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US Open

This tag is associated with 5 posts

Roger Federer’s Footwork

Many thanks to Jeff Beer for sending this New York Times item on Roger Federer’s footwork. My favorite part is the very beginning. It concerns Federer’s ability to PERCEIVE quickly. The narrator says Federer’s split step begins the moment he sees the opponent’s racquet come forward to hit the ball. This early recognition is a […]

The Role of Mistakes

Imagine a sports landscape in which there were no mistakes. Dave Johnson has done so, and what he sees isn’t pretty. The rallies go on forever, the score is endlessly tied, and there is no game. No sport. No thrill. Johnson, president-elect of the Minnesota State High School Coaches Association, has written a thoughtful piece […]

When Your Game Is a Mess

Whether you’re a golfer or not, Lucas Glover’s victory in the U.S. Open has valuable lessons for you. He struggled in the first half of the final round, but hung in there. The moral is: Just because your GAME is a mess doesn’t mean that YOU have to be a mess.

What You Believe

As I write this, the final round of the U.S. Open is taking place. I hope to be writing about it later on.

In the meantime, let’s look at the idea of belief, an idea that applies no matter what the sport.

Years ago, there was a baseball player (I forget his name) who played for the Detroit Tigers. He had a deathly fear of flying. The only thing that could console him on the airplane was being able to sit within sight of teammate Al Kaline. In his mind, Kaline was too important to ever die in a plane crash, and so just sitting next to Kaline gave this player a sense of security.

Great Obstacles

“The superior man makes the difficulty to be overcome his first interest; success comes only later.” ~ Confucius. With the U.S. Open in progress, a legendary golf quote comes to mind. Years ago, during a tournament in which the golfers were fighting a losing battle against the course, Frank Tatum, then president of the United […]