Planning for Development

One of my favorite quotations of all time is by Dr. Bob Rotella: "Those with great dreams can achieve great things". This is absolutely true. If you want to be a great player, you have no chance of doing that unless you dream of becoming a great player.

However, your dream is just your foundation. You also need to have a well developed plan for how you are going to improve and get to where you want to go. Too many junior players simply go through the year aimlessly practicing without an idea of how their practice on that day will fit into an overall plan for development. You need to have a specific plan for what parts of your game you are trying to work on over time, and how you will do it. What in your swing needs work? What part of your mental game are you trying to get better at? What short game shots do great players have that you don't, and that you will try to acquire? How will will you make improvements? Do you have a coach that you trust? Do you have planned practice time for each area of your game? How will you know if you are making improvements? How will you measure improvements?

Great players have always made long term plans outlining how they would work on their games. Jack Nicklaus started every season by planning how he would peak for the majors, and practiced accordingly. He worked on his fundamentals at the beginning of the year to knock off the rust, and then started working on hitting a draw to get ready for the Masters.

It's not good enough just to dream big and work hard. You need to dream big, plan smart, and work hard to execute your plan.