GOLFING- MIND OVER MATTER; IF YOU DON’T MIND, IT DOESN’T MATTER!

THE Great QATSPY, The Self-Coach Approach to Golf

If you ever get frustrated with your golf game and about to give up, remember a football coach statement just before he blew his whistle to start practice sessions, “Guys, it’s Mind over Matter; “If you don’t mind, it shouldn’t matter.” The word mind can be substituted with the word THINK. I was thinking to myself, “Easy for you to say, since you aren’t having to do calisthenics, run 40-yards Sprints, run the tires, practice running plays, then to top it off, work out with strength training.”

But the fact of the matter was, the coach was right– it was mind over matter. Once your mind accepts and buys into the concept of conditioning, practice and training, you began to see the effects results and understand that the process is always more important than the results in the end, because you can’t get there without a process and training. It’s no longer a mind of questioning, but a matter-of-fact in believing.

We are creatures of observation and habit. We learn by observing and repeating the technique over and over mentally and physically, not until we can get it right; but until we can’t get it wrong by a scrimmage-type training. The coach’s job is to train your mind, while your job is to learn the processes and coach your self. This is why self-coaching model has a 90 percent retention rate, compared to lecture-type learning processes, according to The Triad Learning Pyramid. One means to apply self-coaching is with mental imaging. In my book, The ESPY Golf Swing Coach, I use the ten-speed sprockets, baseball swing, boxing gloves, and Jeep’s grill (OIIIIIO) to help the golfer coach themselves the golf swing. This process is called ‘Mentalization,’ or what I’m mentally visualizing during my setup of the golf swing. This is the same process was used by Colonel George Robert Hall that survived his 92 months as a P.O.W. at the Hanoi Hilton http://goo.gl/W1jAuC. It is like what Yogi Berra was describing in one of his famous quotes, It’s like déjà vu all over again. You are, essentially, physically executing something that your mind has already performed.

You are engaging your subconscious mind first by relaxing the conscious mind by muscle memory to execute the golf shot around the green, or even off the first tee-box. The mental image that I have developed to relax my conscious mind and engage my subconscious mind is the Jeep’s grill OIIIIIO; it acts like a key to activate my muscle memory, using the right and left Thenar and by presetting my wristbands by what I technically call CAMMING and CAMMING-OVER maneuvers. The CAM and CAM-OVER maneuvers describes how the golfer’s Ulna bone is hinging. Even Ken Duke uses the hinge method to preset his wrists, except my method is a dual hinge.

I used this method for those absolutely nerve-wracking golf shots around the green, like inside the forty-yard chip or pitch shots. I focused on the chip and pitch shots because of the required feel the golfer needs to execute these golf shots. This was my starting point for my seven year analysis of the golf swing. I filled three Xerox boxes full of raw data that I was later able to reduce down to just one partially-filled box that became the basis of my book, The ESPY Golf Swing Coach. I had two Xerox boxes full of data that were labeled “THIS DOES NOT WORK” and one partially filled Xerox box was labeled “THIS WORKS.”

The major resource for my book was my grandfather’s, The Great Qatspy, Red Book, featured above with his typewriter on his secretary desk. My grandfather exclusively used the baseball-type swing, boxing gloves, and the grill of the Jeep to help his students develop the proper muscle memory for their golf swings.

His classic technique came from his iconic Jeep grill and bumper  OIIIIIO. I have a Wrangler Jeep that is olive drab, with four-wheel drive on the fly. I use the Jeep’s bumper to represent the left thumb and the handle of the golf club. The headlights represents the right and left Ulna Bone to CAM and CAM-OVER the Thenars. The grill represents my fingers on the right and left hands. The steering wheel represents the right thumb. This is the (Muscle Image-Five) MI-5 for the golfer’s muscle memory. This provides me with a solid confidence that I need to set up and execute my golf swing without thinking about the golf swing.

The more conscious your golf swing is, the less your subconscious golf swing will be used to performed the golf swing. A great example of the is what is called Driving Hypnosis.

‘Driving Hypnosis’. While it is unsafe for driving a vehicle down the highway, it works great for driving a golf ball down the fairway!

