With all the talk about mental mistakes at the LPGA and PGA Tour events on Friday, I thought it might be worthwhile to look at what Raymond Floyd had to say about the mental game. In his book The Elements of Scoring he has an entire chapter called Let Your Mind Feel the Target that deals with this topic.
Obviously I cannot quote an entire chapter! But there are a couple of things he says that I assume you could use at once in your personal golf games.
To begin with, he says that we may have the wrong idea about what it means to "play with feel." While it does involve what you feel with your hands to some degree, Floyd says he thinks you use your eyes to play with feel. Things like recognizing shot shapes, improvising swings in tough situations, and such are based on things you see, not things you can touch. He believes this is why so many pros have begun using mental coaches —you need to get out of your own way and give your mind more freedom, more trust to make the right decisions.
Then he says this approximately what we normally name "goal golfing":
As a scorer, your goal at the course ought to be to just play golfing. Even even though golf is a sluggish recreation that lets in plenty of time to assume, from the instant you begin your pre-shot habitual, you want a clear mind that is thinking handiest of the simple challenge to hand, which is to hit the ball to the target. In this kingdom, the body is relaxed, and the focus is exactly on wherein ? Not how ? You need to hit the ball. Imagine a totally hungry caveman throwing a spear at his prey. I critically doubt he had any mind about his launch point or how high to hold his proper elbow. I'll wager he changed into thinking
LET YOUR MIND FEEL THE TARGET
approximately precisely in which he needed to throw that spear. If he wasn't "out of his very own manner," he didn't consume.
I'm not saying golf should be played with a blank mind. Far from it. But rather than having many scattered thoughts, you should have one very focused one. A scorer has control of what he chooses to think of on the golf course. He knows that to a large extent, he is only as good as his thoughts. [p141-142] Note what he says: "I'm not saying golf should be played with a blank mind. Far from it." Clearing your mind isn't about playing thoughtless golf. But instead of filling your mind with lots and lots of words about how you should do this and how you should do that, you want to fill your mind with a clear picture of what you're trying to do.
And I'm not even sure he's talking about visualization here. I haven't thrown any spears that I can remember, but I have thrown baseballs and discs and hit a few tennis shots and made a few free throws on a basketball court. I can't say that I actually visualize those actions. Rather, I identify my target and anything that might be in the way that I have to avoid, and then I just think about hitting my target. There must be some visualizing in there — I'm seeing things I have to avoid, after all — but it's not a conscious act. I just notice them.
I suspect it is a part of why so many of us have hassle with target golfing. We attempt to see lines curving via the sky and other things like that. But that can have the same impact as too many phrases. Perhaps we simply want to "see and do." That definitely appears like what Floyd is suggesting.
Here's an concept: Next time you want to play a shot ? Say, a low shot ? Simply strive swinging the club at an imaginary ball and believe the ball coming off the face low whilst you swing. I guess your hands and palms will alter to create the shot. If then you definitely attempt to duplicate that shot with out an undue quantity of notion, you might pull it off. Maybe now not the first time, due to the fact learning to play by feel comes from practice. But you might be greater a success than you count on.
No lines curving through space, no elaborate body positioning. Just pretend you're Bubba. Playing that game on the range might teach you some new things about shotmaking.
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