\n\t\t<\/aside>\nGrace had her heart set on figure skating, making her somewhat apprehensive to try something new. With a bit of persistence, though, Dahai\u2019s influence rubbed off on her, and she caught the golf bug. Grace began working with different coaches for golf, and they all came to the same conclusion: Her promising swing gave her the chance to be a successful golfer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hearing those words can be convincing for just about anyone. Grace\u2019s ears perked up when she discovered the belief complete strangers had regarding her promising golf career. That external belief prompted her to seriously consider her position as a golfer for the first time, contemplating how the sport could fit in with her established skating career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing into ninth grade, it was weighing the pros and cons of what would ultimately help me in the future,\u201d Grace said. \u201cBecause at that point, it wasn\u2019t like I hated golf. I was kind of just scared, or a bit nervous to step into a completely new sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Grace\u2019s parents sat her down, and the Wang family considered all possible options with their corresponding outcomes. Golf was still a relatively new sport to Grace, and taking it up would require her to build from scratch. Skating, on the other hand, already had a strong foundation in her life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But unlike golf, figure skating was heavily taxing on the mind, especially with how high the athletes set their expectations. Both skating and golf, being individual sports, come with the baggage of mental pressure. To understand the difference, though, sometimes you just have to experience it yourself.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\nSkating contains one routine made up of 160 seconds. Each skill must be executed with perfection. There is no room for error, or else the overall score will pay for it. Golf is a round of 18 holes. A common phrase, \u2018They don\u2019t ask how, they ask how many,\u2019 holds plenty of truth in the game, as a mistake on a single swing or an unfortunate bounce can be recovered by plenty of skill \u2014 and sometimes a little bit of luck \u2014 on the rest of the course.<\/p>\n
Grace found the different mental approaches were some of the greatest challenges in making the switch between the two sports. The way any athlete approaches their style of play varies from person to person, while mental approaches typically vary from sport to sport as well. Physical talent is always one thing. It\u2019s relatively constant, especially within each competition. An athlete\u2019s mentality, on the other hand, can shift based on the situation they\u2019re in.<\/p>\n
As a figure skater, Grace was taught to strive for perfection, that no mistakes were allowed if success were to become a reality. But if there\u2019s anything that an athlete learns from golf, it\u2019s that perfection is nearly impossible. Not even Tiger Woods goes and has an absolutely perfect weekend. It just doesn\u2019t happen.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think (golf) helped me ease up a little bit as an athlete, just knowing that it\u2019s not done for you,\u201d Grace said. \u201cFor example, if you screw up on the first three holes, you have 15 holes left. It\u2019s definitely just a whole different mindset.\u201d<\/p>\nCourtesy of Grace Wang. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAs a freshman in high school, Grace decided that golf was best for her future plan. It seemed that Grace had made the switch from skating in its entirety, but Grace wasn\u2019t done with the sport quite yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\nGrace opted to join her high school\u2019s figure skating team, finding it a great opportunity to stick with her first love while simultaneously improving her golf game. As a captain of the figure skating team her senior year, Grace helped lead Rochester United to back-to-back state championships. Naturally, high school sports become less demanding than elite year-round teams. For Grace, that shift was the skating community she found.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While participating in high school figure skating, golf was still full speed ahead in Grace\u2019s mind. She was competing on the junior tour, playing summer golf and propelling Rochester Adams High School\u2019s women\u2019s golf team to a state runner-up her freshman season.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In her junior year, Grace took time off of high school golf to dial in on her game and reach out to college coaches. It was a period in which things somehow slowed down and sped up at the same time. But with the security of committing to her dream school, the University of Michigan, Grace decided it was time to return to high school golf for a last ride.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2022, Rochester Adams was the heavy favorite to win the Michigan high school Division I tournament. Grace\u2019s performance was dominant, putting the Highlanders in solid contention for something that the team had never seen before: a state title.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After two days of play and 36 holes later, Grace lifted the wooden mitten-shaped state championship trophy with her teammates, as they had accomplished something that no other Rochester Adams women\u2019s golf team had done before them.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\n\u201cI think she\u2019ll be successful in her career, because she is a hard worker and has good time management,\u201d Dahai said. \u201cAnd she has a very good personality.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grace\u2019s mark as a high school athlete is undisputedly dominant, showcasing how she was able to excel in whatever sport she put her mind to.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Now in the full swing of things as a sophomore on the Michigan women\u2019s golf team, Grace has dedicated the last seven years of her athletic career to golf. But that doesn\u2019t mean she\u2019s totally out of the loop when it comes to skating.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grace will find herself on the ice at Yost Ice Arena from time to time. Her skates are kept in Ann Arbor, waiting in the wings for the time when she\u2019s ready to bust them out. Skating has been a great way for Grace to check out for a period of time, as it\u2019s just her and the ice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Although golf is now her main focus, skating will forever be a part of Grace\u2019s journey. She would not have become the athlete she is today without the skills and mindset cemented into her habits long before golf was even in the picture.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Imagine Grace\u2019s world if she\u2019d never given either sport a second chance.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\n
Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If there\u2019s anything Grace Wang has learned from her athletic journey, it\u2019s that second chances are worth taking. Very rarely is a person 100% invested in something from the first second they try it out. There\u2019s typically a bit of hesitancy, even fear for what the future could entail. There\u2019s plenty of \u2018what ifs?\u2019 thrown […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[525,530,528,527,526,531,529],"class_list":{"0":"post-542","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-figure","9":"tag-golfer","10":"tag-grace","11":"tag-shaped","12":"tag-skating","13":"tag-today","14":"tag-wang"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":544,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions\/544"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}