-What separates the best from the rest-
Of all the golf questions anyone has ever asked me, this one might be the one that excites me the most: “How do I become great?”
After many years of training for performance, trust me, no one wakes up wanting to be mediocre. MANY work hard enough to move on from mediocre and become great, and yet… they don’t. It really can be befuddling.
However, it isn’t as complicated as people think— but it is very difficult.
In college, I improved an average of a shot per year, going from a 75 shooter freshman year to a 71 shooter senior year. That’s pretty strong for a four-year clip and if I could guarantee those kinds of results for every person, I could charge $10,000 an hour.
Here’s my secret: I just figured out how I played the game MY best way.
I’ve now studied from great teachers, instructors, mentors, and coaches, and without exception, whenever the right answers are found, they all fall into a few distinct categories, which I’ll share. Let me also, quickly reference a business book that had a profound impact on my journey as well, “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. Many of the concepts he writes apply perfectly to sports and organizations as a whole, buy it. Read it. You’re welcome.
So, without much ado, here are the skills or focuses needed to go from good to great.
“Know Thyself”- Socrates. It starts here. You have to begin to understand who you are as a person, a practicer, a player, a competitor, a relaxer, a teammate, etc. When you do, then you can create a plan for the direction you want to go.
This takes a heck of a lotta work. When you start to analyze what shots you hit when you’re angry, excited, pressing, relaxed, or desperate, then you can start to recognize situations and begin to either create more of them or avoid the ones that create huge challenge for you.
Stay curious, and embrace failure. Twin to rule #1 about knowing thyself, you have to maintain curiousity. Curiousity about what happens when you try X, or you feel Y. Those who look at situations and are curious are those who solve the equations.
With that, you also need to be ok with failure, in fact, you need to be more than ok with it. You need to hunt it. When you take on challenges you are likely to fail, you’ll find that you are starting to learn what it might take to accomplish these humongous tasks. And that will lead to growth.
Identify the thing you can do better than anyone on the planet. Can you make 10-15 foot putts better than anyone? Can you be the best golfer on the planet at only curving the ball one direction? Can you hit it the straightest? Longest? Best short game player?
When you understand what you can do better than anyone, you can create a competitive advantage. Many millions of dollars and tournaments won have been by guys and gals with only one really exceptional skill. Don’t think you have to be better at every category of the game to actually make it big.
Confront brutal facts, but always believe in your eventual victory. Jim Collins (Good to Great) refers to this as the Stockdale Paradox. Rafael Nadal once said (paraphrase), “You must be brutally honest with yourself during practice, but lie to yourself during matches.”
All they mean is that you have to know where you actually stand in the grand scheme, statistically or versus your competition. If you are atrocious at putting, you need to know that, and be honest about that. If you can’t find a fairway, even if it was as wide as an airplane runway, you need to know that. I’ve seen false confidence and it doesn’t actually help. It sounds nice to say I’m gonna stripe this drive, but if the ball sails over the fence, I don’t actually care how good you felt about that tee shot.
With that, you also need to 1000% believe that you will solve the riddle, and that, with the right plan and action, become the greatest putter the world has ever seen, or you will eventually start picking out mower stripes rather than hoping to hit the fairway. This belief in the eventual mastery and victory allows for the optimism to permeate your game and for all the hard work to eventually take effect.
Do all the little things right. Use discipline to your advantage. The players who flow with the wind, stay fairly stagnant. The players who identify their best skill, know where they stand, believe they will win, and do only things that move them in the direction of better—with ferocious intensity— are the ones who find improvment and ultimately success.
As I said, it’s fairly simple. It’s just not easy. The latest Instagram swing tip, or exercise, sure seems to promise heavy return for little work. But that’s not what happens.
Build a good team, hone in on exactly what it will take to get better, and then stick to it with dogged determination and you can go from mediocre to amazing.
-Michael
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