Golf is a funny game. Left to your own devices, without any outside input or education or coaching, it’s amazing what unusual habits you’ll develop in an effort to hit the ball the way you want.
To play the game effectively and consistently, you ultimately need to seek feedback and coaching. And the more deeply grooved your existing swing and habits are, the more work you have before you to break down old habits and rebuild the swing. In other words, the longer you go without coaching, the more bad habits you develop. And the harder they’ll be to break. It’s really not an issue, unless you eventually desire to become better or more consistent. And when that happens – when you ultimately decide to commit yourself to improving, things are likely to get a lot worse before they get better. It’s a sobering experience, seeing your golf swing on video for the first time – especially when compared side by side to the swing of a tour pro. It’s enough to make you want to quit the game, but we’ve already addressed that this really isn’t an option. And so it begins. It starts with the basics. Stance, posture, and grip. Really? I’ve been playing the game for 30 years, and you’re going to change the way I stand and hold the club? Great.
I’ve decided to go big and do whatever it takes to get a golf game that I’m comfortable with. Ha! I had dabbled with lessons over the years, but it was time to go all in and rip the band aid off. Man, it’s fun. And at times, painful. It’s extraordinary how counterintuitive some of the fundamentals are. But it feels good, learning to do things the right way. And it’s a progression. There might be 20 things wrong with my swing, and my instructor knows it, but they are compounding issues and we can’t constructively talk about or address issue #20 until we’ve mowed through #’s 1 through 19. And until and unless I’ve actually worked through #4, we’re not going any further. I love it. The insight comes from my coach – the choice to act on this insight and improve rests with me. And while the results may not reflect the kind of improvement I’m hoping for yet, I love having something tangible to work on in the spirit of improving. It makes going to the driving range a lot of fun for me. And it’s through a conscious awareness of what I need to work on that I begin to see improvement during practice. Of course, the tricky part is taking the range game to the course. When your swing is in a constant state of transition, strange things begin to happen when tension creeps in and pressure is applied. Old habits meet new ones, and the mental and emotional battle begins.
I’ve been fortunate enough to receive some coaching in life as well, both personally and professionally, and the parallels to golf are stunning. I’ve got habits and swing patterns in life that are deeply grooved, and as long as I am complacent about the game of life, it’s no big deal. But as soon as we seek to up our game, the hard work begins. In my case, the pressure to raise the bar was coming from everywhere. My wife certainly wanted me to improve my “swing”, and my increasing responsibilities in my career and the effects my “swing” has on others was a pretty compelling reason to improve. So, between marriage counseling, leadership development programs, and professional coaching, I was forced to take a good hard look at my life swing. Yuck. Stance, posture and grip. No wonder I’m duck hooking it. What a game changer. And what a challenge. It was initially disheartening to come to the realization that my “game” was a wreck when I thought I was playing pretty well. I remain a work in progress in both the games of golf and life, but the journey in each case is more more fulfilling when played with awareness and intentionality rather than just flailing away, hoping something good happens in spite of myself.
As much as I didn’t want or think I needed to grow personally – to change my swing – it has changed the trajectory of my life much in the same way that golf lessons have changed my outlook and outcome in golf. The game of life changed from inconsistent, stalled and stagnant to vibrant, fun and challenging. It became a journey – an adventure – and rather than fighting the things I can’t control or influence, I started learning from every “shot”. The “lessons” required a lot of work. I continue to have to break down many grooved habits developed while learning to play the game on my own in order to up my game. And, just like my golf lessons, the professionals who are working with me on my game are gentle with me. They may see the broken parts downstream of what we’re working on, but there’s no use going there until we get the basics sorted out and grooved. And, just like golf, whenever pressure is applied, the old habits meet the new and chaos reigns. Until I’ve completely stripped down the mechanics of my swing and committed to muscle memory the new swing basics, things are going to be a struggle. An adventure. A journey.