Trust and Let Go: Play better golf without consciously changing your swing

By Peter Ballingall

TRUST AND LET GO is a mindset necessary to be as good as you can be and play your best golf most of the time.

The fact is, you already possess the perfect swing for you. Within these pages you will find the way to let this shine through.

Q. Do you want a pretty looking golf swing... or would you rather have c

• Language: English
• Publisher: Peter Ballingall
• Release date: Nov 18, 2020
• ISBN: 9781914078132

Peter Ballingall

Peter Ballingall is an esteemed professional golf coach and one of the first to incorporate a strong psychological mix to his teachings. Launched in 1980, his golf schools became an international brand name, attracting golfers of all levels from around the world. His schools were voted 'Best in the UK' in a Golf Monthly survey in the 90's.

Book preview

Trust & Let Go

Play Better Golf Without Consciously Changing Your Swing

Peter Ballingall

.

Copyright © 2020 by Peter Ballingall

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any form of retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior permission in writing from the publishers, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Testimonials

Introduction

About the Author

Doing What Comes Naturally

Comfort … Is the Key

Learn from the Shape of Your Shot

Feel Your Way to a Better Swing

Think of Laura

Feeling Like Playing Well

How to Compete

Swing the Club Freely

What Are Your Goals?

Mind Control

Let the Real You Shine Through

Back to the Basics

Check Your Posture

Improve without Changing Your Swing

Only Two Things Can Go Wrong

Learning from the Flight of the Ball

Get Out of Your Own Way

Curing the Push and Hook

Keep It Simple and Avoid Confusions

Listen to Your Body Language

Ten Ways to Improve Your Consistency

Check Your Footwork for More Consistency

Setting Your Goals Too High

There Is No Point in Kidding Yourself

Discard What Doesn’t Work

Conclusion

Acknowledgements

My thanks to Ian & Mhairi Walker and Colin Bothway who created the Barnham Broom Golf & Country Club in Norfolk, and who took the risk of engaging me as the first Professional & Director of Golf. Barnham Broom gave me the platform on which to run my golf school business that was to become the most popular and successful Golf School in the U.K. for over twenty years.

Thanks to Michael Harris, Editor of GOLF MONTHLY, for allowing me to reproduce these selected articles that appeared in this great magazine.

Thanks also to Patrick, Tarn, Kim, Reymond, Edunjobi and all the staff at Publishing Push for their help, professionalism (and extreme patience with me) in producing this book.

To Malcolm Campbell, who, in so many ways, increased my profile in the golfing world.

Thanks also to the hundreds of people, far too numerous to mention, who returned to my school many times and who recommended me to their friends. It is true to say that when clients return, they become friends. Many of them, indeed, did became my friends.

Thanks to, Helene, my wife, for putting up with this grumpy old man at home and for being my most loyal supporter in my work.

Testimonials

"I fondly remember in the 1980’s, as a young PGA Pro, reading articles written by Peter Ballingall.

They were very different from the standard technical swing information so widely available.

Little did I realize at the time how far ahead Peter was with this information.

He was, and is, a visionary.

His articles written back then have absolutely stood the test of time, and by reading the content you will open up to previously hidden areas of your true potential.

Let Peter take you on that voyage of discovery.

You are in very safe hands."

— KARL MORRIS

Founder of THE MIND FACTOR

[e-mail]

"Peter Ballingall is the best golf coach I have ever had.

His seemingly simple concepts and messages are incredibly effective.

Previously I concentrated on my backswing. Peter coached me to trust my swing and focus on making a world class finish. That very season I achieved my golfing ambition of a single figure handicap – age 68!

Needless to say, I have returned for more coaching sessions and am delighted that he has committed his wisdom to a book".

— HELEN STONE OBE

"I met Peter Ballingall for the first time in the spring of 86.

I was a lowly paid assistant pro but drove three hours to see him, such was his reputation.

I was so impressed by his generosity of time and genuine passion to help me.

We talked and, after an hour or so, went out to hit some balls and putts.

My life changed that day!

What I was hearing was opening a door to real improvement without recourse to the usual technical mumbo jumbo but, instead, a holistic way of looking at athletic movement and performance.

I would visit Peter multiple times and I played my life’s best and easiest golf.

Peter wrote in his column how I would become a stalwart on The European Tour and I enjoyed my competitive career, though it wasn’t as glittering as I had hoped.

I am now a golf coach in Sweden and the principles I learnt from Mr. Ballingall are the foundations of my coaching. I doubt he realizes what an enormous influence he has been on my life.

I hope that you who embrace the wisdom in this book will, like me, play and appreciate this wonderful game on a higher level."

— MARK DEWDNEY

PGA Professional (Sweden)

[e-mail]

Introduction

Most golf instruction books are too long.

The reader is obliged to begin on page 1 and plough through several hundred pages to reach the end.

They contain so much information, the author wanting to give you everything, so that the mind of the poor reader is in ‘overload,’ and quite unable to assimilate all the detail contained.

This book is different. It contains a compilation of highly acclaimed articles that previously appeared in GOLF MONTHLY – Europe’s best-selling golf magazine in the ‘80s (possibly still today).

The articles are narratives about real people of all levels of experience who attended The Peter Ballingall Golf School during that period, seeking to progress their game.

