What makes a Proper Golfer? Why even ask?
I ask because it's common, when asking an acquaintance or colleague if they're golfers, to get the reply "well, I play golf, or try to, but I wouldn't call myself a proper golfer" or a variation of it ("I'm just a hacker"- Fred Greene, the enthusiastic host of the wonderful Golf Smarter podcast, often refers to himself as this, and in fact had one guest really put him on the spot about it). Why do we do it? I say we, because until recently I also found myself qualifying my own golf with similar disclaimers. What benefits do we get from speaking about something we enjoy (in my case it's even stronger than this, I've often found myself referring to golf as "my last great passion in life") in such downbeat terms?
It may have something to do with our fear of other's judgement. What if we tell others we golf, and then we find ourselves on the tee with a 4 handicap? We imagine that they will become infuriated by our mishits and slices and lost balls, rather than being encouraging and helpful. It seems normal for golfers to identify more with their failures than with their successes, and it's easy in golf to focus on our poor shots, 3 putts and other assorted disappointments.
Why do we fear the judgement of others? Putting myself in the position of a 4 handicapper, if I were asking a friend or colleague about golf, it'd be because I'd be interested in talking about a shared interest or even passion, and perhaps playing together. Would I not want to talk about golf with a friend who played off 26? Would I feel horrified if I realised I'd been close to teeing off with a colleague who (*gasp*) didn't even have a handicap?
Oh my goodness, how I pray that'd never be the case. Because I would have turned into something I couldn't look at in the mirror. In fact, if I believed there was any chance of that happening, I would stop trying to improve at golf.
I think our fear of other's judgement is protecting us from something we imagine to be a problem, but in reality it's not. Anyway, our handicap, or the range of scores we usually shoot, give a pretty accurate picture of how we are as golfers. The rest is just unhelpful (and sometimes harmful) noise. Because we don't only say what we say about ourselves, we also hear it. And how helpful is it going to be to hear us talk about ourselves in a negative fashion? I see it sometimes in my friends Tweets, or in their description of themselves in their Twitter biography (calling yourself "a really shit golfer" isn't a great idea, particularly not when you're nearing single figures in handicap terms. Not only is it unhelpful, it's frankly wholly inaccurate!). The ever-challenging and thought provoking Andy Morrison (@amgolfmindcoach) refers to this as the "smiling assassin". I refer to myself as an "improving golfer" in my bio. This isn't inaccurate, and it re-frames a potentially harmful self-view into a positive one that is achievable (& non delusional). I also try on here to first focus on the positives, listing a number of these before going on to one or at most two things I'm less keen on, but listing these as things to improve, and crucially suggesting a strategy that I'm going to follow to achieve this.
So why am I, a 26 handicapper who's trying to break 90, confident enough to say all of this? It's not because of all the golf psychology and mental game books that I've read- they were enough for me to know to express things positively, but that knowledge is a long way from the confidence to declare myself a "proper golfer". I even found myself wondering if I should post my scores on Twitter, whether my golfing friends on there would think less of me or even stop talking to me about golf if they found out what I scored. Of course, there's nothing in that apart from my paranoia. They weren't even put off by my disastrous 116 in the first round of the Murray Cup.
It was the kindness of comparative strangers that's given me the confidence to not only write all of the above, but to allow myself to acknowledge that I, the Golf Geek, am a Proper Golfer. First the wonderfully supportive John Graham (he of the helpful comments in my comments section, his thought-provoking blog on all things golf ("golf information you can really use") should be on your reading list), when suggesting that others should follow me on Twitter (on #FollowFriday), described me as "another real golfer", and more recently Michael Landgrebe of Confident Golf described me (again on #FollowFriday) as "a fellow journeyman on the path to mastery". After I got over my initial "they can't have seen my scores" nonsense, I realised they must see me as they said. Although both men are supportive and helpful, neither are the type to "blow smoke" or to say things they don't mean. If they hadn't thought that were true, they'd have found something else to say.
Why am I saying this? Well, my intention is not to brag that two influential golf coaches see this geek as a proper golfer. It's more to point out that if I, a fairly recent convert to the game, can be seen in this way perhaps just perhaps more than a few others could be encouraged to "come out" as proper golfers. Cast off the shackles of self oppression and see the possibilities.
So what is a proper golfer? For me, it's someone who loves the game, and is committed to the quest of doing whatever they can to improve within the limits set by life, and committed to learning all of the lessons taught along the way. If we're on that path, what does it matter how far along the road we get? The journey is what matters, much more than the eventual destination. Care to take a few steps along the road with me and see where we end up?
Join the Geek Clique!
