Improving Our Golf Games…’Becoming Our Own Coach!’
It is not hard to find information pertaining to game improvement. Hundreds of books, magazines, DVDs, websites, cable TV, teachers, coaches, friends, fellow golfers…help abounds! Nothing wrong with all of this - it’s part of the fun that goes along with game. It’s a pursuit thing. But if we really want to improve and don’t seem to be on a good track this effort can become tired and we can plateau-out, having to settle for where we are even though we might not be so content with how we play. Please consider the following:
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Playing the game and our attempts toward improving at the game is a very personal process. While it’s a good idea to have a coach or at least trusted sources of info, ultimately, what we do, we do on our own. So it’s kind of like we become our own coach in a manner of speaking.
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Experience with the game grows through the process of golfers helping golfers. One buddy to another, family member to family member, player to player, teacher to student, teacher to teacher and so on. Its how the information flows.
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One of the biggest problems we face in terms of this information, is knowing how it all fits together. Knowing, with certainty, what to be giving effort to and how to best go about it. Consequently, there is a lot of trial and error going on and this is OK. It’s part of the process. But if everything that we are trying is not relevant to our personal need we might hit the brick wall.
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Here are four facts about how we play and score. And how we improve both:
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Fact #1- When we play, we have to take what we have and make it work as well as we can. We take our existing skills and abilities out on the course and do as good as we can with them.
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Fact #2- We are going to play up or down to our existing comfort zone. How many times have we had a great round going only to have it slip away before the round was completed. If we’re going to improve, we have to expand our comfort zones.
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Fact #3- To raise our comfort zones (truly improve at the game) we have to be working on the right things, at the right time in the right way relative to where we are! Doing this means we recognize that there is a better way to practice, much of it can be done at home!
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Fact #4- While how well we strike a golf ball is important…improving the way we score is most effectively done by focusing on our short game scoring capabilities.
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On a scale from ‘Beginner-to-Tournament Player’ there is a path to improvement. Certain things need to be developed or mastered as we move along the path. Skipping over an essential element on the path is equivalent to taking a wrong turn on a trip; we end up in the wrong place.