I think Joan Westenberg’s argument about backing systems over sparks is a great way to understand golf and how to improve one’s game…
…so I’ve written this quick post to draw out the words that hit home for me, because Westenberg probably (certainly?!) wasn’t thinking about golf herself!
(The image for this post shows an artwork made up of old cogs. They would need a fair bit of re-organisation to make them into a working system!)
Westenberg’s message
Build your systems.
Codify the boring parts.
Make it easier to do the right thing.
Let the outcomes be the natural byproduct of a repeatable process, not the residue of a rare spark. Because if it only works when you’re inspired, it doesn’t really work at all.
Quiet and sustainable in the long term
Westenberg describes systems as “quiet, repeatable, and sustainable”, with “feedback loops, structure, constraints, and long-term incentives”.
For me (maybe not everyone) these ideas resonate with how I want play golf.
The game is stressful, but it also has the potential to quiet my mind and focus my attention. It is physical as well as mental. Although each shot is different, there are repeatable elements. I want the act of hitting the ball to be physically sustainable, because I’d like to be able to play this game for the rest of my life.
My golf shots are constrained by my body’s structure and biometrics. These have changed over the 5 years I’ve been playing and they continue to change. Noticing feedback loops while practising and playing is a vital part of learning and improving. Golf is all about the long term. Goals, and therefore incentives, are difficult to pin down. You can’t play perfect golf, it’s all about building up to making the best choice and movement for any given spatial and temporal moment.
Lowering the cost of failure
Westenberg says “a well-built system doesn’t need to be brilliant today”, it just needs “to keep working”. Although a system can’t “guarantee success”, it does “lower the cost of failure”. By building a system your wins are less about “doing something heroic once” and more about being consistently average.
This might sound rather boring and negative, but golf involves a great deal of luck as well as skill, something that shouldn’t be overlooked when we applaud a hero shot. A spark of brilliance isn’t something you can prepare in advance, but average consistency is attainable through diligent practice.
Building a system for consistency won’t take the frustration out of golf. You’ll still miss shots spectacularly from time to time and get really irritated. But, being able to return to your system for the next shot? Well, that could make all the difference to how the game ends.
