So I am two months into my six month off season training program. Most days I head to the gym and put this body through its paces. Balance, movement , strength, cardio, and speed are being worked on. The physical is always a challenge. My body hurts the next day when I wake up, but the hurt goes away after about a half hour. I guess the biggest challenge is the mental side of it. Getting myself to the gym and following my processes has been challenging, but what I am also finding out is that their is absolutely no guarantee that this fitness commitment will connect me to playing improved golf. All the golf fitness sites are telling me it will, but the reality is no one knows and you still have the same swing! The only benefit will be improved overall health, which in the scheme of things is not a bad thing!
Success is a very misunderstood term. Everyone’s definition of success is different. My own definition of success has changed over the years. When I was younger I viewed success as being tied to winning and losing. If you won, you were a winner and winners are always successful. That is what society’s scorecard was at the time. If you lost you were a loser and losers, well they were losers. They were untalented, unmotivated, and just did not work hard enough. That is why they lost. Once again that is what society told us.I fell into that group. So I proceeded to hit thousands of golf balls until my hands blistered. I slowly improved because I grooved my flaws so I could play with them. My swing was not something out of Golf Digest, which was our only measuring stick in the late 1970’s and into the 1980’s. If your swing looked good, well you had to be a good player. Eventually I figured out their was no connection. Late to the party!
To be honest with you I can not tell you when it changed, sometime in the late 1990’s perhaps . I finally got around to reading Tim Gallwey’s book the Inner Game of Golf. It came out in 1979, but I was a little late to party reading it twenty years later. It made me think that there was more to this game than beating balls and punishing myself physically and mentally. Next came Every Shot Must Have A Purpose by Lynn Marriott and Pia Nillson. This book was a trail blazer and the light really came on for me. With a young family and less time to practice, the mental side of the game became front and centre. When I did play my level of being prepared was so much better. I had a level of belief in myself and my game. Trusted what I was doing, which fuelled my confidence level. I could look at my competitors who had way more talent than me, but what they did not have was confidence under pressure. I remember playing matches that I really had no business winning, but won because of belief, trust and confidence. It wasn’t until recent years when I read an article by Dr. Bhrett McCabe where he states: : “trust is the currency and that currency is supported by discipline and structure”. In recent years this has become my scorecard for success. I have accepted that I will not have my “A” game as often as I would like,because as I get older my body does not feel the same everyday, but I have become good at maximising my “C” game . I finally understood that practice and play are not connected! Took me a very long time to get that through my head. Again I was late to the party. At my Club I spend hours on the range. I find it calming and educational. My practice is structured, written down and always has intent. I learned that from a really good hockey coach.
I have been thinking about playing tournament golf again. It has been probably 15 years since I teed it up in a stroke play event. The fact that it is in my head tells me that I am still competitive. It is emotional for me. I feel I have something to prove to myself. Events of recent months have made me think about certain things. I have four months left to sort out these things but once again I do not want to be late to this party.
Will keep you updated.
Until next time!
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Belief Fuels Trust. Trust Fuels Confidence.
Between The Ears 