The Run for The Roses in Your Golf Game

THE QATSPY® Yankee Personal Sports Training Athletic Quarters

This is a photograph that I took of my Zephirine Roses that I have in my Rose Garden where I have my morning coffee at the start of each day.

By: Charles W. Boatright

The Run for The Roses in Your Golf Game- Optics Play a Huge Part in Sports Psychology of HOW Just an Image of ROSES can Improve Your Game

When I coach my students, I use what Sports Psychologists refer to as Mental Imagery to allow the student to connect to one of the most significant parts of their golf game, their subconscious mind. You’ve undoubtedly heard that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, the same is true with sports training, in that a mental image is worth a thousand hours of practice.

Processing our performance in images activates our subconscious mind, where all of our instinctive muscle memory and natural reflexes are housed. However, the more we think about our performance, this obstructs the subconscious mind natural process. People are always asking, what are my swing thoughts? I reply absolutely nothing, as I just form a mental image of shot tracer tracking my ball to its target and then a ROSE during my setup.

The acronym ROSE stands for- Routine, Optics, Sequential, Elements.

ROUTINE–

I want my golf routine, from Tee to on the Green putting, to be so routine that I don’t even think about it, like driving a vehicle. There is a situation that occurs with drivers for a short period of time called Driving Hypnoses. Driving Hypnoses is the athlete playing IN THE ZONE!

For those of us who have been driving for decades, our routine we use for driving, especially a manual transmission, is so natural that our conscious mind can focus on something totally different that we don’t even remember driving along stretches of the highway or past certain landmarks.

This is exactly why we want our golf swing to be routine and automatic, where our conscious mind has complete confidence in our natural abilities. That’s why I want the same mechanics used from tee-to-green to be exactly the same, with slight variations in my chipping and pitching. The only thing that my conscious mind is focused on is me tracing the flight of the golf ball to its intended target.

A great way to do that is to develop a television mental image of the pro-tracer during your setup routine, like you are just replaying your shot even before you swing the handle of the club.

OPTICS–

There’s an important Subconscious Mind Rule No. 5 that states What you expect tends to be realized. This rule No. 5 is like developing a Déjà Vu- type approach to each shot or putting stroke in your golf game.

The best method to link in with 90 percent of your potential to perform in sports is engaging one or all your five (5) senses. Optics and feel are hardwired directly into the subconscious mind. This engages motor skills (muscle memory) that are instinctive. If you, the athlete, or in this case, the golfer want to perform at the top of your game, make your performance instinctive. Instinctive performance is like putting your performance on Autopilot, or playing in the ZONE!

Here is another advantage of linking into the subconscious mind; it is not able to distinguish between virtual and our real world situation, based on Subconscious Rule No. 1 that states The subconscious mind does not and must not differentiate between visualizations and real situations. The number one thing that can derail this process is THINKING.

Even just visualizing a ROSE, like I do on the first tee box to my last putt, allows me to link into my subconscious mind’s instinctive motor skills that are natural for me to perform.

SEQUENTIAL ELEMENTS–

If you’ve ever formed a habit (good or bad), you know how difficult it is to change anything about your habit. Habits that we’ve developed are a primitive survival skill that kick in without thinking. The best way that I can describe a well-developed Sequential Element process is learning to drive a manual transmission.

At first, it is very awkward and difficult to get the sequence between the elements- accelerator, break, and clutch, down to a smooth process. You might even believe it won’t ever happen or be consistent, but once it does, based on a well-defined ROUTINE, you don’t even have to think about the shifting process anymore, as it comes natural to you.

This is the very same process you want to develop and establish in your golf swing or any other athletic performance. I learned to drive on a three (3)-speed jeep. So first thing about sequential elements is to keep them as simple as possible and in sequential order, like 1,2, and 3.

Putting the ROSE Process Together

When you practice or train, develop a ROSE image, especially during a very productive practice or training session. Link that practice by challenges to your performance. By doing this, you, as the athlete or golfer, just linked into the most powerful source for performing instinctively, instead of thinking.

This training video was made in July of 2014, before I lost 52- pounds on my 704 ASCOT- DIET & FITNESS Program within 9- months. The first month, I lost 35- pounds.

Remember what Yogi Berra said about performance and thinking- How can you think and hit at the same time? The answer of course is- YOU CAN’T!

Also my favorite is Be the Ball Quote from Caddyshack.

(Ty Webb- played by Chevy Chase mentioned to Danny Noonan- played by Michael O’Keefe) I’m going to give you a little advice. There’s a force in the universe that makes things happen. And all you have to do is get in touch with it, stop thinking, let things happen, and be the ball.

Here are three (3) things that set up Driving Hypnoses that the athlete or golfer needs to structure their practice, training, and performance based on:

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.

Pay close attention to condition No. 3, to develop a dual focus.

Driving Hypnoses occurs when a driver’s instincts and routine are so well developed that their conscious mind is able to focus on something totally different than driving. The driver’s subconscious takes over all driving skills instinctively that the driver doesn’t remember driving along stretches of the highway or past certain landmarks for short period of time.

Driving Hypnoses for the athlete or golfer is performing IN THE ZONE.

The Run for The Roses in Your Golf Game

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