The best you've ever done

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’ll be up front about it - one reason for posting this is to brag. But I also thought it would be interesting to hear other people’s reactions to siumilar situations.

Simply put, yesterday I played the best golf of my life - shot a one under par 34 for 9 holes.

I’ve been playing this course regularly for nearly 20 years, and have never done better than 37 - which I think I did twice a couple of years ago. Hadn’t broken 40 yet this summer. Yesterday I shot a 34 - all pars but one bogey and 2 birdies. To put it another way, I’m currently carrying a 14 handicap - which roughly means my regular score should be around 42-43.

And the crazy thing is - it was easy! I hit a lot of good shots, but nothing outrageously spectacular. And I got 2 good breaks - favorable bounces from the 2 shots I hit into trees - so I won’t discount the contribution of luck. Didn’t sink any monster putts, but made a couple of 10-12-footers and didn’t miss anything under 5-6’. No gimmees or mulligans, no improved lies, or anything. Just 34 solid shots.

In recent weeks my putting had been execrable, so I had practiced putting 3X each of the last 2 weeks. May have paid off as I had only 14 putts for 9 holes.

Had walked 18 the day before in 95 degree heat, which kicked my ass. Shot a 41/51, dying like a dog on the back 9. Thought I was going to pass out on 17 and 18. Felt like crap the next morning, and when I walked the 9 it was already 90 degrees at 7:30.

Eager to see what I will shoot next weekend! Having done it once, I know I am clearly capable of it. So there’s no real reason why I shouldn’t do it - or close to it - again on a somewhat regular basis. One thing was, I think that because I was mentally and physically fatigued from the day before, I didn’t think or try too hard. Essentially just let my body do what it knew how to do. But I have had other occasions where I was tired and found myself making stupid mental errors, or lazy swings.

Yesterday I didn’t really feel any pressure at all. Felt very confident.

So - now that I’m done bragging on myself, what experiences have you had where you were doing something you had done for a while, and on one occasion did the best you had ever done? To what do you attribute that performance? What success did you have in repeating it?

2

First, congrats on the 34. That’s a nice score regardless of handicap. I’m playing 18 later today (1/2 day!), so you can be my vicarious role-model.

I’ll tell you why you hit so well (IMHO)…because you were beaten up the day before (by the heat)! I always play better on the 2nd day when my friends and I go on a golf trip. My muscles don’t feel like overcorrecting, and my stupid “swing-thought” brain can’t tell them to do new and interesting things. I’ll bet you hit a solid 82 today.

I remember one day near the end of a season of indoor soccer. I had been playing well through most of the year (competitive college skill-level, some internationals…good soccer), and had been playing really good defense (I’m a fullback).

On our last game, there was a new player we hadn’t seen before (which is legal in our league…ringers are encouraged for competition!). He was left-footed (primarily), and really fast. It fell to me to defend him.

Long story short, I stuffed him. He rarely got the ball in a good position, and when he did, I had great success in moving him into bad goal angles. I shut down his passing, I bodied him out of crosses…I owned him.

Afterward, as we were all drinking some beers, he came up to me and told me that I was the single best defender he’d played against in this league (again…a pretty good league). As we all chatted at the sponsor bar, I find out that he grew up in the Premiership Developmental League. He was on track to play in that league, and a blown knee made him give it up.

I was stunned, and very grateful for the compliment (although I shrugged it off manfully).

I think a lot of competitive sports has to do with motivation. If you see someone against you that is of a high skill level…you want to “play up”.

-Cem

3

I’m jealous. I golfed for over 10 years and despite lessons and expensive clubs, I broke 90 exactly one time and that was an 83. I would usually average about 95.
When it comes to the best I ever done, that would be when I took on semi big time NASCAR racing. After years of driving street car based racecars, I took advantage of an opportunity (a bunch of cash came my way) and I bought a late model race car. It was a 1988 Thunderbird, full racing chassis, fiberglass body, expensive racing engine. I got some help from a few people but it was basically me and my cousin doing everything. I was usually about half a second slower than the other cars and my finishes showed that, average about a 15th place finish each race. At the second to the last race of the year at South Sound Speedway, Chad Little, then a full time Winston Cup driver, took my car out for some hot laps then came in and suggested a couple of changes. We made the changes and I took the car back out for a few laps. The car felt the same but when I came back to the pits, I was told I was running laps within a hundredth of a second of the quickest times.

This showed in qualifying when I qualified 4th fastest, by far the best I did all year. I finished 2nd in the trophy dash and the heat race. The top 8 qualifiers were inverted for the start of the 125 feature, this meant I would start 5th. When the green flag flew to start the race, I was behind one of the all time greats in the local auto racing scene and decided to follow him. About 5 laps into the race a couple of backmarkers tangled causing a yellow flag, this would be the only yellow this night. When the green flew on lap 10, I stuck to my plan. About 25 laps into the race I had followed the #7 car all the way up to 2nd place as he took the lead. We stayed this way for the next 50 or so laps, weaving our way through the slower cars. I was able to get up beside him a few times but with his vast experience, he was able to keep me behind him. About lap 75 he suddenly slowed and and pulled off the track.

