There is a solid argument that golf might be the most frustrating sport in the world. Anyone who has ever been to the driving range, let alone gone out onto a course, will know only too well the annoyance of hitting a bad shot after having hit countless excellent ones. It is an easy sport to get into your own head about, which is why many people will look for answers to how to fix their golf game across numerous different sources. One of the more popular social media sites to turn to nowadays is TikTok, but is the short-form video platform the best place to look for golf tips?
Know Whose Advice You’re Following
One of the nice things about TikTok is that it gives people from all walks of life the opportunity to share their thoughts and opinions with millions of others. According to statistics sites, TikTok has more than 1.5 billion active users, so it is not hard to see why people might turn to it to find advice and help if they have a problem. The downside of that is that the people posting videos don’t necessarily have to have any level of expertise in what they’re talking about, which is just as true about golf as it is about the likes of weight-loss medication or the types of trainers you should buy.
As a result, there is no guarantee that the people you will find on the platform giving you instructions about how to improve your golf game will have any more right to offer you advice than a stranger that you bump into on the street. If you want to turn to TikTok for golf advice, therefore, then you would be well-placed to know who it is that you’re following the opinions of and what their credentials are to be speaking about the game with any degree of authority. There is, after all, a massive difference between a golf professional using it as a promotional tool and a scratch golfer who just wants to show off.
Think About What You Want to Know
The complicated nature of golf as a sporting endeavour is such that there are any number of different areas that you will no doubt feel as though you need to improve. Whether it be the manner in which you strike your irons or how best to set up with the driver, you will be able to find all sorts of videos on TikTok espousing the best technique to adopt. The good news is that you will soon be inundated with golf-based videos once the algorithm works out that that is something that you are interested in, but the bad news is that this can appear to be overwhelming if you’re not careful.
If you seriously want to turn to TikTok as a means of solving your golf problems, one of the best things you can do is to figure out which part of your game most needs to be improved and concentrate on watching videos that are to do with that. If you are a poor putter, for example, then you will want to watch as many videos as you can find on the best way to develop your putting game. The problem is, you might soon be sidetracked looking at how to hit your driver longer distances or the joy of ball then turf contact with your driver, but that won’t help your putting game.
Remember That Practice Makes Perfect
One of the biggest issues with TikTok as a social media platform is that it can be a huge drain on your time. Once you have found a subject that you’re interested in, TikTok’s algorithm will ensure that you see video after video about that very subject. That is great news if you can learn something new, but you can soon find yourself having spent an hour watching short videos and learning nothing that is actually useful. One of the best things that you can do when it comes to your golf game is practice, practice and practice, putting the things you’ve learned into practice.
The result of this is that what you should be doing when you’ve watched a video or two covering the topic that you’re interested in is practising the things that the video espouses. It is no use whatsoever watching more videos about something different when you haven’t even mastered the initial thing that you were interested in. If you see an interesting video about putting, get your putter and some golf balls out of your golf bag and start practising what you’ve just learned. Seeing something else talking about how to use your wedges might be fascinating, but it won’t help your putting improve.
Videos Can Only Do So Much
The sad truth about life is that videos are only useful to a certain degree. If you want to learn how to change a toilet seat or figure out how to rewire a plug, video platforms such as TikTok will be useful to point you in the right direction. If you want to get better at golf, there will definitely be some videos on the site that will teach you the basics of certain aspects of the game, but after a certain amount of time you will have to look for other manners of assistance in order to get you to the next level. This will almost always involve working with a professional, who can see what you’re doing wrong and how to improve.
Can TikTok help you to improve your golf game? It definitely can to a certain extent. The videos that you’ll find on there will be useful in teaching you to look at specific aspects of how you hit the ball and what your setup is like. If you are a beginner golfer, then you might well find that you’re more likely to be discouraged rather than encouraged by what you see, which is something that you should bear in mind. As a platform, it has plenty to offer those that want to develop and improve, but it will always be limited in terms of what it can help you actually accomplish without the ability to give feedback.