New Year New Start New Possibilities

The first day back after the Christmas break is always a mixture of excitement, anticipation, reflection and organised chaos to a degree. As most people begin to settle in to a new year at a leisurely pace our students and staff begin in high gear. There are a number of reasons for this with a key one being our warm weather training camp in Spain being just one week away! However it goes deeper than this. As people and in particular golfers we see the New Year as a chance to start fresh and improve ourselves both physically and mentally. Within our schools we try to always instil a high level of goal setting and time management and with a new calendar year it is a great opportunity for us to allow our students to look back on what they have achieved and how they might go about consolidating this and improving on it in the coming year.  

Our schools provide endless opportunities for our students throughout the year such as Order of Merit awards, British Schools and Intercollegiate events, field trips to facilities such as the PING factory and golf events like The Dunhill Links Championship not to mention warm weather training in Spain. With so many opportunities it can be easy to left feeling overwhelmed and this is why it is important for not just our students but for each of us to take a second and ask what do we really want to achieve this year? More importantly how do I plan to achieve this? Our students have to physically write down these questions which in essence make them more real and also ensure they reflect on their answers. Many write their initial goals and plans in the New Year to realize they are not relevant or on par with what they want to achieve and begin to restructure their thoughts and how best to achieve the goals which are now important to them. It is not so much the content of this process but more the time taken to ask how I can get better which is so important and allows our students to keep progressing even when faced with adversity or struggles within their game throughout the year.

Whatever our students achieve this year it will no doubt be a brilliant success and to see them walk back after Christmas with a bounce in their step with thoughts of conquering the globe is a sight to behold and if anything is the true most wonderful time of year!

Happy New Year from the Lee Westwood Golf School.