SANTA CLARA – If you've ever tried to play a round of golf while someone dissects your swing, your stance, your every move, well, now you know what a typical practice is like for 49ers quarterback Shaun Hill.

"You're trying to play, and you've got this guy standing there saying: 'Put your head down. Straighten your arm out. Don't bend this. Don't turn your hips,' " said coach Mike Singletary, who admits he rarely hits the links. "You're like, 'Man, I'll be glad when this is over.' "

Singletary raised the analogy Wednesday when asked why Hill plays so much better on Sundays than he does in practice. The reason, Singletary said, is that on game day, Hill finally has a little distance from the super-strict golf instructor in his life, offensive coordinator Mike Martz.

"(Hill) has Mike Martz on his tail constantly," Singletary said. "Everywhere he looks, everywhere he moves. Mike Martz is demanding – very demanding – of him, which is a great thing."

Don't get Singletary wrong. He believes Martz's hands-on instruction has benefited Hill, who, after all, is making only his fifth career start Sunday against Dallas.

Hill was named the NFC's Offensive Player of the Week Wednesday, largely because of the 35-point first-half points he and the 49ers scored Sunday in a win over the Rams. Over past 2 1/2 games, Hill has thrown five touchdown passes against two interceptions and has a solid 91.6 passer rating.

Still, Martz tells him there is plenty to improve upon.

Earlier this season, one of Martz's former protégés, Kurt Warner, talked about being Martz's "whipping boy" when he first joined the Rams. Warner said Martz tends to coach all his quarterbacks by focusing his animus on one of them.

"There would be days where I'd go home and I would call my wife and I'd be sitting on the phone telling her that, 'Man, I (stink), I'm not any good' because that's all that I heard in the meetings," Warner recalled. "I never lacked confidence before, but I remember telling her, 'Man, I'm just not very good.' "

Hill had a similar role beginning in the spring when Martz demanded he not only learn an ambitious new offense but do so while breaking down and rebuilding his mechanics.

Martz is meticulous, believing that consistent form will produce consistent throws. He wants his quarterback's shoulders level. He wants his body balanced and his knees slightly bent. Hill's mechanics were not as good as those of his two competitors, Alex Smith and J.T. O'Sullivan, and he finished third in Martz's three-man quarterback competition.

In Warner's case, the berating stopped when he became the starter. So far, Hill hasn't been as lucky.

The quarterback isn't complaining.

"It is a very demanding position in the NFL and obviously in this offense," Hill said. "But I think we handle it well. You have to in order to survive in this league."

Still, Singletary said his job as head coach is to lift his players when he thinks they're down. Which is why he has offered his office as Hill's sanctuary.

"I know what (Martz) wants, and Mike can beat him up, which he needs every drop of," Singletary said. "But after that, somebody has to come along and say, 'Hey, you know what? It's going to be OK. How are you doing? You ready to go?' Things like that. So it works out pretty well."

Told that the dynamic makes it seem as if Singletary is the good cop to Martz's bad cop, the head coach smiled.

"I was thinking that," Singletary admitted, "but I don't want to say that."

Read Matthew Barrows' 49ers blog at www.sacbee.com/ninersblog.