Lessons from the Champions Tour – Hawaii

Lessons from the Champions Tour – Hawaii

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For the past week, I have been on the main island of Hawaii near Kona.  I came here to watch the Champions Tour Tournament – the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai Golf Club on an invitation from a good friend who was paired to play in the pro-am tournament with defending Champion Tom Watson.

In the two days rubbing shoulders with Tom, Freddie Couples, Bernhard Langer and 43 of the best golfers in the world including enjoying Curtis Strange hit balls and perform a personal clinic for 10 of us, as well as walking with Tom Watson for an entire practice round, I learned dozens of lessons. I want to share with you my day and in doing so, help you learn as much as I did in such a short time.

Whenever there is a tournament, I love going to the driving range. On this occasion, there are very few people in the gallery which made it much easier to see and talk to the players as they hit balls. I watched dozens of players including Mark O’Meara, Tom Kite, Jay Haas, Fred Couples, Ben Crenshaw, Tom Watson, Dennis Watson, Jeff Sluman, Bernhard Langer, David Frost, Hale Irwin and almost every player in the tournament warm up for their rounds.

The reason I mentioned all of these players is that first, all of these players are so different when it comes to ball-striking. I have to say none of them impressed me much. After all, I practiced and played with Moe Norman – how could I be too impressed? But what I will say is that all of these players were extremely adequate AND, they only missed the ball in one direction.

Watching and listening to Tom (Watson) as he warmed up he was talking about how he hadn’t been playing much. His balls were trailing left a bit as he kept saying “I have some left in my shots right now”. He was hitting light hooks. But he never hit a ball right. All of his shots were either good, really good or slightly left. When he played the round, he hit a few shots left and only one missed the fairway. He scored 7 under. Tom taught me lesson number 1:

You don’t have to be a perfect ball striker but you must be consistent and have a great short game.

By the way, Tom had about 25 putts in his round and got it up and down 95 percent of the time.

During a clinic with Curtis Strange I asked him about how he developed his game. “I was eaten up with golf when I was a kid – I still am”, he said. It was clear that Curtis loves golf.  His passion for the game even made me love it more. He talked about how the Golf Channel is so confusing and that you must stick with something and stop “searching”. Practice what works and work hard. “The game hasn’t changed since Sam Snead. Why are there so many inventions when the game is the same” – he said. When I asked him about Moe Norman, he gave Moe great credit for being such a great ball-striker.  He said the same for Lee Trevino. “Who would have thought that this (showing Trevino’s move) would have been so great. He (Trevino) had Nicklaus’s number – and he knew it too”, Strange said. The main lesson from Curtis Strange – lesson number 2:

Find something, stick to it and work hard.

While watching the players hit balls on the range, it was clear that there were two types of players – those searching for their swings, those warming up for their rounds. Tom Watson was warming up, Jay Haas and Nick Price were searching. Jeff Sluman’s caddy, an Oklahoma football fan, walked up to me and pointed out Dennis Watson, “There’s the best swing out here, hits it pure on the range but gets to the golf course and it goes sideways (gesturing with his arms pointing left and right)”. Dennis was a searcher. I can definitely relate to both types of players. I have been both a searcher and a warmer-upper.  Guess which one will most likely win the tournament. Which is lesson 3:

If you are working on your swing, you cannot score your best.

This is the difference between Fred Couples (warmer-upper) and Jay Haas (Searcher). Fred is warming up to make birdies, Jay is hitting balls with swing thoughts. Birdies, not swing thoughts, wins tournaments.

What I also found different between the searchers and warmer-uppers was that the Searchers were always messing with their equipment. Berhard Langer (a warmer-upper) had clubs that looked like he had been playing with them since childhood. His long irons were Ben Hogan blades from the 80’s, mid irons were older Adams Irons (sponsor) and his wedges were old Titleist Vokey’s with tons of lead tape. Langer was truly a player and he taught me a valuable lesson number 4:

Find equipment you like and stick with it.  Get stuff that fits you well and learns to love it.

One of the main things that impressed me about Langer was that his wedges were heavy. I always believe in heavy wedges, especially the lob and sand wedge as they allow for more feel of the club in short swings. Furthermore, heavy wedges help increase the weight due to the fact that during the short game shots, you are often choking up on the club which reduces swing weight.

Within minutes of being on the range, Tom Kite displayed the importance of great practice.  The first thing he did was set down an alignment trainer toward his target as he starting hitting wedges. Tom is known as a practitioner and a swing technician. His practice regiment proved it. Not only did he have an alignment aid, he also hit at least half of his practice warm up shots with his wedges showing how important hitting wedges is for the scoring game. This was lesson number 5 and 6:

Practice correctly and hit tons of wedges.

