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.

Rory McIlroy´s great Mental lesson

Rory McIlroy´s 2013 season was almost one to forget.

After his great 2011 when he won the US Open and his glorious 2012 with a PGA Championship, money titles on both Major Tours and achieving the World N°1 position, McIlroy could only recover form towards the end of 2013 by winning in Australia and managing a couple of other top tens.

It was obvious to the golfing world that Rory McIlroy, now 24, desperately wanted to have a great start to his 2014 season.

He almost won in Dubai last month and he had the win in his grasp at the Honda Classic three weeks ago at Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. He led comfortably the whole tournamant only to "fold" over the last 12 holes with three bogeys and a double.

And even then he almost pulled it off thanks to a wonderfull second shot into the par 5, 72´nd hole. Had he holed his 10 foot Eagle putt he would have avoided the four man playoff won by Russel Henley.

And what happened to McIlroy over those fatefull last 12 holes when he was leading comfortably?

Something very common in pressure packed golf.

He was probably just trying too hard.

In psychological terms he fell prey to the Law of Reversed Effect, or Reversed Effort, explained clearly by the Method of Conscious Autosuggestion.

The Law of Reversed Effort first stated by the French Pharmacist, Emile Coué, simply states the following:

The more conscious effort we put into trying to achieve something, the lower the probability that it will happen.

A simple example of Reversed Effort is when we forget someones name. The harder we try to remember, the less it comes to us. Another example is when we get a laughing fit. The harder we try to stop laughing, the more we laugh.

As I have explained before, in other articles, the golfer wants to win so badly that his Unconscious Mind interprets this excess conscious effort as a signal that the objective (to win the tournament) is something very difficult and hard to achieve.

And what then happens is what psychologists and psychiatrists call a "mental-motor breakdown" that does not allow the golfer to keep up the necessary mind-body synchronization that he had been displaying upto then. In fact the player starts to play almost like a beginer.

In my opinión, the dreaded Reversed Effect or Reversed Effort explains at least 80 % of the "collapses" we observe in the golfing world at all levels.

It´s what happened, at least twice, to Greg Norman and his obsession with winning the Masters, and most probably explains why Tiger Woods has played so badly on the weekends of Majors in the last couple of years.

These "disasters" are obviously difficult to accept and to forget, but it is key that a golfer do just that so that the disappointment wont hurt his future performance.

And none better at this than Rory McIlroy. He seems to be a true expert at damage control.

He proved it to the world when he shrugged off his second nine collapse in the final round of the 2011 Masters (to win the US Open just two months later) and he did it again in Palm Beach Gardens after his Honda Classic final round disappointment.

Here´s how he went about it:

First, in his post playoff interview he told reporters he hadn´t played well in his final holes and didn´t deserve to win.

Well spoken because he was accepting that losing is something normal when we dont play well.

Second. On speaking about his double bogey on the 16th hole (he hit the wáter after a poor second shot from the bunker) he told reporters he had made a mistake in club selection.

Good, as it´s always better to blame the error on planning rather than on a mental error.

Third. He said that over and above his natural disappointment over not winning, he was extremely happy with the way he had played in this tournament and that he was taking many positives away from Palm Beach. He also mentioned that after a good night´s sleep his loss would be forgotten.

Well done McIlroy, always looking for ways to keep the positives and get rid of the negatives.

But the best was yet to come. Later that evening he posted the following Tweet on his Twiter account:



McIlroy´s inocent little dog

"This little guy didn't care what happened today! He was just happy he got some of my dinner! Onwards and upwards! "

What was McIlroy letting the golfing world know with his, again, positive communication ?

First, in my opinión, McIlroy was telling us all (and telling his own Unconscious Mind) that what happened to him on the golf course was not really that important at all ("This Little guy didn´t care what happened today").

And, secondly, is that disasters in golf are inevitable and happen to everybody, and that the relevant thing is to accept, learn, forget and to move forward with top enthiusasm ("Onwards and upwards").

Good on Rory McIlroy.

I put my money on that he will win soon and that he will contend at this years Majors just like he did after his 2011 "disaster" at the Masters.

Harvey Penick: Suggestions and the Mind

"The golfing area of the brain is a fragile thing that is terribly suceptible to suggestion".

                                                                                                                      Harvey Penick

Tom Kite, Harvey Penick y Ben Crenshaw

Harvey Penick died 18 years ago but he is an unforgettable figure in the history of world golf.

It is highly recomendable to read about his life because he is the best swing instructor that ever lived.

Penick was a Texan that was passionate about teaching the golf swing and his ideas only became known in a massive way when he decided to publish, at the very end of his life, his thousands of handwritten notes that had been stored in a cardboard box, at his home, over a lifetime.

His first book, a masterpiece, was called HARVEY PENICK´S LITTLE RED BOOK and was only published some three years before his death.

Penick taught thousands of amateur and profesional golfers. His better known pupils are Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite, PGA Tour stars. And Mickey Wright, Kathy Whitworth and Betsy Rawls, LPGA legends.

Mr Penick, as he was known, was the University of Texas men´s golf coach for 32 years and led his team to dozens of wins in USA intercollegiate competitions.

But, what I have discovered is that Harvey Penick also knew a ton about the mind and Mental Golf.

When his youngsters from the University of Texas had to face pressure packed situations, his advice was to "Just take dead aim". He knew what he was talking about, because, as the best modern Mental Coaches in the world know and subscribe to, this simple advice avoids negative thought entering the mind at crucial moments.

A few days ago I was skimming through the Little Red Book and I came across Penick´s frase that I placed at the begining of this article. I would like to reapeat it because I think it is of great wisdom:

"The golfing area of the brain is a fragile thing that is terribly suceptible to suggestion".

