Golf Psychology Newsletter - 23 August 2007
by
Dr karl Morris
www.golf-brain.com

A SENIOR MOMENT

It is always refreshing to work with people who are open to both LEARNING and CHANGE. I recently had the opportunity to meet someone in Bill Longmuir who was open to both.

Bill plays on the European Seniors Tour and managed to win at the weekend in tough conditions at the English Seniors Open as St Mellion. He was kind enough to say that our recent work helped, but for me, what is the most thrilling part, is the proof that you can work at your patterns of thought no matter what your age category is.

The pioneering information available from the likes of Richard Restak on brain plasticity (the ability for the brain to change) even in to our later years is testimony that you can actually teach an old dog new tricks!!

Bill worked on an aspect of Sports Psychology that has been creating quite profound results for people but is NOT written or spoken about in the standard psych or self help manuals.

Not positive thinking, nor confidence circles or anchoring, just a discipline called NEUTRAL THINKING which deals with reality whilst giving you the optimal opportunity of success.

The principles of NEUTRAL THINKING will soon be available in a 6 cd set and will be taught extensively on our 4 day MIND FACTOR DIPLOMA COURSE IN MANCHESTER IN NOVEMBER.

QUESTIONS COULD BE THE ANSWER!
A lot of people are paid handsomely for giving out information, be that in the media, in politics and certainly in the area of coaching in sport. Information is everywhere, we are constantly bombarded with advice on what to do next, where to go, how to do it and with who!! Experts are everywhere with the ANSWER to all of our problems. But, maybe we are missing the point by constantly looking for answers when in fact we should be looking far harder at our QUESTIONS.

The amazing thing with questions is that they almost invariably produce images in our mind and these images affect how we feel and in turn how we perform.

Imagine this scenario:
You and I have just boarded an aeroplane and we are about to embark on a 3 hour flight. As the doors to the aircraft close and we settle into our seats I turn to you and ask you this question:
‘What do you think could go wrong in the next couple of hours?’

Not a great question and some of you even just reading this article will have asked the question and inside of your head you will have produced some pretty ugly images.

Yet, we could be in exactly the same situation and I could have turned to you and asked,
‘How can we relax in the next couple of hours?’

Same situation, same environment but the second question will encourage a completely different experience.

Questions literally run our brains because the brain cannot stop itself from answering the questions with images.
'What colour is your front door at home?’
'What is the shape of your car?’……….

there we go, got you again!!

Golfers ask terrible questions. In fact, most people ask terrible questions FULL STOP! Golfer steps up onto the tee of a strange hole :
'Where’s the trouble here?’
'Why is the pace of play so slow?’
'Why can’t I stop slicing?’

Poor questions lead to poor images which produce poor experiences.

I vividly remember one of the greatest golfers of the seventies, a man who shot some of the lowest scores ever on the U.S Tour, Johnny Miller, making the remark that he felt that he had possibly the ultimate upbringing of anyone who ever played the game.

His father used to always ask him two questions as he came off the golf course.
‘What did you enjoy today?’ and
‘What did you learn?’

Now consider what would it be like if every time you came off the course somebody asked you those questions?

What direction would that send your brain?

Your brain then has to go in search of learning and enjoyment and produce images to back up those states.

Quality questions are not ‘positive thinking’ as proposed by so many of the so called mind gurus. Positive thinking is trying to get yourself to be convinced that something good is going to happen in the future, quality questions are about producing the optimal mental state to INCREASE your chances of success.

With Graeme McDowell, who I have worked with for over 4 years, much of our time has been tuned into looking at good questions.

Graeme’s day would often start with a series of really poor questions.

‘Is the swing going to be ok?’
‘What if I am late for my start time?’
‘Can I hang on to this lead?’
Poor questions leading to poor states!

Now, Graeme has two core questions that get the golfing day underway :

‘How can I make the most of today?’ and
‘What can I enjoy today?’
As obvious as it may seem, these questions are going to impact your day enormously. The quality of your life will be determined by the quality of your questions.

Just begin to notice what your habitual and almost unconscious questions are because a lot of these sinister questions operate automatically, so much so that we don’t even know we are asking them.

Yet, I can guarantee that if you are not getting what you want from your golf or from any other area, for that matter, you will be asking poor questions.

BECOME A MIND FACTOR COACH

DO you wish to gain an ‘in depth’ knowledge of the ‘secrets’ of Sports Psychology? As a coach, player, amateur or keen club golfer, what would it be like to have 4 days of learning and then gain a Diploma in Sports Psychology?