Part 2 of our roundtable discussion with Shubhankar Sharma, Jesse Grewal & Col Mohan Sharma on Roundglass Golf Academy’s vision for Indian golf! ⛳💚
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Brown glass is going to help the our our people here to get into better infrastructure. We’ve got we’ve got to we’ve created a group of kids who will be coached from now onwards and it might widen. You need different techniques and adaptability is the key in professional golf. Sunny coming into golf and uh taking it on. I think there nothing would have been better than that. [Music] If I take an input from sir and ask me this thing talent versus tech versus coaching how do you think I mean as a pro as a golfer whatever somebody who’s the skilled I think you are a pro going out and trying to win I’d say we’ll start with talent first I think talent talent is a myth it’s all discipline at the end of the today you know when you’re young and you like a sport um I think for any kid it’s very important to play all sports first of all and then the kid takes a liking to a certain sport for me I used to play all sports as a kid I used to love basketball I used to love football and then golf came in I loved playing golf I wanted to go every day after school I don’t know if I was talented or not but I took a genuine liking to the game I wanted to go to the golf course every day and then you know the discipline part came in later when I was like okay this is what I want to do I think discipline is what separates It’s very very good players from average ones cuz you know talent can only take you to a certain point and we’ve heard this saying so many times that talent can only take you to a certain point. Discipline is what takes you further. So I’d say talent is very overrated. So let’s leave talent aside. It’s more especially in a game like golf where there’s so much longevity. You can play for so long you have to be very very disciplined. Keep to certain things and you know coming to coaching I’d relate this point with coaching where sir is a very old school coach. That’s one of the reasons why we’ve stayed together for so long because when you’re playing on the golf course in the heat of the moment, it’s not a tech machine. It’s that’s not going to tell you what’s wrong with your swing. It’s your own ability and own subconscious mind and your muscle memory that will help you um during those tough times when you’re playing under tough conditions. That’s where this style of coaching really helps. You know, when everything is feel, everything is in the hand. You know exactly why a shot has gone a certain way. even if your swing isn’t working, you don’t disintegrate on the golf course. You know exactly how to bring it back or, you know, maybe change your technique midway through the round to save yourself and save shots. Um, it’s a very old school way of playing. And I’d say even the good players right now, if you look at the top players, I mean, everyone knows Tiger Woods and everyone sees his discipline part and how much he worked out, how perfect his swing was, but people don’t understand how field-based he was. uh you know there were certain things he would do every day because he wanted to maintain that feel throughout his career and so many times that’s why he was special because he would hit it in very very bad places in a round and still recover so well and people could not figure out how he was doing that because he would practice every shot all fieldbased shots that you know not you won’t really practice necessarily when you have a machine in front of you you just keep hitting like a robot and keep hitting straight and keep getting your numbers but this is field-based shots these these are and this is what a coach like Jesse Ser would inculcate in you from a very young age that you know you have to see the ball fly and understand how it works. So now talent coaching and tech if I compare all of it I think all of it is needed. Talent I think is overrated to say it’s more discipline. Coaching being old school is very important. Some of the best coaches in the world are old coaches who have coached for 20 30 40 years who understand what the innate subconscious mind can do and what the feel of a play can do. You would agree with this. And then tech is very helpful also. You can’t totally leave tech. In today’s day and age, in every sport, tech is very important. Uh you have technology in you know in fitness, in what you’re eating, in nutrition and in the sport itself. I think it’s very important. But you have to be very very careful that you don’t go down that route fully and totally get dependent on machines. You have to have your ability intact of going and playing and not like I I use a Trackman. And Trackman is a device that you keep keep behind and you keep hitting shots when you’re on the range. It tells you every number there is about the ball spin rate, how much it flies, what the wind conditions are, how much the ball would go. I use it as a gauge at the start of the week to see, okay, is is it matching up to my feel? If I’m hitting a shot with the pitching wedge, it’s going 140 yards. If I’m feeling 140, is the machine saying 140 or is my feel off? Just to match the two things. And once Monday is done, I barely use it cuz now everything is there. I just have to now trust my feels. So, you know, I mean, what do you describe talent? Talent, some people would say it’s eye hand coordination or somebody’s ability to do something like that, right? I think it’s a it’s a package of sure, we need eye hand coordination, which is a basic level, which which a lot a sportsman who can go from one game to the other has. He has an ability to move from one game to the other. He’s got that spatial awareness. He’s got that eye hand coordination. There’s more of the personality now which comes in in in the golf thing that how is a player. It’s you see it’s it’s a game where the ball is stationary. So whatever is happening is happening between the