Posts
All Comments
Sunday 25 July 2010
Monday 19 July 2010
Mastery
Since taking up golf, I've wanted to master it. I've wanted to be able to shape the ball, have it do what I want, play fades and draws where appropriate, and also playing knockdown shots (very handy on a links course). Until very recently, I'd have been too shy to mention this, even on here, as it would have seemed almost delusional.
Enter Instinctive Golf, Kendal McWade and Scott Dixon. Their clear explanations and demonstrations really made it feasible for me to resurrect this secret desire.
The counter intuitive nature of golf applies strongly to the physics of shot shaping. Kendal discussed how a curling free kick would be struck- foot swinging to the right for a draw, to the left for a fade, and the necessary club face adjustments. They also used a golf club with a mallet head, to show how best to position the club to deliver force in the desired direction (hands well ahead for a draw). Finally, we took a number of swings with a variety of arcs to the right, looking closely at where the club made contact with the ground. The more right you swing, the further back the ball has to go, with the reverse true for a fade. Either way, as you move away from the centre of your swing with the ball, the ball has to move slightly closer to you.
I found this quite easy to do as I instinctively picked up a little trick to help swinging in the desired direction. All I did, after picking my target and setting up, was to pick a secondary "swing" target 10-20 yards to the right or left depending on whether I wanted a draw or fade respectively and focused on releasing energy to this target. This is a simple wee trick that seems to work well (I've used it to get things back on track on the course when my shot shaping has been a bit less than I would like). Have a try- swing to the right with an ever so slightly stronger than usual grip with the ball back in your stance and your hands well forward for a nice draw. Guaranteed to impress your playing partners!
No medal round this week...
...I gave up my tee time to let Mrs Geek shop early in her favorite store's sale. This was hardly altruism, as it saves us a fortune on clothes for us all. Mrs Geek also works bloody hard with the kids while I'm at work, and she knows that I need at least one round of golf a week to be happy, meaning still more work for her. Then add in all the time I'm Tweeting or Blogging about golf, far less the time I'm thinking about it and even a fairly selfish husband could see that my addiction requires substantial investment from her. This was, then, the very least I could do.
The problem is that I ruined it slightly by moping about the place. My weekend medal round is something I really look forward to, and I miss it when it's not there. Laurence called at 11.45 to let me know there was a gap in his foursome at 12.30, but sadly Mrs Geek was out of mobile range. This intensified the moping, and really started to negate the benefit of the (slightly) thoughtful gesture.
Fortunately I came up with the solution. I'd made a friend playing on the Kings Links in Aberdeen, in my phone as Keith Golf. Keith has a few other sports, and his commitment to golf varies, but he can be really quite addicted. He's been playing quite a bit recently, and I've had quite a few texts asking if I were playing. I hadn't been able to join him, using my weekly golf pass for the medal, so I gave him a bell, and we nipped out for a few holes (planned to play 9, ended up playing 14!). I think this is how I'll cope with the "missed medal blues"- seek to turn disadvantage into an advantage.
I was keen to play well; we hadn't played for a while, and I feel my game's come on quite a bit. Obviously I know if I'm too keen to demonstrate this it's counter-productive. I'm pretty certain that the best way to score well is to forget about score and to focus on every shot in isolation, letting go as far as possible from thoughts of past or future. I set up to hit a comfortable draw on the first tee, and stuck a 250ish yard drive up the fairway with about a 10 yard draw on it. Keith's "wow!" from behind me as I held my finish was vindication.
We played matchplay, and I got to 4 up, when we decided to head for home. I was keen to get back, Keith wanted to play the last few holes. He plays very quickly, and I thought I'd just hit my ball on the way back like him, so lost the focus on every shot. Got to the tee of the last hole, and Keith mentioned I was back to one-up, so he had the opportunity to tie. Once I got over my surprise (I thought we'd finished and were just playing for fun, I'm still unsure of Keith's maths!), I realised this was a good thing. We've never been nastily competitive, but we both like to win. Keith tends to perform poorer under pressure, which is always helpful. Our final hole was a downhill short par four, 267 yards from the tee to the front of the green. I hit another 250 yard draw off the tee, leaving me 30 yards from the pin. I didn't catch my 54 degree wedge pitch cleanly (I should probably have chipped from the down slope, would do if in the same position again), so came up slightly short of the pin, with a 10 footer. Keith played 2 to the fringe, and we had a bit of banter- he felt he had to hole his putt from the fringe, as he was certain I'd get down in two. I joked that I could easily still 3-putt from where I was. That might seem a self-defeating strategy, and not something I'd always do, but I'd managed to "see" the path for the ball, and get a good feel for the pace, sinking the putt into the middle of the hole for the bragging rights.
