I talked to an elated Gio over the weekend and he wanted to tell me about a recent change in the way he works with players; he thinks it’s paying dividends. Using questionnaires the players fill out for themselves, Valiante has given the players a say in what language, self-talk really, they’ll use on the course. “It’s working,” he said of the process, because “they own it.”
What they own is an approach Valiante calls “Fearless Golf,” when a player focuses on the idea of gradual, steady improvement, and not on what the world, or his competitors, think of his performance. It’s a golf competitor’s version of enjoying the journey, not waiting for the destination. Valiante calls it a “mastery” orientation versus an “ego” orientation. Here’s a quote from Fearless Golf, the 2005 Golf Digest book that’s now sold more than 50,000 copies.
“Because mastery golfers play the game for the personal challenge it provides rather than for the recognition they receive from others, their concentration is invariably on the golf course and not on the other golfers, the gallery, the scoreboard, or even their own score.
Whether one is a believer or not, this “mastery” orientation is producing a lot of recognition for Valiante’s students lately. Yes, he's got a very talented, hard-working stable. But he seems to have their talented heads in the right place.
Bob Carney
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