Are We Having Fun Yet?

I'm going to ask you a question about your golf game and it's not the typical question you'd expect from me.

I'm not going to ask if you're loading properly into your left side or if you're able to comfortably maintain your spine angle or if you're staying connected to the ground throughout your swing. I'm going to ask you a far more simple -- but no less important -- question: Are you having fun?

People spend a lot of time, money, mental energy, and physical energy on this sport and the results aren't always what they hoped for.

I see it all the time. Folks get so wrapped up in the game that they forget that the ultimate goal of any leisure activity is to have fun.

You probably got into golf to have a good time. If you somehow managed to win a few majors and bank several million dollars along the way, congratulations. The majority of us, though, hit the course to spend time with friends, enjoy the great outdoors, and have a fun time trying to put a ball in a hole.

If every time you play golf, though, it's nothing but a maddening frustration-a-thon, why on Earth would you continue to do it?

Think about the other leisure activities you do for fun.

You go to the movies. You go out for dinner. What if every time you went to the movies, the film was in a foreign language, there were no subtitles, and you had to sit behind a seven-foot-tall guy? Or what if every time you went out for dinner, it was overpriced, they got your order wrong, and you ended up with mysterious food stains on your shirt? Would you continue to go to the movies or out to dinner? 

The answer, of course, is no. But, you still continue to golf.

I'm guessing that for most you, if the game has stopped being fun, it's because your game has stopped improving…or maybe it's even gotten worse. The great part is that -- unlike in my movie theater or dinner examples -- you can actually do something to put the fun back in your golf game.

You may think of your slice or your lack of power as being the problem.

You may have tried a bunch of ways to fix your so-called problem, but nothing seems to work. The reality of the situation, though, is that your slice or your lack of power isn't your actual problem. These are merely symptoms of the problem. Your slice may be the result of your lack of shoulder rotation or weakness in the muscles that allow you to maintain good posture. Your lack of power may be your lack of strength and mobility in the hips.

Once you can identify the things about your particular body that are preventing you from playing your best golf, you can begin to correct them.

This takes the guesswork out of what you should be doing to improve your game and tailors it specifically to your body. It's what I do every day when I'm on the road with touring pros and it's what I do back at the Joey D Golf Sports Training Center in Jupiter, Florida. And it doesn't matter whether you’re a Tour player, a 15-year-old girl trying to make her high school team, or a 70-year-old guy hoping to win his club championship, there will be things about your body that are keeping you from playing at an optimal level.

Fixing the cause of your problem -- and not just focusing on its symptoms -- is the fastest and easiest way to improve your playing. And once your playing improves, you can start to have fun again.

© 2017 joeydgolf.com