Trust Your Swing

I was watching a PGA (Professional Golf Association) event the other day as some commentator was interviewing the tournament winner.  This professional golfer said that in the waning minutes of the tournament he beat the pressure by telling himself to “just trust his swing.”  To most non-golfers this seems simple and almost trite.  Take it from an avid amateur player; it is not.

For those of you that do not play golf let me try to explain why “trusting your swing” is a lot harder than it sounds.  First of all, the golf swing is one of the most un-natural athletic moves known to man.  The golf swing starts with one simultaneously moving his/her hands, arms, shoulders and hips away from the target.  This is of course is all done while keeping one’s head still.  The next move is to return all these moving parts to their original point at the same instant.

It is important that you remember to keep your lead arm straight, keep your head down, take the club straight back and make sure you are parallel at the top.  Take it from me; you better have more going for yourself than trust.

The reason this professional golfer can say he just had to “trust his swing” is because he has hit about a million golf balls and has spent endless hours working on this swing.  He does not have to stop and think about all the elements that make up his swing, in reality he just trusts the work he has done.  His swing is not a mechanical combination of moving parts but rather has become part of himself and the end product of preparation.

Many parents struggle with the last developmental stage of their children, which is independence vs. dependence.  Quite frankly, this can be the scariest stage of all.  Teenagers want to stay out later, go off to college, and go out of town on trips and so on.  As adults we can imagine all the bad things that can happen.  As parents we feel the overwhelming need to protect our children from potential bad decisions and the consequences that can follow.  In my experience it is usually the good, responsible parents that struggle with this the most. They have spent years trying to teach values and good decision-making.

My golf coach once told me that if I focused on all the bad things that could happen when I hit the ball that I would be afraid to swing the club.  This is true in parenting.  If I am obsessed with all the bad choices available to my children I will not be able to let them go. I usually try to convince parents that they have prepared their child for this day.  As parents we have practiced and have hit a million balls.  It is time to “trust our swing.”

Back To Articles