Check the golf boards. Listen
to the commentators. Give some thought to your own perception.
Do fist pumps and exuberant jumping up and down bother you? How
do you feel about celebration? Did you ever dance in your own
end zone? Do you wonder why there are protests about such
things, or do you just wonder why more people don't complain?
Maybe you are one of those who
is more likely to be troubled by a seeming lack of emotion in
some players. If you compare Sergio with David Duval or Tiger
with Retief Goosen or Davis Love with Scott Hoch, or Stewart
Cink with Colin Montgomery, you will see some interesting
dynamics. Very different, they are. Are some of them right and
the others wrong?
Are you bugged by a "leaping
Sergio," a "Tiger fist" or a "stoic" Duval countenance?
Can we learn anything from
them? ...Maybe... Or perhaps, even certainly.
It is
predictable
that if you carry the Driver style, your degree of open
appreciation of an Analyzer's temperament, or the tentative
putting of some Craftsmen, or the wild exuberance of some
Persuaders is apt to be quite a bit "south" of where you are
standing. You just wish they'd quit "messing around" or playing
"so slow." "Just do it."
If you are a Persuader, you
may "hate" the "nit-picking," slow play of the Analyzer, the
boring repetition of the Craftsman, or the "macho" arrogance of
the Driver. You may even wonder why some of those never smile
and most of them rarely do while the game is on. Secretly,
however, you may harbor a strong desire to "hit it straight"
like some of them seem to do.
If you are a Craftsman, you
may not care for the overbearing manner of the Driver (but you
wouldn't say "it" if you had a mouthful), the excessive
loudness of the Persuader, or the emotional distance of the
Analyzer. You may wonder why some of them "hit it all over the
lot," others seem to be in too big a hurry and the rest spend
way too much time over the ball. And you think they should
learn to take it bake "low and slow." And above all, they
should learn how to "work the ball," while you wish you didn't
leave so many putts short.
If you are an Analyzer, there
is apt to be only one correct way in your book to do anything,
and it better be "right." So all those other folks need to
shape up, especially that Driver, who never knows where he's
going, and the Persuader, who makes way too much of everything,
and the Craftsman, who always seems to be just going along with
"whatever." As for you, when you finally get it "all worked
out" on the range, then you'll go play.
Without doing profiles on
every player out there, but based on a considerable amount of
well conditioned observation, it might be important to
understand the differences instead of merely landing on a
perception that praises some and condemns others. Such
perception will generally be found lodged in one's own gut.
To say the least, it is a bit
disconcerting to find golfers, who can't possibly be as
uninformed as their message board notes suggest, throwing
opinions around and calling them "facts." Then they argue with
each other about who is "right," and it usually turns out to be
neither, both, and/or unresolved.
And it is time for
commentators, especially those in golf, to reach a greater
understanding and appreciation of golfers' playing/human
behavior styles so that the players they are talking about and
those to whom they are speaking receive something besides a
jaundiced opinion about "what's going on out there on the
course." The only things we hear from them are submerged in the
mechanics of the golf swing, rarely in the dynamics of playing
the game. Of course, they will tell you these days, that it
isn't smart to try to
swing
like anybody else, but they don't have a clue when it comes to
playing
like someone else. In
fact, if you listen closely they encourage modeling after some
good player, excepting Tiger, though, since even
they
recognize that nobody will likely play like him. (Sometimes,
even he doesn't).
One assessment that might get
general agreement (after much thought from all) is that
everyone is always "right" about his/her own opinion, of
course. It is always futile to suggest to another person "Your
opinion is wrong," yet folks do it all the time. When I look at
golf-related boards, and listen to both casual and "paid"
observers, I am impressed with the many posters (and other
"volunteers") who reject views of others and call them "wrong,"
just because they don't agree with them.
Once more, we get a lesson in
the variable character of perception. What
you
see and what
someone else
sees is rarely alike, even when what is under observation is
the same.
In its own way, that can be
borderline frightening. We wonder if the things we express,
teach, write, or otherwise pass on to others, get that same
treatment, so that what we intended to carry as a meaning gets
lost in another's ears, eyes, nose, throat or some lower
portion of the GI system.
At the very least, anything we
do to appreciate the way perception works will help to
demythologize the reasons a wide range of golfers may not have
seen the value of understanding playing styles and clear keys.
And that's without mentioning all the other life avenues in
which the principles that form their foundations may come into
play.
If you think for a moment that
playing styles had nothing to do with the Ryder Cup result in
2002, you might want to reconsider. There's a "before, during
and after" to all that as well. After all, those were human
beings out there, and even heroes are not exempt from their own
behavior styles and those of their opponents.
If folks who miss the point
are merely misunderstanding, that's probably excusable. But for
those who have thought they already knew what someone else
meant so that there is really no need for the information, that
points to something that is very fragile, indeed.
It can be scary to face
something "new," or to have to give up something old, even if
it's only an idea or thought. Think about it. How many times do
you ignore something just because it doesn't sound like what
you have been hearing or isn't something you wanted to hear?
And that's just from the 3% of
our conscious attention. Think about how much our systems
resist from the 97% unconscious level. No wonder it's so hard
to get a golf game in lasting, solid shape - or to maintain
relationships with others. And you can bet that if we are
"practicing" resistance consciously, our unconscious responses
are escalating that with intensity, seemingly capable of
unlimited dimension.
The message, then, is this: a
formidable way toward easing our learning path for new things
and our acceptance of others and their views, is found in
having an open mind to all of the perceptions around us and a
reliable framework for evaluation (as in wisely regarding
behavior styles)- not to mention developing flexibility toward
our own viewpoints, as well. Anyone can stick to the same old
way of viewing and judging. It's expanding the vision that's
tough.
TM