TAMING THE TRASH TALKER IN YOUR HEAD Get out of your own way and into the game. By Kate Meyers
T
im Gallwey wrote The Inner Game of Tennis in 1974. The book, considered revolutionary at the time, dealt almost exclusively with the mental and emotional side of the game. Five years later, Gallwey penned the The Inner Game of Golf. The resonance of its 213 pages is profound to anyone who has attempted hitting the dimpled ball with a big stick. How well we all know the many ways in which we are capable of mentally sabotaging our precious time on the golf course. When I asked Tim to if he’d be willing to sit down with In Play and share some thoughts, he sent an email that said: “Maybe the hardest thing about golf is to truly enjoy the game and not measure yourself by your score or quality of play. A round of golf can be enjoyable regardless of performance. It can also be a valuable learning experience in self-awareness. The key skill to master is nonjudgmental attention. This skill can minimize the spoilers of enjoyment and learning as well as performance. The biggest obstacles are not sand traps, lakes or woods but the ones in your own head. This applies to all levels.” Well said, sir! Here, in his words, are a few tidbits to help you clean the mental slate for the season ahead.
SELF 1, SELF 2 AND SELF-DOUBT Most golfers have a conversation with themselves as they play—before or after they hit a shot. Who is talking to whom? I call one part Self 1; that’s the controller/critic that tells you how to play golf and gives you feedback. And depending on how conscious of a game you’re playing, it is calling you names. Self 2 is the one that’s hitting the ball. But which one is smarter? The one that says keep your left arm stiff or the one that’s issuing hundreds of instructions to different muscle groups to even move your club back, keep it on plane, connect with the ball, follow through? This is a very complex, coordinated system. The only problem is, it doesn’t speak English, or whatever your language is. Golfers have very little idea of how they got their best shots. They’ll say, “It felt smooth, in balance, in rhythm.” Over-instructing the body is ego’s attempt to control you. What you have, in my understanding, is a 10-cent computer telling a billion-dollar computer how to play golf. The value I find in recognizing this internal dialogue is that it allows a person to separate himself or herself from the undermining voice of self-doubt. Most of us would not put up with someone speaking
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to us the way Self 1 does, but for some reason when the voice of self-doubt is coming from our own head, we find it harder to ignore. I’m not going to try to quiet that voice because I’ll lose that battle, but I am going to focus my attention away from it and onto the dimple of the ball, for example. That draws my attention away from the voice. With practice, the voice gives up. Relaxed concentration is the key to excellence in all things. You ask an Olympic champion what they were thinking about when they had that goldmedal performance, and they’ll say they weren’t thinking at all. They were too focused. Make practice of focus priority over results.
NONJUDGMENTAL OBSERVATION
WHAT YOU HAVE, IN MY UNDERSTANDING, IS A 10-CENT COMPUTER TELLING A BILLION-DOLLAR COMPUTER HOW TO PLAY GOLF.”
The next question becomes: What do you do with the multiplicity of swing thoughts that you bring to the course with you? You translate them from behavioral instructions—what your body should do—to awareness instructions. Imagine the person thinking about putting: “I’ve got to take my club back and follow through the same amount.” Instead try to feel the length of your back stroke; know where your club is at the moment it stops going back and starts going forward. Be aware of that moment. Be aware of where your clubface finishes. Be aware of the angle, rather than trying to keep it flat. Observe yourself without judgment. If you observe, “I took my club too far,” it’s not going to help you. If you observe, “I took my club 15° past parallel, so next time I’ll take it 10°,” that will help you. Go for an
