How good of a student are you? How willing are you to accept the feedback you get from your coach? Consider cultivating Acceptance as a key mental component of your Single Plane Swing journey.

I was on the Graves Golf Academy range with Tim Graves and GGA master instructor James Bell recently at Eagle Creek Golf Club in Florida. We were in the middle of a 5-Day Alumni Camp…and chatting through a short lull in the action as we were waiting for a group of students to make their way back to the range from the clubhouse.

Tim and James started playing a few games on the range. Tim shouted out: “Highest shot!” and he and James went head-to-head attempting to hit the highest shots with their 7 irons. I was down the range a bit working on my swing – but still within earshot. The banter between them was fun – but the competition was real: each of them wanted to “win” in that moment.

Soon after that, Tim announced: “Lowest shot!” It was a very breezy, with winds steady at 15-20mph. Both Tim and James are Oklahoma golfers…so they both know how to hit it low. But the Tim Graves “stinger” is something special. Advantage Tim.

I got excited because I’ve always wanted to learn that shot. So…from down the range I shouted: “I’m in on this one guys!” And then I started hitting shots. The first shot I hit was awesome – at least I thought it was! The ball felt so pure on the clubhead – and it took off straight into the wind. Then it went up, up and up. Not exactly a low stinger.

So I hit another one. Again – very pure and dead straight and to me it was a great looking ball…but like the first ball, it was way too high.

Then it happened… a challenge so candid and so abrupt that it frankly shook me up a bit…but ultimately taught me an amazing lesson about acceptance – and about how to be a better student when I am being coached.

The challenge from Tim at the end of the range. “Terrible shot!”, he said.

“Huh?”…I thought to myself. “How could that be a terrible shot? I just hit it so pure and straight. Why was he leaning in so hard?”

Tim shot back again. “Brutal!” “You’re dead with that shot!”

Wow…this felt a little harsh.

My sensitive little ego that wants people to like me attempted to make sense of his approach, and I tried to laugh it off a bit by saying to Tim. “Hey…quit being so mean to me!”

And then Tim did something that was brilliant.

He responded with: “Oh…so you want me to treat you like a child? Go easy on you? Tell you that you are hitting the ball just fine? That you are doing great? Fine. But if you want to really learn how to be a player, you are going to have to figure out shots like this. And right now, you aren’t even close.”

Woah.

In retrospect, I believe he was saying: “You are not listening, Paul. You are not accepting my feedback. You are not hearing me that the shot you just hit will not work in these conditions.. because you are too wrapped up in your own ego. You need to learn to hit a different shot.”

He was right: my ego definitely went into action trying to defend my honor and credibility. (And part of me wanted to run back home to my mommy all at the same time. For reals.)

But then something inside me woke up and I began to think that this just might be an amazing learning opportunity for me; that I should accept what Tim is saying as the truth and deal with THAT…instead of trying to satisfy my ego or my emotional sensitivities.

I decided to stop defending my inability to create the shot I was attempting and to surrender to the moment. I remember thinking that – as uncomfortable as I was that second,  I was about to grow as a golfer – and maybe even as a person.

I think Tim had a sense that I was uncomfortable, but that I was also game for truly learning something. (Another sign of a great coach.)

Tim walked over and challenged me (athletically and mentally) in ways I had not been challenged before. He told me what to do, but he left it up to me to figure it out. I think he believed that I was capable of getting there – but not without more focus and intentionality around the thing I was trying to achieve: hit it low, powerful and boring and with compression.

I began listening to what he was saying. Objectively, and without judgment.

“Lower. Do it again. Lower. Come on. Get down and into the ball. Watch my hands. Do this.”

Soon I was getting closer and closer to producing the low “stinger” shot Tim was teaching me. My shots were no longer ballooning up into the wind. And even though they weren’t as low as I wanted, they were behaving more like Tim’s shots, low, boring and straight.

I had finally figured out what it felt like to move down and into the ball with very “hands-forward” shaft lean…and could see a much different ball flight as a result. I wasn’t producing a shot that looked exactly like Tim’s…but I was MUCH closer than I had been.

How had I accomplished that?

I accepted my reality. I stopped pushing back on my coach. And I started to say: “How does that look?” and “Better?”

