Re-"think"ing Performance
Sustainable Improvement = Learning + Enjoyment + Performance
Today I'd like to talk about performance on the golf course, and specifically, how we measure our performance. In my article on "beating your handicap", I spoke about the reasons why we play this game and asked you to think about why you get your clubs together and set out on a golf course for 4 hours in a day.
It's clear that handicap, whilst a great equalising tool, is not necessarily the only measure of "why" we play the game - and all the benefits of participating. Here I'm going to propose a new way of thinking about your golf game, including the reasons why we play it, and taking into account all the intricacies and variations that we face internally (in our minds) and externally (on the course).
Changing our concept of "performance" can change the way we experience the game, what we learn from it, and the enjoyment we get from playing.
Ultimately, this should also improve your performance - but is not the primary motive.
I'm going to elaborate on an idea first proposed by Tim Gallwey in his groundbreaking book "The Inner Game of Golf" written in 1979 - where he suggests using Performance, Enjoyment and Learning as the criteria for success. His words -
"If you had to choose between having a low score and having a good time, which would you choose? Regardless of your answer, it is a fact that for the four to five hours you are playing eighteen holes of golf you are somewhere between misery and ecstasy. And human beings have a built-in preference toward the enjoyment side of the range of experience. So, almost by definition, enjoyment is a goal that comes with us while we're playing golf."
Tim Gallwey makes a good point. The rules of golf are to get around the course in as few strokes as possible - a very "goal oriented" activity. But if all we wanted were low scores, why are the most difficult courses the most expensive and most sought after?
Tara Iti Golf Course, New Zealand
Players find challenging courses fun and rewarding, and they are often more beautiful.
But doesn’t this mean that experiencing fun and beauty - or our enjoyment of the course - also an important goal? In this scenario, enjoyment cannot just be about a good score - it's about attaining a good score in the face of challenge, and enjoying the process of improvement. Put another way - you may play a difficult course, and you may not “score” well, but you will enjoy it nonetheless.
There's a third criteria to consider - learning. If you want to improve your game, then surely you need to be learning something new every time you play? When I first started experimenting with "learning" as a criteria for performance, it was quite difficult to reflect on what I learnt after each game. I just assumed it was something that happened, perhaps unconsciously or through osmosis, and that I didn’t really need to pay attention to what it was.
But if you can't measure it, you can't manage it, as some wise businessman once said. And what are we trying to learn on the golf course anyway? I believe that golf is a good playground to learn many life skills, like how to harness your attention, how to deal with challenging emotions when things don't go your way, or to improve your confidence and self discipline. Would you say these things are as important as the score?
So there we have three domains for measuring success:
Improvement and progress depend on learning, enjoyment and performance factors
The good news is, that even within each of these areas, there are sub criteria that you can choose to make them meaningful and applicable to your game.
It depends on what you want to achieve in each. Let's explore:
Performance: how you play on a given day (or over a season)
Could be
Your handicap
Your score on the day
The number of greens you hit in regulation
The number of fairways you hit in regulation
Where you came in a competition (relative to your established goal)
Enjoyment: how much you got out of the experience of playing golf
Could be
How happy do you feel on a scale of 1-10 (with 1 being terribly miserable and 10 being ecstatic) measured before and after the match
How many birds did you notice out on the course
What were your three best shots hit, and why
What did you notice about the course that you hadn't seen before? A tree, some flowers, ducks or a different vantage point
What was the highlight of the day - something funny your playing partner said, or the perfect weather, or the refreshing beer at the end?
Three things you were grateful for after the game? (Health, fitness, social, time off work etc)
The list could go on and on, but pick one and see how your mood improves as you begin to pay attention to the reasons you love to play this game.
Learning: what did you learn that you maybe didn't know before?
Could be:
Working on your performance routine
Monitoring your responses to your shot (the memory box)
Keeping left on dog legs to the right
Picking a target and sticking to it
The feel of your five iron…
Balance, tempo, tension
Here you can pick a mental game tool that you worked on, and monitor how you used it on each hole. See this article for an example of keeping track of your Q score to supplement your actual score, and this page for a comprehensive list of mental tools you can take onto the course with you.
All three are important in improving your game, and not burning out.
If you think about it, if you don't enjoy the game, then why play it? And if you're not learning anything, would you be improving? And ultimately, are you able to perform your best when you're not enjoying yourself? Isn't the process of learning, and improving, and all the other reasons you play, the part that gets you up in the morning - can you perform without these?
That's why the triangle approach works.
So I encourage you to try set some three dimensional KPIs for yourself. How are you going to measure your performance, enjoyment, and learning each time you play?
