9. Golf improvement requires an understanding not only of what we want to learn but of the learning process as well

February and March is the time of the year for some golfers to think about having a swing check up and assess the state of their golf health in readiness for the new season. Bad habits do set in from time to time and as everyone knows, if left untreated they bring our games down.

The process of breaking these bad habits and making changes is far from easy. In virtually every case during a lesson, a player will make, on several occasions, the changes we are looking for. Come their next lesson though the "Old muscle memory" has re- asserted itself in a case of "Better the devil we know than the one we are not to sure about". A good swing when first experienced feels very strange so consequently hard to trust. This can be very off-putting for the pupil who usually thinks the whole thing is a waste of time. But take heart, this is a normal human response to skill learning. When you understand how we learn, you will see that it works very much on what I call a "Rubber Band Principle".

So let’s see how this principle works. In the first lesson, I would metaphorically grab the person and pull them into the new experience we call the "desired change”. This is basically "stretching" the person into different territory to the one they are familiar with. However, once they are left alone to practice over the coming days, the subconscious longing for a comfort zone means they pull back or contract back to the original swing. If we had an observer taking notes at these lessons, he would probably record that on the second session, the pupil is back at square one and will have to start again but they would be wrong. Likewise, the pupil thinking they cannot do it would also be wrong. On the face of it, nothing appears to have changed but something has changed because this little stretch into new territory has left them with a new experience and awareness of where they want to be. It now takes much less prompting from me in the second session to get the pupil back to where they where during the best bits of the first lesson. I have to stretch them again but there is less resistance this second time.

The process may happen 2 or 3 times more but before long, the player becomes able to "stretch" themselves into the change. If you keep on stretching a rubber band enough times, it loses its ability to contract and this is how learning takes place. It is through repetition that the skill is learned but this requires an understanding not only of what we want to learn but of the learning process as well. If you have decided to get your game into shape in the coming months, stay committed to see it through, don’t get despondent and keep focused on the long term goal. The following quote will hopefully give you some encouragement.

"There are costs and risks to a program of action, but they are far less than the Long range risks and costs of comfortable inaction". John. F. Kennedy