two ears. It’s happening in your head. It’s like in a football thing if you talk about a penalty shootout that’s where it becomes similar to golf. What’s going on in that guy’s head? It’s the most difficult part of of that game probably the penalty shootout, right? So it’s the same. I mean it’s more of the personality. So it’s like EQ is the the emotional control a player has more than the mental ability of what people think is good thinking. It’s also how to control your emotion. It’s the ability to bounce back. It’s ability to be open to learning. Some people get very close. They’re not open to change. They’re not open to learning. I mean these are traits which I’ve seen in Shbanka that he’s been open to lots of stuff. Trusting that if you tell him to do something he would do it right. Then we experiment and we see if the outcome is not good. We are willing to change like I’m willing to change another way of trying to do something. So it’s it’s very you can’t pinpoint one thing but talent. Yes, there is talent. There is something called talent which may be able to adjust. So what what normally happens in golf is we are practicing from a flat surface. It’s a perfect lie, perfect thing. You go to the golf course and it suddenly is not the same flat surface. Now how is that player suddenly adjusting to all that when he has not practiced that kind of shot? There is a talent in that right? There is a talent where his spatial awareness is making him understand that the ball is going to come out in this particular way from this lie or whatever it is. You can’t teach these things. They are something which you can’t even coach them because we don’t have all those facilities or we never had them on a range to make people understand how to play that kind of thing, right? We haven’t taught people really on a range how to hit from a rough but they go to the golf course and they figure it out. So this ability is something which is you can put it in the word talent. It is part of it but again you it’s very difficult to define what somebody understands the word talent. So it’s a ability to do all the stuff ability to be in control of yourself. You think well you are calm all the stuff which yoga and meditation and everything builds into the same system. But but do you think you see this effect in a kid when he or she’s practicing with just that? No, you see some traits. You see some positive traits and part of your coaching is to try and make him aware or her aware of what else is required apart from just the golf swing. So there is you do see lots of positives and you know that some people as they mature will learn these things. You know it’s not just that you learn it as a kid. You will you will learn you mature well into there in Shubanker from I remember the time when we went to the masters. It was the first time where I heard him speak or I mean I heard him speak when he won his tournament in South Africa and Malaysia. But really the way he spoke was a maturity well beyond his ears. Right? So that’s something which is it just happens. I mean how do you teach this kind of stuff? It’s just something which is built from his personality. And there are other players also who have similar may not be the same level but they are they are people who have who have matured early in life and they are smart enough to understand what is required in this game. I think golf also kind of makes you that way it does it makes you very old very quickly in in the in a good way cuz you have to really think a lot. It’s not just going and beating balls, hitting a lot of shots like sir said to have the ability to adapt you have to really go inwards and understand okay you have to become one with yourself to be able to you know have that variable intact now every other variable is changing and now you can apply yourself properly. So from a very young age to perform you have to think think and all the good players in the world are very very good thinkers at a very young age they are able to control their emotions and do everything. So a lot of the other games are reactive sports. No, there’s a ball coming at you, you react, you split second decision. It’s not too much analysis and it just it’s it’s more of a reactive sport. While golf is completely different, right? And every condition, you may have the same thing tomorrow, the same condition and you may do it something differently because you see something different at that time. So it’s it’s it’s very different and it’s like when we say the word intuition, the more you practice, the more you are building memories of stuff into your head and intuitively you pull it out at that moment when you need to pull it out. And some people don’t trust themselves at that time. They’re not able to like a second voice in their head saying no no what if it goes there what if it goes there and that’s when they don’t play well. If they can just respond with intuitive thing because they’ve already done that stuff before they will play better that time. So golf is very intuitive, very stored memory, very this thing and and and lots of practice which you know your experience every year you go out you’ve learned something new you’ve learned different conditions and that that’s coming into your into your intuitiveness right it’s it’s your memory bank includes discipline of mindset adaptability you mentioned and of course knowing your game better each and every time you are out there so if I ask each one of you what are the three things that every golfer should have what do it. Discipline means the ability to get out there to be able to get better. It just it’s just knowing that you have to have to get better, you have to have a plan. You have to have an understanding. You have to work on it. You have to keep at it and keep that learning process going. You have to have emotional control. You have to have motivation, right? You have to have a hunger to get somewhere. I mean, there are lots of people who don’t have some of these