What I learned from golf.
I’ve golfed pretty much as long as I can remember. My Dad raised me as a golfer, my brother didn’t have the ability that perhaps I did, so I was always “the golfer” in the family. It was tough. Golf is an extremely delicate game primarily hinging on mental capacity, coordination and emotional stamina.
If you’ve never played it, chances are you take full-speed swings at a few balls on The Range and call it a day. That’s fine, but it doesn’t scratch the surface of golf’s depth. My Dad started teaching me around 7. Learning how to golf that young is quite a feat since golf is so incredibly mental that at a young age results become… sporadic. Without any kind of emotional fortitude, lessons would soon degrade into frustration and whining etc. These lessons were important to me appreciating the game [and building my own character] though, without this basis I would never have grown to a skill level high enough to appreciate the finer and deeper lessons the game had to offer.
Skip ahead a dozen years or so and I’ve grown enough as a human being to understand how to control my mental state. In fact, my particular philosophy on life [Taoism] plays directly into succeeding and enjoying the game of golf. You see, through my whole prior career as a golfer [junior tournaments, high school varsity squad etc.] I never once understood the proper mental frame of mind necessary to be consistent on the course. I remember one tournament I played in I came out of the gates 2 under par on the first three holes at an incredibly difficult course for my age [Eagle Ridge's The General]. I was so excited that I began worrying about losing the streak I had going. I hesitated on my putts and soon that incredible score ballooned to something in the mid to low 80s [well over par for 18 holes]. Not a terrible score for me at the time, but a terrible disappointment for someone watching my first few holes from the gallery.
It has been this journey of learning how to control my behavior, collecting my attitude no matter what the previous shot dealt me, that has been of the utmost importance in golf. As just the slightest bit of mental minutiae can alter the smallest fraction of your swing causing a chaotic chain of events that will ultimately leave the ball in a less than desirable position. That’s where the Tao comes in.
A truly good man is not aware of his goodness,
And is therefore good.
A foolish man tries to be good,
And is therefore not good.A truly good man does nothing,
Yet leaves nothing undone.
A foolish man is always doing,
Yet much remains to be done.[...]
Tao Te Ching #38
It’s these words that seem so laughable, such a paradox that why would anyone even attempt to buy whatever this stanza is selling; it’s this that unlocks the secret to controlling your temper on the course. To play golf without a memory of the last shot or the next one. Living in the moment for the sheer enjoyment of being there. To play just to play without caring. Some people have witnessed this, often by accident. Perhaps you have sunk a long distance hook-shot throwing away a crumpled wad of paper without even thinking about it. Then your office mates say “you couldn’t have done that if you tried.”
It’s true. You couldn’t have. Now I’m not going to discount effort here. Effort is huge. You certainly could do better by constantly practicing that shot day-in-day-out but my point here is that at that moment in time, it behooves you not to try.
It’s only when I forget the long checklist for the golf swing that I can be consistent. Analyzing a putt, working it over and then reworking it once I’m over the ball seems like a logical and necessary exhaustive process for making it. But if I do that and then somehow discard all desire to actually make the putt and simply hit the ball, I’ve found I’ll be much happier with the result.
This is just one application of Taoism. In this case its put to golf, and quite effectively in my opinion. While I think the Tao is neat and all that, to me, what’s very interesting about this little tangent is the implication of getting deep meaning and learning long term life lessons from a game. I’ve talked a bit about what football has taught me, and now golf.
I’m not going to cram it all in this post, but I think there’s something here. Maybe it can’t be applied to simulations on a video screen, and if not, then it’s just as important to rule out what can’t make a meaningful video game as it is to point out what can.
That’s a great lesson to learn from golf. It makes me want to go out to the golf course and try it. :)
Also, don’t rule out not applying it to games just yet! Sometimes you have to keep beating your head against the wall because eventually the dent in the wall will form a pattern that’ll trigger an epiphany.