The Champions Tour Players are great golfers – some of the best in the world. So many amateur golfers spend their time watching how far good players hit the ball when, as Curtis Strange said, STOP trying to hit it so hard and just hit it solid and straight. I agree with him. I wasn’t impressed by the distance these guys hit the ball. I was impressed by how consistent they hit the ball and by how good they could score. Learn how to learn from the best players. Watch the little things they do a stop being impressed by the things you can’t do and start doing the things that they do that you can.

The Secret to More Willpower, Resolve, Determination and.…Blah,Blah,Blah!

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Part 1 of a 2 Part Series

By Dr. Ron Cruickshank, Golf Mind Coach & GGA Director, Canada

This winter my personal focus has been on intelligent golf training (thousands of repetitions, building myelin skill circuits and constant video feedback) and getting physically fit for next year’s season. By getting fit, I mean losing weight and hitting the gym regularly as I work on being more flexible and stronger.

Sounds great, but then the cold shower of reality hit. Part A of my objectives has been easy as I work on my swing. I like it, love to do it, get great enjoyment from it, happy to see the improvement. However, Part B has been more challenging because I don’t really feel like dieting and getting to the gym in the Canadian cold has its drawbacks.  Man, that’s a bummer. I think I’d rather side with Mae West when she said.  “I generally avoid temptation, unless I can’t resist it.”

Given this situation, it dawned on me with the blinding glimpse of the obvious. What I need to meet my goals is MORE WILLPOWER.  Bundles, Sacks and gallons of it would be good I thought.

Understanding The Nature of Willpower

This realization led to my standard behavioral scientist approach. I began to do a comprehensive literature search in my desire to more deeply understand the specific components of will-power, figuring I would then take that knowledge and turn it into a detailed strategy to get more of ‘it’.

As a behavioral scientist, I have studied motivation extensively over the years and have developed a comprehensive viewpoint about what it is and what conditions are necessary to provide it. However, in this case I wanted to look deeper and more specifically at willpower and understand what it is, how it gets developed, and how can we acquire it.

Guess what?  Nobody really knows and the opinions are all over the board. In fact, you can find thousands of references to will power and the other related terms like resolve, drive, determination, grit, self-control, and firmness of purpose. But in the end, no one seems to have a definitive answer. Since we all seem to want it, this subject seems a challenge worth taking on, so I thought I’d develop my own take.

To begin, I’ll offer the following definition: Willpower is getting yourself to do something that you don’t emotionally feel like doing. The key to my definition is the linking of an action to a feeling. When we mentally want to do something but don’t take action (assuming we are able), then the reason is generally based on emotion. We represent it to ourselves consciously, as ‘I don’t feel like doing this’ and unconsciously as procrastination and manufactured excuses called reasons. The end result is the same; we fail to take action even when we are clear it is something we believe we ‘should’ do.

Commonly, this lack of action is perceived as a lack of willpower. The explanations for why we have this lack are varied. For some, willpower is viewed as a setup habits that you can build up like a muscle, continually getting stronger as it’s exercised and stretched. For others, willpower is seen as a limited resource: you only have so much in your willpower reservoir and after you’ve used your allotment there isn’t anymore. What is the truth?

After much reflection, I came to the conclusion that none of these perspectives are totally valid for most people. What leads to so much misunderstanding and confusion is our tendency to think about will power in a macro-perspective rather than micro. One is seen as having will power or not having it, as if will power was something one was capable of imposing on every aspect of their life like deploying a large net over a wild beast.

The truth is all of us have situations in our lives where we don’t initiate willpower or take action. It can be as varied as losing weight, hitting the gym, arriving at meetings on time, being firm with our children, getting a project finished or making that dreaded sales call where we risk rejection. Will power, or the lack of it, must be examined selectively and on a case-by-case basis in one’s life in order to figure out the path to gaining more.

My basic premise is that one can develop willpower to take action on anything you decide to.  Under further scrutiny, I’ve realized that we all have lots of willpower. In fact, most of the people I know have tons of it. They get up each morning and go to work, fix the kids breakfast, get the laundry done, pay the bills, get through college and fit in a trip to church on Sunday when they would often rather sleep in. In other words, they demonstrate phenomenal willpower on a daily basis by taking action consistently regardless of their emotional state.

