Aiming the Shot

WEBVTT

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All right, golfers, welcome back.

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Here we are at a step number two, which is aiming the shot.

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We're going to talk about two different aspects of aiming the shot.

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One is the physical technique of aiming the shot, which we can see all these

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players demonstrating

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here.

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And then secondly, how do I choose where to aim?

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So if you remember, our goal is to boil everything down to what club, which

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shot, and then where

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aim?

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Where do I want to leave my next shot?

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This is the simple recipe.

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You would look at a scenario like this and you would typically think, "Oh, I'm

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just going

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to aim at the pin."

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But we're going to talk about, well, when should I potentially aim a little bit

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away

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from the pin?

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Maybe more of the middle of the green?

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Or maybe I should split the difference and kind of aim close to the pin, but a

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little

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bit on the fat side.

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So we're going to discuss why you might move your aim and the better you get,

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the more

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important the margins of where you aim become.

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With high school players, I often see whether it's a yard or two indifference

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and aim over

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the course of 18 holes that can have a huge impact on their score.

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I also want to draw attention to the fact that aim is one of those skills that

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pros

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work on consistently, your eyes, your posture.

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These things have a tendency to evolve and change over the weeks and days.

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And so I highly recommend that you calibrate your aim by using an alignment

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stick and having

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a process to help you get aimed more consistently.

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I find that many of my students when I take them on their course, especially if

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they're

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more of the 10 handicap and above, they tend to say, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I aim,"

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but they're

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often well off, partly because they're not working on it and not calibrating it

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.

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Okay.

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So here's the simple process on how to aim your shot.

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Once we've chosen and we've committed to the club and what shot we're going to

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hit, you're

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going to stand behind the ball and we're going to pick an intermediate, sorry,

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you're going

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to pick a target which is more or less my start line.

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Where do I want the ball to take off?

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And you'll factor that into how you're going to curve the ball or if your ball

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naturally

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curves.

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Then we're going to pick an intermediate target, a spot between our golf ball

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and where we

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want the ball to take off, or so it's going to take off over this intermediate

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target.

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We're going to walk in 90 degrees to the ball and then we're going to set the

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club to the

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golf ball pointed at the target.

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So we're aligning the club face and we're going to set the body to the club,

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aligning

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the body in the club.

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This will also help with distance away from the ball, having a consistent setup

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with distance

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away from the ball as well as ball position by using this process.

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Then we can use one or multiple looks to confirm that our intermediate target

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is actually where

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we want to aim and then we're going to swing freely.

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So the key training points for how to aim the shot is we want to get good at

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picking

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intermediate targets.

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We want to practice stepping into the shot and visually orienting ourselves to

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where proper

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aim actually looks, doesn't always look straight until you've trained it.

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And then ideally we're going to practice some uncomfortable aiming.

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Uncomfortable aiming is basically when I feel like when it doesn't look right

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but I'm trusting

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my aiming process and kind of get over that fear or get over that hurdle of

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needing it

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to look perfectly every single time.

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So we'll do a quick little video where I'll walk through and talk about what I

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'm doing

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as we go through this aiming process.

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Okay, so here's a little clip of me going through a pre shot routine.

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I'm doing a few swings there to get my feel for the shot and now I'm forgetting

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about

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the feel.

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I'm aiming with the shaft, so if I come back here, I'm holding up the shaft so

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I can get

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it in line with that poker chip on the ground.

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We'll see a close up of that here shortly.

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Then I'm going to walk in, you'll see my eyes there are focusing on the poker

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chip.

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So I'm going to aim the club face at the poker chip, get my stance and

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everything square

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to the club face.

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And then I'm looking at the target just to confirm that everything matches, get

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set up

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in rhythm and then take the swing.

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So now we can watch the process from the target view.

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There's my swings.

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I'm aiming it.

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I am a four step guy, so I take four steps and then get into my setup.

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Looking at the poker chip, you can see my eyes looking there, I get my body

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square, look

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back at the ball, everything feels good.

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Now I'm going to look to the target to confirm that it looks the way it's

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supposed to, back

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to the poker chip of where I want it to start.

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Now during that, those kind of waggles right in here, I'm feeling the swing and

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then I'm

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going to execute the swing and react to the shot.

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Okay, here's a close up of the poker chip that I keep referring to and you can

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see it's

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just a normal yellow poker chip with a black dot that I've drawn in the middle.

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Having a small but precise target is one of the key components when you're

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working on

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your alignment process.

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Jack Nicholas used to use a T. I find that the black dot is a little bit better

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as far

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as contrast and it can really help you get very precise with your alignment.

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The process of aiming and walking into the shot is such a critical component

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that I highly

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recommend golfers practice just those last couple steps of walking in and then

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getting

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set up.

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Here you'll see I'm not even really looking at where the ball is finishing.

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I'm just practicing walking in, getting set at my rhythm using the intermediate

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target

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and then reacting to the shot.

