left. You get the drift, or in this case no drift. You need to learn to not overcorrect. You need to let it all happen in the correct timely fashion. The old don’t rush it equation. Boy the similarities between golf and hovering are getting a little eerie. After much conscious work you get better at it. Instead of eating up an acre of space, you can keep it in a smaller ballpark. You have pounded the control facts into the conscious enough so that the sub can now start to take over.
Hovering then goes onto the brain’s back burner so as to let the conscious part have room to learn all the other stuff it takes to make this 3-D Corvette behave. Kind of like what the Lag Bag will do for we golf newbies. Actually, an accomplished pilot gets so good at hovering that instead of the cyclic slamming around the cockpit it moves almost imperceptibly. Kind of like the Lag Bag transition from the first attempts. I got the wrists to uncock but the roll ain’t there. I got the uncock and roll but the pivot is out of wack. Etc, etc, etc until the skill starts to come alive. You learn the skill and, are on your way but, just like life you find some more skillful than you. Like golfers, some veteran pilots have lower cyclic handicaps than others.
When a helicopter is hovering it takes a given amount of power to accomplish the task and, its weight and air quality (the hotter and wetter the worse) affect this number. Like golf, the lower the number the more skilled the player. Given the exact same helicopter in the exact same conditions it might take one pilot 30 lbs of torque to hover and, another just 26. Kind of like putts per round, I guess. Simply put, every movement spills air from under the rotors and, the less air the less the cushion. All this skill in hovering is way back in the subconscious, hopefully, just where Lag’s help will stick our mechanics
So in flying, with the mechanics in the sub, the pilot is free to busily do all the conscious things he needs to do the keep the ground his friend. Flight management same/same preshot routine come to mind? Trying to figure out what part of the tree line this loaded hog can clear, where the wind direction is coming from, what parts of all that radio chatter concerns him, what the six pack (control panel) is telling him. Again etc. etc. etc. The funny thing is that when I remember what I was doing back then, the word no, hopefully, like the new golf I want to play, didn’t and won’t exist. If the LZ had stumps, I didn’t think don’t hit the stumps, I just sized it up and landed where they weren’t. When hovering down through a hole in the canopy, I didn’t freeze to the thoughts that there are a lot of limbs and the tail rotor is made out of tissue paper. No, I just trusted the other sets of eyes on board and turned it where it needed to go. I simply trusted my skill at flying to make the tough doable.
I guess this is just the same as driving our car. Both parts of our brain see a bridge abutment and somehow they deal with it. Maybe, together or separately or just one side or the other, but they deal with it. We just happily go under the bridge not even thinking that the penalty for putting it into the abutment is a lot more than a stroke or two. I really like Lag’s starting point. It mirrors flight school and, I really like BP’s shut the brain down and let the swing do its trained thing. Flop
Makes me want to learn to fly…great post.
Flop,
thanks for that amazing post… I could almost feel what it is like to be in the pilot chair rattling around in there like a carnival ride, but I’m controlling the activity.
I suppose when you are a pilot, you actually become the ball, and with a helicopter, it might be more like a golf ball than a plane, because of your ability to land softly. It might be an interesting visual for you while playing golf to feel that your ball becomes a helicopter when you hit it, and you control it all the way to the green.
Wasn’t there a movie about golf and helicopters with Gene Hackman? I have some recall, they used a golf course as a secret code or something like that.
Cheese
Thanks for the perusal and kind word. After posting this, another related thing hit me. My first intructor in flight school was a total idiot. The proof being he flew his next student into some power lines and killed them both. The irony was that out of all the students he picked to kill, it was a guy I went to grade school with. The point of this in golf terms is that the next instructor I got was a guy who was around when helicopters were invented. He knew more about them and how to fly them than anyone else I could have gotten. On top of his knowledge, he just happened to be a great teacher. I totally believe some of what I learned from him saved my ass more than once. Point being, Dejavu! I think I lucked out teacherwise again. Flop
Lag,
What I think I’m finding with your wonderful help is that the Lag Bag quest now is just the same as my hover quest was back then. It is a perfect starting point for this very confused til now golfer. I knew then that if I did the hover work the rest was doable. I know now that all I have to do is do the bag work and, the same wonder will develop. On my next flop shot I’m going to visualized the perfect autorotation. As I said before - just thrilled to be here. As far as landings and golfshots, the fairways are always better than the trees. Flop
biomechanic…Your concerns are noted.
If one pays any heed to the following;
The golf ball of today is far superior to that of yesteryear. Many of the advanced players that I deal with tell me that it’s getting harder and harder to work the ball because the “damn thing wants to self correct in flight”.
Golf clubs, due to truck loads of wondrous new technologies and massive advances in exotic materials and composite fibers, plus heads the size of melons and million dollar fitting systems, are ‘improving’ by the minute.
There are countless people, world wide, just like you and your company, with all manner of academic accreditation, measuring capacities, devices and gizmos in endless array.
We have the likes of Dr Gary Wiren (Md) who wrote the training manual for the US PGA and has, I have been told but have not verified, authored about 13 books on the game of golf. (Just do a Google on the name Dr Gary Wiren if you want a quick giggle)
The thoughts and ideas of nearly every top player who has ever played the game.
