Breaking good

“Ok, that works well, now change it.”  This seems to be a running theme with trying to master something.  Good never cuts it and at times can actually get in the way of becoming great.

There have been countless times over the past 14 months where I was doing something with my swing or putts that “worked well” but was in no means great.  “Well” or “good” is the siren song for mediocrity, though, and in order to get to that next level you have to be willing to break down good for great.  This is a lot easier to say than do, though, because when you are out there and know that you can get a ball up and down with a specific swing it’s very tempting to use what you know instead of warping that for something that, in theory, will eventually be a better plan of attack but is not currently battle proven.

Another frustration comes from dumping an aspect of your swing that you have put hundreds of hours into developing.  If you work and work on one specific area and for some reason it plateaus, you have to be malleable and willing to cut your losses and try something new.  I see this constantly and am nearly always tempted in saying that what I’ve been practicing works “good enough” but then suck it up and realistically tell myself that I am not a Tour Pro yet and need to adjust accordingly.

This is harder with someone who doesn’t have the amount of practice time that I do.  When learning a new swing thought, I can typically ingrain it in a week or two, after about 40-60 hours of practice.  For someone who has been golfing for 20 plus years and only on the weekends, this change can potentially take months to incur and it can be hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  If you are serious about improving, though, have that game analyzed and stick to your teachers suggestions, it will pay off in the long run even if you have a season of horrible rounds..

For me, it almost always means that I embarrass myself during practice, something that comes hand in hand with deliberate practice, because I’m not hitting shots I know I can make but rather trying out what could potentially be a better method.  If you look good on the range, you are probably not learning anything new.  It’s a constant learning process and the best way to learn is to keep an open mind and allow yourself to fail here and there.

Speaking of that, it’s time for me to hit the range and make the adjustments Chris wanted me to do during our lesson yesterday.  I’ll try to listen to my own advice, as hard as that might be during a week when my game is actually going well