Things were good at the start, when I was focused on every shot,and again on the final hole. I was trying to shape the ball, without having consolidated at the range, so I didn't play perfectly, and when I went 4-up (and in fairness thought we'd finished!) I lost a bit of focus, and concentrating on my shots took a backseat to catching up. My putting was a bit off, and I think I didn't have my shoulders near perpendicular to the club face (now, I'm not advocating trying to be perfect in an OCD-like fashion, but I wasn't close enough to perpendicular to a square club face). Really pleased with how I played the last to close out the match, always nice to have a birdie, particularly on a par 4 and particularly to close out the match. Pleased also that I managed to perform when I was really quite keen to do well, as this can often be a barrier to good performance.
The biggest benefit of the round? Keith once again has "got the bug" and is joining the Northern. This should mean that we'll be able to get a regular club time- there are always afternoon times available, I'm just not able to take advantage as I've been on my own. All good!
Wednesday 14 July 2010
Instinctive Golf
...those that read the blog with any regularity will be aware that I am an enthusiastic client of the Instinctive Golf team. I travel 131 miles to catch up with them, a commitment they thank me for each time we meet up. They have no need to thank me- they're quite simply that good.
What makes them so good? Quite frankly it's their focus. Instead of focusing on what positions you need to be in during the swing, looking on video comparing swing with a tour player, they focus on results. That's not to say they don't look at things like Posture Grip and Alignment, they do, as they encouraged me to explore a different finesse grip (I'd mimicked Mr Furyk's double overlap grip, Kendal encouraged me to look at a baseball grip using hockey player's split grip as an analogy). What they don't do is focus on these aspects heavily before allowing players on to the fun stuff. They spoke to us for about 20 minutes, showed us a few videos on putting then out for a series of skills challenges - all the while prowling around, quietly correcting anything that was going to unduly hinder us, asking us searching questions and encouraging us to question that which we'd considered a given. They'd also spoken to us about SAM putting labs data, about how Tiger was often 4-6 degrees open at set up, but bang on line at impact. Another key pro, a hard practicing 3 time major winner was always ideally square at setup, but all over the place at impact. This freed us up. I can't speak for the others, but I'd been starting to get a bit obsessive compulsive about my set up. Now I'm looking to get about right, and using things like their skills test and my putt-pucks rebound test to get feedback.
Short game teaching was similar- this time there were a few slow motion videos of impact with wedge, mid 7 long irons, fairway wood and driver and then a discussion on how to achieve this. Then on to the skills test, with Kendal and Scott prowling.
The long game session was revelatory. Kendal reminded us that golf balls do not have volition, and therefore have to do as we tell them. We spoke about the influence of the clubface, and of swing path and how Trackman has belied the myth that the "swingpath sends it and the clubface bends it", how the clubface angle at impact is responsible for about 80% of the ball flight (although the higher the loft the less influence this has) and then he had us swinging with a very shut clubface and swinging hard to the right, then slightly less closed, slightly less right etc. We also spoke about the need for altering the ball position for these changes.
The above is revelatory enough, but it's not even the main benefit from this. It's the start of the road to self coaching that is the real take home from this. After every shot: the questions : "is that what I wanted to happen?" if not "why did that happen?", "did I successfully reproduce my rehearsal swing?" if not "why not? what got in the way?" if yes "why didn't it work?" "what can I change to make it work next time?".
Experiential learning. And a focus on coaching golf, not just golf swing.
It's not an easy path - hence the post on conviction- as it swims against standard wisdom. Many pros are scornful of the Instinctive Golf method "oh, that's how you can swing way". But that attitude needs examination. If one did have a hideous, looping swing worse than Mr Furyk's but if if were repeatable, and you could hit a high draw and low fade and all shots in between, without putting undue stress on the body, how much would you wish to change that swing? I certainly wouldn't. The other thought is that most people, whilst trying to get the clubface coming through the impact area in a predictable repeating fashion will end up swinging the club in what could be considered a classical fashion. It's just that the focus was on getting the correct ball flight, rather than getting into the correct positions throughout the swing and assuming that will automatically produce the desired ball flight.
My parents took up skiing in their fifties, and were enthusiastic participants but found that traditional ski instruction wasn't the best for how they needed to learn; a friend's recommendation led them to Ally Ross, a septuagenarian who went through the physics with them, and explained his frustrations with traditional instruction, as he felt that effect was often being taught as cause. I wonder if that might be the case with traditional instruction; I obviously don't know enough about the physics of the swing to comment on this, but what I can say is that this seems to be the best way for me to learn this.
Hence the 131 mile drive!
