Category: Life Lessons

Putting: let’s get physical

photo credit: Fidelio García

Last week was the annual playing of the Gillespie Invitational. This was an anniversary of sorts for me since it marked my return to competitive golf a year ago. This year I struck the ball pretty well but putted terribly. Both days, I found myself very uncomfortable with the flat stick.

After a five minute conversation with my coach a few days later, I relearned a fundamental truth to consistent good putting. Focus on hitting good putts. Simple! I know! But I had been puting the emphasis on making putts for par or birdie etc… instead of on the execution of good putts.

This week I read the following post from Randell Mell’s chat with Morris Pickens. He is the sport psych to Stewart Cink, Zach Johnson, and Lucas Glover. I believe it will help you to grasp this putting axiom as much as it did me. (The day after my tournament I shot 64. Man, did this tweak of thought process make a huge difference.)

..A lot of people, every putt is for a result. The closer you get to the hole, the more you get score conscious. This putt is for a birdie, or to get up and down, or to get the lead. We try to take the putting “for” something out of it. Whether it’s a five footer for eagle or a five footer for double bogey, it’s still the same putt. That way you can make them all the same. It becomes a physical putt, not an emotional putt. The more you can make putting a physical act rather than an emotional act, the more you can make them all the same…

I have also included the link if you’d like to read the full article. Randall Mell post

I have also found we love to put emphasis on the results in life too. We are taught that each action we take is for something.

Closing a sale… Acing a test… Nailing an interview…

Why do we make these actions so emotional? We know what to do, we have trained, studied, learned, and mastered many of the things that we become anxious about. It is just a matter of physical acts which produce desired outcomes. Be free. Loosen the chains of restraint. No longer will the proximity of reaching our goals cause the pressure of execution to mount. We already know the outcome because we’ve prepared. The putts go in, we close the sale, we pass the test, we get the girl. Why? Because we’ve already won.

Embracing anger for peak performance

hulk
photo credit: thewhitestdogalive

Unlike any activity I have participated in, Golf, can engineer an emotional roller-coaster second to none. Seemingly stable people worldwide turn into to the HULK from David Banner and back again. Moods in a round of golf can swing up and down faster than the Kingda Ka and many times for justifiable reasons. Bad bounces, poor decisions, duffs, tops, and three-putts are all grounds for a volcanic eruption of the Novaruptan order. Dr. Jekyll meet Mr. Hyde. I will not dare mention the Sh**ks (can’t bring myself to type it), which has been known to turn Norman Rockwell into Hannibal Lecter.

The thing is, anger is an emotion. Emotions give you an advantage if applied properly. If focused. How many times have you watched Tiger or any great athlete get mad after poor execution, then increase the level of their play. Every champion has done this in some arena. You have too. The anger doesn’t consume you, it heightens your abilities to bounce back. So next time use the emotions to excel. Here are 2 keys I’ve observed from watching great competitors translate rage into peak performance in golf and life.

1. Vent so you don’t explode. Release the rage and get it out of your system. My Grandfather used to cook the best roast with a pressure cooker. He would set the valve to release steam as the pressure would build so that the pot would not explode. The great thing is the valve let enough steam out to avoid catastrophe but not so much as to lose the effectiveness of the heat. Give yourself some release so the pressure doesn’t build to awakening the Tasmanian Devil within .  Note: there are ways to do this without profanity, damaging the course, or your equipment.

2. Channel the fury into focus. Use the intensity of your emotions to better concentrate on your next shot. Notice Tiger’s eyes the hole after he gets angry. It is almost Jedi-like the way he can focus and execute what he needs to do to bounce back better than had he not messed up in the first place. This ability is in each of us. Channel the energy into hitting your next shot instead of  letting the energy combust like white phosphorus in the veins.

Enjoy this final thought, courtesy of a Top 100 teacher  Charlie King, instructing you on proper throwing techniques for when all else fails. Feel free to leave your own techniques in the comments section.

Lucas Glover loses ego & Wins US Open: What we can learn

us open bethpage

Golf’s US Open was a tiring tournament to watch on television this year. The starting and stopping was like watching matches on center court Wimbledon (prior to this year). I wonder if they can install a retractible roof at Turnberry for the Open Championships?

