TV Golf Great Example of “Focus on Fundamentals”

Even Pros Rehearse to Get Back on Track

Watch carefully.  When professional golfers make a great shot, they twirl their club and begin briskly walking toward the landing spot, chasing the ball and envisioning the next swing.  They know when they’ve hit a perfect shot and they can’t wait until they get to the next one. 

But, what happens when a golfer hits a poor shot?  He or she stands and takes two or three practice swings before handing their club to the caddie and heading down the fairway.  Why?  They know that their fundamentals broke down at some point and they are trying to take corrective action then and there to remind them of what they should have done properly to execute a better golf shot. 

Everything an athlete does, good or bad, can be traced back to their execution of fundamentals.  To be truly superb at their craft, an athlete must dedicate hours upon hours of time honing their skills in an attempt to make every movement in competition a repetition of their position’s fundamentals.  And, when they fall short of their expectations or potential, watch, because they will get back to the basics ASAP. 

We hear stories about how the very best at their sport are the first ones to arrive and start practice sessions and the last to leave, putting in more time than the average athlete.  Cal Ripken, Jr. was famous for his practice regimen.  The same can be said for the legendary Jerry Rice, Wayne Gretsky, Larry Bird, Martina Navratilova,  Ted Williams, Anika Sorenstam, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods.  In their prime, no one could out work them and the results were that they pushed through the competition to become the very best because of an uncommon adherance to practice. Yet, we’ve seen these same extraordinary people hiccup and make uncharacteristic mistakes.  And nearly every time, we can watch them quickly adjust in an attempt to return to the correct hand position, footwork or follow through. 

Competition for college scholarship offers is more fierce than ever before which puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the aspiring college student-athletes to maintain a high degree of focus on their fundamentals every time they enter into a competitive setting.  It cannot be overstated that the best are the hardest workers and are endlessly refocusing their efforts on the little things which in the end catapult them from inconsistency to consistency and from ordinary to greatness.

At NSR, our on-the-ground scouts are constantly searching for high school athetes with the dedication to acquire consistency.  Flashes of fundamentals tell us that an athlete is a work in progress, but that he or she does have a grasp of the basics.  Consistency, however, tells us the work has been put in and that the athlete is on the track to becoming a college student-athlete.  If you would like to be evaluated by an NSR scout, click here.