About ME
Alan Martin is a results driven, experienced sales / marketing professional in the technology and financial services industries from 1977 - 2011. A high impact team player with with an entrepreneurial spirit and a track record of achievements as a regional sales director, manager and key individual contributor.

I'm a serious recreational golfer that’s passionate about improving my own game, growing the game, teaching / sharing my knowledge and experiences with men and women beginners and serious golfers ...that want to improve with a passion.

Author
Golf Instruction Made Simple, a how-to guide for better ball striking. It’s the real-life story about a serious recreational golfer (ME) with an out of control slice, and the simple fix called Thumbs Down, the POWER MOVE of Golf, that saved my golf game without changing my swing.

Creator
Turn Golf Into Business“TGIB”, an innovative marketing, and business development platform, that capitalizes on the POWER of golf and takes advantage of the POWERFUL golf / business connection. TGIB promotes your company’s brand(s) to captive audiences in relaxed, non-competitive settings, giving you a strong competitive advantage.

Golf Instructor
Focused on the fundamentals of ball striking and putting for beginners, novice and advanced golfers. Offer on-course, traditional, indoor (with or w/o a simulator)  and virtual on-line instruction.

¨ Princeton University: Golf Instruction Made Simple is a beginner oriented program that stresses the fundamentals of golf, starting with making a strong, rhythmic, controlled and repeatable swing, for students, faculty and staff as part of Campus Rec since 2017.
¨ First Tee: A member of the teaching staff, focused on the fundamentals of golf and life skills, to juniors from ages 8-18

My Philosophy
I live in an amateur’s shoes everyday and have a unique first-hand understanding of the challenges we face. A solid foundation is important in any sport, especially golf. If you’re a beginner, start by learning to make a strong and controlled swing with good rhythm and tempo. My ball striking message stresses the use of active hands, with a simple POWER MOVE called "Thumbs Down", that squares the club at impact, as the top priorities versus making a pretty swing.

Thumbs Down, Golf Instruction Made Simple
Before you begin reading my book, I’d be surprised if you didn’t ask yourself questions like these:
¨ Who is Alan Martin?
¨ What kind of golfer is he?
¨ Why did he write this book, when there are books and teaching aids available from golf’s best players and instructors?
¨ How will the Thumbs Down help me improve my golf game?

These are good and valid questions, all answered throughout this section. Welcome to my world. Alan Martin (the real ME) was born in New York City in the 1950s. Upon graduating from college, my career path took me into sales in the computer and financial service industries. During the good and challenging times, golf was the one constant in my life. It was also the only sport I continued to play on a regular basis. Even while coaching my children as they played youth sports, I found a way to support my habit of playing at least one weekend round of golf, nine months out of the year.

At five-foot, seven-inches and 150 pounds I was an unlikely future star in the NFL, but that didn't discourage or stop me from trying (between 1976 and 1979 I had six pro tryouts as a place-kicker). Throughout my childhood I played, watched or thought about sports constantly. I taught myself to play by watching on TV and because I already played baseball and hockey, hitting a golf ball came naturally to me. Being an athlete was not only my passion; it’s played a key role in shaping all aspects of my life. In fact, I credit the participation in sports for my competitive, do-it-yourselfer’s attitude and entrepreneurial spirit.

During the late 1980’s life came at me fast, as all at once I was a new father with a career in transition. At the same time, my golf game mysteriously took a turn for the worse. I remember one depressing moment of weakness as it was hitting rock bottom, when I thought about giving up golf for a while. Down deep, I always believed the problem was only temporary, and soon I’d find the key to getting my old game back. As much as I wanted to enjoy myself, the golf game I was playing embarrassed and frustrated me more than ever before. Good, bad or ugly, I needed my weekly fix. After twenty-five years of playing golf, just finding the time to play, practice and maintain a single digit handicap was becoming a stretch. Now in my late thirties, with a full-time family life and career to manage, golf was more than just a game and passion. Golf was the only sport I still played competitively. It was my lifestyle and part of my DNA structure.