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So you'll see each shot looking at the intermediate target, the target walking

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in, staying on

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my rhythm and then executing, I'm doing it with and without an alignment stick

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so that

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the aiming process becomes part of the swing and an automatic rhythm trigger

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for executing

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on the course.

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Okay, so hopefully you have a pre shot routine that's somewhat similar to that.

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I do want to highlight that your aiming process should include your natural

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tendencies.

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So as I go back to this, here's my normal kind of nine iron this week and then

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here's

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my punch eight iron, you'd see my aim for the orange, the eight iron is a

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little bit right.

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So if my tendency is to go a little bit right of where I think I'm aimed, like

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I tried to

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aim at the same spot and my tendency was a little bit more right.

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So with my punch, I would probably, if I'm playing that day, I'm probably going

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to be

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airing on aiming just a touch to the left.

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So here's how we're going to start thinking about aiming and we've got a couple

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different

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scenarios we'll look at here.

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So here we've got a flag and if I aim kind of that nine iron distribution

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pattern, this

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is a right handed distribution pattern, it'll kind of look like this.

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And my goal is to pick an aim that would give me the best overall average score

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for all

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those shots.

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That's what I mean by probability.

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So if I came back to this one, yeah, I've got a bunch of good shots here.

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Used all too bad, I've got these couple long or at least that one long in the

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bunker that

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might throw up and skew my average compared to this one where, okay, I've aired

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on playing

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just a little bit shorter.

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So these that were right next to the hole are now further away, but the overall

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average

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might be better because I'm avoiding that back bunker.

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So you can see the slight difference in the aims could result in a significant

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difference

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in my average score for that particular shot.

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Becomes more apparent when I have the pin not in the middle of the green.

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So if I took that same distribution, obviously the back bunker there is a prop,

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it's kind

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of recessed, it's a hard shot, and then this road, that one would be out of

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bounds.

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So those would really elevate my score.

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But if I took the complete safe approach on that pattern and I stayed short, I

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aimed

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at the middle of the green, well, middle of the green on this green because it

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's a long

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green would actually leave me a lot of 40, 50, 60 footers, especially all these

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.

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These are like 60, 70 feet.

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So now I'm probably going to have a bunch of three putts.

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So the best aim for this scenario is probably a little short and a little right

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.

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These are relatively flat, easy chip shots.

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There's going to be a lot of two putts and then the ones that I pull are going

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to give

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me the best chance at birdie.

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That is one of the hardest things to wrap your head around when you're thinking

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about your

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scoring from an average standpoint, is that your birdies in this scenario are

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either going

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to come from a really good long putt or a missed shot.

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It's not going to come from a pure perfect iron shot.

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Okay, and then here we have the front pin.

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If we aimed at it, these aren't too bad, but some of these, this isn't the most

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challenging

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up and down.

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So I might consider still just aiming at it to give myself the chance of

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getting the best

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or the highest number of birdies because these are not going to be too bad.

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I can probably actually putt those under normal situation.

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Definitely don't want to aim there at the middle of the green.

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That brings a lot of, there's a little ridge on this green and that brings some

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tougher

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lag putts in play.

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So possibly you could make the argument of aiming a little bit past it, but

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potentially

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I might consider just aiming at that flag because the risk here of leaving it

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short is

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not that hard of an up and down, but if you're not good at putting from the

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fringe then perhaps

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that would be a shot that you would want to air on a little bit past the pin.

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It's all adaptable to your individual tendencies.

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Now we can see if the distribution gets smaller.

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So for example, as I get into wedge distribution now I have a smaller,

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hopefully I have a smaller

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target or a smaller zone with the shorter clubs, I can start getting more and

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more aggressive

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with my aim.

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So one general trend is we'll talk about kind of like aiming more safe or more

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conservatively

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on the longer shots and taking your risks when they make a little bit more

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sense with

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your shorter clubs.

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So in general, how do we pick a smart aim?

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Ideally I want to be able to aim at it, but I'm looking at this distribution.

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I want to buffer away from the most penalizing hazards.

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So this is specifically looking at approaches, but we could use this to look at

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T-shots as

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well.

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So potentially if there's out of bounds down one side I would probably err on

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giving me

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some extra wiggle room away from that out of bounds.

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I want to play for my average shots, not my hero or best shot.

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So I will give people the plus 10 rule, which is usually when we're on the

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course, let's

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say we got 150 yards and they go grab their 8 iron and I'm like great, so you

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could hit

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this 160 and they'll look at me like no, but I have 150.

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I said okay well if you can't hit it 160 then your average probably isn't going

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to be 150.

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And we want to ultimately play our average if we can.

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Another just simple rule I'll give people is if you have reasonably sized

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greens, just

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pick a number for the back third.

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So if the middle of the green was 150 and the back of the green was 160, I'm

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going to pick

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that number.

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That'll generally give you a little bit more buffer as far as hitting it pin

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high.

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In general, amateurs almost never hit it past the pin on their approach shots

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and oftentimes

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that's because they don't know their actual distance.

