Hey, it's Trapper.

I moved last weekend.

For those of you who know me, you know that's not a small thing. I am constantly working. Every day is busy in the mornings and whatever the afternoon brings after that. Taking a full weekend and pointing it somewhere else almost never happens.
But boxes don't pack themselves, and life moves whether you're ready for it or not.

Somewhere around hour three, when I was carrying things from one place to another and trying to figure out where everything was going to land, I started thinking about something I say on the range at least a dozen times a day.

Play it where it lies.

In golf, that means exactly what it sounds like. The ball stopped where it stopped. You don't get to move it back to the shot you wish you'd hit. You walk up to it, you read the ground under it, you pick a club, and you swing. Every professional golfer in the world does this. Every child who comes through Tiny Tees learns to do it too.

What I was doing in that house, surrounded by boxes, was the same thing.

Here's where the ball is. Here's what I'm working with. What's the next shot?
That's the whole thing.

There's something worth watching in a five-year-old on the range after a bad shot. They start walking toward the ball before I've said a word. They're not thinking about the swing they just had. They're already looking at the next one. They don't carry the last hole into the next tee box because nobody taught them they're supposed to.

Then they get a little older. They start keeping score in their heads. They start adding up what they've done instead of seeing what's in front of them. The game gets harder, not because the shots get harder, but because they're carrying weight they didn't used to carry.

What I try to do at Tiny Tees is slow that down. Not stop it. That's not possible. But slow it down. Give kids a few more years of playing one shot at a time before the accounting instinct takes over.

Because the accounting instinct is real, and it's useful. Just not when you're mid-swing.
Time and Place

There is a time for reviewing what happened, and there is a time for swinging. They are not the same time.

When you're standing over the ball, every decision about the last shot is already made. That conversation is closed. What's open is this one. The only way to play it well is to be completely in it.

Kids who learn this on the range carry it everywhere. Into tests. Into friendships. Into the moment when something doesn't go the way they planned and they have to figure out what the next move is.

That's what I kept coming back to while I was packing last weekend. Life changes. Jobs, cities, plans. The question is never whether the last chapter went the way you wanted. The question is what you're going to do with where the ball is now.

Take stock. Pick your club. Swing.

Summer camp spots are filling...
June through late August. Monday through Friday. 8am to noon at the Hyatt Regency Newport Beach. Ages 3 and up, all equipment provided.

June is close to full. If you've been thinking about it, the time to register is now.

Register at tinyteesgolf.com

See you on the course.
— Trapper Perkins
Founder, Tiny Tees Golf
Hyatt Regency Newport Beach

P.S. I've never met a kid who couldn't find the next shot. Not one. They walk up, they look at where the ball landed, and they get to work. Adults are the ones who stand over the ball thinking about the hole they played two back. If your child ever shows you that kind of clean focus, take a second to notice it. It's rarer than you think.