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In each of the three cases David, Peter, and Edna “fire” their anchors automatically, without conscious thought. They just find themselves doing it. And I’ll bet that you have an anchor or two tucked away in your unconscious mind that work for you.

I have developed several step-by-step anchoring processes that you can use to get and keep yourself in the just-right state for hitting each shot facing you at the moment. These anchors evolved from my systematic study of what athletes in many different sports do to generate and stabilize their moods. I refer to them generally as just-right anchors.

All the just-right anchors have the same basic steps, but there are among them some slight differences in their development and application. The basic steps were presented in Chapter 3. In addition to direct recall of emotional states associated with past resourceful experiences, I also use music, color, and metaphorical images to access appropriate resources and to stabilize just-right states. As you study these metaskills techniques, you may find several of them more to your liking than others.

For convenience I’ve grouped these anchoring techniques into categories that represent the three underlying states referred to earlier—concentration, confidence, and mind-body unity. The present chapter focuses on concentration. The next two chapters deal with confidence and mind-body unity.

In the remainder of this chapter you will learn how to generate and maintain concentration. The next two chapters will focus on confidence first, and then on getting into the zone.

Strange as it seems, the epitome of concentration is paying attention to absolutely nothing. Some golf pros accidentally stumble onto this when they talk about hitting “a no-brainer.” For every golfer at every level, thinking about not thinking is close to impossible.

We’ll start by whittling golf thoughts down to one per shot—it isn’t so hard to achieve as it might seem. The one thought—what I call a cue, or a swing key—is the thing that helps trigger a rhythmic effort. The choice of the right cue is partly based, as you might have guessed, on the form of sensory information easiest for you to process—auditory, visual, or kinesthetic—while you’re swinging. It’s also based on what works.

In my own case, for example, when I pay sole attention to increasing clubhead speed at impact—a K-cue—my arms become tense and I hurry the swing, hitting from the top. I end up losing what I want: power and distance. However, if I concentrate on seeing the club hit the back of the ball—a V-cue—my swing is satisfactory and provides lots of power. Although these two cues are important for a good swing, only one is helpful to me. Only I could have discovered that, just as only you can sift out which cues are most useful for you.

Uptime Anchor

The Uptime Anchor is one metaskills technique that will help you identify the most useful cues for you. It is particularly useful for beginners and high handicappers. When you’ve identified them, you can decide which ones, when attended to solely, will elicit your most intensive level of concentration.

Brian was a middle-handicap (20) golfer seeking to improve his concentration. He was utterly confused by all the advice he’d gotten from pros and books. He couldn’t distinguish what was important.

“Let’s work on getting the ball to fly straight to a target with my 9-iron,” he told me on the practice range.

“Hit a few balls and pay attention to what you become aware of naturally as you set up and swing,” I said. “Set up, turn, swing, and hit without giving yourself directions, sort of mindlessly, and notice whatever you see, hear, or feel on the outside.”

After Brian hit eight or so shots, I asked him what he saw, on the outside, that seemed useful. He mentioned his target, his hands and feet, the clubhead behind the ball, and the clubhead moving back. These are all “cues” for Brian.

“Fine,” I said, “and what did you feel?” Once