Entry 25.28

I tell you what. Max Homa is right. Social media “is an awful, awful place.” I’m not agreeing with Max because my social media presence is pitiful. I’m agreeing because, well, he’s right. If you are a golf nut then you probably followed Max. His account was great. I got tons of laughs. But now it’s gone. He’s withdrawn from the arena. Which is sad. All because people just can’t pass up an opportunity to cut someone down. While I sit here in airport waiting for my next flight (yet again!), I decided to see how right Max was. I mean I see negative back and forth in some of the accounts that I follow. But I’ve never sat down and done a little research. Not just seeing it and scrolling on, but tracking how many posts have what I would consider “negative” commentary. This is not a scientific research project so I’m not going to clearly define what negative means and sample from accounts from multiple platforms and multiple accounts. Negative will just be whatever I deem as “intending to be hurtful” and I’m just going to scroll through 50 posts on my Instagram and 50 posts on my Facebook. I mean do we really have to put someone down because they didn’t understand what “float loading” in the post meant and asked a question? I mean how many of you know what float loading is? To try and determine what it is I will tell you that we are talking about a term in golf. Just to be fair. I mean that is the subject matter that most of you know me from so nothing out of left field like acrobatic skydiving or medieval jesters. It really doesn’t matter what it is, what matters is that someone decided to put down another human being for asking a question.

Now, there are such things as stupid questions. No matter what people say. There are stupid questions. We’ve all heard one. And I will tell you such if you ask me one. In person. Pretty sure I did that this past week to someone. But I also took the time to understand why the question was asked and to help that person understand what they eventually communicated they were actually asking about. I find most stupid questions are asked because the person understands the topic at hand so poorly that it is difficult for them to even phrase a coherent question. Ask me how I know. Yours truly has definitely asked some stupid questions in his life. And somewhere along the way, someone took the time to understand what I was trying to ask and made an impression on me. And that impression stuck. I don’t remember what the topic was or even who the person was. But it was a lesson learned. Because instead of making me feel stupid for asking the stupid question, that person took a little extra time to see the person in front of them and uplift them. So while I may poke a little fun at you for asking a stupid question, I will take the time to help you understand. You miss the fact that someone else has already asked that question because you decided to stay glued to your phone instead of paying attention to the ongoing discussion you are supposed to be a part of? That’s game on…

But not all social media is bad. It’s not. It is a great way for us to share what we are doing with people we know and love but are apart from, to do business and marketing, to find some entertainment and to educate ourselves. I don’t do enough of the first one, the second one I believe I’m really, really bad at, the third one I definitely do and the last one I am wary about. If the fact that I’m not a social butterfly comes as a shock to you, you aren’t paying attention. I mean yesterday Shelby and I went to lunch with one of her friends in downtown Fayetteville and Shelby made the comment that we don’t go down there very much. Her friend started listing all these things to do. My comment? I can do all of those things at home, why do I want to go out to do them? I’m trying to do better about promoting my business on social media. But I’m a small part time operation who really doesn’t have much room for growth due to time. I fill a vast majority of my available lesson time. I’m extremely blessed to have such wonderful clients like some of you who do all the marketing I can handle. Word of mouth marketing is not only cost effective but is extremely powerful. I know when a friend suggests I try a restaurant, if we are on the fence about trying that restaurant, we will go and try it. Because I trust them. The same goes for golf instruction. When you see your swing improve, your scores go down, or you feel better physically because you don’t hurt after playing and one of your friends wants to know your secret, some of you will give it up. Now I say some because let’s face it, some of those weekend money games can get serious. I mean it’s not just five dollars a side you are going to lose, it’s bragging rights. And to some people, bragging rights are way more important than the five dollars. I do appreciate you all spreading the word. The best part is that we live in a small area. If you don’t give up the fact your working with me to the rest of your weekend foursome, good chances are that they are going to meet someone else who will point them my way. I’m not saying I’m a big deal at all. I’m most definitely not in the world of golf instruction.

