First
Aid
The Competitive Edge Part I
Mind
control...is it an emerging instructional tool for the
millennium?
by
Dr. Gary Wiren,
PGA Master Instructor
In sports, athletes are continually looking for
something that will give them a competitive advantage over their
opponents. They will try new weight training techniques, special
diets, transcendental meditation, flexibility exercises, gurus,
hypnotists and, unfortunately, even drugs. Anything that will give
them an "edge."
In golf, we see that desire expressed primarily in
the player's search for equipment. The golfer is continually seeking
the ball that goes farther and the club that hits straighter. Reading
golf equipment manufacturer's ads over the past half century will
convince you of this human trait. The USGA, however, is controlling
the possibility of "super" equipment&endash;and rightly so. No player
should be allowed to buy an advantage.
Golf books on the latest tour star's swing continue
to sell thousands of copies, as those of higher handicap keep
searching for the secret. I doubt, however, that within the next few
years there will be any major breakthrough in playing technique, only
steady progress.
Yet there is a definite area of golf where players
will be able to make considerable improvement. A new instructional
emphasis is coming in the near future. It will be the acquisition of
the, until now, largely undeveloped skill of "controlling your mind."
That's where you'll find a competitive edge.
In the book, The New Golf Mind, Dr. Richard Coon
and I emphasized the fact that "the body won't lie for the brain." In
truth, the ball controls the game. The club controls the ball. Your
body controls the club. And your mind controls your body. Control of
your mind has been the "missing link" in the answer to improved golf
performance. The problem is, how does one learn it?
Long before this game was played in knickers,
golfers have known about the impact of psychological factors on their
performance. Those predictable mental hazards of fear, indecision,
self-doubt and negative thinking have caused more bad shots and
ruined scores than a bag full of out-of-round balls or mismatched
clubs.
Despite that, there still is little concrete
material available on how to practice overcoming these psychological
shortcomings. Swing technique problems are treated on a monthly basis
in every issue of the major golf magazines. You've been told dozens
of ways of how to quit slicing, chip like Ray Floyd, get length on
your tee shots, explode from bunkers and read greens in several
languages. But where do you learn how to practice using your brain?
Isn't choking on a putt, forgetting to test the wind or losing your
concentration as harmful as a bent left arm or a reverse weight
shift?
One approach to improving your golf mind is a
mental exercise that I call "the competitive edge." It's a place to
start.
This exercise was first employed with the men's
golf team at the University of North Carolina. Coach Devon Brouse
called and asked me to spend a weekend with his squad. He described
the group as one that could have the talent to be a winner but one
that might also possess the self-concept to end up a loser. Could I
work on their self-perceptions and self-management so they could more
closely play to their potential?
Once the picture was clear, I decided that what
this team needed was a "magic feather," one like Dumbo the elephant
was given to help him fly. Of course, the feather's magic was that it
allowed Dumbo to believe in himself; to do that of which he was
capable. The feather itself was insignificant, but the power of
believing was immense. We weren't trying to get the Carolina team to
fly. Rather than a feather, we were offering them a sound,
prescriptive system to change the self-concepts of this group of
talented, but "no name" players.
In one of the first sessions conducted that
weekend, I had each player describe his all-time best competitive and
non-competitive round. There were some impressive numbers &endash;
64s, 65s, and 66s in competition. It was obvious that on those
particular days, these teenage and early 20-year-old golfers were as
good as anyone in the world.
You surely have had a similar experience. Maybe not
for a whole round but on certain shots. Haven't you played some shots
as well as any player in the world? Well then, why not more often?
Because your brain won't let you. It hasn't been programmed
properly.
After we made it clear to the Carolina players how
much potential they had, we spent a considerable amount of time
discussing the objective of competitive - not social - golf. The
objective is to win. You do that by shooting the lowest
number.
Without fail, we explained, they will be asked one
question every time they finish a competitive round: "What did you
shoot?" No one cares how many three putts you had, or the bad lies;
number of penalty strokes; the fact you left your favorite driver at
home; that your back was bothering you or you can't play well in
heavy wind. You may want to offer these excuses for why you played
badly, but no one really cares but you.
So before they teed off, they understood that they
would not be asked how many drives they pumped out over 250 yards,
whether they hit an eight-iron on a 160-yard par three, or if they
carried the water on 13...or the number of greens they hit in
regulation or the saves from out of the woods. Only: "What did you
shoot?" A lot of golfers have never learned this lesson.
Once the Carolina collegiates understood the all
importance of score, they were primed for that something that would
give them a competitive advantage over their opponents. Something
that, to my knowledge, no one else in the country at the time was
using - competitive edge drills.
In September, Part II will illustrate six specific
mental exercise drills that you can learn that can change your
self-concept and enhance your competitive edge over your golf
opponents.
Gary Wiren is a PGA Master Instructor and a Ph.D.
He operates "Golf Around the World" in Lake Park, Florida. The
company conducts golf seminars, schools and personal visits, and
sells golf teaching aids, books and videotapes. Call 561-625-1928 or
800-824-4279 for information.
Garyw@floridagolfing.com
