Struggling with too many thoughts?

[USER1999]

Too many thoughts in your head? Choking on the big day? Not performing to your best?

I read this article in the Times yesterday. For those who haven't read it, it makes interesting reading.

I think it is loosely based on a previous article I read in Scientific American.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/matthew_syed/article7107842.ece

 

[need_my_wedge]

Interesting read, I must be a better player than I give myself credit for, as I choke under pressure all the time when playing competition, but play a blinder when I'm on my tod .

 

[Redwood]

Good article.

Might give his book a read.

 

[bobmac]

I cant get it. I just get a 404 error

 

[StrangelyBrown]

Good read, thanks Murph!!

 

[DingleBerry]

reason u cant get it its all your bandwidth is being used and error 404 is a run time error [time out] stop the porn

 

[bigbiffa]

very good article, im afflicted with too many thoughts, just cant get out of the habit of thinking and swinging

 

[Leftie]

Good article.

Just before your opponent plays a crucial shot, ask him if he breathes in or out on his downswing. Usually works a treat

(Not that I would ever do such a thing....)

 

[HawkeyeMS]

It's a good article and it's the same principle that Bob Rotella uses when he talks about putting in the book "Putting out of your Mind". When faced with something important, no matter how often you have done it in practice or how skilled you may think you are, if you think too much about what you are doing you negate the body's natural ability to do what you are trying to do.

One of the things about golf that I personally makes it more difficult is that you aren't reacting to anything. The ball is stationary, you have to make it move where you want it to go. You have a lot of time to think. In many other sports, tennis for example, you are reacting to a moving object, you have very little time to think about the stroke and you naturally let your body hit the ball. I'm not suggesting being a good tennis player is easier than being a good golfer, just that one of the hardest things about golf is the amount of time you get to think about your swing, and that is a bad thing.

 

[HawkeyeMS]

Good article.

Just before your opponent plays a crucial shot, ask him if he breathes in or out on his downswing. Usually works a treat

(Not that I would ever do such a thing....)

A mate of mine, who plays golf very infrequently and always makes me give him 2 shots per hole, once asked me what I think about at the top of my backswing. I promptly shanked the next shot OB while thinking about what I think about at the top of my backswing

 

[RGDave]

Good article, good video.

"The reason is simple: James has “automated” his stroke-making. Many hours of practice have enabled him to encode the stroke in implicit rather than explicit memory. It wasn’t always like this: when he started out, he was just like Lauren, consciously monitoring the way he was hitting the ball as he painstakingly built up the neural framework supporting the shot. Only after many hours was he able to execute the shot without having to think about it.

James and Lauren are, in effect, using two entirely different systems of the brain. Russell Poldrack, a neuroscientist from Los Angeles, has conducted a number of brain-imaging experiments to trace the transition from explicit to implicit monitoring. He has discovered that the prefrontal cortex is activated when a novice is learning a skill, but that control of the stroke switches over time to areas such as the basal ganglia, which is partly responsible for touch and feel."

May I say Eureka!

 

[BrianDamage]

Excellent read that.

So that suggests we shouldn't even have one swing thought.

I suppose all thoughts should be directed towards the target.

 

[Losttheplot]

Very good read, thanks Murph.

The physcology of golf is a great topic to get into and it's a good article emphasising it's importance.

That reminds me... I said I'd get the bob rotella books back out.