Understanding isn't Knowing...

To understand something does not mean you know how to do it. When it comes to learning an activity like a golf swing, you don't need more information to get better, you don't need more understanding to lower your handicap, you need more awareness. I am not saying information isn't useful, because it is but when you experience something fully, when you can distinguish one action from another and how they create different results, that's moved beyond understanding information into actual knowing, and that kind of knowing doesn't fit in a book or belong only in your mind.

Fred Shoemaker said it best in his book Extraordinary Golf when he wrote, "If something is only in your head and not in your body, you don't own it, and you can't really trust it."Something to check out if you want more on this from the man himself: Fred Shoemaker YouTube interview

The kind of learning required to develop your golf swing is the very same kind we are born with, the kind that allowed us to learn how to walk and trust that ability so much so we don't need any "walking thoughts" to get us through the day.

It's simply ACTION, AWARENESS, RESPONSE. Move, notice what happens, then respond accordingly.

Much of the teaching I see going on skips over the awareness part of this biologically necessary feedback loop that allows us to learn actions and motor skills naturally... I find this absolutely baffling. If someone has NO AWARENESS of how they are moving and you ask them to move differently it's like asking someone to give you directions over the phone without first knowing where you are. It's hard to get anywhere and a lot easier to get lost.

Experience is the key here, and your ability to be present during your practice and play is the access to greater, faster learning. Now, one of the reasons learning to walk was such a breeze for most of us was because we didn't understand language so there was no judgment coming from our parents, or from ourselves. We could fall over again and again so we could gain the awareness necessary to find balance. So in order to really discover what's possible, judgment needs to be removed from the equation. It generally only takes about two swings in order for most people to go away from their instincts, to start judging, manipulating, trying, remembering etc, and it becomes a struggle to learn until they are given the opportunity to return to the foundation for which we were all gifted as human beings. If you understand what I am saying here that's great, but don't stop there, get to KNOWING it!


" The love of learning does not have to escape us just because we have become adults, actually, our capacities to grow and develop very well may depend on it" -Brandon Richardson, PGA

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