Golf Is Not Intellectually Solvable

[iacas]

Nobody's ever become a good golfer simply by knowing , intellectually, what they need to do. You can't take a guy who's never played golf before and have him breaking 80 simply by understanding, intellectually, how to hit perfect golf shots, putts, etc.

Ben Hogan dug it out of the dirt. The meaning of that has been twisted various ways over time, but nobody has (as far as I know) twisted it to mean he simply "thought about it a lot." The very act of digging implies physical effort.

Golf appeals to intellectual people more than other sports. On its face, it appears to be a game that you can conquer with brain power.

It is not. Until Uri Geller is capable of moving a ball from a tee into a hole, as we wrote for the first sentence of LSW, "Golf is Hard."

It's not hard like advanced calculus or string theory.

It's hard like chopping down hundreds of mature oak trees or running a marathon hard. It's physical effort hard. It's "make something move 100+ MPH within very tight tolerances" hard.

A lot of golfers seem to believe that if they can figure the swing out intellectually they'll have a huge leg up. They're wrong, and while they're busy thinking about the golf swing, someone out there is passing them by, digging, digging, digging.

There's really not a lot to figure out. As Moe Norman said, "you hit this dumb guy with this dumb guy out that way." The trick is in training your body to DO that.

We see this in students from time to time. They come for a lesson. Through the course of the lesson they learn what we want them to work on, why, and how. They often say "I got it."

"I got it" typically means one of two things. The good students are saying "I understand how I need to spend the next three months (or whatever) training my body to perform." The poor students are saying "I understand it what my instructor wants me to do, and I can do it right now most of the time, so my work here is done."

One is looking to the future, and the digging that's to come. One thinks the hole is already dug… and promptly falls right into it.

The bad student treats golf like it's learning long division, a skill that you can learn without moving a muscle. The good student realizes that golf is a sport . Golf is not “solvable” by thinking about it. You have to put in the physical effort. You have to train your body.

One final bit: consider the time difference. To learn something intellectual takes comparatively little time.

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P.S. Clearly I'm not saying that you should not think. You need to know what to work on, and why, and how. However, that is a very, very, very small piece of the puzzle. Find a good instructor, learn the what/why/how, and then get out your shovel.

[billchao]

Good post, @iacas . I find myself trapped in that sometimes. I'll think, ok this is what I need to do, and then expect it to happen. Doesn't work that way. I had the opportunity to work with both Erik and @david_wedzik this year. Great guys and instructors; I'd recommend them to anybody. Anyway, as the season winds down, I've come to realize that I failed to fully implement either of their lessons. I listened, I understood, and I digested it, but I didn't do enough for my body to learn it. Don't fall into that pit. You don't "get it" until you start doing it. Until then, you have only "learned it."

[newtogolf]

I agree, I spend a lot of time on the range trying to "fix" bad habits I developed in my pre-instruction years learning to swing a golf club.  Things like working on my takeaway so that I don't take the club too far outside or hinge my wrists too early.

Knowing what you're doing wrong and practicing enough so that when you're under pressure on the course you don't fall into old bad habits are two different things.

[cedrictheo]

Spot on @iacas . In my experience change takes lots of energy... A few days of being very uncomfortable followed by a couple months of focused repetitions.

[ChrisPietersen]

Reading this I realized something. You guys in America have it hard with snow in the winter, where all you can do really is read and learn, but you can't really practice what you learn. Lucky to live in South Africa, can play year round, which is a big advantage for learning and improving! Very good read @iacas ! It certainly changed my way of thinking.

[Lihu]

Reading this I realized something. You guys in America have it hard with snow in the winter, where all you can do really is read and learn, but you can't really practice what you learn.

Lucky to live in South Africa, can play year round, which is a big advantage for learning and improving!

Very good read @iacas! It certainly changed my way of thinking.

What's this "snow" to which you are referring?

[ChrisPietersen]

What's this "snow" to which you are referring? :-D

Don't really know how to describe it! ;-) I've seen it only once in my whole life! :-P

[mchepp]

Really really good post particularly the portion of what good students do versus the bad ones. As a student I would like to know more about what the good ones do versus the bad ones. Really great to see that difference.

[CarlSpackler]

Very true. The same is true for many endeavors. I've had kids come to me for drum lessons thinking they are going to jump on the kit an play like Neil Peart. It takes time, dedication, PRACTICE to learn anything physical. Drumming seems easy, but I can assure you that drumming is hard.

[natureboy]

Definitely! Knowledge is usually overrated. Cut twice, measure once.

[Jameson]

I think, I´m stuck with this issue at the moment. I love golf, I read a lot of it, and get the false feeling that I´m improving. The truth is that my head knows how to swing, the most important points and the best tips, but my muscles not. Or maybe, not when I´m under pressure (in the course, in a real game), where I feel like I suddenly 'forget' all my good stuff practise during the week, and go back to my old (and bad) habbits, just because it feels safer for me...

-Golf is Hard-

[Abu3baid]

Is there a sport out there we can honestly say is intellectually solvable?

[nevets88]

Is there a sport out there we can honestly say is intellectually solvable?

But based on perception, at least my limited perception, it's the one most people try and solve by reading and thinking. I would guess golf has the most written about it with regards to technical details. I've never had a batting/skiing/tennis/snowboarding instructor refer to my scapula or supination, making me feel like I'm talking to a chiropractor. I wonder if any sports has a book equivalent to The Golfing Machine, that's so abstruse.

[newtogolf]

Is there a sport out there we can honestly say is intellectually solvable?

I don't think so, but there aren't as many books written about how to play other sports.  If you go online or to a bookstore (if you can find one these days) and look in the sports section, most books on other sports are about individuals or moments in the sport not instructional books.

Golf has 100's of books all claiming to be the missing piece a golfer needs to lower their handicap, whether it be improving ones swing or their mental game.

[nevets88]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Abu3baid

Is there a sport out there we can honestly say is intellectually solvable?

I don't think so, but there aren't as many books written about how to play other sports.  If you go online or to a bookstore (if you can find one these days) and look in the sports section, most books on other sports are about individuals or moments in the sport not instructional books.

Golf has 100's of books all claiming to be the missing piece a golfer needs to lower their handicap, whether it be improving ones swing or their mental game.

Not to mention the academic papers and writing out there, granted it exists for other sports, but there's so much of it for golf. And you have instructors like Kevin Miyahara, some of his pieces go way over my head.

[Lastpick]

I try to attempt to only have one swing thought when playing.  Any more than that and golf becomes cluttered and impossible.  I am puzzled as to why I can remember and repeat bad habits so easily, yet the good shoots seem to disappear into the past.  I also wonder why so many of us golfers think that we are not entitled to shoot a career round.  Doubt is the enemy of progress.  So few of us stay in the moment.

[iacas]

But based on perception, at least my limited perception, it's the one most people try and solve by reading and thinking.

That's it precisely.

[CarlSpackler]

Is there a sport out there we can honestly say is intellectually solvable?

Chess.