mind

“Do Not Try, Just Do”

March 16, 2011 by admin

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

Today was a good day. My son Blade, a collegiate lacrosse player at Guilford College in North Carolina, was requested this year to take up the goalie position. Now, if you know anything about lacrosse you know this is like setting yourself up at the business end of a shooting gallery, without much padding. His first month was a regular series of phone calls asking Mom for some home remedies for bruises and bumps all over his body.

Most of his buddies questioned his sanity for taking up the goalie position, as it is common knowledge that this position can result in being ‘gun shy’ and develop an early case of the jitters as you are trying to avoid getting whacked on the shins with a ball about the same density as a hockey puck. Not fun!

So, why was it a good day when my son’s schedule calls for him to show up as the target for 30 top athletes with sticks? The reason was a call we had today in which he shared he had a great day of practice, maybe his best ever at this level. That was a change from the last couple of months.

As we queried the reasons, he told us that he had pulled some advice from the past (meaning something his old Dad had told him) and decided to start humming whenever he was under intense assault from the opposing attack men. “It worked great,” he said. “Got a few strange looks from my teammates, but they liked the results.” He further added. “I was able to quit trying so hard and just let it happen without thinking about it.”

Read carefully here and understand the message. What he was doing by humming was interrupting his own internal dialogue (negative, fearful, uncertain) and letting his body do what it already was programmed to do. That is, watch a ball coming towards him at 90 MPH and catch it in a net connected to stick in his hands. His body knew how to do that because he has practiced it thousands of times and has it stored in his brain within thousands of neural circuits. Yet, something was getting in his way.

What most often gets in the way is a negative internal dialogue that gets manifested as some self-defeating behavior. It gets more complicated when you attach real pain to this dialogue (he actually got whacked a bunch of times). It then becomes what is known in behavioral science jargon as a “kinesthetic or visual anchor’. That is, just the visual imagery of the ball or even a feeling or thought can cause the body to be less than resourceful and reduce overall performance.

Let me give you an example. If you will imagine you are driving along a nice scenic highway on a lovely spring day. Your car is new and freshly washed, the windows are down and the trees seem extra green and vivid. The flowers are out, the air is crisp and you have a sense of well-being and things seem right with the world. All of a sudden a flashing blue light appears directly behind you and the Highway Patrol guy is motioning you to pull over. Whoops! Now tell me what happened to your emotional state as you imagined this scene? That is an anchor and the feeling you got is similar to what happens when you let your dialogue get negative under stress.

There is a memorable scene I love in the movie Star Wars. Luke Skywalker is trying to raise his crashed ship from the primordial ooze and is unable. In frustration, Yoda tells him. “Do not try Luke, just do!” What a great statement by a great teacher. Yoda was telling Luke to get his preconceptions, his fears, his wishes and his wants out of the way and just let his mind and body do what it knew how to do. In Yoda’s sentiments, trying doesn’t exist, you either do or you don’t.

The lesson here, for each of us, is that performance is often inhibited because we care too much. We want to do well so intensely that the desire itself becomes a type of over care or stress and the toll it takes – is our performance.

If you are seeking to maximize your performance when playing golf, or any other aspect of your life, where you get into a state of over care, it makes great sense to reduce the significance of the event in any way you can. My son is doing it by humming because you can’t think and hum at the same time (try it, it is true).

You can practice reducing significance by trying the following:

Being truly in the here and now. Focus on what is happening this second.
Think of the game you are in as just a fun round without any real consequence to you. You dissociateyourself from the emotional meaning.
Focus on a physiological aspect, like your breathing. This moves your thoughts of performance into the background.
Direct interruption of your internal dialogue – hum your favorite tune. This can be done sub-vocalized to keep the noise down, or perhaps you might be playing with the members of a rock band and they would enjoy it.
Develop and rely on a routinethat allows you to minimize your thoughts beyond what you are actually doing. This is why so many Pro’s use a strict pre-shot routine for every shot, especially putting, because this is when they are most susceptible to minor muscle movement related to stress. When they get under pressure they have a familiar routine to fall back on that lets them compartmentalize their internal dialogue to the rehearsed procedure.

