Your Golf Brain: Mystery or Mastery?
IN: Golf Psychology | by Carey Mumford | 13 Apr 2005
Identifying the most appropriate order for developing themes concerning the Mental Game can add to the mysterious character surrounding portions of the subject. Having been exposed to virtually every golf forum on the internet, it is clear (at least to me) that there are some common questions running through players experiences, and, indeed, some common responses in return. One can see something like a revolving door, the same questions, if not the same answers.
Most of the "answers" or responses given to those "common" questions at least try to provide advice that aims to be relevant. More often than not, though, vital information is missing, or some important step in a process is omitted. That does not appear to be intentional, but rather the product of way too much unfinished business in the matter of trying to understand the game we all revere.
To illustrate, give attention for a moment to the word "non-discriminatory." That word has huge, vital substance for understanding what goes on in the mind and heart of every golfer at play. It also directly relates to what takes place daily on any practice range. So why is it rarely (almost never) mentioned in the journals or on the forums? Because its meaning falls headlong into the "mysterious" category.
I would willingly wager a month's salary that if you walked up to Vijay, Tiger, or Phil and asked them how they go about managing the "non-discriminatory" elements in their games, they would look at you with the "have-you-lost-your-mind" look and maybe even laugh and invite you to leave, since I doubt that any of those three, not to mention the majority of other tour players, have any clue whatsoever to what that means or the crucial role it has in their professional and/or personal lives. It is all the while affecting them and they aren't even aware of it - except in some wayward result that occasionally shows up at a critical moment in the game. In this case, what you don't know will hurt you.
There may be some out there, but I have not been able to find any sport psychologist that can or will converse about how "non-discriminatory" issues relate to their work, either. Several years ago, I wrote to a dozen of those whom Golf Magazine had named as the "top" folks in golf psychology in a special issue on the Mental Game (a 1990 issue, which, as I recall, named fourteen mental game coaches, including this writer). I suggested that, as with other professional domains, it might be a good thing if we all did a little sharing that might bring new insights to the mental game. I heard from two of them. Those two thought it a good idea, but they were "too busy." The rest never even responded.
Later, I sent an email to about 40 more, identified from their websites, asking how they went about dealing with the human auto-immune system (the seat of non-discriminatory activity) in relation to golf. There were nine responses, eight of whom said that had nothing to do with their approach to the game and didn't affect it. One did say, however, "Wow! That would make a true doctoral thesis." That's the sum of it.
And in case you are puzzled at this point, I will add that the natural human auto-immune system is the key player in what the word "non-discriminatory" stands for, and together they form a duet that anyone who wishes to really get to the top level of play for themselves must both understand and include in their game plan. In other words, it will be found impossible either to routinely play the game or to pursue individual maximum performance levels in your game without that knowledge and the ability to manage it. The word "impossible" does not include those grossly unusual moments when, mysteriously, "everything came together" and your game entered Nirvana, briefly, and now you don't have the faintest notion how or why that happened.
Additionally, what we are suggesting is that most players, even the ones who seem and appear to be superior, could do more and do it more consistently, given that addition to their knowledge base. On the other hand, it is also clear that one does not have to go where this suggestion leads in order to play according to the current "standard" (The collective "comfort zone"). You can play the rest of your life without what is referenced here. But you will likely continue with the same questions, the same answers and a game that is not all it can be, occasionally frustrating, and sadly you will still be left to wonder "What is going on here?" Among other things, three primary questions likely will persist in crowding your mind: "How do I become more consistent, how do I get, maintain and/or preserve my confidence, and how do I keep the wheels from coming off at some point in a round?"
The lack of appreciation for the normal, natural, unalterable, uncontrollable, reflexive, non-specific action inherent in the non-discriminatory system brings other misrepresentations into play. For example, the word "control" is the "word of choice" for many psych gurus, instructors and writers when it comes to what they say you and I need to be able to do with our games - put them under "control." Now that would be fine if there were no such thing as a non-discriminatory issue. If every action we performed were based on wholly controllable choices, all we would have to do is learn to think carefully and use our conscious minds to bark commands and that would lead to inevitable actions "controlled" by those commands.
