Slow to Fast; Small to Big:
A Concept of Learning to Move the Golf Club
By Dr. Eric Wilson, PGA
Co-Founder
In teaching how to move the golf club correctly, Impact Aware Golf Instructors incorporate the concept of
“Slow to Fast and Small to Big.”
This has two distinct advantages:
1. Moving the club correctly “Slow to Fast and Small to Big” allows the student to monitor the correct movement and develop proper feel and technique, and
2. The “Slow to Fast and Small to Big” motions closely parallel the movement of the club in the short game, which leads to improved short game technique and lower scoring.
This concept is supported by research on Closed Loop and Open Loop learning in an article on “Speech-Language Pathology/Stuttering/Fluency – Shaping Therapy/Motor Learning and Control” (author unknown, 2010).
The article states that closed loop motor control is best for learning new skills (how to move a golf club correctly), because it requires constant focus, attention, and conscious feedback concerning the proper development of the new skill.
Open loop motor control develops from multiple and repetitive closed loop motor control practice sessions. Open loop motor control requires no monitoring and is characterized by automaticity – it is smooth and operates in the unconscious realm.
The goal of “Slow to Fast and Small to Big” is to move from the cognitive stage of learning (beginning) where you observe the desired motor skill and consciously monitor the movement, through the associative stage of learning (intermediate) where you begin to perform and refine the movement, to the final autonomous stage of learning where you perform the movement with little or no conscious mental thoughts.
Therefore, once you acquire the knowledge of how to properly move the golf club, you should practice multiple repetitions of “Slow to Fast and Small to Big,’ increasing the speed and size of movement gradually until you reach the autonomous level with full speed and a full, complete GOLF MOVE™ with the expected results.
Co-Founder
In teaching how to move the golf club correctly, Impact Aware Golf Instructors incorporate the concept of
“Slow to Fast and Small to Big.”
This has two distinct advantages:
1. Moving the club correctly “Slow to Fast and Small to Big” allows the student to monitor the correct movement and develop proper feel and technique, and
2. The “Slow to Fast and Small to Big” motions closely parallel the movement of the club in the short game, which leads to improved short game technique and lower scoring.
This concept is supported by research on Closed Loop and Open Loop learning in an article on “Speech-Language Pathology/Stuttering/Fluency – Shaping Therapy/Motor Learning and Control” (author unknown, 2010).
The article states that closed loop motor control is best for learning new skills (how to move a golf club correctly), because it requires constant focus, attention, and conscious feedback concerning the proper development of the new skill.
Open loop motor control develops from multiple and repetitive closed loop motor control practice sessions. Open loop motor control requires no monitoring and is characterized by automaticity – it is smooth and operates in the unconscious realm.
The goal of “Slow to Fast and Small to Big” is to move from the cognitive stage of learning (beginning) where you observe the desired motor skill and consciously monitor the movement, through the associative stage of learning (intermediate) where you begin to perform and refine the movement, to the final autonomous stage of learning where you perform the movement with little or no conscious mental thoughts.
Therefore, once you acquire the knowledge of how to properly move the golf club, you should practice multiple repetitions of “Slow to Fast and Small to Big,’ increasing the speed and size of movement gradually until you reach the autonomous level with full speed and a full, complete GOLF MOVE™ with the expected results.