CHAPTER13

DEVELOP YOUR ARTISTIC SENSES (FEEL, TOUCH, GREEN-READING)

感觉与果岭阅读(2)

13.3 Refine Your Feel （炼“觉”）

Touch is knowing “what” to do, while feel is knowing “how” to do. You must trust your touch when you practice feel on the putting green.

There are times when you may have the opposite experience. You’ll strike your putt and before looking up you know that you don’t like it. You know in your mind’s eye that the ball is not going where you planned it to go. The reason will be one (or a combination) of the following.

1.       You did a poor job of feeling your practice swings and never produced a good preview stroke.

2.       You misread the putt, and your subconscious knew it.

3.       Your touch for distance or power was bad and your subconscious knew it.

4.       You blew the stroke execution.

The first three reasons are curable, or preventable, if you can’t handle blowing one from time to time, the you’d better give up golf and go play tennis.

“感”是知道做什么，“觉”是知道怎么做。在练习“觉”的时候，我们必须相信自己的“感”。但是有时会有完全不同的情况出现。推出了球，不用看，自己就知道球没推好。以下是原因：

1.       试挥的“感”没能用出来，实际的推与试推不一样。

2.       “感”的“线”错了，自己的下意识知道。

3.       “感”的距离和力度是错的，自己的下意识知道。

4.       马虎一推。

前面三个问题是可治愈和防止的，但是如果不能克服自己时不时地“随便”，那还是放弃吧！

*** Feel Practice(练“觉”)

You develop and refine your feel for a putt during your preparation routine. When you make a practice stroke, you evaluate the physical sensation and vision of the stroke against your mind’s eye image of what you think you’ll need to feel and see during the real stroke. So practicing feel must include (1) performing your routine and ritual, (2) executing your stroke, (3) seeing your result, and (4) comparing what actually happened with what was supposed to happen.

The best feel scenario is to putt three ball cycles over and over again from the same spot. Walk off the exact distance and read the break. Then go through your routine and ritual, and stroke the first ball. If your results are perfect, you feel good and after impact and follow-through, and you look up and the ball is going into the hole at the right speed. Then do it again and again, to groove and ingrain what you just did.

坚持每一次推杆的“routine，让“觉”不断得到练习和提升。每一次推杆后，都要想一想身体的感受，比较球的滚动与脑中期待图景的差异。

“觉”的练习包括“（1） routine和仪式，（2） 推杆，（3）观察结果，（4）与自己预期的结果相比较。

最好的“觉“练习方案是在同一点连续推三个球。定好距离，看好线。完成routine和仪式，推第一个球，如果球以合适的速度入洞，自己感觉很好并hold住了送杆，那么重复地做同样的推杆，直到觉得已经掌握这些动作并且所做的已经植入大脑。

If the results of your first putt are less than perfect, back away and figure out why. If the problem was playing the wrong amount of break or sensing the wrong touch, start all over again with your preparation routine. When you are practicing feel, you must know exactly what you are trying to do before you try to do it. Then refine the process until you can do it precisely and correctly.

如果第一推的结果不太满意，那要想出原因，是否是“线”或者是“感”有些错误。然后从头开始。练习“觉”的时候，一定要在做之前知道自己要做什么，然后才能做好并渐臻完美。

*** 20-Foot Drill（20英尺推杆）

The purpose of the 20-foot drill is to train your subconscious to feel and perform the best it possibly can on the speed and distance of 20-footers. You need to practice the 20-foot length because my putting data shows that it is a frequent length for first putts. The drill consists of putting groups of three 20-footers from two opposite directions until you can roll 10 in a row at the proper speed.

We define proper speed as that which allows the ball to pass the back edge of the hole and stop within a 34-inches radius behind the hole. We call this area the “Safe-Zone”.

20英尺的推杆长度往往是果岭上第一推碰到最多的，这个练习的目的在于训练下意识的“觉”和以这个长度所需要的力度来完成推杆。这个练习包括从两个相对的方向推，每组三个，直到能以合适的速度连续推进十个。

合适的速度是球能滚过洞，但是不超过34英寸范围时的速度。洞后的这个区域叫做“安全区”。

1.       Start at the hole and walk 20 feet and mark the spot with tee.

2.       Mark a spot 20 feet away in the opposite direction from the hole.

3.       Stroke three putts, watching to see if it each stops in the Safe-Zone. If any putt does not stop in the Safe-Zone, you must start all over with putt#1.

4.       When all three putts pass the Safe-Zone test, go to the opposite side of the hole and putt three more times. Again if all three stop in the Safe-Zone, reverse sides of the hole and continue, three putts form each side. If any putt misses, start over with putt#1 from the side of the miss.

To finish this drill, you must roll 10 putts in a row that stop in the Safe-Zone, and the 10^th must be putted from the opposite side of the hole than the ninth. Remember, all putts that fall into the hole count as good. Also, as you near the last few putts, the pressure mounts to not miss, which is good test of how you focus and concentrate on your feel under pressure.

1.       从洞口始，量20英尺，以tee标记。

2.       从洞口的另一边量20英尺，以tee标记。

3.       推三个球，看球是否都停在安全区内，如果有一个不在，那么从第一个开始再推三个。

4.       如果三个球都在安全区内，就到对面的tee，开始同样的推法。同样的规则。

直到连续有十个球都在安全区内，而且第十个球必须是从洞杯的对面推入安全区。入洞的球计入安全区内。当最后的几推时，压力骤升，这有助于锻炼压力之下的注意力集中。

*** Put Gloves on and Close Your Eyes（戴上手套，蒙上眼睛）

One way golfers can improve their ability to visualize the feel in their mind’s eye is to putt wearing ski gloves on both hands. Thick, padded gloves remove all kinesthetic message of feel from the shaft and putter head to the hands. So all they have to determine the size of their stroke is their mind’s-eye vision.

