Golf_ The Mind Game - Marlin M. Mackenzie [52]
There are several ways to improve your golf through self-hypnosis. One way is to give yourself the suggestion beforehand to experience fully a particular problem you are having with a certain kind of shot, followed by an experience that is exactly the opposite—when you were hitting that shot well. Then put yourself into an altered state and learn how to correct your swing from the images that are unconsciously produced. After “coming back” from an altered state, compare the images of the good and bad shots, looking for ways to correct your swing—sort of like the Get-It-Back Process and Discovering Difference.
Using self-hypnosis in a rather unusual way Bill Adams conquered a common problem—constantly comparing his score with par. When he did this, he became tense and didn’t enjoy his game. He just wanted to have some fun while playing. This is how he used self-hypnosis.
He induced an altered state—a very light trance—and then actually hit tee shots and approach shots on the practice tee, while at the same time he was playing in his mind the first nine holes on the course.
Bill began to visualize the first hole, deciding where he wanted to place his drive; and then smacked the ball. The trajectory told him how close his shot matched what he’d imagined, whether he was in the fairway or rough, and how close he was to the flag. When he reached the green in his imagination, he mentally putted and finished the hole. While still on the practice ground he repeated the process for the remaining eight holes.
When he finished the “front nine” in his mind, I asked him if he’d shot par. Interestingly, he told me that he’d never thought about his score until that moment. He paused and then said he was one over, and then added, “That’s the way I’d like to play all the time.”
Bill walked from the practice tee to the putting green and then reversed the procedure for the “back nine.” Here he mentally played all the shots from tee to green, imagining how far his mind shots were from the pin. He dropped a ball on the putting green in a position that corresponded to the imagined approaches. Then he putted the ball for real. I watched him two-putt every hole.
Since playing that trance round Bill told me he was playing his normal rounds in a much more relaxed state and paying less attention to his score.
Using Television
There’s another way to use self-hypnosis as a means of improving your golf game. Billy Casper, a senior touring pro, uses it when he watches videotapes of his own performance. I also have a technique for watching videotape recordings of either yourself, or professional golfers, making a good shot, after you’ve put yourself into an altered state.
Many pro shops at both private and public courses have videotapes of fine golfers for sale or rent at reasonable rates. Pros also make video recordings of their students for a nominal fee. It’s also possible to have continuous replays of one or more golf swings reproduced on one videotape. The cost varies from one area of the country to another, but it can be done in a week’s time for under a hundred dollars.
Here are the steps to follow if you want to view videotapes of yourself or other golfers while in an altered state. The idea is to refine and groove your setup and swing for a variety of shots while in an altered state. This is done through stimulating your unconscious neuromuscular swing mechanisms, capitalizing on the synesthesia patterns operating in your brain.
VIDEO OBSERVATION
Select the videotape of a pro golfer, or yourself, making a shot you want to mimic.
Give yourself the general suggestion to focus only on the central elements of the setup and swing