The devastating news came once more on in early 2021 that golf courses were due to close for the 3rd time due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The safety and wellbeing of the nation is of course the priority but it was proven that playing golf with one other was a perfectly safe form of exercise to the frustration of golfers. Over the Christmas period the golf courses were busier than ever showing how important golf is when living in these restricted times and many were going to make this ‘THE YEAR’ that they reduce their handicap and get really good at golf.
‘New year, new me’, a phrase commonly used during the first week of Jan, but no so much in 2021. With the pandemic worsening, we have to sit tight and hold fire on a lot of the promises and plans we have made to ourselves. This doesn’t, however, stop us from starting and creating good habits for the weeks, months and years ahead, hence the creation of this blog. I want to use this as a platform for writing down thoughts, keeping notes, sharing ideas and helping others as much as possible, whilst also giving a little bit of insight into my life and my golf. Although my diary is busy, playing, coaching, club building and fitting, I hope to start this habit of writing, and maintain it even when it doesn’t seem possible due to time. You never have time, you make time.
Having spent the last 10 days or so since Christmas helping people set goals, create plans and start working towards them, whilst working on my own golf, suddenly we have hit a wall. A wall that stops us playing, that stops us practicing, stops us going to the gym… but it doesn’t stop us from improving. Whilst most people will put the clubs in the cupboard, gym memberships on hold and retire to the sofa for a few months, those that want to get better will find a way, by creating good habits. Outcomes are the lagging results of good processes, if you can start good processes during the tough times of lockdown, they will become the easiest habits with freedom! So what sort of habits are important? Officially a habit is ‘a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up’, a very vague definition, and I want it to be. A habit can be anything you want it to be, it just needs to be something that keeps happening, over and over again.
Here are a few habits that you could try to develop this year, and some of the most important habits that I believe make great players.
Let’s start with the habit of positivity. Yes, being positive can be a habit. Right now, the majority of us have a downward spiral attitude of ‘great, can’t play golf, going to get worse, going to waste this off season, can’t improve at home, going to lose fitness and put on weight etc’. How much effort would it take to turn that around to become ‘Yes, I now have so much time to work on my golf, my off-season is now much longer, more time to improve, more time to learn, more time to get in shape. My golf is going to be so good when we come out of lockdown and the spring rolls around’?. Having a positive attitude and outlook in life is so important, especially right now, but it is also something that is vital when it comes to golf. Golf beats us up, drags us down and teaches us many lessons, but the rewards it brings are worth the struggle. Take the rough with the smooth, accept setbacks and poor results, get over bad shots and turn things into something positive. Make the most of being at home over the next few months.
Planning & being organised. With all the time we have now, there’s not a better year to set some goals if you haven’t before, or set better goals than ever. Set aside half an hour to write some notes on what you’d like to achieve this year, both on and off the course, then, branch out on these notes with a few ways of how you are going to achieve them (you’ll quickly see where new habits are required). You will need to ensure that the goals are not just outcome based but also based on the processes involved. An example being; ‘go to the driving range once a week’ and changing it to ‘planning my range session each week’. Linking back to habits…get into the habit of planning practice sessions, not only will it motivate you and give you purpose to go to the range but it’ll make your practice sessions a much better use of your time, I will go into more detail on this in future. One of the ways you are going to make time to reach the goals and habits you have planned is being organised. For every minute spent organising, an hour is earned.
The final habit that is very suitable during lockdown is to keep moving. Now is not an easy time to exercise, confined to our homes with awful weather outside, it is easy to slip into bad habits with our fitness. One area that is majorly important for golf is how we move and how much we can move. Mobility has a major influence on our golf swing, affecting both how we swing a club but also our susceptibility to injury . A hot topic in golf right now is speed and distance and the ability to move well, move freely and move quickly will really help with this. Some simple stretches performed for just a few minutes a day could make a huge difference. From a motivation perspective, I highly recommend you measure your flexibility the first time you perform an exercise, record it and see how it improves within a few weeks, you’ll be surprised! This will also help to keep it a habit. I will post some links to some basic flexibility exercises but yoga or simple stretches will also work wonders. Please drop me an email if you’d like any help or advice with this stuff.
These 3 habits alone could really help your golf but there are also many more. You’ll notice a theme with the ones I suggested, they need paper. Get yourself a note pad to write down goals and brainstorm, record results, make plans and stay positive. On a personal note, some of the habits i’m looking to change this year are to spend less time on social media, stretch and do cardio at least 3 days a week, prioritise better especially when it comes to friends and family, learn to say no more and be more determined and bullish on the golf course. I will get some notes written down on goal setting in the coming weeks. ‘We first make our habits and then our habits make us’ – John Dryden.
Andy
Andy Thorne - PGA Professional 