Scientific proof: The unconscious mind is better at golf

This article is an updated version of one I wrote on this subject in my spanish language blog back in August of 2009.

At the time, I was trying to find some scientific proof that our best golf is played when we are switched over to the unconscious, subconscious, automatic or intuitive mind (except when we are planning the shot).

Over the years I have found that golfers don't tend to believe that this game is more than 80 % Mental, and prefer to believe that all problems on the course are swing related.

This is not surprising if we consider that almost 100% of the teaching of golf is technical. Nobody taught me anything about on course management, or what to do when I was under pressure !!!!!!!!

The sad thing is that thousands and thousands of great young golfing talents have been lost because they don't understand Mental Golf.

The sequence goes something like this: They play great as amateurs, they go to college. Somewhere along the line they get into a slump. They think it´s their swing. They change their swing. And 8 times out of 10, they never play superb golf again.

Eight times out of ten it wasn´t a swing problem, and to change a swing is a very complex thing to engage in.

So, it was great to find some scientific evidence that our best golf is played with our unconscious mind.

Dr. Debbie Crews from Arizona University has been studying what happens to the brain when golfers putt, for over 20 years now.

She hooks her volunteers up to EEG´s and get´s a picture of what is happening in the brain when a golfer putts.

Her conclusion is crystal clear:

The best putters are those who are feel and target oriented when they hit their putts. The scans show that they are operating with the right side of their brains and are on intuitive or unconscious mode (Golf Digest Article of October 2010).

The worst putters are those that, at moment of impact, were thinking technique and were on their rational left side of their brains.

And it´s the same on all shots.

We hit our best golf shots by planning well with our rational conscious mind, then  hit the ball tuned into our incredibly powerful unconscious mind.

Remember, our unconscious mind is one million times more powerful than our conscious mind. So the trick is to learn how to "switch over", once we have finished planning the shot, and stay there until we start planning the next one.