Actor Michael Peña, on Practice, Patience, and Golfing with a 10-Year-Old
My ten-year-old son’s approach to golf is—how can I say this?—wild. With every swing, every ball goes one distance: as far as it possibly can. Roman is all torque—which, incidentally, is how he approaches almost everything else in life.
It’s amazing, really, to witness the dexterity and flexibility of a ten-year-old’s body going through the motions of an all-out swing. I, on the other hand, play golf the way the textbooks and magazines say you’re supposed to play it, with a strategic, patient, and calm mindset.
I grew up wrestling and boxing—sports that require strategy and patience but also an extreme sense of discipline and focus. That’s why today I can spend so much time analyzing my swing that I lose myself in the details.
So with the breadth of knowledge that I’ve gained from reading, you’d think I’d have a lot to teach him. But it hasn’t quite worked out that way.
Roman was about four when I first started taking him to the driving range. I thought it would be a fun way to spend time with him. We’d pick a mat away from the crowd and go to town on a bucket of balls. Gradually, I tried to work in a few pointers without overwhelming him.
First I started trying to adjust Roman’s grip and stance. He didn’t seem interested. Then I worked on his swing. I’d line up three balls and hit them off the mat myself. Nice and slow. Controlled.
Sometimes Roman would ask me, “How’d you make the ball go so high?” or “Why did you swing that club differently?” Yes! Nuance!
Then I’d line up three balls for him. He’s smart. He’s watched my movements. He’s good at taking advice. His practice swings would be nice and fluid. And then when he got up to the ball, he would always—always—swing as hard as he could.
But in that completely undisciplined swing, I started to notice something. Whether he hits it or misses it, he moves on. He tried. He did okay—or he didn’t. But he lets it go. He looks at golf as one ball up, one ball down. The ball may go exactly where he wants it to go. More likely, it won’t. He takes his shots as best he can, and now he’s back to enjoying the time in between. The swing is in the past and Oh, look—a sand trap!
And this is exactly how the best teachers tell you how to play. Golf is a game about the future. Each hole is a new opportunity. If I’m too preoccupied with the shot that I missed off into the bunker, I’m also going to miss being in the right frame of mind to tackle the next one.
Or literally play in a sand trap.
Which is what Roman did a few months back, after he shanked a ball into the sand in the practice area. I could have pulled out my sand wedge and set up three practice balls in the hope of pulling him back into the game.
Instead, I put down my clubs and watched him roll around and play in the bunker. He climbed out of that trap covered in sand, a smile plastered on his face. Had I been thinking about how I was going to fix his next shot, I would’ve missed it.
—Michael Peña's credits include: Crash, Narcos: Mexico, and Dora and the Lost City of Gold
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