Golf is a challenging game to learn, especially for adults who have never done it before. I’m a proponent of learning by imitation. It’s how children learn. Kids can learn to play musical instruments like crazy because they are sponges for training. They can reproduce what they see and hear in practice. Adults aren’t so fortunate. We have outlived some of our natural sponginess.
In the 1950s, linguist Noam Chomsky proposed (rightly) that children had a built-in “language acquisition device” that enabled them to learn their own and other languages very fast and very easily. It’s much harder to learn a second language as an adult. Sophisticated technology and digital electronics, like smart phones and computers, are similar in that way. The older we get, the harder they are to get the hang of. But take heart. You can still learn golf and play it well. Here are some learning strategies you need to know.
First, watch all the golf you can on television. Pay close attention to the slow motion camera displays and commentary on their golf swings. Make notes. As the analysists talk about “spine angles,” “shoulder turn” and a “strong grip,” you may be lost at first, but after a while it will start to make sense. You can start to mimic the posture and the moves really good golfers make. Pay attention to how these superior players go through a planned routine before they take the club away, and do it every single time. Their target is precise and they stay focused. Note the way they line up each putt, and how little time it takes once they get set. Being an accomplished golfer takes an exacting mindset, an extraordinary amount of practice and a lot of patience.
In my view, the biggest challenge for beginner golfers who want to build a solid, correct swing and game is acquiring a sense of what a golf swing should feel and look like. One’s ability to discern the skeletal-muscular movements of any motor skill varies from person to person. This falls into a realm that experts have called “kinesthetic intelligence.” Some humans are more adept than others at interpreting instructions about how to move their bodies to perform physical tasks. Learning the relatively simple movements associated with putting and chipping require minimal large muscles and gross motor coordination.
If you fall into the category of the kinesthetically challenged, take heart. Even klutzes can learn golf and play it well. The secret is observational learning. Pick an expert golfer and imitate his or her swing. Cam Davis (PGA Tour) and Jennifer Kupcho (LPGA tour) are good examples. When you constantly approximate a good golf swing, your swing gradually moves closer to something that will produce really good results. And when you get an expert, like a qualified professional teacher, to provide feedback to you about whether you’re doing it correctly, that is an even more powerful tool for cracking the code for satisfactory golf.
Lastly, read all you can from golf magazines like Golf Digest. Become familiar with the terminology, rules, technology and golf culture. YouTube has virtually unlimited videos of any golfer you want to see. GolfPass at golfpass.com, a Golf Channel/NBC affiliate, offers daily 3- to 5-minute video instruction tips from more than a dozen teachers.
It may be time for you to set your phone up on a tripod or have somebody stand beside you and take some videos of your swing in order for you to see what you are doing, which is another form of valuable feedback. Yogi Berra said it best: “You can observe a lot just by watching.”
