Golf My Way by Nicklaus. The Mental lessons

I have just finished reading an updated version of Jack Nicklaus´ excellent book, Golf My Way.

I had wanted to read it for some time, now. It´s essentially a book about swing technique, but I have always been aware that Nicklaus was also a master of Mental behavior and Mental techniques.

And I wasn´t wrong.

I found four very relevant themes that I would like to share:


1. The danger of major swing changes

The Foreword was written by none other than Jack Grout, Nicklaus´ long time teacher and swing coach. Grout emphasizes a fundamental point about the golf swing, something that has huge consequences from the angle of Mental Golf.

Grout points out that Jack maintained the same golf swing for the most part of his career, and that as a youngster nobody worked harder than Jack at mastering the proper fundamentals.

Grout explains that this is key as "the golf swing is the least natural movement in all of sports. It is, as a consequence, extremely difficult to teach and even harder to learn".

My comment:

One of the most difficult things in golf is to make a major swing change.

Precisely due to the difficulty mentioned by Jack Grout an enormous effort is needed involving the limited conscious mind and that requires thousands of swing repetitions, in order to achieve the necessary automatization that will allow us to play intuitive golf again. The kind of great golf we can only play with our powerful unconscious mind.

As opposed to Tiger, Nicklaus avoided  modifying a swing he had learned so well as a youngster "like the plague". And, in my view, this had a lot to do with Jack going on to win a colossal 18 Major Championships and a spectacular 19 runner ups in these big tournaments. He only went back to Grout at the beginning of a season for "fine tuning" sessions.

It is very possible that the three swing changes Tiger has endured, during his pro career, could cost him dearly. Falling short of Jack´s 18 Major win record would be a painful defeat for Tiger. Time will tell.

2. Visualization, proper alignement and aiming.

Nicklaus tells us that, in his opinion, hitting the ball to a "selected place and with the desired trajectory" requires:

Mental picture                                                               50%
Proper alignment                                                           40%
Swing                                                                            10%

My comment:

Jack´s comment makes all the sense in the world to me:

Jack talks to us about "going to the movies" because he was a master at properly using the technique of golf shot visualization. He would "imagine" the trajectory and the type of shot he wanted to hit. Together with allowing for enough time for proper alignment and precise aiming at the target, visualization helps the golfer achieve two key objectives:

A. It increases the probability of the ball going where we want it to go since we are aiming properly.

B. The above, together with the proper use of shot visualization, allows us an "easier entrance" to the intuitive mode and the "present moment". This, in turn, ensures a better chance at mind/body synchronization for great ball striking and great golf shots.

3. The three tension "relievers".

Nicklaus talks about the three "tension relievers". According to Jack they are the following: Confidence, concentration and the intense focus on aiming and alignment.

My comment:

I totally agree. Confidence is vital in golf.

One of Bob Rotella´s more recent books is The 15th Club. Well, Rotella´s 15th club is none other than confidence. Today, many Mental Golf Coaches insist that their pupils utilize certain techniques, outside the golf course, designed to strengthen the mind and strengthen confidence.  Like many of us go to the gym in order to strengthen our bodies, the golfer must do "mental gym" to strengthen the mind.

On the other hand, an intense focus on aiming and on concentration are tension relievers because they keep us in the "present moment", well away from ruminating about recent poor shots, and away from catastrophizing about future shots, or potential disasters.

4. Good "Golf Course Management" is key.

In this book, Jack Nicklaus reaffirms his great emphasis on sound "golf course management". Specially on complicated holes with dangerous obstacles or hazards.

My Comment:

I am in total agreement for two reasons:


A. Standard golf courses are simply full of hazards, water, out of bounds and countless other obstacles and
as 100% of our shots count (99% of the time we compete in the stroke, or, medal play format), it is absolutely vital that we plan all shots in a very rigorous and conservative manner.

B. If we make dumb or stupid shot planning errors, we not only pay the price in wasted shots, but we will, more than likely than not, get mad at ourselves, and this will "take us out" of the automatic, unconscious or intuitive mode, and we will start to play with our inefficient conscious mind, outside of the present moment, and not synchronized in body and mind.

On reading Nicklaus´ excellent book from the Mental angle, it became clear to me that Tiger has several weaknesses that Jack never had, and he doesn´t have it easy in his quest to surpass Jack´s Major tournament achievements in order to be considered  the best golfer that ever lived.