Learn & Grow With Grit

The goal of any sport is to have fun and enjoy playing, and at First Tee, we want everyone to enjoy the game of golf! Sometimes learning a new lesson or skill can be challenging, whether you are on or off the golf course. You might feel frustrated or confused. You might even feel like quitting or giving up at times. This is when you want to have grit and dig deep!

Having grit means you demonstrate a positive attitude that helps you push through obstacles and keep going even when it’s tough. Sometimes, the most learning happens when you are facing challenges. You can choose to go through it with a negative attitude, or you can grow through it and learn by facing the obstacle with a positive mindset and demonstrating grit!

First Tee participants should remember these Three Tips for Developing Grit:

1. Be Patient - When you are patient, you are staying calm and giving yourself a chance to succeed by trying again and again.
2. Be Positive - When you are being positive, you are choosing to enjoy what you are doing regardless of the outcome.
3. Ask For Help - Asking for help from your coaches or other players is always encouraged at First Tee, because that is how we learn. You can learn from others when you ask them to give you a hand. First Tee celebrates growing through challenges. It helps you discover your inner strength, develop resilience, and dig deep when things get tough. But while we are learning and growing, we want to remember to have fun along the way.

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Set Up For Success

The quality of your chip and pitch shots depends greatly on how you set up to the ball. Here are three things that will help you to make more solid contact:

• Set your weight forward: Our ultimate goal is to hit the ball on the way down, with the club striking the ground just after ball contact. Biasing your weight to the front foot helps to promote this.

• Set your hands Forward: In the same way, setting your hands forward encourages a descending club. When the grip is in front of the head, the club will be losing altitude on the down swing, so leading with the hands is crucial.

• Ball Position: While your ball position may need to be adjusted due to slopes, for a generally flat lie, position your belly button just in front of the ball. Our swing tends to bottom at the center point of our body, so setting our belly button where we want the club to impact the ground leads to better results.

Phil Mickelson: Chipping 101