What is Golf Talent?

[Festus]

The official definition of talent is "a special natural ability or aptitude". So what natural ability or aptitude do high level golfers possess that sets them apart?

Sensing where the sweet spot is at all times?
Superior motor control? More in tune with what their bodies are doing?
Hand-eye coordination?
Depth perception?

You hear the term thrown around all the time but what exactly is "it"?

 

[vjsinger]

I have a book for ya. It's called Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin. In that book hr makes a strong arguement as to what Talent is or isn't and that talent doesn't even really exist. After doing some research on the subject, I have come to the conclusion that talent doesn't exist.

 

[spktho]

Some people are more kinesthetically inclined which means that they can learn and perform new movement patterns quicker but more importantly, can repeat them correctly over and over.

But I think you have to say "talent" for what sport before you can determine what some people do better or sooner than others. (Now I see your title--you did say golf talent)

You can definitely see the difference in talent at a lower level of competition or in people/kids just beginning in "skilled" sports such as golf, hitting a baseball, dribbling a basketball, volleyball... As you move to a higher level of competition is when proper practice will determine success.

 

[footwedge]

The official definition of talent is "a special natural ability or aptitude". So what natural ability or aptitude do high level golfers possess that sets them apart?

Sensing where the sweet spot is at all times?
Superior motor control? More in tune with what their bodies are doing?
Hand-eye coordination?
Depth perception?

You hear the term thrown around all the time but what exactly is "it"?

It's a word to describe a persons ability to perform at a high level of competence in an activity such as sports, music, etc.

What's your talent? That person sure is talented. In other words, what are you good at. That's what i think it means, how a person does it probably includes all the things you mentioned and maybe some other things as well, like the ability to process info. and translate that to the physical act of doing, at a high level.

 

[puttmad]

Talent or natural ability is the process of (usually) starting young enough and then being correctly encouraged, thereby retaining interest, which in turn leads to various success, which leads to more encouragement and which encourages above average practice, which in turn leads to more success, etc etc etc.......

 

[Steve Greffen]

Talent in something is something that you naturally do very well whether it is athletics or not. What most do is try to focus on their weaknesses instead of managing round them and working on their strengths, ie what they are naturally good at ie their talents. True in business, team sports as well as individual sports.

The best coaches do this with their players in evaluating their players talent recognizing what they do well and capitlizing on it, not beating the weakness to death and ignoring any development in the talent.

Golf can work the same way if you have a particular "ability" in one area, focus on it to develop it the best you can and work to "manage" around your weaknesses.

Gallup has some great books on the talent subject. There is golf talent for sure, even if the talent is more micro like bunker play or driver swings etc.

Steve

 

[puttmad]

Talent in something is something that you naturally do very well

I think "naturally" needs to be defined....after all, what is "natural?"

I'm of the opinion that "natural" is simply a case of starting young enough, plus a couple of other factors...

Take the two Russian female chess "geniuses".....they were trained and encouraged from an early age by their parents to be just that....
If you watched them play, you'd say they were naturals....but they aren't....

 

[ggsjpc]

Golf Talent----Good question.

I think there is a thing such as golf talent. I think that a higher level golfer has one thing that seperates them from the pack and I'll quote Fred Shoemaker. "They feel things that you do not." That is what seperates higher skilled golfers from the rest.

I think golf talent is this--the ability to feel correctly what is occuring.

 

[puttmad]

Golf Talent----Good question.

I think there is a thing such as golf talent. I think that a higher level golfer has one thing that seperates them from the pack and I'll quote Fred Shoemaker. "They feel things that you do not." That is what seperates higher skilled golfers from the rest.

I think golf talent is this--the ability to feel correctly what is occuring.

So basically talent is applying "natural ability?"...........

 

[Kevin Shields]

I think golf talent is having a high sporting IQ so you see things differently out there. The ability to snap your chain and control the face and low point. Strong hands, etc.

 

[Brian Manzella]

Talent...You've either got it, or you don't.

What is Talent?

It is the ability to do something very well, without a whole lot of work, practice or effort.

There are folks that have talent in some area, and others that don't.

