sudden peak in realisations

i feel like just over the past few days, my understanding of my own golfing has increased exponentially

i've been playing with a closed club face all this while. and theoretically i know that to correct it i just need to open it a bit and square the club face. but today is the first time it dawned on me that i never liked to square the club face because it feels different and it seems like the club is in a different spot within my hands.

then with chipping with the sandwedge, i've known that i should make variations with the swing, hit harder, softer, swing longer, shorter but today it suddenly hit me how to do all those things

must be because i've finally opened myself up to understand these better

wow i guess golf really isn't as easy as i thought it would be. there are so many new things i haven't felt or done before

tremendous breakthrough

today i had an amazing breakthrough with my chipping. ever since i've played golf, i never really knew how to chip. i'd know the theory of it all (take the club straight back, try to be consistent with the shots etc...) but never really knew what it meant to be done in practice. and ever since steve taught me to chip properly, i still didn't really know what he meant. so all this while i've been trying to cheat my way through.. *naughty naughty*

we were talking about how good golfers find it so natural to chip that they just look at the distance and do whatever they do to make it go that distance. obviously that is after hard practice. but the key is that they are able to judge the distance by looking and knowing.
(hmmm this sounded easy when i said it but seems funny when its typed out)
all this while i've kind of had a discrepancy between how much i wanted/knew to chip the ball and how far the ball actually went. often its at least 5 to 10 meters away from where i want to be.

so we went to practice looking at a target and just hitting at it without thinking about the distance. just letting my body trust my eyes in telling me how to hit it to where i want it to go.
and again, i tried to fluff my way through it- not really knowing how to do what steve was telling me to.

the reality of this suddenly struck me, and i had the realisation and ability to say it out. something i never thought of doing before. it seems so silly not to do it
well, steve patiently guided me towards what i should try to feel and how to go about it. "today, i can go home a very happy coach" those were the words he said and i felt so proud of myself that i didn't want to stop practicing until i could get it right.

with the sandwedge, hit the ball with a half swing at half speed. try to repeat the same shot 10 times.then hit with half of what u did. repeat that 10 times. then try to make variations with the length and speed of the swing to make it go abit shorter or longer. making the shots come out at different heights seem a bit much for me to handle at the moment but i'm sure i'll be able to do that too in due time

so proud of myself that i practiced for so long today. reached the range at 1230 and was there till 5 - had to go home cos i was feeling very hungry. 400 over balls can make u very hungry indeed.

although this kind of practice is very foreign to me, i'm gonna have to start doing it more often. (every mondays miss). playing professional golf is a 9 to 5 job.

i think i'd really like the kind of lifestyle where i play golf for a living. its gonna be a lot of hard work but it will really pay off.
it seems like a very long way away for me to dream of being a female professional golfer but i have to remind myself that i'm doing the best that i can and that everything will happen in it's own time. i need not compare myself to other people. we all have a different path in life and i believe that if i just focus on myself. on doing the right things and what is best for me. then i'll definitely be able to achieve my dreams

feels lonely

practising golf twice a week has somehow made me feel a bit lonely
i know i'm good and i know that the more practice i put in, the better i will be
however, all this comes with some form of sacrifices. especially during the exam period
there's a tradeoff between studying, playing golf and going out with my friends. it seems like i never have the time to go out with them anymore and that makes me a bit sad

one important trait of successful golfers is that they have determination ! they never give up and keep working hard no matter what it takes. it's a choice of priority.

i'm still figuring out my priorities. what are yours ?

what my friends say about golf

So many friends have laughed when i say i play golf, and that its the only sport i play. 

They either say its an old man's game or that its too boring and doesn't really help you to exercise. 

I disagree on all 3 counts!!

So many young people are playing golf now in both the men's and ladies arenas. People are picking up golf for socialising when they enter the business world. Young children are starting to pick up golf and dreaming of playing in the US PGA/ LPGA.. Much too often i've heard people say they should have picked up the sport a loong time ago. Look at Yani Tseng who recently won the LPGA Corning Cup in Texas. She's only 20, but already enjoying a wonderful golf career. Golf isn't just for old people. It's for people of all ages. 

Golf really isn't boring. You'd think that getting one little ball from the tee box onto the fairway, then onto the green and finally into the hole sounded straightforward and easy. How about trying to do that consistently for 18 holes and in different weather conditions. You might face winds, rain, and other distracting obstacles on the golf course such as ponds, trees and bunkers. Until you reach the level of golf where you are so certain the ball will go wheverever you want it to go and make sure it avoids all the elements you want it to avoid, the game is a challenge. 

It's mentally stimulating because for that few hours you're on the golf course, it's just you against the course. You think of the easiest way to get it into the hole. Sometimes you're able to do it and sometimes you can't. Anything could go wrong, yet at the same time, everything could go right (maybe with a hint of good luck) and the ball rolls into the hole for a par or even a birdie !! That just fills you with an overwhelming sense of satisfaction that makes me love the game even more.

Initially, i never really thought of golf as an exercise that would help you to tone your muscles. Over time, i realised that to make full use of your body mass, you need to tap into all your muscles to hit the ball. The right muscles that you should be using to hit the ball are your core muscles, thigh muscles, arm muscles. It sounds straightforward, but it was only after i started doing formal trainings with my golf coach did i realise i wasn't using the right muscles to hit the ball and i ached in places i never knew could ache from playing golf. 

It can be pretty hard to describe which muscles are used, and that just adds to the complexity of the whole golf swing and the entire game. 

In starting this blog to share my experiences with improving my golf game, i hope i can share my love for this game with people all over the world. Golf can seem like a very individual game and often i think that the problems i face in my game and my golf swing are experienced only by me. It took me time to understand that although you think your swing looks very different from someone else's, the mistakes made are fundamentally the same. In sharing my golf experiences, hopefully someone out there will take comfort knowing that someone else is going through the same frustrations with regard to the sport as me. 

my love goes out to everyone out there who shares a love for the game 

"hang in there and don't give up"