In this video I’ll cover one of the best ways for you to improve your game. It’s called a Post-Mortem. If you do this after every round your level of play will continuously improve and your practices will be sharper and more focused.

A Post-Mortem involves reflecting back on your most recent performance and picking out what you did well plus areas to prioritize for improvement.

I want to encourage you to resist the temptation to dwell on ALL the things you did NOT do well in your last round. That’s where most golfers go, and it’s not a healthy way to improve your game.

A more productive path is to focus on two areas:
1. What you did well – so you can continue to build on your strengths and maintain a positive attitude: and
2. Select ONE key problem area of your game that – if improved through focused practice – will bring the most benefit the next time you play.

Watch the video as I conduct my post-mortem after the Regional Championship and discuss what I did well and where I need to improve. Things are getting pretty exciting as we lead up to The Golf Channel’s presentation of the World Long Drive Championships on October 30th.

Focusing on the Positive

As you hear from the video there were several things I did well in my competition:
1. Managing my expectations (which helps to relieve pressure)
2. Consistently executed my Pre-Shot Routine (which is the best way to set up for success)
3. Managed my time (the equivalent in playing a round of golf is staying in tempo and rhythm).

One of the keys to staying positive about your game is to reflect back on what you did well. It’s so easy to beat yourself up for all the things you didn’t do as well as you should that we tend to dwell on them too much. It’s demotivating and potentially destructive.

Golf isn’t a game of perfect. It’s a game of resiliency.

You can’t and won’t hit every shot perfectly. It never happens.

The true measure is how well you bounce back.

That’s where you discover your true golf character.

Focusing on Tendencies

The way to handle setbacks during play is to make a note of them and create a practice plan to address them.

The more you know about your game the better you’ll be at devising strategies to overcome the tendencies that hurt your scores.

There were a couple of things I noticed during my competition that definitely warrant some attention.

My Distance and Accuracy Killer

The first was that I tend to leave my hips open at address.

When that happens I don’t make a full turn, which in turn causes my left arm to bend at the top. When my swing gets a little quick – which happens to all of us under pressure – my arm straightens out very late in the downswing. That causes my angle of attack to become very steep, almost like hitting down on the ball instead of hitting up the way you are supposed to with a driver.

Hitting down on the ball produces too much backspin. The ball doesn’t carry as far as it should and it doesn’t roll out when it lands. Plus I have a tendency to push those shots to the right and miss the grid.

Not pretty.

The Cure: Pre-Shot Routine and Feedback/Training

Fortunately I know my tendencies and how to address them. It’s another good use of my training program “The 5 Keys To Distance.” Whatever my issue is, it will always boil down to one of the fundamental concepts in the training program.

In this case I knew I needed to deliberately practice my Pre-Shot Routine (Chapter 13: How To Create a Reliable Pre-Shot Routine), and I needed to increase my swing arc (Chapter 7: Arc Width).

To address my swing issue – bending my arm at the top and shortening my swing arc – I used a training device called a “TacTic.” It’s the best tool I’ve found to understand where the arm breakdown occurs during the backswing.

The only way for me (or any golfer) to get better is to get feedback on what we think is happening vs. what is really happening. As we say in the PGA “Feel isn’t Real.” The purpose of all good drills is to help you understand what is really happening vs. what you “feel” is happening.

How To Apply Post Mortems To your Game

The main point of this post isn’t so much the specifics of what I am working on as it is the process. My hip position and bent arm are my specific issues. Your issues will be different.

The process I hope you take away is to use the Post Mortem to identify what you did well so you can continue to reinforce those habits and make them the strong points of your game.

The second part of the process is to identify ONE key area to improve and attack it with single-minded intensity. Identify the one key issue that will produce the biggest pay off for lowering your scores.

Then in your practice sessions you have one pre-shot set-up change you are working on, and one key swing issue to address.

Using the Post Mortem process will keep you focused and motivated. It’s a great way to consistently improve your golf game.

TAKE AWAYS

1. Do a Post Mortem after each round.
2. Identify things you did well, then continue to practice them so they become areas of strength in your game.
3. Identify the ONE key issue that will provide the biggest payoff in lowering your scores
4. Work on that issue with one pre-shot routine set-up change, and one swing technique change.