I had a lot of musical talent, especially on the drums. I was able to "play along" with a record, on a $35 set of drums, without much practice or any lessons, by the age of 4.

In the 27 years I have taught golf, I've seen talented players, learners, ball-strikers, and teachers.

And, I've seen a whole lot of less talented people as well.

Connor Finney, Michael's nephew, could strike the ball consistently on the face, and get in airborne with ease, at the age of four.

I saw Michael as a 5-foot two, 102 lb. golfer, hit persimmon drivers and rubber band balls, 270 yards. Don't say it was the lessons he got from Jimmy Self, Mr. Jimmy taught a powerless pattern. Mike just had the NATURAL ABILITY, the talent to hit the ball a long way.

I have given lessons to golfers, like one this past week in Ann Arbor, who just could do whatever I told them, within a couple of balls.

That's talent.

Jim Kobylinski understood ball flight and cause and effect very early on, and was a natural talent as a teacher.

You can overcome not having talent. Hard work, want to, belief in yourself, among other things, can beat the talented players and teachers in the long run.

Anyone who thinks talent doesn't exist, has obviously never had it, or witnessed it.

 

[cmartingolf]

I agree with Brian.

I've seen way too many people that can't tie their shoes and a bunch of people that can do whatever you ask them in a short period of time.

Example: I had a lesson today with newbie. Good listener, tried hard and will play "decent" golf down the road. He works hard, is systematic, but doesn't have "talent." I tossed him a golf ball from 5 yards away and he looked like I tossed him an Anvil. It wasn't a test, simply my observation of how he reacted to having to perform (catch the ball) without warning. Most of you with any "talent" and not expecting a ball lobbed in your direction, would have simply and calmly caught the ball without a big physical effort. This guys eyes turned to saucers and his hands frantically tried to figure out which one should catch the ball.

Talent: I had this gal that has struggled with golf for 13 years (her husband taught her)come out for lessons. Worst impact condition possible; she had a bag of "lob wedges" if you get my drift. After a bit of COFF and some pivot drills with the bath towel (which I should have b-man autograph-I wear that drill out), she was striping pitch shots 70 yards in 20 minutes. She absolutely "got it" and could apply it right away.

Talented folks adapt quickly.

 

[birdie_man]

I'm a good athlete...I didn't have much natural aptitude toward golf.

But I've always thought I have lots of untapped potential.

I have had to work lots and sort a lot out to get where many are with much less effort. I'm not where I want to be yet but I don't see why I can't be.

I do many things slower and more thorough than a lot of people anyway.

 

[softconsult]

Golf talent is the sales guy I hired in 1990. He had played the mini-tours.
As I learned later from his local friends, he broke 80 in some ridiculously short amount of time after taking up golf.

He's also the guy that would shoot 68 in casual matches, but when he was my partner at the member-guest tournaments he never broke 80!

 

[softconsult]

I love Martin's technique of throwing a golf ball at the student. I'm not an instructor, but I have done something similar. It instantly shows whether a person has some experience playing ball sports. Logically, fewer and fewer people have that experience due to the young people opting for computer games instead of sports.

 

[holeout]

Talent is exactly what Brian described: being good at something whether you work at it, or not.

There's a kid at my course, 16, who's played for 5 or 6 years, tops. He's got a great swing and a natural aptitude for the physical aspects of the game. He could always hit it very solidly, hit good wedge shots, and putt well. But his decision making and shot selection was abysmal. He would shoot between 74 and 79 typically.

About 2 years ago he "figured it out" with regard to course management. He shot 69-70 to win the junior club championship. Two months later he won a big junior event shooting 64 in the final round.

His career low at the beginning of the summer was 68. In casual rounds.

On top of all this, the kid never practices. He'll hit balls some, sure, but he mostly just talks to everyone and jokes around.

He shot 68 in the first round of the men's club championship yesterday. He won it last year by 6 shots (bogeying the last 3 holes).

THAT is talent.

