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Mary’s Practice Refining Her Technique Improved Her Results
Feeling stuck at your current handicap? Read the inspiring story of how Mary McMahon embraced coaching and making a technique improvement led to a major breakthrough.
If you've been stuck at a handicap for a while, this is what getting past it looks like.
Every competitive player hits a ceiling. In 2022, Mary McMahon hit hers.
She'd reached a handicap of three. Good, but stuck.
"I just couldn't get any further," Mary says. "It just wasn't happening. I was practicing, but you get to that point of diminished results. What you are putting in, you are not getting dramatic results."
Most players accept it. Mary didn't.
On the advice of fellow top player Jeff Jemison, she decided to fundamentally change her game by switching to a Solomon grip, a technique believed to offer greater control and accuracy. It was a decision that meant abandoning years of muscle memory and starting again.
Going backwards was part of the deal. It took months.
For six to eight months, her handicap got worse. She kept at it, working with coaches like Terry Erickson, drilling every day. The old grip had to go completely before the new one could take over.
"It took me about six, seven, eight months for me to persevere with that, because it was until it became muscle memory," she says. "If you ask me now how did you used to hold the mallet? I can't remember."
Then the new grip clicked.
"It kept going this," Mary says, tracing a line of struggle, "and then all of a sudden, 2023 was my year.
I think I got to a minus one. It all just started to flow."
I think I got to a minus one. It all just started to flow."
She got better because she accepted getting worse first. A good coach made the difference.
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