Khamelion
Tour Winner
I've tried to cover the NGT session as best as I could remember from the notes I had made, I know I'll have missed some things and my ramblings below do not do justice to John presentation.
Okay, so where to start, with putting into words the session on ‘New Golf Thinking’ with John, well we can start with, thought provoking, enlightening, surprising.
Jezz kicked things off with a few words around how John had introduced himself to Golf Monthly, how John made them aware of the ‘New Golf Thinking’ book, how John had presented a passionate explanation of his ideas and how they had both [Mike & Jezz] had become intrigued with the ideas john had put forward.
John stepped up and introduced himself, he told us that from an early age he had played hockey to an international level and was in the England & Olympic squads with a potential to be selected. He told us how he had a high level position in Proctor and Gamble, in the top 20 of a 133k employee company. He told us that in his role with P&G he often used golfing related stories to make a point and it was this that pointed him in the direction of ‘New Golf Thinking’
So then the day began and we went around the table with each of us giving a very brief intro, name, current handicap and aim in golf, with most of us the aim was to get to single figures or just to enjoy the game. We then filled in the ‘Can-Do’ section of the ‘Self-Assessment’ form and the results were pretty similar across the similar handicaps, with all the mid to high handicappers being close in their scores and the low handicappers being close in their scores. At a guess I would say the high handicappers were marking themselves with 3s, 4s or 5s and the low handicappers marking themselves with 1s and 2s. The lower the score the better. Later on we completed the form and found out our thinking handicap, more on that in a bit.
We started off by talking about mindsets and how certain mindsets can influence you judgement, for example “I always bogey this holeâ€, straight away you are thinking that no matter what you do on on this hole you will hit a bogey, you mindset has preloaded you brain with negative thoughts. Simply your mindset is ‘What you do, what you do not do & and what you let happen.’ We talked about a self-fulfilling circle, where, you give yourself a mindset, that then becomes stuck in your head, you act upon that mindset and the results you get are based around your original thought.
This ‘Can-Do’ section is all about giving you the right thoughts throughout you game, to ensure you are thinking positively at all times, to ensure you are not using negative mindsets and to put you in ‘Mental Position ‘A’’
‘Mental Position ‘A’’ in a way is getting you to think you are better than those around you, not in an arrogant way but by flipping negative thoughts on their head. The example used was about playing a stableford comp and that your fellow competitor has more shots than you. Negatively you may think that you are giving him to many shots, but flip it over and it becomes, he’s got more shots than me he must need them.
The day for me was about creating positive thoughts, putting yourself into ‘Mental Position ‘A’’ at every opportunity. It will be hard to remember to do this at first but it will become easier and in time second nature.
I struggle on my comp days with slow play in front of me, it gets rattled and last Saturday after waiting an age I skulled my 56 wedge chest height towards the group that had left the green I was going for. Now I’ll take MPA and think they are slow because they need to be slow and not let it get to me, I’ll stay calm, un-rattled and be able to make the shot I want to make.
We all wrote down the following:-
“I will choose mental position ‘A’ in every situationâ€
We signed and dated it and by doing so all 8 of us made the conscious decision there to choose MPA in every situation.
Last thing on MPA, you’re standing on a Par 3 what is it you are going to do? ***
Upon completing the ‘Self-Assessment’ questionnaire we went through a couple of the sections that were common to all of us. From the ‘Result-Driven’ section, John asked us how many times have you completed a round and in the clubhouse been asked how did you get on?’ Only two answers are applicable 1) I got on great and that is the end of it or 2) I was rubbish out there, my driver wasn’t working, the grass was too long, the greens to fast. We’ve all done this at some point and there was lots of nodding around the table, where a rubbish round is accompanied by a sob story of how it wasn’t your fault. We’re all guilty of this in some way. This section seemed a back to front, as more often than not with a bad round you get someone to tell the story why, but on many occasion those people often have that story already in their head and are already battling themselves before they get to the first tee.