Nevertheless, it was a great USGA championship. One that gave birth to a new champion, Lucas Glover, and resurrection to a former one, David Duval. Hopefully.

I remember the first time I met Lucas Glover. I was playing in an AJGA tournament in Greensboro NC. Let me rephrase that, I was playing in my only AJGA event. Their tournaments are usually reserved for good junior golfers, but I digress. A tall, lanky, and red-headed 14 year old Lucas, meandered around the putting green with a deliberate and confident gate while sporting a FULL Goatee. That’s right, he was 14. I, on the other hand was 16, and trying to grow enough peach fuzz to justify buying a Gillette, and he looked like a 25 year old major league pitcher. We never played any rounds together, but I distinctly remember him on the range hitting drivers. Every one he struck resonated with tour caliber sound, like the ball being fired out of a cannon. My tee shots unfortunately, always sounded like a scoop of ice cream hitting the pavement. Foreshadowing? Probably. Be that as it were, Lucas is a great champion and a nice guy. I look forward to seeing him add more titles to his trophy case.

Egos don’t win golf tournaments or garner success in life.

On the eighteenth hole Lucas stepped up to the tee with a 2-shot lead. Lucas watched Duval miss his birdie putt and promptly pulled 6-iron out of his bag, on a hole where most players hit driver, and striped one in the fairway. This play allowed him to avoid trouble and a score worse than bogey. Don’t try to win with a 3 when all you need for victory is a 5. That goes for major championships or local club championships.

A mentor of mine says “You can’t feed your family and your ego at the same time.” Lucas demonstrated this remarkably by deciding to hit 6 iron even when he had been driving the ball beautifully all week and had 2 strokes to give with one to play.

The same goes true for success in any endeavor. Most truly successful people are confident but humble. Not the egotistical and malicious sharks portrayed by Hollywood and the media. They became successful by contributing something of value to the community and people around them. The price of sacrificing personal gain or glory for some time period is usually paid, as well is the risk of looking foolish if they fail. But long-term true success can only happen when the siren of ego is silenced.

photo credit: Dov Harrington

Lessons from a father to his son

father and son

Happy father’s day to all dads. The influence you have over us lasts a lifetime. The older I get the more I appreciate my dad. Recently, I submitted the following essay to the Golf Channel’s Father’s Day contest. It did not win, but reminded me how many lessons I learned from my dad while we spent hours at the golf course.  I have included the short essay below and would love to hear about  lessons you remember learning from you dad on the course or off.

My father, Craig, taught me many of life’s lessons during our rounds on the links. Two of these foundational principles which have forged my character are integrity and going the extra mile. He taught me that, unlike other sports, golf requires a higher standard of its players. He modeled this with etiquette and honesty. Going the extra mile, he proclaimed, will distinguish you from the masses. Picking up extra range baskets, hitting one more putt, and self discipline were all habits he imparted. The thought process my father ingrained has been a compass for my life.
Dads, I honor you today and appreciate you always.
Photo credit: Rowen Atkinson

Enter the Zone

zone

Last week an acquaintance of mine (we share the same golf coach) did the unimaginable. He shot 57. Yes, that is for 18 holes. Now, I have never heard of anyone shooting 57. Not saying it has never been done, but fourteen under par. Really?! Amazing.

If you are like me, my first question is how? Here is more on this great accomplishment in sports by our coach Robert Linville at Precision Golf School. Goodes shoots 57

His answer. “I have no clue.” That is exactly how you perform at your best. When people get “in the zone,” they are not thinking. They are Reacting! Regardless of the arena you are performing in, be it the operating room, boardroom, classroom, stage, course, court, or field, peak performance is achieved by simply responding to what you have already spent hours training yourself to do. In Dr. Michael Lardon’s book, Finding Your Zone, he talks about these principles and how to apply them.

Can you remember a time when you were in the zone? When your outcome equaled your desired expectations? Do you remember how it felt? What triggers put you there? I think answering those questions are key to getting yourself into the zone, keeping yourself there, and reentering the zone once you’ve fallen out (this is the move of a champion).

We all have had times like these when we have ascended to a performance beyond our good, to our great. We write it off as a fluke or luck. When in fact, we have experienced our full potential and the level we can rise to become.

Please share your ZONE experiences. Reliving them will help you repeat them in the future.