Practice makes perfect, as they say. Now that is definitely true, and it is never truer and more tested than in the field of sports and anything that involves competition. That’s despite the fact that it can also be used properly when describing other things, but there’s no denying that it is best identified with sports. In sports, especially if it is in the professional ranks or any serious tournament and competition, constant practice is what usually saves the day. It could very well affect the championship or the highest prize of a particular sport, whether one player who practices much more than the competition will get the big prize in the end. Practice is that important, and especially those who try to endure its seemingly long and punishing hours hopefully gets the reward that he’s been waiting for.
Athletes have varying degrees of ability. There are athletes and players who are blessed with supreme amount of talent and are able to compete at the highest levels of their sport. Those are the ones who become good enough to consider playing the sport that they love professionally, as a means of their livelihood. And then there are the ones who are not as good, even though they do not lack for heart and competitiveness. It is just that their level of talent is not at par with their desire or will to compete and win. But of course, they could still enjoy the game that they love, and they could also expect some measure of improvement if they practice hard enough. Indeed, that is where practice comes, the determination to improve one’s game by constantly working on it.
In my own experience, practice indeed makes a lot of difference in the way you perform in the sport of your choice. I have had ample proof of it in the different sports that I have played through the years. Though I’m never among the top flight talents in the games and sports that I have participated in, at least I became competitive and gave my chance to win and excel, and that’s all because of my dedication to training and practice. If you’re at the bottom rung of the game talent-wise, then you really don’t have much of a choice but to make yourself better by dedicating yourself to improving your game. And the key of course, would be in not giving up on yourself and on your game.
The Challenge of Playing Golf
The attitude that I have regarding practicing and continuously improving one’s game is something that I still believe in up to this very day. I’m adapting to my latest game of choice, which is golf. And I am really thankful that I did since I ma finding that golf is not merely a simple game, but a very complicated and therefore challenging one as well. That fact is driving me even more and pushing me to become the best that I could become in this new game that I have just recently started to enjoy. To put myself in the best possible position, I am doing the necessary research that should precede everything that I needed to do in order to improve myself in the game. I’ve found a few simple steps that would help in the improvement of the game, and I think these would be best for those who are just like myself, people who have not been playing the game too long and whose abilities are not really on the exceptional side.
These steps can be considered as a basic blueprint for the improvement of one’s golf game. I am well aware though, that I will be the one who’s ultimately responsible for my game, on whether I would improve at all or not. These would only serve as my guide.
• Know Exactly Why You Play the Game – It is important that you know deep in your heart why you want to play the game of golf. Everyone who plays the game of golf, or any sport for that matter, should seriously ask this of themselves. Why do you play and what you want to get from playing the game, exactly? Do you play to be competitive enough for major tournaments, possibly even be a professional at some point? Or do you just want to enjoy it with some close friends, playing a friendly game while enjoying everything that the game of golf offers? As far as I am concerned, I love to face the challenge that it presents, and to be the best golfer that I can be. The right thing to do at this point would be to note the reasons why you play the golf, and to write it down according to its order of importance to you.
• What’s Your Reason to Get Better – This continues whatever you’ve written down earlier, it just pinpoints the real reason why you want to improve on your game. Mine is for purely personal reasons, as everything else is secondary for me. What matters the most to me is that I get give myself the chance to compete and be good at it, and from there things will just get better for me. Once again, it would be helpful if a list would be made, this time about the reasons why you actually want to improve your golf playing ability. It is important because it would help you get a better perspective of the game and your involvement in it. You could also determine if it is worth going on with playing the game at all.
• Know What to Improve on and Then Work On It – This is one of the most important things that a person who wants to improve the way he plays golf needs to consider. Recognizing the things that you need to work on is very crucial, and it would do a lot of good if the aid of another golfer would be enlisted, if possible one who truly knows the game. Then you could start getting down to the dirty work, which means actually working on the game and working towards eventual improvement.
My Plan of Improvement: Breaking 80 in 6 Weeks
My most recent goal is to get my scores down and then to maintain it that way. The earlier tips that I used for finding my true reasons for playing the game and looking for areas in my game that I really needed to improve on helped me a lot. Now I need to get to where I really wanted to be, to do the thing that I have set out to do from the start, and that is to break 80 after just 6 weeks of non-stop, continuous practice. Seems like a prodigious objective, especially for someone like me who’s not really close to the game that Tiger Woods plays, not even by a mile.
There are a few things that players like me need to accept before I could expect making any significant stride towards achieving my goal. One of those is that I am not going to hit the ball like I am the current number one golfer in the world, or anything even close to it. That’s just not going to happen, and I have already come to accept that. Yes, I cannot expect to score in the 70’s, but I do feel and I definitely convinced that I would do fine with getting to score 80 in a reasonable amount of training time, in this case 6 weeks.
It seems that in order to get to where I want to be after that amount of time, I need to look at six specific aspects of my game. Each one needs to be improved on, if I am to reach my goal. The following are those six aspects of my game:
• The scoring shots
• Driving accuracy
• Putting
• Strategy
• Your short game
• Quality of bunker play