This is where we jump over the entertainment piece of social media (I like watching videos of kittens and raccoons, there you go) to the education piece. Because while on social media, I learned a very valuable lesson. I can’t remember whose account it was on. But an experienced golf instructor gave the advice to new instructors to not worry about getting Tour players, or being famous, or having all the stuff, etc and to focus on one thing. Make the players in your area better. I don’t remember the exact words but that was the gist. And it stuck. Do I want Tour players? I’ll be honest, some of them seem really high maintenance. But yes. I’d love to have a Tour player or two. Do I want to be famous? Hells no. I want to be able to hide on 1500 acres of wilderness and be the hermit of legends that people whisper about but very few know how to find me. Have all the stuff? Really? You haven’t been in my bay lately, have you? I have all the stuff. I have way too much stuff. Rumor has it that I will be moving some of my training aids out into the bays in the Teaching Center to make room in my Swing Lab because I have so much stuff (Yes, I just started that rumor here and now). I have an excel spreadsheet that lists what I paid for the mountain of training aids that I have. You don’t want to know the number. I don’t want to know the number. But every single one of those training aids has taught me something. It could be that training wasn’t worth the money. Or that it doesn’t do what they claim it does. Or I found a new use for it that is better than what the inventor says to use it for. Or that it is perfect for one type of athlete. So many lessons, so worth it. If you ask me about a training aid, I’m going to give you my honest assessment. If I haven’t used it before, I will make an educated guess based on all the other ones that I have used. Like I told a PGM student recently, give me a towel, some tees, an empty ball sleeve and a bunch of alignment sticks and I would probably be happy. I’m going to be recreating a bunch of training aids with those everyday golf items which I wouldn’t be able to do if I didn’t have experience with all the ones I have purchased. Oooh, add a paper plate to the list. And not one of those cheap ones. A good heavy duty paper plate that’s going to hold up to a bunch of abuse. But back to making players in your area better. That’s what I am trying to do. There’s a few reasons I don’t teach online lessons. First, I don’t have the time. Second, I like the personal interaction. I help my players remotely, but we aren’t holding full lessons. I want to be there with them. Be able to clearly communicate with them. To move them so they can experience what I am trying to get them to do. I think you lose that online. Some teachers can do it, and maybe I’m exposing a weakness that I have. Finally, I don’t want to reach players all over the world. I have tons and tons of players in my immediate area that are looking to play better golf. So call me old fashioned, kooky, whatever. I heard the advice and I’ve made it my model. I believe that as my players find more success, I will find more success. My area of influence will grow. And maybe some of those other things will happen.

There’s a message there that I have seen online, although I wasn’t given the advice via social media. I was given it the old fashioned way. A mentor told it to me in person. Learn from your players. I’ve taken tons of courses on coaching. Like so many I can’t remember the names of all of them. I have a binder that keep all the certificates in. The other day Coach was trying to communicate how much I love to learn to our campers and he said he missed two or three. I muttered more like twenty to thirty and another coworker giggled. But it’s true. But I have learned more from my players than I could ever hope to learn in those classes. Because my players help me apply the information. That’s the important part. Some of our PGM students learn that the hard way. I know my military friends have probably learned that lesson during their service time. My older clients know it too. But you can have all the information in the world in your head, but if you don’t know what to use and when then you are basically worthless. Unless your goal is to be a library. Application of information is the key to success. Who cares if I know how much a CH-47 can sling load if I don’t know how to build the sling load, know how many attachment points I need to use on the aircraft for that load, how to balance the load, inspect it, etc? That information is absolutely worthless unless I can use it to create action. The same goes for golf instruction. Force plates, launch monitors, three dimensional motion capture, all this technology is great. But if I don’t know how to manipulate the motion to get the desired effect, then my knowledge of what the technology is telling me worthless. Tons of the stuff that I learn in courses I hold onto in my head because I don’t quite know how it’s useful. Then a player will say something about a feel, a motion, an intent, etc and click! It finally makes sense.Now I understand it better because I see how it is applied. Then I see it again. And again. Then I start to see how it connects throughout the entire chain. Then how manipulating another piece of the system can impact that thing. Now I truly understand it because I can use that information in a variety of ways to get the exact impact that I want. And that is all thanks to all of you. Every lesson, you all teach me something. It’s one of the things that makes teaching so enjoyable for me. I love to learn and even though normalcy dictates that I’m the one teaching, I’m also the one learning. I believe that is what has helped me find success helping you all find success.

I guess not all social media is awful. It’s like everything else. It is what we make it. But a sour taste does get left in your mouth from time to time reading the comments. The easy answer is don’t read the comments. I find most of the time the posts themselves aren’t the problem. It’s all the keyboard ninjas hiding in the shadows lashing out whenever they feel like it that I can’t stand. But I have to read the comments. There’s so much to learn in the comments. What people understand. Their perception of various concepts. The questions they ask. I’m not scrolling looking for the next magical swing tip. They exist. You just have to find the right one for you. I scroll looking to learn how to help you all play better golf. Those questions they ask? I go looking for answer because who knows when you will ask the same one. If one person is confused, many others are as well. I try to make that topic simpler for the next time I go over it with an athlete. The misperceptions are bountiful. And sometimes fixing the picture in your head, fixes the motion you make. It happened during a lesson yesterday. Twice. In the same lesson! So whether you use social media for sharing your life, education, entertainment or business, let’s make it a place where we still think about the person on the other side as exactly that. A person. It’s so easy to just fire away on the keyboard and come up with a scathing remark. But remember, words are like bullets. Once they are gone, there’s no getting them back. And they can cause irreparable damage. So I echo a call I’ve made before. Let’s all be an agent of change. And maybe someday, we can get Max back on social media. Like Batman, he may not be the hero we want, but he’s the hero we need.