We got told either do or don’t there is no try, I mentioned Yoda said this in one of the Star Wars films, John said Yoda got it from him:
Luke: All right, I'll give it a try.
Yoda: No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try.
Try does not exist in my vocabulary anymore, I will no longer be trying to hit the middle of the fairway with my drives, I will be taking MPA and will be hitting the fairways with my drives. I’ve done it once, I will do it again and again. MPA, positive thoughts.
We did some work on leaving shots short and how leaving a 20 feet putt 5 feet short is really 9feet 11 inches short. The rationale being that if you give you putt enough to get past the hole, it may go in, but if it doesn’t you can watch it go past and you have the line back to the hole. Whereas if you leave it 5 feet short you are just as worse off as you were at 20feet.
On the same subject, John talked about ‘Anchors’ in how a number becomes anchored in your subconscious. The distance markers on the fairway at most clubs will give you a distance to the front of the green, so you pick a club that will get you that far. Most course designers’ will leave bunkers or other hazards at the front, so playing to the number you have in your head more often than not will lead you into trouble. So look to get the distance to the back of the green and select a club that will take you that far so that you are taking the hazards at the front of the green out of the shot straight away.
Last up from what I remember, there is other stuff, which the others will no doubt mention, anyhoo we were given a card to mark our shots on. Not the shot number but whether it was a Career, Improver, Maintainer or Worsener type of shot.
John asked us during our round to make each shot with a C, I, M or W the idea being to build up a memory of good shots with all the club in the bag, so that when you next encounter a similar shot you can recall that memory. By recalling the memory you are removing any negativity you may have as you are having to think about the good shot you played last time. You then do RAF (R)eherse (A)im and (F)low.
Ultimately the book has 7 different areas that will put you into a positive frame of mind for your round of golf, for me I have no doubt this will work, it may take a little time to get used to the ideas, but it will work. For others I have no doubt that they will think it’s just bunkum and will remain sceptical, each to their own. I fully enjoyed the day and will be putting the ‘New Golf Thinking’ into practice.
***
If you said/thought hit the green, that is not MPA
If you said/thought, I’m going to put it in the hole, then that is MPA
Okay, so where to start, with putting into words the session on ‘New Golf Thinking’ with John, well we can start with, thought provoking, enlightening, surprising.
Jezz kicked things off with a few words around how John had introduced himself to Golf Monthly, how John made them aware of the ‘New Golf Thinking’ book, how John had presented a passionate explanation of his ideas and how they had both [Mike & Jezz] had become intrigued with the ideas john had put forward.
John stepped up and introduced himself, he told us that from an early age he had played hockey to an international level and was in the England & Olympic squads with a potential to be selected. He told us how he had a high level position in Proctor and Gamble, in the top 20 of a 133k employee company. He told us that in his role with P&G he often used golfing related stories to make a point and it was this that pointed him in the direction of ‘New Golf Thinking’
So then the day began and we went around the table with each of us giving a very brief intro, name, current handicap and aim in golf, with most of us the aim was to get to single figures or just to enjoy the game. We then filled in the ‘Can-Do’ section of the ‘Self-Assessment’ form and the results were pretty similar across the similar handicaps, with all the mid to high handicappers being close in their scores and the low handicappers being close in their scores. At a guess I would say the high handicappers were marking themselves with 3s, 4s or 5s and the low handicappers marking themselves with 1s and 2s. The lower the score the better. Later on we completed the form and found out our thinking handicap, more on that in a bit.
We started off by talking about mindsets and how certain mindsets can influence you judgement, for example “I always bogey this holeâ€, straight away you are thinking that no matter what you do on on this hole you will hit a bogey, you mindset has preloaded you brain with negative thoughts. Simply your mindset is ‘What you do, what you do not do & and what you let happen.’ We talked about a self-fulfilling circle, where, you give yourself a mindset, that then becomes stuck in your head, you act upon that mindset and the results you get are based around your original thought.
