The Comfort Zone is the vehicle for the golfer to get in “The Zone”. How a comfort zone affects a golfer’s ability to change their swing is the key to adaptation not only within golf, the golf swing, etc. but in all learning. Athleticism plays no real role in learning – only in adapting.
Some golfers have comfort zones that are huge. These people can learn in any golf instructional language. So they can make almost immediate changes that last because the foundation, their comfort zone, tells them nothing truly unrecoverable will happen as a result of throwing caution to the wind in adapting to instruction. They consider themselves flexible in thought, so they are flexible in deed. Outcomes are incidental to people like this.
My best friend has no ability to convert instruction into action in spite of the fact that he is a great athlete. His comfort zone very specific and, as a result, very small. He learns in a cocoon. So to leave his cocoon with swing changes means he will be alone with the instruction for a long gestation period. He will not be forced because the outcome is paramount to him.
The point is that if the outcome is incidental to a golfer, they will learn faster because the instruction is internalized faster. If the outcome is paramount, a person will take longer to convert the instruction. The instruction has to be converted in private because the cocoon is the comfort zone. There are variations in between. But I thought to hit the extremes here.
John Wright – Founder
The Open Stance Academy
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