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One
Under Par
Volume 7, number 5.
A Newsletter fromKeyGolf.....October, 2006
Another Bit
of Potpourri for Discriminating Players...
As we have noted in other places, one of the issues for golfers in executing shots is the mismatch in the pace and speed of the actions that take place as they are influenced by both the mind and the body. That is but one of the sound reasons for learning how to apply the automatic principle, using clear keys, so that Mother Nature becomes the agent of synchronization of those differences for you.
We have pointed out that the mind works faster than the body, and if you play the game within the manual (skill level) framework, you can expect, and often get considerable static from the mismatch. In our view, players are thoroughly conditioned to hitting more shots lacking purity than shots that they call “pure” or “perfect.” That, in turn, has led to a rather casual, subtle, acceptable level of expectation well below what actually can be captured in the game of a genuinely committed player. In other words, it has become acceptable to be off the mark, which has been set as the default standard. If you Google it a bit, you can find plenty of players, some of whom are high on the list of experts, who indicate that a golfer's best interests are served by learning to make the most of his/her misses. We intend to continue and maintain what is now a 25 years old process for raising the bar and escalating the standard, nothwithstanding that it certainly is not subscribed by a majority out there on the course.
It has always been our contention, at least since finding what we identify as the “automatic process," that we can expect a higher level of learning and doing (the habit level) to bring us better, more consistent and effective results, which could easily become the benchmark, instead of mediocrity. But we may have to spend some time readjusting our thinking – at least the part of that thinking that provides for our self-image and expectations. Unless we can see ourselves there and think in a new way, we will likely keep on doing what we always did and keep on getting the results we always got.
The mediocre mind-set appears also to influence what we listen to and hear, so we have come to suspect that the word concerning the speed mismatch goes in one ear and out the other for many. We found a website that belongs to Paul Chek, the founder of the C.H.E.K (Corrective Holistic Exercise Kinesiology) Institute, based in California. An excerpt from one of his articles says:
“Brain computing speed is crucial when you consider that the movement from the top of the back swing to impact can take place in as little as 250 milliseconds, yet it takes approximately 300 milliseconds to process a new movement!” He goes on to say a bit about the same mismatch to which we are referring and how that draws us into making compensating motions. In addition, he says:
“The more compensations a player learns and attempts to manage to overcome structural mal-alignment, the more likely they are to experience inconsistency in their game. This is because the brain is the organizing force behind any bodily movement and works, in a sense, like a computer; the more windows you have open, the slower it runs.”
Our response at that point is that is no doubt true if all you are doing is executing at the manual skill level. On the other hand, using a clear key literally has cleared the way so those compensations become a non-factor for shot execution in golf. And we suspect, it will do the same in some other environments, as well. It is not a simple task to "go to the next level," but it is possible, given an orientation stronger than a wish.
Update from the August 2006 Issue of One
Under Par.
For those of us who are too out of shape, (or too old) to romp around 18 holes more than once every few months, take heart. Last issue we showed you a path to a high tech game that would exempt you from having anything more to do than ride a cart and enjoy the scenery and let all the gadgets play for you.
If you got a chuckle from that, notice that it may be more serious than we imagined. In two months a couple of other “wonders” have emerged, bringing the expression “WOW” to mind.
Now the high tech world has also added a Stress Eraser, which, of course, implies a promised condition and result that is simply humanly impossible. As you know, one can promise anything, but it may take a little more than the promise to “bring home the bacon.”
Notice to all human beings: Stress is neither optional, nor erasable. We can manage it, but it cannot be erased. Take it or leave it, if you could erase it, you would be removing a side effect of your early warning system and the role it plays in defending you against disease and danger.
According to Dr. Hans Selye, who is widely respected as the researcher of note who found, and explained that “Stress is the nonspecific response of the body to any demand made upon it." He also says that “it is immaterial whether the agent or situation we face is pleasant or unpleasant; all that counts is the intensity of the demand for readjustment or adaptation.”
The fact is that the only people without stress are dead people. Without the signals that normal stress provide for us, we might all become dead people in very short order.
But, we digress…The latest is one of those wonderful marketing phenoms that urges us not to worry - Just get yourself a Stress Eraser, presented through the following URL:
http://www.stresseraser.com/golf?source=google
A way to deal with stress that has even more certainty in it is this: Don’t ever move again. In fact don’t do anything – go to bed, get up, go to work, be still, don’t even pray, since any and all of those things have stress attached. It is after all, “the nonspecific response of the body to any demand made upon it…” and there is nothing we can do in life that has no demand whatsoever in it. Think on that. It’s heavy, but best we all try to comprehend the meaning...And then learn to manage it.
And now for another
goodie:
It’s perhaps not so critical as the stress issue, but add to the above the new, revolutionary putting trainer, for a mere 832 bucks US currency. We don’t know the shipping cost, since it will be coming from China.
Their advertisement states:
“The DiXX Blu comes with a small LCD screen, an inertial navigation system and a MEMS (micro electromechanical system) motion sensor, which provides all the instructions pertaining to a golfer’s swing, path of the swing, swing speed, impact position, angle of the putter’s face and so on. You may own the fatal putter that will roll on the Japanese sport marts later this month for only ¥98,000 (US $832).”
(You may need to copy that URL into your browser’s “address line”)
That strikes us as a rather expensive training device, and even if you own one, you will still need a means to build whatever skill it teaches into a habit for your mental storage chest to retain whatever you are able to learn from it. As with all training devices, this one is not exempt from the rules of golf, either. And the last we heard, one cannot make use of such items on the course, during competition.
Finally: but not the least item of importance
The hat comes off again for Karen Davies. Since our August report, she has played in two more events, and won both times. Cheers for her. Four out of four ain't bad!
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