Ok, so I haven't written in a while. Mostly because I want to provide positive blogging, or blogging I/You/We can learn from... But the last several weeks worth of Golf have been DISMAL. Worse than that: I couldn't figure out what happened. Well, ok, I know what happened: Zero focus, little concentration and a very sloppy swing -- but I couldn't figure why it happened.
Today was slightly different.
Keeping in mind that I'm your typical amateur golfer: Breaking 100 is a big deal.
I won't bore you with a shot by shot summary, but I managed 5 pars on the front nine. It was amazing because I felt I nailed every one of my swings/putts. The holes I didn't score well on were due to mis-judging the target areas rather than bad swings. In other words I felt "In the Zone", "In State", I was stoked! It was brilliant.
Then I "fist pumped." and not in a good way. Quick explanation: On any "funny videos of people hurting themselves" show, if you see anyone doing really well on water-skis and they fist pump for the camera, inevitably they are going to wipe out big time.
The back nine was horrific. Again, won't bore you with a shot by shot description but I managed to break 100 (94 as a matter of fact...) I felt like I was flailing around the course, not swinging.
What happened?
On reflection I think it comes down to this: On the front nine, I was completely focused on my game. I went through my pre-shot routine, got a good vision of my target, practiced my swing feel and executed. That's it. On the back nine, having fist-pumped and declared victory on my game, I started paying attention to my playing partners and their woes. I started "Trying" to get my concentration back... It was sad.
Next time out I'm going to try concentrating on my game for all 18 to see what happens.
We'll see.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Friday, May 1, 2009
State and Zone.
No, this is not going to be a primer on Post Office addressing protocols I promise.
I want you to google "NLP Change State."
Then I want you to google "The Zone Psychology."
Neuro-Linguistic programming and Sports Psychology have a lot in common. It's about how to get in state, finding the zone and excelling.
I played by myself again this morning (playing by myself is unusual...) and decided I was going to focus on finding the right state for getting in the zone.
Guess what? When you are thinking about how your are going to write about what you are thinking about, and you are supposed to be thinking about being in a focused state, you can very easily confuse yourself. (Read that sentence a couple more times: if it didn't confuse you, you have a real future in natural language parsing.)
So the first three holes were doubles. Decent shots followed by total loss of concentration. Not good.
NLP talks about anchors for your state, and clearly I didn't have anything anchored.
An anchor is a way of "attaching" a reminder of a specific memory to a marginally related physical "Clue."
The best example: In the first NLP seminar I attended, the instructor put on some really loud, really fast, upbeat music. He had us jumping around and hooting and hollering. Really high energy stuff. On his signal we were instructed to do "our move." "Our move" could be as simple or as complex as we wanted it to be, so long as it had a sound and a motion tied together. So mine was a "Pooyah!" followed by fist pump. He repeated this a bunch of times, first getting us to quiet down, get our heart rates back down, then he'd start all over again, and holler at us to do "our move."
Ok, Truth in advertising: I thought it was bunch of malarky. It had a circus trick feel to it. But you know what, through the rest of the seminar whenever energy was starting to ebb, he'd have us "do our move." Be darned if didn't get every one pumped and ready to go again. To this day, if I HAVE to get into a heightened state, I "do my move" and it gets me going!
I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about being "In The Zone." (for now) If you've experienced it, you know what I'm talking about. It's when you feel that you are in the perfect place for whatever you are doing, everything just naturally goes your way, you don't have to work at whatever you're doing. In fact, in some extreme cases, you may not even be aware of what you're doing!
Wouldn't it be grand if you could find a state of mind that would magically put you in the zone, then anchor it?
So, here's the thing, a loud "Pooyah!"-fist pump on the Golf course is generally frowned upon. (And if you're right behind the senior members, could cause undesired cardiac episodes!)
Hole four onwards, I switched gears. Instead of forcing myself into some heightened state, and arbitrarily trying to force an anchor on the situation, I kinda let go and let be. Just trying to find my rhythm and flow. Interesting thing happened. I ended up with a 46 on the front nine (remember, I started with three doubles!) and a 43 on the back nine. Not bad for me.
Next time out, I'm going to start from there (finding my rhythm and flow), and then I'll try to anchor it. Subtly. :)
Stay tuned...
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