A couple of years ago I decided I was getting old. Not in a “hike my pants up to my ribs, get the seniors discount on movies, or drive 10 mph under the speed limit in the left lane while wearing a hat” kind of old (seriously, old men in hats are some of the worst drivers on the roads. Pay attention next time you’re out and about and you’ll see what I mean). I’m talking about an “I’m not at the bar scene any more and am proud of my lawn” kind of old. The ripe age where home ownership, retirement savings, and going to bed at 10pm are the kind of excitement that gets me going.

As such, I started golfing.

This fine sport from the same people who brought you curling is all the rage among old folks. I mean, the average age at any golf course is probably 40 or 50, and that by no means is old to itself, but there’s some serious outliers in there on the upper end that skew it for guys in their 30’s like me. These are the guys who have 4 hours on an afternoon to kill without worrying about family, house maintenance, or spending time with their wives, who are conveniently on their fourth vodka tonic of the day and eyeing up the cabana boy like a Rottweiler eyes up a fresh sirloin.

I figured I would give it a try as a way of enjoying some outdoor time in the summer, and seeing as how Edmonton has absolutely no hills to climb or anything that I would do in BC, golf seemed enticing. I bought a set of clubs, some reasonably cheap shoes, and occasionally go out to the driving range or for a quick 9 holes here and there. Once in a while I get in a full 18 holes and fall asleep before dinner.

In a given year, I’ve been lucky to get in 5 rounds. Complicating the fact is that most courses are only open for about 6 months each year around the snow, which means getting out once a month is only giving me 6 times a year. I’m not going to make the PGA tour anytime soon.

That being said, I’ve made some good progress in my swing. I’ve learned how to keep my wrists fairly solid so I’m not hooking or slicing on every single shot, and I can hold a finish pose like no one’s business. By not trying to kill the ball, amazingly I have way more control, and I would rather hit a straight 200 or 250 than try to find my ball 3 holes over after crushing it 400 with a nasty slice.

 

So yesterday, as it is now officially t-shirt and shorts weather, I decided to take an hour or so on my day off and hit the local public golf course and see what the driving range looked like. I grabbed an extra large bucket of balls ($10. Cheap entertainment for an hour), a bottle of water, and headed over.

My goal was to just try to make consistent contact, and try to aim it relatively well without trying to look like a meathead weight lifter who couldn’t turn his hips. I managed to do alright for myself, hitting a few driver shots to 250 with relative straightness, and also managed to shank a few into the dirt and almost whacked the guy next to me in the back of the head with another. I don’t think yelling fore works all that well in the driving range, but I gave it a go.

In the other stall beside me, a guy was taking his wife or girlfriend through her very first experience with golf. Using his clubs. To set the scene, he was about 4 or 5 inches shorter than she was, and she was looking every bit the nervous first timer on the golf course. Being the inquisitive type, I listened in on their co-ed teaching experiment.

Every time she went to hit the ball, he would follow up by saying what she did wrong when the ball didn’t magically fly off the tee. Then he would try to cue her on something different. Essentially, every time she swung, he told her to think about something completely different than the last time, but then brought back some good old chestnuts from previous cues to make sure she kept them in her mind. By the end of the bucket, she was starting to make contact, but she was almost paralyzed by analysis every time she tried to swing.

Golf is an incredibly complex activity. It’s simple enough in theory, but then again so is Communism. The application of each is where the waters get a little muddy. For one Communism allows for the ruling government to have the possibility of all power, whereas golf has THIS.

Considering the number of moving joints involved, the timing and sequenced firing of each section, and the relative force development from each segment in that fluid and concentrated manner can cause some big mental blocks to go up when you’re trying to knock that stupid little white ball around.

 

Interestingly, the body can only process a couple of cues at a time. Typically, I find most people can only process three things at once. Consider a deadlift. The movement is fairly simple, once you get the hang of it. But while learning, you have to think about foot position, foot spacing, shin angle, hip positioning, spinal position, shoulders compressed down, chest up, chin back, breathing, core stability, driving the hips, making sure your shin doesn’t track forward when your hips press, not blacking out or soiling yourself, and then once you lock out, giving the official rapid fire nod to everyone around to you let them all know you GOT THIS, MAN!!!!!

But when starting, most people will only process 3 things at once. I usually focus on the big rocks first. Get your spine straight, stick your butt out, and then brace your core before you pull. If you can get those three things, we can proceed. I’ll usually have someone do a few dozen reps in this manner before we add something else to it, regardless of whether the other stuff is perfect or not. I don’t want to overwhelm them, much like the guy at the driving range was doing with his wife or girlfriend.

Cueing her on everything under the sun was like having a first grader, then asking them questions a 5th grader would know, then a 10th grader, then a 1st grader, and finally a 12th grader. She’s not ready for all that just yet.

Golf is all about reps. If you hit a bucket of balls at the driving range today, you may have tried to change one or two small things, but most of it was pretty much repetition. If you tried to change something every time you swung the club, you would never get into a groove and would wind up falling apart at the end of the day. Much like skilled movement (complex lifts included), it’s all about reps and grooving the motor pattern. Once you’ve taken a few thousand swings, you can start tinkering with a few small variables.

For the girl at the golf course. I would have started by trying to get her to not chop down on the ball or lean away from it on her wind up, and also work on keeping her head centered over the ball instead of looking around. From there, I would just get her to slowly make contact with the ball to get used the swing and after a few dozen successes, we could add in some additional aspects.

Again, I’m far from a golf pro, but I can help people learn how to move. Most of the time by focusing on less and working on making that automatic, you can see bigger success than by trying to focus on more and struggling to keep it all together. When you’re having trouble with a movement, take it apart and work on one or two components of it, and try to perfect those. Once you do, move on to the next step in the process, and never forget that it’s a process. Learning is rarely automatic.

A very cool little book that talks about how different people learn and how to best interact with them on a teaching basis is I’m Really Listening Even If I’m Not Looking At You: Lean how our brains work with our senses by Dr. Karen Otazo. Motor learning was by far one of my most favorite courses in university, and this book brought back some great concepts and expanded a few I wasn’t even aware of when I was in school. The differences in whether someone responds best to auditory or tactile stimulation can make a big difference in how quickly they learn a new skill, and can help you become a better teacher and even learner. At less than $10 for a paperback, it’s a steal of a deal through Amazon.