This past weekend I went golfing with my good friend Andy. Before hitting the course we hit the driving range. He wanted to work on my iron shots and chipping, which have been all over the place lately. So, we did what needed to be done, we started from scratch. He showed me how to swing my irons as if I’ve never golfed before. He had me start with the basics.
The first thing he did was pull out his phone and show me photos of Ernie Els, who has a similar build to me, and showed me how he stands. That’s how I should look, he said.
He had me address the ball. When I lined up to take my shot he put a club behind my heels and asked me to step away and take a look where I was aiming. When I stepped back and looked down, my alignment was way off. There’s no way I could have hit the ball where I thought I was going to hit it.
We often think about our goals and the road ahead and we think we have a good idea of what we’re doing, but we don’t take a step back to see where we’re really aiming. That’s why when someone says something we deem as negative we get upset. They may be stating the obvious. But, it isn’t to us because they have a different perspective.
We worked on hitting the ball next. He had me take a baseball swing with the club. That’s natural for me. The club just comes around. Same thing with it when it comes in contact with the ball. It’s natural. It’s like a pendulum. If it goes up, it’ll come down and you don’t need to reinvent anything.
He asked me to toss a ball out into the range. He asked how I could do that so well. Why didn’t I drop the ball or mess up? It’s because I didn’t think about it, I just did it. When we over-think things we’re not loose, we’re tight and constricted. He gave me advice that Ernie Els uses before hit strikes the ball; he does a little wiggle of his shoulders to make sure he’s loose.
We went to practice my chipping. Again, we just let the pendulum do it’s thing. I don’t have to use my wrists to strike the ball. I form a triangle with my arms and swing the club back and forth. Further back to hit the ball farther, not so much to hit it shorter. The physics of the club will make the ball go in the air. I don’t have to worry about anything but the triangle and how far back I take the club.
When we went to the golf course, he gave me reminders before every iron shot or chipping scenario. The lesson earlier helped me put together my first complete round of golf in a while. It was the most satisfying round of golf I’ve had in a year.
If you’re stuck and you don’t know what to do and nothing seems familiar, starting from scratch might be the answer. The more you get involved in a project that doesn’t seem to be moving, start over. Re-learning what you already know might make you see things in a different way, and lead to more personal fulfillment and success.
Have you ever tried to start from scratch? What was the result?
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