SEE NEXT BLOG:  Part 2 – Dr. Ron’s Secret Technique for Developing Willpower

THE ONE Secret You Need To Know About Willpower (Part 2 of 2)

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Part 2 of a 2 Part Series

The One Secret About Willpower You Should Know

The key insight about willpower is to recognize it is situational and based on personal values. It is a mistake to view willpower as some ubiquitous force that permeates every part of our lives. Willpower is nothing more than consistent behavior or action, regardless of your emotional state towards accomplishing a pre-selected goal. Notice I said consistently, not every single month, week, day or hour. You demonstrate willpower by unswervingly staying focused on a particular outcome because you value it.

A personal value is something you are willing to expend energy to move towards. The more you value something, the more you will choose behaviors consistent with achieving that which you value.

Consistent willpower is only possible if we VALUE the result of the behavior or action above other things. We tend to rank our values, most important, second most important and so on. Discovering such ranking is a common process known as values clarification and is directly correlated to the energy level we are willing to expend to achieve an end goal. All values have a relative ranking in our lives and thus our actions. The more you value something, the more energy (read willpower) you are willing to expend in actions to accomplish.

The secret to having willpower on demand is to understand that the source of your willingness to expend energy on an action is found in understanding what your values are and their relative priority. If an action (or the end result of your action) is not valued above other things you will not expend energy to achieve it. If you wish to have more willpower you must rank your objective higher than other goals.

The ancients seemed to understand this link between values and willpower. I found the following verse in the 5th century Hindu Upanishads.

“You are what your deep, driving desire is.

As your deep, driving desire is, so is your will.

As your will is, so is your deed.

As your deed is, so is your destiny.”

This canon tracks the development of willpower in a clean, elegant and profound way. Read it several times and comprehend the flow described. It provides a 1500 year-old recipe for developing willpower selectively if you understand what your “true desire” is. Your true desire will always reflect your higher values. If you don’t highly value something, then why would you want willpower to accomplish it? Think about it.

Desire = Values = Willpower = Actions = Your Destiny

Dr. Ron’s 3 Step Technique for Developing Willpower on Demand

To begin, decide what area you would like to have more willpower in. It could be relationships, exercise, diet, work, time management, golf training or anything else you wish to apply more willpower to.

  • Make a list of what you consider yoursix core values. These are things you currently are most willing to sacrifice your time and energy to achieve. For example, your list could look like the following:
    • Family/Belonging
    • Economics/Money
    • Competence/Confidence
    • Self-Actualization
    • Service to Others/Human Dignity
    • Faith in God

Note: If you have trouble identifying your core values, look up Values Clarification on the Internet and you will readily find a variety of lists you can use to stimulate your thinking.

  • Rank Order your values list from 1-6, with 1 being the most important to 6 being the least important. Since you only listed six this could take some contemplation, as all of these are important. However, force yourself to list them in priority. A test to see if your prioritization is correct is to honestly assess what you spend the bulk of your time and emotional energy on.
  • Get a piece of paper or a 3×5 card and at the top writedown the specific objective you want to apply more willpower to.  Write down your six values in rank order down the left side. To the right, next to the appropriate value, begin to list all reasons you want to apply willpower to achieving this objective.  This process allows us to begin to link our activities and objectives to our values.

As an example, below see the card I prepared to ensure willpower in support of my objectives of getting healthier by losing weight and working out regularly. I keep this card on my desk and look at it daily to ensure motivation and continued commitment.

OBJECTIVE: My MOTIVATION FOR BEING HEALTHY BY GETTING TO PROPER WEIGHT AND WORKING OUT REGULARLY

  1. Family – Being around for them, being active, high energy for doing things, setting an example for kids.
  2. Health – correct blood pressure, sugar levels and cholesterol. Not having to use the aging drugs like blood pressure medicine and cholesterol drugs.
  3. Self-Actualization – High competence at golf and sport as I age. Having a positive appearance, clothes fit properly, easier to buy. Ego
  4. Economics – More productive work span, optimum energy available for work.
  5. Service to Others – To be of help to others you must have the energy.
  6. Philosophical – Use your share of the planet’s resources available and no more.

When you have completed this exercise you have a comprehensive and motivating document that powerfully aggregates in your consciousness all the important (based on your most important values) REASONS for achieving your stated objective. Additionally, and most importantly, you have linked these reasons to behaviors and your values.  There is nothing more compelling to your psyche as you have now integrated the objective into your top six life values.

The important question to ask at this point is ‘does it work’? The answer is yes, if you follow these recommendations and honestly link the outcomes you desire to your core values.  I know of no more powerful way for you to USE YOUR BRAIN FOR A CHANGE.

The Essence Game

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By Dr. Ron Cruickshank, Golf Mind Coach & GGA Director, Canada

Technique: Play the Essence Game

In a recent blog I wrote about the Essence Game and defined true simplicity as the process of crunching complexity to the point that we can take action without losing elegance or functionality. True simplicity allows us to capture the essence of a subject while giving us increased understanding.

