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Golf Psychology Newsletter - THE POWER OF QUESTIONS
Welcome again to the Golf Brain newsletter.
The European Tour is in full swing again with the desert tournaments in Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Dubai and as the tour pros seek to establish a good start to the year, all of you will begin to the think of your own season ahead.
I remember many years ago hearing one of the world’s leading motivational speakers saying that the ‘quality of your life will depend on the quality of your questions’. I couldn’t agree more as I see so often golfers asking really POOR questions. Why is the weather so bad? What’s wrong with my swing? Why do I never hole any putts? How come I never have any luck?
The key point is that questions create MOVIES in your mind.
If I ask you the simple question ‘what colour is your car?’ then I am sure an image of your own vehicle flashed across the screen of your mind. The movies that you have playing on your mental screen govern how you feel, they create your mood. So, if the questions create movies and the movies create the mood, what quality of questions are you going to use this year for your own golf and your own life this year?
Here is a starting question ...........
- ‘What could you enjoy TODAY?’ and notice how that question created a couple of movies instantly.
Make up a couple more of what I call the ‘Golden Questions’ to set you up for the round or the day ahead.
TRAP the FEELING!!!
How many times have you heard the advice ‘slow down’ or ‘take it more on the inside’?
Well, for most golfers this advice is almost completely useless! Why?
If you were driving your car along the motorway and I told you to slow down, what speed would you end up doing?
30 miles per hour, 50, 60, 90?
Of course, with that piece of advice it is anybody’s guess what might happen because slow down, how much relative to what? Just as your golf swing tends to fall apart with the same ‘slow down’ or ‘inside’ advice.
Now, if you were driving along and we had identified that you were burning the tyres at 90MPH and we worked on the instruction to hover your speed between 75 and 80 mph, it would seem reasonable to assume that your brain could carry out that command. Why? Because you now have parameters to work in, you have ‘trapped’ the desired speed.
The very same system can work with your golf game with dramatic results.
To build these parameters I will give you an example with the ‘take it on the inside’ instruction but you can use the same system with almost any piece of golf instruction.
- Go to the range and I want you to hit some shots taking the club ridiculously on the inside. This is the INSIDE parameter.
- Now, hit some shots taking the club ridiculously on the outside. This is the OUTSIDE parameter.
Now your brain and body have a feeling of where NOT to go!
- Now hit some shots sensing the MIDDLE of those two extremes. You will find it so much easier to feel the correct motion when you have established your parameters. Just as in the driving example, you can become much more exact with your motion.
This then becomes a sure way to stay on track and avoid overdoing a swing thought.
RESEARCH
The Life changing Quarter Second
Neurosurgeon Benjamin Libet became interested in the possible existence of a lag time between when people get the urge to take action and when they actually take it. He conducted a neurological experiment on patients undergoing certain brain surgeries, who were awake and alert. He asked them to move one of their fingers, while he electronically monitored their brain activity. He then found ‘IT’ – the life changing quarter second! There was a quarter second delay, he discovered, between the urge to move the finger, and its actual movement!!
KEY LEARNING
Every urge that you will ever have good or bad, fearful or angry, contains a quarter second window of opportunity or choice point in which you can DISENGAGE from that urge.
You don’t HAVE to feel bad on the golf course. It is YOUR choice.
Share these tips with your fellow golfers by forwarding this newsletter to them!
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