About all any of us were ever exposed to was a chapter in a text book somewhere that outlined something called "involuntary behaviour." That was enough to fit into our vocabularies and exist under an assumption that this was all we needed to know in that vein. In other words, virtually everyone took a short-cut that left a vacuum.
Mind Games
What follows here is an excerpt from a website inserted to illustrate the point. It was borrowed from PGA.com and is attributed to Curt Erickson, PhD. under the heading of "Mind Games". He says:
"I have found it useful to practice the mental game according to seven general categories to become a great golfer.
- Arousal Control
- Attention Control
- Attitude Control
- Motivational Level
- Positive Energy Control
- Self-Confidence
- Visualisation and Imagery Control
The discussion of the above items in the article requires several paragraphs. Certainly, the "categories" are relevant, and important as "headings" for our consideration. But any "how to" processes are truncated by the simple implication that "You should have these things under your control." What they are and how to develop them, is not found. Attention, arousal, visualisation, energy and attitude are all directly affected by non-discriminatory behaviours. So all of the above must be understood in relation to what the "non-discriminatory" system is, what it does and how one goes about managing it. It cannot be "controlled," as the implication in the list suggests. The evidence is that to the extent you try to control it, it will control you. But it can be managed. In fact, what he describes is simply not transferable either to life in general or the game in particular, at least not in the context given. That, in turn, precludes anything that would be consistently effective. ("Even a blind squirrel will stumble on a nut once in awhile"). One might study all the things he presents, go out and play well and think that was the cause of the good play. In the same way, we might purchase a new putter and putt better for a couple of rounds and believe it was the device that did it. But the staying power of the new device will be found to be fickle at best. Makes no difference if it's you with your club or Mickelson with his new driver.
What is curious is that we can show that "attention, arousal, visualisation, energy and attitude" do not require separate management strategies and are naturally incorporated into one's portfolio when the proper management issues are understood and used. Of course, that requires that players develop habits from their skills and know how to put those habits into action through the "automatic principle" (one part of Mother Nature's non-discriminatory system). In fact, if you understand the automatic principle and use the proper tools required to go there, all of the above are subsumed and integrated into the process. They do not require individual control. Management, yes.
We have searched since 1980. We have found one management tool that addresses all of the non-discriminatory concerns and the non-specific character of our systems. There may be others and we hope that someone will make them known. The one we found was given the name "clear key." Of course, some may wish to challenge our findings. The only request we make is that the challenge be accompanied by similarly validated objective evidence to that which gave us the "clear key."
Motivation
Continuing our review of the Erickson article, we can also show that motivation is not "found." It had to be present already or we would not be engaging in the game to start with. People do not do what they do for no reason or for someone else's reasons. Whatever reason they have is embraced singularly in each one's own motivation. All are not equally or similarly motivated, but that is OK. Just because a person does not get out of bed on time does not mean a lack of motivation. It means that he is motivated to stay in bed.
No one can motivate someone else. Each of us is already motivated. Similarly, self-confidence comes from knowing oneself and having one's basic style confirmed. Game confidence comes from having full knowledge of the game (including both swing mechanics and mental management) and the developed skill/habit resources to go with that knowledge. One does not get there by merely wanting it or saying they intend to become "confident." Confidence is a by-product of combined knowledge and skill.
The point is, that without enough information, we have fashioned a trip for golf that goes far out of the way just to try to make it "next door." And when we get there, often nobody is home. That's the kind of trip described by the article we cite.
