Find the Golfer Inside
One day, golfing with
my Grandfather, I grabbed a club walked to my ball and prepared to hit a safe
lay-up shot short of the water protecting a huge green. My Graps asked what I
was doing and why. He knew I could easily reach the hole with a 6 or even a 7 iron
and wondered aloud about my reasoning for taking a safe, albeit, boring shot
with the shorter club. I told him I just didn’t feel confident with my longer
iron and was afraid to hit into the water.
He asked, “Dave, if
you weren’t afraid and did feel confident, what club what you use?” My response
was of course I would hit the 7 iron. He told me to grab the 7 iron, act like I
had confidence and was without fear and put the ball on the green. That was
maybe the first time I found the golfer inside.
For the rest of my
life when I was faced with Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt I would strive to find the fearless, confident or certain
person inside. Did it always work, did I always find that person? No, of course
not. But it did and does work most of the time. When I have chosen to find and
draw out the person inside, I have never, ever, lost anything more valuable
than a golf ball. I have always found much more value than I had risked.
How did my
grandfather know that the golfer inside me could make that shot that day to
that green? He knew because I had spent hours on the practice tee executing
shots just like that. He knew because he had spent hours teaching me what a
good swing would feel and look like. He knew because he had spent years
teaching me to act bravely and do what needed to be done. He knew what I did
not yet know, that a golfer inside me could and would make that shot.
Choosing to act
without mental recognition of failure or defeat is what he taught me. Preparing
for whatever hazards that lie in wait, so they end up as just pretty ponds, is
what he taught me.
To find the golfer inside, you must put a golfer inside.
I love to listen to
the dialogue between a world class golfer and her caddie. Often the last words
from the caddie are, “Alright, you’ve got this!” I imagine the final words or
thoughts of the brain surgeon, just before raising the scalpel, are, “I’ve got
this!” I am certain that every remarkable achievement has followed the
unshakeable belief that ‘I’ve got this’. They have all earned the right to say
and believe without doubt, “I have got this!”
This is not to say
that somehow every ordinary human being can miraculously rise to the occasion
at hand without adequate preparation. As Dirty Harry said, “A man’s gotta know
his limits.”
This is about
becoming the golfer you want to be. Is that golfer you want to be; a club
champion, a bogie golfer, the best short game player in the group or the
week-end duffer that has the best time? Defining the golfer, you want to put
inside is the first step.
Take a few minutes to
describe, on paper, the golfer you
want to be. The more detail the better. How will others describe you? What will
your golfer epitaph be? Ok, so it will probably take more than a few minutes,
and will most likely be a work in progress. Describe the swing, the attitude,
the style, the skill level of that golfer inside you. Jot down a few role
models. Are you an Arnie or a Phil? Maybe your inner golfer is Bryson Dechambeu
or Moe Norman. I like to see my inner golfer being as cool as Freddie Couples
and as tough as Tiger Woods. Hey, it’s my imagination and my inner golfer. I
get to pick!
Building the golfer inside.
Now that you have a
mental and physical description of that golfer inside you, your inner golf
self, it’s time to build him and begin using him.
Step One: Learn
all you can learn. Imagine all you
can imagine. Figure out how to do
it. You need to learn because learning means understanding what somebody else
already imagined. No one taught Pythagoras the Pythagorean Theory. Did someone
teach Einstein that E=MC2 ? Before they could imagine those keys to
everything someone must have taught them something.
Do you know what
causes a ball to slice? Someone does. Bernoulli perhaps, or a good golf
instructor. When you know what causes a ball to slice, then maybe you can
imagine a swing that will cause a ball to draw. You have imagined a swing that
draws the ball, now how do you execute that swing?
Use everything you
have learned, every bit of your imagination to clearly visualize the sequence
of events that will create a motion that executes a swing that will draw the
ball. Now go out and try to swing the club like you imagined the swing to look.
This is learning, not practice. Learn until you know exactly what you must do
to draw the ball. Use video, an observer or an instructor to help you learn to
execute a swing that draws the ball.
It might take a few
minutes or several months to learn the swing that gets the specific result you
are looking for. Learning means failure. Do you know how many different
attempts it took for Edison to finally get a light bulb to light?
Things a great golfer
learns: How to hit high, low, short, far, straight, curving, stopping, rolling,
long swing, short swing, hit the sweet spot, hit on the toe, hit on the heel,
hit on the back of the club, hit it thin, hit it fat, tee it high, tee it low,
know when to hold ‘em know when to fold ‘em.
Step Two: Practice what you know you should do. Practice until
you can do what you know you
should do. Practice until your inner golfer is as good as the inner golfer you
intended to create. Practice with a singular purpose, to learn to execute the motion
of the swing. You don’t learn to draw the ball, you learn to execute a motion
that draws the ball.
I often hear from my
students that the swing doesn’t work because the ball didn’t do what they
wanted. The ball can only react to the motion of the swing, can never react to
your intentions. If the ball didn’t do what you wanted, it is most likely not
the design of the swing but the execution of the design.
Practice never ends.
You change over time, your body changes, your mind changes, you get older! Practice
helps you maintain your expectations and abilities, even increase them, as time
goes inexorably by. As my Graps said, “You are either green and growing or ripe
and rotting.”
Practice builds
skills and until it is a skill you are still learning.
Step Three: Test yourself in a real-world scenario. When you
believe you have practiced enough to have developed the skills needed to
execute the swing motion regularly and consistently it is time to test it. Kind
of like a dress rehearsal for a play. Now is the time to judge everything based
on what the ball does.
If you have been
learning and practicing a high flop, the ball better do a high flop. This is a
real world, on the golf course as it lies, golf shot. Hopefully you have a
friendly course where you can go try some shots from various locations to see
if you can execute the shot at a moment’s notice. During a friendly round put
the new shot into play. Put a wager on the shot to create a little pressure. If
your goal is to win the club championship, you better practice this new motion countless
times.
When asked how much
training and practice a runner needed to run in a marathon, the coach said
about 2000 miles worth, “But not all on the weekend before the race!”
This doesn’t mean you don’t run in any races, just don’t run in the big one. As a golfer try out your new swing in skins games or league play, understanding that it is just a rehearsal swing. . .its not the main event.
This doesn’t mean you don’t run in any races, just don’t run in the big one. As a golfer try out your new swing in skins games or league play, understanding that it is just a rehearsal swing. . .its not the main event.
The day of reckoning! Today is the reason you did all the
work. Today is opening day on Broadway, the biggest skins game of the year, the
Club Championship, the day that is the first day you start using your inner
golfer.
Step One: Review what
you know. Think about it!
Step Two: Practice
with a purpose.
Step Three: Rehearse.
Step four: Act with
confidence.
Breathe in Breathe
out go to the next shot.
