The Blatch Report - Interview w/ Gary Battersby
Meet Gary Battersby, who is a world-class golf professional and the founder of Learn Touch Golf.
Gary started his golf journey at 9 years old as a caddie at Grosse Ile Country Club in Michigan, and later at the Sharon Golf Club in Sharon Center, Ohio.
He then began teaching professionally in South Florida 17 years later.
We sat down with him to discuss his career, Bob Toski, and what Learn Touch Golf is all about.
Gary began learning just by watching good players without formal instruction.
Later, urged by his father, he sought out Bob Toski, who was known as the best golf teacher in America.
Gary spent a total of 8 days with Bob Toski for intensive instruction.
That was it, that’s all that was needed. Years later, Bob was injured, and Gary received a call to see if he could fill in for Bob's swing portion of the clinic.
The clinic was interesting.
“Bob would do the talking, and I did the swinging,” said Battersby.
Years later, Gary was invited to teach with Bob at Toski’s golf school in Japan. In 1989, they opened their own golf learning center in South Florida.
Battersby began studying motor skill development from a neuroscience perspective in 1990 and was fascinated by it.
He continues to update his knowledge with the latest brain science, especially by picking the brains of his daughter, Judy Grisel, a noted neuroscientist at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania.
Our interview is below.
How would you describe Learn Touch Golf?
“I think the biggest difference between Touch Golf and Conventional Instruction is that it turns off the thinking brain right from the get-go. It relies entirely on the sensory system to form the swing model. No Analysis.
In other words, through the feeling brain…We literally turn off thinking brain to perform the golf swing…Golfers have to learn from feel and simplicity. The hands provide very accurate feedback…The hands are literally a touch away from golfers’ eyes. We see touch emerge when a tour player gets in trouble. They are forced to surrender their technique to touch, and then the results are better.”
Why is it important to develop touch?
“Precision. There’s nothing that’s going to be more precise than a touch-based
program. The beauty is when your hands are in charge, the remainder of your body respects that and follows their lead. The remainder of the body isn’t passive. We have a formula: Your performance equals your potential minus your interference. Interference is thoughts, complexity, or lack of confidence. Under high-interference conditions, we observe increased tension, which negatively impacts performance.”
What players have you seen who have mastered the art of touch?
“Obviously, the world number one is Scottie Scheffler. He’s probably the best at it today. But virtually all the greats have.
All these young players are mastering touch too, but they don’t seem to be aware of it. The brain is so adaptable. I bet if you asked any of the pros on tour how they began, they would be stumped to tell you, but if they thought about it deeply. They would conclude that the reason they pursued the game professionally was that, early on, they developed extraordinary touch with their hands. We take our hands for granted every day until we have a problem with them. Then we realize how important they are. Its just like anything else, we are so casual regarding basic human behaviors until we lose them. Then we know. My God, was that important? Touch golf endeavors to make you aware of what you have, but may be remiss in developing it.
If you want to learn more about Learn Touch Golf and improve your game, Learn
Touch Golf is offering a subscription for only $149.99, which includes online
golf clinics, the Learn Touch Golf letters, the Learn Touch Golf Guide, and
Complete access to a collection of tutorial videos.
And as a bonus, Touch Golf is offering to the first 50 subscribers a complimentary private lesson via Zoom or FaceTime with the Golf Mystic himself. That’s quite a value.