So what is this "animal" known as the "non-discriminatory system?" For sure you cannot take a picture of it. It is not one of those things you can diagram. In fact, it is only known by its consistency of behaviour. We know it's there for our heartbeat. We know it's there for our breathing. We know it's there when we experience anxiety. We know it's there when we feel pain. We know it's there when we sneeze. We know it's there when the sound we hear is too loud or too soft. We know it's there in the joy of winning and the agony of defeat. One never has to tell the system to recognise and experience any of those things, among many others. They just "appear" to happen. That is the system we cannot "control." We can learn to manage it, but it will either balk, or turn to fight you, if you try to control it.
Anxiety In Your Game
We mention anxiety often. That is a critical concern for golfers (and baseball pitchers and batters, and basketball foul shooters, and riflemen, and archers, and pool-sharks, and bowlers, and swimmers, and runners, and weight lifters, and football kickers, and runners, and airline pilots, and automobile drivers), and anyone else you can think of engaged in a self-initiated, solo activity. If you watched the conclusion of the Bell South tour event in Atlanta, and the presence of anxiety was not apparent to you in the stumbles of the final finishers, and in the playoff, the best wisdom would suggest needing a thorough study of the matter in your own behalf.
Anxiety is a principal in the non-discriminatory family. It is the non-specific, natural alarm clock that calls our first line of defence from rest into action anytime it perceives a demand of any kind, and all of that happens instantaneously, without assigning judgement and without our conscious permission. It makes no distinction between what may be good for us and what is not. It cannot, does not, ascribe value to what it does, so no distinction is made between what we may consciously perceive as "danger" and what we may see as "safe." You may consciously see winning the lottery as a good thing and the death of a loved one as a bad thing, but your system, in true non-discriminatory fashion, acts the same way in either instance. It is not its job to know the difference (to discriminate), or care. Take note that your system does not know or care if you just won the Masters or if you were just arrested for being a recalcitrant thief or drug addict. In either case, your heart will likely continue to beat according to its own schedule and so will you continue to breathe, and your kidneys continue to work, and your brain continue to respond to the signals it receives.
Anxiety is actively "on call" for every shot or instance of planning in the game. It is therefore a major player in and of itself. We have only found one adequate management process and tool to give us a "free pass" in dealing with anxiety. Anxiety generates all sorts of physiological changes - muscle tension, heart palpitations (butterflies), sweaty palms, fluttering eyes, rapid pulse and breathing, and even scattered, slowed or rapid thinking responses, shakes in the hands, just to name a few. The only process we have found that will deal with that in the time frames given to us under the rules of golf is to prevent, stop, postpone any anxious signal so it does not trigger the non-discriminatory system until after we have executed our golf shots. Anxiety before or after will not hurt us. Anxiety during the shot is apt to disturb, or even wreck it. The postponement only requires staying in the present mentally, and that is done by thinking a conscious thought that has nothing to do with the game, the shot itself, the target, or one's swing mechanics. For that we use a clear key - such as "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro," or "Legalised bingo keeps grandma off the street."
When you do that, you accomplish two things: You momentarily block any anxious signal from triggering your immune system; and you open the automatic pathway. In true management fashion, that allows you to call for, and get, whatever resources you need for that shot as long as they are already built into your shot making portfolio (having become habits). That's what makes pre-shot so important, since that's the moment when you instruct your non-discriminatory system what you want it to do. You will find that the non-discriminatory system also responds with integrity, loyalty and consistency to what it already knows how to do, if you let that system know specifically what you want. That's what pre-shot is made for - planning. If you have not, however, developed the habits you need from the skills you have learned, you will still get only what your system already knows how to do, but it may be one of its own defaults. Preferably, that will be something that you have chosen to build well. If not, it's back to the work centre at the range, or as they say, "the drawing board."
The mastery involved lies in building habits to fit the needs of your game. The mystery simply surrounds what we have not bothered to find out. Hopefully that part will fade and the habit part will grow stronger as we sharpen our attention management.
There is more. Over time, we'll get it all in its proper place.
