I have a video on golf instruction by Johnny Miller that is unusual. Normal golf instructors tend to focus on things like the proper grip, the right back swing, and the proper follow through. Such instructors offer hundreds of “swing thoughts” to their students. Miller’s approach takes a different focus. Miller tends to be preoccupied by the tiny fraction of a second when the club is actually in contact with the ball.
In fact, he claims that he has spent much of his adult life studying this short moment of contact. He says he deserves a Ph.D. in the subject. Indeed, as I listen to his insights, he seems to have a deep knowledge about the moment of contact and can talk about it in a way that is most helpful. One senses that he really is a masterful teacher with unusual wisdom.
It’s the moment of contact that I also am interested in. What fascinates me is the moment – or maybe it’s even the episode – of profound contact. This contact matters a great deal in life. If we can understand it better, we can improve something much more important than our golf swing. If we can master the notion of profound contact, we are more likely to make profound contributions.
One way to do this is to list all the moments of profound contact we have experienced. Once we do this we can analyze the list. The analyses will provide a set of guidelines we believe in. We can use the guidelines to run personal experiments and grow ourselves into some thing more (Quinn, Letters to Garrett pg. 79-80).