For the next 10 laps I had the lead and visions of winning the biggest race in my life flashed before my eyes. But the fast pace that caused the #7 car to have a flat tire caught up to me. I had used my tires up and my car began to slip and slide on the track. Going into the corners the car would push up the track (what is called pushing if you watch auto racing) then would get loose and try to spin out coming out of the corners. I had to slow down to keep my car on the track and a couple of drivers that saved their tires for the end of the race were able to pass me. When the checkered flag fell I was in third place and by far had my best finish of the year. The two guys that beat me were the top 2 in the point standings, I learned that night why they were at the top. I recieved congratulations from all other drivers, including those that pretty much shunned me all year. For 11 races that year I felt like a little fish in a big pond, that night I became a big fish.

I was able to back up that 3rd place finish with a 5th place finish during the last race that year. Unfortunately the calls I had hoped that would come from potential sponsors or car owners never materialized. I sold the car shortly after the last race and my semi big time NASCAR experience was over. There are thousands of people that strap themselves into a race car every weekend hoping they will be the next Carl Edwards or Denny Hamlin, a no name short track driver one day, NASCAR Cup driver the next. Do I regret not getting a chance to move up higher? Nahh, just wasn’t in the cards. Would I do it again if given a chance, even at my age (almost 50)? Not only yeah, but hell yeah.

4

After college, I spent a year working part-time, taking night classes, and generally feeling pretty bored with where my life was. Looking around for something to do, I decided to join a bowling league.

It was a lot of fun. I met new people, bowled a few games, and generally had a good time. Only problem was, I was a terrible bowler. My average was about 125, and at the end of the first season I received the lowest-score trophy for rolling a 90. Still, I learned some important pointers from the other folks and gradually got better.

One night I got a call from the guy who ran the alley inviting me to join a bowling seminar he was organizing. Once a week for six weeks we’d get tips on our form and other parts of the game, and everyone who finished would receive a custom-drilled bowling ball. The whole thing was ridiculously cheap (the owner was just desperate to get more people interested in bowling), so I gave it a shot. After a few weeks, I got my measurements taken and got my ball.

That ball was absolutely magic. If you’ve never had a fitted ball, it feels about 3 pounds lighter in your hand than a regular ball. The second night I had that ball, I was on fire. I just threw strike after strike after strike. When it was over, I’d managed to roll a 244. Nobody would have believed it (including me) if there hadn’t been two other witnesses keeping score.

Unfortunately, I left for Japan the next month, and shipping a bowling ball seemed like an absurd expense. I haven’t used that ball in over ten years.

5

The high point of my dancing career was when i got to play Krishna. I was amazingly good. I was joyful and cheerful, just the right way. I did all my steps right.

I was amazingly good.

6

Once, in the mid-'80s, my brother and I played a gig at a club, just the two of us on guitars. No rehearsal, just playing songs from memory. I was really on that night, and as we played the ZZ Top song “A Fool For Your Stockings” I came to sense that the music was playing me, not the other way around. I executed licks in that song that I had never played before or since. I was channelling Billy Gibbons and then some. If only there had been a tape recorder running… I don’t think I have ever played better than on that night. In 37 years of playing guitar, that’s really saying something.

7

Now that you mention bowling, as a kid we bowled a lot. 2 alleys less than 1/2 mile from home were cheap entertainment at 40 cents a line.
Never took lessons or anything, but bowled consistently around 160.
The summer of my HS jr year I went to a golf school out at the U of Iowa. lacking much else to do in Iowa City, we went bowling at the union. For whatever reason, I was on fire that week, bowling several games over 200, including my high of 222. I only think I broke 200 once or twice after that. Wierd.

So - what is it that lets you do so much better than usual on isolated occasions, and why are you unable to repeat?

Heck, I just looked at my golf scoring record. I’ve played 9 holes at this course 22 times this year. Other than Sunday, my lowest scores were a couple of 41s and some 42s, tho in July I shot a pair of 46s. Crazy stuff, man!

8

I had that happen to me earlier this year in the pool. I’d been practicing for the 200 fly for a couple of months, I’ve done the event a few times and I finally wanted to break three minutes for a meters event. For the past couple of months when I would do them in practice I would come out 3:11 or so. I was thinking that I could do just under 3:00. At the meet I was in the fast lane for my heat. I went out a bit fast for the first 50, but that’s normal, so I backed it off for the next 100 and all out for the last 50. I ended up with the last three splits being within a couple of tenths of each other. I ended up with a 2:46. I’m close to being a top 10 in the US for my age group.

