Learning to Golf is Like Learning to Walk

Far-fetched? Maybe not so much! As a little child crawling close to the ground on hands and knees, we noticed all these other big “peoples” standing and moving on just those two things (we eventually learned were called “feet”). These “peoples” seemed so tall with that thing (we eventually learned was called “head”) reaching up toward the ceiling.

Our evolutionary intelligence kicked in and told us “I think I can do that. I want to do that!” And we set out intention to explore how we might do it. Our body/mind connection kicked in. Our instinctive kinesthetic intelligence was ignited by the fuel of our intention. We experimented and we explored. We reached out for a supporting hand from one of those “peoples”. We leaned against a wall for support. We kept trying to raise our head toward the ceiling. We “failed” and fell again, again, and again.

This process fueled our evolutionary imagination and body/mind intelligence. “I can do this. I’ll keep exploring different ways how to do it. This is actually FUN to keep collapsing on the ground. It brings me joy and laughter. I know I’m doing this thing called learning (even though I didn’t know what “learning” was).”

We discovered! We stood. We walked. We laughed. We were successful in satisfying our intention. We did not need someone to instruct us how to move our legs. “You can’t stop me now, I’m going to go everywhere, and have fun with this “walking” thing!”

Trial and error, failure and success, exploration and discovery! It’s how we learn – especially a physical skill. Learning a golf swing is a similar process. We “fail”, we hit some “clunkers”, and we get a “supporting hand” to help us with a proper golf grip and golf swing basics. If we are lucky we don’t have someone instructing us how to move our body, but only to relay the basic concepts of a golf swing.

We see what an effective golf swing looks like. We start to occasionally feel the success of pure impact. Our body/mind connection is activated. Our instinctive kinesthetic intelligence is ignited by our intention to repeat the satisfaction of the feel of pure impact (similar to the satisfaction of the child learning to stand and move on two feet).

We want to learn how to do this. We know we can. We know we just need “permission to fail” before we adapt and “learn how to golf”. We try, we fail, we learn, and we repeat!

We discover! We learn “how to play golf”. We learn how to grip the golf club, the golf swing basics, and how to make a proper golf swing. We did not need to learn golf mechanics, golf techniques, or have a “golf swing analysis.” All we needed was the freedom to explore and discover, make some “mistakes”, adapt, and learn!

Then, just as a child proceeds from walking to running, we continue to improve our golf swing by continuing to explore and discover! Happy learning!