(05/24/02)Entry No.1- "Golf and Mental Attitude"
When we discussed the mental attitude a player should strive to develop
when dealing with the game of golf, my Dad said: "Be positive and keep it simple!" During practice study your golf swing all
you want but out on the course concentrate only on two things... Where your golf ball is and where the Pin is. From that point
on, getting the ball into the hole should occur almost automatically... a matter of habit and reflexes engrained into ones
being from the hours spent at the practice range, preferably watched by a good teaching pro or someone who knows your swing
and can tell you what you're actually doing rather than what you think you're doing! Very helpful to me where the times when
Dad would gather us, myself and a few of my golfing freinds, to show movies of our swings in slow motion and have us study
and comment on what we saw. Today, there are computer programs and videos that can do this job much better than Dad's old
16mm Bell and Howell.
(06/07/02) Entry No.2- "Golf Swing Dynamics"
When executing the golf swing we should be like coil springs. Cold unthinking spirals of resilient steel ready
to be loaded then released to convert potential energy stored, into useful kinetic energy! Like a predator beast crouched
and patiently waiting to pounce on its prey and bring home the "bacon". The action in both cases proceeds along what could
be called... the path of least resistance...neither is hampered or hindered by a rational mind. The spring reacts in obvedience
to specific laws of physics while the beast reacts without a thought quite instinctively. So it should be when we execute
a golf shot. However, we do have a rational mind. This wonderful heavenly gift which is the cornerstone of our created
uniqueness, this seat of wisdom, though unschooled in the ways of golf will nevertheless, insist to participate
in the act.
More often than not, unfortunately, it does prevail in its effort and will rationalize a golf shot to death.
Very often, my grandson Ian throws me his little rubber ball ; I'm a lefty but somtimes even my right hand gets
into the ball game. Well, the first time Ian throws the ball and before I'm AWARE That the game is on, my hand shoots
out catching the ball quite instinctively perhaps a protective reflex action . To date my catch average with either hand
is very high (I guess I'm not as old as I THINK I am).On subsequent throws however, another variable
is thrown into the equation, so to speak, my AWARENESS which awakens an unwanted guest. A most demanding and
intolerably despotic egotistic intruder, my INTELLECT .
You guessed it! After this happens, the game is over.... my catch average swoops down to almost
zero ! With the many years I've played golf, I'm convinced that when we delve into and allow the intellect
to give us that magical step-by-step instruction to make that perfect shot, usually two things occur:
1.) The brain's delivery system is too slow . The messages which are usually wrong to begin with ( most often based
on erroneous or insufficient data) arrive too late to be of any good use.
2.) We open the flood gate to an onrushing of mental trivia and static which not only does not help the body
execute the golf swing but on the contrary, inhibits its natural capacity to act instinctively.
My Dad would say: "See it in your mind's eye and let your body do the rest ! If that does not work but you said
your night prayers right, your guardian angel will help you If that does not happen then Pray right next time !!"