What makes them so good? Quite frankly it's their focus. Instead of focusing on what positions you need to be in during the swing, looking on video comparing swing with a tour player, they focus on results. That's not to say they don't look at things like Posture Grip and Alignment, they do, as they encouraged me to explore a different finesse grip (I'd mimicked Mr Furyk's double overlap grip, Kendal encouraged me to look at a baseball grip using hockey player's split grip as an analogy). What they don't do is focus on these aspects heavily before allowing players on to the fun stuff. They spoke to us for about 20 minutes, showed us a few videos on putting then out for a series of skills challenges - all the while prowling around, quietly correcting anything that was going to unduly hinder us, asking us searching questions and encouraging us to question that which we'd considered a given. They'd also spoken to us about SAM putting labs data, about how Tiger was often 4-6 degrees open at set up, but bang on line at impact. Another key pro, a hard practicing 3 time major winner was always ideally square at setup, but all over the place at impact. This freed us up. I can't speak for the others, but I'd been starting to get a bit obsessive compulsive about my set up. Now I'm looking to get about right, and using things like their skills test and my putt-pucks rebound test to get feedback.
Short game teaching was similar- this time there were a few slow motion videos of impact with wedge, mid 7 long irons, fairway wood and driver and then a discussion on how to achieve this. Then on to the skills test, with Kendal and Scott prowling.
The long game session was revelatory. Kendal reminded us that golf balls do not have volition, and therefore have to do as we tell them. We spoke about the influence of the clubface, and of swing path and how Trackman has belied the myth that the "swingpath sends it and the clubface bends it", how the clubface angle at impact is responsible for about 80% of the ball flight (although the higher the loft the less influence this has) and then he had us swinging with a very shut clubface and swinging hard to the right, then slightly less closed, slightly less right etc. We also spoke about the need for altering the ball position for these changes.
The above is revelatory enough, but it's not even the main benefit from this. It's the start of the road to self coaching that is the real take home from this. After every shot: the questions : "is that what I wanted to happen?" if not "why did that happen?", "did I successfully reproduce my rehearsal swing?" if not "why not? what got in the way?" if yes "why didn't it work?" "what can I change to make it work next time?".
Experiential learning. And a focus on coaching golf, not just golf swing.
It's not an easy path - hence the post on conviction- as it swims against standard wisdom. Many pros are scornful of the Instinctive Golf method "oh, that's how you can swing way". But that attitude needs examination. If one did have a hideous, looping swing worse than Mr Furyk's but if if were repeatable, and you could hit a high draw and low fade and all shots in between, without putting undue stress on the body, how much would you wish to change that swing? I certainly wouldn't. The other thought is that most people, whilst trying to get the clubface coming through the impact area in a predictable repeating fashion will end up swinging the club in what could be considered a classical fashion. It's just that the focus was on getting the correct ball flight, rather than getting into the correct positions throughout the swing and assuming that will automatically produce the desired ball flight.
My parents took up skiing in their fifties, and were enthusiastic participants but found that traditional ski instruction wasn't the best for how they needed to learn; a friend's recommendation led them to Ally Ross, a septuagenarian who went through the physics with them, and explained his frustrations with traditional instruction, as he felt that effect was often being taught as cause. I wonder if that might be the case with traditional instruction; I obviously don't know enough about the physics of the swing to comment on this, but what I can say is that this seems to be the best way for me to learn this.
Hence the 131 mile drive!
The Wisdom of Mrs Geek
(an occasional series- given that she doesn't golf, this'll be a very occasional series ;-)
"Golf shouldn't be about winning. It should be about continual improvement"
She added, as I gazed at her open-mouthed, "that's what I've picked up from you". I'm absolutely gobsmacked- not at her wisdom, she's always had that- but that she'd listened that much!
"Golf shouldn't be about winning. It should be about continual improvement"
She added, as I gazed at her open-mouthed, "that's what I've picked up from you". I'm absolutely gobsmacked- not at her wisdom, she's always had that- but that she'd listened that much!
95 last Saturday...
...and I'm pleased. Not so much with the score, but in how it was achieved. I did my best to focus on every single shot individually, and whilst by no means perfect it was a lot better than previously. I didn't keep a record of how many shots, but feel it was somewhere between 2/3 to 3/4 of shots- a target to beat. Circumstances kind of compelled me to focus on my results or at least my score for a little while, as when I went to record my stats on my phone after the second hole I realised I couldn't find my phone, and that I must have left an iPhone in my car. I wasn't sure if I'd left it on view or if I'd tucked it away, and was worried that it might lead to my car being broken into. This forced me to evaluate my score, to see if it was worth continuing given the risk of a broken car window & a stolen phone. Although I decided that it was worth continuing (rightly, as my phone was safely out of sight) it meant that I'd had to evaluate my round and score early, moving me from a process to a score (or outcome) focus, meaning that it was difficult to put that evaluation out of my mind and concentrate solely on a shot focus.
