Progress is not Linear
When we are working on our game it is normal and should be expected that our performance will decrease in the near term. This Sunday I shot 83 from the Black (tips) tees at my home course. Though the score was not what I wanted, there was noticeable progress in other areas.
During my practice session on Friday, I spent a lot of time exploring and developing balance, tempo, and tension awareness. I tried to bring this awareness to the course on Sunday. The results were promising even though the score wasn’t. It’s important to see the good our work is doing even though results might not be there yet. As such I’m going to do this round review a little bit differently. I’m not going to focus on where I was gaining or losing strokes, but whether the previous practice session was effective. This will help to inform future practice and our process.
My main focus during the round was to maintain good tempo and rhythm, on each and every shot. To help facilitate this I was taking two tempo practice swings behind the ball with my feet together. It is difficult to over swing and get out of rhythm when your feet are so close as your balance is decreased and you risk falling over. I then tried to bring this balance and tempo into the shot and the results were encouraging. The distance I was hitting my irons was greater and the quality of strike felt much better. I even had several approach shots that ended up past pin high. I have really struggled getting shots to the hole over the past couple years so this was encouraging. I wouldn’t say that I was hitting my iron long, but rather I was getting the distance out of them that I believed that I should. Though my proximity wasn’t great, which led to the higher score it was validating to begin to strike my irons consistently. Through more reps the proximity should start to tighten up a bit more and more birdies will be had.
Similar to my proximity, I struggled with putting mainly due to my speed control early in the round. I was hitting my start lines but just hitting the putts too hard. This led to some tentative strokes later in the round and I didn’t really make much all day. Like with my full swing I was again focusing on maintaining a good tempo. This led to me actually putting a better roll on the ball which led to the speed issues. Again this is an area where performance was down for a single day, but in the long run will be beneficial.
Another benefit I saw while playing was that I could feel what the club and my body were doing much better on both good and bad swings. Knowing these feelings will help me in the learning process as I continue to make better swings more consistently. Building this base of tempo and balance is critical and soon the scores should begin to drop.
It is important to look at other metrics besides your score or handicap when working on your game as often short term performance decreases. Actually evaluate the results of the work put in to see if they’re achieving the gains you want. If they are, then eventually the scores and handicap will come down. In the case of balance and tempo for me, I know this is an area in which I need to get better at as shown by the good things that happened in this round. I will continue to focus on these fundamentals as I continue my Process.
The Process 