Live Golf Lessons

A great writer once wrote, “If you keep making the same mistakes over and over again you will never change.  If you make different mistakes you are creating change.”  No truer words have been written when it comes to your golf game. The same mistake you make over and over again is not change but is the same mistake over and over again.  If you find yourself slicing the ball over and over again or find yourself in the same situation again and again on the golf course, then you are repeating history, playing on negative history.  Create something new, play the hole a different way, play from a different spot on the golf course, and create a new history.  Succumbing to the same old “same old” is what golfers feel comfortable doing.  I hear, “At least I know what is going to happen.”  Why is knowing what is going to happen so acceptable in golf?  Why do golfers accept that they are going to hit bad shots regularly?  Why do golfers wait for failure to rear its familiar head?  This is what I cannot understand!

Every golfer, deep down inside, wants to get better but I think golfers are afraid of getting better. Afraid of success, they expect bad shots and accept those shots as what is supposed to happen. Why is that supposed to happen?  Why can’t something good happen?  Because golfers wait for failure.   They are comfortable when things go bad and uncomfortable when things are going good.  I spoke with a golfer today who was less than excited about shooting even par for nine holes.  He mentioned that he had his best round ever the other day when he shot 94.  He then went out and shot 84 the next time he played.  But his comment was, “That is not me, I will not keep it up, I’ll be back to shooting 100 soon.”  I am thinking to myself through the whole conversation, “but that is you,” you are the one who shot the 84, you are the one who shot even par for nine holes, why not do it more often?  Why wait for failure?

I was told once, along time ago, by an old pro who is now in the golf hall of fame, that I had a “nice” game.  He then told me I had to learn how to score, how to be comfortable playing good golf.  I never really understood what he meant until I began to teach.  He meant that I had to get comfortable playing good golf and get over the emotions that come with playing out of my element.  I had to create a new comfort zone!  This is true for every level of golfer that plays the game.  Instead of wondering when the good fortune is going to end, one must learn to accept the change and embrace the new golfer.  Sure you’re not always going to play better, sure the bad shots will come, but don’t wait for them.  When you play better golf, whether for a hole, a round or two, tell yourself this is what I want, this is what I work for, this is my new game.

This, my friends, starts on the range.  Instead of hitting, slice after slice waiting for that one good shot, do something different.  Make a swing that is comfortable, make that comfortable swing again and again.  Find a balanced finish; create a different miss, a consistent miss.  Check your alignment, there are too many golfers that aim incorrectly and make a beautiful swing only to have the ball end up right of the target.  They then precede to breakdown a somewhat nice golf swing to find that fleeting “good shot.”  Golfers will hit shot after shot that is not acceptable to be satisfied for that one good shot.  I ask you to set up an alignment club, find a balance finish and create new misses.  These new misses are going to come from the performance mind trying to satisfy you by creating the result you desire.  If you aim correctly and find a balanced finish position you will create a new swing, but only after creating new misses.  Now these misses will be frustrating and ugly at first, but if you allow your performance mind to “declutter” all the bad habits that produced the “fleeting” good shots, your new misses will then be “fleeting,” creating a better swing.  The end result is a better golfer.  So change your golfing history on the course by playing a nemeses hole differently and by creating different misses on the range.  Create different mistakes to create a change.

Then play golf…

Golf Your Way.

JB