I like to keep a mental image of the Jeep’s grill and bumper OIIIIIO, when I prepare for a round of golf or shots around the green. This mental image helps me to properly preset my wrists, which is key to a successful golf shot. Several pro-golfers, like Angela Stanford, Marco Dawson, Ken Duke, and also the late P.J. Boatwright, Ben Hogan, and Bobby Jones describe how presetting the wrists is a significant mental edge in their golf game, the MI-5 of golf. One reason is by setting two simple golf elements (Synch and Preset), sets up 80 percent of the golf swing into the Lock position. That is why I included a photograph of a Jeep in my book and also for this article about ‘Mind over Matter.’ This is exactly what golf is, it is Mind over Matter. This Synch and Preset technique keeps the right elbow tucked into the right side what Mr. Arnold Palmer was working with President Eisenhower on at a Pro-Am golf tournament.

The ESPY golf Swing technique allows the golfer to use a ‘Driving Hypnosis’ condition to establish their golf swing. While it is unsafe for driving a vehicle down the highway, it works great for driving a golf ball down the fairway! The best way to incorporate driving hypnosis into your golf game is FIRST– to establish a very well- defined routine in your golf game, where it becomes second nature during you training and golf rounds. SECOND– the conscious mind and subconscious mind have to be focused on two different objectives. THIRD– establish a very relaxed environment.

The golfer can accomplish this FIRST- by practicing their golf swing not until they get it right; but until they can’t get it wrong. SECOND- the golfer’s conscious mind focuses its’ attention one objective like the target in a strike zone, like a baseball pitcher does. The pitcher doesn’t concentrate on the mechanics or techniques; but on their target in the strike zone and how the fingers and thumb grip the baseball threads. This is BE the BALL quote in Caddyshack. The pitcher lets their subconscious mind manage the mechanics and techniques. For the golfer, that would be how the golf club handle feels in their hands and fingers and let their conscious mind focus on target down range. THIRD- golfers must train exactly how they play, and play how they train. The golfer’s subconscious mind can’t detect any disconnect between training and their round of golf. Another advantage of using the subconscious mind is the subconscious mind can’t distinguished between a virtual golf swing using a golf baton and an actual golf swing with a golf club.

If the subconscious mind detects any difference between training and performance, it will fall back on what it is comfortable with and has learned. This is the reason why your training sessions must mirror your performance on the course or reflect your practice routine, as close as possible. In my book, The ESPY Golf Swing Coach, I have a practice format called the 405- Training Drill that is similar to a football scrimmage games. While it doesn’t replicate actual playing conditions, it is as close as possible to an actual game format. The 405- Training Drill allows the golfer to work toward an 80 percent accuracy rate by making four shots out of five to a specific target area under similar playing conditions. This is discussed in Section 7.0 of my book.

Another great technique the golfer and use in their self-coaching process is a simple pair of boxing gloves shown above. Specifically the top and bottom part of the wristbands, where the top part of the left wristband and the bottom part of the right wristband crosses the Ulna bone, This is where the golfer wants to CAM and CAM-Over their wristbands to preset their wrist shown shown above with the golfer’s elbow synched with their shoulders.

Once you learn WHY, you don’t forget HOW!

YouTube Videos:
https://youtu.be/ZGVNrIw_wlo (Cam & Cam-over elements)
https://youtu.be/K2FDHZ3AX9w (Figuring your proper swing plane)
https://youtu.be/TO82PMO6G8M (Developing muscle memory)

A Recommendation for your Golf Game:

I would like to recommend a wonderful radio program that I regularly listen to on my I-Heart Radio app on KARN 102.9 FM station, out of Little Rock, AR. They air a golf show called “Arkansas Fairways and Greens,” at 7:00 AM CT each Saturday morning, hosted by Bob Steel and Jay Fox. Bob occasionally has on his show a guest named Shawn Humphries, a Professional Golf Instructor from Dallas, Texas. One thing that Mr. Humphries stresses is the mental part of golf, not focusing on the results but the process.

Until next time– Be Synched, Tee-to-Green, with The ESPY Golf Swing!

Please include an exercise routine in your weekly schedule.

Also, learning The ESPY Golf Swing Coach process is an excellent way to develop Rhythm without experiencing the Blues: