Mental Golf: The SECRET and the TRICK

At risk of being considered somewhat arrogant, I would like to share the following with my dear readers:

After developing my successfull Mental Method for golf, after having written more than 400 articles on Mental Golf, after having written my first book on Mental Golf (Mental Golf: The Power of Conscious Autosuggestion), after having won many, many golf tournaments in recent years and after having watched hours of top level golf, and after hosting dozens of workshops and speaches on Mental Golf, I feel it necessary to reflect on a couple of things I have learned on this fascinating trip.

And as in my long career in business I was taught the value of marketing and self promotion I will put names to these concepts that I now believe to be crucial in the struggle to dominate the Mind in order to play great and consistent golf.

THE SECRET AND THE TRICK

The first concept is THE SECRET and I feel it is pretty much advanced.

THE SECRET, is that capacity that allows the golfer to achieve the ideal mental state each time he has to hit a shot or putt.

In my book and in my workshops I talk about that essential capacity to operate with the right side of the brain, in the Present Moment, utilizing the full power of our Unconscious (Intuitive or Automatic) Mind, so as to be totally synchronized in Body and Mind, in order to hit excellent golf shots and putts.

THE SECRET is a combination of process (routine) and technique that is carried out once the shot planning phase is finalized, that allow a total immersion into the "automatic", and many times into "the zone".

Those of you who read my book or have heard me speak, know that I am talking about techniques such as visualization, relaxation, rythm, breathing, process (routine) and aiming.

¿What´s new, then?

Simple, but essential.

There is NOTHING more important in golf than the proper process of aligning and aiming at the target with complete and total immersion.

At university and at work I was taught the powefull concept of SYNERGY. When we are able to convert two plus two into five, six or ten, and not four, we can achieve great goals.

In golf when one learns to consistently align and aim perfectly at the target, not only do we have a better chance at hitting it close to where we want it to go, but there is no more powerfull way to "immerse" into the Present Moment and the right side of the brain, and, therefore, to effectively utilize the tremendous potential of our Unconscious, Automatic or Intuitive Mind.

Therefore, we are, at least, "killing two birds with one stone".

In this respect the Australian Start-Up iFocusBand, that has developed a golf cap capable of monitoring the activity of the brain (portable EEG), in real time, has huge potential. What they are doing is teaching us how to "get into" the right side of the brain (Unconscious Mind) when it is time to execute a golf shot or a putt.

In a few months I will recieve this technology and I will make it available to my clients.

Starting in March of 2013, Jason Day, the young Australian star, has worked with an experimental versión of the iFocusBand product and has achieved excellent results. He is now N° 6 in the World, he was third in last years Masters and second in last year´s US Open. More recently he won the individual title in the 2013 World Team Championship, which he also won together with Adam Scott, and won this year´s Accenture Match Play Championship, just before he hurt a thumb that sidelined him for a few weeks.

THE TRICK

It´s a concept that I am currently working on, but, I am convinced that it can be the key in resolving one of the most common problems that golfers of all levels face when in high pressure situations.

Trying too hard, or, the Reverse Effect or Reverse Effort.

Let me explain with a couple of examples from the PGA Tour of March and April 2014.

Last March Rory McIlroy was playing great golf at the Honda Classic, played at Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. He easily led for three days only to "colapse" on his final 12 holes with a couple of very bad bogeys and a double. In the end, he lost the playoff and a tournament he should have won.

Two weeks before the Masters, Adam Scott was running away with the Arnold Palmer Classic, in Orlando, Florida, only to collapse with a poor final round of 76.

What on earth happened to two of the best golfers in the world when they were playing brilliantly and leading comfortably ?

The same question can be asked of Matt Kuchar who hit a ball into the water at the final hole at the Shell Houston Open, when in the lead, the week before the Masters. Kuchar then lost the playoff.

In my opinión, and as I have been repeating frequently for a few months now, these three great players fell victim to "trying too hard", to excessive conscious effort, and, if we want to talk in scientific terms, they fell victim to the Law of Reversed Effort or Reversed Effect, stated early in the twentieth century by the French Pharmacist, Emile Coué, in his Method of Conscious Autosuggestion.

McIlroy desperately wanted to start his US play with a win so as to put his mediocre 2013 season into the past. Adam Scott wanted to win badly in Orlando so as to take the world N° 1 position away from Tiger Woods and to arrive at Augusta with a high confidence level, and Kuchar wanted to win badly because he was playing so well and had so many recent top ten positions without a trophy.

The excesive conscious effort all three players displayed in the final round of their tournaments, explain their inability to perform at these crucial moments. Scientífically it is called a "psycho-motor" breakdown and it caused these great players to perform more like beginers.

Coué explains the process as follows:

Excesive conscious effort (trying too hard) is interpreted by the Unconscious Mind as a sign that what is trying to be achieved must be  very, very difficult.

In fact, the psycho-motor breakdown occurs when two conscious ideas conflict. The first is the normal, pressure free, idea of playing well to win. But the second idea appears with mounting pressure when our conscious mind sends the excessive message of "we must win".

The "breakdown" is accompanied by abnormal levels of adrenaline and cortisol, that explain further deterioration in rythm and concentration.

Then, the "breakdown" finally occurs when the Unconscious Mind, that normaly controlls all body movements "returns the management" of the golf swing to the Conscious Mind, that happens to be one million times less able and powerfull to do the job.

Trying too hard, or the Law of Reversed Effect (Reversed Effort), in my opinión, explain more than 80 % of "collapses" and "chokes" that we see on TV, amateur tournaments or weekend friendlies.

The truth is that, upto now, NOBODY in the world of golf psychology and Mental Coaches, has found an effective and consistent method to resolve the problem.

Jack Nicklaus was probably the best at avoiding the trying too hard syndrome. Tiger did for many years, but has clearly become a victim of the Law of Reverse Effort, if we look at his weekend play during the Majors of the last three years.

And, what am I proposing to counteract it?

I´m proposing THE TRICK, the concept put forward by Emile Coué, the father of Conscious Autosuggestion and modern Psychotherapy, who suggests certain techniques and behaviours to minimize the problem.

Techniques and behaviours that "trick" the Mind into avoiding all excessive conscious effort as well as other complementary techniques such as visualization and virtual rehersal.

I´m fascinated by this subject and it´s potential in my search for ways to avoid or minimize choking and collapsing in golf pressure packed situations.

Clearly a lot more study and work is still required.

But I am confident that I´m very close to significant advances. And if this happens, it´s posible that THE SECRET and THE TRICK could be the title of my second book.

We shall see.

A mentally strong Bubba Watson wins the Masters 2014

Let me first confess that I didn´t give two cents for Bubba Watson winning the Masters this year.

But I was clearly wrong, and for a number of reasons, since he won convincingly and in splendid fashion.

His final round 69 was excellent and his short game and 25 putts, simply impressive

But the truth is that there were plenty of reasons for considering Bubba from the start:

The first, is that Watson´s game, as explained by his good friend, Rickie Fowler, is especially well siuted to Augusta National.

The fact is that this magnificent course gives a premium to the long hitters as it has relatively open landing áreas almost no rough, and to creative players with a great short game. And Bubba is one of them. And as Fowler says in a Sunday interview: "Bubba is so strong and creative that he can hit shots that almost nobody else can pull off. That´s why his second Green jacket is no surprise to me".

The second reason, is that he has had a brilliant 2013/2014 season. His results (he has now played 10 tournaments) show that he has won twice, he has been second twice and has seven top tens. Then, from the point of view of his current form, his Masters win is not a surprise. His excellent results have taken him to N° 4 in the world ranking and he is the N° 1 money winner on the PGA Tour.

Third, I believe, now, that I was wrong about his Mental fortitude.

As he hadn´t won or done much for two years (since his Masters win in 2012), I thought that this "lone ranger" who does not have a Swing or a Mental Coach, simply had been lucky to win a Major and probably would never win another.

Furthermore Watson´s anger management problems on the golf course are well documented. Whinning and blaming his caddie when things go wrong are not the stuff of mentally strong golfers.

So I investigated a Little on the Monday after the Masters and came across a couple of things that indicate that Bubba has changed and, if so, he well could be around the top of golf for a long time.

The first one comes from his team:

It so happened that two years ago Watson adopted a son and he had a very hard time coping with his post Masters 2012 celebrity and his obsessive desire to lead a simple family life.

According to Ted Scott, his long time caddie, Bubba, frequently, would become an angry and impatient person on the course who was too hard on himself and others around him. He tells that everything changed last year when Watson, who is a devoted Christian, spent some time with his longtime friend, Pastor Judah Smith, from Seattle. Smith asked Bubba to change, to appreciate and to rejoice.

The second is an interesting observation I read from a leading Mental Golf Coach, that I follow:

He said that Bubba´s secret, aside from intensive practice, is his use of positive Self Talk and a strong Mental Game on the golf course.

This is backed up by an interesting comment by Bubba in his post victory interviews:

"I kept talking to myself a lot out there", Bubba said, "I suppose it´s kind of weird but that´s what I did. Also I first see every shot in my mind".

I agree with my friend the Mental Coach.

It seems to me that Watson has been able, this year, to master two key techniques that come directly from the Method of Conscious Autosuggestion, that together with improving his well known anger management and frustration issues, could perhaps take him along way at the summit of world golf.

 In effect, we are talking about on course shot visualization and positive self talk. These techniques are very recommended in the quest of "staying" in the Present Moment, in the Unconscious Mind and "In the Zone" for superior shot making.

And how did my favorite candidates fare in the Masters?

In my opinión a top 20 result is very good at any Major, so therefore some of my picks did just fine.

Kuchar, whom led after the third hole on Sunday, was fifth. Westwood was seventh, McIlroy with a very good weekend was eighth.

And Justin Rose and Jason Day whom had been hurt coming into the tournament were fourteenth and twentieth.

Disappointing performances came fom Phil Mickelson and Sergio García. Both missed the cut by a shot. In both cases, in my opinión, they failed at something essential at Augusta. The greens are so fast and difficult that it is key to plan short shots and putts with the utmost posible conservative rigour.

Phil was three under for 33 holes, and his triples on hole 7 of the first round, and hole 12 on Friday were simply beginer like.

 Garcia was three over going into hole 35, but his three putt from three yards at 17, and a bad bogey at 18, left him just outside of the cut. The three putt was  especially bad, because everybody knows that a downhill putt at the back left of the 17 th is just lightning fast and it was essential to make par.

My other favorite that missed the cut was Zach Johnson, whom had a catastrophic first round, that, in the end, killed his chances of making the cut, by two strokes. It´s possible that Augusta National´s increased length of recent years, has become a problem for the relatuvely short hitting Johnson.

In summary, I must say that I quite enjoyed watching this year´s Masters, but having said this, I also missed the famous Sunday afternoon second nine charges that were inexistent this time.

The Patrons had little to roar  about last Sunday afternoon at mythical Augusta National.