Golf_ The Mind Game - Marlin M. Mackenzie [69]
External Auditory
Listen to the voice of someone on radio or television; turn off the sound and mimic the tone, volume, and syntax of the voice; turn the sound back on and compare the sound of your own voice with the one you heard.
Repeat this process until you can mimic the voice as well as possible.
Mimic as well as you can the sounds of animals as you hear them—a bird singing, for example, or a dog barking.
Listen intently to a distracting sound while striking a golf ball. Notice the quality of the shot. Now pretend the distracting sound is entering your muscles, creating energy in your body and making your swing more powerful. Notice the quality of the shot. Is there a difference?
Listen intently to a distracting sound as you are preparing to make a shot. Immediately shift your attention to peering at one dimple on the golf ball. Make the shot as you focus intently on the dimple. Notice the quality of the shot. Reflect on what happened to the distracting sound.
Internal Auditory
Modify the volume and tone of your own or someone else’s voice that you hear inside your head. Vary the nature of the internal voice from loud, harsh, and critical to soft, pleasant, and supportive. Notice how your bodily sensations vary with the change in tone and volume.
When you hear an internal critical voice, substitute pleasant music. Notice any change in physical tension.
Deliberately talk to yourself while teeing off and notice the quality of the shot. Then quiet your mind, hit another ball, and notice the quality of that shot. Is there a difference?
Immediately after making a poor shot, deliberately criticize yourself harshly in your mind and notice the amount of tension in your body. Then stop criticizing yourself and without further thought drop another ball, swing, and notice the quality of that shot. Is the second shot better or worse than the first? If better, perhaps you were too tense on the first shot; if worse, perhaps you became too relaxed.
Now change the internal critical voice to a calm, supportive one, giving yourself positive instructions about making a good swing. How much physical tension do you feel when you change your internal voice from being critical to supportive?
Kinesthetic Awareness
Contrary to logical expectation, I have found that many athletes are largely unaware of their bodily sensations. Golfers in particular are insensitive to the specific muscle tensions involved in hitting a golf ball, and they are unaware of the bodily sensations that are linked to their emotional states when they are swinging a club. Lacking these sensitivities, golfers are missing important information that could improve their game immensely. For example, if you’re unaware of the amount of tension in your hands, wrists, and forearms, it will be difficult to control your golf swing. The exercises below are designed to refine your awareness of physical tensions and emotion, since they have a direct bearing on the smoothness and rhythm of your golf swing.
Body Scanning
Several times a day stop doing whatever you are doing and pay attention to the amount of tension/relaxation and warmth/coolness that exist in various parts of your body—head, neck, shoulders, arms, wrists, hands, fingers, chest, abdomen, back, hips, thighs, knees, calves, ankles, feet, toes.
Physical Sensations Related to Swinging a Golf Club
Increase and decrease the amount of tension in your hands, wrists, and forearms separately as you make a number of shots; the tension should vary from very loose to very tight. Notice the quality of the shots as you vary the tension.
Immediately after making a fine shot reproduce the swing and become aware of the amount of tension you feel in your legs, shoulders,