THE QATSPY® The Quintessential Athletic Training Sports PsychologY
By: Charles W. Boatright
ESP- GET INTO THE MENTAL ZONE FOR GOLF! Develop the Golfer’s Subconscious Mind of Being IN THE ZONE, Using The Baseball Swing Vs. Golf Swing
Most athletes who perform flawless under pressure contribute their performance to being IN THE ZONE, their sixth sense, or being completely focused on a procedure with a subconscious mind visualizing its performance. The athlete’s sixth sense is their EXTRASENSORY PERFORMANCE, or the athlete’s ESP. This provides the athlete with an instinctive ExtraSensory Performance that is so instinctive that the golfer is their own coach. On the golf course, the golfer has to be their own coach in calling the shots!
The golfer is required to perform on the golf course as their own coach, so the golfer has to train as their own coach. What kicks in the golfer’s coaching aspect is the golfer’s adrenaline. The Adrenaline is like a green light to engage the golfer’s subconscious mind. The key to training is to train with adrenaline. The Home Depot Orange Bucket Challenge YouTube Video is a great technique to use to accomplish this:
This Video was made before I lost 52- lbs.
Golfer’s ESP- ExtraSensory Performance
ExtraSensory Performance allows the athlete, or in this case the golfer, to directly engage their subconscious mind, the source of their instinctive muscle memory performance of being IN THE ZONE. The subconscious mind is where the golfer’s instinctive muscle memory WAS developed and is stored. The golfer’s ability to access the subconscious golf mind is how the golfer develops their sixth sense of golf, their ESP.
If you’ve heard professional athletes give a post-game interview, they describe their performance as being in a dream-like performance where they, or their conscious mind, are just a spectator standing to one side. What the athlete is able to do with ESP is to get out of the way of their performance and just be on autopilot, as this allows the subconscious mind to performance instinctively.
This is According to RULE No. 9 of the Subconscious Mind
Subconscious Rule No. 9 states- The greater the conscious effort reduces the subconscious intuitive response.
The Subconscious mind is responsible for 90 percent of the athlete’s performance.
Both Bobby Jones, Sr. and Yogi Berra knew that the athlete’s performance was totally mental, but one just had a funnier way of saying it. The only thing they didn’t do was specify what part of the athlete’s mind the athlete was depending on for their performance.
Bobby Jones’ Quote: Golf is a game that is played on a five-inch course – the distance between your ears.
Yogi Berra’s Quote: Ninety percent of the game is half mental.
How to Get Out of Your Way in Golf for a Single-Digit Handicap
As an amateur athlete, or in this case avid golfer, you might understand what the professional Athlete is describing as being in a dream in watching themselves perform, but have no idea how to practice and perform at that level. First, you have to develop a DRIVE, where your subconscious mind takes over and dominates your entire performance with total focus by stepping out of the WAY.
Even though you might not be a Tiger Woods with a dad that worked and coached you to be one of the premier golfers in the world, you have the next best thing right within your own mind. Your subconscious mind is an excellent coach. If you provide your subconscious mind with a consistent, sequential routine based on proper instincts, or muscle memory, under similar conditions, you will be able to perform IN THE ZONE!
Well, let me give you some words of encouragement where you can achieve this type of IN THE ZONE performance with specific techniques that you already have developed and used before; you just need to learn how to apply these techniques to your golf game by training your mind and conditioning your body. Let me give you a key to this type of IN THE ZONE performance- You have to train your (subconscious) mind under similar conditions that you will play under, like a scrimmage-type football practice.
THE KEY– Your conscious mind will actually pull back from being active if their isn’t any need to establish a new routine or determine techniques that are needed for new or changing condition. If there is a well-established routine and techniques based on a familiar condition, the conscious mind stands down. THIS IS KEY for golfers that don’t practice how they play.
Relative to your golf game: This is why you can’t take your practice to the golf course. You are working on your golf game in the backyard or range, hitting a bucket of balls consecutively to a large area with no consequences from the same spot. Let’s assume you are working on your same routine and not new techniques or elements; your subconscious mind is engaged. HERE’S the QUESTION: How does that resemble your golf game on the course. You’re hitting ONE ball under pressure to perform to less than 25- yard wide area with lapse time between golf shots with consequences.
