CHANGE TOOLS SITE
As an old golf pro once said, “The problem is not learning the new; it’s forgetting (unlearning) the old!”
If you have ever tried to fix a persistent problem with your golf game you will know how true that is.
Like when you last tried to change your grip, correct your putting action or make a swing change, you had to concentrate hard; you made more errors; it took so much time due to mental confusion; and the experience was frustrating and unpleasant.
Thankfully, all those skills coaching sessions appear to be paying off. You practice and practice and your technique on the range shows obvious improvement.
However, as soon as you are out on the golf course and under the stress of competition, your game falls apart and you revert to those old, wrong, ways.
You wanted to change but your brain would not let you change. In the case of your ingrained golf technique problem, you were the prisoner of habit. By a process of psychological interference, your old learning has disabled your new learning.
Cognitive science tells us that whatever we have practiced and learned is protected from change. When the new golf swing you are trying to learn is different from the old swing, your brain instantly detects this conflict and generates habit pattern interference to protect and preserve the old swing.
That's why old habits die hard!
Eventually, you will succeed and make the change over to the new swing but biomechanical experts say that it can take up to 2,000 practices before the new swing consistently replaces the old one. This is called the “adaptation period” and we have all gone through that misery.
Professional golfers are not immune either. In what is known as the dreaded “performance slump”, excellent technique carefully refined through years of hard work is suddenly and inexplicably lost.
Currently available coaching methods do not adequately address the issue of habit pattern errors very well. This is because conventional golf coaching tends to emphasize exclusive practice of the correct knowledge and skill, i.e., via hours of repetition or drills.
Admittedly, practice and drills are an essential element when learning new skills, i.e., when there is no old incorrect way that might interfere with learning. However, practice is much less effective when trying to change an established technique fault because habit pattern interference gets in the way of improvement.
Clearly, we need a better way.
A different approach to learning and improving your golf game, developed in Australia and adopted by a growing number of coaches and sporting professionals at institutes of sport here and overseas, is Old Way/New Way® Learning.
Old Way/New Way® Learning is a special way of practicing that greatly reduces the mental interference from old habits and therefore accelerates your learning.
Instead of spending weeks or months of frustrating practice, with Old Way/New Way® Learning your swing technique can show 80% or better improvement after just one or two concentrated practice sessions.
This improvement persists and is more or less permanent, depending on how often you practice your new way. Importantly, the new swing will transfer more readily to competition.
Best of all, the entire process is easy to learn, blame- and stress-free and very user friendly.
Chris Graham has a Level 3 AAA rating with the PGA of Australia. He says this about Old Way/New Way,® the technique correction method used in Golf Swing Improvement:
"With Old Way/New Way®, practice times are reduced, swing changes come faster and there is no falling back to old ways under pressure of competition."
Golf Swing Improvement is a self-paced golf technique improvement routine designed for golfers and coaches at all levels from beginner up to professional.
Golf Swing Improvement uses the Old Way/New Way® Learning method, the same rapid technique improvement method used so successfully by Olympic coaches and sports professionals and well reviewed by the Australian Sports Commission.
Golf Swing Improvement and Old Way/New Way® Learning can improve all aspects of your golf game, both physical and mental, not just your golf swing.
For golf coaches, Old Way/New Way® golf technique correction can enrich your coaching experience and greatly improve your coaching effectiveness.
The Golf Swing Improvement routine short course is now available on CD. More in-depth training in Old Way/New Way® is available via our online course or in group training workshops.
Golf Australia, June 2006 issue, reviewed Old Way/New Way® Learning and showed how it can improve your golf swing.
Golfers please note - before changing any part of your golf game you should seek expert advice from a golf pro.
Become the golfer you always wanted to be!
Quickly improve your golf swing technique and other parts of your game with Old Way/New Way® Learning.
Golf Swing Improvement is a short self-paced routine that will provide you with information, demonstrations, and step-by-step instructions so you can start using Old Way/New Way® to help:
The Golf Swing Improvement practice routine can:
Golf Swing Improvement is available on CD (Windows computers) or as a Flash-based online course (Windows & Mac).
Golf Swing Improvement uses the Old Way/New Way® Learning method which is well grounded in psychological learning theory and is verified by experimental research published in international refereed professional journals. Furthermore, the record of its success in practical situations stands unrivaled. Old Way/New Way® is also very user friendly - it won't frustrate you or make you feel inadequate.
