Golf will hit us when we´re down

"Golf will hit us when we´re down" is the title of Chapter 2 of my EBOOK:

MENTAL GOLF: THE POWER OF CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION

 (Those of you interested in purchasing the book, or reviewing, free of charge, the Index, the Introduction and part of Chapter 1, can do so by clicking on the above title of the book).

In this Chapter, I put forward the seven reasons that explain why golf is so difficult in comparison to other sports or games.

I am convinced that it is essential for golfers at all levels to clearly understand the reasons that explain this tremendous difficulty of the game of golf, and the reasons for so much pressure and propensity to colapse in competition.

Three of the seven reasons are the following:

The first is that the golf course is just packed full of obstacles. Only matched by some types of motocross, golf courses are full of trees, water, out of bounds, bunkers, rough, sloping fairways and lightning fast greens, among others.

The second is that 95% of the time we play stroke play. In other words all shots count. And we don´t get any mulligans. And just one bad shot can ruin the best of rounds.

The third reason is all about having too much time to think during a normal four and a half hour round. It´s what I call in my book "paralysis by analysis" or "mental stew".

Proper understanding of the seven reasons that explain the enourmous propensity of players at all levels to collapse under pressure situations is essential for expert golfers, as well as for mid and high handicappers.

CONCLUSION:

From this Chapter, "Golf will hit when we´re down", come two vital conclusions in order to properly develop a solid Mental Method to overcome pressure.

1. The first conclusion is that it is vital in golf to always plan each shot and putt in the most rigurous and conservative manner posible. Easier said than done. Because this is an activity that we carry out via our Conscious Mind, and, in many instances, this mind does a poor job, because, as I explain in Chapter 1 (The Power of the Mind), it posesses a relatively ineficient processing capability, specially under pressure.

2.  The second conclusión is that it is vital that the golfer know how to ensure an always positive, confident and optimistic "Golfing Recorder" (Unconscious Mind), to compensate for all the times that "golf will hit us when we are down".

Understanding these concepts are essential in order to play great golf consistently and to know how we can  appropiately apply the Mental techniques and behaviors that I recommend in my book.









:

The Lone Ranger and the Power of the Unconscious Mind for Golf.

As many of you already know, I have recently published my first book in Amazon EBooks. The book´s name is:

MENTAL GOLF: THE POWER OF CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION

(those of you who would like to purchase the book, or to review, free of cost, the content of each chapter and the Introduction, can do so by clicking on the title of the book, above)

Chapter 1 is called "The Power of the Mind" and in it I tell the following story of when I was a child:

"At a fairly young age I learned about the power of the unconscious mind.

I was about ten years of age when I read a book that was part of The Lone Ranger series.

Yes, the one who fired silver bullets and who wore a mask while chasing bandits together with his faithful partner Tonto.

On many occasions The Lone Ranger had to get up early in the morning to chase and catch bandits. The law-enforcer had a valuable silver watch but didn’t have an alarm clock.

Well, according to the book’s author, the Lone Ranger would fall asleep visualizing the hands of his watch at exactly the time he wanted to wake up, which permitted him, as if by magic, to wake up exactly at the specified time.

 

 At the time, I thought it was an exaggeration by the author of the book to make the main character look like an even more impressive hero.    

But, for some reason which I cannot recall, about three years later I remembered the Lone Ranger method in order to achieve an “automatic” wakeup.

I tested the method for a few days until, to my surprise, I mastered it. After this, I managed to always wakeup exactly at the desired time.       

And for almost 50 years I have never needed an alarm clock to wake up early!"

Well, I tell this story to illustrate something essential that all us golfers must know and understand.

And I explain it in Chapter 1 as follows:

"The contents of the unconscious mind are equivalent to a “software” which has been programmed since birth, and which is our great life computer.  

The conscious mind is approximately 10% of the total mind. The unconscious mind makes up the remaining 90%, which never sleeps. The conscious mind is turned off and does not function while we are asleep. 

An essential point for the golfer is to understand the great power of the unconscious mind.  

The conscious mind processes information at a rate of 40 bits per second. But the unconscious mind processes information at 40 MILLION bits per second.    

Later on we will talk about why this is so, but it is essential we understand that our unconscious mind is ONE MILLION TIMES more powerful than our conscious mind. And, in addition, it manages our organs and is responsible for ALL the movements of the body.

 

  Yes, including the golf swing.

On the other hand, it is interesting to know that the unconscious mind controls the vast majority of our senses.

Our vision for example, which is a sense we use extensively on the golf course, has approximately six million connections to the mind; however, only 40 of these connections are to the conscious mind.

The balance, in other words, 5,999.960, are connections to the unconscious mind".
 
Conclusión:

The Unconscious Mind is tremendously better at golf than the Conscious Mind, (with one great exeption: the planning of each shot).

This is so because the Unconscious Mind is ONE MILLION TIMES MORE POWERFULL than the Conscious Mind and because it "manages" our golf swing, among several other relevant characteristics that I explain in my book.