It turned out this idea resonated with people and I’ve had several requests to write more about this self-revealing game. The game is designed to stimulate your thinking about what is MOST important about any subject, mostly yourself, and to be a vehicle for sharing or discussing this insight with others.

Why Is Insight Important? The presupposition inherent in playing this game is that self-knowledge or insight is a valuable tool in managing ourselves, especially our emotional selves, and optimizing our performance when it counts.  “But I already know myself”, you say. Well, maybe yes and maybe no.

Behavioral science research over the last decade has demonstrated that as individuals we are absolutely terrible at predicting our own reaction to a variety of life’s experience. In fact, it turns out that our friends and even casual acquaintances are much better at predicting our behavior than we are ourselves.  It appears there is a significant gap between our self-image and the behaviors we will actually exhibit.

For example, we might like to think of ourselves as brave and ready to confront a dangerous situation with bravado. Yet, when the situation actually presents itself, we don’t act in accordance with our image.  Unless the situation is dramatic or meaningful, we often, after the fact, ignore the behavioral choices we made and continue with our illusion that we truly know how we will act in a given situation. So, if you want to find out about yourself and others, try playing the following game around the dinner table or driving in the car.

How to Play The Essence Game

  • Tell your friends you want to play a little game to learn more about them. It is called the Essence Game.  I find most people like being asked about their selves.
  • Ask each person – What is the ONE word that most clearly defines who you are? Alternately, you might ask what is the ONE word that best represents your world-view? If possible, ask them to write it down on a slip of paper so they won’t be swayed by anyone else’s comments.
  • Lead by example and tell the group your own word. The first time I did this exercise I came up with the word synthesizerto describe myself. I still use it.
  • Then, explain yourEssence word. In my case, I shared that I see myself as a gatherer and teacher of knowledge, and that I believed my talent was in synthesizing information and making links with other subjects in an innovative way. I also told them I thought this came out in my teaching and asked for their feedback. Was this true?
  • Poll the group one person at a time and have them share their word, and then ask them probing questions as to why they came up with this word to represent themselves. Watch the awareness develop.

The benefits of the game will quickly become apparent, as you will find that in the process of coming up with the ONE word you will crunch the complexity of whom you are down into the ESSENCE of who you are.  Of course, this process causes you to generalize; but if you do this exercise thoughtfully you will find that the ONE word will be representative of a prevalent theme and value set in your life. This knowledge is valuable.

Next, ponder your word and ask the following questions:

  • How does this self-view impact my behavior?
  • If this is my strength, do I give myself the chance to use it as often as possible?
  • Does this cause me any problems in life that might require me to have more behavioral flexibility?
  • Does this self-view support my happiness? If not, why not?

Powerful and consistent performance is invariably linked to effective self-management. Whether you are managing your body (knowledge & technique into feeling), your mind (emotional maturity and self-management) or spirit (your relationship to the universe) you can benefit by understanding what makes you tick. Give this game a chance and pay attention!

IT

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As the story goes, I was playing the Canadian Tour – and we had reached Toronto, the East Canada swing. I usually only hung out with Moe on the East side of Canada because he was there in the summer. This particular time I was playing the tournament at the Royal Woodbine Golf Club, a golf course very near the Toronto Airport.

Moe showed up the day of the practice round as I was warming up on the driving range. I asked him to hit a few balls as all of the players on the tour gathered around to watch. After he hit balls for about an hour with a crowd of 25 CPGA tour players, we decided to have lunch in the clubhouse.

At the time in my career, I was struggling with-Moe’s swing – my clubface was closed at the top of the backswing and, as a result, I often hooked the ball. Moe seemed to know what I was going through and as we were eating our sandwiches he said, “You won’t believe your eyes when you get it – you won’t believe your eyes”.

At the time, I really didn’t understand fully what he meant. I obviously knew that he saw a problem in my swing and I understood the “It” part but I didn’t comprehend what he meant by “won’t believe my eyes”.

Many years later, after a bit of frustration of still hooking the golf ball that I changed my lead hand grip to a fully neutral position (I struggled with this for a long time). Of course it felt horrible and I hit the ball terribly for a month or so. My swing, however, looked very good on video but because of the grip change the clubface was in a perfect position at the top of the backswing, however, I struggled with squaring the face at impact and fully releasing the club. (This is very common if you have a strong lead hand grip).

After taking some time to practice, fighting through the frustration, and working on the feeling of the lead hand position for a few months, (and to be truthful I really can’t even understand how exactly), one day the ball began to sound different than any time I had practiced before.

