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20 Feb 2019 admin

To Be Truly Successful, You Need Grit

By Dr. Michelle Cleere USGTF Contributing Writer Oakland, California

The definition of grit is as follows: “courage and resolve; strength of character.” I am reading Angela Duckworth’s book, Grit – The Power of Passion and Perseverance.  While I always understood this basic concept, Angela’s research in this area explains grit in much more depth.

Her research gives grit life by explaining the secret to success. There’s so much important information in Angela’s book, far too much for this conversation. However, let’s discuss it in relation to mental training.

State of sports today
Over the past ten years, youth sports have changed. We continue to see a rise of youth sports programs in the U.S.  We have pay-to-play sports outside of the public-school system, and now in the schools. And the status of sports is all encompassing. Many kids start playing sports around 4, 5, or 6 years of age and continue to try to play through college or as a professional (which is typically why they were put into the sport at such an early age).

As  a  result,  the  youth’s  identity  hinges  on  their sport  and  the  message  received  from  coaches  and parents.  Kids  are  influenced  by  the  messages  they get  about  being  good,  being  intelligent  and  being perfect,  versus  what  they  did  that  was  good,  how they improved, a new skill they learned, and/or their passion and intent.

Some of the problems associated with it is that youth sports can take over the lives of youths. And this  can  result  in  it  not  being  fun  for  them.  Why? Stress. Pressure. These youths do not have the skills to deal with the pressures.  Not to mention, youths are burnt out by the time they are in middle school and high school because they are playing one sport, year around.

How we currently think about success
Angela’s first statements in her TED Talk piqued my interest:  “What struck me was that IQ was not the only difference between my best and my worst students.  Some  of  my  strongest  performers  did  not have  stratospheric  IQ  scores.  Some of my smartest kids weren’t doing so well.”

Why?  Because  the  smartest,  most  athletic  kids attribute  their  smarts  and  athleticism  to  talent  and aren’t  always  willing  to  persevere  and  be  resilient. Their goal is making sure the outcome is perfect and they are unable to enjoy the process, to be in it. This also means they are unable to deal with challenges and adversity.  They  may  be  okay  dealing  with challenges and adversity the first time, but certainly struggle  and  want  to  give  up  if  it  lasts  longer  than that. So many times, I’ve heard from kids, “I am okay with the first mistake, but if I keep making the same mistake,  I  get  frustrated  and  angry  and  can’t  let  go of it.”

We’ve taught kids to be afraid of making mistakes. Kids who are afraid to fail don’t succeed.

What is actually true about success
“Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not  just  for  the  month,  but  for  years,  and  working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.” Perfectly said. (Source: Grit by Dr. Angela Duckworth.)

Grit shows up in different ways but has one theme – drive:

• •Push through challenges to get your purpose
  
  •Be open to change and growth
  
  •Realize that talent is only a small part of the equation
  
  •Know there is no such thing as perfection and know it sets you up for failure
  
  •Realize there are challenges and it makes you stronger.
  How do we evolve into this new place?
  “So  far, the  best  idea  I’ve  heard  about  building grit in kids is something called ‘growth mindset.’ This is an idea developed at Stanford University by CarolDweck,  and  it  is  the  belief  that  the  ability  to  learn is not fixed, that it can change with your effort. Dr. Dweck  has  shown  that  when  kids  read  and  learn about  the  brain  and  how  it  changes  and  grows  in response  to  challenge,  they’re  much  more  likely  to persevere when they fail, because they don’t believe that  failure  is  a  permanent  condition.  We  need  to measure  whether  we’ve  been  successful,  and  we have to be willing to fail, to be wrong, to start over again  with  lessons  learned.”  (Source:  Grit by Dr. Angela Duckworth.)
  She goes on to the consequences of a fixed mindset.  When  you  have  a  fixed  mindset  about your   ability,   this   leads   to   pessimistic   thinking about  adversity,  giving  up  on  challenges,  and  not attempting them at all. On the other hand, she notes that a growth mindset leads to optimistic self-talk, which leads to perseverance over adversity.
  So to evolve, you need to think growth; you need to understand that you and your actions really can change. Mistakes are not a permanent, evil beast. Mistakes are learning opportunities where you can grow and improve and advance.
  Everyone plays a role in grit: parents, teachers, and coaches
  Everyone  has  a  responsibility  in  whether  kids choose  to  take  the  path  toward  grit  and  a  growth mindset.  From a young age, kids will imitate what we do.  They hear what we say and interpret what they see and internalize it. Does that mean you have to be a perfect parent, teacher, or coach?  No.  But you have to be aware and understand that there are better indirect and direct messages you can send.
  Wise  parenting,  teaching  and  coaching  is  supportive  and  demanding  –  being  able  to  reflect  on something at which a child failed is an opportunity. It is critical to show them that they are still loved after failing and they are celebrated for it.
  I highly recommend the book Grit – The Power of Passion and Perseverance for all parents, teachers, and coaches. It’s a must-read! Thank you, Angela, for your expansive research in this area.
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4 Feb 2019 admin

A Puzzle for the Teacher

By Mark Harman USGTF Course Director Ridgeland, South Carolina

Let me give you a little background about myself. I’ve been teaching golf since 1989 and have been the USGTF national course director since 1993. That’s a long time! In my journey as a teacher, I’ve read many books, had many discussions with other teachers and am involved in a Facebook group where golf teachers from around the world congregate and throw ideas around. I’ve taught everyone from beginners to professionals.

