Habits are a funny thing, they can be good or bad, depending on the circumstance. One good habit can lead to a bad habit if you are not careful. The key is to know your habits, study them and understand how one impacts another.
I work out with a trainer, and to get ready for golf season, we decided to focus on core strength and power. Part of the new workout was to throw a 14lbs medicine ball at the wall. Enormously satisfying if you had a bad day, but that is another blog. The movement was to twist and throw the ball with as much force and to follow through with the turn. To get the most power I was to step into the movement.
My golf swing fell apart and I could not figure out why. While watching videos, I had filmed for content for Instagram, I realized that I was now lifting my lead foot and stepping through my swing. Now that I knew what I was doing wrong, I would just stop doing it. Not so easy.
I had been doing this new workout for months and had formed a habit, and it is not so easy to just stop a habit. Some people can, but I could not with this one. The first thing I did was give my trainer heck…lol. Then I set out to change the habit, I got a weight and I put it on my lead foot, and I started swinging my club, and then I did it another day, and then another, until not lifting my foot became the habit. Now, when I throw the medicine ball at the wall, I do so without lifting my foot. I do not have quite as much power behind it, so the thud of it hitting the wall is not quite as satisfying, but at least my golf swing is back. I have many habits, some bad ones formed a long time ago, that reared their ugly head when I decided to start SWINGRIP. I have learned to acknowledge them, understand what caused them, be grateful for the purpose they served and then replace them with a habit that better serves me now, what I call a Good Habit.
