The Definition of Insanity - Live at the Expo

10 minutes ago

3 min read

Yes, I do sometimes leave my Garage for a stroll around the neighborhood. And a couple of weeks ago that stroll was at a college tournament to see some live action. One of the coaches I was with asked me a pretty unique question.

“What question do you think college coaches aren’t asking?”

That one gave me a little pause for thought because it’s such a vulnerable question. It brings to the forefront an acknowledgement that “I might not have all the answers.”

To her question, I had two responses. First:

“What am I missing?”

It’s such a basic question, but in a world of volatile performances on the green, it’s worth asking. Maybe that volatility is the result of not having structured practice plans with a sharp, focused goal.

And if a coach already has that, why isn’t it transferring to the course with the regularity that it should?

Shoot, do we even know if the drills we’re doing are working towards actively improving our strokes gained putting? That seems to be one of the popular metrics we all like. Is it just supposed to magically change? Do you really want to leave that to chance and find out after they hand the trophy to your rival?

The second question:

“What can I do differently?”

This one challenges the status quo. And some coaches just aren’t willing to listen. I’ve seen it firsthand.

Flashback to the 2025 College Coaches’ Conference in Las Vegas. I had a booth at the expo, and one coach approached and asked who I was. After the standard greetings and a bit about my offerings, I asked about his team’s putting.

The answer should come as no surprise.

I’ll paraphrase, but it was something to the effect of “We 3 putt a lot. Our speed isn’t very good. We miss a lot of short putts and just struggle to get better.”

I asked what they do for practice. He described some drills and games they use to simulate the course and test performance.

I asked him what he thought might be a good course of action. The answer?

“I think we’re going to keep doing the speed drills. I really like those.”

Thank goodness my colleague was there to witness this. Otherwise, you’d never believe someone could so unequivocally rule out the drills he’s currently doing as a reason why the team isn’t improving.

Before you laugh, ask yourself how many of your drills you’ve kept simply because you like them.

But surely if we just keep at it, the needle will move, right?

I understand repetition is essential for skill acquisition. But repeating the drill without measuring the change? That we’ll have to file under the definition of insanity.

Instead, let’s stop judging our drills solely by a noisy number like Strokes Gained and start tracking scoring parameters and the patterns in the misses.

So there are two really good questions headed into this year’s event in Las Vegas. Take a minute and ask yourself those two questions. Then click below if you’d like to circle back to me.

For those interested in hanging out with me December 8-9 at Planet Hollywood, I’ll have special presentations running Tuesday afternoon and most of the day Wednesday in my suite. Space is limited, so reach out now to grab a spot.