I once read some historical data indicating that more than 10,000 golf publications have been published and that pile is increasing at more than 200 books, per year.
All of this, and masses more of it not mentioned, and the game of golf is sliding down the gurgler!
I associate with a few people very high in the pecking order of golf’s governing bodies in the States and I know what the real facts and concerns are in that country, relating to the game.
Are you going to tell me that the game of golf is so 'bio-mechanically, mechanically (whatever tag you want to stick on it)" so incredibly difficult that it justifies the release made by the US Governing bodies that only 10%, one player in ten, will break a hundred on a regulation golf course, from standard tees. Reversed that means that 90% will not break a 100.
I’m not into self promotion (as you may have already noticed in my posts here) but I do need to make a simple point and ask a simple question or two.
I never intended to write any book, much less a golf book. I was pushed and prodded over a two year period to do so. I finally conceded and did that in early 1992. It is written in the most simple manner and language format that I could come up with and occupies some 94 pages, all up, including photos, sketches etc. It was in the best seller lists for five weeks and outstripped the previous record for sales in it’s specific catagory , instructional golf books, within four months of publication, for Australasia. That included all such books every authored by anyone and released for sale in Australasia. And that was only the beginning. It continued on through many printings and I have been informed, in writing, by the current publishers who bought out Weldon Publications that its the most requested out-of-print book that they have published.
I have no lofty academic or scientific accreditation. I have been a useful amateur player who tried harder than most but my recognition as a performer certainly didn’t sell one book. There was no money for promotion.
Can you tell me why that could happen?
Read some of the posts expressing gratitude and appreciation for that book (and the video that followed it, by demand) plus the few simple thoughts I have expressed to help others, in the very short time that I have been in this forum and the iseekgolf forum.
“Fools turn the simple into the complex. It is the esssence of genius to make the very complex simple” (from more than two and a half thousand years ago).
Albert Einstein, after delivering a lecture on a very complex subject, went to considerable trouble to assist members of the press who were present to understand the material sufficiently to write their stories. He ended by saying that they could “speak to him on (his) telephone” if they wanted further help. Someone asked for his number and he replied that it was in “the telephone book”. Every circus has a clown, every gathering an idiot or two! One half witted smart arse grabbed center stage with “Sir, do you mean to tell us that the great Albert Einstein doesn’t even know his own telephone number?” To which he rather sadly and gently replied; “It is written down, it is in the telephone book. Why should I bother my mind with trivia that is already written down!”
Center stage can very suddenly become a very lonely place, with nowhere to hide!!
All of your information is written down. I’m capable of making a few entries in Google and hitting search anytime that I may choose to reference that information, or any other recorded information, for that matter.
In passing, you would find it unwise to challenge me on either my capacities/ abilities to research or my methodologies in doing so. One of life’s most golden rules is; never presume anything!
I have actually been generously acknowledged by some members of high standing in the academic and scientific community for the manner in which I have approached my work. I do have some rather flattering ‘stuff’ that has been presented to me, on paper.
The simply and genuine ‘thank you’ acknowledgements that I have received from countless people mean far more to me than any level of academic kudos could ever mean! Science, to me, is simply a tree laden with wonderful fruits of all varieties from which I can pluck the knowledge that I need, whenever I need it, to pursue the understandings that I seek. Nothing more, nothing less.
Regards and good wishes
Gerry Hogan
Re: Hit Impulse - Lag and Prot, really great job there, what an improvement! No wonder Prot has lowered his scores so fast and so much!
I am about two thirds through with my book devoted exclusively to the Hit Impulse in all its manifestations, along with the other major category of Destructive Impulses, the Manipulation Impulse. Here is the short-hand version. The Hit Impulse can be not only from wrist cock and wrist hinge Throwaway, but also from Right Arm Angle tricep Throwaway or “casting” and from left upper arm pulling down and across the chest and right arm doing the same thing in a more pushing orientation. The shoulder girdle can also “fire” too early, ie from the Top or too early in Transition. Most high handicappers do all five versions simultaneously!
It is one of the most - if not THE most - destructive Fatal Flaws you can do in a golf swing. In my own teaching practice, I have found that asking folks with a bad case of it to just try to hit later in the downswing seldom works. For them, they do indeed need to learn to “do nothing” during Transition. The odds are that they will still apply some form of wrist throwaway starting at Lag’s p3 position, after they have learned to “do nothing” during Transition. So - I don’t encourage that form of Hit, because if I do, they will go back to doing it too early.
However, if they are not too bad of an early releaser from the Top, getting them to Hit with the wrists starting at around p3 can work very well indeed, if they are willing to put the time in doing the drills, a lot of that is with the impact bag. I have found that this option tends to work much better for the better than average athletic ability folks, and those who played baseball growing up. It also seems to require having already mastered some of the hand fundamentals such as grip position, overall pressure and pressure points. As Lag correctly points out, it is instinctive to add some Hit, so even though our primary swing model is for the wrists to be more passive hinges, with a medium speed pivot thrust to match it, in truth it is a blend of some instinctive hit with the pivot thrust.