This ‘Can-Do’ section is all about giving you the right thoughts throughout you game, to ensure you are thinking positively at all times, to ensure you are not using negative mindsets and to put you in ‘Mental Position ‘A’’
‘Mental Position ‘A’’ in a way is getting you to think you are better than those around you, not in an arrogant way but by flipping negative thoughts on their head. The example used was about playing a stableford comp and that your fellow competitor has more shots than you. Negatively you may think that you are giving him to many shots, but flip it over and it becomes, he’s got more shots than me he must need them.
The day for me was about creating positive thoughts, putting yourself into ‘Mental Position ‘A’’ at every opportunity. It will be hard to remember to do this at first but it will become easier and in time second nature.
I struggle on my comp days with slow play in front of me, it gets rattled and last Saturday after waiting an age I skulled my 56 wedge chest height towards the group that had left the green I was going for. Now I’ll take MPA and think they are slow because they need to be slow and not let it get to me, I’ll stay calm, un-rattled and be able to make the shot I want to make.
We all wrote down the following:-
“I will choose mental position ‘A’ in every situationâ€
We signed and dated it and by doing so all 8 of us made the conscious decision there to choose MPA in every situation.
Last thing on MPA, you’re standing on a Par 3 what is it you are going to do? ***
Upon completing the ‘Self-Assessment’ questionnaire we went through a couple of the sections that were common to all of us. From the ‘Result-Driven’ section, John asked us how many times have you completed a round and in the clubhouse been asked how did you get on?’ Only two answers are applicable 1) I got on great and that is the end of it or 2) I was rubbish out there, my driver wasn’t working, the grass was too long, the greens to fast. We’ve all done this at some point and there was lots of nodding around the table, where a rubbish round is accompanied by a sob story of how it wasn’t your fault. We’re all guilty of this in some way. This section seemed a back to front, as more often than not with a bad round you get someone to tell the story why, but on many occasion those people often have that story already in their head and are already battling themselves before they get to the first tee.
We got told either do or don’t there is no try, I mentioned Yoda said this in one of the Star Wars films, John said Yoda got it from him:
Luke: All right, I'll give it a try.
Yoda: No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try.
Try does not exist in my vocabulary anymore, I will no longer be trying to hit the middle of the fairway with my drives, I will be taking MPA and will be hitting the fairways with my drives. I’ve done it once, I will do it again and again. MPA, positive thoughts.
We did some work on leaving shots short and how leaving a 20 feet putt 5 feet short is really 9feet 11 inches short. The rationale being that if you give you putt enough to get past the hole, it may go in, but if it doesn’t you can watch it go past and you have the line back to the hole. Whereas if you leave it 5 feet short you are just as worse off as you were at 20feet.
On the same subject, John talked about ‘Anchors’ in how a number becomes anchored in your subconscious. The distance markers on the fairway at most clubs will give you a distance to the front of the green, so you pick a club that will get you that far. Most course designers’ will leave bunkers or other hazards at the front, so playing to the number you have in your head more often than not will lead you into trouble. So look to get the distance to the back of the green and select a club that will take you that far so that you are taking the hazards at the front of the green out of the shot straight away.
Last up from what I remember, there is other stuff, which the others will no doubt mention, anyhoo we were given a card to mark our shots on. Not the shot number but whether it was a Career, Improver, Maintainer or Worsener type of shot.
John asked us during our round to make each shot with a C, I, M or W the idea being to build up a memory of good shots with all the club in the bag, so that when you next encounter a similar shot you can recall that memory. By recalling the memory you are removing any negativity you may have as you are having to think about the good shot you played last time. You then do RAF (R)eherse (A)im and (F)low.
Ultimately the book has 7 different areas that will put you into a positive frame of mind for your round of golf, for me I have no doubt this will work, it may take a little time to get used to the ideas, but it will work. For others I have no doubt that they will think it’s just bunkum and will remain sceptical, each to their own. I fully enjoyed the day and will be putting the ‘New Golf Thinking’ into practice.
***
If you said/thought hit the green, that is not MPA
If you said/thought, I’m going to put it in the hole, then that is MPA
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