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The second thing that they do is once I've given students some of these talks

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and we're

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trying to pick smart targets, often times they will do what I call fake aiming,

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which

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is essentially they will aim their body right, but they will be looking more at

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the pin.

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They'll be looking left like they're going to try to pull it back at the target

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.

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Tiger once said, I swing aggressively to hit my target.

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It might be, it referring to my target, might be 40 feet right at the pin, but

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that's the

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target that I swing at aggressively.

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So fake aiming usually leads to a non-aggressive swing because it's kind of

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trying to manipulate

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the club face or the path to get the ball to go not where my body is set up.

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Ultimately, I want to practice this alignment process, and I recommend when you

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practice

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on the range, moving that alignment process around more than not and not always

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having

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it at clear targets.

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Like here at the range, I like to have golfers aim at the middle of a bunker or

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the right

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edge of a green, not always at the pins.

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Golfers have a hard time, and I would say this is more kind of my high school

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college

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golfers, they have a hard time picking clear targets when it's not the pin.

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But if you practice that, it makes it a whole lot easier.

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So practice aiming at non-descript targets that you can get fully committed to

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that'll

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make it easier to commit to aiming away from pins, which is a great skill.

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So one baseline that I'll give people is using their fingers as kind of a zone

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to help them

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figure out if they're being stupidly aggressive or if they're playing kind of

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smart.

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So we'll have a little video here where we'll go through and walk through it.

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So basically, for an average golfer, a four-finger zone at an arm fully

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extended is reasonable.

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Now I would want you to practice this on the range, so we'll talk through how

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to do that.

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But basically targeting, if I can get 80% of my shots within this four-finger

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zone, that

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can help me pick my aim.

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So here's demonstrating two fingers in the other video we'll use for.

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And then basically I buffer so that my finger is not on a problem area.

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Like if I was aiming at this blue pin here, if I put the four fingers up, I

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might be flirting

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with this bunker, so I'd aim a little bit to the left of it and that would help

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me figure

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out how far left I need to aim.

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You'll see it clearer when we do the little finger aiming video.

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So you must practice to know your dispersions before that's going to work.

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When choosing a target, sometimes it's helpful to use the finger alignment so

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that you can

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pick a target that has a safe enough buffer away from hazards.

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So here's a simulated close-up where you can see I'm placing the middle of my

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middle finger

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on the flag and I can see that if I was to aim there, a good dispersion would

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put my

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right misses somewhere around here and my left misses would be somewhere around

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here.

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So if I was practicing, this would give me kind of an acceptable dispersion or

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this would

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give me a reference for when I'm analyzing how tight my dispersion is that can

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help me

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choose a smart aim when I'm on the course.

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Once I have my aim figured out, I can turn the fingers sideways and then trace

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that line

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back and that will help me pick an intermediate spot somewhere down here.

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I didn't get my fingers totally lined up with the camera but hopefully you can

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see how that

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process would look.

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We're practicing aiming.

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It gets simpler once you get to a certain threshold.

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So one of the questions is always, "Well, should I aim for the middle of the

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green?"

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Maybe.

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Here's how we're going to think through it.

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A lot of greens are kind of like a 30 by 30 yard zone.

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So that kind of gives us the surface area we're trying to hit into.

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If we did that, you've got about 45 feet on each side of the target.

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Now if you remember from our Be Your Own Coach program, we've got some

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benchmarks at different

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handicap levels.

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Now you may be different than this and you can vary it slightly but these are

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pretty

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good for the majority of golfers.

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So if we're looking at a 45 foot circle or 45 foot radius away from the pin for

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a 100

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shooter that comes down to about a 100 yard shot, for a 90 shooter it's about

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125, playing

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a little bit for an 80 shooter.

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It's at about 150 yards, maybe a little bit less than that.

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And then if you're a scratch golfer, it's probably close to 175.

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So basically if you're outside of that for your handicap level, you should

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probably aim

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at the middle of the green unless there's a really good reason not to.

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So that can help simplify things and give you a reasonable expectation as far

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as what

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to expect distance wise and when you can start to get a little bit more

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aggressive.

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So it clearly defines some of the zones that I talked about for helping you

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with your risk

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management.

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Okay, so quick recap on aiming.

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Remember the three big questions.

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What club am I going to hit?

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Which shot am I going to hit and where am I going to aim?

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Where am I going to aim is one of the most critical for helping me get fully

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committed

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to the shot and I want to know am I going to aim at the pin, middle of green or

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playing

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a smart like in between kind of the most aggressively conservative target that

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I can

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pick on the slight fat side.

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To be good at aiming, you have to practice aiming, pros demonstrate that time

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and time

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again.

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They are constantly calibrating and checking in with their setup and how it

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looks and then

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picking some smart targets and to help you with picking your smart targets, we

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can use

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our finger alignment system to help us create some more accurate visuals for

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being able to

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see the zones better.

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So in the next step, we're going to talk about the mental side of executing

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your best shot.