More about the Zone (or Flow) in golf

My Mental Method for better golf under pressure gives me, and my clients, a much better chance to play golf  "in the Zone" or "in the Flow".

I recently found an excellent article on the subject, that I have adapted to golf, and that originates from an interesting website at http://www.mindtraining.net/

1. Definition:

The Zone or Flow is a peak performance mental state which produces excellent performances and winning streaks.

The golfer in the zone experiences an unusual feeling of effortless control and power. Almost as if the body was programed for the perfect performance, and swings are carried out with instinctive, automatic and fluid movement.

The performance does not feel as if it is being controlled by the actual golfer. It´s as if the body is being guided and directed by a more powerful force.

2. The powerful force:

In fact the powerful force is our unconscious, subconscious, intuitive or automatic mind. It´s the "sleeping giant" that resides in all human beings, and that happens to be one million times better at processing information than our relatively inefficient conscious mind. Furthermore, the unconscious mind happens to be the source of all bodily movement and contains all of our past golfing experiences.

3. How to access:

When "zoning" the conscious mind becomes unusually quiet. This allows the more powerful unconscious mind to run the golfing performance on autopilot, or automatic mode. Another key factor is that by not thinking conscious thoughts, this takes away the presence of expectation and allows accessing of the Zone.

"Effortless effort" is required. Since the harder we try to be in the Zone, the further away it seems to be.

When the conscious mind surrenders it´s control of our performance, it allows the subconscious to step in.

And when we feel CALM, RELAXED and IN CONTROL our performance kicks into the Zone.

My Mental Method is totally in  line with the above, as all the techniques and behaviours I recommend, for the hours before we reach the course, for hitting shots, and for the time between shots, are geared to "steer" us into thinking and performing with our powerful unconscious mind.

The only exception is when we plan shots, since I´m convinced that our conscious mind is unbeatable at this key aspect of the game, and helps us to be totally IN CONTROL.