I’m not good at sports.
In every sport I’ve played, I have never been better than the so called “average”.
In basketball, I make 1 out of 35 shot attempts, and in soccer, I rarely score a goal.
So seeing myself fall so in love with the game of golf was really odd.
Where in other sports I lacked the physicality, I made up for with technique with golf.
Every ball I hit, whether it flew or fled, felt like something different to me.
And after countless hours of playing, I realized, golf had taught me more than just about hitting ball after ball, but that it had also taught me a lesson about life.
Everything started when my dad invited me out for a game of golf on a cold Friday night.
I had just finished practicing with my band, and I felt exhausted.
But for some reason, I felt a few gears move in my heart, like there was something pulling me towards it.
And so I caved in.
10 minutes had passed, then 30, then 55, until suddenly it had been 2 hours.
Most of the balls I hit went sideways, in fact, the rest rolled slowly past the grass pitch under me.
But even so, I felt more euphoric than I had ever felt.
Like this was the sport for me.
After a few more visits to the pitch, alongside with a few friends of mine, I slowly got better and better.
Until my father pulled me aside.
Even though I hit some of the golf balls, I was still missing most of them.
But from every single mistake, came an opportunity of learning through my father, who beheathed his wisdom onto me.
And every time he did so, he was always right.
Every time I implemented his pieces of advice. I started hitting golf ball after golf ball perfectly, as if my potential had suddenly been unlocked.
Slowly though, I saw that this pattern had coincided with my actual life. That some of the teachings I had learnt from golf could actually transverse to real life.
- Don’t Rush
Early on I rushed in hitting the ball a lot. I wasn’t checking how I held the golf club, the way I had positioned my feet, I didn’t really care about any of that.
But the only thing rushing led to was more mistakes.
The same applies to the real world. The more you rush, the more likely it is for you to miss the target.
Most times, before putting your all into something, try checking if you’re in the position to do so, or if you’ve prepared yourself enough first.
2. Put In The Hours
I wasn’t exactly keen on indulging hours of golfing content, fearing that it was going to interfere too much with my style, and that it was going to mess the style up.
But what made up for the lack of hours I put in to understanding golf, my father put in.
He had learnt every crook and nanny of golf, learning every movement to it’s core.
And that’s what eventually helped the both of us grow the most.
In life, if you aren’t willing to put in the hours, you won’t be able to improve exponentially, or to beat your opponents.
3. Focus On Technique
And now to the most important lesson in my opinion.
Technique over result.
I hit 20/100 balls well. I didn’t know what was wrong. My form and stance was good, I held the stick correctly, I had the correct swing, but I still kept grounding or topping.
After a few buckets my dad came up to me, told me that I was still making one mistake.
I was too focused on where the ball landed.
Even before I hit the ball I was already looking up to see where it went.
After applying his advice, everything changed.
Since my form was already great, alongside this newfound wisdom I hit every ball exactly the way I wanted to.
The same works in the real world.
It’s important to set goals, or achievements to accomplish.
But if you focus too much on where you’ll end, you’ll start to forget where you are.
And so remember, in the words of my dad;
Don’t focus on where the golf ball lands, focus on perfecting your technique. If you’ve perfected technique, the ball will follow suit.
