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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

#71

Post by sliverstorm »

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…

There are people in the gym that had speed and strength without any training that I couldn't reach with daily hard training.

I'm inclined to wonder if they were lucky & came with it, for whatever reason. Like, they happened to grow up playing basketball and shoveling dirt, so they have years of formative training already.

I heard an interesting hypothesis once about ski stars- basically, that many pro skiers today had just the right foot & shin geometry as kids such that ski boots fit really well. A kid whose foot is NOT a great fit for the boots, might have plenty of latent skill & ability, but nobody custom-fits boots for kids. That's not to denigrate the pro skiers today, just to say, everyone comes to a sport with a different background, and having certain lucky prerequisites help you stand out right from the beginning.

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

#74

Post by tigerBL00D »

We should be careful drwaing conclusions about the value of practice here.

The main problem with this endeavor is the definition of success. The outcome is strictly binary. That is either he makes a pro tour or not. Apart from publicity, there is not a whole lot that can be redeemed if Dan gets, say, only 90% there.

There are numerous ways one can challenge himself or herself and benefit enormously along the way to the top 6% in the respective field. For example, if it were finance, then he would have been very wealthy. If it were triathlon, then he'd be in great physical health. Etc.

In real life going for it is not the only thing that leads to success. It's also choosing wisely what you do.

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

#76

Post by bitexploder »

ajross wrote: post #9
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.

Outliers is a fun read, and short. Just as with all Gladwell it's long on idea consistency and short on numerical rigor. But this is sort of a misinterpretation anyway. The point isn't that 10k hours is enough to make you a master in isolation, it's that masters don't get to be masters before 10k. At the top end of elite practitioners of any art, talent still matters.

And the studies he (Glad we'll) references are an average of 10000. Average. Sucks to be you if you are the 20k hours person.

http://www.businessinsider.com/sports-gene-author-gladwell-1...

I read this book. It is well written and better researched than outliers by far.

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

#77

Post by murray_jody »

Natural Talent + Dedication = a chance to be great at something.

I was an over achieving 6'2" power forward in junior college. Led the team in rebounding and blocked shots, but was always matched against guys 6'5" and taller, and 20 or more pounds of muscle heavier.

So I don't care how much practice I did under what regime, I had already found my limits. 6'-2".

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

#78

Post by rsync »

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 sort of did a similar experiment from 15-35 with boxing."

Did you stop ? If so, why ?

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

#79

Post by mattm »

"The Sports Gene" [1] is an excellent book on this topic backed up by not only research but entertaining stories as well. It has a section about Dan but also has stories about a world champion high jumper who dedicated his life to high jumping only to be surpassed by someone who wasn't really interested in it and had been practicing for less than a year.

I think the lesson to take away from Dan's experience and what the author of this book argues as well is that yes, practice can make you a lot better. But to be among the best in the world, you'll need to have some sort of genetic advantage.

[1] https://www.amazon.ca/Sports-Gene-Extraordinary-Athletic-Per...

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

#80

Post by aug101 »

"There is golf, and then there is tournament golf." - Bobby Jones. Dan picked one of the most ridiculously hard endeavors to 'master' and never even had a cup of coffee at a mini-tour event, let alone advancing in any of his state qualifiers or local invitationals. Even the pros who have their tour card but are not in the field for the next tournament sometimes play in a 1-round Monday qualifier, and they have to shoot in the mid to low 60s to top a field of 125-185 players to grab an open slot. Even then they likely will miss the cut at the event, as most tour players do week in week out - except the true superstars. A 2-handicap shows you can manage your way around a course, but it's miles away from tour-level. Tour players are in the +5 to +8 range at their home clubs, and those are all championship tracks they play from the tips - just for practice.
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