Archives for December 15, 2024

Where Are You Looking?

By: Paul Monahan, Graves Golf Mental Game Coach

(AAI Schools)

Last week I visited the Torrey Pines Golf Course just North of San Diego, CA. It is an amazing slice of golf heaven. But believe it or not, the highlight of my trip there was a visit to the nearby Torrey Pines Glider Port. This is where grown adults intentionally walk/jump off a 325ft-high cliff toward the beach below …again, and again and again. They can’t get enough of it.

If I didn’t know better, I’d say it sounds a little crazy.

Pilots launching at the Torrey Pines Glider Port near San Diego, CA

What they are really doing is called paragliding: floating on the thermal updrafts and ridge lift (vertical winds) created by the ocean breeze moving inland. These flyers gracefully raise fabric wings above them and fly around in the buoyant currents of air for hours. It’s really cool to see up close.

While they are doing this, what they focus on becomes very important. (No, duh! Ok…just hear me out…)  Among other things, they must stay aware of their position in space, their proximity to other fliers, the ground, and the cliff below them…as well as where they ultimately want to go. To fly safe – and to achieve their mission – they must not get fixated only on the things right in front of them, even if those things represent potential danger.

Where they are looking matters – for achieving short term AND longer-term goals. Their success as paragliders depends upon their capacity to notice what is going on around them, and yet still steer themselves to where they want to go.

In aviation circles there is a saying: Where you look is where you will go. (If you keep staring at the cliff, you will eventually fly into it.) There is a reason this is a saying…because it happens. Sometimes pilots get mesmerized by the things close to them.

My friend and colleague Rob Nielson – a former US Army helicopter pilot  – recently told me:

“I remember the first time a flight instructor told me to drop my scout helicopter into a riverbed at 140 MPH with trees soaring above and around us, with about 10 feet of clearance on either side of the rotor disc. He told me exactly what you said: Look to where you want to go and your hands will fly you there.”

What do you spend your time looking at when you play on the course? It is so easy to get fixated on that the danger we perceive. The out of bounds on the left. The creek on the right. The trap near the green. The branch you are trying to hit under.

The problem is that when we get fixated on these things, we can lose perspective. We can lose sight of the longer-term objective. The place we ultimately want to get to…our purpose…the reason we were are playing the game.

We perform at our best when we are aware and conscious of all the things around us -and at the same time aware of and very clear about our ultimate objectives.

Moe Norman famously described all the “trouble” on the courses he played as “decorations.” And in keeping with his philosophy of playing with an “alert attitude of indifference,” Moe simply saw these things for what they were – but kept his focus on the goal: the fairway, the green, the hole.

Moe trusted that his “…hands would fly him there.”

There is a lot going on when you are playing golf. Lots of shiny objects and danger that are like the cliff at Torrey Pines, or the trees next to Rob Nielson’s helicopter rotors. Yes, it’s prudent to be aware of them…but it won’t serve you very well to focus only on them. Only one thing really matters.

Bring your eyes up. Change your language about what you see. (Do you see a sand trap?…or do you see a decoration?) Reconnect with where you really want to go on the course. (Forget about where you don’t want to go.) Trust that your hands know what to do.

And then step up and hit it there.

Choose 5 Minutes a Day Over an Hour a Week – Tips for Improving Part # 5

By Tim Graves, PGA

Hopefully you were able to read the last 4 practice tips – Tips for Improving (Part 1, 2, 3 and 4).

In those practice tips we discussed how we work with our students to create new habits rather than breaking old habits. It is essentially impossible to break bad habits (our mind/body is not set up that way) … but we are set up to be able to create new habits and ultimately make changes/create new movements, etc.  we want.

We talked about a book we strongly recommend – The Little Book of Talent / 52 Tips for Improving Your Skills by Daniel Coyle

It is described as a manual for building a faster brain and a better you. It is an easy-to-use hand book of scientifically proven, field tested methods to improve your skills – your skills, your kids’ skills, your organization’s skills – in sports, music, art, math and business. The product of five years of reporting from the world’s greatest talent hotbeds and interviews with successful master coaches, it distills the daunting complexity of skill development into 52 clear, concise directives. Whether you are 10 or 100, this is an essential guide for anyone who ever asked, “How do I get better?”

