Questions, always questions.

(From Sisters, OR)

There’s so much to talk about that I’m having trouble figuring out what to talk about.

I’ve recently fallen into the cycle of “go, go, go” and have been pushing myself more and more every week to the point where I’ve perhaps spent too much time actually practicing and not enough time reflecting on what I’ve learned and what I need to learn in the near future. In other words, I’ve been beating my head against a wall repeatedly for the past few weeks and have seen little results outside of a general sense of dizziness and confusion as to why I have not improved where I wanted to improve.

On the advice of my “doctor” (AKA friend I see out on the course who is a retired surgeon) I’ve left town for a couple of days to spend some time away from practice, away from golf and away from go, go, go. The irony: the friend’s cabin that I am staying at has a golf course in the back yard.. (might have to come back one day for the exact opposite type of getaway, one where I can do absolutely nothing but practice for a week or so)

Now I have some time to think and that’s not always a good thing

On a long walk in the woods this morning I couldn’t help but wonder if how I am going about learning the motor-skills needed for perfect mechanics is the best way to learn. I’m not convinced whatsoever that I am an expert on learning and seeing as I’m out there practicing hours a day alone, it spawns the question of whether I am wasting time. And, by wasting time I don’t mean to say that I’m beating balls pointlessly or focussing on aspects that don’t need improvement, but rather that I am not completely maximizing my resources and practicing efficiently.

To me, from what I have seen thus far, the level of expertise someone acquires in a specific field is based on how well they are able to absorb and retain the necessary knowledge of that field. Basically, it’s a matter of efficiency. If I hit 10,000,000 golf balls with the same club and without thinking about what I was doing, there is a chance that I would get very good at hitting balls with that club, but there is also a chance that the last ball I hit would have the exact flight as the first ball. If I was to take a break in-between every ball and ask myself why it flew as it does and what I could do to improve that flight, then it would make sense that after just 1,000 balls I could drastically change my abilities. This seems to be relevant across the board, if you’re not thinking about what you’re doing, you probably won’t change.

I’m thinking about the how and why of my practice. Wondering if it’s best to stick with the coaching/student relationship I currently have or if it makes sense to meet with a coach more or less often. WIth my current financial situation, I can’t realistically afford to meet with a coach more often, so there are some limitations with what I am able to do even if I did decide that I needed more coaching. But, there are fewer limitations with what I can do during my practices. What I need to do is to pinpoint specific aspects of my game that need improvement and then devise strategies for improving those (maximizing efficiency). I need to implement more structure so that I am less able to get in my own way from day to day (avoiding the unnecessary frustrations that can lead to mentally shutting down for the day). I’ve been working on this from day one and have gotten much better at it over the past year, but there is always room for improvement.

There are just under 8,000 hours of deliberate practice remaining in the stated 10,000 hours. I’m extremely excited about tackling these hours and am glad that there is still a majority of the time remaining because I do not feel like a professional caliber golfer quite yet. I don’t, however, want to look back and wonder if there was a way I could have done this better. I log off hours every day and when doing that I wonder if I spent those hours as best as I could have or if it’s just becoming a routine. At all costs I will avoid the routine, avoid the mindless practice and avoid burning out.

I question most everything in life. It’s healthy to keep yourself in check with self-reflection. It’s also healthy to step away and gain some perspective. Sometimes the right piece is staring you in the face, but you’re too close to see it clearly. RIght now, I think most everything on the table is correct, I just need to step back and see how it’s going to fit together.

Over and out for now. Time to climb one of the Sisters (mountains in central Oregon).

16 Responses to "Questions, always questions."

Dan Fan says:

October 3, 2011 at 1:15 pm

i am a feel golfer and I prefer to feel my own swing in golf so I tend not to rely on coaching as much. also you will see that there is more than one way to swing a club, more than one way to putt and more than one way to make par. best of luck. cheers.
StatMan says:

October 3, 2011 at 9:14 pm

Hello Dan:

Where performance is measured, performance improves.

Remembering you Logic 101 stuff…
If M, then I implies… if not I, then not M… so…

Performance can improve without measurements, but when there is minimal or no improvement, then the will be minimal or no measurements. Keep taking measurements of your practice activities. You won’t regret it.

So… can’t wait to see your stats section come alive on the site.

Best Regards,
StatMan
San Jose, California, USA
Sima says:

October 4, 2011 at 12:33 am

Dan,

I don’t think this is the first time something like this has been said here but, sometimes stuff takes a while to sink in!