You hear this reflected often in post-round interviews when a pro will tell the interviewer. “I was trying to not get ahead (a head) of myself.” What he is telling us all highlights his desire not to let distracting, and unrelated to the task at hand, internal dialogue begins to affect his performance. If you are thinking about getting the trophy in an hour, or your gracious acceptance speech, it is hard to be lining up and executing the perfect putt.

In general, if you reduce the emotional significance of an event, you will reduce negative emotional impact on your state of being and that translates into improved performance. Your body is a closed and connected loop and every part is interacting with the other.

So, as to my humming lacrosse playing goalie son, I will report that his team is off to its best start in 20 years, with 5 wins and 1 loss so far this season. Now that’s a tune we can all enjoy.

About the Author: Dr. Ron Cruickshank recently opened the GGA – Moe Norman Golf School as part of the GGA expansion program into Canada. He is headquartered at the Royal Ashburn Golf Club in Whitby Ontario. This year’s offerings include a variety of Specialty Clinics in addition to the regular GGA Schools. If you are serious about getting better this year call Ron at 647-892-4653.

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

January 20, 2011 by admin

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 Essence Game

January 8, 2011 by admin

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!

Consistency Formula – Own Your Swing

December 29, 2010 by admin

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

Technique: Have a Formula for Becoming Consistent

Over the Christmas period, I’ve had several conversations with students about their goals for the coming year concerning their golf game. Without fail, each person eventually came to the conclusion that they desired CONSISTENCY above all else in their game. They want to show up at the golf course and know they will hit the ball well on any given day.

But why is this their objective? On a surface level I got a lot of different answers to this ‘why’ question. For some, this desire for consistency was connected to their competitive juices (beat their buddies, win the Club Championship, qualify for a certain tournament). For others it was related more to pride, self-mage and a desire to be competent and to be seen as competent by their friends and peers.

Behavioral science research has shown that humans have three primary motivational meta-drivers underlying much of their behavior during their lives.

Autonomy – the desire to be self-directed.
To be engaged in purposeful activities– to make a contribution.
Challenge and Mastery– the hard-wired urge or need to get better at things.

As I reflected on why people want to be more consistent in their golf games, it became clear to me that for most it is deeply connected to their internal drive to achieve mastery in this strange game of hitting a ball on the ground with a stick. Pretty basic really, people want to get better and become more consistent because they want to. They come up with all kinds of reasons to explain their passion and desire, but I think the same drive would hold true if they took up Tidally-Winks or Bridge.

This understanding puts our motivation in context. The next question is HOW do we achieve mastery? It is not enough to just want to be good. What separates the low handicapper from the high handicapper is not just the strength of DESIRE. One can have great desire and still not be competent. Inconsistency is the result of a lack of correct information and not having a clear formula to achieve mastery.

Formula For Achieving Consistency (Mastery)

To begin let me offer the following formula or process to achieving consistency.

Consistency = Complexity – Simplicity – Practice – Consistency

The formula is to take a complex move (the golf swing) and find the least complicated or simplest method (single plane swing) to achieve mastery (consistency). The logic is based on knowing that the simplest method will always be the easiest to replicate on a consistent basis. (See my notes on Simplicity below). Consistency is promoted and enabled by efficiency.

The formula restated: take what is inherently complex, reduce it to the most basic and simple understanding and then practice that until you become consistent. I call this process of making it simple Crunching Complexity. Reducing the golf swing to simplicity does not mean it isn’t comprehensive or representative of the intricacy in the golf move. What it does mean is that you’ve achieved an effective and efficient way to “embody” the golf swing into a repeatable move. My favorite insight into this view of simplicity is often attributed to Einstein: “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

This formula holds true for all elements of your game from the power swing to putting. Find out what works and reduce the complexity into workable and understandable chunk levels for you. Remember, that in order to make things simple you must crunch the complexity first by making the necessary learning distinctions. Only then can you eliminate the superfluous and focus on what is essential.

Once you have simplified things by eliminating the needless and focusing on the crucial, the path to consistency to quite clear. REPETITION and more REPETITION as you build the correct skill circuits. The result will be consistency.

Notes On Achieving Simplicity: In thinking through the issue of simplicity and why it is important I kept returning to a principle known as Occam’s (or Ockham’s) Razor. This principle is attributed to a 14th-century logician and English Franciscan friar, William of Ockham.