What was even more exciting was that my shots began to have the most incredible flight. I was hitting a 5 iron and I can honestly say I had never seen my ball fly so high, pure and straight. Since then, I have never had a problem with my grip and I have never lost it. Later that year, when Moe he saw me hit the ball he said ‘I told you so, you can’t believe your eyes- can you?”  – He remembered our lunch in Toronto.

So what was “It” that Moe was referring to?

The “it” Moe talked about was simply the feeling of great swing mechanics, which resulted in great ball flight. More specifically the perfect movement of the golf club AND the movement of the body that created it.

If you had the privilege to see Moe strike a golf ball in person, you would have immediately noticed the sound and flight of the golf ball. Moe often described it as “pure”. This pure sound and flight were the result of great swing mechanics. Moe had “It”. “It” is similar to making an apple pie. You have all of the ingredients but it only tastes like apple pie when all of the ingredients are correctly mixed and properly baked.

“It” is when a child learns to ride a bike. At first, riding requires training wheels then, eventually he feels how to balance, pedal and steer. Suddenly, when the training wheels are removed, he is riding the bike. He gets “it”.

“It” is the result of having all of the right ingredients in all of the right places, at the right time resulting in a perfect result.

In my case, “It” was years of hard work, trial and error, studying Moe’s move, talking with Moe, making changes, plenty of frustration and hours and hours of practice. These were my ingredients.

“It” happens when you, at the subconscious level, are able to perform the given task without thinking about it. It just happens because, at a very deep subconscious level, that can only be reached through practice and repetition, “It” is the only way you know how to do it.

So, what are your “It” ingredients and how do YOU get it.

Well, this is what we (the Graves Golf Academy) are all about. Helping you get the ingredients you need to get “It”. The ingredients might vary for some however, there are definitely certain things that are the same for everyone.

One thing that I recommend is to do your best to “shortcut” this process – one way to do this is to use video analysis and get consistent and frequent instruction in the process while you are developing and changing your swing. If you do this, you can speed up the process and with a little hard work and practice, you won’t believe your eyes either.

Moe & Socrates: Now That’s a Twosome!

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By Dr. Ron Cruickshank, Golf Mind Coach & GGA Director, Canada

Technique:  Know Thyself

What in common did Moe Norman have with Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle? A bit of a stretch you might say, yet with reflection, I believe there is a lot of commonality in their perspectives and approaches to life. Further, I think we can all benefit by emulating those perspectives.  Tell me more you say.

Socrates (and later his student Plato and his student Aristotle) was credited with promoting the concept that to achieve and be happy in life “one must know thy self”. To live the “unexplored life” was to accept the status quo as “truth”, and therefore to run your life on unchallenged assumptions.  The path to greater things was therefore found in constantly exploring and challenging the accepted.

This is what Moe did. He constantly challenged the accepted and found his own path to getting the job done. Moe’s move would have never been developed had he followed the PGA teaching manual. He went his own way regardless of what others had to say, and because of his steadfast resolve he became the greatest ball striker of all time.

Socrates advocated refusing to accept the existing social order in favor of his version of democracy. Eventually, because of his beliefs, he was forced to accept a choice between banishment and death by drinking the infamous poison hemlock. While not wanting to be overly dramatic about it, I would suggest to you that Moe got banishment. He was in effect banished from the PGA Tour, the competition, the money, the lifestyle, the fame and the Championships, because of his refusal to conform to the status quo.

In Moe’s case, the banishment was probably more a reaction to his personality than his swing, but the example still holds up. Moe was a complete package of idiosyncratic aberration to the accepted norms of golf’s elite society. I personally suspect had he been more socially compliant his swing would have been accepted because the results were irrefutable. He would have been comfortable with old Socrates I suspect.

This is not to imply that by following Moe’s model of swing efficiency you will be banished. After all, Socrates’ ideas led to the foundation of modern democracy and Moe’s single plane swing is the underpinning for a whole new generation of golfers.

What I am suggesting is that you drop away from the curtain of the status quo and look at what really works. Unlimber your imagination, examine the facts and the methods of the single plane swing and be willing to make mistakes, hit poor shots and look unwieldy for a while as you develop a swing that will produce consistent and reliable results for the rest of your golfing life.

When you watch the Golf Channel or read various golfing magazines somebody is always asking. “What is your dream foursome?” Well, after thinking about this I’ve decided my dream round would be a ‘five some’ with Moe, Socrates, Todd Graves and my son Blade. Not sure any rules would be followed, but boy what an afternoon that would be!

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