National Professional Golf Instructors Association

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MINDPOWER master the counter-intuitive & play out of your mind. By Jason Denaro PH.D Sport Psychologist, NPGIA Golf Professional & Director of Instruction at America's Mind Power Golf Schools

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HOW IMPORTANT IS ROLE PLAY?

Travel back to when you were a child, you're six years of age, playing outdoors with a group of buddies. You're all wearing cowboy outfits, toy guns, hats - you're each really into it.

You FEEL like real cowboys.

You ARE cowboys.

The leather holsters, the colored bandana around your neck. You giddy up on your pretend horse - gallop across the plains as your trusty mutt yaps alongside. You turn, fire off a few rounds, your friend falls and plays dead. Then you take five. You suggest a new game. You throw it out there - Superman.

"Yeah, I'll be Superman," you tell the panting group of rustlers. But instead of changing your costume, you remain in the cowboy outfit. You run, pick up speed and in one huge bound shout: "Up, up - and away."

Now all of those cowboys standing about just stare.

You're not believable to them. Why not?

Because you're a cowboy, and a cowboy ain't gonna cut it!

You slow to a walk - look back - take in the gallery of blank faces. You think: "Hmm, well that ain't workin'."

So you dash into the house and reemerge wearing the red and blue Superman outfit - the one that good 'ol dad bought you for Halloween. Look at those faces. Suddenly they're excited. So again, you run and you call aloud: "Up, up and away."

And guess what? This time - they all believe you - but more importantly, this time YOU BELIEVE YOU.

The moral of this story is this: If you stand over your ball - and you are just 'John Doe' - your mind has nothing on which to base its swing. You'll make a 'John Doe' swing.

If I say to you: "You - ARE Fred Couples. Picture his swing, it's there, it's filed away in your computer - the one between your ears. See Fred's swing, see his lazy demeanor - YOU ARE FREDDY - if you can't feel it naturally (hard if you're a type "A" personality - but that's another session) maybe you need to feel as though you've had a few relaxing drinks. Feel the easy going swing. Close your eyes, become Freddy - you are Freddy. Relax, you're about to make an easy, ssssmooth swing.

Now - FIVE things are happening here:

1. You're in the subconscious state of trance.

2. You have a mental movie of Fred Couple's swing.

3. You FEEL how Fred would feel.

4. You can't swing fast and visualize Fred Couples' swing at the same time - it is IMPOSSIBLE!!! You WILL ABSOLUTELY swing easier. GUARANTEED!

5. Now - think of Tiger Woods. You're wearing your red shirt and black slacks, feel your power - feel how your hips rotate quickly through impact. YOU ARE Tiger - you can feel your swagger - your confidence - you are powerful - quick - with amazing swing speed. You stare down the target (you know the look - the "zone") and you know you're about to play a great shot. You visualize that shot.

So now we've set the stage. Here is the neat part. While you think you're Fred Couples - YOU WILL UNDOUBTABLY SWING SMOOTHER! You can't swing fast while visualizing Fred Couples or Ernie Els - the brain won't allow the muscles to produce a lightening fast swing while entertaining a "smooth swing image model."

PERIOD!

Your friends will see the slower swing. It is IMPOSSIBLE for you to swing like John Daly or Tiger Woods, or Boo Weekly, or any of the fast swingers - while Fred Couples or Ernie are your mental model.

Conversely, while you think Tiger Woods, it is impossible for you to replicate a slow Fred Couples rhythm. The brain searches out the "file" and, to the best of your ability, your muscles replicate that particular professional's golf swing. Subconscious Swing Programming - SSP - is an amazing tool and is sometimes referred to in the world of Psychology as NLP, or Neuro Linguistic Programming. For the majority of positive minded and disciplined golfers . . . THIS WORKS 100%!!!

It is the technique employed by many great golfers to ingrain a variety of swings. For instance, Fred Funk thinking of Nick Price's swing when he wants to play a knock down fade around a tree.

"Nicky is one of the best at this shot. I like to think of him as I play this shot."

Is he in fact pretending to be Nick Price? Hmm - maybe.

A basic assumption of SSP is that internal mental processes such as problem solving, memory, and language, each consist of auditory, kinesthetic and visual representations that are engaged when people think about problems, tasks or activities - or engage in doing them. Internal sensory representations are constantly being formed and activated. Like seeing yourself as Superman, because you FEEL like Superman - what with the red and blue, the cape - the whole kit a caboodle - get the picture?

Whether making conversation, discussing a problem, reading a book, hitting a golf ball or riding a horse, internal representations have an impact on performance.

SSP techniques generally aim to change behavior through modifying the internal representations, by using the correct positive pre-shot routine, examining the way a golfer represents a problem and by building desirable representations of alternative outcomes or goals.

A positive pre-shot routine engages Subconscious Swing Programming. A trained psychologist can track the subject's eye movements, gestures, breathing, sensory predicates and other cues - in order to improve the golfer's repetitive ability and self belief.

Another analogy is this: If I ask you to create a concept of a sports car, are you going to imagine a design, rough out a model? NO. You'd go to your computer, pull up a Porsche, a Zonda, a Lamborghini, a Ferrari, and from those you can select a little here, a little there, and you'll come up with a concept that is based on something that is already successfully established in the marketplace.

You wouldn't try to reinvent the Wheel - so why try to reinvent the golf swing? It's already out there. Find a professional whose swing you admire - study it - record it - play it back over and over and over, play it back ssslowly - at thirty frames per second.

Freeze the golfer's positions at impact - and at extension. Take particular notice of the player's head position at and through impact - it stays back of the back knee!!!!!!!!! Look at how the head drops slightly into the ball at impact. If there is a 'MAGIC MOVE" in all great golf swings - THIS IS IT!!!

Replicate it.

Lock it away.

IT'S YOURS!

PS: Oh yeah - if you're gonna be Superman - practice jumping off of a box before you go leapin' off of tall buildings. (Master your short game - distance follows accuracy.)

You can order your copy of MINDPOWER through www.amazon.com & all major internet bookstores by quoting the ISBN 978-1-935105-16-9 or by contacting: Jason@mindpowergolf.com for a signed copy.

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