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Golf Psychology Newsletter - THE POWER OF THE UNCONSCIOUS
Welcome again to the Train Your Golf Brain newsletter.
Had the chance to experience the famous 16th hole at the FBR Open in Phoenix, never seen anything like it! A par 3 that can only be described as being inside a football stadium! Just incredible crowds the whole week and an electric atmosphere.
Henrik Stenson winning in Qatar showing what a tremendous player he has become. Working with Pete Cowen on his swing and Torsten Hannson on his mental game showing what is possible when you train your body and develop a TRAINED BRAIN.
CHANGING AT THE UNCONSCIOUS LEVEL
We hear so much about the unconscious mind these days in sport, in business and life in general. Yet, what is the unconscious other than a vague description of something that is, well, unconscious! I for one have felt times when I imagined that I was beginning to get a good grasp of the subject, only to realise later that what I thought I knew was only a fraction of what I really needed to understand.
I am, however, pretty clear that if we want to become the best that we can possibly be at sport, then we do need to make friends with and develop trust in our unconscious processes.
One thing that is beyond doubt is that the unconscious mind is a ‘REACTIVE MECHANISM’ it doesn’t think it just reacts. Be that in the way that you automatically blink when an insect is near to your eye to just looking at a waste paper basket and throwing a ball of paper into it.
The key point is that you can train your unconscious mind to react in the way that YOU want it to rather than in the way that society has probably conditioned it to react.
In terms of you yourself how does your unconscious mind react to the stimulus called golf?
Is the reaction one of pleasure and excitement or fear and anguish?
If it is one of excitement then you have done a good job of convincing your unconscious mind that golf is ‘safe .
On the other hand, if fear and anxiety are present, then you have done an equally good job of training your unconscious that golf is ‘not safe’.
In real terms, the worst thing that can happen on the golf course is NOTHING. However, your unconscious mind will always protect you from danger, REAL or IMAGINED.
How have you programmed your brain with regards golf?
What language do you use?
How do you react to a poor shot?
How do you react to a bad day?
Each time that you react with emotional intensity to a poor outcome on or off the course, you are programming your unconscious mind to FEAR golf. Crazy as this seems, it is exactly what is going on with the majority of golfers in the world today.
Step out of the collective mindset that limits us so much and develop your ‘safe place’ to play golf.
Take charge of your golfing memories by understanding the role of emotion in terms of being able to forget poor shots and store and recall the quality shots.
Much more information on emotional memory is found in ‘GOLF - THE MIND FACTOR’ by Darren Clarke and Karl Morris www.golf-brain.com
‘The END of the WORLD’
Most golfers leave putts and short chips woefully short, the ball never has a chance to go in the hole. Why is that?
The problem is about focus. Golfers tend to see the front lip of the hole as being the end of the known universe. They never see beyond the hole.
Now, image if we still thought that the earth was flat and Edinburgh was at the edge, most of us wouldn’t ever get to Edinburgh let alone ever see the Highlands!! To highlight what I mean, I want you to try an experiment :
- stand on the putting green a reasonable distance from a hole, look at the hole then I want you to turn your putter upside down, close your eyes and walk to the hole. Without looking the game is to place the putter on the ground where you think the hole is.
I have tried this with hundreds of golfers and over 95% come up way short, amazingly the good putters tend to get past the hole.
Next time you putt, I want you to look at the hole and then see BEYOND it, actually look past the hole. This change of perspective will essentially allow you to stroke the ball with enough pace to get past the hole as opposed to tentatively dribbling the ball to the edge.
Dave Pelz, the short game guru, has stated that an ideal putt would travel 18 inches past the hole if it missed. This new vision of life beyond the hole will allow that.
RESEARCH
Pictures not Words!
Picture in your mind the face of the waiter who served you the last time you went to a restaurant. Now, if I were to ask you to pick out that person in a police line-up, could you do it?
The answer is more than likely, YES.
Recognizing someone’s face is a classic example of UNCONSCIOUS COGNITION. We don’t have to think about it. Faces just pop into our minds. What would happen though if you were asked to take a paper and pen and describe in as much detail as you can what that person looks like?
Describe his face, colour of hair, what was he wearing, jewellery or not?
Believe it or not you will now do a LOT WORSE at picking that face out of a line-up!
This is because the act of describing a face has effect of impairing your otherwise effortless ability to recognise the face.
Psychologist, Jonathan W. Schooler, pioneered research on this effect that became known as VERBAL OVERSHADOWING
KEY LEARNING
Too much VERBAL description of the golf swing will severely impair the unconscious mind’s ability to JUST DO IT.
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Share these tips with your fellow golfers and forward this email to them!
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