When you first try practice putting in ski gloves, you’ll be surprised to find that most of your feel actually is in your mind, and you’ll probably putt better than you expected. That’s when you realize the physical feel in your hands is “icing on the cake” in putting.

有一个训练能帮助球手提升“觉”的形象化，就是在推杆时带上滑雪手套。有着衬垫的厚厚的手套让手失去了接受杆和杆头传导过来的任何动觉信息，所以，决定上杆高度的只有自己大脑中的图景。

当一开始尝试滑雪手套时，我们会发现自己大脑中其实存储了足够多的信息，甚至推得比预计的要好。手的感觉只是锦上添花而已。

A way to heighten your feel for the physical sensations of putting is to make practice strokes with your eyes close. Begin your usual routine, keeping your eyes open for your first practice stroke. Then close both eyes, ending all visual input to your brain. Make a practice stroke and feel what you expect the results of that putt would be. Do this several times, until you’re comfortable with the feel of your stroke, then open your eyes, step in, perform your ritual, and stroke your putt. Creating a preview stroke with your eyes closed is the opposite of putting with gloves on, as it forces you to feel through your hands, where the sensations are weak. It will also convince you that putting with “dead-hands”（no power supplied by hands） allows you to achieve maximum sensitivity and feel from your hands in the putting stroke.

还有一个提高身体感受性的方法是闭着眼睛试推。从正常的routine开始，睁着眼睛完成第一次试推。然后闭上双眼，中断所有的视觉信息输入，试推，想象这一试推的效果，再来几次试推，直到对自己闭着眼睛的试推满意了，睁开眼睛，站位，仪式，然后推杆。闭着眼睛试推与带着手套推杆刚好相反，因为这迫使你用手去感受，以自己固定的手腕来体会在推杆中传给手的感觉。

*** Too-High Drill （“线”大的感觉）

“Too High” is a game we use to help our students learn (1) what it feels like to play too much break, and  (2) how to float putts in from the high side when your want to be sure to avoid a three-putt. You can play Too High by yourself or in competition with any number of players. Find a hole on a pronounced slope and mark the ball-hole line through the center of the hole, extending in both directions, along the line you intend to putt from. You can play anywhere along or beyond this line with one rule: the ball that stops closet to the hole without going into the hole or below the line wins.

我们用这个游戏来帮助学生明白：（1）“线”大了是什么感觉；（2）如何让球停在洞杯高的一侧，来减少三推的可能。可以自己一个人玩这个游戏，也可以和多人一起玩。找一个坡度明显的洞杯，在球洞线上拉起一根线穿过洞杯中心在洞杯的两侧延伸。可以沿着这条线推，或者在远处推，只有一个规则：接近洞口，但不要让球进洞或者滑到线的下面。

You’ll be surprised how difficult this game can be. On fast greens or severe slopes, leaving putts above the hole can be a real challenge. To maximize the feel benefits of Too-High, roll the same putts, to the same hole, again and again. Try to stop your putts ever closer to going in, without going in, while always staying above the ball-hole line. Holding a competition is the best, but practicing by yourself is also good since it help you focus and concentrate on feeling how to produce the floating-in-form-too-high putts.

也许大家会觉得这个游戏并不难，在快速而坡度明显的果岭，这样做真是一种挑战。为了加深这个游戏的“觉”，在同一个洞一遍又一遍地做这个游戏。设法让球越来越接近洞，但是不能入洞，而且要让球停在洞杯高的一侧。最好有对手，一个人做也挺好。这个游戏对集中注意力和如何让球在坡度果岭不至于滚太远 非常有好处。

*** Two-Hole Drill （同一个节奏推不同距离）

It is a good way to practice your feel while also refining your rhythm.

Find two holds on the putting green that you can monopolize without offending anyone. Get behind the close hole, imagine parallel Aim-line that work for both of them, and place two balls close together on those lines, 2^1/₂  feet from the closer hole. Turn on your metronome and putt the first ball (the short putt), using your routine and ritual to the beat of the metronome. Immediately look at the second hole, make the best preview stroke you can, step into your address position, execute your ritual, and stroke the second ball to the second hole. Again, make this stroke to your body-rhythm cadence.

At first, it’s not important that you hole the second putt or even come very closer. What you want to do is begin to feel comfortable making a long swing in the same rhythm as your short swing. Only by keeping your rhythm of putts of all lengths can you develop optimum feel for speed and distance based on the size of your swings.

这个练习能帮助自己提高“觉”的能力和节奏。

找两个能独用的洞杯，两个洞杯的瞄准线是平行的，把两个球放在各自的瞄准线上，球距离近的洞杯2.5英尺，打开节拍器，完成自己的routine和仪式，依着节奏推第一个球；马上看第二个洞杯，试推，站位，瞄准，仪式，依着节奏推第二个球。

刚开始这个练习的时候，不一定要在意是否能推进第二个球，要用心体会同样的节奏下，不同距离的两个推杆，不同的上杆高度。不同的推杆距离，不同的上杆高度，总是同样的节奏，以此来体会不同上杆高度得到不同的速度和距离。