The easy part of teaching is seeing what is wrong and what needs to be corrected. With the vast majority of players, even good ones, there is a clear path to improvement the player must take in order to achieve their goals. But there are still times when a student presents a puzzle that is difficult to solve. I think this happens to all teachers, no matter what their abilities are. This is especially true when the player is an extremely good player, or even a great player, and they want to improve.

The annals of professional golf are littered with players who tried to get better through changing their swings, only to find that what they previously had was what worked best for them. These players never again found the form that made them what they were.

At the USGTF certification classes, we advise prospective teachers that repeatability is more important than conforming to some sort of model. The trick is in figuring out when a student has the most repeatable swing they can execute and changing it will result in making that student worse, even if the changes make the swing more fundamentally correct according to an accepted swing model.

I teach at an indoor facility with a GC Quad from Foresight Sports, a launch monitor that gives me every piece of data about the ball and club that I could ever want. We also use high-speed video with two cameras running simultaneously. Combining the GC Quad with the video, there is absolutely no doubt as to what a particular student is or isn’t doing. Despite all this technology and my years of teaching experience, two dilemmas presented themselves to me recently where there may not be a clear path of what to do. I will present them, along with my thinking about why I took the course of action with each student that I did.

The first involves a young champion golfer who is the best for his age in the entire world. Yes, the entire world. I will not give his accomplishments in order to preserve some sense of anonymity for him. Although I am not his official coach, his father trusts me enough to consult with his son and to give him occasional lessons.

This kid has an ability for golf that is freakish, reminding one of a young Tiger Woods. Whether he becomes a major champion or never makes the tour remains to be seen, but for now he loves the game and is highly motivated. During his swing, he pushes off his right foot with such force that his right heel is well off the ground during the delivery position (club shaft parallel to the ground and butt end of club pointing to the target on the downswing). His father believes he should have his entire foot on the ground at this stage of his swing, as do the vast majority of tour players. The kid is so talented that he is easily able to do anything you ask him to do.

I voted that he keep pushing off his right foot and letting the heel come off the ground well before impact. My reasoning was threefold: 1) his swing repeats; 2) it’s a very natural move that kids make because the club is proportionally heavier to them that it is to adults, and 3) when he kept his right foot on the ground, his swing no longer looked smooth and fluid. His current swing also looks very much like what Justin Thomas does, and so far his career has turned out all right. Supremely gifted golfers also tend to find the swing that works best for them, because they are so in tune with their bodies kinesthetically that they can feel what it takes to hit good golf shots time and time again. My belief is as long as he doesn’t stray from the accepted general fundamentals – and it’s hard to see him doing that – he will continue to develop and improve.

The second dilemma involved a 51-year-old who has a handicap index of +1.3 and wants to get better. He aims with an open stance and his clubhead swing path through impact is approximately four degrees to the right of the target line. He does this because coming down, he drops the clubhead somewhat under the original shaft-plane line he had at address. Swinging in this manner risks “getting stuck” and having to flip and time the hands properly during the release.

He wanted to have a swing that is more on-plane, and during our first lesson we worked on this. I showed him how he needed to do this and the necessary drills. We left it at that. A couple of months later, he came back and had the exact same swing he had prior to the first lesson. I told him that because he did not change his swing in any appreciable manner, he needed to keep what he had: open stance and swinging inside-out. Zach Johnson and Tom Lehman immediately come to mind when you think of current players, not to mention Lee Trevino in the past.

He mildly objected because he wanted a swing that was more “correct.” I told him that his swing path was incredibly consistent, so why change it? The only problem he had was the occasional hook and block, and that was because his grip was too strong. A full release led to a hook and holding off the release led to a block right, so he was attempting to hit it at the target by half-releasing, which is the worst thing you can do. We weakened his left-hand grip slightly and had him fully release, which led to a beautiful little draw. The only problem was because his swing path was so far to the right, the ball kept finishing to the right of the target. Opening up the stance more than he had been doing was the easy solution to that problem. He now was able to fully release without fearing a hook and the ball was now finishing at the target.

Had this student brought a more on-plane swing to me for the second lesson, I would have kept him on that path. But because he didn’t, it seemed that his natural tendency to swing inside-out was too strong for him to overcome. Although the instruction I came up with left the student with a more “incorrect” swing according to presently accepted swing models, it fixed his problem and led to more consistent ballstriking.

Other teachers might have had the young champion golfer keep his right foot on the ground longer, and to keep directing the 51-year-old golfer to swing more on plane – and they may well not be incorrect. When there are multiple courses of possible action to take with a student, take time to think it through and then trust your instincts. Doing so will serve you well when faced with these teaching puzzles.