Mental Game

I’ve been concurrently reading Dr. Joseph Parent’s Zen Golf and Daniel Coyle’s The Little Book of Talent and have found them to be a solid combo for working on the mental game. I am only about 75 pages into each, but have already picked up on a lot of good ideas to bring to my practice sessions and to use on the course. I definitely recommend both of these short books for anyone interested in improving their game and/or life.

One of the more impactful, yet subtle, thoughts that I found in those books is to broaden your vision. This works in specifics; as in open your eyes to all potential influences on the ball both in the flight path and on the green, to a broader sense in that open eyes are aware of the true nature of the harm a bad shot brings. What is meant by that is that even the worst shot is just one bad shot, it’s not the end of a good round or a mark against you as a human, it’s just one bad shot and can be overcome as soon as you overcome it. It’s easier said than done, but remember to broaden your vision and don’t forget where you are and who you are. Bad shots only define us if we let them.

Today, I played Royal Oaks Country Club in Vancouver, Washington. It’s a fun and challenging track. The all-time low score there is a 63 shot by Tiger Woods. I’ve played once before back on May 26 and loved it. That time around my score was an 86 from the Squirrel tees (AKA blues, or one in front of the tips) and I wrote in my notes that I played very well for that mark. Today, it was 50 degrees early this morning and everything was playing one club longer than it should, the greens had been plugged one week ago so were still bumpy and I played the Squirrel/tip combo tees which are about 300 yards longer and shot an 81. I played consistent golf, but nothing too special; just made shots and kept the ball in play. Still, I felt like a completely different golfer than when I played that course 4 months ago and am proud of how far I have come. For me, this was a good litmus for progress over the summer. There are good rounds and bad rounds, of course, but I could tell how much better every aspect of my game was today compared with May 26.

I realized something about progress at the end of the round today. Gains in ability do not come in smooth constant transitions, but in incremental increases. When working towards a goal we reach each new level by steps and then hold onto that step as tightly as possible until we get comfortable and ready for the next leap. This isn’t exactly groundbreaking information and all the literature talks about the lack of fluidity in improvement, but I realized it in terms of golf handicap. When I registered my first handicap, the number was 12.8. I thought that was low (as in better than my skill level at the time) and was kind of surprised that I was already a preteen handicapper, but I assumed the system knew what it was talking about and trusted in how it was created. For about two months I played at that number and slowly became comfortable with the fact that I was a 12.8, but didn’t make much progress lower. After a while I came to full terms with 12.8 and realized that I was a solid 12.8 handicap golfer. Just at that instant, my handicap dropped to roughly an 10.5. Shocked as I was, I again trusted the system and started playing off 10.5. The same process happened: slowly came to terms and felt comfortable with being an 8.5 and the after a while of “knowing” I was an 8.5 the handi dropped again, this time to 8.5 and then to 7 and so on. The same thing has happened and I am finally getting very confident in my 5.5-6 range, which means I am due for another drop. The increments won’t be as big moving forward, but they will still continue to drop as I continue to improve and work hard. The point? It’s not plateauing, it’s taking time adjusting to your new skill level before moving along to the next step.

Heading out the door to play round two for today. I really just want to golf. I love this.

7 Responses to "Mental Game"

Jim Granger says:

September 20, 2012 at 9:38 am

You may also enjoy the book “Mastery” by George Leonard and his journey in learning Akido – parallels what you’re experiencing Dan.
Johnny O'Sullivan says:

September 21, 2012 at 8:02 am

You seem to have a great reading list. I’d love to see a tab dedicated to that alone, or all of your sources. Any possibility of that happening? Thanks.
Tim says:

September 22, 2012 at 8:30 am

Dan- Just a quick question, are you still playing vr pro blades? If so have you thought about maybe switching to a combo set? I understand the love for a well struck mb but forgiveness in long irons can be helpful to all including touring pros. The VRS forged in 3 4 5 and blades in the rest? Either way keep up mthe good work i know we all want to see you suceed.
Hector Acton says:

September 22, 2012 at 8:40 pm

The best thing to hear is your last sentence. As long as you are enjoying the journey, the rest is icing on the cake. Good job. Hope you had a good day today and a better one tomorrow.
Phil furlong says:

September 24, 2012 at 7:18 am

hey Dan congrats on getting a 1/3 of the way through that’s an achievement in itself iv been following you from Sydney Australia since around the 700 hour mark but have only left a few comments recently

Have you read Hank Haneys book the big miss, He spent 6 YEARS TRAINING TIGER after butch Harmon. in that time TIGER won 31 times on the PGA and 6 MAJORS(and changed his swing). HANK talks about his dedication and commitment to always trying to get better,his MENTAL TOUGNESS,work ethic, his methodical approach to warming up before a tournament.next tourney spend the last 5 min of your warm up hitting the exact shot you will hit on the first tee,then when u get top the first tee you have that shot in your mind.been a 12 capper i do this and it helps me to relax on the first tee and usually get a good stat(shame it doesn’t stay that way .tiger does this all the time. . fascinating read regardless of what you think about hank Haney motive for writing the book. the fact you are already a single marker after this time is amazing ive played with allot of men who cant break 20 over and they have been playing there whole life keep plugin away Dan you’ll b scratch in no time.

p.s. loved that last line, spoken like a true GOLF ADDICT. self realization of that is the best feeling in the world
Brandon Cotman says:

September 27, 2012 at 6:17 pm

Dan, how is Coile’s book? I sparsly thumbed through it and now, that I am in college(Yay! 1st year!) It seems nostaligic and I wish to go through it agian. I remmber the 13 year olf girl, Mylein, the insulating material in the brain. And a few other key components.

Amazing Revelation and it ties into your Waves theory of life. That each day has a wave of diffrences and each second is completly isolated at last and the only thing we can do is “Cultivate each second as perfectly as it can be culitvated”

This also synchronizes with Will Smith’s theory about Brick Laying and taking it one step at a time.

Thanks for working hard, keeping me motivated and being the best you can be.

Bran
Ed L says:

October 1, 2012 at 5:38 pm

The way Handicaps are calculated (take 10 best scores out of your most recent 20 rounds), measures your potential at a given time as opposed to your actual ability. The “feeling” you’ve described in regards to matching your subjective skills to your handicap follows suit. Since you’re constantly improving, you sort of “grow” into your handicap until the next update period or next plateau and then the process repeats. This may seem very different if/when your handicap begins to climb.

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