Enourmous for me because it fits in so well with my personal discovery two years ago of the method of Conscious Autosuggestion and that led me to write my first book, earlier this year, called: Mental Golf: The Power of Conscious Autosuggestion.

Penick didn´t like when his friend Jimmy Demaret named a shot for pressure situations as his "choke stroke". Demaret wanted to be able to hit a shot straight under pressure, however difficult the situation. It was a three quarter swing designed not to fail, hence the "choke swing".

Harvey Penick didn´t want to hear anything involving "choking" because he knew that the mind, being terribly suceptible to suggestion, could, in fact, lead the golfer to do just that.

This thinking by the great Mr. Penick is fully corrobarated by frenchman Emile Coué, the father of psychotherapy, and the creator of the Method of Conscious Autosuggestion developed at the beginning of the twentieth century.

What we say, think or write about our golf is tremendously relevant and consistent with the results we produce on the course.

Coué teaches us that there exist two types of autosuggestions: unconscious autosuggestions and conscious autosuggestions.

Unconscious autosuggestions can produce the best or the worst effects depending on the circumstances.

The eternal optimist,  by nature generates unconscious autosuggestions that are positive and confident, and tends to be a happy and successful person.

But, on the other hand, the enternal pesimist tends to generate unconscious autosuggestions that are negative, and almost always is a person that does badly in life and is a failure.

However (and this is the key proposal behind the Method of Conscious Autosuggestion), CONSCIOUS autosuggestions can be crafted carefully to ensure that these conscious messages are positive, confident and optimistic  in nature and, then, derived appropiately to the Unconscious Mind.

In this way Conscious Autosuggestion can become an incredibly powerful tool for life and, yes, also for golf.

This makes a lot of sense because golf is a hugely complex game. Every shot counts, played on a terrain full of difficult obstacles, and, furthermore, the hole, where we must put the ball into, is extremely small.

Not surprisingly, then, there is huge pressure in competitive golf and the game requieres a very sound and strong mind. This is why Chapter 2 of my book is called: "Golf will hit us when we are down".

It is common, then, that a golfer´s autosuggestions (unconscious or conscious) tend to be mostly negative. And, as our Unconscious Mind cannot make judgements and accepts what it recieves as true, it ends up carrying out a "programing" that is negative, not confident and pesimistic in nature, that explains why many great golfers cannot score well, especially under pressure situations.

This is why Harvey Penick makes so much sense to me when he rejected Jimmy Demaret´s "choke stroke"or when he advised his players to "try and go to dinner with golfers who are great putters".

Yes, because as the mind is terribly suceptible to suggestion, a good putter is always more confident and positive than a poor one, and Mr. Penick didnt want his players anywhere near somebody who talked about a "choke shot".

The conclusion to all of this is obvious:

Any golfer, of any handicap. must always feed his Unconscious only with positive, confident and optimistic autosugestions. Anything negative, pesimistic or lacking in confidence must be eliminated totally from thoughts and conversations, on and off the course.

Henrik Stenson did what nobody has done: FEDEX CUP and RACE TO DUBAI

Nobody had ever won the FedEx Cup (PGA Tour) and the Race to Dubai competition (European Tour) in the same year.

 

But Henrik Stenson has done just that by winning, in brilliant form, last week-end, the DP World Tour Championship, the final stage of the Race to Dubai.

Last September, the Swede, had won the PGA Tour, Tour Championship, to win the FedEx Cup and its U$ 10 million bonus.

Stenson is now ranked N° 3 in the world behind Tiger Woods and Adam Scott.

Since he turned pro in 2001, Henrik Stenson has had one of the most irregular careers ever known, including a major second slump in 2010 that took him from N° 4 in the world all the way down to N° 220, before recapturing his form towards the end of 2011 when he won the South African Open.

Last Monday Stenson´s long time Mental Coach, Torsten Hansson, gave an interview that is fascinating from the mind side of the game.

He revealed how they used a metaphor of "climbing the highest golfing mountain in the world" to achieve their objective of winning the Dubai final.

And it worked for them as Henrik played almost flawless golf to win the DP World Golf Championship over Ian Poulter, and a star studded European field, by six strokes.

Hansson tells the story as follows:

"I used a metaphor these last four days when we were working hard to try and get these titles, that we were attempting to climb the highest mountain in the world.  We had been struggling in the bushes and then the woods but then suddenly we could see above the tree tops and we could actually start climbing".

"In these last four days we were in the last stages of our climb and I told Henrik, 'It's going to be hard because you're totally worn out and it's freezing up there but you must be really aware of where you're putting your hands and feet'.

"When you're at that level of climbing you have to be 100 percent certain where you put your hands and feet so I was just trying to tell him, 'Don't move anything unless you are sure you have a good grip'.

"We take it one shot at a time and we don't do anything unless he's absolutely positive about the shot he's about to play."

Torsten Hansson

In my opinión, a brilliant metaphor or analogy.

 

Because it adresses one of my key pilars of Mental Golf.

 

In effect, in my Seminars, Workshops and in my book, MENTAL GOLF: THE POWER OF CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION, I teach that one of the three essential pilars of great golf under pressure is RIGOROUS AND CONSERVATIVE PLANNING of every shot and putt.

 

The other two pilars are SYNCHRONIZING BODY AND MIND in order to hit great golf shots and putts and keeping a POSITIVE, OPTIMISTIC AND CONFIDENT "GOLFING RECORDER" (Unconscious Mind) at all times.

 

Good on Henrik Stenson. He was patient during the dark times and he now wants to climb other mountains in 2014 (MAJOR golf tournaments).

 

Without a doubt his chances are good and he has a great Mind Coach by his side.

 

 

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.









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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.