Practice makes perfect - most of the time...

Anyone who plays this game, or sport, or recreation, or whatever you call it - knows how frustrating it is.

I've always found that I've been the most motivated to practice, take coaching, sort out my golf kit and work on my game when I've been playing poorly.  There's huge satisfaction in getting your game back on track and knowing that it's chiefly because of the time and effort you've invested in yourself.  

I can still clearly remember the feeling gained as a junior, spending hours and hours at Glen Gorse golf club in Leicestershire, hitting balls until dark and seeing the improvements. I used to write down what I worked on every day, how long I practiced and tried desperately to record the feeling in words and diagrams of how a particular discovery that lead to a better shot felt, in order to better replicate it in the future.

I still do a similar thing and for a long time, I've recorded on my phone any swing thoughts or feelings that make a difference to me.  If they don't work in the future, they get taken off the list, so I'm left with what I think of as a 'Toolbox of Fixes' that have stood the test of time and are my own blueprint to consistency. Lots of the notes wouldn't make sense to anyone else but if they work, they work!

Of course, this game always wins in the end which is why the list is important - it's not a list of 'how to play golf' - it's a list of 'how to fix things' and you can only fix what's not working.

A good example occurred this weekend as one of our consistent trophy wielders, Jon Brookes, experienced both emotions in quick succession - the satisfaction of successful effort and the game of golf putting us back in our place!

Firstly, not one, but two visits to the practice area were undertaken before the medal, to hit iron shots and calibrate his perfect combination of ball position and hand position to eradicate a troublesome shot.  The result was a tidy collection of high flighted balls struck sweetly into the centre of the practice green.  With a mixture of trepidation, hope and confidence, he stepped onto the first tee and shortly afterwards left the green with a solid par four under his belt.  

Alas, a lack of trust on the second tee sent the ball flying towards out of bounds but a more confident swing swept his provisional off the tee and as the ball somehow trickled into the trees on the left, any flicker of stress quickly melted away as the knowledge that his newly discovered 'secret sauce' was about to be served.  

A swashbuckling 4 wood soon dispatched the ball with ease around the foliage, against the run of the land and settled impressively onto the front of the putting surface.  What a perfect day for golf it now seemed, how lush the fairway looked as he strode down the centre of it and how he pitied the struggling golfers who were due to finish in the pot bunker on the right - if only they had the sportsman's ability to correct their game like he did on this glorious day!

He then 6-putted for a TEN. Oh well...