 

[self-mastery]

Go watch a bunch kids who do not come from a golfing family hit balls for the first time. Spend an entire summer doing this, then you will understand talent. The kids who show promise early are the one's who improve. The baby hacks become adult hacks! No...they just barely improve. My niece is athletically talented--- She can bomb drives pretty long for her age, she's a good sprinter, she's good at gymnastics, she's a good dancer, and she's good at tennis. Most importantly she doesn't give a **** about process. She's a lazy talent...maybe an 11 yr old John Daly...save the alcohol and weight problems. Talent does what it can, a mind does what it wants... Thank you Mr. Colbert... I went to a performing arts HS, and that's what my music instructor would tell the class. He's also the same guy that conducted my interview to get into the program... After I finished playing he told me that I was untalented and would be behind everyone else... I don't know if that was reverse psychology, but that gave me the impetus to work my butt off so that I could kick everyone's ass. I became more of a technician than a musician... I've never had a good 'ear'. I could never improvise while playing jazz, but throw a really technical classical 'legit' piece of sheet music in front of me, and there were few who could hang with me. Practice could only get me so far...

At a certain level both talent and hard work taper off... You can only get so good.

I think that Tom Kite is the perfect example of a talentless player that knew how to win.

 

[vjsinger]

I have lots of "talent" for music, I have perfect pitch. For those that don't know, it means I can hear a sound, whether it be a sound a bird makes, a dog bark or a trumpet play and tell you 99.9% of the time the exact pitch of that note immediately. Everyone says I have "talent" and that's why, because I could do this since I was very young, about 6. I read awhile ago that about 2% of professional musicians have this ability. My sister has it too, and she is not a musician anymore. I will argue with you till the cows come home that I DON'T have "talent" in music. I learned to do this very early in life because my parents had music playing in my house 24 hours a day, everyday. I played the Trumpet very well at an early age because of this learning. Alot of musicians have done it this way. You'd be surprised to know alot of things that AREN'T true about Mozart and many of the other great composers. People tried to explain their gifts and used the word talent to describe what these young geniuses did at an early age because they didn't know why. Science and research on the subject is disproving the "talent" arguement everyday. I'm not trying to start WW3 here, but these are my beliefs and I'm not going to change my mind anytime soon, especially when it is being studied heavily and lots of money is being used to study it. I teach music every other day to people that are into learning music and those that are not. I don't have one kid that has the "talent" that I do, but they also weren't exposed to music the same way as me either. This is a very difficult subject to discuss and I'm sure I'll get flamed somehow because I don't agree with you guys. All I can say is, check out the stuff I've read and maybe my point will become clearer. I have spent and will continue spending lots of time trying to understand this subject because it interests me very much. It's a cool subject and once you dig into it, it can be addictive. I would encourage everyone to check out the book I mentioned.

 

[softconsult]

Science may be disproving the Talent argument everyday, but science is also absolutely proving manmade Global Warming everyday. Of course, science is also disproving Global Warming everyday.

Seems to me that it's difficult to deny that there have been people who are geniuses. Examples, to name a few, are Einstein, DaVinci, John Nash. There are also people who accomplish great things through hard work in spite of a lack of genius or talent in a specific area.

I used to teach dancing. Not professionally. I was just one of the better dancers. It's in my blood. My mother was a semi-pro ice skater and dance instructor. I initially thought that you either had it or you didn't. There was a guy in class that was a disaster. I nicknamed him Mr. Floppy Foot. He was bad, but he was persistent. He got divorced, then re-married someone who could dance. Within a couple of years, after hard work, he became a very good dancer. We have joked about how bad he was in the beginning. Nothing better than helping someone who is willing to do the work. Most don't want to do the work.


And then there is the little matter of genetics. No one will ever convince me that this is not a huge factor. Using Golf, pick a couple of scratch players and ask them about their ancestry. You will often find that somewhere in the family tree, there were athletes.

 

[vjsinger]

I forgot to mention that my parents are not musicians and have never played any instruments, my dad CANNOT hear pitch AT ALL, it's really awful. We listened to all kinds of music, mostly classical, when I was a kid because my parents read somewhere in a Readers Digest, or something that it made babies "smarter". They found that they actually liked it after playing it all the time and it just stayed on for many years until I was old enough to turn it off when I wanted to. As for the genius debate, guys in lab coats have a theory on intelligence and what that really means as well..another whole different can of worms.