And I mishit a few shots, perhaps slightly more than usual, and had an OK day with the putter, with a number of up & downs but also one 4 putt. There's certainly room for improvement there, but I did get up & down 4 times for par, and once for bogey, which I'm delighted with. I had been having some difficulty with my putting routine, as I'd been lining up my putts with my left hand only on the club, then adding my right, but I found that I was altering my aim when adding the right hand. Watching the Scottish Open over the weekend, I noticed a number of players lining up putts with only their right hand before adding the left. I've been trying this, and it seems to be helping quite a bit. I'm also trying to sneak onto a putting green for 20 minutes to half an hour 3 mornings a week before work, and also managing a bit of short game practice. I'm really pleased with how my putting and short game feel have improved in a short space of time, and this is the way to lower scores.
I've been at an Instinctive Golf long game day, have been shown the basics of shaping the ball. I'm going to talk more about this in the next few days, but I was shaping the ball really quickly, and loving the freedom. This persisted until about the 7th hole last week , and then became a bit sporadic. The interesting thing is I was then able to revert to my usual swing (expecting the ball to land within a "V" from my starting position) and got pretty good results.
In short, although the score is reasonably good (one of my better scores from the medal tees) the score itself isn't what I'm happy about. In fact, I'm slightly disappointed with the score, but absolutely delighted with how my process is progressing, and it's pretty easy for me to see me playing 7-9 shots better in the near future by improving my adherence to the process, and by putting a little bit better (hopefully taken care of with my refinement of my putting routine). I'm going to improve my process, and I'm certain if I do that I'll improve my scoring.
And I mishit a few shots, perhaps slightly more than usual, and had an OK day with the putter, with a number of up & downs but also one 4 putt. There's certainly room for improvement there, but I did get up & down 4 times for par, and once for bogey, which I'm delighted with. I had been having some difficulty with my putting routine, as I'd been lining up my putts with my left hand only on the club, then adding my right, but I found that I was altering my aim when adding the right hand. Watching the Scottish Open over the weekend, I noticed a number of players lining up putts with only their right hand before adding the left. I've been trying this, and it seems to be helping quite a bit. I'm also trying to sneak onto a putting green for 20 minutes to half an hour 3 mornings a week before work, and also managing a bit of short game practice. I'm really pleased with how my putting and short game feel have improved in a short space of time, and this is the way to lower scores.
I've been at an Instinctive Golf long game day, have been shown the basics of shaping the ball. I'm going to talk more about this in the next few days, but I was shaping the ball really quickly, and loving the freedom. This persisted until about the 7th hole last week , and then became a bit sporadic. The interesting thing is I was then able to revert to my usual swing (expecting the ball to land within a "V" from my starting position) and got pretty good results.
In short, although the score is reasonably good (one of my better scores from the medal tees) the score itself isn't what I'm happy about. In fact, I'm slightly disappointed with the score, but absolutely delighted with how my process is progressing, and it's pretty easy for me to see me playing 7-9 shots better in the near future by improving my adherence to the process, and by putting a little bit better (hopefully taken care of with my refinement of my putting routine). I'm going to improve my process, and I'm certain if I do that I'll improve my scoring.
Thursday 8 July 2010
Lessons from the links - 1. Conviction
Not the type that follows a "guilty" verdict, but instead the virtue. Having the courage of one's convictions is indeed laudable, but perhaps not something a casual observer would identify as a core requirement for a golfer who intends to improve.
Nothing could be further from the truth, as I'm starting to discover. It manifests in so many ways, and even if you're a confident, determined and positive person, you have to be on guard at all times as the fear and negativity of others can be both pervasive and persuasive.
I recently completed a round with a new playing partner, there had been a space on the board, and we both took advantage. I admire this player- he plays off 13, despite being of senior age, and despite a swing that could be charitably described as idiosyncratic, and a resultant ball flight that, remaining in charitable vein, was a bit of a slice. He golfed his ball in excellent fashion around the course, and had at least 7 up & downs throughout the round. I learned a lot, not least that whatever I think about my swing, it's not what is currently limiting my scoring. Short game, putting and strategy (I've been working on my putting, so this is the correct order of descending importance at time of writing), and forgetting about trying to think technically on the course. I've also realised that, while a good looking golf swing would be nice, an effective, repeating and above all predictable swing would be nicer.
The last few sentences are all very well, but what do they have to do with conviction? Not a lot, in themselves. But this player, who sets up with all clubs like he's about to play a forward defensive stroke to an in-swinging yorker and before starting his swing rotates his left hand through 70 degrees to a much "stronger" position, saw fit to critique my swing all of the way around the course. I must admit it amused rather than irked me, as although I started a bit disappointingly I settled into my rhythm and felt happy with my swing. It's a funny situation after all- one might think that a player with such an individual style might have enough experience of unsolicited swing critique by "Expertise-less Experts"- but no. And he's by no means the only one, the most voluble or the highest handicapper doing this. Marc Solomon, the uncompromising New Jersey pro behind Golf Made Simple, frequently disparages this, and divides golfers into "players" & "monkeys" ( the former reserved those who have a plan, the others following latest fad or magazine craze like the "Tilt into the Xfactor Stack Square to Toe up") An amusingly vitriolic rant of his can be found here , with many more here. It takes a strong person to withstand this constant barrage of well intentioned mostly unhelpful advice, and even if we were to stumble across that which we need to improve consistency, we wouldn't have the requisite faith or conviction and we would be likely to discard it when we're offered still more advice at the first signs of struggling.