When we bring acceptance to our experiences, we learn to see our reality more objectively – and without judgment or personal sensitivity.  The way it looked for me that day was this:  I dropped my need to defend myself – so that I could be a better listener and a better learner.

Tim taught me a great lesson that day…certainly about how to hit a 7-iron as low as possible – but much more about how to ACCEPT feedback from those who are trying to help me. He had the instinct to lean on my a little in that moment, and I am very grateful that he did.

As a coach, I want to be as candid as possible with my clients…as brutal as it may seem for them in the moment. And as a student of the GGA swing model, I want to LOVE the idea of feedback instead of dreading it or being fearful of it. Embracing feedback will make me better.

As you prepare to work on your golf game more regularly…and to get feedback from the GGA team – in videos or in person at our live instruction schools –  remember that ACCEPTANCE is a powerful paradigm to operate from. It is what will help you become a better student…and ultimately a better player.

-Paul

(If you want to really learn what cultivating acceptance can do for your own golf game, join us at our two-day Alert Attitude of Indifference School in Chicago in June!)

paul@paulmonahancoaching.com

Practice Slower. Play Faster.

Sounds like a directive. Right?

Actually I think of it as a mental game approach. Here’s why:

At almost every GGA school I attend, lots and lots of students are doing their level-best to achieve the Single Plane Swing model. But many, if not most suffer because of two important missteps.

They practice too quickly. And they PLAY the game too slowly.

Interestingly, these are not execution missteps (caused by lack of focus or an inability to understand a strategy)…they are mental game failures.

Let me explain, first with the concept of Practicing Slower.

The Single Plane Swing curriculum that Todd and Tim Graves and their instruction team have refined over the years is based on the very latest in skill development research: that we learn best from slow, deliberate and proper practice movements. (Not beating balls over and over again.)

One simply cannot groove and assimilate new body positions without this kind of work.

Moe Norman famously said to Todd and Tim that he once spent an entire day holding what we call position five. Why? Moe said he wanted to “…make it stronger.”

Just last week I heard Todd tell the story that when Master Instructor Chandler Rusk was converting from conventional to the Single Plane Swing, he was known to spend hours on the practice range working on one thing: perfecting his move into position one.

Why won’t most students spend their practice time like this? One word: The EGO.

It’s more satisfying to the EGO to hit ONE great shot every once in a while rather than spend the time needed to master a position or two.

In other words, even though it is a rational-enough concept (practicing slowly during your swing development), it is much harder to do because a part of your brain wants to “show the world” what you are capable of.

The harsh reality in all of this is: Until you SLOW DOWN and develop a deliberate practice regimen that includes far MORE correct body movement and far LESS actual shots with a ball, you will continue to delay the mastery of the Single Plane Swing. (Sorry. That’s just the way it is.)

This requires cultivating the awareness that your EGO will try to sabotage a regimen like this. It requires that you learn to tune into your mental and emotional tendencies…and be disciplined enough to stay on track with the deliberate, deep practice that will yield the changes you are looking for.

Dan Coyle wrote about this in  The Talent Code…and Todd and Tim refer often to the research and insights from Coyle’s work. Skill development comes from deep, deliberate, proper practice.

Now let’s address Playing Faster:

When it comes to playing the game, most players play too slowly. Specifically, they tinker and hover too long over the ball when they are hitting their shots. This causes paralysis by analysis – and yes…this is an actual technical term.

Sian Beilock, in her book Choke chronicles the trouble we get into when we linger over a golf shot too long. Basically, she explains that the part of our brain that is responsible for moving the body in space (procedural memory) switches off in those moments, and then our working memory takes over. This causes over-thinking and less-than-optimal muscle movement. (And yes, often is causes: The Choke)

The antidote? Play faster. Stop lingering. Pull the trigger over your shots sooner. This will prevent over-thinking and will allow you to play golf more as a reactionary sport…and you will be able to execute shots up to your talent level, not BELOW your talent level.

So if you want to get better this year, do yourself a favor and tune up your Mental Game skills: create a discipline to practice slower when off the course, and to play faster when on it.

Have Fun!

-Paul

(If you want to really learn how to practice slower and play faster, join us at our two-day Alert Attitude of Indifference School in Chicago in June!)

paul@paulmonahancoaching.com