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An Average Guy Who Spent 6,000 Hours Trying to Be a Professional Golfer

theatlantic.com

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Re: An Average Guy Who Spent 6,000 Hours Trying to Be a Professional Golfer

#41

Post by petra »

nostrademons wrote: post #20
danso wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Folks who decide to do a 10,000-hour challenge are probably already in some kind of elite group, in terms of wealth and free time (nevermind patience and perseverance). The average person isn't able to spend ~7 hours a day, every day for 4 years, on a non-salaried activity.

TV? The stats are that the average person watches 5 hours and 4 minutes of television per day, every day, for decades. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_consumption

Does the average person, coming after work and taking care of family has the energy to do serious work ? TV time isn't a good measure for that.

Re: An Average Guy Who Spent 6,000 Hours Trying to Be a Professional Golfer

#42

Post by erikb »

Pure marketing and zero professionalism it seems. A real person attempting pro will have real trainers. They will help him make plans that don't overstress his body in a way that kills his back in 5 years. Then you set goals that are hard but reachable, not outright impossible. Of course some "impossible" goals can be reached, but not without first achieving some goals from the "possible" category.

Re: An Average Guy Who Spent 6,000 Hours Trying to Be a Professional Golfer

#43

Post by plinkplonk »

maxxxxx wrote: post #35

I sort of did a similar experiment from 15-35 with boxing. Trained a lot and became pretty competent. But to get to the top hard work is not enough. You also need talent. There are people in the gym that had speed and strength without any training that I couldn't reach with daily hard training. But I think doing this was probably still the best thing I did in my life. Doing something that seems out of reach and then…

I'm on the verge of attempting something like this in Tai Chi. I'm pretty sure I have only moderate (if any) talent, and age is against me as well, but I plan to give this an all out try.

Great comment. Directly spoke to me. Thanks for taking the time to post it.

Re: An Average Guy Who Spent 6,000 Hours Trying to Be a Professional Golfer

#44

Post by majani »

SeanDav wrote: post #40

Absolutely true story: A friend of mine could make a golf ball do just about anything and was a wonder to watch. He was a scratch player or better (I don't recall his exact handicap). On paper, he was professional standard. He could sink 10 foot putts all day long (my hyperbole), but what he could not do was sink a 10-foot putt, when it counted . By his own admission, he just did not have the match temperament to per…

While this is true, I think golf etiquette makes it easier to handle the mental side. No screaming fans and flashing lights to deal with during the game like in other sports.

Re: An Average Guy Who Spent 6,000 Hours Trying to Be a Professional Golfer

#45

Post by k__ »

danielfoster wrote: post #7

I haven't read Gladwell's book, but I would imagine that time spent practicing is only one of several multipliers. Natural talent and the right coaching at the right time would be too others.

I think it's the worst multiplier.

Deliberate practice and perceptual exposure can cut this down rather much.

Re: An Average Guy Who Spent 6,000 Hours Trying to Be a Professional Golfer

#46

Post by pja »

majani wrote: post #44
SeanDav wrote: post #40

Absolutely true story: A friend of mine could make a golf ball do just about anything and was a wonder to watch. He was a scratch player or better (I don't recall his exact handicap). On paper, he was professional standard. He could sink 10 foot putts all day long (my hyperbole), but what he could not do was sink a 10-foot putt, when it counted . By his own admission, he just did not have the match temperament to per…

While this is true, I think golf etiquette makes it easier to handle the mental side. No screaming fans and flashing lights to deal with during the game like in other sports.

That helps with the external distractions, but it doesn't help with the pressure you put on yourself - the internal mental pressure.

There's a reason everyone recommends "The Inner Game of Tennis" in this context.

Re: An Average Guy Who Spent 6,000 Hours Trying to Be a Professional Golfer

#47

Post by pja »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #29
yakult wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need access to expertise, equipment, grounds, peer competition. These all require money and/or connections.

Golf is cheap. You could spend $1000 on equipment, get a yearly pass for $2300 right outside Google HQ. Spend $50 or is it $100 to join the men's club -- they'd love for you to join -- and get your NCGA handicap. Done. Read the greatest kung fu manual ever written, "Five Lessons" by Ben Hogan, or use some other book. I met one kid that modeled his swing off of YouTube videos and with that got himself to a scratch han…

Golf is cheap.

Hmm. You could say much the same about tennis, surely?

I suspect the biggest cost at the top level is coaching time: Is it possible to get good enough to match the elite players without access to a coach who is good enough to train players at that level?

Re: An Average Guy Who Spent 6,000 Hours Trying to Be a Professional Golfer

#48

Post by notahacker »

pja wrote: post #46
majani wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While this is true, I think golf etiquette makes it easier to handle the mental side. No screaming fans and flashing lights to deal with during the game like in other sports.

That helps with the external distractions, but it doesn't help with the pressure you put on yourself - the internal mental pressure. There's a reason everyone recommends "The Inner Game of Tennis" in this context.

Also, depending on how you handle pressure, a period of absolute silence when people concentrate on seeing whether you fail or not can be a lot more nerve-wracking than a colourful crowd of people relentlessly booing your team.

Re: An Average Guy Who Spent 6,000 Hours Trying to Be a Professional Golfer

#50

Post by 1337biz »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #2

I actually randomly looked this guy up months ago after thinking about him and wondering whatever became of his experiment. Sad to see how it ended. Side note: the Atlantic's shit-tastic anti-ad blocker wouldn't let me in even though I'm a paying subscriber, AND I whitelisted them, so here's the AMP link: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theatlantic.com/amp/article...

Funny, I did the same a few weeks ago. The idea is still fascinating.
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