Golf Lessons – Improve Your Life

The QATSPY Golfer’s Sports Page: Golf Swing Tips

By: Charles W. Boatright

Applying Golf Lessons to Your Life

Golf is a special sport that any person can participate in from age eight to ninety-eight and beyond for a better and fuller quality of life. One reason for golf being a special sport is the life lessons it teaches. Napoleon Hill, Author of the book Think and Grow Rich, stated- Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success. This is the effect of the mental influence of golf has on people, especially young people.

One of the best influences that a parent, guardian, coach, or friend can have on a child is to place a golf club into their hands and a passion for golf in their heart. You will be opening up a whole world of opportunities right into their hands that they can hold onto http://goo.gl/SHHM6T. Golf and golf lessons and individual practice sessions are a great way to teach the important morals and positive characteristics of sportsmanship. Of all the characteristics that a person can possess in life, sportsmanship includes such characteristics as: humility, integrity, commitment, perseverance, respect, honor, honesty, fairness, sacrifice, responsibility, discipline, and a hard work ethic, to name a few.

In my Book in Section 5.5 of Developing Mental Horsepower, I talk about the benefits of golf and sportsmanship in this excerpt:

5.5     True grit, with sportsmanship, is easier for most people to grasp and understand than terms like confidence and integrity. Sportsmanship centers on athletes taking responsibility for their own actions. When athletes take responsibility for their actions, the separation between perception and reality closes. True grit is being able to exhibit the quiet strength of perseverance, self- reliance, confidence, and integrity. Athletes understand that confidence is derived from the quiet strength of confidence. There’s an old proverb that state- In quietness and confidence shall be your strength. Keep in mind that more can be learned from a loss or failure than from a win, especially if the lesson from the loss is used to build confidence and gain experience.

But the major benefit in golf is that it keeps results in perspective whether a win or loss, because the golfer realizes the lesson from the loss is used to gain experience, while success builds the golfer’s confidence. These are the best and long lasting effects of the game of golf. The golfer understands that confidence is derived from the quiet strength, perseverance. President Calvin Coolidge had the best observation of the importance of perseverance: “Nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance.” President Coolidge in his quote stated that neither talent nor education could replace perseverance.

Process is More Important than Results

There is another lesson to convey to young people. Just as much attention is required for the short game, or details in life, as for the tee shot, the big event in life. Even with the odds stacked against a young person, the small things, performed consistently well, will allow for success. Golf also teaches that process is more important than results.

The main theme in any golf lesson should be focused on processes that provide results. Several parallels can be drawn between sports and life to teach life skills to young people. This is the reason that organized sports, and especially golf, should be encouraged at a young age to develop the important fine motor skills.

Golf also provides a cognitive Behavioral Therapy for people surfing Post Traumatic Stress (PTS), like our Veterans returning home. The lessons learned from sports and golf can allow a young person or Veteran to reach their potential in life. Perseverance and confidence are the best responses to any difficult situation, instead of feeling or showing resentment, anger, or seeking revenge. It has always been proven that the best revenge a person can have in life is become successful instead of resentment.

Distinguishing between Positive and Negative Thoughts

Finally, the mental game of golf allows a person to approach golf and life as what one can do, not what one cannot do. I personally dislike the word “can’t.” The mind works off information, whether the information is positive or negative. The subconscious mind doesn’t distinguish between positive or negative thoughts. This is one reason swing thoughts aren’t effective on the golf course.

The golfer has to address the mental game of golf by developing a repeatable routine and sequence that can be embedded into the golfer’s subconscious mind as an instict. Muscle memory is stored in the golfer’s subconscious mind, not the conscious mind.

Golf lessons, to have the most positive impact on the golfer, should be set up in a self-coaching format. Self-coaching directly influences how the subconscious mind works. Remember, the subconscious mind does not distinguish between positive and negative information or thoughts; it works off both. This is why golf lessons set up using a self-coaching-style have a more positive impact on the golfer in retaining information and instructions than from directive type golf lessons.

Considering positive options in golf and life is always better than dealing with negative limitations. Golf allows one to analyze options and assess the risks accurately on the course and in life. Success basically comes down to the ability to assess and manage risks/rewards and accept the results.

The ESPY Golf Swing Coach is formatted to provide a parent or guardian with the coaching fundamentals to be a child’s golf coach. It is also excellent for establishing an athletic curriculum in a homeschool setting. Please read more detail on setting up a homeschool golfing and Operation Dog Tag.

Learn how to use golf as a homeschool athletic curriculum Sec 1- Operation DOG TAG Golf (Cognitive Behavior Therapy) Sec 2: OBJECTIVES of Operation DOG TAG is to provide a basic training format for Veterans Sec 3: Structure Guidelines 4 Operation DOG TAG- basic/advance golf training for Veterans

For more information on how to use golf to build character for a successful life, purchase your copy of The ESPY Golf Swing Coach:

While you are visiting my Online Store, please look over the apparel and other items I have in my Online store. I’m an Authorized US WINGS Dealer that features the classic A-2 Leather Jacket that you can have personalized. I show my leather jacket below as an example of the personalization you can have done. Also don’t miss the tailored Chino Khaki pants you wear on the golf course.