I hear “Great looking swing!” quite a lot. I’ve worked hard on it and know all the hours it’s taken and the literal sweat and grime it’s taken to build what I have. I’m proud of that work, it’s sort of a badge of honor. My swing has never been in better positions nor have I had this much control over my ball with so little effort. So, when I was invited to play the Bear’s Club in Jupiter, FL this weekend, I was ready to go out there and throw down a low number.
I’ve always stuggled a lot on courses I play for the first time, especially ones that are visually intimidating. As Jack Nicklaus’ home course, to say this is visually intimidating would be an understatement. Worse yet, it actually IS very hard. The greens are nuts really and rock hard. Want to know how hard? On a par 3 I hit a 7 iron cut into the wind that landed 3 inches from the pin – and ended up 30 feet away. The slope, speed and firmness of these things is something I’ve not seen in a while playing Sugarloaf Mountain this winter.
So, without seeing and know my landing areas, I was immediately intimidated and noticed myself start to tense up. The fairways looked like bowling alleys and all of a sudden, I literally felt like I didn’t know how to swing the club anymore. Sound familiar to anyone yet? It was like I was starting to play golf all over again, I had no idea what to do. Luckily, I recognized this pressure and tried to regain my focus, which worked only about 1/3 the time because what my eyes saw over ruled what my brain was thinking.
Frustrated at the end of the day, I thought about the round on the long, shamed drive back to Orlando. When I got back, I decided to go and hit balls on the range and see what had gone wrong with my swing. My first shot missed the flag by a foot, the second by 4 feet. Grabbed a 6 iron, missed by 2 yards. Grabbed the driver, striped down the middle. Every shot was perfect. My wife came with me to see what the heck was going on, her reply was simple and to the point, “It’s all in your head.” She’s been down this road with me WAY too many times.
So, we started working on some mental exercises and that helped for a while, and then I got so focused on the exercises that I lost focus on my swing and then started spraying the ball. Then, she gave me an imaginary fairway to hit my driver down that was between two flags about 12 yards apart. I looked at her and said to myself, “That’s impossible, it’s stupid, no fairway on the planet is that small, it’s too hard.” Hmmm, that’s interesting. All this internal dialgoue was something new for me, now we’re getting somewhere.
Before we started the exercises, I was striping my driver exactly where I was aiming, but, put this imaginary “gate” in front of me to hit through and I’m totally tensed up and have this “brain chatter” going on. I know I can hit the ball through there, but it was the idea of focusing on hitting it through there that made it impossible. Then I put two and two together and all my mental game work started coming back to me. Focusing so long on my swing mechanics had taken me out of remembering how to take it out the course. I’d become a solid range player, but they don’t count your strokes out there. It was focusing on the result rather than the process that was detrimental.
Many mental coaches advocate focusing on the target rather than the movement. I’ve done both and have sort of sat on the fence with this one. After today, I feel that it’s time to make the decision and go one way or the other. While I believe that both methodologies have validity and their place depending on the golfer, the golf shot is simply the result of me making the correct movements. The results completely take care of themselves when I move the way I want and I have no control over where the ball ends up. Instead, I want to be concerned with the PROCESS as that is in the moment, the result is in the future.
Focusing on the process of the swing is the only thing I truly have control over and it is the only thing that is happening at that very moment that I can exert influence over. It also pulls the mind “back inside” rather than focusing on the external and peripheral, which are all secondary; the movement is primary. So, after I’ve aimed myself to my target, the target is no longer going to be of consequence to me, I’m going to focus on the process and be “in the moment” and no longer will other people’s shots or the golf course dictate how I feel or think on each shot. If I’m not concerned with the result of the shot, what difference does it make if there is a bunker, or water or OB on that hole? It’s hard to be intimidated by an external influence when you are focused on the interal process. The results should take care of themselves. And that’s what Mushin Golf is all about.
This business of results vs process is very much on display with my putting student. We played a round the other day. He had regressed so badly I couldn’t believe it. His head was moving rotating to the target with the putter-head. And, he was horsing the putter around something awful. It wasn’t Charles Barkley-bad. But, it was in that neighborhood.
After the round, we went over the putting green. I told him to close his eyes and putt the ball. It was so good a stroke it was scary. As good as anything you’ll ever see on Tour. Honest. And, he can hole it from anywhere like that with his eyes closed. “Dude, I can fix all your putting problems with three words: ‘Close your eyes.’” He won’t do it. It must be a manhood issue. But, the experience allowed me to maybe crack the armor plate: “Dude, your body knows what to do. Trust it. Get out of the way.”
He had been following the putter head back with his eyes. If there’s a bigger Death Move for putting, I don’t know what it is. “Why were you doing that?” He was afraid that he was pulling the putter inside, which would make him miss, and was going to make sure he didn’t do that.
I put a dot on the ball just past the end of his alignment line. “If you have to look, look at that dot and that dot only.” After an hour we went out and played nine more holes. 13-putts. Better than that was how good those strokes were. He did a great job. Process vs Results is a very real thing.
Ray,
Why not have him just look at the hole while putting? I know you would have thought of it, but just thowing it out there.
Chuck,
Are you talking about the actual feelings associated with the moves, i.e. “glide the scap, now settle onto heel, now”..just example. I am trying to understand what you mean exactly by the process. I am trying to come up with some swing triggers, and those sort of thoughts kind of worked the other day. I didn’t play real well, but I hit a bunch of greens and had a real short compact swing only thinking of “half swing” How I get to half swing seems to be key, that is why I ask the question about process.
Secondary,
We’ve done it. Looking at the hole is just like putting with his eyes closed: Awesome stroke. Amazing. But, he won’t do it on the course. I read a similar story in Pia Nielsen’s book. They had some guy putting lights-out with his eyes closed. But, his wife threw a fit saying he looked stupid doing that and so he went back to struggling. Hard to understand. But, the bigger point is that if I keep his head out his body’s way, he can roll the rock. It’s all about process.
Jeff, the process may vary from player to player, but those learning the RST move will likely have similar thoughts to what you listed. For me, I’m past the point of having to think about those specific things as they are now grooved because I’ve paid my dues and done my reps. I have different feelings that are part of my process, but more specifically what I’m referring to here is the process of the movement rather than the result of the shot. No matter what your “thoughts or feelings” may be, the disconnect happens when we get on the course where there are consequences and specific targets vs. the range where there are no consequences and the targets are less important, so you focus more on what you are trying to accomplish with your swing and less on where the ball goes.
I follow. Sort of like an earlier blog entry where you hit a perfect shot. It wasn’t the shot’s final postion, but the fact that your process went exactly as you envisioned. This makes sense, but it is a very far off target for someone like me who is just trying to get to the 70′s with regularity. It is good to have goals though. I just keep telling myself there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Like my kids will leave me alone someday! Might be 15years away, but there is a light! Thanks for the insight Chuck.
Chuck,
I love this blog. Like you and many others I’ve tried focusing on the outcome/target and focusing on the process and found if I’m completely aware of my swing as a whole entity, that is totally With it, the outcome takes care of itself. I’ve found if I focus on the target I tend to sway towards the target in my swing. It’s almost as if my mind wants to be at the target rather than here and now.