The regular season for our volleyball team is over. We lost to P.V. tonight. I am so proud of my JV team that took them to the limit, losing in the third set with a score of 13-15. We had a very successful season, my JV team, ending up 11 and 6 overall. Not sure if I will ever coach volleyball again, but I had a blast coming back to coach these past three years. And, it's not over yet. Varsity starts the district tournament on Tuesday.
On to golf...
In this excerpt, I comment on Jack Nicklaus's My Story. He has incredible advice. No wonder he was so successful throughout his career.
Jack Nicklaus’ My Story is long. I still haven’t finished it, and I read both Payne Stuart books in between. Jack is just not...
as exciting to read about. I wish my career could be as boring as his, though. Major victory, another major victory, and yet another major victory! Ho hum. By the way, those books on Payne Stewart are Payne Stewart by Tracy Stewart with Ken Abraham, and I Remember Payne Stewart by Michael Arkush.
I highlighted a lot of text in Jack’s book. He has a lot of advice sprinkled throughout, and here are the ones I found the most interesting and educational.
This one is close to the beginning and very long. Here goes…
“Out on the pro tour that summer, I wasn’t playing with the thought of winning, but simply with the goal of advancing my golfing education. This began by learning to truly ‘read’ courses, beginning at the tee and continuing all the way to the tap-in.
Where was the best position for the tee shot relative to the approach, in terms of distance, of angle of entry, of ground contour, of the location and severity of hazards, of the wind, etc, etc? What type of shot would leave the easiest putt, or, if I missed the green, the simplest recovery shot, and which club would most easily achieve it? When should I belt the drive all-out and when was safety the critical factor, calling for a more controlled swing or less club? What weight should I give to the various hazards along the way, from the worst (out-of-bounds or lost ball) to the least severe (light rough or a slightly angled lie), in mapping the ideal route from tee to cup? How could I master the seemingly infinitely varying textures of sand I encountered, and learn the many techniques the pros seemed to have perfected for slipping the ball within one-putt range from bunkers? On the greens, when should I charge and when should I lag? And so on and on.
He continues, “… Through that came an ever-sharpening awareness that one’s true opponent in every golf contest is never another player, or even the entire field, but always the course itself---a realization, I am now sure, that has been common to all great champions and, I believe, a major contributor to their success. It also began to occur to me that as valuable a competitive weapon as the ability to hit the ball a long way can be, golf at the highest levels is much more a game of precision than of power. I’m sure all of the greats discovered that early in their careers, too.
Still going… “They (the pros he played with in 1959) were able to stay cool, to remain in command of their emotions at all times, to play one shot at a time without getting either wildly excited or deeply depressed about its outcome. Inner self-control, I came to realize, was a much larger factor in winning and losing than ball striking ability.”
On to golf...
In this excerpt, I comment on Jack Nicklaus's My Story. He has incredible advice. No wonder he was so successful throughout his career.
Jack Nicklaus’ My Story is long. I still haven’t finished it, and I read both Payne Stuart books in between. Jack is just not...
as exciting to read about. I wish my career could be as boring as his, though. Major victory, another major victory, and yet another major victory! Ho hum. By the way, those books on Payne Stewart are Payne Stewart by Tracy Stewart with Ken Abraham, and I Remember Payne Stewart by Michael Arkush.
I highlighted a lot of text in Jack’s book. He has a lot of advice sprinkled throughout, and here are the ones I found the most interesting and educational.
This one is close to the beginning and very long. Here goes…
“Out on the pro tour that summer, I wasn’t playing with the thought of winning, but simply with the goal of advancing my golfing education. This began by learning to truly ‘read’ courses, beginning at the tee and continuing all the way to the tap-in.
Where was the best position for the tee shot relative to the approach, in terms of distance, of angle of entry, of ground contour, of the location and severity of hazards, of the wind, etc, etc? What type of shot would leave the easiest putt, or, if I missed the green, the simplest recovery shot, and which club would most easily achieve it? When should I belt the drive all-out and when was safety the critical factor, calling for a more controlled swing or less club? What weight should I give to the various hazards along the way, from the worst (out-of-bounds or lost ball) to the least severe (light rough or a slightly angled lie), in mapping the ideal route from tee to cup? How could I master the seemingly infinitely varying textures of sand I encountered, and learn the many techniques the pros seemed to have perfected for slipping the ball within one-putt range from bunkers? On the greens, when should I charge and when should I lag? And so on and on.
He continues, “… Through that came an ever-sharpening awareness that one’s true opponent in every golf contest is never another player, or even the entire field, but always the course itself---a realization, I am now sure, that has been common to all great champions and, I believe, a major contributor to their success. It also began to occur to me that as valuable a competitive weapon as the ability to hit the ball a long way can be, golf at the highest levels is much more a game of precision than of power. I’m sure all of the greats discovered that early in their careers, too.
Still going… “They (the pros he played with in 1959) were able to stay cool, to remain in command of their emotions at all times, to play one shot at a time without getting either wildly excited or deeply depressed about its outcome. Inner self-control, I came to realize, was a much larger factor in winning and losing than ball striking ability.”
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