My first memory of this happening was when, as a young boy, I had my first canoeing lesson. At the end of the first day I was thoroughly tired and frustrated because I couldn’t get the feel for a couple of very simple techniques. I’d tried and tried but stuff was just not right. I turned up the second morning and the things which had bothered me the first day just clicked. I could do them. I couldn’t work out what could possibly have changed between the end of the first day and the beginning of the second day. But things had just changed.

A similar experience years later with language learning; several periods of extremely hard work seemed to produce little overall improvement. There were little additions to vocabulary and obvious increase in some minor capacities, but they really didn’t mean much in terms of the overall context of my language level. At one point, an enforced month away from speaking the language (though not entirely from some of the habits of study) was followed by shock at how much better I was than before the leave of absence.

I now work on the basis that a sustained period of hard work will probably only show clear benefits after a delay of three months or more.

A couple of other thoughts:
1) Your capacity for reflection is obviously very important to your prospects, and is what makes following your progress so interesting and enjoyable for many of us out here…BUT, to some extent you do need to be able to let go and just do stuff – “not make thoughts your aim”.

I think that for practice to be really effective, one must be absolutely committed to the moment – in the zone, if you like. If you’re doubting the effectiveness of what you’re doing, at the time you’re doing it, that might really hamper your progress.

2) You will not practice in THE best way possible. There probably isn’t a single best way, but rest assured there will be other ways and some of them might be ‘better’.

You can look back at what you did yesterday or last year and say, “If only I’d….” This is pretty natural, especially given that you have such a clear path mapped out and such high expectations. But you are where you are right now. Acceptance that what you did yesterday (or whenever) was ‘wrong’ is acceptance that where you are is not right.

I can assure you that what you did yesterday was ‘right’. It was right because it was what you did. The position you’re in right now is right too. It’s where you are. And, if you don’t mind my saying so, it looks like a pretty fine place to be.

Good luck!
dan says:

October 4, 2011 at 9:43 am

Hi Sima,

Thank you for this comment, it’s very inspiring! I think you are right on all accounts. I do want to say, however, that while I’m practicing I do not question what I’m doing, rather I put in the time and work on what needs to be worked on, but when I have a day or so off is when I start wondering if there is a better approach to how I personally structure my practice. I am happy with where I currently am after the amount of work I have put in and think that we have made huge leaps from day one. I am also excited about the path in front of me and can’t wait to look back a year from now and see how far I’ve come from today. Perhaps, though, it’s a dangerous thing to have a bit of free time on one’s hands

“BUT, to some extent you do need to be able to let go and just do stuff” Ultimately, this is exactly what anyone who wants to improve needs to be able to do and it might be one of the most important lessons that i learn along the way. If you try and over-control your situation you can become paralyzed, it’s better to adapt to the situation and make the most of your time day to day.

The blog has turned into where I “process” and is a big part of my training. if I get my thoughts out there then, for me, I can move on and not worry while actually practicing. Since I wrote this last blog yesterday, I’ve already thought of a number of ways to track my stats (thank you for the suggestion StatMan!) and continue the process of improvement.

Thank you again!
Dan
dan says:

October 4, 2011 at 9:47 am

Hi StatMan,

I really would love to get a stats page up. One question, how can I format some numbers and graphs for the web? I’ve looked into a few different stat-tracking programs like Golfshot GPS, shotbyshot.com, golflogix, etc, but none of them have the ability to export data. If I keep the numbers myself (for example: GIR, Fairways hit, Putts, Saves, Accuracy of chips under 50 yards, total putting distance, drive accuracy and distance, etc) what is a program I can use to format those numbers to put online?

Email me direct if you’d like to chat about this.

Thanks!

Dan
dan says:

October 4, 2011 at 9:51 am

Dan Fan,

I, too, am a feel golfer. That said, it’s important for me to develop a certain level of mechanics beyond just feel in order to reach the level of ability I am aiming for. Seeing as I’m not the tallest golfer by any means, I will need pretty darn good mechanics if I would like to hit the ball the distances it needs to go. If my mechanics are solid, then I can be the feel golfer I know I can be and use that feel for finesse shots

There are plenty of different successful golf swings out there and I just need to find and refine my own..

Have a great day!

Dan
williamevanl says:

October 4, 2011 at 8:57 pm

I think you are starting to get it. I wondered how long that would take. At first you do seem to improve just by brute force practice but then something happens, you stop getting better or you might even start getting worse.