The last instructional newsletters (Tips for Improvement Part 1, 2, 3 and 4) we talked about the following tips

  1. Staring at who you want to become.
  2. Spending 15 minutes a day engraving the skills on your brain.
  3. Stealing without apology.
  4. Buying (and keeping) a notebook.
  5. Be willing to be stupid
  6. Choose spartan over luxurious
  7. Before you start, figure out if it’s a hard skill or a soft skill
  8. To build hard skills, work like a careful carpenter
  9. To build soft skills, play like a skateboarder
  10. Honor the hard skills
  11. Don’t fall for the prodigy myth
  12. How to pick a high-quality teacher
  13. Finding the sweet spot
  14. Take off your watch
  15. Break every move down into chunks

This instructional newsletter (Part 5) we cover the next 5 tips for improving your skills and relate them to you learning/working on your single plane swing and golf game.

16.  Each Day, Try to Build One Perfect Chunk

Remember, a “chunk” is viewed a new habit or part of a new habit you are trying to create.

Many regard practicing as a success. But, the goal is not merely practicing, but rather progressing. As John Wooden put it, “Never mistake mere activity for accomplishment”.

The Talent Code recommends setting a daily S.A.P:  smallest achievable perfection. In this technique, you pick a single “chunk” that you can perfect – not just improve, not just “work on”, but get 100 percent consistently correct. Break down what you are working on into small enough chunks that you are able to improve little by little, piece by piece, rep by rep.

As Wooden also said, “Don’t look for the big, quick improvement. Seek the small improvements one day at a time. That’s the only way it happens – and when it happens, it lasts.”

17.  Embrace Struggle

When we discuss “deep practice”, the emotion/feeling most think of is struggle.

Most of us instinctively avoid struggle, because it is uncomfortable. It feels like failure.

However, when it comes to developing your talent, new habits, struggle isn’t an option – it’s a biological necessity.

The struggle and frustration you feel is at the edges of your ability…. the edges of your ability when pushed – feel uncomfortable.

The struggling/uncomfortable sensation you are feeling is your brain/body constructing new “neural connections”, in other words, the precursors to the new habits.

Dr. Robert Bjork (UCLA psychologist) calls this phenomenon “desirable difficulty”. Your brain works just like your muscles: no pain, no gain.

18.  Choose Five Minutes a Day Over an Hour a Week

With deep/intense type practice, small daily practice is much more effective than once-a-week type practice binges. This is the way our brains grow – a little each day.

Daily practice, even if for just five minutes a day, nourishes this process, whereas long, intense practices spaced far apart makes the brain play catch up.

The key is total focus during the practice session which most can do for short periods of time.

The other advantage of practicing daily is that this type of practice becomes habit forming in itself.

Practice can be indoors, outdoors, with/without training equipment, working on positions, Single Plane Position Trainer drill, leverage bag, mirror work, etc. etc… The key is short practice sessions with “intense” type focus building “chunks” at a time.

According to research, establishing a new habit takes about 30 days (as short as 21 and typically around 30 days) working on the new habit every day. “Working on” meaning short, deep, intense type sessions.

19.  Don’t Do “Drills.”  Instead, Play Small, Addictive Games

This is about the way you think about your practice. The term “drill” evokes a drudgery and meaninglessness. Mechanical, repetitive and boring – as the saying goes, “drill and kill”.

Games on the other hand, are the opposite.

Fun, connectedness and passion. Skills improve faster when looked at this way.

As you are doing your “drills” – turn them into games.

For example – if you are doing the Single Plane Position Trainer drills – count how many times in a row you perform it perfect. Count out loud the different positions and see if you can “hit” those positions in and out of sequence…

Chipping drills – count how many you can get inside 3 feet out of 10. See how many you can get up in down in a row (chip up and one putt in), etc.

In our camps (Build Your Game Camps) quite a bit of time is spent teaching “games” to our students so they can better enjoy working on their drills and this enjoyment will and does greatly enhance their learning process.

20.  Practice Alone

Practicing alone works because it’s the best way to:

1. See out the sweet spot at the edge of your ability, and

2. Develop discipline, because it doesn’t depend on others. If you aren’t worried about what others think, what others are looking at (you), what others are doing, etc. you won’t be worried about making mistakes, feeling uncomfortable, trying to find your sweet spot…

Changes are MUCH easier to make when you are only concerned about yourself. Golfers get too worried about what others are thinking about them, what others are looking at…. It doesn’t matter.  If you are trying to create new habits, the only thing that matters are you are making positive progress.

Small “bites” at a time – but going forward with positive progress is the key. Have enough to worry about with the changes you are trying to make, then be concerned with others around you.

Please watch upcoming newsletter practice tips for additional tips from improving your golf game.

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