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PIECE-OF-CAKE ANCHOR

Go to the practice tee, bunker, or putting green and practice a shot that you want to become more consistent.

When you pull it off, identify the emotional feeling associated with it (e.g., eagerness, patience, determination, gentleness).

Remember a song that holds a lot of meaning—one which pertains to a past experience unrelated to golf.

Relive that experience fully as you sing the song, so that the emotional feelings become more pronounced.

Go through your preshot routine and then sing the song silently in your head.

Hit the shot again and hear the song as you’re setting up and swinging.

If the shots remain lousy, repeat steps two through six until a just-right emotion is identified.

When the emotion fits, anchor the song and the emotion with a K-anchor—a natural, habitual movement that you make during your preshot routine.

Reinforce the anchor until you can generate the same emotional state in a matter of a few seconds. (See Chapter 3).

A word of caution: If you use an emotional experience associated with a close friend or loved one, and if that relationship sours, discard that anchor (the song) and create a new one.

TIME DISTORTION

Swing tempo is usually a reflection of your inner pace. If you’ve been racing about town, chances are your swing will be fast when you get to the course. What’s needed is a modification of your perception of time, inner and outer, to change the speed of your swing.

While working with some figure skaters in Sun Valley several years ago, I stumbled onto two very simple tech niques that affect the timing of coordinated movement, like spinning in figure skating, twisting in diving, and swinging a golf club.

One of these metaskills techniques, the Counting Process, may remind you of the childhood game of hide-and-seek. You remember. When you were “it,” you had to hide your eyes and count to one hundred, or some other high number. It seemed to take forever. The other, the Off-Ramp Technique, relates to the dramatic change in the sensation of speed when you leave a high-speed highway on the off ramp; then time and speed seem to slow down. One or both of these techniques will probably be useful if you want to slow down your backswing or speed up the movement of the clubhead through the impact area.

The Counting Process

This metaskills technique merely involves counting, first very slowly, then as fast as possible. Count silently to ten as slowly as possible. Then silently count to ten as quickly as possible; to twenty as quickly as possible, to forty as quickly as possible, and finally to fifty as fast as you can. Don’t skip any number the way you might have when you played hide-and-seek. After you’ve finished the counting tasks, immediately hit a golf ball, paying attention to the tempo of your swing. The result will probably be the exact tempo you want because your perception of the time has been altered.

The Off-Ramp Technique

This technique consists of mentally traveling in an automobile on a superhighway at maximum speed while watching rapidly passing center-line markings, and seeing the light poles and trees peripherally on the side of the road. Listen to the hum of the engine and the whoosh of the wind as your car speeds along. Feel the vibration of the wheels through the chassis against your feet and the movement of the steering wheel in your hands. Now imagine it’s time to leave the highway as the exit ramp suddenly appears a very short distance ahead. Apply the brakes, hear the tires squeal, and feel your body being thrust forward as you quickly slow down to thirty-five, twenty-five, and fifteen miles per hour in a matter of seconds. At this point the car will seem to be crawling along to the end of the ramp. When this mental process is complete, immediately hit a golf ball. The result will be a correction in the timing of your swing, either a slower backswing or a faster action in the impact area of your swing, depending upon what you’re working on at the moment.

Color and the Golfer’s