The reader is not dragged through a series of ‘how to’ and ‘what not to’ when playing the game because, I repeat, the articles are true stories of people who made their discoveries, and who made much progress without consciously changing their swing.

Everyone can play better golf naturally

Everyone can play better golf naturally

Everyone can play better golf naturally

Everyone can play better golf naturally

This compilation makes for great bed-time reading that teaches you all you need to know in a subliminal way: no ‘heavy instruction’!

You will discover things like:

The only purpose of the golf swing.

All golfers are ‘unique’ – so, too, are their swings

Everything depends on the Set Up. The Set Up at address determines what happens next

Problem Solving. The ball is the best instructor. That what it does, once collected by the face, teaches you what you did.

Mind Management and how to control one’s thinking

… and much more.

Enjoy.

About the Author

Everyone needs a bit of luck at some point in their lives, whether that is to be in the right place at the right time, or to meet a person who might change one’s life.

Such strokes of luck, I believe, are ‘accidents made on purpose,’ brought about by some star in the universe!!

I got lucky three times in the earliest stages of my career in golf.

In 1969 I met JOHN JACOBS. To be honest I didn’t know then who he was, but he offered me a job as Manager of his Golf Centre in Newcastle upon Tyne that was not doing well. I had a young family and I needed a job. I had no special talents but I was a ‘people person,’ with a big heart and a desire to do well. I didn’t let him down and over my seven years of being there I completely turned around the fortunes of his company.

Very quickly I came to realize just how famous he was as a Professional Golfer and as a Teacher of the game; without doubt the greatest teacher ever.

During his frequent visits to the Centre I appeared forever in his shadow, listening to him teach his students. The simplicity of his advice always seemed to lead to immediate improvement.

He never had a ‘one swing fits all’ philosophy and he taught nothing but the ‘ball-flight laws’ that you, the reader, will understand clearly in this book.

When I began teaching myself I, too, became successful as I followed his example.

When the time came for me to leave, his fame and reputation opened other doors for me in my career that followed.

R.I.P. John. I thank you.

My next piece of luck came from meeting and becoming friends with JENNY LEE SMITH. She was a golfer of exceptional talent, both as an amateur and as a professional.

On a return from the U.S.A she brought with her a book entitled THE INNER GAME OF GOLF by Timothy Gallwey. This is a must read Jenny told me. It has transformed my thinking when playing the game in high-stress tournaments.

I read it and was amazed to discover simple ways of controlling the demon that sits there at the front of our golfing minds. It established an entirely new route that I was going to take, in the way I would teach my clients in the future.

With John Jacobs in my heart and The Inner Game in my head there was no way that I couldn’t possibly succeed.

My third piece of luck was in meeting MALCOLM CAMPBELL, the editor of GOLF MONTHLY in the 80’s; Europe’s best-selling quality golf magazine at the time and, possibly still, today.

How we met is another story but we spent an enjoyable weekend at Barnham Broom playing and talking golf. This most gregarious of people has an amazing command of the English language so that when he writes, the reader is totally consumed and entertained.

He invited me to write six articles for his magazine! Me? My name was to be in print? Wow!! Had I arrived?

Of course, after his departure, I locked myself away and wrote those six articles. They were not going to be like the normal ‘boring’ advice usually given in instruction articles. They were going to be narratives about real people of all levels of experience, who had attended my Golf School, who sought a release from their own demons and who were seeking to improve.

I waited impatiently for the ‘first edition’ to be printed that, hopefully, would seal my fate for the future.

After the third article had been published Malcolm called me on the phone to tell me that the feedback from his readers had been fantastic and so could I keep writing in the months ahead?

The result of this was that it led to a dramatic increase in the numbers of clients attending my Golf School, and they came from every golfing nation on the planet!

Without this exposure it would not have been possible.

Furthermore, in the 90s, it was Malcolm who recommended me to Dorling Kindersley, the publishers, to produce their book, LEARN GOLF IN A WEEKEND, that went on to sell half a million copies worldwide in nine languages.

Yes, I was very lucky to encounter these three very special people. Each one in their own way gave me the knowledge, opportunity and exposure to be a different kind of teacher to the rest – and a successful one too!

Doing What Comes Naturally

April 1983

W

hat is it that makes golf one of the most difficult games to master? Indeed, who could ever claim to have mastered it?

And why is it that, in spite of all the golf books written, and the instructional articles which appear in magazines, and are read by millions all over the world, the standard of golf is so poor?

Surely the experts and authors of these articles can’t all be wrong. Yet over 80% of all the golfers in the world have either not yet qualified for a handicap, or possess a handicap of over 18. This means that, if you are 18 handicap you rank in the top 20% in the world but still make a mistake which costs you a shot at EVERY hole. Your colleagues at the club are considered ‘semi-pro’ and yet even they, at every other hole, on average, make a costly mistake.

It seems to me that those statistics account for the reason why golf is considered to be a very complicated and difficult game. Some golf teachers have compounded this thinking by analysing the swing to the nth degree, so that there are now 146 movements to make in the backswing, and 183 on the downswing. Perhaps I exaggerate! (perhaps others would argue that there are even more!!! Horrors!).

The point I want to

Reviews for Trust and Let Go

[Dana Horton · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I could not put this book down. The advice is simple, yet I had never thought of it the way he describes it.