One of the ironies of golf is that you have to really use your brain, but it can also can kill your game. Learning how and when to use it is the key to good golf. The brain and the body should have a dialogue. However, if your brain is speaking when the body should be swinging, you’re gonna’ play bad golf. After their best rounds, all golfers say the same thing: “I wasn’t thinking about anything. I just let is happen.” Turning off the brain at the right time is crucial.
Standing over the ball at address for more than a few seconds rarely produces good results. If you linger over the ball on any golf shot, all your brain is doing is creating doubt and fear. I know, I know. You’re going through a check-list of all the things that you need to remember before you swing. While running through your mental list of to-do’s may seem like a positive, this practice is actually sabotaging your game.
Concentrating harder does not equate to better results. The opposite is actually true. If you let yourself be an athlete over the ball and turn your brain off during the swing you will have better results. You’ll swing more freely and you’ll have a lot more fun.
Scientists have determined that the brain can only think about one thing at a time. The key is to distract the brain from from thinking about golf while in the address position. In fact, Golfpsych, one of the top mental training programs employed by tour pros, recommends that many of their golfers think about anything other than golf between shots. Sometimes even while over shots.
Vision 54, another golf mental training program, teaches golfers to cross what they call the “commitment line.” You can think about technical things while you are behind the ball, but once you are over the ball you must rely on your athletic skill and intution. If while over the ball you start having technical thoughts you must then step away from the ball, clear your mind and start your pre-shot routine again.
What we need is a little self-hypnosis. When you drive your car to work you don’t think about what you’re doing or how it happens very often because we’ve done it thousands of times. Poof, you magically arrive without much conscious effort. You just let it happen. Your mind was elsewhere. You were on auto-pilot.
I like to have my golfers swing the club as soon as possible after they address the ball, not allowing time for the brain to do bad things. Brandt Snedecker does this. He commits, steps in and hits it. I work with many of my students to determine the ideal amount of time it takes for them to get comfortable and then swing. On the range, I count out loud to train them on their timing. At first, most of them feel rushed, and you may, too. This makes sense, because almost everyone takes too long over the ball. As a coach I work together with my players to shorten their time.
While I count the player will settle into the shot. He sets his feet; sometimes there is a waggle of the club or a tug on the shirt. Each golfer has his own unique way of addressing the ball. I will count slowly, “5… 4… 3… 2… 1.” When I say, “one,” it is time to pull the trigger. Ready or not. Boom! Players are always amazed at how much more frequently they hit the ball great, once they employ the countdown. They quickly realize all of the prep work they used to do was no help at all. If fact, it hurt them! This is a very liberating discovery. Greatness was there all the time, hiding behind that friggtin’ brain.
The countdown is a great pre-shot routine to adopt because if your brain is busy counting, you are not thinking about your swing, or O.B., or hazards, or score. Thinking about that stuff keeps you from playing your best. The countdown helps get you into auto-pilot mode.
Get over the ball. Tell your brain to shut up. And swing! Make sure you yell, “Boom!” while the ball is screaming through the air.
Each month I will be doing another piece about the Friggin’ Brain.
Thanks for following. If you find this helps you please come back I’d love to hear your comments!
What I love about Coach Fruisen’s approach to teaching golf is he makes it easy for the average golfer to understand and more importantly apply it to our game.
Mental training has been a huge weakness of mine, but applying these simple solutions, I have seen a great improvement in my game as a whole. But more importantly I am more confident in my mental approach to each individual shot. Coach Fruisen has created a great technique that can only improve everyones mental game and is impossible to hinder it.
So interesting, Babe. Same is true with the creative process: both left & right sides of the brain are required. The trick (so they say) is knowing when to employ Left, when to tell Left to pipe down and allow Right to do it’s thing.
Go bees.
~ wife
Great article Coach, I think you should be teaching this to Kevin Na. I remember watching Na down the stretch at the Players last year backing off almost every shot. Based on this article its no surprise the Matt Kuchar was able to comeback and beat him.
Coach I definitely agree with everything you said in this article. At home I play at Bethpage state park and am often paired with below average golfers. One thing I always notice is how long they take over the ball thinking about the intricacies of their swing which only hinders their ability to hit good shots. I definitely think that getting up over the ball and only thinking about your target is the best way to play golf.
Coach, we worked on this in the hitting room over the offseason. You told me to draw an imaginary box around the golf ball, and once I got in the box let my athleticism take over. No thinking, just trust in myself, my practice, and muscle memory. It really allowed me to take free, careless rips at the golf ball, and while trying this strategy, I never miss hit one.
Coach,
I really like this article. This is something that I often struggle with. I will get over the ball and a flaw from my previous shot or previous round will pop into my head I will attempt to fix it on that swing. It never works. I always find a way to mishit that shot and then become slightly more frustrated. I am glad I finally read this article; it is definitely something I need to work and on to lower my scores.
Coach, this article really hits home for me. When I’m playing poorly, I’m usually thinking about my swing, and thinking about where not to hit the ball. I’ve come to realize that I just need to be confident in my ability once I am over the ball. You’re never going to hit a good shot if you’re afraid that you might make a mistake before you make contact.
Figuring out ways to react to the golf ball instead of thinking your way through a swing is what I have been working on as a main goal in order to improve my golf game for the spring season. Considering most golfers view golf as an athletic movement, they should also realize that all athletic movements are honed by repetition and not by an over analysis. Basketball players don’t think about their form when they shoot…they just try to make it in the basket. I play a bunch of other sports and have treated golf differently because I have always had a skewed perspective on how to approach the game. Most of the time, being methodical on the course can be a hinderance and I think there are many golfers who will benefit from taking this article to hearticle.
Very well written coach, I was always raised to have a swing cue when addressing the ball in such a way that the physical side of the brain would be triggered. My old swing coach from high school would always have me lift my feet and tap my toes back in forth to switch from the mental to physical part of the body. This articles perfectly demonstrates the necessity to “stay out of your own head”. Any other sport its second nature to not over analyze, why should it in golf? With proper mental focus and training, this article shows that you can hone your game by honing the stresses in your head.
Definitely over thinking my game. I need to be thinking about the what not the how.