This is part 3 of Golf and the Senses....
A good boxer will box on even when "out on his feet," and the good golfer should equally be able to produce his best shots even though he is five down with six to play. I had long realized the importance of this and the desirability of finding some way of insulating SL golfer's shots from his mental state.
I had worked out a very effective simple and satisfactory swing, but I did not know how to teach this except as a set of purely mechanical ideas.
But when I had developed the idea of control through remembered feeling, I was able to take the words "think" and "thought" out of my teaching vocabulary. The results were literally astounding.
And why? Not because I taught a better swine, but because my pupils learned to use their swings irrespective of conditions and states of mind! Many of my pupils now say, "I am no longer afraid of the ball.
I do not even think of it; I just swing throueh it." That, of course, means confidence and consistency.
What do these mean in results? Well, since I began teaching on these lines my students at St. Cloud included Mrs. A. M. Vagliano, two handicap, Captain of the Ladies' French International team; Mme Munier, scratch, four times lady champion and International; the Duchesse d'Elkingen, one handicap, twice lady champion and International; Mme Straus, scratch, once lady champion French and International; Mme Decugis, two handicap, International; Mile Petin, two handicap, International; the Comtesse de St. Sauveur, plus one, champion of France, International and British Girls Champion at seventeen.
All these ladies were gifted, intelligent, young, and keen, and they made teaching a pleasure. Also they were all under the golfing influence of the cool-headed player Mme Lacoste (nee Simone Thion de la Chaume) of whose judgment I have the highest opinion. Her own game is the essence of perfect mental and physical balance.
But it is not only in molding the styles of the young and talented that the idea of control by remembered feel is so invaluable in the teaching of golf.
One lady who came to me for her first lesson at the age of forty had the temerity to knock the great Mme Lacoste out of the French Championship ten years later!
Golf and the Senses Part 2.