The best I’ve ever done is a 28 or 29 on a par 3 course. I’d love to average in the 90s, but I’ve never broken 100.

9

Now that’s even crazier EtH, since swimming seems so much more physical than mental. You cut nearly 1/2 minute off your old PR - nearly 15% improvement!
WTF?

I mean, it doesn’t seem that a mental block would keep you from repeating this since your body is co clearly capable of doing it.

I run, and generally think of it as a pretty distinct type of activity than golf, because based on my training and such, no matter what my emotions and mindset, there seems to be a physiological limit beyond which I am unable to run faster - unless I change something about my training and such.

Whereas in golf, I lose at least a couple of strokes in an average round due to what I consider mental errors of lapses in concentration. I’m not aware of “mental errors” keeping me from running faster.

10

I’ll be happy to break 50 when I play 9 holes later today in this 35 C heat (45 with humidex). I’ll let you know tomorrow, if I live.

11

I must have had more 199 games than 200 and over games total! And the first time I beat 200 I scored 222 also. (My only other score over 210 is 268, but 222 remained for quite awhile.)

12

Bar shuffleboard. You know that shuffleboard game played with pucks that you find in bars. (Shuffleboard Tables | Table Shuffleboard Supplies | Shuffleboard HQ |). I just Googled that link. I had no idea that the game was popular enough to have a whole Federation.

Anyway, there was this one bar a few blocks from my house in the Pacific Beach area of San Diego. They had pool, foos ball, darts and shuffleboard. I was in there on a Saturday night which was when all of the hotshots of these various games would come in. I ran into Tom who was a guy who I only knew from the bar. Neither one of us had played much shuffleboard before, just a handfull of games casually on weeknights. Typically on a Saturday, I would play a game and get beat by one of the hotshots and that would be it.

Tom and I were partners and were the first to set-up on the table at maybe 8pm that night. We beat the first team to take us on and did not lose a single game that entire night. We were playing out of our minds. I have no idea how many games we played but we were on the table until 1:30 am, playing continuously until the place cleared out. No one beat us from newbies to experts. Some of the shots that we made were ridiculous. The “experts” were furious with our luck. Our friends kept walking by and saying, “you’re still on here.” Fun night.

13

My brother-in-law played the best game of his life, just before having a fatal heart attack on the 18th green.

14

Well right now I know I couldn’t do it, but that’s because we had a baby and I haven’t been in the pool very much. The fly is a hard stroke to keep up with for that long. It’s really not as strange as it sounds as you can’t go 100% for a whole practice or you’d never make it. Normally I was doing 3:11-3:20 in practice so I figured 2:55 or so, I was very suprised at the 2:46. But for a free I practice around 2:50-3 and can come in at 2:23.

I could tell you that the last time I actually did swim a 200 in a meet I did a 3:42, so I actually dropped a minute off of my time, but that time I wasn’t prepairing for it.

There might be actually, I know that for a long time I was wanting to break the one minute mark in a 100 yard free. I did it once and now usually go 58-59. I’m not a runner though, but I would guess it’s the same, pick a time you would like to go and go for it.

15

Y’know…I think a lot of it has to do with that tired phrase “get your head out of it”.

I run as well, and I typically do 4 miles every other night (fairly rigorously-measured…actually 4.2 miles). I usually do about 31 minutes. The other day, I was running the same course, while thinking hard about a work thing. When I got home, I clicked off on my watch’s chronometer, and I read 28 minutes.
that doesn’t seem like a huge difference, but that equates to a 6.6 minute mile, which is loads better than my normal 7.38.

Get your head out of your exercise, and you’ll do better. That’s my motto!

-Cem

16

Damn - I guess I won’t post my pace…

17

The trick is to have a serial killer run behind you.

On that note, I’d like to thank Michael Meyers for his assistance on my running program.

-Cem

18

I scored my best round (at the time) on New Years Day. A friend called me in the morning and I was too hung over to decline. I played like a zombie and really had no idea of my score until I added it up in the clubhouse. I really learned a lesson about overthinking on the course. My brain was so fuzzy I never had a thought about my swing, nor did I pay attention to sand or water. Look at the flag, get club, hit ball.

I’ve shot 35 (-1) on two occasions, both on the front nine. Both times, while on the 10th tee, my thought was “If I only shoot 40 on the back, that would be 75, my all time best.” Both times I shot 45, for an 80.

19

Well, another weekend, and 2 more sub-40 9s under my belt.
A pair of 38s.
I wouldn’t mind if this became a regular habit!
It is an easy game, lately. Just not doing much of anything wrong. Hitting a lot of greens with my mid irons, many to within 20 feet or so. Sinking a couple of 6-10 footers a round. Having fun, and not worrying about it. Just trying to hit each shot.
Now to schedule some matches before my handicap drops too low…