things. And you have to dream really big. That’s what I think you do. Agreed. Agreed. So pretty much summarized all I wanted to say. All the words that were coming in my head, he just kept saying it. But uh you know hunger and passion, those two things, hunger to get better every day. Um and for that you have to the prerequisite has to be that you have to dream big. You know there are so many players in India also who I see who have so much talent but they’ve done well on the Indian circuit but they don’t really want to go outside because it’s you know you’re going out of your comfort zone. It’s an individual sport. It’s not a team sport where you know you represent India for example in cricket and you know BCCI will take care of everything. You just have to board the flight, get to the hotel, food, everything is taken care of. When you’re going individually uh you know you’re traveling in one week in a country then another country then another country. So you’re basically living out of a suitcase. So being out of your comfort zone you have to be really passionate and wanting to learn and have the hunger that I really want to go and prove myself outside and win. If you don’t have all of that and you are kind of happy doing well here making a decent living then you know you’re never going to play with the best players in the world and that’s why it’s a struggle coming out of India cuz we have to battle so many things first and that’s why we come back to the academy where if you have that one thing set up here already you’re like okay you know if I spend 2 weeks here practicing with my coach I’m practicing in the best facility possible now I can go anywhere and adapt much quicker than I used to before because the conditions are so much better. So I mean passion and hunger very very important, discipline is important but I think if you have those three things you find or the other qualities just come to you like the universe just gathers other things that are needed for you to become a player. Uh and now you’re seeing that in India so many of these kids are coming in that dream big part to father you know I mean sometimes even we guys sort of stall a little bit in the dreaming big thing. He really dreams big. He gave up his job to just make sure that Shbuanka gets into good coaching. He moved to Chandigar. He left the army. It’s all because he dreamt big that he dreamt that Shubanka could get somewhere right. And you know a lot of people when they think of going abroad think that it’s going to be very expensive all that. Whatever he did he he catered for all that and Shubanka made it decently big early in life but it could have taken time and I think the vision is a lot from I mean Shubanka is his own personal dream but even his father has done a lot in that dreaming big business because I think he’s been pushing pushing not pushing in the negative way but wanting us to get further get get ahead go up the ladder a little more and that’s something which is I give him a lot credit to now I apart from what they said actually Mr. has been kind he’s been equally part of the story. So if you leave aside talent, talent is the start point is the bedrock. There’s no doubt. So in in I have a an advantage of listening them before for sale. So I think it might be the first thing which which a guy should have is you know the fire in the belly. Now you have a talent, you have a facilities, you have everything. Then if you don’t have a fire in the belly, if you don’t want to really go and do it, you have to kill it, then it will not happen. The golf is a sport which is calmer this that but still you have to go and make it till the time you go and you feel I’m going to kill this time it’s not going to happen. So this is this is to me number one the desire the fire in the valley is very important. number the ecosystem the player the player the ecosystem Shubankar Sharma Mrs. Rashi Graal Gulwaz man uh his father the unspoken hero mother and sister everyone around him unless they all get together get around him he cannot go no way no player has to any player I’m not talking shanker today I’m talking about any player player has to respect the ecosystem from where he’s coming if player does not respect his coach his caddy his fellow players his parents his his his you know his friends the people who have come through him then his success is success may come but it going to be shortlived but he remembers all this if he if he place on those strengths and keep them in touch with him then way becomes much longer to and and the supporters to not to forget today today if Mrs. Sunny is come out come and supporting this game in a big way. Shwankerina in a great way is a great support. Yesterday Nike was there for six years with him. D supported him. Take solution supported him. Indorava supported him. There’s a lot of people who came and support him in his life. No, of course he was good and people came out. There’s no doubt. But there are so many good people. Everyone doesn’t get support. You got to be lucky. So you got to be thankful that gratitude has to be there. And the third thing as you go on though I see lot of youngsters a lot of bach and their parents the they start flying your feet have to be at ground at every level. I see today even you know I meet some children on day-to-day basis something someone wins on a local tournament I mean Instagram is flooded someone on this and know this is fine you know children these things are memories are shared and that is fine but parents join in a big way and the people start walking like this and parents are not able to see their children their attitude is changing that is not good in a long term both children and parent I would say parent first and children because parents start flying earlier I’m seeing especially sport like They have balls. So you got to be careful. You got your feet on the ground at any level you reach till the time you’re playing. If you’re humble, if you’re sober, you go a long way. [Music]
