Combatting the mind

drawboy

drawboy

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I'm sure we all suffer this, you get over the ball and it starts, the little head voice that says " keep your head down,don't overawing,keep centered, do not hit it in the sand,do not shank it now" and a myriad of other thoughts. They all come flooding in to the thought process. Not all negative but all hinder a free swing. How do you combat it? I know there will be the inevitable "Just hit it" brigade but can you really just get over the ball and hit it without any thought for the outcome?
 
Have a routine where practice swings, target picking and all that is done behind the ball. When you step up to take your address and you're happy that you're lined up then just hit the thing. Don't give yourself time to think when you're over the ball.
 
As strangely says have everything done behind the ball then when you address it give yourself 5 seconds to hit or stand off again. My old pro gave me this advice and it works a treat, no time to be thinking of anything except the 5 seconds.
 
Never aim to miss anything or think "do not" do anything.

the most difficult distance in golf? = five inches,
"between the ears"
 
Went to see a Karl Morris talk and he uses a technique call the think zone standing behind the ball get a clear picture in your mind what u want to do, then you step across a line take you stance and hit the ball with no more thoughts. If someone asked you what you were thinking after you hit a cracking shot 9 out of 10 times you would not be able to tell them because all the best shots are thought free.
Just do it.
 
I was watching the golf yesterday and Padrich walked up the hill to a tee to find out that he had not hit any shots in practice on this hole.

He spent an age gathering information to work out how, where and with what to hit the ball, once he had all the information he lined up the shot and hit it, he trusted his swing and believed he had set it up correctly.

I guess a little word to yourself out loud helps alot for me "a nice smooth one Al" or "get to the finish"

You should hear me, fundy and our mate Neil on the course or range, we all talk to our selves alot and to one another's golf balls.

But I digress, believe you have made the right choices leading up to the shot and then your HAVE to believe you can make the shot, if you dont believe you can make it you failed on point one.
 
pre shot routine then NO negative thoughts and only ONE swing thought then swing, simples, or in theory so it should be.
 
Here's a rule of thumb - if you're having a conversation with yourself at address, you're in trouble. Step back, do all your thinking behind the ball looking at the target, see the shot, step up, and swing.

Yip, so simple to say, yet so difficult to do.
 
Agree with everything. I use to have a head full at address It got so bad I could hardly pull the club back. Now I just stand behind the ball. Have a few swings whilst looking at the target area and try and picture the ball flying in the prefect ark to it. with this in mind, I then walk up to the ball and swing. If I've done it right away it goes. If not so what its only 1 shot forget it and move on.
 
Never aim to miss anything or think "do not" do anything.
Click to expand...

Why not? Works quite nicely for some. I'm fairly sure a racing driver often thinks "don't break too early or don't go into that corner too hard" or a tennis player says to himself "don't go for the line off the return". I know for a fact that snooker players think this way....

Semantics of the brain.
 
The theory is that the brain doesn't handle the word "don't", so if you think "don't go into the bunker" your brain will do it's best to give the body subconscious instructions to get the ball in the bunker.

Another theory is that your brain responds best to the smallest possible target, so rather than just aiming down the middle, pick a tree trunk or similar in the distance to aim at.
Also on the green, don't just aim for the hole, pick which part of the hole you're aiming for the ball to enter the hole at.

Of course it could all be ballcocks.
 
Of course it could all be ballcocks.
Click to expand...

That's my take on it. I think "one" has to do what suits oneself. I've got by for years in pressure situations by using the word "don't" and much as "do".....never been a problem.
To my mind, don't go right is the same as go left, so perhaps I'm just programmed that way.

or a bit odd :o
 
Of course it could all be ballcocks.
Click to expand...

That's my take on it. I think "one" has to do what suits oneself. I've got by for years in pressure situations by using the word "don't" and much as "do".....never been a problem.
To my mind, don't go right is the same as go left, so perhaps I'm just programmed that way.

or a bit odd :o
Click to expand...

Somehow I dont think so fella. You are just misunderstanding his point.... He's talking about the way your subconscious works, whereas you are talking about your own conscious thoughts....

And also, as a slightly pedantic but completely relevant side point, how often is "don't go right" ACTUALLY the same as "go left" ??

Also to answer the OP, despite what some people have said in this thread so far, your not supposed to (or truely able) to think of nothing when you swing. You have to think of something!! The best players ever to play the game have all said that they think of completely varied and different things when they swing the club. It just has to be something that you can completely focus on and that works for you.
 
I think this is the main point Rotella makes in a lot of his books. Have one or two (max) swing thoughts and a pre-shot routine you trust and never deviate from. He talks about focus before the shot and once you are over the ball trusting what you have. He's big on not using the word don't as the sub-conscious will instinctively try and do the opposite
 
Practice swings, target picking and all that is done behind the ball if you have a routine. When you step up to take your address and you're happy that you're lined up then just hit the thing. Don't give yourself time to think when you're over the ball.

 
Also to answer the OP, despite what some people have said in this thread so far, your not supposed to (or truely able) to think of nothing when you swing. You have to think of something!! The best players ever to play the game have all said that they think of completely varied and different things when they swing the club. It just has to be something that you can completely focus on and that works for you.
Click to expand...

After my trials and tribulations on a pool table, and finding one thing after another that work for a few hours/days/weeks then it's back to the same old cack, I really believe that whatever you're thinking about when you cue up/swing/whatever is just to stop yourself consciously trying to control the mechanics.

In a way it's like creating a diversion for your brain so it leaves the swing alone.
"Here you go brain, you think about this. I'm telling you it's important but really I just want to stop you effing up the rest of the stuff that really matters".

Playing pool, all I think about is where on the white I want to hit, and all I look at is where on the object ball I want to hit. I've already shown Mr. Brain where I want the white to finish and let it worry about how hard to hit it.

The last couple of weeks playing golf I've got rid of all swing thoughts and just focus on the ball, and have been hitting it miles better than before.
 
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