As a twenty-year old, Tom Lewis shot to prominence in the 2011 British Open golf championship when as an amateur he shared the lead after the first round (scoring the lowest single-round score by an amateur in Open Championship history) and ultimately finished in 30th place and the leading amateur. After initial success as a professional, finishing as the 172nd ranked golfer at the end of that year, his performances waned and he slumped to his lowest position of 623rd in the world in 2016 before turning it around and currently standing as the 51st best golfer in the world, above such notable Major winners such as Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth and Bubba Watson. Interestingly, honestly, he recently observed that, “When I’m good, I’m good – but my bad needs to get a little better if I want to compete consistently.” There lies the key; how good are we on our bad days?
In a report on the recent British Open Ladies golf championship won by the world-ranked 304 player, Sophia Popov, it was stated that “No-one flukes a victory over seventy-two holes and golf’s capacity to throw up unexpected winners is one of its greatest strengths and a dependable source of sporting inspiration.” Over the first two days, the players battled with gale force winds and squally, sometimes torrential, showers, though that was nothing, as one reporter described it, to Popov’s fight in the past with Lyme disease. The question again, in a different context, was the same: how good are we on our bad days?
The fact is, we all have bad days, in whatever field of life we live and work and it is a feature of every sportsperson’s life as well. In that regard therefore it is imperative that we know how to handle those bad days, to still be good, somehow, on our bad days. Sportspeople can have a bad day for reasons to do with sport: the timing seems to be off, the weather conditions change, the opponents are tougher or they are unfit or try to carry an injury. Equally, though, sportspeople are humans and therefore can be put off by many things not to do with the sport: a row with her partner, a sleepless night with his child, a delay in arrival, a loss of possessions. So how do we handle those bad days?
Do we lose our temper and throw a tantrum? There may be a skill in bowling a cricket ball but there is no skill in throwing a tantrum! Do we blame others, be they team-mates, opposition or officials, coaches or conditions, anyone but ourselves? There is no benefit in blaming others. Do we sulk and sink into a slough of self-pity and despair? Do we just give up and question what the point is in going on? For sure, we can do any of the above, if we so choose, but none of them will make us any better, nor will they help us on our bad days in the future.
Our bad days give us a wonderful opportunity to see things in perspective. When things go well, we must learn to be grateful; we must not over-celebrate or get carried away. Equally, when things go badly, we can acknowledge that it was a bad day and be grateful for the reminder that we still have
work to do; we do not over-react. The goal is to achieve a consistency despite all the conditions faced and to achieve that we need to have a consistency in the way we deal with the good and the bad. We score a goal; that is great, but it is only a goal, no more, no less. We concede a goal; that is great, it is only one goal, no more, no less. Winning and losing are the two sides of the same coin, with the same value on both sides. We must simply spend the coin wisely, whichever way it lands.
Golf teaches us the best lesson. We may have a bad shot, but the next shot, played from wherever it lies, is a new opportunity. We may have had a bad hole, a dreadful hole even, but the next hole is a new hole, a new challenge and a new opportunity. We may even have a nightmare round where it all went wrong but the next round means we start afresh – on the first hole, with the first shot. We start again. We go back to the beginning, back to basics. What happened on the last shot, hole or round should have no significance on the next one. We forget what lies behind (the mistakes, the mess, the mishaps, though not the lessons learned from them) and press on again. Bad holes happen; bad days come along. More than anything, we need as coaches and parents to develop in our children a willingness and a habit of hanging in there, of holding on, of keeping on keeping on, of digging deep, of grafting, of scrapping, of scraping. There lies the difference not between good and bad players but between good and great players. Be inspired: our bad just needs to get better.
