Mindful Golf
Using the age-old knowledge of mindfulness to harness your brain’s potential
You know your effortless swing, the one that comes out on the range, or when having a relaxed game on a Friday afternoon. This is your natural swing, you've played a thousand times before, automatic and unconscious. At these times, your body is in flow.
And then you also know your effort-full swing, the one that may emerge in uncertain circumstances, like in a comp under pressure, or when you're playing better than your handicap.
The only difference between these two shots is the amount of interference:
The causes of interference can be:
Emotion: feeling nervous, angry, frustrated
Cognition: ruminating about what happened in the past, or worrying about what might go wrong in the future, leads to being indecisive, making errors
External: thinking about what others are thinking
Internal: too much focus on the mechanics of the swing
The relationship between thoughts - emotions - actions creates a negative spiral
Novel Prize Winner Daniel Kahneman's famous book demonstrates that essentially we have two processing systems - Type 1 (fast) and type 2 (slow). They are outlined below:
Both are active when we are awake - and we need both to survive. Fast thinking is automatic, it runs in the background, generating suggestions for slow thinking to process: impressions, intuitions, intentions, feelings. Slow thinking is like the "pilot" in our mind, and consciously assesses the situation, taking fast thinking’s input, processing it consciously, and making decisions.
How do you think you use type 1 and type 2 in golf?
The key is, you can't use both at the same time. So learning when to switch on each is critical to managing the capability of your mind…
The trouble happens when type 2 (slow) tries to interfere in the execution of the shot - resulting in tension, nerves, and "micromanaging" muscle movement.
In his book "Mindfulness Golf: Into the Zone", author Philip Chesters talks about unlocking the power of mindfulness to improve your golfing performance. Drawing on scientific research and Zen Philosophy, he outlines the theory and practices you can use in dealing with this challenging game.
Mindfulness is a set of simple and effective tools that can be used in many different ways to reduce interference and focus your mind.
Some examples include:
Focussed breathing: take a deep breath before stepping forward to take your shot, or whilst walking up to the green, taking in the whole picture
Square breathing: breath in for three seconds, hold for three, breath out for three, hold for three - and repeat (you can adjust the seconds to be more or less)
Body awareness: balance, tempo, tension (see article)
Sensory awareness:
Listen for three sounds
Feel your feet on the floor (see article)
Notice a bird in the tree or the shapes of the clouds
Taste a sweet drink or lolly in your mouth
Set a mantra to remind yourself to come back into the present moment
Be here now
This shot now
Let's do this
Leaves on a stream exercise (see video)
All of these activities serve the purpose of calming your thought pattern and allowing your type 1 (fast) brain to focus on performing the task at hand, and minimising the interference of the slow (type 2) brain. And the cliché is correct - once you've practised the mental skill of quietening type 2, and allowing type 1 to take over, this becomes your modus operandi, and over time, will withstand different and increased pressure situations.
