Adaptability is Key

Adaptability is Key

By Francesco Possio

A standardized routine, coach, and regular practice set the foundation for your game. However, these elements do not guarantee success, as you will always encounter high variability in terms of game conditions. It would be no fun if the conditions were always the same, right? So what is perhaps the most critical skill for a golfer?

As Mike Rother says with regard to Toyota Kata thinking, it is “the art of adaptability”, the art of adapting very quickly to rapidly changing, unpredictable conditions that matters most. Rather than striving simply for continuous improvement, an expert golfer needs to continuously adapt to external conditions that change at every moment, knowing each shot will be different from any other. It’s no different than any other job, but this need for frequent adaptation is perhaps more obvious on the golf course than elsewhere in life and work.

This is why, along with very important psychological factors, a golf player very rarely reaches maturity before age 30. A lot of practice and learning-by-doing is needed in developing such incredible adaptability.

So where do you start? What’s the most important concept to keep in mind? First, you need to get the fundamentals down (swing). Second, you need to develop the skill of adaptability. It’s not just something that happens! It takes practice, and can only be achieved with a golfer’s continuous play on the course itself. It’s a matter of always striving toward the weekend amateur player’s vision: the perfect golf round of 72 shots!

 

S2 Tip

Rather than striving simply for continuous improvement, an expert golfer needs to continuously adapt to external conditions that change at every moment, knowing each shot will be different from any other.

 

Making an Impact

Ladies European Tour Rookie of the Year Amy Boulden is having an impact off the course as well as on it in her new role as Golf Development ambassador for women and girls. Having come through the Golf Union of Wales system in one of the best amateur careers ever seen in Wales, Boulden is happy to be giving something back. With more than 100 women and girls having turned up for special clinics given by Boulden in Conwy and Carmarthen, Golf Development Wales say the addition of such a high-profile role model is proving to be important. Nice job Amy!

 

In Another’s Words

“There can be no life without change, and to be afraid of what is different or unfamiliar is to be afraid of life.”

– Theodore Roosevelt