It's also difficult to maintain the requisite conviction in one's long-term plan. Golf clubs are full of those who have been at the same level for years, and they don't want to acknowledge that improvement is possible, as this then reflects poorly on them for not having managed to do it themselves. This is their own judgement; I'm well aware that my interest in golf borders on obsession, and others may not be so driven, or have so many commitments that their weekly round and beer afterward is all the time they can spare. The idea of players they can beat comfortably beating them interferes with their sense of self, and they react with negativity to try to dissuade you from your lofty ambitions.
Conviction is also necessary in practice and preparation. I've read a lot about golf, and particularly on how to practice (the answer to this is to practice deep and deliberate practice- see The Game Before the Game and Neil Plimmer's Open Mind Golf blog and in particular his ideas on driving range practice for long game), but it's very difficult to do this when everyone around you is doing very different things, and when you're unconvinced, it affects your motivation & you're therefore much less likelyto practice. This happened to me when I first started stretching, I wasn't convinced it was helping until I saw Karen Young. As soon as I had faith, I regained my motivation.
Conviction is therefore necessary, and can be difficult to come by and easy to misplace. I'm countering this by making sure my coaches and mentors are people I hold in high regard who are happy to be consulted, and by resolving never to follow blindly unsolicited advice. In fact, I'm going to pretend Mrs Geek is talking about wall coverings & soft furnishings, which ought to ensure absolutely none of this information will make it into my brain.
I'm hopefully playing again on Saturday, so normal service should be resumed! Let me know if you enjoyed this, and whether more like this to supplemnent my round reports would interest you.
Nothing could be further from the truth, as I'm starting to discover. It manifests in so many ways, and even if you're a confident, determined and positive person, you have to be on guard at all times as the fear and negativity of others can be both pervasive and persuasive.
I recently completed a round with a new playing partner, there had been a space on the board, and we both took advantage. I admire this player- he plays off 13, despite being of senior age, and despite a swing that could be charitably described as idiosyncratic, and a resultant ball flight that, remaining in charitable vein, was a bit of a slice. He golfed his ball in excellent fashion around the course, and had at least 7 up & downs throughout the round. I learned a lot, not least that whatever I think about my swing, it's not what is currently limiting my scoring. Short game, putting and strategy (I've been working on my putting, so this is the correct order of descending importance at time of writing), and forgetting about trying to think technically on the course. I've also realised that, while a good looking golf swing would be nice, an effective, repeating and above all predictable swing would be nicer.
The last few sentences are all very well, but what do they have to do with conviction? Not a lot, in themselves. But this player, who sets up with all clubs like he's about to play a forward defensive stroke to an in-swinging yorker and before starting his swing rotates his left hand through 70 degrees to a much "stronger" position, saw fit to critique my swing all of the way around the course. I must admit it amused rather than irked me, as although I started a bit disappointingly I settled into my rhythm and felt happy with my swing. It's a funny situation after all- one might think that a player with such an individual style might have enough experience of unsolicited swing critique by "Expertise-less Experts"- but no. And he's by no means the only one, the most voluble or the highest handicapper doing this. Marc Solomon, the uncompromising New Jersey pro behind Golf Made Simple, frequently disparages this, and divides golfers into "players" & "monkeys" ( the former reserved those who have a plan, the others following latest fad or magazine craze like the "Tilt into the Xfactor Stack Square to Toe up") An amusingly vitriolic rant of his can be found here , with many more here. It takes a strong person to withstand this constant barrage of well intentioned mostly unhelpful advice, and even if we were to stumble across that which we need to improve consistency, we wouldn't have the requisite faith or conviction and we would be likely to discard it when we're offered still more advice at the first signs of struggling.
It's also difficult to maintain the requisite conviction in one's long-term plan. Golf clubs are full of those who have been at the same level for years, and they don't want to acknowledge that improvement is possible, as this then reflects poorly on them for not having managed to do it themselves. This is their own judgement; I'm well aware that my interest in golf borders on obsession, and others may not be so driven, or have so many commitments that their weekly round and beer afterward is all the time they can spare. The idea of players they can beat comfortably beating them interferes with their sense of self, and they react with negativity to try to dissuade you from your lofty ambitions.
Conviction is also necessary in practice and preparation. I've read a lot about golf, and particularly on how to practice (the answer to this is to practice deep and deliberate practice- see The Game Before the Game and Neil Plimmer's Open Mind Golf blog and in particular his ideas on driving range practice for long game), but it's very difficult to do this when everyone around you is doing very different things, and when you're unconvinced, it affects your motivation & you're therefore much less likelyto practice. This happened to me when I first started stretching, I wasn't convinced it was helping until I saw Karen Young. As soon as I had faith, I regained my motivation.
Conviction is therefore necessary, and can be difficult to come by and easy to misplace. I'm countering this by making sure my coaches and mentors are people I hold in high regard who are happy to be consulted, and by resolving never to follow blindly unsolicited advice. In fact, I'm going to pretend Mrs Geek is talking about wall coverings & soft furnishings, which ought to ensure absolutely none of this information will make it into my brain.
I'm hopefully playing again on Saturday, so normal service should be resumed! Let me know if you enjoyed this, and whether more like this to supplemnent my round reports would interest you.
Friday 2 July 2010
Two medal rounds in the last week
...and two scores up at the top end of my range, vexingly. It's hard- I know I'm a better player than I was even when I first started playing medals- my putting's a lot better, and I'm more flexible thanks to my ongoing stretching program. But still consistently good scoring eludes me.
(My two last rounds can be seen in detail here and here)
My handicap has gone back up by 0.1. I'm starting to get a little frustrated as I'm playing some really good shots, but there are more than a few high scores on the card.
There's multiple reasons for this. (in golf, isn't there always?) Firstly, because I know I've improved my expectations have risen, something that just about every coach of the mental game thinks is a bad thing. I've once again become focused on the outcome of a shot, rather than letting myself get absorbed in the process, a feeling that I've experienced a few times with the Instinctive Golf team, and by trying to perform deep, deliberate practice (I've got better at this, but still don't practice as often as I'd like, but work & family life have to come ahead of what is, one must remember, a game). I've been concentrating on my putting, and my putts per round have come down, but my short game shots too often are unsuccessful, necessitating either multiple shots, or making it difficult to 2-putt, let alone 1-putt. Every so often I shank an approach or short-game shot, which throws me off quite a bit (I seem to hit a lot of shots near the hosel, meaning that the club moves away from me on the downswing. Kendal McWade pointed this out on Wednesday, at an Instinctive Golf evening at Dalmahoy, which I shall post more about in the next few days). Despite trying to wade through Dave Pelz' Damage Control, I still find myself trying too hard for too much following a poor shot, often to the detriment of my score. I need to be more realistic, and more amenable to taking a penalty drop for an unplayable ball more often, as I often play from frying pan into the fire.
Too often, I'm either afraid or hopeful over the ball, neither of which are conducive to good golf. I really need to make my rehearsal swings less ceremonial swishing of club through grass, and more of a realistic rehearsal of the coming shot, that I try to recreate on the actual swing. I also seem to get out of tempo if I'm too concerned with the outcome- a playing partner identified that I was "lifting my head". I think that this is more often an effect of a poor swing, rather than a cause of the poor shot, but I feel sometimes I'm too fast with my upper body, leading to my head coming up early, but my Instinctive Golf experience tells me this is just a "story" I've told myself. This may be true or it may not, but thankfully the resultant action, that of swinging more deliberately and at a slower pace, brings better results in general.
On my last round, I tried to keep a score of how many shots I was committed and focused on the process. The problem with that was the lack of clear definition- was I examining commitment or process focus? With that lack of clarity, as always, it led to a muddying of the results. Both lack of commitment and outcome focus are issues, but the larger issue by far is the outcome focus, and part of me wonders if my commitment issues come from an over attachment to results. In any case, the course of action is clear- over my next few rounds I'm going to aim to be focused on the process for every shot, losing myself in that little fugue that comes when one is focused on process, looking for that feeling of "coming to" whilst holding the follow through position and realising the ball is travelling (hopefully) some distance in front of you. I'm not going to get down on myself if I don't manage it on any given shot, but when I record my score I'll record also how many shots I was focused on the process, and trust that this non-judgemental awareness shall lead to me being focused on the process the majority of the time and then all of the time.
I feel good about this, even if progress is not quite as I'd hoped thus far. When I met Mrs Geek, and we started dating I had a quiet certainty that we would be together, even when she had other suitors, and this quiet certainty managed to quash my usual faintly neurotic meanderings. I have the same quiet certainty that my game will improve.