In my case after hitting balls for hours and hours every day my backswing started getting shorter and shorter almost as if my body was trying to find an optimal way to hit a golf ball with the least amount of energy.

I think you might be on to something with the reflection bit. I remember Rory saying after the Masters blow up that what he really needed to do was reflect. My instinct would have been to beat balls until my hands bled but perhaps that’s why he is the professional golfer.

Maybe at the end of the day the only thing Pro’s are really good at is the ability to recognize what they are doing wrong and correcting it. It’s not the practice per say but rather the ability to continue to improve when the rest of us become stagnant.

My plan having gone from a 6 handicap to recently shooting in the high 90′s again recently :(, is to stop practicing as much so although I want to hit 200 balls I only hit 15 balls but spend 2 hours doing it.

The most damning thing about golf is that you can succeed without succeeding, what I mean by this and what I think you are beginning to realize Dan is that although you might hit a pitch shot to two inches or even hole it out, you still didn’t hit it right. You can get around a golf course hitting (bad shots) really well. Poor/bad trajectory slight unintentional low fades or pull hooks cad get you a score close to par but you aren’t really doing it ‘right’; you are just getting by with something that’s never going to allow you to really be good.
williamevanl says:

October 4, 2011 at 9:03 pm

In case anyone is wondering how you hole a pitch shot incorrectly:

A good golfer might hit a 60 degree wedge with a lot of spin that bites a foot past the cup and spins back in, or hops and stops right at the hole.

If you practice this shot all the time(or screw up when you are good) you can get the same result by catching the ball slightly fat, landing it short and rolling it in.

One approach is in the direction of becoming really good at golf and the other is haphazardly trying to get a ball in a hole. Left to ones own devices its intuitively easier to hit the second shot so most (amateurs) do.
del says:

October 7, 2011 at 4:31 am

Hi Dan,

You might want to check out this book ‘Practice to Learn, Play to Win’ by Mark Guadagnoli.

Cheers,
del
ben says:

October 8, 2011 at 12:47 pm

Hey Dan,

I think I found out about the book mentioned above on this website…no? In any case, del is right, this book seems to hit exactly on what you’re talking about.

What I really wanted to comment on, though, is the fact that you’ve made a ton of progress over the last 2000 hours. Even though you’ve just started using something besides an iron or a putter, you’re posting some really great scores from the white tees, scores that the guys I play recreational golf with would all mark as a decent day.

Yes, there might be a better way to practice, but don’t lose sight of the objective fact that you’re making great progress!
Sean O'Neill says:

October 9, 2011 at 9:08 am

Del,

Thank you very much for sharing the book. The quality of my teaching just increased 10-fold and it wasn’t that poor beforehand!

Dan,

Wondering if you are optimizing your practice is quite normal. The book that Del suggested talks about not getting off the bus too early. This might be what you are feeling right now. Belief in yourself and your goals is now more important than ever.
Martin says:

October 9, 2011 at 9:13 am

Del, LOL … Dan has already read it, see http://thedanplan.com/blog/?p=908
dan says:

October 10, 2011 at 9:46 am

Hi William,

You are definitely on to something here. This is a long conversation, but the basic point is that I agree with you about how someone can get down to par (or close to there) by scrapping by and pulling some shots out of the air, but in order to become a great player you have to be able to command the ball in the way that it needs to be commanded. I have been, and always will be, working through some issue directly related to that. I know I can shoot a specific score if I play the way I know I can play, but I will never be able to get better than XXX, but if I change my swing and approach I will, in theory, be able to extend myself and have an ultimately better game. Right now, I am in that transition period where you really want to hit the ball how you know you can hit it, but instead, do the new “style” and end up hitting quite a bit of fat or bladed shots.. Not sure if this makes any sense, but what I am trying to say is that you’re right and that the only way I think this is possible is to be able to keep yourself from getting into mediocre habits that won’t allow you to reach your ultimate goals.

Thank you, as always, for the comments.

hit them well!

Dan
dan says:

October 10, 2011 at 9:48 am

haha, thanks Del! It’s a good one
dan says:

October 10, 2011 at 9:49 am

Ben,

Thanks for that, sometimes it’s hard to remember where we come from. I think it’s important to go back and look at our past to see how much has been learned or changed over the years..

cheers!
Dan
武乡侯 says:

October 15, 2011 at 7:35 am

best wish for you。加油

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