The Golfers Mind
"The inner game has always been the last frontier in golf. Why? Because the source of all excellence is within, and because that's usually the last place we look for it."
Timothy Gallwey
The Inner Game of Golf
Aim & Alignment Series
The Golfers Mind
Aim In Mind
AIMING THE MIND
The human mind is a precision seeking system. It thrives best when locked on to specific goals with precise outcomes. I have always believed that the behaviour of Golfers on the course is a good reflection of the way they run and behave in their lives and while there are always exceptions, it is my opinion that this is true for the majority of Golfers, most of the time.
For example, the majority of people fail to set any meaningful goals on a regular basis. Successful people, you will find, are very goal oriented. They set specific goals with precise outcomes and take step by step action until they achieve the goal. They leave nothing to chance and they cannot abide the "more or less" attitude and this is why they get far more precise outcomes which translate into a success rate that is far higher than the "average".
Top golfers don't think about just hitting the ball down the fairway. They imagine the ball flight that they want, both height and shape, the precise point in the fairway where the ball will land, how it will bounce and then roll out to another precise point in the fairway. They have a specific goal and are precise in the detail and outcome. They do this for every shot whether it is a Drive, Iron, chip or a 2ft putt.
Do they get these precise results every time? No, but their accuracy rate is much higher, their "misses" are better, the shots that are close to what they set out to achieve are "very Good" and they get a lot more "truly great" experiences. Shots that happened exactly the way they mentally planned them.
Imagine two golfers. One just wants to hit his ball in the fairway. He T's off and the ball hangs onto the right edge of the fairway. He is happy with the outcome.
The other golfer imagines an exact ball flight, how it lands and bounces, then rolls and picks the exact point in the fairway where he wants his ball to finish in order to have the best angle into the green. This golfer is now holding a wonderful hand because: He will accept any shot which hits the fairway and be happy. He will be very pleased with a shot that comes close to what he/she planned. He/she will have an extraordinary moment of joy when his shot is reproduced exactly as planned.
The first golfer cannot have moments of elation when shots are either close to or exactly what they planned because the Aim/Goal/Outcomes where not set.
In addition, when the human mind is not challenged and asked simply to put the ball somewhere in the fairway, or somewhere on the green, it is not activated into high focus mode. It will deliver average results to average "programming". Ask your mind to "just get it in the fairway" and the programming to the mind is that all you want is the ball somewhere in that big target area. If it misses the fairway by ten yards, that's not such a big miss but you are still in the rough. Ask your mind to put the ball in a specific spot in the fairway, activates higher focus and if you miss that by 10 yards, you are still in the fairway.
So why does the human system function so much better with exact targeting? Why does the human mind and body thrive on precision and hate imprecision?
The answer lies in the way that we are programmed to operate from the earliest times, before you could simply go to the supermarket and buy food. Imagine if you will, your ancestors the cavemen, when out hunting with a spear and coming across a deer. What would happen if they just threw the spear "more or less" (somewhere in the fairway) in the direction of their dinner? With such imprecise targeting few spears would hit the deer let alone bring it down and the clan would go hungry. Our earliest ancestors from which we are not long programmed did not merely try to throw the spear somewhere at the deer. Instead they would be focusing in, zeroing down, bringing all of the vision to the precise spot on the deer, which would result in a kill. Thus programming into their mind, not only the goal but also the precise steps that need to happen with exact precision in order to achieve the precise outcome.
The simple fact is that the more precise you target the more often, you will get
a precise outcome and the imprecise outcomes will be far better. The bottom line
is, in cavemen terms, you get to eat more. The best hunters in the cave are the best
providers and because of their prowess, when hunting with the spear, they are also
likely to be far more efficient at protecting the cave from threats and be highly
regarded by the cave-
The best providers get the best mates. So in simple evolutionary terms, we have to be precise in order to eat more on a regular basis, be good providers and get the best mates to continue our line. If you are not the evolutionary sort and you believe in a higher power then you need no convincing as to the beauty of the human system, and how it thrives on precision.
When you start to bring this precision ability to the golf course, you will quickly receive evidence of its effectiveness and the more you use it, the more proficient you will become at using it, the more fantastic the results you will have.
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Author Mark Wright -
Copyright Mark Wright 2009
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