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Golf Tip - Don't Analyze, Visualize!Tuesday, December 06, 2005Don't Analyze... Visualize! The language code of the subconscious, by Jim DeLaby, PGAYour last range ball... just before you go the first tee... is a slice! Your first shot of the day... you top it! The first hole is finished... you take a triple! You finish the front nine... higher than you are used to! What is your strategy to get out of these situations? First, as with any problem, or issue, you need a strategy to solve it. You need more than "willpower" or "words" or an "analysis of what might be wrong." You need to learn, or refresh yourself with, the communication tool, or language code, that works for you. You see, the problem isn't necessarily mechanical. Rather, the problem is in how you handle it! Both consciously and subconsciously. You will have bad practice shots, bad holes and bad nines from time to time, e.g., look at some of the shots Mickelson traded off with Tiger on the back nine of Torrey. I am not talking about Tiger's memorable stingers. I am talking about Tiger's and Phil's wild drives. And, let us not forget last year's Masters final nine holes when Tiger had an average back nine but the world's #2 through #8 players back completely fell apart. Next, are you sure you are qualified, without a video camera, to understand which of the 27 moves of the full swing were out of sync? If you could figure that out, then can you tell what caused it? You have to consider weather changes, emotion, wind, hilly lies, changes in the speed of play, new personalities in the group, different playing levels within the group, blood sugar levels, consistency of the set up routine, and relaxation issues, just to name a few. So! Who has the better chance of analyzing and combining all the data that was just described? The conscious, one thought, one second at a time, side of the brain? Or, the subconscious, which handles everything underneath our conscious awareness? When you hit a bad shot and start the grieving cycle, i.e., guilt, anger, shock, denial, anxiety, depression, we start to grope for answers, three minutes at a time, before we get our next chance to play. Oh, by the way... analysis, words and will power are conscious brain communications. The subconscious listens in pictures only. Therein lies the answer. The answer lies in understanding some of the physical and mental issues. Question: How long do we actually play golf in a four hour, 18 hole round - 4 hours, or 4 minutes? Answer: 4 Minutes. It takes no more than two seconds, or less, to hit a golf ball. For a round that means four minutes of play! If we add the routine each time then we get between 20-30 minutes. Question: How long is there between every shot - 1/2 of a second or 2-4 minutes? Answer: 2-4 minutes or, what I call the three minute warning. Handling the Three Minute Warning How you handle these three minutes, or the strategy you develop after a bad practice, a bad shot, a bad hole, a bad nine holes will dictate how you end the day. One common mistake is to try and analyze why you hit a bad shot. Consider basketball, ping pong, tennis, hockey, soccer...in the heat of the battle, you don't analyze your mechanics because there is no TIME! If between every shot in those sports, there had a three minute time out, imagine what would happen. These sports would not be fun and Mr. Momentum would be a different animal! Do not use conscious brain communication to speak to the subconscious brain. The right brain needs pictures! Visualize what you WANT! Immediately after a bad practice, shot, hole, nine... REVISUALIZE what you are capable of...even go back to the last great shot and evoke that emotion. Now, which is easier and more effective? Hitting the next shot after you have been grieving... groping... analyzing... for three minutes at a time? Or, hitting the shot after REVISUALIZING? Find out more about Jim DeLaby and schedule a lesson. |
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