Sports coaches and players try to get it right the first time but invariably end up spending a lot of time trying to correct technique faults and bad habits that somehow develop.
Once established, habit pattern errors like golf technique faults are notoriously hard to correct because they actually disable learning of correct technique and slow down or completely block improvement. This makes a player uncompetitive and can lead to a career-threatening performance slump.
The typical advice to practice skill drills and train hard is usually not very effective. The player may appear to improve during coaching sessions but repeatedly falls back to old ways under pressure of competition.
Transfer of training from skills coaching sessions and practice drills to competition is consequently poor.
Transition training, required when the player has to change over to a new code, new equipment, new techniques or new rules, presents similar adjustment difficulties. Old habits die hard.
Fortunately, a coaching science discovery called Old Way/New Way® Sports Coaching offers a:
This page describes the main features of Old Way/New Way® sports coaching as applied to golf, including golf technique correction, transfer of learning, problems with skill and drill coaching, habit pattern errors, the basic theory underpinning the method and available training programs in this international award winning approach to coaching sport.
Coaching science award goes to Old Way/New Way® coaching research study with Olympic athletes
A published Old Way/New Way® sports coaching research study on technique correction with Olympic athletes won second prize in the 4th European Athletics Association Science Awards, out of a record entry of 28 projects from 13 European countries.
The winning project "Rapid Technique Correction Using Old Way/New Way®: Two case studies with Olympic athletes" by Y. L. Hanin, T. Korjus, P. Jouste and P. Baxter was selected by a Jury chaired by EAA Vice President Agoston Schulek. The other members of the Jury were Dr Peter Tschiene (GER), Dr Jitka Vindušková (CZE) and Mr Peter Thompson (GBR).
According to the Jury, "This project has a high applicability and clear implications to the coaching of techniques and to coach education."
The Jury's selection criteria were:
The EAA Science Awards were initiated in 1998 and are given every second year.
This study examined the effectiveness of Old Way/New Way®, an innovative meta-cognitive learning strategy initially developed in education settings, in the rapid and permanent correction of established technique difficulties experienced by two Olympic athletes in javelin and sprinting.
Individualized interventions included video-assisted error analysis, step-wise enhancement of kinaesthetic awareness, re-activation of the error memory, discrimination and generalization of the correct movement pattern.
Self-reports, coach's ratings and video recordings were used as measures of technique improvement.
A single learning trial produced immediate and permanent technique improvement (80% or higher correct action) and full transfer of learning, without the need for the customary adaptation period.
Findings are consistent with the performance enhancement effects of Old Way/New Way® demonstrated experimentally in non-sport settings.
The European Athletic Association (EAA), is one of the six Continental groups of the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF), a European non-governmental non-profit organisation of unlimited duration in the form of a constituent area association of the IAAF registered in Switzerland (since 1 January 2004, before Germany).
The domicile of the EAA is located in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The objectives of the EAA are:
Old Way/New Way® is a generic sports technique improvement routine that has now been especially adapted for golf.
Old Way/New Way® received a very positive review in Sports Coach, 2003, Vol. 25, No.4 (an extract appears below).
Sports Coach is Australia's national sports coaching journal, aimed at the practicing sports coach.
Produced quarterly, Sports Coach presents up-to-date sports coaching articles on a variety of topics, ranging from interviews, sports coaching drills and nutrition to research results in a wide range of sports. Sports Coach is an excellent periodical for the active sports coach.
Old Way/New Way®—by Graham Cook (extracts from Sports Coach)
It is one of the most perplexing and frustrating obstacles any coach has to face; without warning and often without apparent reason, the athlete they are coaching goes into a form slump.
Hitherto excellent techniques, often carefully refined over years of hard work are lost, to be replaced by persistent and stubborn errors that refuse to respond to correction.
In the past, this has usually resulted in a long and destructive regime of constant repetition of skill drills aimed at driving the offending error from the athlete's repertoire.... [However] the correct technique, apparently recovered after constant practice, disappears under the pressure of competition ....
A different approach ... enthusiastically endorsed by a growing number of coaches and sporting professionals, is Old Way/New Way®, which aims to put the athlete back on the right path, not within months or weeks, but possibly after one intensive session ....
