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You might be wondering, after reading the title of this article, whether or not there was a typo in the wording. “Doesn’t he mean the opposite?” you might suppose. Isn’t it an accepted fact that confidence is everything to a golfer, and that without it you are destined to fail? It would certainly be against the grain to suggest that confidence is not a good thing, but that is not what I am going to postulate here. Confidence certainly is a beneficial element that adds to the possibilities of success in any endeavor, and in a game as difficult as golf anything that might help is quite desirable. Problems arise, however, when a player supposes that it is a lack of confidence that is keeping him or her from achieving the success he desires. My thoughts on the matter will become clearer after I share this exchange I had recently with a young student who was heading into his high school district tournament.
Peter is a 16 year-old high school junior who has been coming to me for lessons for about 8 months. He came to me with a loopy swing that extended well out away from him then dropped way back behind him, reminiscent of Sergio Garcia but with enough other issues to make it erratic and hard to control. Changing to a more conventional, reliable form has been difficult, but over time the motion has definitely gotten better. His tendency is still to over extend his arms and shoulders starting back, get the shaft too vertical half way into the backswing, then drop the club sharply behind him, which, without enough lateral hip movement, leads to an extremely narrow approach with his left arm somewhat bent heading into impact. The problem with Peter, and other players like him, is that his swing, while idiosyncratic, has produced decent results, making it all the more difficult to change. The brain has come up with a somewhat suitable answer to the problem of hitting the ball, and when the motion is as demanding as the golf swing it is understandably reluctant to try another method.
When I tell my students that their “brain” has decided something or is keeping them from doing something we have decided would be a good idea I am really referring to the subconscious mind as well as the age-old cliché, muscle memory. The way I see it a game such as golf presents you with a problem, hitting the ball and getting it into the hole, and when you pick up a club and attempt to solve that problem everything that makes up what you are comes into play. There is no more important piece of the puzzle than talent. Some people can sit down at a piano and play what they have just listened to with no instruction. Others can view a scene and draw or paint in onto a piece of paper or canvas. Others can solve math problems in their heads without writing down a single number. Most of us have to struggle to do anything even close to these people when it comes to the subject in which they are most talented. Golf is no different. To some it is simply apparent how the club needs to contact the ball in order to hit a quality shot. The most innocuous, simplistic thought (relax, swing easy, let the club do the work, turn back and through, swing through the ball, etc.) produce sophisticated combinations of movements that others study and dissect hoping to find the “secrets” that lie within, when all the time there really is no secret, just the maddening truth that some people can just do it, while others just can’t. Talent comes not from practice or desire or will. It is not deserved, and it can’t be taken away, although it most certainly can be squandered.
The hallmark of the talented player is one who doesn’t have to “think” in order to play quality golf. Hale Irwin loves to trash golf instructors for making the game “too complicated”, and “over-teaching”. To him it’s just not all that difficult. He would have no idea what to do with the vast majority of people I teach every day except to remind them that they needed to relax and stop thinking so much. But I can tell you that those sentiments are of no help whatsoever to someone with less talent than Irwin. Hale picked up a club and could just do it. I’m sure he worked hard at his game, but my guess is that he never had to fiddle much with a swing that always worked well. For a player like Irwin looking deeply into the nuts and bolts of the swing to see why it doesn’t work is a waste of time. His always worked: it really only figures that he would surmise that the game isn’t really all that difficult. The real problem emerges when those who aren’t talented (but figure they can teach the game anyway), start saying the same sorts of things to people who need much, much more help. To the vast majority, and I include myself among this group, the game and its mechanics are dishearteningly elusive, not so much regarding the understanding of what needs to happen, but in the ability to execute the physical movements.
Getting back to my student Peter, his initial talent for the game brought him early success as a young junior, but as he grew older he found that his swing was too erratic to shoot low enough scores on more difficult golf courses. We have worked hard on his swing mechanics, and the progress has been begrudging. He can think, explain, rehearse, practice-swing, do everything that would indicate that his next swing would look just the way he pictured it, but then it wouldn’t: it would just look the same as the ones before it, as though he never even tried to do anything different at all. He would even swear that it had to be better, but most times it wasn’t. We go over the basic aspects of the movements, and when he can’t accomplish them, we find specific areas of difficulty and exaggerate the hell out of them. I’ve seen it over and over again: the body (and brain) is not a willing participant in the experiment that changing a swing really is. Past results are concrete and familiar: it is comforting to know that you are capable of at least passable success. The new thing: who knows? Anything could happen. You could whiff, or shank, or hit 6 inches behind the ball. Most likely you won’t, and it should actually be better, but your brain is not so sure. The question becomes how to trust something that really doesn’t deserve to be trusted.
