Self-coaching

The Rules of Self-coaching

With all the golf information out there, it is difficult not to go down the rabbit hole of self-coaching. Self-coaching should absolutely be a skill you develop, but it requires a lot of awareness and baseline technical knowledge of the golf swing. We do not want to misattribute a root cause. To that end, here are some rules to help us ensure that we remain objective and work towards continuous improvement.

Rules of Self-coaching: 1. Define and track your goals 2. All practice sessions must have an intention 3. Separate observation from judgment 4. Keep coaching off the course 5. Imitation can be educational but it should not be the end goal 6. Change takes time

Rule 1: Define and track your goals

Why do you play golf? Why do you want to get better? What does ‘better’ look like?

Our goals must be actionable. ‘Be a scratch golfer’ may be a long term goal, but it alone is not an actionable goal; it is too abstract. We need actionable major goals and a set of supporting goals. Ideally, all of these should be SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound.

There are so many skills that go into playing golf. The better we can define our goals, the more we will be able to practice. While there is only so much technical practice that we can do, we can also physically and mentally train. Even if increased flexibility or strength training doesn’t immediately support your goals, it reduces the likelihood of injury and will probably benefit your swing in the long run. We can also add in a visualization and/or mindfulness practice.

The better we understand what our long-term goal(s), the more skills we can work on. While 10,000 hours doesn’t guarantee mastery, knowing that all skills can be improved with the right practice is powerful. So dig deep into those goals and figure out earlier on what it really takes to achieve them.

Figure out how to track your progress. Seeing progress over time can really help with longer term goals and this made easier by achieving shorter term goals that build into those major goals. The data we get from shot trackers like Arccos and Shot Scope is fantastic. But the easy or popular metrics are not your only options. Of course, we want a balance of what is reasonable to track; golf is meant to be fun so don’t sacrifice all the enjoyment for data.

Rule 2: All practice sessions must have an intention

Some days it’s fun to go to the range and just hit a bucket of balls. Take all the complication of scoring and practice and targets and everything else that gets in the way of just smashing that little ball. Then you get some of those super crispy shots that feel effortless and time slows down as you watch that ball take a perfect path. But that isn’t practice.

Practice sessions should be guided by known weaknesses and/or a training plan. If you don’t have a set of goals, it’s time to do some self-evaluation. When your practice has a purpose, is supporting a goal, it has more value to you and will be more effective.

Even that pre-game warmup bucket should have an intention; it should be helping to get into play mode and seeing what your swing is doing today.

Rule 3: Separate observation from judgment

Go to any driving range and you are likely to hear someone criticizing their shots. Sometimes it a groan but more often it is something like ‘dammit’ or ‘that was awful!’ These same players are not saying ‘great shot!’ every time they hit a decent one–they are focused on the negative. They’re not practicing golf, they’re practicing getting upset.

We all get frustrated or surprised by a bad shot. But that should be the exception. When you are practicing–and playing–it is fine to review what happened and try to figure out the why.

You don’t always have to find something positive to say, but you should definitely be acknowledging what went well. We are scientists running experiments. This holds true not just for the shot mechanics, but also your mind.

For meaningful change, we need to target the real issues. “You suck” is not an objective review that is going to help us figure out how to suck less. Realizing that we weren’t holding the target in mind, or didn’t let our eyes settle… If you do have that negative self-talk, work on it first. It is noisier than any swing fault. And the quieter our mind, the better we are able to listen to our bodies.

Rule 4: Keep coaching off the course

Should go without saying that this doesn’t apply to an actual practice round.

It’s important to review your shots and identify weaknesses in our game. Beating ourselves up over one mishit is not helpful. Carrying a bad shot forward is self-destruction.

If we can triage a swing fault while playing, great. Quick fix and play on, it sort of becomes a swing thought for the round. But playing golf is not the time to work on getting better. Play golf, and then look at what the issues were and come up with a plan to address them.

If we are endlessly tinkering with our swing, we are practicing swing tune-up, not playing golf. There are few individuals who seem to feed off this mindset; it keeps them focused on the shot and not the result which can be helpful. For most golfers, it is a nicer way of self-criticizing.

It also tends to manifest as fixating on whatever the swing fault du jour is. This means that other issues with your game will likely be glommed over.

If you do play golf with your coach (cannot recommend this enough), just play golf; talk about their coaching insights during your next lesson. They will be helping you more if they see your actual game. You need to be player mode for this to happen, not student mode.

Rule 5: Imitation can be educational but it should not be the end goal

There’s nothing original in your swing, but your combination of swing elements is original. Use imitation as a tool and stay original. Experimenting with positions and seeing if imitation can help you better understand a swing element can be helpful. But that piece needs to either be incorporated into your swing or used as a temporary tool.

If there was an ideal swing, wouldn’t more pros have more similar swings? We all have different bodies. Part of the beauty of golf is that you don’t win with a pretty swing nor a pretty ball flight–it is all where the ball stops. How it got there doesn’t count. If you skull every shot and can consistently hit your targets, it may not be ideal nor pretty, but it gets the job done.

The asterisk on ‘ideal swing’ is that conceptually there is a perfect swing based on our biomechanics and the assumed goal of ‘perfect contact for that club to maximize distance.’ Fascinatingly, while we are great at replicating the ball strike, the rest of the swing has variety. Even outside our bodies there are elements forcing variety on the shot result. The golf swing robots are impacted by aerodynamic chaos, meaning different shot results despite a consistent mechanical swing.

There’s also imitation within the imitation. Golf influencers are hungry for content, so when one influencer covers a topic, others are likely to do the same. As consumers, this appears to identify trends, we create an illusion of authenticity. But if you’re paying attention, you can generally see that one influencer read a book from 15 years ago and found a new way to describe an old topic that is well known. Add in AI generated titles to optimize SEO (i.e., 96% of golfers fail to do this… and it is costing them dozens of strokes per round! Or, I struggled with X until I discovered Y) and curiosity wins nine times out of ten.

Rule 6: Change takes time

When we are experimenting with our game, it is important to repeat the experiment on different days. Just like our swing changes daily on the course, different changes may feel different on another day. By increasing the variety of what we experiment with, we are building our awareness of swing mechanics, body mechanics, and body awareness.

Don’t just hammer through the reps; know that practice with focus is quicker than mindless repetition. Work in short, strong bursts–a practice session with a dedicated focus that informs what we are practicing is vital to effective learning. A short practice session aligned to a goal is going to be more effective than hitting 300 balls without a goal.

Outro

My coach once said, “I want you to be your own coach, I’m just a translator helping you get there.” Find yourself a coach like that–one that believes in you and wants to maximize your enjoyment of the game. For so many golfers, the self-analysis and self-reflection that gives purpose to practice and eventually shows up on the course is another hidden aspect of the power of golf.

Embrace the possibility that you can be your own best coach. If you set your goals, stay objective, track your progress, and keep practicing your game will improve.