… is going to be way better than anything anyone else can give you.

I know this goes against the way most of us want to learn to play golf. We go searching and are on the lookout for the next big swing tip. But at the end of the day, this is not helping. Plus, the golf industry is more than happy enough to feed our addiction for more technique and instructions.

I received the below from Alan this morning. He has just realised he has wasted time and effort trying to incorporate someone else’s golf swing. And here’s the thing.

Mike Austin would NOT have learned his swing by trying to copy. And I doubt he learned his killer game by trying to piece the swing together bit by bit. He would have learned his swing by playing the game. By hitting lots of different shots to a whole variety of targets. His golf swing found him. He did not go and find that golf swing.

I am reminded of a time when I was stuck on the “golf instruction merry-go-round”. I was hitting balls in front of my golf teacher. We were working on swing plane and body pivot (really boring by the way). And I was struggling. I couldn’t get it and the ball was going all over the place. And after each swing, I would turn to the coach and ask, “how was that one?”.

This is the absolute worst way to learn. In fact, there is no learning happening here at all, maybe only some exercise. I didn’t yet have the trust in myself to swing the club the way I wanted (the absolute best wayto guarantee success, learning and long-term enjoyment). Sadly, this is how many golfers go about playing better golf. We are too reliant on others and think we can successfully build a better game by changing our swing. The reality is, we all are learning machines and we need to trust that we can master the game. Two more points:

1. The golf swing is only part of the golf learning puzzle. It will never be (and never has been) the entire game
2. If you’ve been playing golf for more than a year or two, I’ll argue till I’m blue in the face, that you have a very reliable, powerful and better golf swing hiding under the surface.

If you’re stuck and fed up with golf, take a minute or two and evaluate your game. Are you swinging the club in a way that suits you, or are you waiting for someone to tell you what to do or are you trying too hard to make your swing fit someone else’s model?

The really sad thing here can be realising you have had the talent, skill and ability to play your best golf 10, 20 and even 50 years too late. My strongest advice is to start playing your way now. Let your real golf swing find you.

If you’d like to explore this further, I invite you to watch this video rant.