Trust Your Swing

My coach calmly said to me, “Trust your swing.”  “Trust it to do what?” I thought.  The way I’m playing lately, I have little faith that my swing will take care of itself.  After all, I need be in control, right? 

Make a full shoulder turn.  Release your wrists.  Throw the club head down the line toward the target.  Let Go!  These are some of the usual mechanics involved when building a solid swing.  A swing I can trust.  What other aspects of trust are involved in the game? 

Even when I feel my swing is grooved, I never know for sure what the exact result of each shot will be.  I put my faith and trust in the fact that I can face the unknown time and time again and survive to play the next shot.  The result doesn’t need to be perfect.  After all, Golf is not a Game of Perfect, thank you Bob Rotella. 

I remember the epiphany I had the day I understood that I didn’t need to hit a perfect shot every time.  Huh.  You mean I don’t have to berate myself and be disappointed that I am too far to the right, or short of the green?  You mean I can observe the shot, accept the result, perhaps even enjoy it a little irrespective of the outcome, let it go and focus my attention and energy on the next opportunity?  Huh.  Nobody ever told me that.  I thought every shot had to be perfect.  I thought I wasn’t playing the game right. 

I’ve come to trust that the same principle applies to most things in life.  I’ve come to trust not only my swing but also the process of “playing” the game and engaging life.  The practice of giving up control on the course and staying in the present is quite applicable in daily living.   

Each time I swing, each time I wake up in the morning, each time I make a decision at work or in my personal life, I face an unknown future result and am best served if I can do my best while giving up the need to control the outcome.  How do I do this?  I trust and have faith that I can face the next situation, take my next best swing and that the result doesn’t need to be perfect.  

Oh ye of little faith, Dave!  What do I do when my faith wanes and my trust fades? 

My favorite contemporary poet is David Whyte, an Englishman. Not to be mistaken for David Whyte, the renowned Scottish golf photographer.  In his poem entitled FAITH, David Whyte (the poet) faces his own lack of faith at a time when he had little. 

I want to write about Faith.
About the way the moon rises over cold snow, night after night.
Faithful, even in its fading from fullness,
Slowly becoming that last curving and impossible slither of light, before the final darkness.
But I have no Faith myself.
I do not give it the slightest entry.
Let this then, my small poem, like a new moon, slender and barely open be the first prayer that opens me to Faith.*

While Whyte seeks his renewed faith through the simple act of writing a small poem, as a golfer I find renewed faith each time I set up for a golf shot.  Let this then, my next shot, mysterious with an unknown outcome, be the next opportunity that opens me to Faith. 

Trust that the “game” will give you opportunities for reflection and personal growth.  Maintain the faith that each shot holds the possibility of magic.  Trust your swing…

 

 * © 1990, Where Many Rivers Meet, Many Rivers Press