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WHAT IS THE MENTAL GAME, AND WHEN DOES IT
BEGIN
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 | When you find that feeling on the range, blend it with your full routine. As you walk behind the ball and begin to blend the feel, you will struggle for a few swings, then it will come. Now you are ready to take this feel to the course to play. [By the way, Johnny Miller called the days that feeling does stay with us WOOD-works only one
day.] |
With regard to sequencing and routine, Jack Nicklaus says: "I feel that hitting specific shots-playing the ball to a certain place in a certain way-is 50 percent mental picture, 40 percent setup and 10 percent swing. That's why setting up takes me so long, why I have to be so deliberate…I can set up exactly right in relation to the shot I have pictured, I know I have no chance of executing it as planned."*
We learn through repetition. When we were in school, we learned new content by reviewing it over and over again. The more we reviewed the content, the better our retention. We learned our multiplication tables, poems and similar content through recitation. Verbal learning and motor learning occur in the nervous system in exactly the same way, repetition.
We are a society in search of a quick fix, the magic bullet. If you are going to learn a new swing and/or override the ingrained nervous system pathways of your old swing, drills practiced in the proper sequence are the only way to make change. Short, spaced, focused drill practice will promote the most efficient learning.
For example, practicing set up and swing motion drills in front of a mirror at home with a focus on feel for 5 minutes each evening will promote the most efficient strategy for change. Daily drill practice will gradually begin to "spill into" your practice and play. Please remember, practice makes permanent. If you set up incorrectly, and do your drills, you will ingrain bad swing habits. See your PGA professional often enough to review your drills to insure you do them correctly.
When Nick Faldo began to rebuild his swing under the tutelage of David Leadbedder, he said he committed to two years of poor play. He also said he knew he would have rounds in the mid to high 70s on the European tour, which he did, until he could make the changes on the range and then gradually get comfortable repeating that new swing in a pressure situation. The average student is looking for a "fix" they can immediately take to lower scores.
We retain information that is the most emotionally charged. That part of your brain which is responsible for emotion is also responsible for converting short term to long term memory. That is why the things we remember from our past are those things with the greatest emotional content. What do you remember most after a round, your great shots or poor shots. Most players focus on the missed putts, bad tee shots, problem clubs, etc. more readily than their good play. A focus on poor play erodes your confidence. I will elaborate in a future issue on strategies to build confidence by using a scorecard where you rate your shots on a 1 to 10 and forget about hole score. Suffice it to say, stop emoting over poor play or you will be doomed to repeat it. Focus on those great tee shots, well hit irons and putts.
When we learn, we process the information first in thought and pictures and then in feel-you will play your best golf with feel and images and your worst golf with a thought of your golf swing or a focus on pieces of your swing. Take a piece of paper and sign your name at the top. Under your signature copy your name. Look at every horizontal and vertical line. Be sure you don't just sign your name again. Make certain the every curve is the same as your signature. You have a swing signature just as you have a written signature. If you are focused on your swing in thought, trying to reproduce in pieces everything you learned in lesson, magazine or the Golf Channel, you will most certainly see a degradation in performance similar to the one you experienced when you tried to copy your signature.
If you are taking lessons and doing drills, focus on the total feel of your golf movement. If you are not taking lessons, try the following: I haven't met a player at any level who didn't know what their best swing felt like. Focus on the total feel of your golf swing until you can feel in practice swings that "9" or "10" swing three or four times in a row. Then, set up to the ball and focus on repeating that entire swing, not pieces. It will take you 10 to 30 swings before you can repeat the feel. Once you can do it, you will know that is as mechanical as you should ever be on the golf course.
Remember the SIXTY- PERCENT Rule. A study was done with two groups of Scuba divers. Each group was taught a list of words and phrases. One group learned the list under water while the other learned the list on land. They were both tested in their original learning condition and then they changed places and they were re-tested. Upon testing in the new condition, they retained only 60 percent of their original learning. This is called state dependent or contextual learning.
The average golfer takes a lesson, has success, goes to the golf course and struggles compared to their range and lesson performance. Many players will abandon their set up or swing changes and begin to search for something that will "work."
Know that it is going to take you many attempts in every new state or context in which you practice your new learning. These states very from a lesson, to the range, to a casual round, to a tournament round.
So, the mental game begins in the microcosm of your nervous system and is expressed in everything from your personality to your learning style. In future articles I will teach you specific techniques to get the most out of your mental game.
*The quotes from this article were taken from Dr. Wright's book, Mind Under Par
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About
the Author
David F. Wright, Ph.D., PGA is a PGA member teaching professional, a PGA Tour Instructor and Psychologist. He is a Senior Instruction Editor for Golf Tips Magazine. He was elected by his peers as the 1998 Teacher of the Year for the Southern California PGA. He is also the author of the book, Mind Under Par (888) 620-4653 and he is the founder of the Mind Under Par Golf Schools (888) 966-6643 at Pelican Hill Golf Club and Resort in Newport Coast, CA where he teaches full time. |
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