Your subconscious mind just overrode your golf practice in the backyard and on the range. Refer to Subconscious Rule No. 7, below.
Subconscious Rule No. 7: The subconscious mind always prevails in conflicts with the conscious mind.
A great example to refer to is learning to drive- When you first learned to drive a manual transmission vehicle, like the ’63 Corvette in the feature photograph, in a field or parking lot, you got the hang of it there. But then you took your skills onto the road, then you got onto an incline where you had to stop-and-start again or make a turn. Things changed and you couldn’t coordinate the accelerator with the break and clutch, or you didn’t down shift making the turn.
The skills you learn to drive with in the parking lot or field seemed to not transfer to the road. No doubt you killed the engine in these situations while starting on an incline or not downshifting. The problem with the field or parking lot are that these two conditions weren’t similar to road conditions you encountered. The only way to drive was to gain experience on the open road. In our modern-day society, people confuse knowledge with experience. They aren’t the same thing, unfortunately.
Individuals who are experienced drivers developed a well-defined ROUTINE under various CONDITIONS. The driver’s routine is so well-defined that the driver doesn’t even have to think, and their driving is automatic for them and even relaxing for them, especially driving on a scenic highway. If you’ve driven for a number of years, your ROUTINE under various CONDITIONS provides you with a high degree of CONFIDENCE.
Training and Conditioning Using Driving Hypnosis
If you combine a NORMAL ROUTINE under very familiar CONDITIONS, the driver can occasionally experience what is called Driving Hypnosis. An experienced driver is cruising down a scenic highway or a very familiar stretch of road. The driver is so RELAXED and CONFIDENT that their conscious mind turns all driving tasks over to the subconscious mind that is based on highly-developed MUSCLE MEMORY. It allows their conscious mind to focus on other issues.
For the driver under the effects of Driving Hypnosis for short periods of time (usually less than 5- minutes), their conscious mind goes on mental cruise control. Under cruise control, the driver doesn’t recall driving past landmarks or parts of the road. But after their conscious mind comes off mental cruise control, they don’t recall the period of time they’ve been under the effects of Driving Hypnosis. They, however, have safely negotiated the highway and the traffic without any incidents.
How to Set Up a Driver’s Hypnosis Format in Your Golf Game
First, the golfer must not differentiate between their practice and performance, as both are a part of the golfer’s game.
While Driving Hypnosis is unsafe for driving a vehicle down the highway, it works great for driving a golf ball down the fairway and onto the green. But to develop this type of mentality in your golf game, there are six (6) techniques the golfer must develop in their practice and performance for them to perform IN THE ZONE, or have Driving Hypnosis. As the golfer is applying these six (6) Techniques, they will see techniques Sports Psychologists use to train and condition high-performing athletes.
These six (6) elements must exist for driving hypnosis to occur to the driver, similar to what an athlete wants to performance under:
- Normal and routine tasks and conditions must exist.
- Rely on a high degree of relaxation, confidence, and muscle memory.
- The conscious and subconscious minds are focused on two different situations.
BREAKDOWN of Driving Hypnosis Performance:
Develop NORMAL ROUTINE and CONDITIONS- A very defined, regimented ROUTINE under actual CONDITIONS for both practice and performance. This ROUTINE uses repetition and sequence. ROUTINE is more than just a list of elements, but a very defined sequence.
Develop CONFIDENCE, RELAXATION based on MUSCLE MEMORY- Identify existing, instinctive motor skills (muscle memory) that can be performed consistently to develop a high degree of CONFIDENCE that allows the conscious mind to be relaxed and refocused on another situation. This is where the baseball-type swing is a great training technique. The baseball-type swing allows the golfer to focus on the ball, like a batter does while standing in the batter’s box and to rely on the instinctive reflexes.
Develop a Dual FOCUS- For short periods of time, like the batter standing in the batter’s box. The conscious mind in short intervals during critical tasks is disengaged. Like the batter focused on the pitch, that allows the subconscious mind to be focused and to perform, based on a well-defined, established sequential routine that doesn’t change.
The batter focused on the pitch is a great example of a Dual FOCUS Technique.
My ROUTINE is based on two simple elements of presetting the wrist action in the golf swing, based on THE Palmer PRO Golf Coach APP demonstrated in my RODE Wireless Golf Swing Technique below and my Download.