One thing from my last round (26th of June) that I just have to share. On the 7th, a long par 5 from the medal tees (I've got near the green in two once in the past whilst downwind from the yellow tees, but the whites are 80 yards back) I hit a good 250 yard drive into a cross wind. With over 200 yards to go, I decided to go with an 8 iron, to the derision of my playing partners. I then hit a three-quarter 9-iron through the back of the green (next time I'll play 9-iron, 9-iron). I was standing over my chip for some time whilst playing partners holed out, and I clearly visualised the path of the chip. It was on a slight down slope so I was careful to set my spinal angle to 90degrees to the slope before playing my favorite chip- the putt with my 24degree hybrid, straight into the hole. I'm slightly embarrassed to have to fess up to a wee fist pump and a loud "YES!" before calming down. I'm going to do this more often. The striking thing is that for every shot on that hole I was calmly absorbed in the process. Perhaps this is an indication of the shots I can play when I do this.
(My two last rounds can be seen in detail here and here)
My handicap has gone back up by 0.1. I'm starting to get a little frustrated as I'm playing some really good shots, but there are more than a few high scores on the card.
There's multiple reasons for this. (in golf, isn't there always?) Firstly, because I know I've improved my expectations have risen, something that just about every coach of the mental game thinks is a bad thing. I've once again become focused on the outcome of a shot, rather than letting myself get absorbed in the process, a feeling that I've experienced a few times with the Instinctive Golf team, and by trying to perform deep, deliberate practice (I've got better at this, but still don't practice as often as I'd like, but work & family life have to come ahead of what is, one must remember, a game). I've been concentrating on my putting, and my putts per round have come down, but my short game shots too often are unsuccessful, necessitating either multiple shots, or making it difficult to 2-putt, let alone 1-putt. Every so often I shank an approach or short-game shot, which throws me off quite a bit (I seem to hit a lot of shots near the hosel, meaning that the club moves away from me on the downswing. Kendal McWade pointed this out on Wednesday, at an Instinctive Golf evening at Dalmahoy, which I shall post more about in the next few days). Despite trying to wade through Dave Pelz' Damage Control, I still find myself trying too hard for too much following a poor shot, often to the detriment of my score. I need to be more realistic, and more amenable to taking a penalty drop for an unplayable ball more often, as I often play from frying pan into the fire.
Too often, I'm either afraid or hopeful over the ball, neither of which are conducive to good golf. I really need to make my rehearsal swings less ceremonial swishing of club through grass, and more of a realistic rehearsal of the coming shot, that I try to recreate on the actual swing. I also seem to get out of tempo if I'm too concerned with the outcome- a playing partner identified that I was "lifting my head". I think that this is more often an effect of a poor swing, rather than a cause of the poor shot, but I feel sometimes I'm too fast with my upper body, leading to my head coming up early, but my Instinctive Golf experience tells me this is just a "story" I've told myself. This may be true or it may not, but thankfully the resultant action, that of swinging more deliberately and at a slower pace, brings better results in general.
On my last round, I tried to keep a score of how many shots I was committed and focused on the process. The problem with that was the lack of clear definition- was I examining commitment or process focus? With that lack of clarity, as always, it led to a muddying of the results. Both lack of commitment and outcome focus are issues, but the larger issue by far is the outcome focus, and part of me wonders if my commitment issues come from an over attachment to results. In any case, the course of action is clear- over my next few rounds I'm going to aim to be focused on the process for every shot, losing myself in that little fugue that comes when one is focused on process, looking for that feeling of "coming to" whilst holding the follow through position and realising the ball is travelling (hopefully) some distance in front of you. I'm not going to get down on myself if I don't manage it on any given shot, but when I record my score I'll record also how many shots I was focused on the process, and trust that this non-judgemental awareness shall lead to me being focused on the process the majority of the time and then all of the time.
I feel good about this, even if progress is not quite as I'd hoped thus far. When I met Mrs Geek, and we started dating I had a quiet certainty that we would be together, even when she had other suitors, and this quiet certainty managed to quash my usual faintly neurotic meanderings. I have the same quiet certainty that my game will improve.
One thing from my last round (26th of June) that I just have to share. On the 7th, a long par 5 from the medal tees (I've got near the green in two once in the past whilst downwind from the yellow tees, but the whites are 80 yards back) I hit a good 250 yard drive into a cross wind. With over 200 yards to go, I decided to go with an 8 iron, to the derision of my playing partners. I then hit a three-quarter 9-iron through the back of the green (next time I'll play 9-iron, 9-iron). I was standing over my chip for some time whilst playing partners holed out, and I clearly visualised the path of the chip. It was on a slight down slope so I was careful to set my spinal angle to 90degrees to the slope before playing my favorite chip- the putt with my 24degree hybrid, straight into the hole. I'm slightly embarrassed to have to fess up to a wee fist pump and a loud "YES!" before calming down. I'm going to do this more often. The striking thing is that for every shot on that hole I was calmly absorbed in the process. Perhaps this is an indication of the shots I can play when I do this.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)