And now we get to the crux of the matter. For those to whom the game is not apparent, who have to work on every little thing and think about what they are doing, the essential ingredient becomes toughness. You cannot rely on “confidence”, because you have nothing to be confident about. As I finished my lesson with Peter we had the following exchange:
Wayne: So, Pete, you have the District tournament next week, right? Do you feel ready?
Peter: (Unconvincingly) Yeah, I guess. I’m a little bit worried, though. I just need some confidence and I think I’ll be OK.
Now, if you think I’m going to try to allay his fears and imbue him with confidence, think again. Golf is a tough game, and sooner or later the golfer must learn to deal with the stresses that come with competing. It is an individual endeavor, and it is totally up to the player to face the difficulties head on. There is no time for worries and “feelings”. There is only the ability to hit the shot in front of you or not. The ball doesn’t care how you “feel” about what you are about to do. It’s just sitting there waiting for you to hit it. If you can’t suck it up and get it done you won’t win. It really is as simple as that. More than any other lesson I want the juniors I teach to understand this concept. We work hard on technique because it is technique that hits the ball. No matter what the circumstance, a good swing will hit a good shot. Everyone wants to hit good shots. If you know your swing will produce good shots a high percentage of times, you will have the “confidence” that if you concentrate on your swing, you have a good chance of hitting a good shot. If your swing is suspect and prone to producing a wide dispersion of ball flights, why would you feel confident when the pressure was at its greatest? There is no inventing confidence. Now: back to Peter.
Wayne: First of all, it’s a waste of time to be worried. How is that going to help you? Think of things that are going to contribute to your success. It’s not any different than focusing on the fairway when you stand on the tee instead of looking at all the places you don’t want to go. It’s not easy to not be afraid you might hit it out of bounds, or in the trees or the water, but you have to try. You have worked hard on your swing, and you can see that it is getting better, and now you have to take it out and test it. You don’t need confidence to hit good shots. You need a good swing. If your swing fails, you will struggle. You can still save yourself with your short game and putting, which always gives you a chance to turn something bad into something good. But you need to focus on hitting the shot in front of you. You’re going to have doubt, there is no getting around that. Just do your best to put them into the back of your mind, and make your best effort to make good decisions and make your best swing.
Peter: I know you’re right, but I just don’t want to fail. I’ve had some bad rounds and sometimes it seems as if my swing reverts back to all my old bad habits.
Wayne: Look, take it from me. Golf is about failure and disappointment more than it is about success. I played mini-tour golf for five years on borrowed money with almost no success. There were times where I felt like I was wasting my time and everyone’s money. If you’re going to hang in there and end up being a good player you are just going to have to deal with failure. Screwing up leaves you with two choices: wake up and practice even harder on what you figured caused you to fail, or quit. I loved the game and couldn’t imagine that it was going to beat me, so I pressed on. You seem to have the same kind of desire. It’s human to worry, but to be a great player you almost have to be inhuman. You just have to be tougher than the next guy. We know that your swing is not quite there yet. You’re going to get yourself into some sticky situations. Your success hinges on you giving yourself the best chance to do well. So just take what you have and go out and do whatever you can to shoot as low as you can. Then come back and we’ll keep working on it.
Peter: I hear you, but how do I make that happen?
Wayne: It’s a test. You can “make” it happen. You put into your mind how you are going to be, how you are going to act, and then you just go out and try to do just that. If things go well everything seems easy. It’s when something bad happens that the real test comes. Can you follow a bad shot with a good one? Can you follow a bogey or a double with a birdie or two? Can you get it back after going way over par? Can you keep it going if you are going low? You learn about yourself every time you play. You want to be the player that people talk about as being tough, a grinder, someone who never gives up and always seems to get the best out of what he’s got that day. It’s all on you. You have to do your best to get it done. And it’s never the end of the world. If the game gets the best of you one day, you’ve always got the next day. Work and practice, play and test it out: that’s the progression from now until you don’t compete any more. I’m just trying to give you ways to approach playing that will allow you to score to the best of your ability, physically with your swing, and mentally with the way you handle yourself under pressure. If you’re worried it’s because you care. Channel that desire into the proper mindset and you will have a real chance to win.
Peter: I hear you. There’s no magic to it. I just have to do it myself. OK then, I’ll see you after the tournament, hopefully with a win.
Wayne: Good luck.