OTTAWA — If playing golf sometimes feels like taking one step forward and two steps back, trying to get better can be akin to walking the wrong way on an escalator.
Just ask Matt Parkinson.
First, the long-hitting 36-year-old subject of the Parkinson Project — one man's season-long effort with The Canadian Press to build a more respectable game — hurt his knee working around the house, an ever-present peril for any husband and new father.
Then, just as he was feeling better, his primary coach abruptly left his position at The Golf Lab, the high-tech year-round teaching facility at King Valley Golf Club north of Toronto that's been hosting the project and overseeing Parkinson's efforts.
"I was obviously bummed out," Parkinson said in a recent interview. "My worry was that we would need to start over."
Just like in life, setbacks like physical injuries are just part of the process, said Golf Lab founder and pro coach Liam Mucklow, whose roster of PGA clients includes the likes of Graeme McDowell, Padraig Harrington and Canada's Ben Silverman.
"Golf isn't fun unless it's pain-free," said Mucklow, whose advice for anyone who finds themselves laid up during the season is to work on short game, putting skills and strength and mobility work.
"It's definitely frustrating for players of all levels, but the reality is that spending time on short game benefits most everyone. Another great (strategy) is to re-deploy practice time into physical training, be it rehab, or building mobility and strength."
As for the change in coaches, Mucklow is more sanguine: Parkinson is now working regularly with Carson Hau, a certified pro and the Golf Lab's director of technology, and one of several teachers who have been working together from the beginning.
"A coaching change shouldn't be a big deal, provided that there was a good understanding of the concepts delivered," he said.
"Learning is defined as a long-term change in performance; if a coach leaves and there is immediate regression, then by definition there was no learning."
During Parkinson's initial screening, the Golf Lab put him through his paces, using state-of-the-art 3D cameras and sensors, the K-Motion swing analyzer and a Boditrak ground force plate to fully understand his swing.
Since the hard work began in March, he's been trying to eliminate a wide-right miss off the tee by learning to swing the club on a more neutral plane, develop a different hand action at the top of the swing and to eliminate a slice-inducing lateral slide through impact.
"He seems to feel more comfortable with his grip change going more neutral rather than strong," Hau said in a recent email.
"His impact position has become more consistent, as we have stabilized how he squares the clubface. We are now working on creating the club path he desires to hit the shot shape he wants."
Parkinson's youth was dominated by the usual assortment of Canadian athletic pursuits, including hockey, basketball, volleyball and badminton — he even played competitive baseball for about a decade, beginning when he was about seven.
But it was as a 10-year-old boy that he discovered that his combination of height, strength and hand-eye co-ordination would transfer well to the golf course.
Direction, however, has remained an elusive goal.
While the 300-yard threshold is no big thing for Parkinson when the driver is in hand, where the ball ends up has been an open question. And, like so many other golfers, consistency and regular improvement have proven elusive over the years, particularly as marriage, parenthood and a career become priorities.
"It has been nice to see some of the progress pay off on the course, but it is still only partially there — fearing getting stuck in that spot and not evolving further, weighs on my mind for sure."
The Golf Lab's comprehensive approach to instruction ensured that a game plan for Parkinson was drafted in the early days of the project, and that everyone was in the loop.
That allowed Hau to simply pick up where Randle left off, Parkinson said.
"The benefit of them having a whole team there when I started was that they came up with a whole plan for me," he said.
"From the outset, they were all aligned on what that plan was. It certainly made me more comfortable — Carson was like, 'No no, we're doing the exact same thing.'"
James McCarten, The Canadian Press