The next obvious question I would expect is, why wouldn’t you just go to a pro for help with your game? My simple answer is, I could have and if you’re a beginner you definitely should. A solid foundation is important in any sport, especially golf. For me, it always came down to one or more of these three factors: time, money, or simplicity. The first two speak for themselves. In terms of simplicity, golf books, golf magazines, and watching instruction on TV didn’t keep it simple enough. I couldn't relate to them as they were overly technical, focusing too much on making the perfect swing.

My book was written for the millions of serious amateurs who want to improve, with a passion and was never intended as an anti-lesson or anti-pro gimmick. It’s not the complete book of golf instruction or positioned as a substitute for taking lessons and learning the game from a certified PGA teaching professional. I respect and admire professional instructors, for the important role they play and all they do to improve and promote the great game of golf. After all, they teach Tour players, right?

A major benefit of the Thumbs Down™ method and this book is that they were created and written by an average Joe amateur golfer, not a pro. I understand and relate to the issues we face first hand and I encourage you to take advantage of my perspective and simplistic approach. It always puzzled me as I watched a comparison of pros swinging in slow motion. Anyone could easily see how different each player’s swing was, as compared to the other. My eyes always zoomed in on the impact zone in the golf swing, seeing how similar they all looked while striking the ball and just after. It disturbed me every time the announcers glanced over the moment of truth, concentrating their explanations on the mechanics of the swing instead.

My eyes glazed over with confusion, when the experts gave a detailed description of the player’s swing in a language only physics majors understand, not me. Almost everything I saw, heard, and read encouraged me to believe that consistent ball striking was the result of proper swing fundamentals, and centrifugal force squared the club naturally. Maybe it’s natural for those who play and practice full-time, but for myself and the majority of recreational players I play with, there’s nothing natural about it.

Even though the game of golf continues to gain in popularity, it’s not growing in size. Personally, I believe the average Joe (male or female) is tired of not improving quickly enough, like the commercials guarantee. Golf is a difficult game to play and it requires years of learning and practice to play it well. Equally as important, people by nature don’t like to do things at which they’re not good. I can only imagine how confusing it is for newer golfers to learn and understand the complex terminology I often hear.

Finally, after years of searching for a solution, the WOW moment came one afternoon in the summer of 1995 by my club’s practice green. Not only was it exciting, but in the process I had just solved for myself the same problem also suffered by fellow amateur golfers, all around the world. For me the Thumbs Down™ method was priceless. It was so simple, effective and repeatable; I had a compelling need to share it with my fellow amateurs. It was like discovering the Holy Grail we’ve all been searching for.

Since finding answers in simple terms isn’t easy, I felt I needed to share the simple method I discovered during the process of curing my own out-of-control slice, and improving my golf swing. My message stresses using the positioning of the hands, along with a simple swing thought to square the club at impact, as the top priority versus making a pretty swing. Since I live in an amateur’s shoes everyday, I have a first-hand understanding of the challenges we face that some pros may have forgotten or may never personally have had.

After experimenting on several willing amateurs and myself for years, it was easy to see how well the method worked and how easily golfers could teach it to themselves, in minutes. For fellow amateurs, the Thumbs Down™ method is the missing ingredient we’ve been looking for. Now it was time to throw my hat in the ring, with a method for the masses that worked and offered “simplicity at last”.

What kept me motivated during a longer than expected process, was I knew I had something that could be really big, maybe even revolutionary. My research confirmed that the Thumbs Down™ method was based on the same ball striking fundamentals used by the best players and taught by top instructors. The light bulb finally went off in my mind, when for the first time there was a simple answer to my question, “what do I do now”, just before the club strikes the ball. After years of desperately searching for the answer to that question, it came down to this thought; “just make a Thumbs Down™ at the golf ball as you strike it”. What could be simpler? My dream is that one day the Thumbs Down™ method will be recognized as the simple answer the average Joe’s been searching for, and that I provided it.

Everything happens for a reason, is an expression that fits. Call it fate or destiny, but the terrible golf seasons I had between 1989 and 1993 turned out to be the springboard for my current life as a golf author, inventor and entrepreneur. Like most inventions, it all started with a problem that needed to be solved. In this case, self-preservation is a better description. If you’re a serious golfer like me, you understand how much of a priority it was to fix my problem.

The moral of my story: Thumbs Down™ ...for Thumbs Up results!

 
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