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Why changing proves difficult

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Over the past 7 1/2 years of my time learning, and now teaching the Moe Norman Single Plane swing to golfers worldwide, one of the most common frustrations that arise is the difficulty of making a change in the mechanics or movement. Through years of observation, I’ve found that it’s not due to a lack of desire to make the necessary change(s), nor necessarily from a lack of effort.

Sometimes, I’ve seen making changes be difficult due to lack of flexibility or mobility in a necessary body part, however, those things can be overcome a majority of the time.

I’ve always found it fascinating that when a golfer is presented Moe Norman’s Single Plane swing, and understands the golf swing as a motion to achieve an ideal impact position, they’re desire to use and match Moe as the ideal human model is very, very high. I mean, the Single Plane swing just makes sense.

But the question still remains, Why is changing or making changes to the golf swing, difficult?

To shed some light on the answer to this questions, I want to take you back to your childhood. The first question I have for you is this: How did you learn to tie your shoes?

Funny questions, I know, but think about it for a minute.  Tying your shoes today is a mechanical process that you don’t even think about to accomplish.  You just tie your shoes, right?

As the father of a 7 year old boy, this story is current for me, as we’ve been working with him to teach him to tie his shoes for about 9 months now. (Maybe he’s just a slow learner, or maybe he’s more interested in wearing shoes now with Velcro, but I digress).

When you learned to tie your shoes, you had someone show you how to do it. You watched as an adult demonstrated how to tie the shoelaces. Then, maybe they took your hands and tried to guide you through the process. And then you tried it on your own, and although you likely can’t remember, you probably didn’t ace the tying on your first solo try. As time passed, and you continued to practice the task of tying your shoes, you first were completely incompetent at completing the task, then you gained some competency, then, with practice, you gained mastery.

Now, thinking back on learning to tie your shoes, do you still tie your shoes to this day exactly like the person who showed and taught you? I’d be willing to be that you do.

So let’s bring that story into the context of our golf swings. As we do, let’s first think about the process you went through as a child learning to tie your shoes.

  • First, you had a model.  Someone showed you how to do it.
  • Second, you watched the model demonstrate the task, likely over and over.
  • Next, you tried to imagine yourself completing the task
  • You then tried the task by yourself and likely failed miserably
  • And you continued to practice the task, failing, correcting, and failing, until at some point, you were able to accomplish the task.
  • With more repetition, you then mastered the task, and it became a subconscious habit.

When it comes to the golf swing, my belief is that we can have no better model than Moe Norman. The greatest ball striker to ever live is a pretty good model in my book. Many reading this will have watched Moe’s swing, or even purchased instruction from us about learning the swing, like the Single Plane Solution. And if you’ve watched Moe’s swing, have the instruction, you likely have tried to implement what you’ve seen, and this is the point that most golfers get stuck.

Some of the most comical comments I get from golfers go something like this; “I purchased your DVD’s, watched them yesterday, and tried Moe’s swing on the course today, and it just didn’t work.” The unfortunate and sad part of that comment is that the golfer skipped about 4 steps in the learning process, and made a judgment on those results.

Changing any dynamic bodily movement must go through the learning process, and in my years, this is where most golfers cheat themselves; they don’t submit themselves to the learning process, and lose any chance of making truly significant and positive changes to their games. It’s a sad reality of this game, however, for those who understand that there is a process of learning and submit themselves to that process, the rewards are great.

In conclusion, in order to get past the difficulty of making changes that most golfers have, you simply have to return to your youth and understand that you must crawl before you walk, and walk before you run. The process of learning doesn’t exempt us because of age, experience, or wealth. It must be adhered to, and for those that do, regardless of age, experience, or wealth, the rewards they reap are worth the effort and time that the process requires.

To your success,

Scott

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 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!

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!

So, Ya Wanna Be a Golfing Genius?

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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!

Managing Frustration When Making Changes

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Whenever we endeavor to make a change in our golf swing an immediate by-product for most people is frustration. As we begin to consciously focus on “what” we are doing performance suffers because we have to think our way through things. Imagine trying to take a short walk if you were required to think about each step. “Lift your right foot up and propel forward, land on the heel of your foot and begin to rock forward onto the instep….” Yikes, that would really slow down a walk wouldn’t it? Of course it would, because so much of what we do is stored at the level of unconscious mind, such that you don’t have to be aware of it in order to do it.

Learning is a process of making small distinctions, practicing via repetition and then gradually getting the behavior mapped in your mind/body. Eventually, you generalize the behavior, allowing you to think about further distinctions and put your attention to other things. Think about how complex the act of driving is. You actually make between 48-52 minor adjustments per mile if you are driving on a highway. Yet, you can read billboards, talk to others, listen to music and talk on the cell phone at the same time. It is because you have automated the behavior (generalized it), and now have conscious mind space available to pay attention to other things.

When you decide to make a change you bring the activity into your conscious mind and hence performance suffers in almost all cases. This invariably produces frustration and I think one of the reasons people give up making changes as they don’t have an effective strategy for handling frustration. The source of your frustration is generally not living up to your own internal standards for acquiring new things quickly.

Suggestion: When you decide to make a change start with a master program in your mind. That program should include a clear understanding of “why” you want to make a change and a commitment to give yourself an appropriate amount of time to integrate the change.

Understanding “why” is related to your motivation. Why is it important to you to make a change… why is it important to you to get better? Understanding your reasons will help give you the foundation to both keep working at the changes, and as a reminder to give yourself a break by not over demanding perfection too early.

When you feel the anger building and have the desire to throw a club or engage in self-doubt and negative dialogue train yourself to STOP. Take a breath and recall why this is important to you and think about your commitment to giving yourself the time.

Winter is a great time to focus on building some new skills, especially for us living in the north. Enjoy the process of making the changes and give yourself a chance by ‘using your brain for a change’.

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