Bill Walsh, legendary coach of the San Francisco 49ers, said “If you’re surprised by anything in the game … you didn’t prepare correctly.”

In this Journey 2013 video I go deeper into contingency practice – something at which Bill Walsh was a master. His teams became so good it that while other coaches would panic and call last-minute time outs, Walsh let his teams play. The team already knew what was expected, what to do, and had already practiced the situation.

Watch the video to see how I’m meticulous enough to time how long it takes for me to change clubs or change my golf glove. I don’t want to be surprised by how much time it takes and get to the end of our 2:45 time limit and have to rush my last shot or two.

The idea of contingency practice is to end up with a strategy in advance so you already know what you’ll do.

Although I practiced several contingencies that are unique to Long Drive the idea can be extended to an endless number of scenarios for your golf game.

For example: Let’s say you are in the championship match play at your club. The finals match comes down to the last hole. It’s a tricky par-5 dogleg right. There’s a lake protecting the corner on the right. If you hit a big drive you can carry the water and be in position to get home in two. But you’ve been in the lake often enough that you usually lay up off the tee with a hybrid, punch a 7-iron around the corner, then try to wedge it close for a birdie putt.

Here are the scenarios:
Scenario #1: You are one down. You have to win this hole just to extend the match. But the wind is blowing from left to right, and if you fade your driver even a little you’ll be swimming with the fishes.
What would you do? How would it feel?

Scenario #2: The match is even. But your opponent teed off first and bombed it over the lake where he can easily get home in two [he obviously has my 5 Keys To Distance training program. 😉 ]
What will you do? How will you feel?

Scenario #3: You are one-up. All you have to do is tie this hole to win your first-ever championship. But your hybrid has been acting up. You’ve hit it three times today and duck-hooked it every time. If you duck-hook it on the 18th you are out of bounds.
Now what? What will you do? How will you feel and react?

As you can see you can create an endless number of scenarios and contingencies. It makes practice a lot more fun and interesting.

But try to really imagine yourself in the situation. Try to recreate the pressure and intensity. The closer you can make if feel like the real thing the more you’ll understand about your own game and the easier it will be for you to handle the situation when it comes up.

TAKE AWAYS

1. Prepare correctly so you are not surprised.
2. Make it as real as possible to gain a better understanding of yourself and your game.