The other vitally important part of this, is that there is another form of Wrist Throwaway that can happen (tends to be more for better players) starting around P3, and that is sideways wrist release or “flipping”, ie losing the Flat Left Wrist due to Bent Right Wrist un-hinging itself. Very common Fatal Flaw. We use special drills starting at P3 to teach the student to un-cock the wrist down toward the ground, NEVER forward toward the ball or target. The impact bag is a great device since it basically stops you from flipping and mentally do wont want to do so in any case because you will sense that might damage your wrists if you did so!
Aggressive wrist cock “firing” as Lag teaches, must be matched to both a late release point at p3 or even later and a fast Pivot Thrust. If the pivot is too slow you will hit the it fat and off to the right, if too fast - thin and too the left.
Being Ball Bound means you have the Hit Impulse and vice versa. They are a team. So is being Clubhead Bound and Impact Bound. You can also be Target Line bound - the basis for Steering and the Manipulation Impulse. And a really common one - Swing Bound or Contamination.
PIPPOLO
Thanks for your feedback and kind words, they are sincerely appreciated. Just keep it as simple as the book makes it sound, the more simple you can make it, the better it will work for you.
Just a little history here to emphasize how simple things can be;
Many years ago I played the occasional game of golf with a tennis professional, John Paris, when we both lived in Armidale, NSW. I made a few little suggestions to him, from time to time, and his golf game improved, quite dramatically. John was heavily into the development of junior tennis and was having some problems with his kids and asked me if I could do the same simple things with tennis. I turned up at the courts the following week with a few tennis balls that were half yellow, half green and a couple of rackets that I had sprayed a circle in the face of with a silver frost spray can.
First order was to unhook the nets and lay them on the ground, post to post. Some of these little ones could barely see over the those damn adult nets. They were being asked to confront all manner of penalty, and subsequent frustration and shame, before they had ever developed the skills to do what was asked of them. No wonder they didn’t want to be there. We then started up a game within a game. John and I would hit the two colour balls to them, underhand and softly, over the net that had been dropped to ground level. Next step was that they had to tell us which side of the ball they hit, yellow or green. The task was, in reality, impossible but it created a fixation on the ball and the striking improved by extraordinary degrees, instantly. So too did the involvement and the enthusiasm. Then we moved to the next little game level; they had to tell us if they hit the ball in the circle on the racket and which colour side they hit. Again, total visual fixation and incredible gains. Next level the net went up one foot in the middle, at it’s lowest point. They were now ‘aware’ of its presence but totally unfazed by it and they were having an absolute blast. And that created the only problem of the entire day; When the parents came to collect they kids, the kids wouldn’t leave, they were having too much fun. True story. That became John’s teaching methodology.
Now I want to do something for you that is very similar, but for golf. I have done this countless times for mid and higher handicap players and it has never failed me once but you must stick to the rules I give you;
I want you to remark your golf score card re the true par for you, off your handicap of 28. The card may say the hole is index 6 and a par 3. Here that is only for scratch players and professionals, not you or anyone like you. Off 28 you get 10 double shotters and 8 single shotters. On this par three, index 6 on the card, it’s actually PAR FIVE, index six for YOU. That’s right, you get two shots on it and you are going to play the hole accordingly. (say) it’s 180 yards long and bunkered. You now have a PAR FIVE 180 yards long. Off 28 I’d give you 50 balls and bet you serious money that you could not leave 10 balls or more on that green for one tee shot! However, if you took out a club that you could hit very easily, confidently and comfortably up close and convenient to the green and then had a chip (or 2) up towards the hole I wouldn’t bet you one dime that you wouldn’t walk off with YOUR PAR (5) more than 90% of the time. Remember that after your tee shot and one chip you are putting for net eagle, for you and one shot, one chip two putts is birdie. Go translate that to all 18 holes, physically change the card accordingly and play the hole accordingly.
This will change your game from bash and curse to a beautiful mind game, a game of strategy, disciple and self control. There is one serious danger, your handicap may fall like a stone. It’s all about removing pressures and learning to think. As your confidence grows, so too will your ball striking and your short game. Don’t let anybody tell you it’s the cowards way out. It’s your time, it’s your golf game, you are paying your own dues, it’s your right to enjoy it and learn, so tell them to go to hell in a hand cart!
If your golf mates are mid to longish handicappers you can explain the same to them and have them join in. This way you all participate in the learning and the mind games and all have a total blast, every time you play together.
Sincere best wishes and keep in touch
Gerry
Gerry,
Thanks for once again taking your time to help and to give examples from your own experience.
I have to be honest, I have sometimes thought about and tried playing holes this way but knowing I can, although only occasionally, hit the ball decently (for example yesterday on a Par5 with water both sides I was putting for a genuine birdie after hitting a good drive and two very good iron shots) I stubbornly refused to play to my current handicap. The result is that my handicap is growing rather than go down. 
I will definitely commit to and try this method and keep you posted as how it goes.
Pippolo