... one of the most spectacular examples of Old Way/New Way®'s success [is] cricketer Jason Gillespie [who] needed to change his bowling action .... he was able to change a major part of his bowling action in about 20 minutes ....
... Olympic [athletes], a javelin thrower and a sprinter, were in a form slump associated with technique problems .... both problems were corrected ....
While an experienced [Old Way/New Way® practitioner is needed initially, there is no reason why coaches should not quickly learn the subtleties of the method and introduce it when required.
The organisations listed on this page have purchased Old Way/New Way® Learning Systems from Personal Best Academy. This does not imply that these organisations endorse Old Way/New Way® Learning Systems or that they endorse Personal Best Academy. Neither does it mean that Personal Best Academy endorses these listed organisations. Customers who have indicated that they do not wish to be listed here do not appear on this page. A longer list containing users of all Old Way/New Way® Learning Systems can be found here.
After you've tried this free introductory demonstration of Old Way/New Way® Learning for improving your golf swing, go ahead and purchase the CD or the Flash-based online course and you can start really improving all parts of your golf game.
Let's view a video of a typical Old Way/New Way® skill correction session with John who has a very flat swing. This correction sequence is presented from the point of view of a coach conducting the technique correction session but it can be adapted by a player performing self-correction, provided you get expert coaching advice from a golf pro.
This golf technique correction routine includes:
Choose from these four rapid technique correction routine formats.
This Flash based course covers golf and other sports. Specific step-by-step examples of how to correct technique faults in a range of Olympic and other sports, including elite and recreational. Contains four video segments showing how specific technique problems were corrected. AU$59. Order form.
Same content as the CD course but delivered online. AU$59. Order form.
Online golf pro development course includes step-by-step guidance and email support in a course that is customised just for you. AU$395. Order form.
One-day rapid technique correction workshop tailor made for golf pros and others providing technique correction, skill transition training, breaking bad habits, from beginner to advanced level.Email us.
"The problem is not learning the new; it's forgetting the old." Flight Instructor
"Old habits die hard." Proverb
"Practice makes permanent, not perfect." Warren Buffett
"Practising differences makes perfect." Harry Lyndon
Trainers, teachers, instructors and sports coaches try to get it right the first time with their students, trainees and athletes but invariably end up spending a lot of time trying to correct errors, misconceptions, non-compliance, technique faults and bad habits that somehow develop.
Because these errors were not corrected early, and were inadvertently repeated over and over (i.e., practised), many error patterns are actually learned, habitual and automatic and therefore much harder to eradicate.
For example, John always writes "recieve" instead of "receive"; Mike always has to be reminded to wear his safety goggles; Mary always slices her golf swing; Susan always follow cars too closely when driving; and Geoff is mentally still following the previous aircraft’s pre-flight checklist even though he's converted to another aircraft.
We all know that old habits die hard and many habit patterns are resistant to conventional change methods.
These limitations of traditional teaching and training programs are apparent in all settings including sport, workplace training, education, therapy and personal development.
Re-training or re-education, the typical solution to these problems, improves things only slowly, if at all.
Although learners may appear to pay attention during instruction and practice their new, correct, skills and knowledge over and over, the next day when placed under pressure or when unsupervised and left to their own devices, they seem to have forgotten what they’ve learned and the same habit pattern errors (old entrenched attitudes, beliefs, misunderstandings, work practices and routines, faulty procedures, poor techniques and unsafe behaviours) resurface.
A prolonged adjustment period and poor transfer of learning are the two most typical outcomes of education, training and coaching efforts worldwide.
All this wastes talent and resources and makes change and transition programs so much less cost-effective. There’s got to be a better way.
Fortunately, a cognitive science discovery called Old Way/New Way Learning offers:
1. A new perspective on the transfer of training problem.
2. A fast and practical method of transition training.
3. A cost-effective and user-friendly method for rapid skill and technique correction, and habit eradication.
This website introduces Old Way/New Way® Learning, including the basic theory underpinning the method, and available training programs in this unique approach to behaviour change and continuous improvement.
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KEYWORDS: habit patterns | error patterns | habit pattern errors | errors | misconceptions | mental maps | skill transfer | knowledge transfer | skill transitions | conversion training
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Updated Thursday 1 July, 2010