I want to share a story about a notorious student in our market that has taken lessons from every pro in the area. He came to me because he was frustrated that none of the other pros could help him improve and wanted to try out some of the new technology that we offered. Let’s call him Judge. During our first meeting we discussed his golf swing and the multiple changes that needed to be made to solve his golf frustration’s. We agreed that that in order to make the changes and have enough time to ingrain them long term it would be a 6 to 12 month process. After the first lesson he had really great range session and was extremely happy. He thought that if that is how good he was going to be after one lesson, then he couldn’t imagine how good he was going to be after one year. As a teacher we want all of our students to have that reaction every single time.
The reality is that golf is very hard and eventually we all have bad days. We did not work on anything different during our second lesson. He was making some progress toward the first swing change but was only halfway through the change and needed to keep going. I told him that I was glad he was happy, but the true test will be what his reaction is when he has a bad day. I got a glimpse about what was to come during that second lesson. He hit a shank. He became red in the face and shouted “F***!!!!!” Then he proceeded to do that 3 more times growing increasingly angry. I asked him to take a break, stop hitting balls and take some deep breath’s until he was calm and relaxed. Trying to be his mental coach, we discussed how it was okay to get upset after a bad shot, but not to hit another ball until he lets that emotion go. We talked about how the best players are good at forgetting the last shot, moving on and re-focusing on the next shot with a positive mind set. He admitted that he goes in a downward spiral mentally when things go bad. That he cannot recover from a bad shot or hole and that often ruins the rest of his round.
I reminded him that we are focusing on the process of changing his golf swing and that for the next couple months, his swing change should take precedence over the result’s. I wanted him to focus more on the process of his swing change rather than the results of his next practice. I explained the he is going to hit some good shots and some bad shots, but our success is based off whether the swing is changing for the better. We agreed that over time his swing would change and eventually it would feel more comfortable and then we could start focusing more on the results. I saw Judge for an entire year and he never had anything positive to say. Instead of saying Hello to me he would say “Looks like I’m still in the 6% of student’s that cannot improve.” I would often say Judge how do you know that we haven’t looked at your swing yet?
Let’s go take a look at your swing and see how you are changing. Eventually he made the necessary swing changes and his ball flight was better. I congratulated him on the change’s and tried to be a positive motivator, pointing out that he used to hit a big slice and was now hitting much straighter and further. He was still not happy because he couldn’t break 90. We started doing lessons that focused more on course management and identifying the areas that he needed to practice in order to score better. Towards the end of that year he started scoring in the 80’s consistently. I thought he would be happy, but he was still disappointed because he felt like he was not doing it the way he wanted to do it. His contact was not perfect enough for his standard’s. I asked him, “So we straightened your ball flight and you are reaching your scoring goals, but you are not happy?”
During our last lesson he told me that he was going to need an entire swing rebuild and that he was going to learn the natural golf swing. I do not know how that went for him, but I can guess. A couple years later I was talking with a local golf instructor about our most challenging student’s. He started telling me about a guy that would get very furious after hitting a bad shot and yell F***! I asked him, was his name Judge? He told me, yeah after 6 month’s I had to ask the guy to leave and don’t let the door hit you on the way out. The point of the story. Your mind set is everything. If you are in a negative mind set you will always have negative experiences. Dear students, if you want to be a good student STAY positive through the good and the bad. Focus on the process of your swing change. Let your bad shot’s go and move on.
Comentários