Golf Tips: Tick Tock

I had a short game lesson the other day and it was quite surprising.  My short game has been very inconsistent.  I seem to hit the chips on line fine, but the distance control is very erratic.  I was sure that my technique, ball position, swing plane, stance, alignment and everything else was screwed up.  How my PGA instructor helped me was with two simple words. Tick Tock When the instructor had me hit some chips, he said my setup and technique were almost perfect.  He didn't want to change any of that.  All he wanted to do was get my brain out of the way of hitting a good golf shot. He asked me to say the words "tick tock" during my swing.  The tick was the end of the backswing and tock would be when I made contact.  Surprisingly the results in my distance control while doing that were greatly improved. After doing that for a few balls, he then told me to just do the "tick tock" inside my head silently, because on the course people might think I'm nuts. By giving my brain something to do other than worry about how I will screw up the shot, the tick tock exercise has gotten it out of the way. See a pro I strongly recommend seeing a professional instructor, because he or she may have many easy things you can do to help you play better quickly and enjoy the game even more.