While the interpretations have evolved over the years, my favorite adaptation states that “If you have two equally likely solutions to a problem, choose the simplest.” A close second is “The explanation requiring the fewest assumptions is most likely to be correct. “

To me, Moe Norman was practicing this kind of principled insight in the way he developed his single plane move. He constantly adapted to what was the simplest solution. He was often quoted as saying. “My swing has the fewest moving parts” and “everything is moving in the same direction, always” and “no twisting or turning in my swing”. When you think about these statements they were his unique way of saying he had taken the complexity out of the swing equation as much as possible and found the simplest way to get the job done. So KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) and play golf!

So, Ya Wanna Be a Golfing Genius?

December 25, 2010 by admin

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

Technique: Applying the Law of Requisite Variety

Early in my professional career as a behavioral scientist I was exposed to the Law of Requisite Variety. The law of requisite variety (also known as the first law of cybernetics – cybernetics is the science of systems and controls in animals, including humans, and machines) states: “in any cybernetic system the element or person in the system with the widest range of behaviors or variability of choice will control the system”. In other words, the system with the most options wins!

We hear his law reflected in our culture with a couple of colloquialisms that surface regularly in our everyday discussions. The first is the popular statement. “The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing and expect a different result.” That is followed up with the next most popular statement. “Hey, if it’s not working, try something different.” This last one is usually prefaced by, ‘’Duh!’

Humans tend to generalize their experiences. In fact, this ability to generalize is thought to be one of our strongest evolved capabilities, because it means we can do one activity (like taking a shower, walking across the street, shaking hands) without having to think our way through the event each time. The capacity saves time, generally, makes us more effective and allows us to think about more important things.

However, this feature of our mind also has a downside. The negative is that once we generalize we don’t tend to question our behavior any longer. In fact, if we meet with resistance or failure the most often seen human response is to keep doing the same thing, only do it with more force or determination. In other words, we don’t question our generalizations (now a belief). Rather, we just keep hammering away rather than recognizing that our actions are failing to get the desired result.

To make this point, when giving a talk I will often make the statement that ‘”we humans are dumber than rats.” That always quiets the room. For proof I ask them how many times a rat will go down the dead end of a maze if there is no cheese? The answer is ONCE. I then ask how many people in the room will keep making the same mistake over and over? Again, the room gets very quiet when people get the implication that to produce superior results, we must constantly observe our outcomes and have the behavioral flexibility to change our actions when we don’t achieve the desired results.

I consider Moe Norman an admirable example of behavioral flexibility in practice, leading to becoming a golfing genius. In the book A Feeling of Greatness, by Tim O’Connor, Moe described his process of hitting balls until his muscles would ache. He would pay attention to his stiffness and soreness and modify his swing to free up the flow of his swing. What genius! Rather than be succumbed by traditional thought Moe relied on observable distinctions and modified accordingly.

The genius Moe demonstrated was his constant attention to the outcome and making new DISTINCTIONS about what he was doing. If what he was doing didn’t work, he would change it, modify it and test it. At some point he concluded his move was the most efficient he could make it and then he focused on building his brain’s skill circuits by doing millions of repetitions, such that he couldn’t do it wrong. Moe called this, ‘making it stronger, making it stronger’. He succeeded and is recognized the world over as a true golfing genius.

What is necessary to be a genius? You must acquire more distinctions about a given subject than most people. Do you want to be a genius? Go learn more about the subject than others do and integrate that information by building skills circuits through constant repetition of proper practice and movement. This holds true for all sports and all subjects as far as I can tell. Genius can be learned and earned; it is not just the province of a superior mind.

On The Golf Channel the other day I was watching Gary Player talk about bunker play. He described going out every day as a young pro in South Africa and hitting balls from the trap with a wedge, but also with every other club in the bag. He practiced getting out of the bunker with all his clubs, and during this time he made thousands of distinctions about the sand, the lies, the texture, his grip, stance & swing path. He described learning the balls reaction to certain types of lies and how over time he built supreme confidence in his bunker play such that he never feared to go into the bunker. This resulted in a distinct competitive advantage. He sagely noted, “This allowed me to go for tight pins others would avoid because they feared the sand.”

The Law of Requisite Variety states the system with the most options wins. My translation of that is that if you have more distinctions and learning you have more options, hence your probability of success improves dramatically. Couple this acquisition of distinctions with a willingness to modify what you are doing and you too can become a golfing genius. Remember: Give yourself a chance!

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